Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Radio Waves Podcast #215

Radio: April 6, 2018

Country music star Trisha Yearwood has launched a new show on SiriusXM’s Garth Channel 55. Entitled Trish’a Take 5 the concept has Trisha picking four songs related to a chosen theme, then will let listeners pick the last song of the five.

The debut program April 2nd featured the theme “autopilot,” and the songs included Little Red Corvette by (country superstar???) Prince and Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. Obviously the program will not be exclusive to country artists.

The program will air Mondays at 2 PM (Pacific time), then repeat Wednesdays at 10 a.m., Fridays at 6:00 a.m., Saturdays at noon and Sundays at 5:00 pm.

Stagecoach

Go Country 105.1 FM is keeping traditional (local) call-in contests alive; ending Sunday April 8 they are expected to give away 36 passes to the Stagecoach country music festival to the designated caller each time the contest runs during the past week.

The Inland Empire’s K-Frog (91.5 FM) is doing something similar, offering passes to designated callers between the hours of 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.  through April 22nd.

I commend both stations for using an easy, simple contest to hook listeners; I am surprised so few stations do this any more.

The concert will be held in Indio during the weekend of April 27-29, and includes such artists as Garth Brooks, Keith Urban, Florida Georgia Line, Jake Owen, Kacey Musgraves, Lee Brice, Ashley McBryde, and many more.

Promotion

Longtime KFI (640 AM) Bill Handle Show producer Michelle Kube has moved up in to a new position: Executive Producer for the entire station. Replacing her in the morning producer spot is Alex Razo.

Kube has been with KFI 24 years; 23 of those connected in some way with Handle. Her new duties will be overseeing every show -- host and producer. That’s a lot of ego-balancing, and I wish her well!

Anniversary

KFI itself has something to celebrate: it is about to begin its 97th year of broadcasting.

It was March 31, 1922 when KFI officially received it’s license to operate; the station went on the air a couple weeks later on April 16. It is said that the original broadcasts were more of owner and founder Earle C. Anthony yelling “can you hear me” into a microphone; radio was in its infancy and few owned radios at the time. 

Due to very little sources of man-made interference in the early days of broadcasting, KFI’s original 50-watt transmitter could be heard quite far at night. Today, with more interference but 50,000 watts, the station can be heard all the way to Fresno during the day and through much of the Western United States at night. 

At one time the station sounded beautiful in analog AM stereo and later through digital HD Radio, but more recently the HD was turned off, the frequency bandwidth was reduced and other technical adjustments mandated by owner iHeart have given the signal a grainy harsh sound. But it’s still one of America’s most power radio stations! It would be fun to hear an on-air biography of the station.

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