Radio Waves Podcast #375

 

All Day, Every Day: American Top 40

I’ve never been a fan of the iHeart Radio app you can download to your smartphone. I always thought it too cumbersome to use compared to alternatives, and I don’t like the way iHeart restricts its own stations to its own app rather than allowing them to be available on other apps as well. If iHeart really believed in the app, why do they not let it compete on an even playing field?

But I broke down and started using it recently. Keep in mind I still don’t actually like it, but there is a reason to use it … American Top 40.

Yes, the very same AT40 you can find on SiriusXM channels 7 — for the 1970s version — Saturdays at 3 a.m. and 9 a.m., Sundays at 6 a.m.; or our own semi-local KOLA (99.9 FM) which airs the ‘80s version Saturdays at 5 a.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m.

But what if you want to totally live in the past and listen to nothing but AT40, the countdown show hosted by former original KRLA (now KRDC, 1110 AM) personality Casey Kasem, launched on July 4th, 1970 on but a handful of stations, and eventually heard on stations around the globe as the most popular countdown show … ever? If that’s you, the iHeart Radio app — or iHeart.com on a computer — has you covered.

A special channel called Classic American Top 40 plays old AT40 countdowns continuously. The ‘70s followed by the ‘80s followed by the ‘70s, etc. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As I write this they are just starting a replay from 1983 after the completion of a week from 1973.  Audio heaven, for those who grew up listening to the classic program … and a major reason to use the iHeart app.

Ryan Seacrest, by the way, hosts the current version of AT40 heard locally on KIIS-FM (102.7), starting at 6 a.m. Saturdays, 8 a.m. Sundays.

Billboard Controversy

Was the top song for at least one week of mid-July, 1978 not really the top song? Was there behind the scenes shenanigans? It wasn’t a problem with AT40 directly, but what AT40 used as the basis for the countdown list: Billboard Magazine. I read about this first on (I believe) the AT40 fan page of Facebook. 

The story goes that Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street should have been the number one song on the Billboard charts in the second half of July, 1978, but that pressure to keep Andy Gibb’s Shadow Dancing at the top spot won out. Here’s what I found at https://djrobblog.com/archives/6222:

“Among the many tales of “Baker Street’s” undying legacy is the one involving a bit of chart shenanigans that may have robbed Rafferty of ascending to that coveted No. 1 spot.

“As reported in several publications since, legend has it that in one of its final weeks at No. 2 in July 1978, Billboard had actually calculated “Baker Street” to be No. 1.  At the time, Billboard’s charts were based on phoned-in radio station lists and record store reports, which staffers or computers would then compile, before the advent of more modern and accurate airplay and sales tracking technology in the early 1990s.

Apparently, Gibb threatened to back out of a show being sponsored by Billboard if his song didn’t remain number one, said show being the pet project of then-chart manager Bill Wardlow. “It was alleged that Wardlow had a change of heart about the No. 1 position after having dined with Andy Gibb’s management on the night the chart was compiled. The story goes that Wardlow casually mentioned over dinner that Gibb’s tune had been displaced by Rafferty’s – much to RSO Records’ displeasure.”

So Billboard issued a “correction,” apparently forcing American Top-40 to re-record the ending of the how, without the new number one song. Baker Street remained stalled at the number two slot on Billboard, though other sources did indeed put it at the top, such as including Cash Box which had it there on July 15, 1978.

It is said that Baker Street is one of the all-time most beloved number two hits; the incident proves the power that top-40 radio once held over American culture. And as former newsman Paul Harvey used to say, now you know … the restof the story.

No Static Here

This is an old story, but but comes from former KHJ (930 AM) Production Director (among other stations) Douglas Brown. When FM by Steely Dan was released in 1978, may top-40 stations were still on the AM band, including in Los Angeles area, KHJ, Ten Q (KTNQ, 1020 AM), KFI (640 AM), and KEZY (1190 AM). 

Many of the stations across the country didn’t want to play a song that hyped the FM band, so a few figured out that the “A’ in Steely Dan’s Aja matched the note well, and simply changed the song so that it played as “A-M, no static at all.” Which, of course, is somewhat absurd.

The more powerful and influential stations, such as KHJ, convinced the musical band’s record company at the time to produce a special version of the song, one in which the the radio band is not mentioned at all. The resulting song simply refrains “no static at all.”

A testament to the power that AM radio once held over American culture.

Letters for April 28 Radio

            Some email reaction from recent column topics …

            “WABC has come back from the radio graveyard twice:  first when Rick Sklar created the legendary MusicRadio77 and now. In ratings released today the station is #9 with a 3.7, the first AM rated in NYC.  They gotta be doing something right!” — Steve Moravec

            “To paraphrase a movie line: If you play it (great local content) they will listen.

            “Local : News. Weather. SPORTS (high school and college). Talk with and by local leaders and personalities. City and  county government. One station doing this and while still learning is doing it well is KYCA-AM in Prescott, AZ.

            “AM will not die in spite of Detroit.” — Dusty Baker

            “I agree w/ every word u wrote. Hate Google, and all this ‘new’ approach to radio … for auto manufacturers to go along with this travesty is unconscionable. Keep up the good work and clear writing on this subject. — Beverly Riggs, La Habra (who describes herself as “a devoted sincere Radio junkie for 40+ years” and says that “radio has always been my ‘preferred passenger’ since I first learned how to drive”

            “I wanted you to know how much I enjoy your articles about radio in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune … always informative, interesting and your passion for radio come thru loud & clear.

            “Yes, my wife & I are with you…keep AM radio in our autos!

            “I grew up in the ‘40s and ‘50s with radio; we listened to music and live shows in the evening on a Farnsworth that become mine at about 8 years old when we finally got a TV and Pop setup he own ‘stereo’ system in the living room. But I still used my home made crystal set with a surplus store military ear-phone.

            I remember driving Van Nuys Blvd between Bob’s Big-Boy and  A&W Root beer with my radio blazing away was a real treat. Work/home/yard/shop, the radio was always on – and still is much of the time, albeit much lower and slower music these days. In the car, my wife is addicted to AM talk-show radio.

            “Again, thank you for sharing your passion about a media that was most impactful during most of the 20th century — Drexel Smith

 

Radio Waves Podcast #374

 Radio: April 21, 2023

                InsideMusicMedia.Com’s Jerry Del Colliano posted a column on March 31 that — like many of his columns — could have been written by me. Great minds think alike, you know. Entitled The AM Station That Defies Failure, it tells the story of WABC/New York and the success it has had since being bought by a local owner from Cumulus.

                WABC is much like numerous AM stations across the country. Powerhouse top-40 format leaders in the 1960s and ‘70s, they lost their way when large corporate owners couldn’t figure out what to do with them. They dropped music, sometimes found temporary success with political talk, and then floundered once programmers focused more on their FMs.

                Weird how a neglected station would lose listeners.

                Anyway, for all intents and purposes, WABC was a failure in 2019 when Cumulus Media, owner of KABC (790 AM) here in Los Angeles, sold the station to a 74-year-old New York businessman named John Catsimatidis, Jr. — a guy with no radio experience other than being a radio fan.

                Catsimatidis then did what some think is impossible: brought a dead radio station back to life. How? He made it local. He served his local audience. He wasn’t afraid to embrace older listeners, and he started super-serving those willing to tune in.

                And tune in they did. The station has been above a 3.0 share for at least the last six months, and has had a 3.9 share the last two months. It is the top-rated AM station in New York. Under previous ownership, it had fallen to the mid to upper 1s. Could other stations learn from the recent success?

                Yes … more than that: the entire industry could learn from its success. The formula is so simple, it’s almost as if stations of the past could help with the lesson. In fact, that’s pretty much all Catsimatidis did … look at what made previous stations “tick,” and applied it to his new toy.

                WABC found an audience that was being underserved, then designed a format that would appeal to that audience, in this case an eclectic mix of talk, news, and music. Yes, music … on AM. Weird.

                Cousin Brucie, a legendary WABC disc jockey, plays oldies on weekends. The station runs its old iconic jingles. News coverage focusses on the local area. The talk hosts are mostly local, including former mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Rush Limbaugh producer Bo Snerdley, and a founding member of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa.

                Catsimatidis even has his own show, hosted by himself and local broadcaster Rita Cosby.

                While it is impressive that Catsimatidis took a failing station and made it successful, he is not alone. I’ve written about the success of stations such as WION/Ionia, Michigan and WRDN/Durand, Wisconsin. What all three and others like them have in common is local owners who care enough to program to their local audience and not rely on cheap syndicated programming.

                This approach benefits not only the stations and listeners, but local businesses that can advertise to reach an audience otherwise hard to find. That Catsimatidis does it in New York City, arguably one of the toughest markets in the United States, makes it even more impressive …. and in my opinion, frankly, embarrassing to owners like Audacy that has gone so far as to just shut down some of its AM stations.

                This lesson isn’t just for AM, though. FM stations definitely can use more local content , and in the cases in which the local audience is super-served, the results are impressive. Local content is the one thing that Spotify, Apple Music, or any other streaming service simply can’t match.

                Fight for the Dashboard

                On the heal of the news that engineers at Ford are as lazy or incompetent as those at BMW, Mazda, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo due to the decision to remove AM radio from their future automobile offerings — because unlike every other company they are unable to deal with interference — comes news that GM has decided to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support from future EVs.

                While I hate that AM is being dropped, and I believe it to be a bad decision, at least you can — usually, at least — use apps to replace the tuner and in some ways have better reception and better sound.

                But dropping CarPlay? That’s a non-starter for me. My family, starting with my grandfather, my father and now me, has owned GM almost exclusively since 1926. If CarPlay is not offered, I will not buy one.

                I want the choice to use the mapping software I want to use. I want the ability to use the apps I want to use, for example StreamsHiFi Audio and MyTuner Radio for online radio streams.  I can connect my phone to any of my current car stereos and have all of my apps and preferences ready to go; without CarPlay I’d have to set all my preferences individually in every car.

                And I certainly don’t want my life controlled by Google, which GM plans to use as the basis for its dashboard infotainment system. I am not a Google fan by any means, and I certainly don’t want their intrusive anti-privacy ad-based system in my car.

                In my opinion, GM is making a tremendously bad decision in dropping CarPlay and Android Auto. In doing so, though, you can now understand what is in store for the future … the ability to charge for being part of and using the dash. It is anti-competitive and anti-consumer.

                I hope that the move is met with consumer resistance similar to my own - as I said, I will never buy a car without CarPlay ability. Even if I have to keep my current truck forever.

                ///

Radio Waves: April 14, 2023

KIQQ entertainment reporter Francesca Capucci passes

I was a huge fan of KIQQ (now KKLQ, 100.3 FM) during the station’s new-wave top-40 days of the early 1980s. It wasn’t necessarily the most polished station; indeed, the station could at times sound very low-budget. But it had a playlist that overlapped the best of KROQ (106.7 FM) and was often the first station in town to break new music and new bands with an emphasis on British acts along with homegrown artists.

Often KIQQ was so far ahead of its competition, primarily KIIS-FM (102.7), that it seemed like a song was at the top of the charts forever. The reality was that KIQQ would break the song and then it would later hit the charts and other stations. KIQQ was where I first heard Eddie Grant, The Style Council, Rick Springfield and more. I don’t think I ever heard the wonderful “She Means Nothing to Me” by Phil Everly and Cliff Richard on any other station, with the one exception of UCLA’s student station KLA … because I played it there.

Personalities included Bruce Chandler, Tony Saint James, GW McCoy, and a few others who stayed with the station until it gave up on the format and went light rock in mid-1985. One personality left early and went right to television, to become KABC-TV Channel 7’s entertainment reporter. That was Francesca Capucci, who started at KIQQ in the public affairs department, later moving up to report entertainment and celebrity gossip news, as well as features on and interviews with many of the bands and artists played on the station.

For a time, in addition to her other duties, she worked with Jay Coffee in morning drive, but her best-known work was her features. If you were a faithful listeners as I was, you may remember her extended sign-off: “I’m Francesca Capucci on K ……….I ………..Q ………………………………….Q.”

I never knew why they had — or allowed — her to do that; it was actually kind of cheesy. I was told later that it was designed to make her sound a bit sexy. True or not, she was definitely distinctive, and her features added a lot to the station’s on-air presence.

After leaving KIQQ in 1984, she moved over to Channel 7, reporting on entertainment news for ten years. Other television work included acting on such shows as Columbo, 7th Heaven, The Practice, and Charmed, usually playing, of course, a reporter.

Last week, I got the bad news from KPFK (90.7 FM)  Car Show host (and column reader) David Kunz that Capucci had passed away; she died at the age of 64 due to cancer.

If her name sounds familiar, it may also be because it was used in the recent movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. There is no connection between her and the character in the movie; I am told that Quentin Tarantino just liked the name. 

Her friend Kim Fitzgerald Kelly wrote on Capucci’s Facebook page on March 30,  “It is with profound sadness that I share the passing of Francesca Cappucci. As those of you on this page know, Francesca was a force of nature, a source of true joy, a devoted mother to sons Ian and Will, and a great lover of music.

“Francesca’s name was itself a melody and it played throughout Los Angeles radio and TV stations for decades beginning in the early 80s. A celebration of life, love, and music is currently being planned and details will be announced. Until then, every time you hear a song by Foo Fighters or Crowded House, let it remind you of this beautiful icon.”

You can read tributes on that same page: facebook.com/francesca.cappucci

Commercial Breaks

For years, I have felt that it was a huge mistake for stations to run large blocks of commercial-free music. I am referring to the hour or two — sometimes longer — periods of nothing but music. The problem, of course, is that it shifts the commercials that have to be run to other hours and makes the commercial breaks longer during those hours, as well as making each advertisement of less value to the advertiser.

Seems like a lose-lose to me — the station earns less per advertisement because they are worth less as a longer block than they would otherwise be, the advertiser loses potential exposure due to listener tune-out, and listeners have to endure up to ten minutes of commercials when the breaks do come.

But I recently found out why they do this, from an expert on the industry. It seems the stations sell the advertisements based upon the entire shift a DJ is on. For example, perhaps 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If the station can get a ton of listeners by playing no commercials the first two hours, it doesn’t care what happens during the rest of the show. The station can still sell the ad based upon the average rating over the entire four hours.

No wonder radio is suffering…

Nothing is Sacred

Ford announced it is removing AM radio reception not only from future EVs, it is also removing it from future gas-powered vehicles. On the heals of that news came General Motors announcement that it is removing Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on its future EVs.

The reason? GM wants subscription income from the dashboard.

I don’t know about you, but I love CarPlay. I won’t buy a car without it. Seems like a bad idea to me … what are your thoughts? More on this topic next week.

///

 

Damion Passes

                He may be retired, but it was Don Barrett of LARadio.Com who broke the news: Damion — last name: Bragdon, though he rarely used his last name on the air — formerly heard on KLOS (95.5 FM), KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM) and KLSX (now KNX-FM, 97.1) has passed away from complications related to cancer.

                Immediately prior to landing in Los Angeles to be part of the KLOS air staff in 1971, Damion was at WDAI/Chicago as the station evolved from its “free-form” progressive rock format to the more traditional album-oriented “Rock ’n Stereo” … in essence repeating exactly what he did in Chicago here in Los Angeles.

                Those changes were not coincidence … the two stations were both owned by ABC, and in 1971 ABC decided to have all of its owned and operated FM stations nationwide take on the same format, as well as take on new call letters to distinguish the FMs from the co-owned AMs.

                In the case of KLOS, Damion joined Jeff Gonzer, J.J. Jackson, Jim Ladd, and programmer Tom Yates to launch the new format here. By the late 1970s, he would work up to the position of station programmer himself, a position he would give up when he left to work at then-competitor KMET.

                In 1986, he found himself at brand-new classic rocker KLSX, where he stayed through 1994. After that he moved on to satellite-delivered formats with Unistar and Westwood One/Dial Global, between times doing a stint in Hawaii including programming an AM/FM combo. He finally retired in 2008 but kept busy producing a one-hour program called Rock and Roll Cowboy — modern country music mixed with classic rock — that aired on a few stations across the country.

                In an interview with Barrett back in 1994, Damion spoke of some of the highlights of his career, which included partnering with Ladd to produce early “InnerView” programs; interviewing Led Zeppelin, being part of the California Jam in 1973, and more.

                “The end was terrible,” his wife Joy Hall told Barrett in an email. He was put on life support against his directive, and as they took him off some of his medications, he suffered multiple strokes. He passed away March 26th at the age of 79.

                Friends and colleagues always spoke highly of Damion, describing him using such words as kind, sweet, friendly, and considerate. “He was truly one o’ the good guys — a sweet man with virtually no ego,” wrote Michael Benner in an email to Barrett, as but one example.

                All of that was something you heard over the airwaves as he did his shows, no matter what station he was on. His delivery was always - always - smooth: the perfect album-rock DJ, and someone who like many of his contemporaries loved the music he played.

                You can hear airchecks for yourself searching YouTube.com for Damion KLOS and KMET.

                February Ratings

                The February Nielsens showed a narrowing of the gap between 1st place KOST (103.5 FM) and 2nd place KRTH (101.1 FM), with only 0.1 separating the two: 5.5 to 5.4. The rest of the top-10 included KTWV (4.6), KBIG (4.5), KFI (4.1), KLVE (4.1), KIIS-FM (3.9), KRRL (3.9), KBUE (3.2) and KCBS-FM (3.1)

                That Real 92.3 tied with KIIS-FM would in the past be a wake-up call to KIIS-FM … but now that both stations are owned by the same company, in this case the beleaguered iHeart Media, it won’t be. Just shy of the top-10 tied with KRCD at 11th was KNX … still no better than it was as a standalone AM station. Now using both the 1070 AM and 97.1 FM frequencies, it earned a 2.9.

                Cutting the B.S.

                Bo Snerdley was conservative talker Rush Limbaugh’s longtime producer; he helped line up guests, screened calls, and most importantly helped put together the day’s news for Limbaugh to expound upon.

                Since Limbaugh’s death, Snerdley stayed busy producing shows for the replacement hosts, produced the Limbaugh Letter, started a podcast, and launched his own program on WABC/New York entitled Bo Snerdley’s Rush Hour.

                He also produces a twice-daily conservative-leaning news headline email called Bo Snerdley’s Daily BS - Bo Cuts Through It. If you’re interested, subscribe at http://eepurl.com/hKLLg9

                Snerdley’s on-air name was inspired by Bo Jackson; his given name is James Golden. He spent 30 years working with Limbaugh, right until the very end.

                ///