Radio Waves Podcast #259

Radio: July 31, 2020

Special Guest:  Douglas C Brown

    A controversy of sorts is being played out on Don Barrett’s LARadio.Com: What is the origin of the term “boss radio?”

    If you grew up in 1960s Los Angeles, you know the term “Boss Radio” was used to describe the  programming on KHJ (930 AM). Boss Hitbounds, Boss Angeles, the Boss Jocks. The word was everywhere, which is somewhat ironic because the term “boss” itself was dated. The precursor to “cool” or “bitchin’,” “boss” was on the way out as far as teen slang went.

    But KHJ was most definitely not the first station to use the term. KHJ consultant Bill Drake worked at KYA in San Francisco when they were known as “The Boss of the Bay.” And the term predated even him in the very early 1960s.
 
    Letters on LARadio.Com confirm the early use. But does that mean then-KHJ General manager Ken DeVaney lied when he insists in Ron Jacob’s book, Inside Boss Radio, that he was the one who initiated the name?

    Not necessarily. Being the Boss of the Bay and Boss Radio can actually be two different things, and I am not sure that much thought was put into either. The Boss of the Bay could very well have been using the term as it is used today … meaning leader. I honestly don’t know that, but it’s plausible. Boss Radio was meant to be “cool” or ”bitchin’” radio. Unfortunately, most of the architects of that era of radio are gone, so we may never know the answer. But it’s fun to look back.

    Online Issues

    One of the best ways to listen to radio today is through a good-sounding smart speaker. You can place them throughout your house and play stations individually, or have the same station throughout. And for the most part, once you figure out the station (i.e. “Hey Siri, play KNX-FM 93” works; “Hey Siri, play KNX-FM 93.com" does not) the system is solid. Sound quality is great — AM stations truly shine —  you can easily tune into stations, and you can control it with your voice.

    The problem arises when stations don’t monitor their own stream. For example, if you happen to tune in to Rush Limbaugh on KEIB (1150 AM), the sound drops out. I thought it was a problem with there awful iHeartRadio system that provides audio for the station, and it may well be, but the reason has more to do with programming details.

    You see, there are extra costs in some cases for commercials that air on internet streams (as used by smart speakers), so stations will often substitute alternative programming during some advertisements unless the advertiser specifically pays for the spot. In the case of KEIB, though, the speaker just goes silent for a time. Usually it will pick up when the show comes back on, but not always. Regardless, the listening experience is greatly diminished.

    I think smart speakers and the future evolution of the idea may be the future of radio, especially AM radio. But it requires attention to detail that is sorely lacking, at least on KEIB. I have not noticed the issue on other stations, including the small independents I listen to from across the country.

    K-Mozart Update

    By now Saul Levine’s K-Mozart (105.1 HD4, kmozart.com) was supposed to have gone through a full re-launch, bringing back air personalities and features to better compete against KUSC (91.5 FM). Alas, the Covid pandemic continues to delay the plan.

    But Levine loves classical music, so he’s helped the music on the station going regardless, and he’s initiated a “soft-re-launch” bringing back Susanna Guzman and Nick Tyler. As time goes on, Levine plans many more additions, as he plays “the world’s best classical music 24-7.”

    “I am proud of the fact that I have programmed Classical for 62 years,” Levine told me. “Probably a world record. I have a vision for KMOZART that will incorporate that experience. There are many Classical works that are accessible and beautiful … I know what they are and we will be playing them.
 
    “The same with Opera. Many people consider Opera boring but it need not be. Light Opera will also be presented. I have a rendition of Fidler On The Roof, in Yiddish. It will be played as well!”

    Levine added that The LA Chamber Orchestra and the American Youth Symphony are being very supportive of the station.

Radio Waves Podcast #258

Radio: July 24, 2020

    One of the joys of the Summer — and it has been even more apparent during the COVID shutdowns and restrictions — is the ability to tune in to the recreation of the Mellow Sound as heard on KNX-FM (now KCBS-FM, 93.1) on the internet, via online streaming, a smart phone, or a smart speaker.

    Full disclosure: There are actual two recreations with a slightly different feel, one at knxfm.com and another at knxfm93.com. Both are worthy, but in this instance I am referring to the latter.

    Back in the 1970s, the original KNX-FM would occasionally produce showcase specials on some of the artists played. In July of 1978, the station was able to score a rare, sit-down interview with Carly Simon, one of the big stars of the day and one of the Mellow Sound’s core artists.

    Says Douglas Brown, one of the volunteers who makes knxfm93.com tick, “Lucky for us today, the show’s writer and host Christopher Ames saved the tape! So we are going to play it exactly 42 years later!”

    It’s called An Evening with Carly Simon, an hour-long program of Simon’s words and music, presented with no commercials. It will air on knxfm93.com at 5 p.m. Monday, July 27. If you miss it on the actual 42-year anniversary date, you can hear it on the repeat: July 31 at 5 p.m.

    It’s funny that this happened to come up when it did. I recently happened to be listening to a recording of Mark Elliot on KHJ (930 AM) from about the same year, and one of the promos was for the KHJ Special of the Month, which also spotlighted artists special to the audience. I will bring these back when I buy my station … but I digress.

    If you were a fan of the Mellow Sound or of Simon, this is required listening. And if you find yourself feeling down with everything that is happening in the world, give the station a listen. It definitely lifts my mood.

    Overload

    I haven’t noticed it here yet, but according to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, ratings for news and talk stations in Dallas-Fort Worth are down 25 percent. The reason? “People are just overwhelmed,” according to podcaster Jody Dean.

    News and talk stations are down, says the newspaper, while music stations are up.
    (https://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/bud-kennedy/article244177012.html)

    Mailbag

    “I have a recommendation for you after discovering this station a few weeks ago while running in Palm Springs with my little Sony radio: Q102.3 Classic Rock (KRHQ/Palm Desert)

    “Best radio station that I have heard since The Sound went to Christian Radio. It is awesome. Give it a try - you might discover a new favorite. — Tish Husak

    In the interest of honesty, Tish sent me this letter over a year ago and I found it when clearing out my email boxes. But the station is indeed still on the air, and you can hear it at q102classicrock.com.

    The playlist is typical classic rock but it’s a good mix: songs I heard while sampling include Caught Up in You (.38 Special), Rebel Rebel (David Bowie), Running on Empty (Jackson Brown), Locomotive Breath (Jethro Tull), Fool for the City (Foghat), Black Betty (Ram Jam), My Sharona (The Knack), and Breakdown (Tom Petty).

    Like most good stations I have found over the past few years, the station is locally owned.

    “Just wanted to email you to thank you for the Radio columns I the Register. As a guy who grew up in 60’s Los Angeles listening to KHJ and occasionally KRLA, it’s somewhat rival, it is always great to read about the history and personalities of the era as well as the other locations not only in Southern California (KLAC with Bill Balance and Jim Healy at 5:30) but also around the country. I went to school n the East Coast and really enjoyed WNEW out of NYC in the 80’s.

    “Keep up the great work. Thank you for the news and unfortunately blues of the theater of the mind.” — Paul Reza

    This is why I do it. I love radio, and I love promoting what I consider good radio. The industry is going through a challenging time, but as the large companies get broken up either by legislative action as they should, or by economic realities as they are, I fully believe the industry will come back stronger. My son even asked to borrow a radio he can listen to … the first time he has done so in at least a decade. That must mean something …

Radio Waves Podcast #257

Radio: July 17, 2020

    One of the stations that benefited from changed listening habits brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic is KABC (790 AM), which in April earned its highest rating in years at 1.4, double that of January January and a full point above the 0.4 the station found itself in some months of last year. As of the latest rating released in June, the station is still 43 percent up from the January rating among listeners aged 6 and over.

    One of the true bright spots of KABC’s broadcast day is the John Phillips Show, heard from 12 noon to 3 p.m. weekdays; one of the highlights of Phillips’ program is the daily 1 p.m. “doctor hour,” in which prominent medical doctors — usually Kelly Victory, but occasionally others including Nan Hayworth and Daliah Wachs —  talk with Phillips and answer listener questions on any topic. Of course the topic now is usually (read: always) COVID-related.

    I was turned on to the segment by my friend, Bruce Thomson, who sent text message reminders to me almost daily asking essentially the same question: “Are you listening? Dr. Kelly Victory is on talking about COVID … you have to listen.”

    So I did. And I found Bruce was right … the Doctor Hour has become required listening for me and obviously many others … Phillips’ show tends to be among the highest-rated show on KABC, and the Doctor Hour tends to be the highest-rated hour of the show.

    Phillips has been on KABC for many years, in various time slots. He’s done afternoons, late mornings, mornings snd now early afternoons. “This is my favorite shift,” he admits, especially compared with the mornings. “I tend to be someone who goes to bed early and gets up early, but there is a difference between waking up early and going on the air versus waking up, having some coffee, swearing at the headlines, and then doing the show.”

    The Orange County native formerly worked at CNN for about two years, until the news service wanted him to move to the East Coast. "I just didn’t want to move,” he said. Besides, radio is his true love. “I am doing what I have wanted to do since I learned to talk,” Phillips says of hosting his own talk radio show.

    His program overall is an interesting hybrid of topics. It’s a political talk show without being overtly political, and he is never combative. The word “polite” permeates the program that can truly cover any topic, though politics absolutely plays a role. Think Johnny Carson monologue. Or the attitude brought out by one of his idols, Lakers play-by-play announcer Chick Hearne.

    Old-timers like me can make a comparison to the old TalkNet programs such as Bruce Williams, as outside of mocking Governor Newsom, Phillips is genuinely nice to everyone, listeners and guests alike.

    “I will never be abusive,” he says, adding that all viewpoints are welcome on the program. “I have views, of course, but I am not trying to convince anyone of anything … I am not trying to sway elections, and I am not trying to change anyone’s mind or convince them to think like me. My show is a safe place for conversations for people of all views.

    “And you won’t get beaten up for disagreeing.”

    The genesis of the Doctor Hour actually began long before COVID. “Kelly was on the show even back when I was doing afternoons with Jillian (Barberie),” he explained. But the COVID scare brought new importance to the segment, and it expanded to a daily segment, led primarily by Victory.

    “I met her through a friend, and find her to be an amazing person,” Phillips said. “She has numerous degrees from elite universities, she is a trauma doctor, she is the world’s greatest cook, greatest gardener, runs marathons … she’s one off the rare individuals who excel at everything,”

    The pandemic brought in questions from listeners who were frightened of the virus and needed straightforward information, factual, and to the point. “With all the conflicting information coming from various sources, people just want — need — to know what’s true, what’s not, and how to stay safe, especially for the at-risk population,” says Phillips. “So we started taking calls that included basic questions that weren’t being answered elsewhere. ‘Is my baby safe if I encounter someone with COVID?’ ‘Can I visit my mother who is in assisted living and keep her safe?’ Things like that.”

    Victory, told me that she considers the segments the highlight of her day. “I am thrilled that I can help people,” she told me, “and it is so gratifying when people tell me that I helped them understand the disease and have some of the fear taken away.” Her segments on the show — usually three or four hour segments per week but occasionally even more —  is volunteer time, which she gladly donates as part of what she considers an obligation to help people due to her expertise not only in medicine but her extensive knowledge of public health.

    If you haven’t heard it, like my friend Bruce says, you have to tune in. It’s one of the best hours on radio.

Radio Waves Podcast #256

Radio: July 10, 2020

    There was some big news down in San Diego last week: The return of KGB to the AM band, with the former KFMB (760 AM) picking up the legendary calls.

    The original KGB (now KLSD, 1360 AM) was among America’s Finest City’s first radio stations, first signing on in 1922.  It was the area’s “Boss Radio” station in the mid 1960s; in 1972 it was “recycled” to become a progressive rock station — and one of the few on the AM band — under the direction of former KHJ “Boss” programmer Ron Jacobs. In the later 1970s the station returned to top-40 as 13-K and for a time beat out KGB-FM (101.5) in the ratings. Formats that followed, including news, talk and the current sports format are uninspiring and low-rated, but like KHJ here, the calls have special meaning to this who grew up on AM radio.

    KFMB was a full-service station from 1964 to 1974, playing middle of the road music along with news and information. In 1975 the station added sports and talk programming, and was fully news/talk/sports by 1994. It was KFMB’s sister FM - popularly known as B-100 — that set the area on fire as San Diego’s first top-40 FM in the mid 1970s.

    So how do legendary music call letters end up on another station’s talk format frequency? The complicated world of radio consolidation and station sales. Last December, then-owner Tegna agreed to sell KFMB AM and FM to Local Media San Diego, but the sale did not include the call letters which are staying with KFMB-TV, which Tegna still owns.

    Local Media turned around and sold KFMB (AM) to iHeart Media, which happens to already own KGB-FM; rather than placing the calls back on 1360 — which it also still owns — management decided to assign them to 760.

    Normally, three-letter calls do not return to stations once lost — the FCC stopped assigning them decades ago. But they are allowed to be easily assigned when a co-owned station still uses them, as is the case with KGB-FM.

    Personally, I’m kind of excited that iHeart actually recognizes the historical significance of the call letters, though I would rather see them tied to 1360. What would be even more exciting is if iHeart allowed the station to return to a music format playing either ‘60s and ‘70s oldies, or an “adult top-40” format that I think could attract listeners back to the AM band. I can already hear the 76-KGB jingle in my head…

    They probably won’t do that, and will most likely stick with a lame, low-rated, cheap, forgettable talk format, but I continue to dream.

    Settling Down

    Ratings seem to be settling down a bit and becoming a bit more normal. KRTH (101.1 FM) was back in the top spot for both the second and third week of June, according to ratings service Nielsen. KFI (640 AM) was still doing well at the number 5 spot in the third week, and KNX (1070 AM) was right behind in 6th.

    KABC (790 AM) has held on to its COVID-19 boost, tied for 32nd but maintaining a share of the audience above 1.1, compared with the pre-COVID-days in which it was closer to 0.3 or so. One of the reasons for the station working itself out of the cellar is John Phillips, heard weekdays noon to 3 p.m…. I will be talking with him soon to get his perspective on news, talk, radio, and more.

    Letterbag

    “I read with interest your column on John & Ken, and it confirmed something I had long suspected:  In approx. 1989 or so I was in New Jersey on business, and while driving I heard on the car radio these two guys discussing some local issue. They were funny and in agreement with some of my own ideas.

    “Then in about 1993, I was listening to KFI (back in Los Angeles) and heard J & K talking about those two guys convicted of murdering their parents, and they reminded me of the New Jersey guys, and I have always suspected that K & J were them. Good to have my suspicions confirmed.

    “Now for some really ancient radio stuff.  While in high school, I used to listen to two disc jockeys who were pretty much the only ones playing modern jazz on local AM radio. One was Bill Sampson, on the obscure station KWKW during late hours (around midnight), and around noon, Joey Adams (who, if I remember correctly had a British accent), on a station whose letters I can't remember. Both, incidentally, were black guys.

    “Finally, there used to be a guy named Phil Hendrie who was one of the funniest guys I ever heard, and He was on KFI back in the early '90s or so, so I'm pretty much a confirmed KFI guy.  Whatever happened to Hendrie anyway?” — Robert Schwartz

    Great questions. Sampson was one of LA’s first black DJs, and was indeed heard on KWKW (then at 1300 AM; now at 1330 AM). He also owned The Scamm Sound record label based in Los Angeles. He’s before my time, though, so I know very little about him … so I am asking you to help fill in the details.

    A little more is known about Joe Adams, also among LA’s first Black DJs, and I believe even earlier than Sampson. Adams was heard on KOWL (later to become KDAY and currently KBLA, 1580 AM) in the 1940s, and had the most popular program on the station … in fact, he was among the most popular music DJs in Los Angeles. At the time, KOWL was a daytime-only station, and had to sign off to protect other signals on the same frequency at disk.

    According to an obituary on Adams in the LA Sentinel, “During an era when deejays were required to solicit their own sponsors, Adams attracted an incredible 56 paid advertisers to pay for airtime on KOWL, marking the beginning of an auspicious radio career that eventually spanned twenty years.”

    In addition to radio, Adams was an actor on television and movies … he was Frank Sinatra’s psychiatrist in The Manchurian Candidate and won a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Husky Miller in Carmen Jones.

    He was one of the Tuskegee Airmen, an elite fighter and bomber pilot group during World War 2, leading to his becoming qualified to fly planes commercially. In addition, he was a professional photographer, worked for a long time as Ray Charles’ road manager, and even headed the Ray Charles Corporation until he retired in 2008.

    Can you say “Renaissance Man?” And I’m not even covering all of his talents and accomplishments… that would take a book. Adams passed away in July, 2018 at the age of 94.

    Finally, Phil Hendrie is still around, but online now. You can find him at philhendrieshow.com, where you can listen online or via iTunes.