~Los Angeles Radio People, Archives Sept 1-15, 1999

(September 1, 1999) The fallout from the major announcement of AMFM, Inc. swapping 14 stations (one of the 14 is a sales rights situation, which is normally counted in a corporation's portfolio) for KFI and KOST continues. Jimmy DeCastro, president of the AMFM radio group, addressed the Cox employees at 10:30 yesterday morning in the auditorium at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre. It was announced that Ken Christensen would oversee the transition takeover. The announcement that Ken would be the transition leader was greeted favorably by the staff who remembered him highly from his days at KFI/KOST/KACE as general sales manager from 1992-95. Ken currently is the general manager at KYSR and KCMG. He worked in sales positions at WBCK-Battle Creek and WYAI and WYAY-Atlanta before joining Eastman Radio and the Katz rep firm for eight years.

A number of years ago the radio industry buzz word was "synergy." How do we create this corporate intermingling of resources? Today the word is "clustering." Without a cluster of stations, corporations find it increasingly difficult to compete for market revenue. Cox has been searching for ways to add stations to its Los Angeles portfolio. Last spring Cox was actively pursuing KKGO, one of the few remaining independent stations. Insiders tell me that the negotiations between Cox and KKGO owner Saul Levine were moving along well until Saul suddenly upped his asking price to $200 million. Where else could Cox go to get a decent facility to create a cluster that wasn’t already tied up by another large corporation?

A number of you emailed about the classic KFI call letters. When a three letter call sign changes hands with a new owner, does the FCC require the call letters be changed to four? When RKO sold KHJ, the station changed to KKHJ.

A Cox insider explained the timing of yesterday’s announcement. Apparently the delay in confirming the rampant rumors was due to both companies being public and while the stock market is open, the SEC becomes a consideration. The company had to wait until the market was closed and certain documents had to be signed before it could officially be announced.

Greg Hardison is the KFI overnight board operator and does some production work. His reflections on the recent station swapping provides a rare perspective from someone in the trenches: "I've been through a couple of ownership changes at KABC since the mid-1980s, and I can assure you the lines of communication are firmly in place in Koreatown. No one has a clear idea of his or her future, EVER, in such a situation, but I was quite impressed with the efforts of certain KFI staffers, who spent the bulk of Monday evening phoning key employees at home to tell them about the deal. This, compared to Disney's missives shot willy-nilly around the LaCienega camp back in '96 [and into '97, 98, etc.], is sorta like comparing Dom Perignon with Mad Dog 2020. KFI/KOST is a class operation, thanks to the people actually doing the work, from top management all the way down to the grunts. Having been an integral behind-the-scenes part of KABC's success back in the early '80s, it's very easy to see how and why KFI earned top position in the ratings race. A hope for the future, is that continued management support of -- are you sitting down? -- CREATIVITY, will keep KFI in the top talk spot, where it belongs. All the best to you, Don, and thanks for the daily updates on your Webpage." Good luck, Greg, and thanks again.

Who is running the marketing machine at The Beat? KKBT’s daytime personnel change was covered by a very generous 4 minute, 15 second piece on UPN/Channel 13. The piece covered the first morning of broadcasting for Dr. Dre and Ed Lover, an interview with the new midday personality, 20-year old LaLa and afternooner’s Baka Boyz. Aside from a 2-second camera swing past a solo sign with the Beat logo, there was NO visual reference to KKBT or The Beat. Here is the launch of the station preparing for the new millennium and someone forgot to put signage, or to have the staff wear Beat hats or tee-shirts. The piece mentioned the competition and showed two outdoor billboards of Big Boy at "Power 106." From a visual viewpoint, Power got more coverage than the Beat did in the 4+ minute story. Unbelievable.

As LARADIO.COM celebrates its 2^nd anniversary next Thursday, a new feature begins this morning. Radio People have such an interesting collection of station photos, that I thought this site would be the perfect place to share those memories. The success of this feature will be dependent on you supplying interesting or rare photos from your collection. Photos are welcome from current activities to those in the past. You can send your photos in a .jpg file to me at db@ecom.net or mail them to: Los Angeles Radio People, PO Box 55518, Valencia, CA 91385. I’ll be more than happy to return the photos once they are scanned. It is hoped that this addition will add to the rich reservoir of LARADIO.COM, Southern California’s only daily dose of radio news.

Mr. Whipple of toilet paper fame appeared with Charlie Tuna on KLAC the other morning. Charlie asked the critical question. Should a new roll of toilet paper roll off the top or from the bottom? Mr. Whipple answered from the bottom since that is where it is used…Lisa Bowman was involved in one of the most widely covered publicity stunts in the history of Los Angeles Radio. Her story will be told next week…Bob Coburn's "Rockline" will feature Edgar Winter playing LIVE in studio tonight at 8:30 on "Arrow 93."

Gerry Fry, retired head of programming at AFRTS, responds to a recent email from Mark Haden of Westwood One. "Mark had some good points in his email. It's not an easy task for any dj to pretend he's somewhere he's not and yet obtain loyal audience acceptance that he really is local. Armed Forces Radio was the first to have that problem on an international scope. Top-name djs were asked to record daily shows in Hollywood that were pressed onto disks [later on audiocassettes] and played weeks later on hundreds of overseas AFRTS affiliates. Not only could they not talk about local weather, traffic, time, current events or any of the other dj staples, but they had to pick music they thought would be popular weeks from then.

We had some of the best in the business successfully convincing the military audiences worldwide they were local. Letters and phone calls to Charlie Tuna, Roger Carroll, Gene Price, Don Tracy, Mary Turner, Harry Newman, Casey Kasem [before AT40], Jim Pewter, Ira Cook, Wolfman Jack, Bill Stewart and dozens of others were so frequently sent to the local station we had to publicize the Hollywood address at the end of their shows to prevent overload at the local level.

I don't know of any other organization with such a requirement that was so successfully met by the wide-ranging talent AFRTS used for decades. And now, with the technology for real-time delivery worldwide [including Navy ships], it's up to the talent at Westwood One and ABC Radio under contract to AFRTS to carry on that challenge."
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Phil Hendrie, Harvey Kern, Jeff Wyatt

The KFWB Rock dj staff from 1961.

Top Row (l to r): Wink Martindale, Bobby Dale and Earl McDaniel

Bottom Row (l to r): Gene Weed, B. Mitchel Reed, Bill Ballance and Jim Hawthorne

(Thanks to Bill Ballance for the classic photo from his voluminous archives)

(September 2, 1999) When I mentioned that the LA Times radio coverage was unfriendly, I never planned to start a feud, I just thought it was a universally accepted fact. Steve Hochman, one of the three Times radio reporters, fired off a passionate response which was published here on Tuesday. Not one email has supported Steve’s position. Bob McCormick, news anchor at KNX, wrote: "I am so glad someone has the guts in this town to call the LA Times on their slipshod reporting," wrote Bob. "Actually, Larry Elder has gone after them once in a while. I wrote a letter to the editor when their radio writer profiled Charles Osgood and talked about his Sunday morning tv show and began the column quoting his signature signoff, ‘I'll see you on the radio,’ and never once mentioned where you could hear the ‘Osgood File’ on the radio in this market. Can you believe it? Over one million people hear him every week on radio and the Times didn't think it was worthy of a mention. Bob Sims [KNX nd] promptly wrote them detailing how in his twenty years of managing KNX, the Times has virtually ignored News radio and wouldn't it make sense, seeing as how both media have adult audiences, that readers might benefit from coverage on the radio news wars. They didn't have much to say about that. I guess it's not surprising that they would screw up an article on the hip hop and r&b stations since the bulk of their coverage goes to public broadcasters who have about one tenth of a percent of the audience. Keep up the good work," concluded Bob.

The major radio announcement and business story about the KFI/KOST acquisition by AMFM,Inc. involving hundreds of millions of dollars was relegated to page 8 of the Business section of the LA Times. Page 8? That position in the Business section speaks volumes about the relationship between radio and the Times. Conversely, the radio-friendly OC Register bannered the story across top of C2 and ran a top-of-the-page tease to it on the cover of its business section..."You are right; Steve Hochman is wrong," emailed Robert House. "The Times is NOT doing a ‘good job of covering the radio dial for a general readership.’ They spend WAY too much space covering ethnic and other formats that are not ‘general listenership.’ I'm a Southland radio fan [not an ‘insider’ or ‘fanatic’] and, generally, an LA Times fan but I find their radio column unreadable. I also find the entire OC Register unreadable, but I buy it occasionally to read Gary Lycan's column -- interesting, informative, and not trying to pose as a graduate course in contemporary culture. The Times does a lot of things right but radio coverage isn't one of them and never has been. Finally, regardless of how I feel about the specifics of the coverage, if there are 3 people writing that column, that's got to be the easiest money in LA," emailed Robert. There will be additional thoughts about the Times’ radio coverage in Email Saturday. Oh, by the way the radio column this morning in the Times written by Steve Hochman is an update on how Nic Harcourt of KCRW and Nicole Sandler of KACD/KBCD are doing as each celebrates one year on the air at their respective stations.

This afternoon at the NAB in Orlando, R&R AC editor Mike Kinosian will be hosting a special "One-On-One session with Wink Martindale. "This will be the first time the NAB has tried something like this and, based on what we saw in June at the R&R Convention, Wink will be terrific," emailed Mike. "I'm honored to be the one who will be chatting with him and am looking forward to it."

Charlie Van Dyke is searching for the most annoying song of the century. Feelings is the leader based on calls to Charlie’s KRTH morning show and votes to the "K-Earth" Web site. Based on our own informal survey last month, there is no shortage of titles. A KRTH caller thinks that the Top 101 most annoying songs of the century should be played over the Thanksgiving weekend. Ah, turkeys. I get it…Eagle ears Chris Parker was listening to the Dodger broadcast last night. "Those continuity wizards at KXTA are at it again. During the Dodgers game, KXTA operation director Mike Thompson was heard in a promo inviting the audience to listen to ‘The 11-50 guys: John Ireland and Derrick Hall.’ Call me crazy but, didn't John Ireland leave the building LAST WEEK?" asked Chris.

Michael Sheehy is one of those rare production experts who is well respected from leaders in all formats. He’s based at KTWV and recently released a CD of his production and imaging work. "I’ve just finished production for DSR 4/Virus Radio in Switzerland and just starting work for a Brazilian Smooth Jazz station," emailed Michael. "Considering I don't speak either language, it's been a fun challenge." He is building a home studio, which should be operational by the end of the year. "It'll save me two hours on the road each day." This new demo tape is his first. "Some of the older stuff goes back almost 10 - 15 years. One family friend from Arrowhead called to say she loved it and was on her 8th or 9th complete listen [Hell, I don't have that much patience or that much time, it's the world's longest demo !]." Michael lives in the Burbank Rancho (about halfway between Disney Studios and the Equestrian Center off of Riverside). "It's horse country so most of the houses here have stables in the backyard. Our stable has been turned into a music studio," said Michael. His passion for music was developed at a very young age. "When I was 13, my folks gave me a little Sony tape recorder. It fired my imagination and opened up a whole new world." When I interviewed Michael for my book, Los Angeles Radio People, he talked about production: "I don’t care what the medium is, producing is a state of mind. It’s not necessarily what tools you’re using, it’s what’s in your head." Contact Michael if you want a copy of his production CD.

Pat Boone guests with Larry Marino this morning on KIEV’s "Morning Magazine." Pat sold more records during the late 50's than any other artist except Elvis. Who can forget his 1956 Top 100 hit, Tutti Frutti?…Ellen K, mornings at KIIS, has a low blood pressure level: 90 over 56. Didn’t she look great on the Monday Night football show with Bill Weir?

The consensus of all who emailed me about the potential of KFI losing the three letter call letters with an ownership change is the same. They won’t unless they choose to. Tom Leykis wrote: "KHJ did NOT directly become KKHJ. KHJ lost its three call letter sign when it changed to KRTH-AM [‘Smokin' Oldies’] around 1989. It became KKHJ when it was sold to the current owners." Rocco from KEZY/KXMX emailed: "The rule is once changed to a 4 letter call it can never return to a 3. A three-letter call can be transferred to another station if it is commonly owned. Same with KFI after its change to Cox." Bill Browning, former nd at KIIS, reminded me that KGB-San Diego has been sold several times and it is still KGB. John Adkins emailed from Phoenix. "KOY in Phoenix has gone through several owners - Edens Broadcasting at one time – and now AMFM, Inc." Mark Howell checked in from KUZZ in Bakersfield: "The answer is no, the call letters do not have to change. At the time KHJ was sold, channel 9 was still KHJ/TV. At that time, the FCC did not allow a call sign to be shared among stations in different services unless they were commonly owned. Thus KHJ (AM) became KKHJ. For the same reason, historic WKBW, Buffalo became WWKB, and KOB in Albuquerque became KKOB, when they were sold off from their companion TV stations. When my employer sold its TV station, its call letters were changed from KUZZ/TV to KUVI." Former KLSX pd Perry Simon checked in on the subject: "Stations with three-letter calls have been sold without changing calls many times in recent years- like when Capital Cities, then Disney, took over ABC and kept the calls on WLS-Chicago and KGO-San Francisco; Buckley bought WOR-New York from RKO; and Westinghouse's WBZ-TV-AM Boston stayed WBZ while changing hands from Group W to CBS to Infinity-Sort-Of-CBS. In KHJ's case, the tv kept the calls when KHJ [AM] became KRTH; when Disney bought the tv station, they did a deal with KCAL [FM] Redlands to use the calls on tv [same-calls-different-band-different-owner became legal in the late 80s-early 90s]. All that just gave me a headache," said Perry. Thanks to all others who contributed their expertise to the subject. KFI call letters can stay with the AMFM, Inc. acquisition, if they so choose.

Art Bell spoke very highly of Phil Hendrie the other night, despite his parodies about the master of outer universe…KHJ gave up their call letters on February 1, 1986 and became KRTH/AM…In 1987 RKO sold KRTH/FM to Beasley Broadcasting for $87 million. In 1994, Beasley sold KRTH/FM to Infinity for $116 million.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Chris Checkman

KKBQ Country Gentlemen, 1969. The station was located at 131 East Magnolia, at the current site of the Burbank Media Center.

Top (l to r): Harry Newman and Hoss Barnes
Below (l to r): Corky Mayberry, Bob Jackson, Hugh Jarrett and Larry Scott

(Thanks to Bill Ward for the KBBQ photo. If you would like to share a radio related photo, send it by .jpg file to db@ecom.net or mail to: Los Angeles Radio People, PO Box 55518, Valencia, CA 91385)

(September 3, 1999) Whotta’ week. A three-day weekend could not have come at a better time. If for nothing else, just to catch our breath. A major station swap with 14 AMFM, Inc. stations going to Cox Communications in exchange for KFI and KOST. Dr. Dre, Ed Lover, LaLa and the Baka Boyz debut at The Beat. KLOS hit with second lawsuit over "Black Hoe" promotion. John London and the House Party move from mornings at The Beat to "Mega 100." Whew.

Walt Disney Co. was hit yesterday with a second racial-discrimination lawsuit stemming from its role in a KLOS promotion called "The Black Hoe," according to a front-page LA Times Business section story. KLOS account executive Carla Woodson is the second black employee to allege that she was retaliated against for complaining about the promotion.

John Duncan, former pd at KLOS and recently departed from "Y107," has entered the "Black Hoe" story. The Times reported this morning: "Sources this week said KLOS general manager William Sommers dismissed the station’s program director, John Duncan, last year, holding him responsible for the promotion."

The Congress of Racial Equality has sent a letter to the FCC asking the government to revoke KLOS’ license. On Wednesday morning personalities Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps publicly apologized for the promotion during their morning talk show. "We never intended to hurt anyone," said Mark & Brian, who were on vacation last week when Disney’s ABC division issued a written apology, referring to the promotion as inappropriate and unacceptable. "It’s not what the show is about. We now know people were offended and hurt by this and we sincerely apologize."

The Times story referred to an incident in the djs’ career when "an Alabama radio station issued an apology after an African American sportscaster sued them over alleged disparaging racial remarks made on their show."

Art Laboe, Huggie Boy, George Jay and Chuck Cecil appeared last night at a special edition of "Nostalgia" night at the Pioneer Broadcasters monthly gathering. The program prepared by Lina Romay and Frank Bresee encompassed the early years of music radio and the foursome shared the journey on how they got into radio and their love affair with the medium. All four have taken their passion for radio and found a way to survive for decades in this business. Chuck Cecil is a youthful 76 and continues to syndicate his "Swingin’ Years" to 20 stations including KPCC every Saturday afternoon from noon to four. Huggie Boy is 72 and works evenings at "K-Earth." Art Laboe is 73 and manages Original Sound Records and the successful Oldies but Goodies series (as well as many others), owns four radio stations, broadcasts a daily noon to 3 show on his stations, which is also heard on the Internet. Every Sunday night Art hosts an Oldies show, which is carried on "Mega 100." George Jay’s radio career specialized in hosting interview shows with the stars of the 1940s and 50s. The 82-year-old took this love for personalities and runs a talent agency; one of his clients won an Emmy this year. Highlights from this special night will be shared over the coming days.

Charlie Van Dyke at KRTH came across the Hallmark card reject list. "My tire was thumping, I thought it was flat. When I looked at the time, I noticed your cat. Sorry."…Sluggo returns to KROQ tonight and tomorrow night and then he returns to San Diego for his 911 job…New KKBT middayer LaLa will make an appearance at the Southern California Basketball Showdown over the weekend at the Venice Beach Courts. "I’m definitely going to slide through there and show my face."

Daniel Johns of Torrance was listening to KGIL’s Jim Roope during his sports report. "He was talking about how bad the Angels are and said something like, ‘For those who saw the brawl between Cleveland and Anaheim the other night you witnessed just how bad the Angels are. There were faces of Cleveland players four inches in front of them and they were still swingin' and missin.'"

Larry Mayer of KUSC is looking for a necktie with a microphone or other related radio symbol "One of my former bosses has a unique tie with pictures of circuit boards and other engineering stuff on it. I'm at a loss as to where to find it. I've been checking the Internet and I have only found musical instrument ties and music notes, so far." Any thoughts for Larry?…"Lord Have Mercy" tee shirts are being given away by Jim Ladd at KLOS.

Rick Dees interviewed actress Heather Graham and one of the stars of Bowfinger on KIIS yesterday morning. "If we had known you were listening at Agoura High School back when you were there, we would have done many more remotes." Rick commented about the relationship between Heather and Ed Byrnes. "It looks like he wants to eat you with a spoon." Heather returned with: "He does. Every night!"

Charlie Tuna put a KLAC listener on the air yesterday morning who had high compliments for Charlie, Fran Tunno and the entire station. And then: "The only thing I don’t like about your station is Sunday morning. It would be nice to have music again rather than some guy talking about my intestines and colon." Ah, those infomercials… "Shotgun Tom" Kelly continues a quarter century tradition as co-host of the local cut-aways during the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy telethon over the Labor Day weekend. For 25 years he was the co-host in San Diego and this year marks his second with Casey Kasem.

Coming Attractions: Tomorrow, Email Saturday is chock-a-block with your thoughts on the KFI/KOST sale, the LA Times’ coverage of the radio industry, Groove Radio and others. Even though many of you will have to labor on Monday, I won’t. On Wednesday, one of the most amazing promotion/publicity stunts in the history of L.A. radio will be retold. What happened 30 days after the stunt is an equally compelling story. LARADIO.COM celebrates its two-year anniversary on 9/9/99. I will have a very special State of the Site Message. And of course everything else that evolves and develops on the continuing radio stories and the stories that have yet to be broken. LARADIO.COM is the only daily dose of radio news for Southern California.

KPPC Personalities, 1970

(l to r): Les Carter, Joel Siegel (movie critic at ABC's Good Morning America) and Steven Clean

(If you would like to share a radio related photo, send it by .jpg file to db@ecom.net or mail to: Los Angeles Radio People, PO Box 55518, Valencia, CA 91385)

** Photo Phan
"I wanted to drop a quick line about the new LARP Photo Gallery in the Current News: It's GREAT! I'm sure there are many of us who read your column every day that aren't LARP, but are fans of radio, and always wondered what these people looked like. I also noticed the addition of photos in the Where Are They Now? section. Keep up the good work!" – Vincent Aza, Buena Park

** Follow the Money
"Why doesn't Mr. Hochman come clean [8/31]? As Deep Throat said: ‘follow the money.’ The LA Times obviously feels itself in competition with local English language commercial radio for advertising bucks, so they write about radio that doesn't compete with them for the dollars: Spanish language and NPR. If Mr. Hochman really feels it's so important to cover Spanish language radio in his paper, perhaps he can explain why the Times hardly ever finds it necessary to cover Spanish language films or television shows. Why are there no Spanish language books reviewed in the Times Book Review section? If the paper has so many bilingual readers, why is none of the advertising in Spanish? My favorite piece of radio 'coverage' in the Times occurred about a year and a half ago when they devoted a couple of pages to a format change at an obscure Riverside Spanish language FM station. Out of curiosity I tried to tune the in the station at my home in Manhattan Beach and couldn't. Great! An article about a station I can't hear in a language I can't understand. What a joke. The rest of the Times is, in my opinion, world class. The radio coverage is strictly bush league. I'm not a xenophobe, and I wouldn't mind a reasonable amount of coverage of Spanish language radio in Los Angeles - but nine out of ten stories and the tenth one NPR? Fuggetaboudit!" - Neil Ross, Manhattan Beach

** It’s the Times
"The Los Angeles Times had never done a good job of reporting on radio, and if it's possible, they've actually gotten worse in recent years. I agree with you, I also thought the poor radio coverage was a universally accepted fact. I never expect them to get station call letters or frequencies correct in their radio reporting. The Times does seem to devote much space to ethnic and other formats, but that just seems to be in keeping with the general bent of the paper in recent years. Maybe Steve Hochman should put some of his passion into better radio reporting.

I was pleasantly surprised when I moved up to the Bay Area three years ago at the importance the local print media places on its radio reporting. Maybe I should send some examples to the LA Times." - Michael Smith, KCBS/KLLC, San Francisco

PS "I sent a letter to the Times editor around two years ago that actually got printed. A Times editorial writer wrote an article about the Beatles coming to Los Angeles, and credited KHJ with bringing them over! I pointed out to them that it was KRLA who brought the Beatles to Los Angeles." - MS

** Print Versus Radio
"Please do not become engaged in a feud or even attempt an exchange of logical thought with Steve Hochman or almost any of our ‘snooty cousins’ from print journalism.

Ever since sound first came out of speakers, those claiming to have ‘printer's ink flowing through their veins’ have viewed those of us in radio as the bastard children of the communication industry. Print journalists have traditionally regarded themselves as the elite, suggesting that anything truly worthwhile will be found only within the pages of a newspaper and certainly not within a radio program or radio newscast.

I am still waiting for a newspaper person to write something about creativity and deadlines. Just like our friends from the newspapers, we must also work and survive within the pressure packed world of deadlines. As a radio journalist, I've worked in formats where I had to meet a deadline two, three or four times each hour. Disc jockeys also have deadlines to meet, as they are required to say something new, entertaining and interesting each time they open their microphones. Quite honestly, this is what makes radio so exciting, challenging and fun. I think I speak for many of my radio peers and colleagues when I suggest that there's a world of difference between those that broadcast on the radio and those that write for a newspaper, and for that reason, validation of radio is slow in coming.

I suggest to you that as radio broadcasters, our deadlines for producing creative, exciting, entertaining and original material comes four-to-six times each and every hour...as opposed to the newspaper world where the deadline for most feature pieces comes once each week. If you told Phil Hendrie, Rick Dees or Charlie Tuna that they had a week to come up with a four minute bit, I'm pretty sure they'd be looking for something to do with the remaining 6-days, 23-hours, and 45-minutes." - Lee Marshall, Malibu

** Calls of the Wild
"As for three letter calls, there were 185 radio stations with 3-letter calls in May of 1922, back when all stations got 3 letter calls. When they ran out of 3 letter calls, the government began to assign 4 letters. By 1930, there were only 95 stations with 3 letters calls, at a time when there were only 600-700 stations in the U.S.!! Only in recent years does it seem so small a number when there are more than 4,000 AM stations! As of January 1, 1998, it was down to 56 AM stations remaining with historic 3-letter calls, 13 3-letter calls are also on FM and/or tv stations. KFI was assigned those call letters at random and was licensed March 31, 1922, and had its first day on the air, April 16, 1922. This was only 3 days after KHJ went on the air. KFI is the 42nd oldest surviving radio station in the United States today. KNX is the 7th oldest, based on date it was licensed, December of 1921. KNX officials date the station back to September of 1920 when a ham radio operator, Fred Christian, broadcast music out of his Hollywood home." - Jim Hilliker, Monterey

** Sherman’s March
"Geoff Whitford's recollection of Gary Owens lines [8/30] left me laughing and reminded me of a couple of Owensisms. Gary once back-announced Good Vibrations with: ‘Ladies and gentleman, that was the sound of Ethel Merman being attacked in an echo chamber,’ which left me gulping for air, my sides aching, for minutes afterward.

He signed an autograph for me years ago, when George Carlin received his star on the Walk of Fame. Gary wrote, ‘To Andrew, Best Krelbs, Gary Owens.’ Who knows what krelbs are. Milton Berle was also at Carlin's ceremony and Gary, bless him, was kind and gracious enough to introduce me to him. Milton asked me a few questions, making jokes at my expense [which I gladly accepted], cracking everyone up.

Best of luck to Neil Grant. I truly enjoyed his conversational, witty, ‘Hey, how ya doin'?’ style of doing the news at KABC Talkradio.

To all radio talk show hosts: Please do not say the caller's name while simultaneously pressing the line they are on. When you push the button, the caller hears a second of hiss/static as they're put on the air. If you greet them as you're hitting the line, they won't hear you say their name, they'll hear the hiss. Many times, I've heard dead air as callers waited to be addressed and hosts became impatient because, after all, they'd just greeted the caller and the caller didn't respond. Hosts, now you know why. My suggestion: Hit the line, THEN greet the caller." - Andrew Sherman, Glendale

** In the Groove
"I agree with what Sal Garcia of Pico Rivera had to say about the Groove format. The Y-107 frequency would indeed be an excellent place to implement a dance music format. Although 107.1FM does have signal problems as well, it is a bit better than that of 103.1FM. There is no way Y-107 can compete with KROQ. As we all know, it’s world famous. They have been trying to compete with KROQ for so long now and I can't believe they still don't get the picture.

The recent overhaul of the station has proven ineffective. Their ratings have not made a significant jump in the last book. There is no way of knowing whether or not putting a dance format on that frequency will bring up the station's ratings since the ‘dance’ format is an unproven format and will continue to be as long as it is ignored. I think we'd see some surprised radio experts if the format was given the chance to survive. It obviously wasn't given a true chance on 103.1 because of a weak signal [by the way, does Clear Channel ever plan to upgrade the signal?].

I really hate to say it, but I don't think we are going to see a true dance format back on the airwaves anytime soon. Today's corporate radio is just too competitive and playlists are based almost entirely on research. Dance music is a new concept and there just aren’t enough researched songs out there yet. Another thing is that the radio industry simply doesn't understand true dance music. They think that N-Sync or Backstreet Boys are considered to be dance music artists, but they aren't." - Cody Corbett, Laguna Niguel

** How Great is KFI/KOST?
"When I read LARADIO.COM current news on Tuesday, I was shocked that another media corporation wants to have KFI/KOST. Both are great stations! When I read that there might be programming changes as early as October 1, it left me wondering if anything would change at these two stations. Does this mean that there might be some personnel changes to KFI/KOST? Both are owned by Cox Communications. Cox is a great corporation because they are giving us two of the best radio stations in Southern California. It was only four years ago that I discovered KFI/KOST while switching through the radio dial.

KOST has better ratings than its competitor KBIG because of the great personalities and music on KOST. On the August 25th broadcast of the "Mark and Kim Most Music Morning Show" on KOST, Mark and Kim were talking about the great staff at KOST 103 and that they haven't had a major personnel change in about ten years.

I hope that KFI/KOST remain with Cox Communications. I wish everyone at KFI/KOST the best of luck during this time of possible change." – Roger Rodriquez, KOST/KFI listener in La Puente

** No Tengo Miedo
"Must be gratifying to know that Steve Hochman thinks enough of your column to respond so vehemently to your diatribe. Do you think he actually knows any English-only people who listen to Spanish radio for the music? I don't know any myself." – Bruce Harris, San Pedro

** From Art Bell’s World to Hendrie’s World
"Art Bell had a caller from Arizona who asked him what HE listened to when he had time. Art mentioned a guy I had never heard of, and then paused and said that he listened to Phil Hendrie [maybe a slip?] and thought he was ‘wonderful.’ He then went into detail saying that Phil does a parody of him that is ‘super,’ and that if you didn't know the characters were done by him, you'd believe they were real. He summed it up saying that ‘you should really check him out’ if you had a chance.

As a HUGE fan of Phil, I thought this compliment was priceless. Phil's parody of Art just cracks me up, and I think it's great that Art doesn't have a problem with Phil doing that. Real testament to the genius of Phil." - Bruce Bergman, San Diego

** Fan For the Times
"I am an LA Times fan as well and read it everyday. I think the most consistent mistakes are made when the radio ratings are published. They always screw up the call letters or dial position. I never knew FM stations could have dial positions ending in an even number." - Chris Butler, Granada Hills

** Radio Singled Out By the Times?
"You're right on the money when you talk about the LA Times' indifference and/or incompetence in reporting radio in L.A. They may have a short bit about such and such a station changed format, but that change will sometimes take many months to show up in their format chart. I have seen errors in the format chart that shows they missed changes [call letters, frequency, format, etc.] made a year ago or more. If they reported tv that way, the tv industry would scream bloody murder, and rightfully so. Sure, they publish the quarterly Arbitrons, but there's very little serious analysis of the books. There's absolutely no excuse for all of this in the second largest radio market in the country. I don't even live in the L.A. market [Santa Barbara], but I'd love to see some hard reporting and analysis on this topic. I'd been hoping this topic would pop up here some day; I was afraid I was the only one who thought it strange that an otherwise excellent paper like the Times virtually ignores one of the biggest entertainment media in L.A. Your page continues to be essential reading for me every day. Although I sit in the background and say very little, I appreciate all of the time and effort that goes into it. I can come here for reliable, timely information. Great job!!" – Dennis Gibson, Santa Barbara

** A New Rocker for LA Radio
"I love this Web site, I read it everyday. As far as the KFI/KOST situation goes well I hope someone will realize that a new Rock station is needed in Southern California. Yes we have KLOS and they are great in their own way. But we need a station that plays more of the new rock. I have been to quite a few states on this side of the Mississippi in the past few years [i.e. Idaho, Washington, Nevada and Utah]. They have at least one ‘rock station.’ I can't remember the call letters, but some examples of California/Nevada rock stations are: KCAL in Riverside, KIOZ in San Diego and KOMP in Las Vegas. L.A. desperately needs a rock station, not another adult contemporary [i.e. KXMX, KYSR, KOST, KBIG]. Just my opinion. But I do listen to all sorts of radio stations everyday, mainly to win prizes, but also for the music." - Ted Sweazy, Laguna Niguel

** Lack of Times Radio Coverage is $$
"While reading about the dissatisfaction with the LA Times' coverage of mainstream L.A. radio, I noticed no one mentioned the fact that most L.A. radio stations and the Times compete for the same piece of the ad revenue pie. Therein lies the obvious, if simple, explanation for the Times' ‘snubbing’ of the mainstream L.A. radio community. The Times doesn't compete with Spanish-language radio stations for advertisers, so those stations get lots of ink. The same reasoning applies to the Times' heavy coverage of non-commercial radio.

We intuitively understand why the Times doesn't cover the inner workings of the other papers it competes with. Why are we so quick to fault the Times for ignoring another medium that it competes so heavily with? I happen to think it's shortsighted to shun radio because competitors [e.g., the Sunday Orange County Register] will exploit this as a weakness, but there is a kind of logic to it. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times: Money is the only reason." - Scott Allen Miller, Los Angeles
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Dr. Drew Pinsky

Send mail to db@ecom.net with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 1999 ~los angeles radio people Last modified: September 10, 1999

Send mail to db@ecom.net with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1999 ~los angeles radio people
Last modified: September 10, 1999