Radio Waves Podcast #27

I had some wonderful emails arrive almost immediately after last week’s column regarding what I miss about radio was published. So many, in fact, that I cannot possibly print them all. But I’ll shut up right now and get to as many as I can.

 

Elle from Venice: “OH YEAH, I remember some entertaining DJs! In the early 70s, I remember driving to work in downtown LA, sitting on the Santa Monica Freeway Parking Lot, and listening to the completely politically-incorrect Hudson & Landry. They would also play cuts off their comedy album.   Listening to "Bruiser Larue," I laughed until I almost missed my off-ramp and then had to repair my runny mascara before work. And it's still a feeling of comfort and bringing back good days when I hear Charlie Tuna's voice! Classy, always!”

 

From Cindy: “There is one thing that I really miss that you didn't mention. I remember years ago when radio commercials were fun and made to entertain listeners like mini radio shows, or just silly little visual vignettes. My favorite was by a couple of L.A. tire guys named Ted and Ed...or was it Ed and Ted; The gimmick was that they were going around the world to sell tires. My favorite, the Matterhorn, where they were less than impressed by the size of it but one of them noticed a giant mouse walking by...”

 

Russ from Glendale: “What I miss most about today's radio are the great public service shows I would listen to that were usually aired on weekends. The shows I particularly remember listening to were Powerline, SCAN, Open Door, Master Control, and my all time favorite, Ask the Professor. Are any still aired? I wouldn't even mind listening to older shows if I could find them, so far I haven't had much luck. Maybe you or your readers might know where these show are now.”

 

(I loved Professor and Powerline too. I have often wondered if they are still being produced).

 

Ardi Newton: I enjoyed your article today so much. It really did bring back old memories. I graduated from high school in 1962. Our radio stations were KFWB and KRLA. I still remember the jingle:" KFWB, radio 98, color radio, channel 98."  Some of the names I remember are Wink Martindale, Dick Whittington, and over at KMPC, Dick Whittinghill (or vice versa).  Remember Wolfman Jack and Doctor Demento?  We always had 'the news at the top of the hour'. Those were the days.” 

 

Keeping in mind that I was simply stating what I miss in radio, not condemning radio today, I was surprised by the responses. These letters illustrate the difference between then and now: Radio was a companion then. DJs were larger than life. Stations were so big that they influenced teen culture more than parents and teachers. As Larry Lear of West Covina wrote, “when you were almost anywhere other than in the classroom at school, you had the radio playing.”

Today? Not so much. Most kids use other forms of entertainment; if they want new music they go elsewhere. Many don’t even turn on a radio, which in many ways makes me sad. But honestly, with so many stations using canned DJs, cluttered on-air presentations and no compelling content, is it any wonder that iPods and Pandora are the choice of a new generation? Without good DJs and other important elements, you might as well be Pandora. You certainly are not doing “radio.”

 

Get This App ...

 

... demanded reader Dennis Collier. It’s a talk radio app for iPhones called “Talk Shows on Internet Radio” that brings the world of syndicated talk radio right to your phone. I have not tried it (my personal ban on most talk radio shows is still in effect) but reviews seem decent. For $3.99 maybe it’s worth a gamble.

Radio Waves Podcast #26

I got to thinking the other day how radio has changed over the years. Not that the subject is ever very far from my mind. I grew up in what might be called the glory days of at least two formats, old enough to remember both top-40 radio at its best as well as what was once called “progressive” and later “album-oriented” rock radio at the height of that format’s popularity.

 

So I know that every time I write a column regarding what I like about radio, or perhaps more accurately what I miss about radio, I am dating myself.

 

Not as much as I could, perhaps, as top-40 actually had a renaissance in the early 1980s when stations like Chuck Martin’s K-WEST 106 (now KPWR, 105.9 FM) or Gerry DeFrancesco’s KIIS-FM (102.7) adopted the format. Both stations were great examples of top-40 radio; while K-WEST didn’t make it, KIIS-FM shook up the industry with its amazing success, including ratings of over a 10 share ... compared with what was then and is now again considered successful: anything over a 3 percent share of the audience. But then, even the 1980s are over 24 years ago.

 

Aside from my memory and my rose-colored glasses, there are elements of radio that truly have been lost. Things that I miss, that I believe were some of the reasons that radio was once so important to generations of kids ... and is now so very not. Do kids listen to radio? Certainly yes. Do they love radio and identify with any station? Hardly. 

 

So here are things I wish radio would do better or do more often. As always, you are free to disagree as well as add suggestions. As someone who still wishes music would be played on AM radio, I have a somewhat warped reality

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First: I wish more stations would play music on AM radio. Stations I loved growing up included some top-40 greats: KHJ, KRLA, KEZY. And there was even AOR, such as when Dave Forman took KEZY into an AOR/alternative format. Music can sound good on AM with a clean signal and a good radio.

 

I miss call letters. The great stations of the past all had them: the already mentioned  KHJ, KRLA and KEZY. And there are obviously more: KMET, KLOS. Yes, many stations still use calls, but the trend here and nationwide is to use “clever” names: Hot 92.3. Power 106. My-FM. Whatever 98.7 calls itself now. Names are OK, but they lack something in my mind. Even UCLA’s student campus station KLA lost all of its history and respect when it decided to call itself “Bruin Radio.” Yuck.

 

I miss entertaining DJs, or more accurately DJs who were allowed to entertain. The jocks on KHJ and KMET were all important friends to us growing up. Does anyone even know the name of the afternoon drive DJ on a typical station today? Why can’t the Sound’s talented on-air staff talk about the records they play instead of a mystery voice?

I miss weather reports. Surf reports. Talk about local things important to me, the listener. I may be alone here, but I miss news on stations other than news and talk stations. News that was important to teens and young adults is one of the reasons that KMET connected so well to its audience when Sam Bellamy programmed the station. And one reason why KMET is so fondly remembered 28 years after it left the air.

 

DJs who were allowed to talk about things without a music bed under them. It used to be called “clutter” when you had unimportant elements in the way of programming, now it is the way its done. Are we listeners that impaired that we need music playing while the DJ tells us the details of the upcoming hour of programming?

 

What about real competition? When KMET would pass out bumper stickers at a concert sponsored by KLOS. When KHJ would fly a banner over an event sponsored by KRLA. When stations would try to scoop each other in getting the latest record from the hot artists? Those competitive rivalries made radio fun for the listeners, and for the station DJs and staff as well.

 

Fun, easy to win contests. My friend Jeff Holyfield and I still talk of the time he won WAM -- Walking Around Money -- from Ten-Q in the 1970s calling in from a rotary-dial phone. Everything now is so convoluted it loses its fun-factor. Makes you wonder if today’s programmers ever even heard what I would consider good radio. Jeff was lucky, of course ... my parents wouldn’t let me dial long distance anyway ...

 

I have more, and I am sure you do too. Let’s compare notes ... send an email to me and I’ll put your thoughts in a future column.

Radio Waves Podcast #25

If you are wondering where “Shotgun” Tom Kelly has gone, you’ll have to visit the hospital. The popular KRTH (101.1 FM) afternoon jock had recently gone in for a routine physical, when his doctors found some blockage in his arteries. On March 8th he underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery and is resting comfortably as he recovers from the procedure. He is expected to be back on the air within another week or so, and is apparently very anxious to do so.

 

A great radio talent, Kelly received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last year. In a future column, I plan to show you a side of Kelly that few outside of his close friends know ... stay tuned.

 

Passings

 

The last few weeks are turing out to be a tough time for fans of some Los Angeles radio legends.

 

Geoff Edwards, once heard on KHJ (930 AM), KFI (640 AM) and the original KMPC (now KSPN, 710 AM) passed away March 5th at the age of 83, due to complications from pneumonia.

 

Known also for his talents as host of various television game shows including “Jackpot” in the early 1970s, Edwards began his broadcast career on the radio airwaves of WOKO/Albany, New York. He later made his way to KFMB/San Diego (760 AM).

 

On November 22, 1963, the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Edwards was preparing to move up to Los Angeles’ KHJ where he would become program director; instead of making that trip he took a detour to Dallas where he reported on the assassination for KHJ and the Mutual Broadcasting Network of which KHJ was an affiliate. By luck or chance, it was Edwards who reached the single payphone in the Dallas police department garage where Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the suspect in Kennedy’s killing. KHJ and Mutual were the first to get the news.

 

When KHJ became top-40 in 1965, Edwards moved to KFI, then KMPC where he remained until 1979. He returned to KFI in 1987, leaving in protest over afternoon drive host Tom Leykis’ decision to destroy Cat Stevens records when Stevens, by then known as Yusef Islam, called for the death of author Salman Rushdie for blasphemy. Edwards was replaced by Rush Limbaugh.

 

Jim Lange, best known for introducing potential couples to each other on television’s “The Dating Game,” passed away February 25th from a heart attack. He was 81.

 

Like Edwards, Lange was an alumnus of KMPC ... twice: 1971-1971 and 1984-1989. He also found himself in the Bay Area at KSFO and KGO, both of San Francisco, and KKSJ/San Jose. Always a gentleman -- one of his nicknames is Gentleman Jim -- he was superb as host of “The Dating Game,” a somewhat cheesy but immensely fun show created by the king of cheesy game shows, Chuck Barris.

 

I can still hear him say, “...and h-e-r-e they are” as he introduced the three potential suitors to the studio audience as a young man or woman prepared to ask such probing questions as “if you were a superhero, who would you be and why?”  

 

Johnnie (John) Darin, veteran of such popular stations as the original KRLA (now KDIS, 1110 AM), the original KDAY (now KBLA, 1580 AM), KROQ-AM (1500 AM, now long gone) KFWB (980 AM), and many, many more, found out just recently that he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Don Barrett wrote about him in the March 7th edition of LARadio.Com. Darin passed away March 9th at the age of 74.

 

According to Barrett, Darin had celebrated his birthday and New Years Eve January 31st and began experiencing severe pain. An MRI was done and the cancer was found. Friends said that even though he was on morphine he was still taking calls and having coherent conversations for short periods of time right until his death.

Radio Waves Podcast #24

Those of us over a certain age ... we all know who we are ... who grew up in Southern California cannot help but remember the amazing advertisements from Larry “Supermouth” Huffman.

 

He spent some time on Orange County radio when anyone actually cared about Orange County radio: KWIZ/Anaheim (now KNVR 1480 AM) from 1966 to 1969; and KEZY/Anaheim (now KGBN, 1190 AM) from 1969-1970.

 

He was the spokesman for the former shoe store chain, The Wild Pair which for some reason I remember well even though I don’t recall any of the stores being near me. He starred in and co-wrote the movie “On Any Sunday,” directed by surf film maker Bruce Brown and said by some to have done for motorcycle racing what Brown’s “Endless Summer” did for surfing.

 

He did some television spots for Southern California Jeep and Eagle dealers. He did some national radio advertisements for the Dodge division of Chrysler. But what most fans remember, out of all the advertising he ever did, was three words:

 

“Sunday, Sunday! SUNDAY!”

 

Those words were legendary for the radio advertisements of motorcycle, stock and funny car races in and around Southern California that Huffman voiced for what seemed like my entire childhood. Huffman’s style was so unique that Lexus even used him in a very memorable radio advertisement trying to change the perception of Toyota’s luxury-car division -- and the calm, cool and collected spokesman -- from luxurious but boring into luxurious and fun.

 

Friday (or perhaps I should say Friday, Friday! FRIDAY!) March 7, Huffman will be honored for his work in advertising by receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Inland Empire chapter of the American Advertising Federation, which will present the award at their “Mega Monster Advertising Awards” banquet at the Mission Inn in Riverside. It begins at 6 PM but is sold out ... fitting, I suppose, for someone of such calibre as Huffman.

 

Down on the Corner

 

KNX takes to the streets again and heads on down to San Juan Capistrano for its next edition of KNX On Your Corner scheduled for March 14... the same day as my 22nd wedding anniversary.

 

The station will broadcast live from the Mission Grill, 31721 Camino Capistrano (across the street from Mission San Juan Capistrano) for much of the broadcast day: 5 - 9 a.m. with news anchors Dick Helton and Vicky Moore, the Business Hour with Frank Mottek from 1-2 p.m., and the afternoon news with Diane Thompson and Chris Sedens from 2-7 p.m. You’re invited, and refreshments will be served.

 

The team will talk with local business and political leaders from Orange County’s southernmost communities, including Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Aliso Viejo, Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Juan Capistrano, Laguna Hills and Dana Point.

Radio Waves Podcast #23

Two new talk shows may help make for an interesting battle between format leader KFI (640 AM) and rejuvenated original talker KABC (790 AM).

 

KABC’s “Mid Day L.A.” began on the President’s Day holiday last Monday and pairs together Jillian Barberie and John Phillips. The two had done a impromptu trial run a while ago last year as fill-ins for morning man Doug McIntyre, This time they take over the 12 noon to 3 p.m. slot left open when Sean Hannity’s program moved from KABC over to KEIB (1150 AM) in January. Phillips had been handling the shift himself while KABC management decided what to to.

 

Barberie will be familiar to television viewers as the longtime -- 18 years -- co-host of KTTV Channel 11’s “Good Day LA,” as well as working with the Fox NFL Pre-game Show for about a decade. Phillips was the youngest major-market talk host when he joined KABC, and has spent most of his time working various shifts in the morning as the station tried to figure out what to do with him ... and the station.

 

This takes KABC, as they say, live and local throughout most of the day, sans traffic reports that originate in Dallas, Texas in case you wondered why the traffic reporters cannot pronounce local street names. And it also gives the station a viable format for the first time in years, at least from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Doug McIntyre and Terri-Rae Elmer in the morning, Bryan Suits at 9, Mid Day L.A. at noon, and Larry Elder at 3 p.m. It isn’t until Mark Levin at 6 p.m. that KABC loses it, and by that time most people are eating dinner and switching to television or KFI’s Tim Conway, Jr.

 

For their part, KFI added a show I didn’t think it would add. After moving Limbaugh to KEIB, the station expanded and shifted some programs slightly, leaving an opening in the afternoon from 1-3. As owner Clear Channel has been pressuring local management to cut costs, most observers, myself included, figured they’d just expand Bill Carroll and John and Ken by an hour each to cover it.

 

Instead, they paired up Mark Thompson and Elizabeth Espinosa for what the station is calling “Thompson and Espinosa.” The pair started on February 10th.

 

When I first heard of the program my thought was of Thompson from Mark and Brian fame. Wrong Thompson ... this is the television version, former nightly weather anchor and environmental reporter from KTTV Channel 11’s evening Fox 11 News.

 

Espinosa is the host of “Sin Limites” on cable television’s CNN Latino, and has also done reporting with KTTV on the Fox 11 Morning News and Good Day L.A. I am sensing somewhat of a trend here ... I guess KTTV is now the training ground for talk radio ...

 

This move finalizes KFI’s change to all local programming outside of the overnight Coast to Coast AM that airs from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. And it adds to a strong lineup that includes Bill Handel, Carroll, John and Ken, and Conway. So any thoughts of KABC overtaking KFI any time soon are perhaps a pipe dream.

 

But for the first time in years, there is actual competition between the two talkers, and one might notice that both stations are moving sway from the political talk that was their image for a long time. Suddenly, talk radio became interesting again ... I may have to break my self-imposed ban of the format and give the stations a longer listen. 

 

Hutchinson Report

 

KTYM’s (1460 AM) Hutchinson Report often tackles issues that other shows ignore. February 14th, host Earl Ofari Hutchinson conducted an interview with Dr. Robert K. Ross, chairman of the California Endowment, in which the topic of an education achievement gap was discussed.

 

“Dr. Ross brought out some issues that not even I was aware of,” Hutchinson said in a press release. “The poor school performance of many African-American and Hispanic males is tied into the health care crisis that currently exists in our communities. As these students get passed along there begins a process of doubt that gets imbedded in their mind. This leads to poor eating habits along with a hostile environment that too often leads to incarceration, even death."

 

Hear the Report Mondays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon on KTYM.

Radio Waves Podcast #22

Chuck Cecil and K-Jazz (KKJZ, 88.1 FM) have parted ways. His Swingin’ Years program that highlights Big Bands, began on KFI (640 AM) in 1956 and has been on the air in Los Angeles ever since, though the stations carrying the program have changed through the years.

 

According to a story printed in the Los Angeles Times, Cecil says he decided to leave the station because of technical problems producing the show, along with his feeling that it is time to start winding down the program that he’s produced himself for more than 50 years. “It really hurts me to stop, but I feel I can’t continue and do justice to the musicians who made the music,” he told the Times.

Only one problem: the show isn’t actually going away, as he will still produce it for WPPB/Long Island, and it will still be available via WPPB’s internet stream Sundays at 5 PM locally, at http://peconicpublicbroadcasting.org. So I’m not quite sure what to make of the departure from KKJZ.

Regardless, K-Jazz has already found a replacement in the name of legendary broadcaster Johnny Magnus. Magnus will preside over the K-Jazz airwaves Saturday and Sunday mornings -- beginning February 15 -- from 6-10 playing the same style of big band music from the swing era that Cecil played for so many years.

Of course the big question remains: will Magnus bring back Weather with a Beat? We’ll have to tune in to find out.

Inland Empire Limbaugh

At the risk of receiving the rash of emails chastising me for saying anything about Rush Limbaugh, Salem Communications announced last week that the syndicated talk host has a new home in the Inland Empire on its KTIE (590 AM), aka The Answer ... though many in the area fondly remember when 590 was the local top-40 giant KFXM.

The move came about due to Clear Channel’s decision to move Limbaugh from KFI -- which reaches from Mexico to Fresno during the day and covers half the United States at night -- to KEIB (1150 AM) -- which reaches somewhere across the street from its transmitter site. That left Limbaugh fans in the Inland Empire unable to hear their favorite show until now; KTIE carries the program weekdays from 9 a.m. to 12 noon.

Changes in HD

A few weeks ago I happened to catch a very interesting format on The Sound’s (100.3 FM) HD-3 digital sub channel. An eclectic mix of songs that I found quite pleasing. Turns out it was just filler supplied by station Chief Engineer Terry Grieger, who utilized an automation system he had on his computer to fill the time until a new lessee took over the programming just a day or two later. The HD-3 signal now carries foreign-language programming, moving the Mormon Church programming formerly heard on the HD-3 stream to HD-4. Of course only a handful of us with HD Radio tuners can hear any of this.

Over on KCBS-FM’s HD-2, you can now hear the CBS Sports Radio format, which is about as bad of a sports format as I have ever heard. Not just in content, but in engineering, with sound levels so inconsistent I thought I was listening to a test.

Of course that’s what it is, essentially. Amp Radio, now on KAMP (97.1 FM) was once an HD stream. CBS wants to make their new sports radio format viable, and whether or not it ever makes it to a “regular” signal locally (it is available in other cities already) or it stays on HD, it will evolve. For now it’s kind of neat to listen to a station that only a few of us with HD Radios can hear.

Radio Waves Podcast #21

Chris Carter knows just about everything there is to know about the Beatles. As host of Breakfast With The Beatles, heard every Sunday from 9 a.m. to noon on KLOS (95.5 FM), he has to.

 

It’s not something you can fake; it has to be in your heart. And it is definitely in Carter’s heart.

 

He has been hosting the show since 2001 when he took over following the death of original host, Dierdre O’Donoghue, who launched the program in November of 1983. What started as an idea to just play some Beatles records as a fun diversion on Sunday mornings (originally on KMET, now KTWV 94.7 FM) has evolved into the longest-running Beatles program anywhere, playing not just a few records but rarities ... and the stories and trivia behind the songs, the band, and the fans.

 

Carter has taken the program and made it his own, though he doesn’t quite see it that way. “I’m just the host of the program, much like Jay Leno and now Jimmy Fallen are hosts of The Tonight Show on NBC-TV,” he says humbly.

 

Yet under his guidance, the program has expanded its scope to include rare records, bootlegs, interviews and much more, as opposed to the original focus on playing commercial releases. He does the program live every Sunday and shows no signs of being burned out on the concept.

 

“I take the songs and put them into perspective,” he tells me after I ask him how he keeps the program fresh. “Using the music, I try to tell a story, follow a theme, place the music into a certain context, and keep it timely.”

 

Trivia and fascinating facts tied to people, places and dates in history are a huge part of the program’s appeal, something which Carter says he enjoys.

 

This week’s program will be particularly interesting on that front, as Breakfast celebrates the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Beatles in the United States to appear on CBS Television’s Ed Sullivan Show February 9th. In fact, Breakfast this Sunday will feature audio from the entire Sullivan show of February 9th, 1964 ... including commercials. “Commercials help keep the historical perspective accurate,” Carter says.

 

Fascinating facts regarding the appearance? Turns out that the performance on Sullivan was coincidentally the three-year anniversary of The Beatles’ first live concert at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, February 9th, 1961. And the third appearance on Sullivan later in 1964 was actually the first one performed ... it was a taped recording of the afternoon dress-rehearsal at CBS studios in New York.

 

Carter has every Beatles album -- including those released on real to real tape -- ever made. Commercial releases, bootlegs, imports ... all. Multiple copies in most cases, part of his collection of music from all artists that includes vinyl records numbering close to 7000. And that’s after he cleaned out the duds. His collection of Beatles records began in earnest when he owned a record store in Wayne, New Jersey.

 

But The Beatles are not his only interest. He’s been in a band himself, one that KROQ (106.7 FM) and Alt 98.7 FM fans will know: Dramarama. Their alternative hit Anything Anything is still popular 28 years after its 1986 release. He produced a critically-acclaimed film that told the story of KROQ personality Rodney Bingenheimer, The Mayor of Sunset Strip. He’s managed bands. But from what I can tell, his first love is The Beatles.

 

“My first album I bought, when I was about seven, was Rubber Soul.” In an interview with Riprense.com, he explained how at every birthday, every holiday, he would ask for another Beatles album. From there, he says, it just took off.

 

Carter’s version of Breakfast With The Beatles is good enough to have Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney as listeners and contributors: both have called in to the show in the past. And the program has now been around long enough to out-live two of the three stations on which it has been carried: KMET where it originated, and KLSX (now KAMP, 97.1 FM) where it moved in 1987. KLOS has been running the program since 2006.

 

In addition to Breakfast, Carter has a program on SiriusXM’s Underground Garage (Channel 21) focussing on the music from the more general British Invasion. Hear that program at 6 a.m. -- rebroadcast at 9 p.m. -- Sundays.

 

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