Radio Waves Podcast #268

Radio: October 4, 2020

    Internet-based KNXFM93.Com — available online at the site and on your smart speaker as well as through apps such as TuneIn, MyTunerRadio, and StreamS — has announced big event: another Classic Mellow Sound Music Special. This time it’s the words and music of John Denver, just as it was presented on KNX-FM (now KCBS-FM, 93.1) in 1973.

    The two hour special will run on Saturday, October 10th at 5 p.m.

    Hosted by Tom McKay, the program eludes positiveness. Denver was a tremendously positive about his career and his life, and he presented that in his music. The interview gave him a chance to “talk about things I don’t always get to talk about,” and speak of the joy that he has in his life. 1973 was just as his career was getting its high point; in 1974 he would become one of the best-selling artists in the country.

    His music spanned an era in which positiveness was needed by the country, coming off of  the Vietnam War and heading into Watergate. An avid pilot with a love of flying, Denver’s life was cut short on October 12, 1997, when at the age of 53, he crashed his experimental light plane into the Monterey Bay near Pacific Grove, California. Investigation into the accident indicated that Denver was unable (or did not notice the need) to switch to an auxiliary fuel tank as he was running low on fuel. The accident led to new standards on plane design and pilot training.

    In addition to his music, Denver starred in several movies and television specials; perhaps the best-known movie is 1977’s Oh, God!, in which he played supermarket manager Jerry Landers, chosen by God (George Burns) to spread His message to a skeptical public.

    Denver was also active politically, especially in later years, focusing on environmental issues, hunger, and humanitarian work.

    Stern to Spotify?

    InsideMusicMedia.Com’s Jerry Del Colliano says he is calling this one early: Howard Stern is moving to Spotify.
    Well, he’s not saying it’s definite. But apparently negotiations are taking place as his contract renewal talks at SiriusXM continue. Will it happen? In my opinion, the word is doubtful. But Del Colliano is not often wrong, so it makes for an intriguing story. Stay tuned on this one.

    More Letters

    “Delayed response to your Sept 13 column – sometime around the mid-late 60’s in L.A. was KBLA, I think 1580 or thereabouts; its playlist/format was a half-step closer to FM - it was to KRLA what KRLA was to KHJ. Didn’t seem to last more than a few years.” — Gary Peck

    You are soooo close: Super 15 KBLA was a hipper alternative to KHJ, but was found at 1500 AM. There isn’t much history of the station, but it definitely has its place in local radio history.

    Ken Levine once described KBLA’s signal as being “worse than a baby monitor.” Coming out of Burbank and high up on the AM dial, the station had trouble reaching all of Los Angeles due to limited power and a directional antenna system designed to protect the signals of stations in other parts of the country at night.

    But did it try. With a roster that included Harry Newman, Roger Christian, Harvey Miller, Dave Diamond, Vic Gee (Jim Carson), and William F. Williams, from 1965-1967 it played more “hip” songs that traditional AM stations of the time, including a few album cuts. Dave Diamond, previously of KHJ (930 AM) did an evening show second to none, The Diamond Mine. My friend (and true radio guy) Jeff Leonard once gave me a tour of the area in Burbank where the station was once found — now just outside of a mall — showing where he would go to try to meet the DJs.

    PastDaily.Com has a great set of recording of Diamond’s last show on KBLA, June 16, 1967, just as the station was going to change to country at midnight. Hear it at tinyurl.com/RWoct1

    “A while back, you put out a listing of local AM & FM radio stations in your column when you were using email as rwagoner@icloud.com

 
I would like to get an updated listing if you can provide me with one or tell where I can get such a listing.” — Mary Smith

    That’s been on my “to-do” list for, um, ever. Almost, anyway. I’m going to push it to the front of the list and hopefully have something soon!

Radio Waves Podcast #267

 Radio: September 27, 2020

    Last week I told of the changes coming to Entercom, owner of 234 radio stations nationwide and locally of KNX (1070 AM), KROQ (106.7 FM), KRTH (101.1 FM), KTWV (94.7 FM), Amp Radio (97.1 FM), and Jack (93.1 FM). Beginning with their country and alternative formats, the company plans to move all stations and formats to national and regional programming, with few stations having more than one local show, if that. A bit ironic considering that Entercom’s webpage brags of local being at the core of everything they do. But I digress.

    It appears the same types of changes at Entercom will be coming to iHeart, owner of over 850 stations nationwide and eight in locally: KFI (640 AM), KEIB (1150 AM), KIIS-FM (102.7), KOST (103.5 FM), KBIG (106.7 FM), Real (92.3 FM),  Alt (98.7 FM) and KLAC (570 AM).

    Note that in both cases the companies actually own more than that listed: iHeart owns seven stations in the Inland Empire, while Entercom owns one (KFRG, 95.1 FM) … which means I misspoke last week when I stated that the country format consolidation would not affect any local stations.

    In the case of iHeart, as reported by Jerry Del Colliano of InsideMusicMedia.Com, the focus will be similar, though not identical. Many heart stations are already doing this, but the focus will be solely mornings and afternoons. The time period from 9 or 10 a.m. until 2 or 3 p.m. will be an afterthought, as will any shift after 7 p.m. That’s when listening is at its lowest point, and the suits that run radio think it has nothing to do with lack of content. So out it goes.

    iHeart apparently also plans to emulate Entercom as far as nationalizing or regionalizing programming, so expect a lot more syndication of shows based out of town and music programming out of town or even out of state. Essentially, local radio is dead among the large companies.

    Which brings up some interesting thoughts regarding radio…

    • The large companies are dead. There is no way they can compete other than through being cheap, and being cheap can only get you so far. Local content has always been the key for radio, and no one will care about national programming when it’s loaded with the requisite 15-20 minutes of commercials per hour typical on Entercom and iHeart stations. I expect both to be gone, or at least totally irrelevant within four years.

    • This opens up opportunities for smaller companies to swoop in and steal listeners. A station that super-serves its local community is vastly preferable to local advertisers, who want an active listening audience. The death of Entercom and iHeart can be a tremendous opportunity for everyone else — ironically, including money-losing Cumulus — to jump in and take up the slack. I want Bonneville back in Los Angeles … it many happen as station prices continue to drop.

    • Internet radio suddenly got more competitive. Part of Entercom’s and iHeart’s plan is to make use of virtual radio stations, in which the few DJs actually working do their work from their homes. Well, I can do that too. And I can start allowing local businesses to advertise on my net station. And I can “geo fence” the station to keep my “signal” local if I need to keep streaming and licensing costs down. And I don’t have to pay for an over-priced CEO to drag me down. Don’t believe me? Tune into KNXFM93.com … a recreation of the original Mellow Sound station and a better light-rock format than you’ll find on the air anyway. And you can even  hear it via your smart speaker.

    In other words, radio is not dead. Large corporate radio is, though. It’s all in how we all handle it. I think — after a tough time — the industry will rebound with fresh ideas and truly good programming. And if it does not, the net-casters will  take up the slack.

    Ask Dave, the Recovering Former PD

    Have a question about radio that you’d like answered by a true insider? I have just the solution. Former programmer of The Sound (now KKLQ, 100.3 FM) Dave Beasing — who not only programmed, but also consulted stations across the country — has agreed to do a segment called “Ask the Recovering Former Program Director on the LA Radio Waves podcast I do with almost-retired radio guy Mike Stark. You can hear it at facebook.com/LARadioWaves.

    Want to know why stations all play commercials at the same time? Why it’s always around the quarter hour past and before each hour? The future of radio and how podcasts can take up the slack? Something else? Send a note to me with the subject line “Ask Dave” to rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com or mike@laradiowaves.com.

    Dropouts

    The signal dropouts that continue to plague reception of SiriusXM in various areas due to interference from cell towers appears to have a possible solution. The problem is, SiriusXM thus far won’t let you install it yourself. This in spite of the fact that I can self-install every other component of any SiriusXM tuner, receiver, or radio. This is unfortunate, as a bandpass filer would be worth trying, but not at the $80 cost artificially inflated due to a professional installation requirement. Come on SiriusXM … time to step up.

Radio Waves Podcast #266

 Radio: September 20, 2020

    It’s a tough job programming to a mass audience. Case in point: K-Surf (1260 AM, 105.1 HD2), also known as LA Oldies. The station started playing the early days of Rock and Roll, focussing primarily on the years of 1955-1970.  And listeners were happy.

    Then the station added more songs from the 1970s. In general, most listeners remained happy, though a few grumbled about all the new songs being added. But new listeners found the station and overall it worked well.

    Later songs from the 1980s started showing up. And the rebellion began. Listeners tended to stay,  but the grumbling got louder, and in general for good reason … KRTH (101.1 FM), KOLA (99.9 FM), and Jack (93.1 FM) were already playing ‘80s hits. Did K-Surf really need to do so as well?

    Tough call. On one hand, it makes sense. Add in the best ‘80s tunes while keeping the expanded playlist back to the ‘50s, and you generally keep people tuned in. It would work for someone like me, who tires of one era. But in my experience, most people who love songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s at best tolerate the music from the 1970s, and detest the ‘80s.
 
    Station owner Saul Levine recognized that it was a problem, and announced last week that K-Surf would be going back a bit more to its roots and is removing ‘80s hits from the playlist. A look at the playlist — you can see everything played on the station for the past three days or so at laoldies.com — proves this to be true.

    It’s not all the way back … in fact, I see very few songs form the 1950s at all. But lots from the 1960s and ‘70s, and a good variety at that. From Sam Cooke to War; Vogues to Reo Speedwagon. In general, K-Surf is a station you can just leave on all day and occasionally hear an unexpected treat. With few to no commercials.

    Downward Ho!

    Only Entercom CEO David Field could think we’d fall for his scheme. He is trying to hype a supposed improved listener experience for local markets by taking away local markets.

    In other words, Field is giving up on radio, and he is trying to milk what he can out iff his stations before he kills off the company completely. And he has the gall to call it an “improved listener experience.” Perhaps he is right, after listeners leave his stations for alternatives.

    Here’s the plan: National formats, national and regional talent. Centralized programming. Absolutely nothing local. Think SiriusXM with 15 minuets of commercials per hour instead of being commercial-free. Makes sense, right? Only to David Field.

    Two formats per month are expected to be converted to national delivery, according to InsideMusicMedia.Com's Jerry Del Colliano who has been reporting on this for weeks. Del Colliano said last week that country and alternative will be the first to go, and this was confirmed Monday by an internal email sent out to Entercom employees and released by AllAccess.Com.

    In the email, it was announced that, among other things, Mike Kaplan, programmer of KROQ (106.7 FM) here in Los Angeles, has been named as the national Alternative format program director, and will be called the “format captain.”

    It won’t be totally national, at least for now. But talent will be either regional or national, and it is expected that no more than one local personality will remain at any one station. For now, anyway. My hunch is this will devolve into 100 percent national delivery very soon.

    Kevin Kenney from New York’s Alt 92.3 will do a national show to be heard on all 15 Entercom Alternative stations at night; KROQ’s own Stryker and Klein will be heard in San Francisco, Dallas, and Kansas City; Cane and Corey from New York will also be heard in Baltimore, Buffalo, Miami and Orlando … the list goes on and on.

    There are no Entercom country stations in Los Angeles, but the plan is identical, including the idea that national and regional talent will be used in all shifts except perhaps one per station.

    Expect two formats per month to switch to this scheme, including all-news as well as talk stations. The plan is to have national satellite delivery of programming complete for all stations by the end of the year.

    In other words, stick a fork in it: Entercom is dead.

    Now where are all those corporate radio apologists who said the mega-model has helped radio? Oh, they must be all those guys in the unemployment line. You should have listened instead of supporting, my friends. You supported the devil. He wants his payment now.

    Hopefully my prediction will hold that ultimately Entercom et al will totally fail and good, local radio can grow out of the ashes of corporate greed and incompetence.

    Passings

    Former radio therapist Marilyn Kagan, head locally on KFI (640 AM) and the late, great KMPC (now KSPN, 710 AM) before leaving for television, has died. The news was broken on Don Barrett’s LARadio.Com by former KFI host Casey Bartholomew.

    “You don’t meet many truly kind, wonderful people in this business, but Marilyn was one of them,” Bartholomew said. Apparently she had been diagnosed with some form of cancer just a few weeks ago. Her exact age is unknown, but she is thought to have been about 68 years old.

    Robin Banks, who was heard locally on KNX-FM, KODJ and Arrow 93 (all now Jack-FM) and was also battling cancer, passed away earlier this month. He was at the then-CBS-owned station under various formats from 1989-1997, and was in his early 70s. This news was also broken on LARadio.Com, which was careful to clarify that this is a different Robin Banks than the female Banks who can currently be heard doing traffic reports on various stations.

Radio Waves Podcast #265

Radio: September 13
    I received a lot of interesting responses arrived recently related to the last few columns; it is obvious that radio means as much to you as it does to me. Here is a sample.

    “I saw your article in The Sun recently. I didn't grow up around here but spent most of my time in the Mid West and the South, traveling between Kansas City MO and Nashville TN.

    “There was a station in Little Rock Arkansas, KAAY.  They were a typical top 40 station, but around 10:00 or 11:00 at night the Clyde Clifford show would come on. Clyde would play something a harder than top 40. He rarely talked during the show, but just played music.  The show would go on for 3-4 hours, followed by an hour long radio serial called Chandu the Magician.  The station could be picked up in Kansas City and in Nashville at night. I would stay awake until 1:00 to 2:00 in the morning just to listen.”

    “Thanks for letting me share.” — Jay Still

    Thank YOU for sharing. I love the memories.

    “Love your column! To add to the subject of early AM radio and DXing, I began as a listener in the late ‘40s when we would listen to the radio in my Dad’s 1940’s Chrysler.  We had only one station in Yuma at that time.

    “Later, as a teen, we would wait until after sundown to tune into KOMA/Oklahoma City (1400 AM) or the “Mighty 690” in Tijuana for our daily dosage of rock n roll. Eventually, we got our own station, KBLU and had access to local DJs.

    “By the way, the radio in my dad’s car had a buzz like a hornet coming from it. I later understood that this was an object called a vibrator which changed DC current from the battery to a form of AC. This was needed to power the vacuum tubes within the radio!

     “Currently when I DX, I frequent KSL/Salt Lake City (1160 AM), KKOB/Albuquerque (770 AM), and KKOH/Reno (780 AM). Keep up the good work!” — Nick Yagar, Anaheim

    Those vibrators are interesting. It doesn’t quite generate AC, but it creates pulses in the DC, allowing a transformer to, as you stated, increase the voltage required for the tubes which was then smoothed out again with a rectifier. Back then they were mechanical and not the most reliable part made … today there are electronic versions that can be used in vintage radios. Much quieter, too!

    “I meant to email you last week, but I got busy. One top 40 radio station you may not be familiar with was KFXM (590 AM, now KTIE), which covered what we now call the Inland Empire. It was (is) based in San Bernardino. I graduated from Hemet High School in 1971 and it was the station that many of us listened to. The school cafeteria even played it at lunch time! They even printed up weekly handbills which they distributed to record stores, including ours here in Hemet … one side listed the top 40 singles for the week. The back had a listing of the DJ’s and their shifts. KFXM had a professional DJ staff equal to any Los Angeles station.

    “Thanks for bringing back those memories!” — Mike Christie

    My wife, Jean grew up in Redlands; she has memories of listening to both KFXM and KMEN (now KKDD, 1290 AM). Both stations helped launch many careers in broadcasting. And you can learn more at http://kfxm-kmen-radio.blogspot.com.

    “I really enjoy reading your articles in the Star news....Listened to KRLA and KHJ religiously as a teenager. I remember Dick Biondi coming to our school for a football rally! Dave Hull was a kick; Bob Eubanks, Casey Kasem, and of course Emperor Bob Hudson all made and impression in my life as teenager growing up in the sixties

    “And the crew at KHJ did the same...the Real Don Steele and  Robert W. Morgan to name a few. But I wanted to add one more name to your top 40 stations….KOMA/Oklahoma City. My girlfriend went to OU; I went to the University of Arizona … and I could tune in KOMA at night time and listen to it. I always thought my girlfriend would be listening to it at the same time, and it made me feel closer to her. That girlfriend became my wife in 1973.

    "Keep up the good work.” — Tim Sheedy

    What a great memory! Radio was my companion growing up … and it’s why I write this column today. Thank you for sharing.

    “On Aug 23rd, 2020 I picked up radio signals on a San Diego AM radio station late at night. I could not believe what station I was getting that far away. Though it would fade in and out I was able to hear that it was in San Diego CA.
 
    “As a young teenager in Alaska in the 1960’s we could occasionally get radio stations on the car radio late at night from California. Most likely the stations were more powerful and there was hardly any interference. There were no FM stations here at the time. Would you have an explanation for me how I was able to access a station so far away on my little portable battery radio?  — Jane Sparks. Wasilla, AK

    You may be the most-distant reader I have ever had, Jane! To answer your question, AM signals actually bounce off the atmosphere at night (technically, they do during the day but the energy from the sun absorbs/blocks them during daylight hours). So essentially, the signal hits the sky, bounces back to earth, bounces back up to the sky … (I may have that slightly wrong). It’s called “skip” and it allows and AM station to travel quite far under the right conditions.

    I was told that the EARLY AM stations could be heard across the country even at their low power, due to so little interference and so few stations; the farthest I ever got was WCCO/Minneapolis from my home in Southern California in the 1970s and ‘80s. Used to get WLS out of Chicago,  but another station is on the frequency now.

Radio Waves Podcast #264

KNX 1070 AM, one of the oldest broadcasting stations in the United States dating back to 1922, is about to celebrate 100 years on the air. If those numbers don’t add up, you’re right. But it’s a technicality that I am letting slide. Here’s the full story as it has been told to me:

On September 10, 1920, Fred Christian started broadcasting his amateur radio station, 6ADZ. A former shipboard radio operator, Christian was manager of the Electric Lighting Supply Company in downtown Los Angeles. Broadcasting primarily to customers who had constructed radios they assembled from parts bought at the store, his first transmitter put out five-watts and used the 1500 kHz (AM) frequency.

Now, five watts doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t. But in the early days of broadcasting, there wasn’t nearly as much man-made interference in the air as there is today, and five watts would actually travel pretty far. Especially with no other stations on the same frequency … or almost any frequency, for that matter. There were truly only a handful of stations in the entire country at the time.

In early December of 1921, the Department of Commerce, which was placed in charge of regulating radio broadcasting, formally adopted rules that placed all stations on just two frequencies — 619 kHz (to be used for market and weather reports) and 833 kHz (for entertainment). Christian’s station was thus issued an official license to broadcast on 833, using the call letters KGC and the hours of 2 – 2:30 and 7:30 – 8 p.m. KGC shared 833 with six other stations, all off which also had specific hours with which two broadcast.

Here’s where it gets interesting. In May of 1922, the Supply Company was issued a second license to broadcast on 833, with the assigned call-letters KNX and a broadcast time of 9 – 10 a.m. For whatever reason — probably related to allowed broadcast time — the Supply Company decided to broadcast exclusively on KNX, and gave up the KGC broadcasts. KGC got deleted from the Department of Commerce station list; the Department then decided that, since they were under common ownership, KNX and KGC were really the same station,. KNX thus “assumed” KGC’s identity and used December 8, 1921 as the date it was first licensed to broadcast. That means the experimental broadcasts — by default — became part of KNX history as well.

And that history is valid, I believe. I don’t know, but I am assuming that the Supply Company originally wanted more broadcast time and a new set of calls was needed under the 1921 regulations to do so. That means KNX was really just an extension of KGC anyway … if anyone can confirm or deny this (radio historian Jim Hilliker, I’m looking at you), please let me know.So as KNX begins the plan to celebrate 100 years on the air, what can we expect? The station is mum, but I expect on-air tributes, and if they were found, early recordings of KNX itself. I doubt there are many of the very early days that still exist (if they ever did) but what an exciting thing if they are around.

KNX’s Bill Nesbitt has been sharing posts on social media over the past months looking for such historical audio; he announced on Facebook that there will be “a lot of historical audio, jingles, and memories” on September 10th, and my bet is that this will continue through the month. As it should: it’s not often that your station turns 100 years old.

Other upcoming centennial birthdays include KHJ 930 AM, and KFI 640 AM, among others.

Speaking of the Past.

Dave Beasing, formerly of The Sound (now KKLQ, 100.3 FM) and now head of Sound That Brands, sent me a link to 1940sradiowlvn.com.

What is it? A recreation of a radio station from the 1940s.

“It all started with the purchase of my first antique radio, a 1935 GE Tombstone,” says the anonymous creator on the website. “This has been a 2-year journey and finally, WLVN Radio was established in 2020, in Livingston, MT with one simple mission in mind: to bring you back in time to the 1940s.

“I have always enjoyed listening to 40s music on my time period radios, but it never had that real feel to it. So over 2 years’ time I collected over 20,000 files of music and radio shows from the ’40s and created this radio station.”

The music is basically a jukebox, at least during the time I have listened. Production quality is superb, though it seems oddly…too good. But there are old time radio shows that “air” at the same time — or close — as they did when they were on the radio during the ‘40s.

Jack Benny — my favorite comedian of all time — is there, along with Charlie McCarthy and Edgar Burgin, Burns and Allen, Fred Allen, Glenn Miller, Fiber McGee and Molly, The Shadow, The Mercury Theater on the Air, Captain Midnight, President Roosevelt, and many more.

Good find, Dave. Thanks!