 |
<laradio.com> |
||
|
<laradio.com> |
||
(February 27, 1999) We Get Email…
** Joe McDonnell Fan
"Always enjoy Joe McDonnell on sports, don't know why he can't stay at one place for a long time. Is he trying to set record for most stations worked at in L.A.? Anyway, will enjoy listening to him again for awhile on 980." – Pete Woeger, Glendale** Disappointed Sports Radio Fan
"I tuned in to hear Joe McDonnell doing fill-in at ESPN [via 1150AM] and was very disappointed. Not only was Joe not on, but the programming was not the greatest. I was initially very excited to hear that there was going to be a local sports station when KXTA began broadcasting, but it’s been very disappointing. I understand the need for change, but the changes they've made make no sense. Let Joe McDonnell go, but keep Big Ben Maller and Dave Smith with all those moronic sound effects? Pleeeeeze. With all the silly ‘applause,’ ‘effects,’ and ‘laughter’ drop-ins, it sounds silly. And Vic the Brick should be completely banned from the radio. When he's not brown nosing some obscure athlete that nobody cares about, he rambles about how great everything is.What I liked about Joe was there was no schtick. He presented just honest, straightforward sportstalk. I am not the biggest basketball fan, but I always listened to Joe just to hear what he had to say. Do you think that the afternoon guy from Cleveland sounds very much like John Kobylt from KFI? The only worthwhile programming on ‘XTRA Sports 1150’ is Jim Rome.
Well, with all the kickass sports guys in this country, and we get this? I’d rather listen to sports stations over the Internet, but I guess that’s just me. Although I am very happy for Joe, I’ll miss his commentary. His reporting will be a blessing to a very stoic KFWB." – Dan Mandis, Los Angeles
** Orange Country Country PD Checks In
"I just wanted to let you know The All New 94.3 KIK FM is off to a great start after our first week! Wednesday night we hosted a KIK FM Concert at The World Famous Crazyhorse with Doug Supernaw! Thursday night we hosted the Crown Royal Tour at the Freedman Forum/Anaheim featuring Keith Harling, Gary Allen, Chelly Wright and Mark Chesnutt! Also, Thursday night we hosted Brenda Lee at the World Famous Crazyhorse! Then last night a Debut Party at the Cowboy Boogie in Anaheim with over 2000 people! It has been a great first week! One of the most exciting weeks in my career! Listener response has been incredible! Some of the listener comments are....'Thank God, a fun Country station with personalities,' 'We love the blasts from the past,' 'Thanks for playing the classics, nobody else will,' 'We love the fun, fresh approach,' and 'Love the new music!'We have concerts planned monthly at the Freedman Forum in Anaheim which is one of the best kept secrets in So.Ca. It's a beautiful venue downtown Anaheim near the new civic center, great soft, cushy seats and it's in the round with a revolving stage! No seat is further than 50 feet from the stage! We'll also feature the Hot new young Country acts at The Cowboy Boogie in Anaheim. [They average 2000 people a night Wed-Saturday!] This is the Hip Gilly's of the Millennium!
Also to clear up a few things that Stefan reported...Our I.D. is KIKF/Garden Grove/Anaheim/Orange County. Not L.A.! Also, after reading the Bill Fink [pd of KZLA] letter on the air I said, 'Since he only get's Spanish on his radio when he tunes in KIK FM, maybe I should buy him a better radio for his car.' I thought it was odd that Bill sent me a letter of congratulations as I was his rep from MCG/Curb for the last 4 years and he hasn't spoken to me for over a year. He actually called the vp of our label in Nashville a year ago and told him that Craig Powers was not allowed to talk to anyone at KZLA about music. So, I've been banned from working with KZLA for over a year when I was in the record business with MCG/Curb and suddenly I receive a friendly congrats letter from him? Do you think there is a hidden agenda there?
Anyway, I just wanted to clear a few rumors up and let you know what's been going on!" - Craig Powers, pd KIKF
** Bain of Our Existence
"In regards to my Fullerton College colleague Jim Bain, who you mentioned the other day in connection with his ‘discovering’ the Internet: That may have left the impression with readers that Jim is a Luddite. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jim just likes to make sure the technology is here to stay before he dives in. He's also pretty sure television looks like a winner. Jim and I work with Ed Ford [weekender at KEZY] at the college. Jim deserves a huge amount of credit for designing the radio broadcasting program, with college radio station KBPK 90.1FM functioning as close to a professional radio station as we can make it in that environment. He's guided a lot of students into radio, both here in Southern California and elsewhere. Jim is a good man who cares a lot about radio." - Ed Berger, Fullerton College/Airwatch America, edberger@yahoo.com** Thoughts on Radio 101
"I must disagree with Dave Cooke's memo [2/24] about never mentioning the call letters of rival radio stations. What I think Radio 101 says is that a station should mention its own call letters as often as possible without sounding like it. This old fashioned idea of how horrible it is to ever mention a rival's call letters is pretty silly for an all-News station if your competitor happens to be in the news. While the fact that Meghan Reyes does traffic for KNX is not the most important part of that emergency landing story, it is part of it. You might call that Journalism 101. If Dave is really worried that a listener will list KNX in a diary, just because of one mention, then he has much bigger problems than this. Maybe I'm just a naïve journalist, but shouldn't concern for the facts come first? While I think he's wrong on this question, I personally don't mind the gallows humor in describing the burning down of the KNX building as an acceptable reason to risk a ratings diary disaster. But the reality is, if that fire did happen, there are a number of ways KFWB could cover it without mentioning KNX. They could say...‘the Channel 2 building,’ ‘the Arrow 93FM building’ or how about ‘Columbia Square, the building owned by the same people who sign our paychecks.’ As for the part about not mentioning KNX if a KNX newscaster burns to death while off duty, well, I'll tell you this, if I ever decide to end it all with a match and some gasoline, I'll make sure I do it a couple of minutes before my shift ends, just to give Dave something else to moan about." -Ron Fineman, KNX** Hullabalooer
"This is a little tidbit of L.A. radio history that endeared one of my favorites to me, Dave Hull. He was a funny as funny gets, particularly during his days at KGBS in the early 1970s. A profound moment, for fans of Dave, was during the 72 Olympics, when the Israeli wrestlers were killed by the terrorists; Dave was so affected by that horrible event that he shared from the heart the pain he was feeling. Probably not great for ratings, but a rare human moment to never be forgotten." - Rich Johnson, Sierre Madre** Traffic Humor
"I have to object to the assertion that there is nothing funny about traffic. In Los Angeles, you are going to be stuck in traffic. Why not make the best of it and have a little fun? Isn't the purpose of radio to be entertaining? At The Traffic Channel and Airwatch America, we try to inject a little bit of fun and creativity into our traffic reports. A good traffic reporter finds new and fun ways to describe problems. David Courtney [KABC] is a perfect example. I've never heard a reporter with more synonyms for ‘accident.’Of course some people have no sense of humor. They are angry and they need to be somewhere and that's all that matters. However, most people appreciate a little something different than a minute of ‘injury accident’ and ‘stalled car.’ And if it makes the listeners feel any better, I have to fight traffic on the 405, just like everyone else, when I get off work." - Chris Hughes, Airwatch America
** Follow-Up on Radio Man Murdered for His Record Collection
"I'm very familiar with this collection [2/26] and the update on the auction. The ‘expert’ who appraised it was an incompetent. He didn't realize that many of the rarest 45s were bootlegs and they only brought in $145,000. The gallery spent between $200,000 and $300,000 for the discs and another hundred thousand dollars on catalogs/etc. I had friends there and it was a disaster. Thought for the day: Imagine, getting killed for your bootlegs." Steve Propes, Long Beach** Question About The News at KFWB
"I've become a big fan of your Web site over the past few months, and therefore I'm encouraged to vent a little.There must be legions of local radio news junkies like myself who are fed up with the chit-chat and personal asides that are infecting KFWB. I'm a KFWB partisan born and bred -- I can't stand that annoying beep-beep sound on KNX -- but I'm groaning more and more while listening to KFWB. Snide comments and in-jokes between the anchors are SO inappropriate between real news stories. And jokes coming out of or leading into reports about the grisly stuff that goes on every day in L.A. is just beyond the pale. After hating it at first, I've even come to grips with inane stuff like the ‘News Quiz,’ but I can't abide the chatter.
I'm sure some high-priced consultant has advised KFWB and CBS brass that the babbling will help ‘personalize’ the anchor team and build loyalty among listeners, but I don't listen to KFWB to get a radio version of the KTLA/Channel 5 Morning News. I just want news, news, news. The occasional aside about an offbeat, news-of-the-weird story is one thing, but yak yak yak, ha ha ha all the time is driving me crazy. Only the great [and I mean great] Bill Cooper has the talent and the wit to work humor into his reporting in a way that offers true perspective on the subject. And more importantly, Cooper seems to have a rock-solid sense of when to play it straight.
Well, finally I've unburdened myself to someone other than my husband, who agrees wholeheartedly with me. And by the way, we also thought ‘if only Jim Healy were still with us’ in the wake of the Dennis Rodman farce a few days ago." - Cynthia Littleton
** Car Nut Reacts to "Traffic Jam" Publicity
"You DO have to hand it to Kenny Morse and Reed Berry! For a show which has been cut-back from 3 to 2 hours and can't even find a regular time slot at KRLA, they are doing a very good job of calling on their respective family's show-biz contacts for their self-promotion. Also, they got to mention where they do stand-up and teach traffic school...well, as the ONLY radio auto show host I know of in America who makes his total living as an automotive industry journalist and NOT a stand-up comic, PR shill or repair shop owner, I still get to feel good looking at myself in the mirror in the morning. I guess a big difference between me and these guys [and the rest of them, from Leon Kaplan on down] is they appear in the LA Times as a feature item, and I WRITE a regular column for the paper...[it's called CAR SMART and runs in The Times' HIGHWAY 1 once a month]. SOMEDAY it will all pay off!When [and if] I ever see Leon, Norm, Kenny or Reed at an industry press conference or something like that I'll let you know. My buddies John Retsek and Art Gould from THE CAR SHOW, while they do have 'day jobs', ARE real journalist-types who DO know what they are talking about." - Steve Parker, KXTA
** Radio’s Animal House
"The use of regional names as pseudonyms is cute, but what about giving the entire airstaff new names to reflect the station's image? A few years ago, I was listening to WDCK in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was an Oldies station known as ‘The Duck.’ Their personalities included Jim ‘Mallard’ and Bob ‘Drake.’" - Kevin Curran (Inside Edition/KNX/KCAL)Killed For His Record Collection
(February 26, 1999) This story has nothing to do with Los Angeles radio but it is a frightening tale of greed, jealousy, murder and a million-dollar record collection. The lead story in the Detroit Free Press on February 16 was about Tom Knight. Tom had been collecting records since the early days of WKNR and CKLW. The collection numbered 50,000 items – records, CDs, jukeboxes and memorabilia – and valued at over $1 million. The Free Press story begins: "As Tom drove down Peaceful Court in rural Brighton Township towards his driveway, he did not know that his wife and her brother were sitting in the dark, waiting for him. Listening to him pull into the garage. Listening to him come in the door and down several steps in the home’s lower level. Moments later, not long before midnight, Tom Knight felt the first blow on the back of his head. In swift succession came two more. Then the blunt object slammed his shoulders, and Tom’s world went dark." The Free Press story says that the brother inflicted 13 wounds on Tom, lugged him into a car, and got the car down the road and into a ditch. Medical examiners determined that he died there, in part from carbon monoxide poisoning. Tom’s wife and her brother attempted to cover-up the murder and eventually were arrested and charged, all for a record collection – a collection worth perhaps $1.2 million. Runaway LP by Del Shannon looked to go for $1,500 to $2,000; VeeJay album, Crazy Little Mama, expected to go for $700 to $1,000; and an EP from Buddy Holly titled Brown Eyed Handsome Man expected to return $400 to $600… (Robert) David Hall, former KNX/FM personality, performed at the Boulevard Music Club in Culver City last weekend. David emailed: "Thanks for plugging my musical endeavors. We had a full house and they seemed to enjoy themselves. Old radio friends Bill Ratner (former KBIG, now the KABC promo voice), Joanne Ehrhart (KNX/FM) and Douglas Brown (KHJ and KNX/FM) showed up and it was great to see them."…The recent Gavin Conference included many Los Angeles award winners. Tied for 1st place as Major Market Top 40 station was KIIS. Tony Coles from KBIG won the award for Major Market Music Director. KROQ won honors as best Major Market Alternative station…Joe Smith, former head of Capitol Records and almost NBA commissioner and briefly a dj at Top 40 KFWB in 1961, guested with Michael Jackson at KRLA yesterday to talk about the Grammys and basketball…Howard Stern played excerpts from the recent Dennis Rodman press conference. As I was listening to Dennis on KLSX rant, rave and carry on, I couldn’t help but think what fodder this would have been for Jim Healey. Issssss it true? Robin Quivers had the best quip. She thought the press conference should be made available on CD and it would be a shoo-in for Best Comedy Performance at next year’s Grammys…Rick Cummings, former pd at KPWR, has been an executive with the parent company since 1981. He is profiled on the back page of R&R this week. Rick talked about the launch of "Power 106." He said, "I put it on the air, and it was a tremendous ride for a number of years. It’s still a very successful radio station. It sort of redefined Top 40. I kind of created what is known today as crossover."…Anita Garner, formerly afternoons at KBIG and commentary at KBLA, now writes full time and does voiceovers (KCET). She has a short story, "The Contessa Knows," in the current issue of STAR now on newsstands. It's about a friend who died a few years ago from Lou Gehrig's Disease. Anita says, "I wanted to write the end of a dream for her. She didn't have time to finish it for herself."…KIEV’s Elmer Dills writes a weekly column on dining ideas in the Penny Saver…Larry Morgan left his midday slot at KYSR for a challenging position with the Comedy division of Premiere Radio Networks. I asked Larry about his new job: "Just your usual big-time, high-pressure, executive crap. It's busy, but good. Got a lot of work to do here to update these comedy and prep services to the point where they're at the very least in the '90's, much less preparing for the future, but we're on the road." Everyone asks Larry if he misses being on the air and he responds with a resounding "No!"…The use of fictitious names to reflect Los Angeles cities and landmarks apparently is not new to KABC pd Drew Hayes. A number of people recounted stories about working with Drew. KHOW-Denver’s Jay Marvin emailed: "When I worked for Drew Hayes at WLS in Chicago he did the same thing. Some people had the same reaction as Richard [2/25]. But most found it funny. And there's nothing funny about traffic. We had reporters like Grant Park, Dan Ryan [named after one of the expressways] we even had a traffic guy named Travis Bickel named after the main character in the movie Taxi Driver."…If you were around for the beginning of Top 40 radio, The Hits Just Keep On Coming by Ben Fong-Torres is a must read. If you weren’t around during those competitive format wars, there is a lot for a radio person to learn. Ben’s book is now available from LARP. Click L.A. Radio Goodies and order the book now. It will be sent to you by priority mail…Charlie Van Dyke played Leo Sayer’s You Make Me Feel Like Dancing yesterday morning on KRTH. The station has been slowly adding "new" titles to the Oldies playlist in recent months and it may explain the significant ratings increase on Charlie’s show as well as the entire station…The Greaseman, shock jock Doug Tracht, has been suspended indefinitely without pay for a race-related remark he made Wednesday during his morning drive-time show on classic rock station WARW- Washington, DC. On Wednesday morning, according the Washington Post, the Greaseman noted that the Grammy Awards ceremony was scheduled for that evening and played a portion of a song by Lauryn Hill, the young black hip-hop artist nominated for 10 Grammys. Then he commented: "No wonder people drag them behind trucks." The reference was to the brutal torture and death in Texas of James Byrd Jr., decapitated while being dragged behind a pickup truck driven by white supremacist John William King, who was convicted of murder on Tuesday. The gm said she "deplored the comment and was appalled by it." The former KLOS dj sent a fax to the Post: "I'm truly sorry for the pain and hurt I have caused with my unfeeling comment," he wrote. "I have no excuse for my remark, and regret it. If I could take it back I would. In the course of my show, split second judgement is made over ad-libs. This remark was a grave error in my judgement." The Greaseman worked briefly at KLOS in 1992 hoping for an acting career…Sky Walker, mornings at the 92.7FM trimulcast, is giving away a Beverly Hills getaway…KFI’s Bill Handel can’t understand why skiers ski in dangerous European avalanche areas. "It’s avalanche season!," he roared. Perhaps they should go to Big Bear…Dodger Talk is heard daily on "XTRA Sports," nightly from 6 – 7 p.m. and weekends for an hour at 10 a.m….Two LARP appeared on separate nights this week on Politically Incorrect. Two weeks ago Jimmy Kimmel, the KROQ sports guy, was saying farewell to his Kevin & Bean morning family for five years and last night he is on an ABC network show. When host Bill Maher asked about Grammy winner Garth Brooks taking a year off from singing to try out with the San Diego Padres, Jimmy quipped that Garth wouldn’t be the fattest baseball player. He said Garth was as fat as Tony Gwynn. The night before, KLSX’s Tom Leykis appeared. Tom inflamed the women in the group, especially Daisy Fuentes, when the subject moved to familiar turf for Tom – dating and "getting tail." The audience loved Tom’s three strikes rule. Tom got loud response with, "Many of us were created because our parents didn't have time to go to the drugstore before they went to the drive-in."…Sunday night on "Arrow 93" Joe Benson interviews Keith Richards and plays the music of the Rolling Stones.
"Del Harris Couldn’t Motivate Clinton to Have Sex"
(February 25, 1999) The firing of L.A. Lakers coach Del Harris consumed much of Southern California radio yesterday. "XTRA Sports 1150" and "One-On-One Sports" covered the plight of the mediocre-performing NBA Lakers. Shaquille O’Neal took a number of hits. The host on KCTD attempted to compare Shaquille to Wilt Chamberlain and a caller screamed back: "Shaquille is not a patch on Wilt Chamberlain’s fanny." Ben Maller and Dave Smith end their show at KXTA with the Praise and Rip of the Day. Their "praise" yesterday went to Jerry Buss "for doing the right thing and firing Del Harris and making us Laker fans happy." Later in the afternoon at KXTA, Newy Scruggs recounted that the day before on the "Dawg Pound" and on UPN/13, he said, "the players weren’t listening to Del anymore. His system was not being carried out by the players. It was time for him to leave." Alan Oda said he learned how much KFWB’s Joe McDonnell disliked Del Harris as the Lakers coach from Joe’s Web site. Big Joe stated that Harris was such a bad coach, that "this guy couldn't motivate Clinton to have sex."…More sports. Front page of yesterday’s USA Today was a color photo of Mark McGwire wearing a KLOS cap. McGwire proudly called Mark & Brian from Cardinals spring training to chat about baseball and the two newspaper photos. This morning there is a photo of McGwire on the front page of the LA Times and Mark is wearing a Cardinals cap. Go figure…Lakers broadcast legend Chick Hearn will guest on KLAC this morning with Charlie Tuna…Listener Rich checked in to say that not only does KABC have a traffic reporter named Wes Wood, he has also heard these guys refer to themselves as Brent Wood, Lake Wood and Al Segundo. Rich says: "The joke seems a little lame for the sophisticated L.A. radio market." A radio insider commented, "I guess it's a joke for the people who actually pay attention to the traffic reports. Wes Wood and Brent Wood only do traffic. There was a Lake Wood and an Al Segundo but neither have been heard from in a while." It was not too long ago that all nighttime jocks were named Danny Dark…A KRLA promo for Dr. Toni Grant takes a shot at KFI’s Dr. Laura Schlessinger: "You don’t have to listen to pop psycho-babble on the radio. Dr. Toni Grant is back. She brought psychology to the airwaves in the first place. With Dr. Toni Grant the message is more than the messenger. Dr. Grant is actually qualified to advise. Her Ph.D. is in psychology. How does that make you feel? Make an appointment with Dr. Toni Grant from noon to three at the new L-A Talk, 11-10."…Somehow seems appropriate that Joe Benson’s featured artist this morning on "Arrow 93," the day after the Grammy’s, is legendary Jimi Hendrix…KIIS morning sidekick Ellen K hosted E!’s pre-Grammy coverage last night…"Music of Your Life’s" Chuck Southcott enjoyed the list of top selling Jewish country ‘n western hits that appeared here yesterday. Chuck would like to add Achy Breaky Legs to the Sicilian list… "Mega 100's" first Mega Jam concert features Kool & the Gang, Peaches & Herb, G.Q., Deniece Williams, Heat Wave, Delfonics, Moments and the Floaters…KLOS is giving away tickets to a May Aerosmith concert at the Hollywood Bowl…LARP contributor Stefan Daystrom follows up on the changes to Country KIKF. "At 5:43 p.m. Wednesday, Craig Powers read the letter he'd received from KZLA's pd: Dear Craig: Congratulations on your new position. You must be excited. From everything I've read about what you're planning to do with the radio station, it seems right on target. I wish I could hear what you're doing. I've tried, but so far all my car radio picks up is Spanish. So when can we play golf? -- Bill Fink. He then made fun of Bill's radio and last name, acting as if no one should have reception problems with KIKF [which, for those who don't know, is wiped out by Spanish KBUE San Fernando as far south as Long Beach]. Craig's last suggestion a few minutes later: If you can't hear Kik-FM where you live, you need to move." Stefan thought the statement was a little condescending toward people just because they don’t live within a few miles of the transmitter. Stefan makes the point that the ID at the top of the hour designates city of license at Garden Grove/Anaheim/Los Angeles…The LA Times covered the debut of "Ask the Mayor," a new one-hour monthly feature on KFWB, with a big story and photo of Mayor Richard Riordan and Kathleen Sullivan. KFWB marketing guru Pam Baker saw to it that if a photo was going to be published, the call letters were plastered all over the wall behind the pair. Kathleen wasted no time grilling the mayor. "I’m an old Pasadena native and you too, so I’ve known your family for some time. But, I don’t want you to think that I’m going to be nice to you during this hour, I want you to know that as a longtime L.A. citizen that there are some issues that I’m all riled about." She then asked a question that was covered in Steve Harvey’s always tasty "Only in L.A." LA Times column this morning. "She began the program by sternly asking His Honor whether he had prepared the city for the invasion of Dennis Rodman. The mayor replied that Rodman would fit right in, at least in Hollywood."…Ken Kohl, former pd at KFI and now head of programming for KSTE and KFBK-Sacramento, attended the recent Radio & Records Talk Seminar in Washington, DC, and filed this report: "Excellent convention. L.A. was represented by Tom Leykis, Ed Tyll, John & Ken, Drew Hayes and Bill Sommers. The real stars were the L.A. and San Diego based crew from R&R. Al Peterson, formerly an L.A. based consultant and R&R Publisher Erica Farber put on a great show. The best of its type. Kudos to R&R. Drew was on a ‘negotiating with agents’ panel, I did the marketing panel and John & Ken were on the opening session Talk roundtable. They did their show from WMAL for a couple of days. Great speeches from Rush Limbaugh, Sam Donaldson and Dr. James Dobson."…KLSX’s Jonathon Brandmeier will be doing a live show from Chicago on St. Patrick's Day at a Chicago pub. They're expecting quite a turnout since J.B. is a legend in Chicago…KLOS pd Rita Wilde has made it official. Suzanne Ansilio is the new midday host and Gary Moore will hold down the late evening shift following Jim Ladd. These hours will give Gary plenty of time to finish his book and watch Kentucky sports…KLOS has a new music director. Rita has hired Jim Villanueva. "He was our music research director for 4 years leaving in 1992 to produce the nationally syndicated show "Rockline" for 4 years. He most recently has been working at the Album Network trade publication." Jim starts March 8th….Congratulations to Kenny Morse and Reed Berry of KRLA’s weekend "Traffic Jam" for the wonderful half-page story with photo in today’s LA Times. They are real hustlers…KOST morning hosts, Mark Wallengren and Kim Amidon, have been busy on the weekends. Over the last three weekends they have had about 4,000 kids I.D.'d with the help of the Klass Kids Foundation. A special computer took thumb prints and photos then Mark and Kim handed a printed copy to the parents…Back in the 1970s the Firesign Theatre, a satirical group dubbed "America’s Monty Python," appeared weekly on KROQ. The original members – Peter Bergman, Phil Proctor, David Ossman and Phil Austin – are regrouping for a tour that begins in early April in Santa Barbara. Their CD Give Me Immortality Or Give Me Death was up for a Grammy Award last night in the best comedy recording of the year category (the 2,000 year old comedians, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner won)…KFI’s Dr. Laura Schlessinger is due to appear on Larry King Live tonight…Arbitron report cards for Southern California radio listening habits are due today.
Happy Birthday: Holly Foxx (formerly with KSCA); Howard Freedman (KLSX); Gary McKenzie (former KIIS news director) and Larry Mayer (KUSC operations supervisor since 1975)Oh, The Humanity...
(February 24, 1999) On Monday, I made mention of KFWB running an actuality from Rod Lurie of KABC on the death of film critic Gene Siskel. Coincidentally on that same weekend, the traffic plane reporting for KNX had an emergency landing. New pd at KFWB, Dave Cooke, fired off this memo to his staff. "Friday night we mentioned ‘KNX’ on our air regarding the Shadow Traffic plane fire story. Then the next day we mentioned ‘KABC’ identifying film critic Rod Lurie reacting to the Gene Siskel death. Please consider this to be PRO FORMA OPERATING PROCEDURE: DO NOT MENTION THE CALL LETTERS OF ANY OTHER LOS ANGELES AM NEWS OR TALK RADIO STATIONS ON OUR AIR WITHOUT PRIOR MANAGEMENT APPROVAL. INSTEAD, PLEASE SAY ‘A LOS ANGELES RADIO STATION’ OR WORDS TO THAT EFFECT. The only exception to the above is if a major story breaks at the actual location of the station in question. For example, if a fire were to burn down the KNX building, it would of course be necessary to give the call letters. On the other hand, if a fire burned up a KNX newscaster while off duty, it would not be necessary to state where the newscaster worked. Giving the call letters of competing radio stations on our air can lead to diarykeeper confusion and diary credit to our competition rather than us." Dave emailed me about the memo: "Clearly my memo was written to discourage unnecessary on-air mentions of the call letters of any of the AM news/talk stations except in cases where stating the call letters would be inherently germane to the story. Not promoting other stations' call letters on the air is basic broadcasting 101 stuff intended to reduce potential diarykeeper confusion. The tone of the memo was meant to be instructional and good natured/humorous. Unless a reader is born without the humor gene, I don't see how it could have been interpreted any other way." Dave will be busy this morning as Mayor Richard Riordan appears with Kathleen Sullivan at 10 for an hour of "Ask the Mayor" activities. Watch the local tv news tonight. The publicity for KFWB will, undoubtedly, be seen on EVERY station. In some ways it is kind of ironic for KFWB to receive all the coverage on other stations in light of the above memo. Just a coincidence…John Kennedy of Bellflower tuned in to KXTA to hear the weeklong fill-in from ESPN with Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian. John emails: "KXTA [1150AM] gave the listeners Sean Salisbury, who does ‘ESPN Gameday’ weekends and a female host from XTRA [690AM] San Diego, who cohosts with John Fricke, formally of CNN Sports."…Michael Jackson had Larry Flynt as a guest on KRLA yesterday. It seemed very out of character for Michael at one point to ask Larry if he had naked pictures of the First Lady…Ira Fistell has returned to late nights at KRLA from almost a month of fighting pneumonia. His voice has yet to return to full strength…Once upon a time, fans of radio personalities started fan clubs. Now they create fanpages on the Web. Andrea Walsh is an enormous fan of Jim Hawthorne’s, a personality from tv and for decades on radio: KXLA, KECA, KDAY, KFWB, KHJ and KIEV. You can read about Jim thanks to Andrea at http://members.tripod.com/~pagehogan/ …Bill Keene’s daughter Bonnie emails on the condition of her father (for decades the traffic/weather reporter at KNX) following a heart attack earlier this week. "After a very scary few days, he is doing much better and the doctors are hoping he will be home soon. Leave it to dad to break all land-speed records to get home ahead of schedule!!! Personally, I think he's trying to get home as fast as possible because he's suffering severe email withdrawal! I have been printing your get-well wishes and bringing them to dad. He has appreciated them more than you can imagine! I thought it might be nice to consolidate all of dad's get well wishes, so I created a special email account just for dad. Please feel free to send any get well jokes, thoughts, cards, etc to: GetWellBK@aol.com . Thank you so much for your amazing responses. I've always known how special my father is, but my heart is full to see how many of you think he's a Super ‘Keene’ Guy too!!!"…David Piper has left his post as operations manager at Metro Networks…One of the newsmen broadcasting at KABC is named Wes Wood…Frequent contributor to <LARADIO.COM> Stefan Daystrom reports on the changes instituted at KIKF. "KIKF is calling itself ‘Orange County's Country for a new generation.’ Perhaps more noticeable than only a slight change in the music mix is various aspects of presentation changes: Gone are all the jingles, the ‘putting a boot in your commute’ sweepers leading into traffic reports, and other previous sweepers. In their place are a set of new sweepers, several of them making fun of competitor KZLA: ‘we looked it up in a dictionary, and you can't spell country with a Z’ and ‘no geeks, no freaks, no Z's.’ The djs aren't as laid back as before. Event announcement: This afternoon Craig Powers said he'd gotten a ‘stupid’ letter from KZLA's program director and that he'll read it over the air in the 5 o'clock hour on Wednesday. Yesterday around 5:30 they played a ‘blast from the past’ triple play, but the gold doesn't go back decades as often as in the previous version of the format. Despite claims during last week’s promos that ‘every song’ would be picked by listeners, gone is the midday all-request hour, and requests are heard only very occasionally at other times, leaving a first impression of LESS listener input. Also, maybe I'm just imagining it and/or maybe they're in the middle of adjusting things, but I think they've upped the compression a bit." Have you listened to KIKF? What are your impressions?…If you don’t get the Top 5 List each day, you should sign up at top5@gmbweb.com http://www.topfive.com . Consistently it is very funny. While we are talking about the changes at Country KIKF, the Top 5 list today features the top Jewish Country & Western Songs:
13. Achy Breaky Hip
12. I Got the Guilt, You Got the Gelt (I Went and Cut Another Notch in My Belt)
11. Take This, "Job," and Shove It
10. I'm Cryin' in My Manischewitz ('Cause I Lost Rebecca Levitz)
9. Ever Since My Circumcision, My Baby's Been Short With Me
8. All My Exes Made an Exodus
7. The Shiksa's Gonna Hit the Fan
6. This Bris! This Bris!! Unchoppable!!!
5. Four Thousand Years of Sufferin', and I Had to Marry You
4. My Woman Gave Me Crabs, and That Ain't Kosher
3. I've Starved and I've Suffered and I've Parted the Sea
Just to Find That Your Bush Wasn't Burnin' For Me
2. Homeland on the Range
and Topfive.com's Number 1 Jewish Country & Western Song...
1. Alright, Already, Enough With The Infidelity!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Tommy Boman, KXTABill Keene Suffers Heart Attack
(February 23, 1999) From 1957 until his retirement in 1993, Bill Keene was the weather/traffic reporter for KNX. Bill has been hospitalized in Tucson after suffering what was described as, "a mild heart attack," according to a longtime friend and fellow colleague Gil Stratton…Fred Wallin, a radio sports figure in Los Angeles since 1976, has a national program, "SportsBiz," that runs on the Business News Network. The show airs at KTRO, 1520AM out of Oxnard on Saturdays from 4 to 6 p.m. Fred has been doing the program for two years and has 46 affiliates from Portland to Miami. "The signal is loud and clear in the daytime in the San Fernando Valley," said Fred…Lots of behind the scenes maneuvering by Jacor to keep Joe McDonnell and Doug Krikorian from a weeklong fill-in at ESPN’s overnight sports show this week. Local Jacor station, KXTA, refused to air the program, presumably to avoid any embarrassing comments that Joe might have made about his former stomping grounds…KABC afternoon driver host Larry Elder read a very disturbing letter yesterday from one of his fans. "I was stunned as you have gained weight. Of course, if someone loves you they don’t care about looks. However, please take care of yourself as you could blow up and once you do, you know the look. Shaquille O’Neal looks like a balloon as does Chris Darden and they both were so handsome. Please forgive me, I really adore your mind, but sweetie, watch eating sugar." The listener had just seen Larry on a tv show. After reading the letter he went to commercial…KIKF is preparing for a retooling of its Country music format due this week. Reader Stefan Dystrom, a voracious listener to Southern California radio, reports that yesterday new KIKF pd and afternoon driver Craig Powers was promoting all Garth all day as "Garth 94.3." Apparently there will be more gold in the rotation…Last night Phil Hendrie was being interviewed on KFI by a " school reporter" who was delving into Phil’s career. Phil said that in the mid-1970s he worked for WBJW 1440, the Entertainer and the FM was called "BJ105." The "reporter" couldn’t stop giggling at the reference to "BJ105." When Phil disclosed he next went to WKIS, "KISS 740," the "reporter" went wild with derisive laughter and said, "Now let me get this straight, BJ came before the Kiss?" When Phil told him his next station was in Charlotte with the call letters WBUT, you could only imagine the rest of the hour…Gerry Daley, director of the broadcast department for AFTRA wanted to share some thoughts about KNX’s Tom Brown, who died on January 31. "I came to like him a great deal. I also dubbed him with his latest nickname, ‘The Midnight Mayor of Columbia Square’ [adapted from a wonderful dj I grew up listening to in Boston, Jack Lazar, who was called ‘The Midnight Mayor of Copley Square’ at WHDH]. Tom was a decent guy who weathered some tough breaks in his life with humor and grace. He was also a strong union supporter. I'll miss him."…I caught up with Dan Avey on Friday asking him how the first week of anchoring morning drive at KFWB with Kathleen Sullivan had gone. "We seem to mesh very well. I have been reporting on these newsmakers for years, but she knows them personally which brings a unique perspective. Today [2/19] she is golfing in the Sinatra tournament. Did you know she has a 5 handicap?" Kathleen went to high school with Patty Hearst and college with Michael Jordan…Last week I mentioned that Stew Berger and Ed Berger worked traffic and news at KFI. Last Saturday Ed did news from 5 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Stew worked from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. and then Ed came back and did the overnight shift from 8:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Ed said, "We gave KFI 24 hours of non-stop Berger." Hey, stop the presses…Ira Sternberg, former KWIZ and KOST personality, has his own PR firm in Las Vegas and a morning prep service for Nevada radio stations. After seeing The Rolling Stones tickets on sale with prices ranging from $100 to $500, Ira said, "At those prices, one song has been changed to Let's Spend Part Of The Night Together."
Howard, KLSX and KRLA Lead January Revenues
(February 22, 1999) A listing of station revenues for January 1999 has been published and KRLA/KLSX leads the group with $2,608,000. KIIS/KACD ranked second which is off from 1st place a year ago. Only a few dollars away from the KIIS/KACD combo is KNX, KTWV, KOST/KACE and KRTH. At 7th place KYSR with $2,192,000 followed by KFWB, KROQ, KLOS, KCBS, KKBT, KFI, KLVE, KLAC/KBIG, KCMG, KPWR, KABC, KZLA, KLAX, KXTA, KLYY, KSSE, KTNQ and KDIS with $45,000 in January…Jim Maddox has opened Jim Maddox - Broadcast Communication Consultants. In the 1970s Jim worked as a jock at KRLA, KIQQ, and KDAY. In the mid-1970s he formed a consultancy with Walt Love. Jim went on to become gm of KMJQ-Houston. He later became an executive with a number of stations, including WBMX-Chicago and KJLH. In 1987 he was the executive vp/coo of All-Pro Broadcasting. For the past five years Jim has been in charge of 90 individual channels at DMX. Jim has done it all. He understands programming, sales and how to create a winning team environment. Jim can be reached at jm2000@earthlink.net …Dr. Demento’s very one-of-a-kind show has been dropped from KLSX for paid programming. On The Radio, Dr. Demento’s syndicator, has KACD/KBCD on its short list of new potential homes. On leaving KLSX, Dr. Demento said, "I made some good friends at KLSX, but I have to say it is a sad state of affairs when a major radio station is more interested in taking the money [from an infomercial] and running, than in building up ratings with appealing programming throughout its broadcast day." It would be nice for the weekly show to find a new station by this weekend, however, the show will continue on in syndication around the country…In addition to Joe McDonnell starting this afternoon at KFWB in afternoon drive, he and Doug Krikorian work the overnight shift at ESPN radio for a week of fill-in...Roger Lotz with the NAB is putting together a tribute to Wolfman Jack and is looking for early 1970 KDAY memorabilia. If you have anything that you want to share with the NAB project, contact Roger at rlotz@nab.org …A radio traffic plane caught fire Friday afternoon while reporting for KNX radio. Pilot Hector Fuentes managed to land the plane within about 90 seconds at El Monte airport. Hector and reporter Meghan Reyes scrambled out before it became a total inferno. Meghan was hospitalized for observation with smoke inhalation…Former Golden West executive Bill Ward has returned to Berlin for additional radio station consulting. He sends a daily photo and the last few days they have shown the city covered in snow. Brrrrrr…Sounded like Christmas was starting early this year. Last Friday Bill Nesbitt came out of stop-set with Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. The song abruptly stopped and on came Memories Are Made of This by Dean Martin…Scotty Brink is returning to his "home" in the Northwest. When I interviewed him from his home in Seattle for my book a few years ago he said, "I’m an outdoor freak and really didn’t appreciate what ultimately I hope will be my last home." He fell in love with the Northwest during one of his early tours at KJR-Seattle but ultimately left. He returned with no intention of leaving until leaving for mornings in San Diego a few years ago but later this month he is going back to Seattle. Scotty worked at KHJ in 1965 and 1966 and 1968-70. Born Don Brink, when he got to KHJ the station already had a Don (as in The Real…) and he became Scotty. During his busy career he also worked for WCFL and WLS-Chicago, WNBC, WKTU and WOR/FM-New York, KHOW-Denver and WIBG-Philadelphia when he was 19. Scotty emailed: "Elaine will continue in her terrific position with Express Personnel Services. She is currently in Florida on business. I have arrived in the Emerald City and am responsible for programming and operations at New Northwest Broadcasters, a new and rapidly growing radio group [most of you in the biz probably already know about all that]." You can get his mailing address at SBVox@aol.com if you want to send a housewarming gift…Was that Patty Lotz anchoring the news at KFWB over the weekend? Patty was "Powermouth Patty" when she worked morning drive with Jay Thomas at "Power 106." She was a veejay at VH-1 for a while and was part of the morning drive launch of KKBT in 1989. At KIBB she was news director and part of morning drive…Since the first of the year "Mega 100" has given away 100 trips for four to Hawaii and $25,000 in cash…George Moore, a Motown native who grew up listening to legendary personalities Martha Jean the Queen, Butterball, J.P. McCarthy and the CKLW "Big Eight," came to the Southland in 1978. He now hosts a very tasty Saturday night ‘70s show with classic r&b Oldies at KACE…KXTA’s Car Nut Steve Parker was up late last night putting together the photos of the HOTTEST CAR IN CALIFORNIA contest he had Sunday at Meguiar's in Irvine! His event made coverage on both KTLA/Channel 5 and KABC/Channel 7 on Sunday night…All-news KFWB has been making daily headlines with the news personalities being added to the roster since the first of the year. It is clear that the station is missing a major ingredient to the mix and it became very apparent on Saturday. As the station was leading with the death of film critic Gene Siskel, KFWB was using an actuality from KABC talk show host, Rod Lurie. Why doesn’t KFWB have an entertainment editor in the #1 city for entertainment? If we were in Detroit, wouldn’t we have an automotive editor? Just asking. A number of high-profile entertainment people come to mind as candidates. Perhaps there is someone on staff…Afternoon driver at Westwood One’s Hot Country format, Zack Taylor, emailed a funnie: "Mardi Gras has hit New Orleans. It's a day filled with wild parties, booze, and loose women...or as President Clinton calls it, Tuesday."
(February 20, 1999) We Get Email…
** Supporter of Warren Eckstein Replies
"I truly enjoy your column and usually when something bothers me, I don't take the time to give my feedback. However, in last Saturday’s email section, there was I believe a woman, Ann Beebe from Encino, who commented on Warren Eckstein and his show and ‘his lack of expertise.’ For a person to comment on what Eckstein knows without knowing anything about him, is like having a vegetarian comment on a meal of steak and extras. I know of Warren and his background and the main thing I can say is that he does not recommend people to go for the quick fix, but rather work on a behavior in a more consistent way. Crate training and very often sedatives for an animal are due to the fact of an owner's lack of time or need for a quick fix. Also, there are always exceptions to a rule. But in general, crate training is a quick fix. Would you put a kid in a crate every time it needs to learn a new behavior -- I think not." - Marie Tagenius, West Los Angeles** Warren Eckstein Barks Back a Response
"Perhaps if Ann Beebe of Encino listened to my show on KABC radio and heard the problems people have as a direct result of keeping their dogs in cages, she would understand my point of view. Having trained over 40,000 dogs and cats very successfully without using a cage, it always amazes me how one person owning two dogs becomes such an expert, while after 28 years, I'm still learning! As a famous psychiatrist recently told me, prisoners can become 'comfortable' in jail, but if given the choice -- they'd prefer a suite at the Ritz Carlton. Is your pet a felon? Coincidentally, the cover of my upcoming Hugs & Kisses Newsletter is ‘Is Your Pet in Jail and Are You the Warden?’ I welcome Ms. Beebe to call me any Saturday morning between 6 – 8 a.m. and debate the issue with me! Hugs & Kisses." - Warren Eckstein** Big Fan of Magnus
"What a pleasure to hear Johnny Magnus again. I have been a fan of his for many years, and his music is the best on radio, it is never boring or dull and brings back a lot of memories. Just to hear the sound of his voice is so comforting and his choices of music make happy feet and smiles." - Mary Lalonde, Highland Park** Neil Grant Knows His (K)ABC’s
"I was pleased to see Neil Grant's mention in your column today [2/16]. I've been meaning to email KABC about him as he is extremely entertaining when he does the news. Jokes about things, points out his own blunders and has a very nice sense of humor and he doesn't take himself too seriously. I find him very entertaining as well as doing a good job on the news. Really enjoy listening to him." - Mary Burr, Torrance** Old KRLA Airchecks?
"Just got off the phone the other day with Sie Holliday [KRLA]. If it weren't for your book, how would I have known she was Shirley Schneider of Wichita Falls, Texas. After all the accolades, strokes, true fascination type comments and the like, I asked her if she had any tapes of her work. She said NO, if you can believe it. I really enjoyed the KRLA era of '72-74, but as a struggling college student, buying tape and making air checks didn't seem important at the time. Boy was I wrong! Do you know of anyone who has some old KRLA checks, scoped or not, that I could borrow to transfer, etc.? Along the same lines, any Tom Brown airchecks from the same era on KGIL aka, ‘The Thomas Brown Affair.’" Andy Rush ( voxboy98@yahoo.com** All Dressed Up With a Place to Go
"Saw your piece about Kathleen Sullivan. I want to simply echo Judith Michaelson in her sentiments. Kathleen's jump suits, her luscious, tight smile, authoritative tone and heart-shaped pants are right at home here in Southern California. Thanks Judith! Regards." - Phil HendrieKFWB Gets Nasty
(February 19, 1999) Joe McDonnell, longtime sports radio veteran, joins all-News KFWB in afternoon drive. Known as "The Big Nasty," Joe begins his: 15 and :45 duties between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Monday. KFWB pd Dave Cooke said, "I first worked with Joe at KABC, where he co-hosted the nightly ‘Sportstalk’ program. He has a tremendous fan base among Southern California sports fans." Bret Lewis continues to do sports in morning drive, Rod Van Hook middays and Joe Cala and Ted Sobel report sports in the evening…Tomorrow night former KNX/FM personality Robert David Hall performs the rockabilly-roadhouse basic from Doc Watson to Johnny Cash at Boulevard Music in Culver City. David performs with songwriter/producer Pat Cogan…Friends in New York are looking for a radio producer for a retail product being prepared for the holidays. Email Jackie at jmarkham@aol.com ...KFWB starts a new monthly one-hour program called "Ask the Mayor" next Wednesday morning at 10 hosted by morning anchor Kathleen Sullivan. Roger Nadel, vp/gm of KFWB, aggressively made the move to secure Mayor Richard Riordan…Carolyn Gracie and Rick Diego, morning team at KBIG, are giving away tickets to the Grammy’s. Is Carolyn with child?…Jim Lawrence (some know him as Jim Mitchell) checked in from Arizona where he is an attorney and occasional journalism professor of First Amendment law at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Jim worked news at KHJ from 1966 to early 1969. Before joining Boss Radio, Jim worked at KMEN in the Inland Empire and KCBQ-San Diego. When he left KHJ Jim joined KABC/Channel 7 until the spring of 1971 when he went to WCBS/TV in New York. "I took a year off for travel overseas, then worked in Buffalo, and finally settled in Louisville for seventeen years of anchoring newscasts. I retired from tv in 1993." Jim would love to hear from former colleagues at jcm@azstarnet.com …Jack Silver, pd of KLSX chuckled when he saw the commercial lengths list yesterday. He emailed: "I had to laugh when I saw your chart regarding length of breaks in morning drive radio here in the city of angels. Let me give you a more important homework assignment. Check the length of the ‘entertainment segment’ that precedes or follows the breaks in question. The King of All Media uses powerful extended sweeps of FM Talk to give his fans the best morning show in L.A. Question: Is it better to hear a 50 minute interview with Pamela Anderson and then a long stop set, or keep getting your morning show interrupted by ‘traffic and weather first on the quarter hour together blah blah blah.’" A number of emails complained that I didn’t provide "the true picture" of commercial content in morning drive. A few months ago I ran a chart of total minutes per hour. This chart was simply to note how long the commercial break ran and not the total stop set which might include news, traffic, bits and chit chat…From time to time we post ideas on "the perfect radio station." Reader Rob Ismael has some thoughts about what he would do if he owned a radio station in Southern California:
6 a.m. – 10 a.m.: Kevin & Bean
10 a.m.- noon: Regular Guys
Noon – 3 p.m.: Joe Crummey
3 p.m. – 7 p.m.: Larry Elder
7 p.m. – 9 p.m.: Al Rantel
9 p.m. - midnight: Mr. KABC
Midnight – 3 a.m.: Lisa Axe & Henry Phillips
3 a.m. – 4 a.m.: Best of Larry Elder
4 a.m. – 5 a.m.: Best of Mr. KABC
5 a.m. – 6 a.m.: Best of Kevin & Bean
Rob went on to say: "I think a station needs to be eclectic to reach the broadest possible audience. If I'm not mistaken, that was rule #1 I learned about broadcasting. Kevin & Bean would do great as talk show hosts. I remember a few years ago during O.J. when they were allowed to talk more. I felt they were at their best doing talk and schtick than back and front selling the latest from the Cherry Poppin' Daddies. You might have noticed that 95% of the line up was male. I would make up for the lack of female hosts with the news anchors and traffic reporters being majority female. The best anchors and traffic reporters are female."…Tonight at 11, Kenny Morse and Reed Berry, co-hosts of "Traffic Jam" heard Saturdays on KRLA, will sit in for Ira Fistell…KNX nd Bob Sims posted some bad news on the KNX bulletin board yesterday. Retired KNX anchorman Barry Rohde has been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer and starts chemotherapy very soon. Barry lives in Florida now with his wife Alma. Barry is loved by his former colleagues who wish him well…Dave Alpert has been named executive editor of entertainment news at Westwood One. He was producer for entertainment news coverage for ABC Radio Networks…Alan Mendelson, KCAL/Channel 9’s money reporter, joins KFWB for a daily feature on best buys during the "Noon Business Hour." The report will be repeated at 6:27 each evening…Michael Jackson had ABC/Disney CEO Michael Eisner as a guest on Wednesday. There was no mention of Michael’s exit from KABC, but the lively 90-minutes will be aired tomorrow morning on the "Best of Michael Jackson." Jackson was thrilled with the conversation: "We spoke of everything from the fact that [the once failing] Paris Disney is now the most visited destination in the whole of Europe...to the future of this mini-Empire on the Net, in films, stage productions, cruise ships, tv and radio. By mistake I once called him [ready for this] ‘Michael Ovitz.’ He picked up on that and when I said, ‘Forgive me I was thinking about Michael Ovitz because he had been a guest on the show last week.’ He replied, ‘Yes, I know I was listening. I listen to you a lot." It’s interesting that Eisner has not appeared on any KABC programs this year…Greg Tantum was news director at KFWB from 1992 until late last year. He’s just been named nd at KGO-San Francisco… Gary Lycan of the OC Register, appears on Fox 11 tonight at 10:30 as part of KTTV's 50th anniversary tribute..."More music than humanly possible." KZLA promo line…KIIS music director for the past five years, Tracy Austin, is off to Hartford to program WKSS…Jeff Pope works for Metro Networks and broadcasts morning drive at KCXX and afternoons at "Mega 100." He noticed the mention of Gina Davis. Jeff worked with her at KGGI/KMEN. "When I saw on your site that someone wanted to know where Gina is buried, I lobbed a call to a friend still at the station and was told she is resting somewhere in La Canada - however, the closest cemetery is in nearby Altadena (Mountain View Cemetery). That may be the place."
Happy Birthday: Ken Christensen, vp/gm of KYSRAnd Now A Word From Our Sponsors…
(February 18, 1999) How long is long? During morning drive the interruptions to your favorite personalities can seem interminable. In the last two days I monitored many of the major radio stations to see how long their commercial breaks were. The numbers below do not reflect traffic, news or station promotions. Once the commercials started, how long did they last in one break? The commercial breaks were taken at random and may not reflect the longest or shortest breaks, but the ones monitored between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m.
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ _ 13 ½ minutes KLSX
__ __ __ __ __ __6 minutes KPWR
__ __ __ __ _ 4 ½ minutes KCMG
__ __ __ __ _ 4 ½ minutes KABC
__ __ __ __ 4 minutes KBIG
__ __ __ __ 4 minutes KFI
__ __ __ __ 4 minutes KZLA
__ __ __ __ 4 minutes KRLA
__ __ __ __ 4 minutes KLOS
__ __ __ __ 4 minutes KYSR
__ __ __ _ 3 ½ minutes KKGO
__ __ __ _ 3 ½ minutes KLAC
__ __ __ _3 ½ minutes KROQ
__ __ __ 3 minutes KCBS
__ __ __ 3 minutes KFWB
__ __ __ 3 minutes KGIL
__ __ __ 3 minutes KIEV
__ __ __ 3 minutes KIIS
__ __ __ 3 minutes KKBT
__ __ __ 3 minutes KOST
__ __ __ 3 minutes KRTH
__ __ 2 minutes KDIS
__ __ 2 minutes KTWV
__ __ 2 minutes KNXSullivan Snatches Major Headlines with KFWB Morning Anchor Assignment
(February 17, 1999) If KFWB pd Dave Cooke was looking for headlines with the appointment of Kathleen Sullivan to morning drive with veteran Dan Avey, he got them. Last Saturday Judith Michaelson wrote a love ode about Kathleen in a front page LA Times Calendar story. Judith said: "And the once-pert, Kate Jackson/Charlie’s Angel look-alike with wispy bangs, heart-shaped face and exquisite, brightly colored suits during her turn on CBS This Morning a decade ago now has her hair severely pulled back and is wearing ordinary garb – black pants and V-necked sweater, a blue blouse. In her new role, Sullivan seems as comfortable as she looks, and her easy-to-recognize, melodious voice conveys authority." Sandy Wells headlined Kathleen’s arrival in last week’s Cheers! The San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. "The move marks the beginning of a major effort to revitalize the city’s first all-News station. Sullivan did stellar work as a fill-in on KABC mornings in 1997." Fred Shuster of the Daily News quoted Kathleen: "I've always believed news can be written and presented in an entertaining fashion. So, if anything, you can expect the presentation to be a little spunkier with some interesting points of view." Tomm Looney at Radio Digest even paused from his Conway & Steckler/KLSX fawning to give a few, very few words, "Why copy the vanilla sounds of KNX when you can have Kathleen Sullivan." Gary Lycan of the OC Register asked Kathleen why local radio? "It’s really the word LIVE. TV has lost its immediacy; it’s too rote, too predictable. I achieved a lot of success early on, so now I’m looking for the fun. I can’t wait to go in each morning and do this or that story." Gary revealed that Kathleen is 45 and shares her life with two Shih Tzus. Congratulations to Dave Cooke for cooking up all the publicity. Wonder who is next?…Larry Burnett uses the Twilight Zone intro for the beginning of his "Laker Zone" NBA pre-game show with coach Del Harris on KLAC…With many copycats in the market, is there anything better than Richard Blade’s "Flashback Lunch" at KROQ?…Geno Michellini returned to afternoon drive at KLOS after a four year absence. Coming out of Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady, Geno started his show with "You make me want to say more than foxy. How you doin’? 95.5, KLOS, Los Angeles, playing Southern California’s best new rock and best classic rock. I got it right Rita. This is Geno Michellini. It feels so good I can’t describe it to you. Rita tells me you missed me. Well, I’ll tell you what. Not half as bad as I missed you. And they tell me this time, it’s for good. No fooling. It makes me a very happy boy. I could not be happier, I have a job!" Late in his show he talked about being in the Inland Empire for the past couple of years and spending time with new comics who he will bring to the 5 o’clock Funnies. Any day now, KLOS is expected to formally announce Suzanne Ansilio for middays and Gary Moore for late nights following Jim Ladd…The KNX sports staff of Fred Gallagher, Steve Grad, Geoff Nathanson, Rory Markas and the late Charleye Wright was voted best in L.A. by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association. Larry Stewart of the LA Times reports that this is the 6th time KNX has won…Weekender Dennis Martinez was sitting in during afternoon drive at "Mega 100" yesterday for the recently departed Mario Devoe…If you listen to KFI you’ll hear Stew Berger and Ed Berger do the news/traffic. I asked Ed if he and Stew were related? "No!!! No!!! I've joked with Stew that he's followed me around for years. I worked at KWIZ from 1980-1985, then he followed me for a year or two there. We worked on a couple of recording sessions together at Creative Media. And now he's followed me to AirWatch. At Creative Media we determined that if we're related, it must be a LONG ways back. KFI's Wayne Resnick had a lot of fun the Saturday night I worked traffic and Stew worked news during his show. Wayne immediately dubbed himself ‘Wayne Berger,’ his screener was ‘John Berger,’ his producer ‘Sherry Berger,’ etc."…We have received many strange requests since the inception of <LARADIO.COM>, but this ranks right near the top. Mostly it is to find fellow broadcasters who have since left Southern California. Lyle McEachin worked promotions at "Power 106" in the early 1990s. He wondered about Gina Davis, a newswoman at KPWR. Born Theresa Tran, she was killed while base jumping when her parachute failed to open in January 1996. Lyle wants to pay his respects and has no idea where she is buried. Does anyone know?…Conservative talk is available evenings and all night at KIEV. Michael Reagan from 8 – midnight, Ken Hamblin "The Black Avenger" from midnight to 3 a.m. and David Gold from 3 to 5 a.m…From time to time, LARP share bizarre stories about being terminated. Longtime newsman at KFWB, Don Herbert shares this story. "It happened to me at WTOP/TV in Washington, DC, and led to my coming to Los Angeles. I had been at WTOP Channel 9, [CBS] for over two years and was anchoring an hour morning newscast and acting as contributing report to the noontime and early evening newscasts. I was junior man on the staff. There was very little turnover at that station back then. One morning, I am called into the news director's office, and told I was being let go. I asked why and they said they didn’t like my voice. THEY DIDN'T LIKE MY VOICE? After 2 and 1/2 years, they suddenly decided they didn't like my voice. So I laughed at them and packed my things and headed to the AFTRA office. There, the late Evelyn Fryman uttered a few words only sailors know and filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board. Three months later, everyone convened in the conference room at WTOP where Evelyn produced a memo, signed by the news director offering to fire one staff member and use his salary to hire two young kids just out of college. Within half an hour, I had my job back, three months back pay plus a whopping sum for pain and suffering. I went back to work one day...collected all my money and then quit. Within two weeks, I was in my car heading to Los Angeles and 30 years with KFWB."
Happy Birthday: Derrick Hall, newest member of all-Sports KXTA.Business News on KFWB and KNX on Non-Business Day
(February 16, 1999) How did the two midday business hour shows at KNX and KFWB fare on a non-business day? KNX has been running its one-hour business hour at 1 p.m. for one week. KFWB debuted yesterday at noon, hosted by Ron Kilgore. Both stations integrated traffic reports into the business news. KFWB ran sports at :15 and :45 and KNX ran no sports. KFWB followed a breaking local non-business story. KNX did not. Both stations led with the American Airlines pilots’ sickout followed by a story about an attempt to keep Hollywood production in Hollywood. KNX seems to be more in-depth with its stories. KFWB seems to cover more ground…KNX ran a story from a writer at the Wall Street Journal about the major career opportunities for 1999. The writer was asked what was the loneliest job of 1999 and he responded, "The #1 loneliest job is being a disc jockey. A lot of disc jockeys aren’t on the big stations, they’re on little stations and sitting there all by themselves talking to a great void hoping somebody out there is listening." Hey, stop the presses! This IS news…"Mega 100" has made its first major dj change. Mario Devoe has left the station. Mario emailed over the weekend: "My contract was coming to a close so we decided to part ways so that I have time to look for my next opportunity in Los Angeles. I do believe Chancellor Media will make room for me at another one of their properties because of the hard work and dedication that I have shown them this past year. It is hard to find loyal and diligent employees in radio that care about their listeners and their communities as much as I have for the past year. In closing, I am waiting for the next opportunity whether it be radio, records, television or who knows? I am ready for the next challenge."…Wink Martindale was featured on Access Hollywood At Home over the weekend. He showed off his singing Chihuahuas…Melinda Lee dished up some wonderful chocolate recipes on her KRLA show Valentines afternoon. She described a chocolate ganache that was to die for…Connie Stevens, actress (Hawaiian Eye), singer (16 Reasons) and product hawker (Home Shopping Network) guested with KLAC’s Charlie Tuna last Friday morning. She revealed that Jerry Lewis discovered her. He was doing a movie, Rock A Bye Baby, and Debbie Reynolds dropped out because she was pregnant with her second child with Eddie Fisher and Connie stepped in. Connie also talked about singing with the Four Freshmen…Norm McBride was known as "Zany" Norm during much of his stay at KNAC in the early 1970s (with John Clark and Ron McCoy) and then again from 1978 to 1986. Born in Covina, Norm grew up in Baldwin Park and his family goes back generations in California. "My great, great grandfather was one of the original founding fathers in 1835 and there is a statute of him in a San Diego park," Norm enthused recently. When Norm left KNAC he joined KNOB and later KWIZ. Every year he travels to the U.K. for a month to participate in a special radio project when 10 provisional broadcast licenses are granted. Last year he was in Manchester. Norm is active in a voiceover career and has done over 250 on-camera corporate industrials…Where the heck is Ira Fistell? He’s on late nights at KRLA for a couple of weeks and then disappears. According to Gary Lycan at the OC Register, Ira still has a raspy throat quality due to another bout with pneumonia, which is his 4th bout of it in 10 years. He may be back this week but doesn’t want to rush it and have a relapse...KFI’s weekender Wayne Resnick called syndicator (and on KFI) Dr. Dean Edell and interrupted him at home during dinner on Saturday to talk about the importance of a having a glass of wine each day for health benefits. Dr. Dean was having a glass of wine with his dinner when Wayne called…Speaking of KFI, Tim & Neil worked a Valentines remote Saturday afternoon from the Stinking Rose where the transmission was so static filled that I initially thought it was the nighttime signal of KRLA. How could a clear channel 50,000 watt giant allow it?…In Saturday’s LA Times Calendar Letters, there were two responses to Sam Rubin’s response to an article by Brian Lowry that called Sam a "clown." One letter writer observed: "Sam doesn’t have the silver-throat-broadcaster-clone syndrome. Celebrities actually enjoy being interviewed by Sam and they want to come back." In contrast, the second letter writer said, "It amazes me that a person with such limited communication skills is able to remain employed in broadcasting." Former KFWB newsman Gary Franklin wrote an opinion of Sam’s reply to Lowry. It ran on Monday. "The fault does not lie with Sam Rubin and his chattering colleagues; it’s with the audiences," Gary wrote…A U.S. District Court in Los Angles denied an injunction request by former employer KTNQ to keep morning man Humberto Luna from his move to KLAX until August, when it contends that his five-year contract with KTNQ expires…Every Saturday, email from readers of <LARADIO.COM> are posted. A very thoughtful email took KRTH to task not only for its tight playlist but the incessant redundancy. KRTH is not the only station with a redundancy problem. On KLAC one day last week Wives and Lovers by Jack Jones was played at a few minutes past 10 a.m. Johnny Magnus played it again around 5:15. Jack Jones part of a power rotation? Maybe?…KABC newsman Neil Grant read Bernie Alan’s email and was pleased that the record was set about the "other" Tom Brown. "I, too, was wondering about Tom Brown. In the summer of 1968, I anchored news at WIP in Philadelphia and briefly worked on the ‘Thomas Brown Affair.’ Years later when I moved to the Bay Area, I was listening to KNBR when I heard a familiar voice...it was Tom. I called him to say hi. He was just as cordial as he was in Philly. I believe it was a call from our WIP program director, Alan Hotlen, who by this time was programming KNBR that brought Tom to San Francisco. I'm pretty sure that's what Alan told me. I was saddened to read of Tom's death. Yes, there was another Tom Brown. He was a swell guy."…Charlie Van Dyke announced on KRTH this morning that Marv Albert is back announcing NBA basketball for Turner Sports. Turner has a new sponsor for NBA broadcasts, Fredericks of Hollywood...All long weekend long, KROQ gave away orchestra pit tickets to The Offspring's upcoming April concerts at the Universal Amphitheatre. This morning Kevin & Bean will have a drawing to find out which weekend Offspring ticket winner will be in the Offspring's next video.
Happy Birthday: Pat "Paraquat" Kelley, longtime member of the legendary "Mighty Met" at KMET during the 1970s and 1980s; and Joe Buttitta, part of the Southern California sports broadcasting landscape.
