Radio: August 9, 2020
Entercom is making a Mess of mornings … with a new morning show on Amp Radio (KAMP, 97.1 FM).
It started August 3rd and runs weekday mornings from 5 - 10 a.m., with Joey Boy, Aneesh Ratan, Jeana Shepard, and Karla Hernandez presenting The Morning Mess.
In a press release, Entercom Regional President Jeff Federman said that “Joey Boy and The Morning Mess are a true reflection of Southern California. They are diverse, dynamic, socially responsible and completely transparent.”
They also are not in Southern California. Keeping with Entercom’s corporate mandate to do everything on the cheap, the Morning Mash is actually nothing more than a morning show out of sister station KALV-FM/Phoenix, with a bit of local content added in order for them to be able to pretend it’s a local show.
It’s not.
As reported extensively over the past few months by InsideMusicMedia.Com's Jerry Del Colliano, Entercom is in the process of reducing its talent payroll by position cuts, salary cuts, and plan to syndicate talent around the country rather than having local programs. “The plan would give the company a chance to syndicate what they consider their top rated (and paid) talent so they can fire largely morning hosts in other markets,” he wrote on July 22nd.
It appears Del Colliano is right on the money.
For a major, full-power station in Los Angeles to use a syndicated morning program is an embarrassment, and an indictment of the leadership of Entercom itself, including CEO David Field. There is absolutely no excuse for the cuts he is making, other than the fact that he is running the company — and all of its stations — into the ground.
There is, at least, a tie to Los Angeles for the team: Ringleader Joey Boy — aka Nachoo — was raised in los Angeles, while Ratan and Shepard were raised in the Valley. Hernandez is a native of Napa. And honestly, I have nothing against the show itself nor any of the hosts … they are seemingly great people. I will also do a full review of the show in a few weeks, once I give them a fair shake. My only complaint has to do with the idea itself - radio is local, and should have local shows. Phoenix is not local. Sorry.
Feeding LA
While Entercom is destroying the radio industry, it is trying to be a good neighbor. The company has teamed up with the Los Angeles Unified School District to raise money and help feed needy children and families.
All Entercom Los Angeles radio stations — Amp, Jack-FM (93.1), The Wave (94.7 FM), KRTH (101.1 FM), KNX (1070 AM) and KROQ (106.7 FM) — are participating. From August 3rd to the 28th, stations will encourage listeners to donate by texting “NEED” to 76278. The money generated will bring meals to those in need throughout the region through the school district’s Grab and Go program.
More than 50 million meals have been provided via 62 Grab and Go Food Centers since the program began in March, according to LAUSD’s Superintendent Austin Beutner. About one-third are adults hard hit by the COVID shutdowns.
Donations can also be made by visiting need.givesmart.com, and you can get more information on the program by heading to radio.com/feedourfamilies.
Help Request
The special interview that KNXFM93.Com ran a short time ago with Carly Simon brought in some nice emails, many oof which mentioned interviews they remember from years past as heard win the original KNX-FM (now Jack-FM). The problem, explains net station volunteer and production director Douglas Brown, is that no one has the tapes. The Simon interview just happened to be in Christopher Ames’ garage. Others are MIA.
So I thought I’d ask you … if you have, or if you know people who have, original interviews with any of the artists, signers and songwriters as originally run on KNX-FM, let me know and I’ll connect you with the right people. In fact, if you have any from any station, including KHJ’s (930 AM) Special of the Month, let me know that as well.
Elvis Tribute
Elvis: A Three Hour Special tribute show is set to air via the net on August 16 — the day Elvis died at the age of 42 — at noon, and again at 6pm.
The show was produced at Drake-Chenault beginning on the day Elvis died in 1977, and was shipped to clients just two days later … airing that weekend. “Our competitors were shocked and astounded at how quickly we were able to get such a high caliber program on the air in such a short time, said Hank Landsberg who worked at the company back in the 1970s. He explains how it all came together. Much of it was luck in timing!
“The second week of August, 1977, we had just begun production of a new edition of The History Of Rock And Roll,” which originally aired on KHJ in 1969. “The show would be a 52 hour 'blockbuster' that documented the birth and development of rock and roll music. Hours three and four were already planned to chronicle the life and music of Elvis Presley.”
Basically, the team decided to pull the material already planned for HRR, and use it for a tribute to Elvis’ life and career. Explains Landsberg: “The ‘Elvis hours’ scripts were already written, music was researched and pulled, instrumental tracks for voiceover backing were ready, interviews and other actualities had been edited and were ready for final production by studio engineer Mark Ford.
“We had everything ready to go when Elvis died on Tuesday, August 16! HRR writer Gary Thoreau made some last-minute script revisions; Bill Drake came in Tuesday afternoon and began recording the voice tracks for the show. We all pulled an 'all-nighter'...staying thru the night while Mark did the studio production. I believe he finished about 10 a.m. the following day.
“The master tapes went into duplication, and we had station copies ready to ship Wednesday afternoon. They went via UPS-2 Day, and arrived at the stations on Friday, for air that weekend.”
Elvis: A Three Hour Special will be presented without commercial interruption, and will run about 2 1/2 hours. Listen at: https://la2.indexcom.com/player/6
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