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KFI calls the exterminators ...

henry

henry

... because, after 12 years, the Ratt is gone!

News is no longer using Ratt's "Round and Round" for TOH/BOH news, probably after Simon Perry gave 'em a hard time at the recent Talkers conference. Something to the effect of, "it's sad that America's hippest-sounding talk station, KFI, is using a song that was on the air in 1984."

They are now using part of Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out," a hit from '04. That bumps the station up 20 years.
 
I assume TOH/BOH means "Top of the Hour"/"Bottom of the Hour". Except "Round and Round" was never used at the bottom of the hour. No music is used at the bottom of the hour news break. The term bottom of the hour refers to the half-hour mark (think of an old-fashioned clock).

Speaking of music on KFI, until just a few years ago John and Ken used the same song every day to open the first hour. I never wondered what it was until they stopped playing it. If it wasn't for the miraculous Shazam app and me still having old podcast episodes, I would never have figured out that it's called "Shot at the Title" (2004) by an obscure band called Your Horrible Smile (well, they're obscure to Wikipedia anyway). Now J&K just play generic rock at the opening of the show (or it sounds generic to me, not at all memorable compared to the old song).
 
SimiRadioListener26 said:
No music is used at the bottom of the hour news break.
Click to expand...


That's true, but it's only a recent change. As of 6 months ago (and for years previously) KFI used "Round and Round" at both the hour and the half.

But you're right, outside of the syndicated shows, KFI only sometimes uses Franz Ferdinand at the top of hour (only).
 
henry said:
That's true, but it's only a recent change. As of 6 months ago (and for years previously) KFI used "Round and Round" at both the hour and the half.
Click to expand...

Wha? I've been listening religiously for five years and they've always* transitioned to the half hour news with no music.

*Shows like Rush and C2C, not to mention Dr. Laura when it was still on the station, may have been exceptions. I never listened to those that much.
 
Yeah, they would. It was a different sweeper that just said:

"KFI News. News on the hour, on the half, and when it breaks ..." followed by Ratt.

They saved the clever stuff for the TOH, including the old dateline "Monday, February 21st..." tags which I kind of miss.

I'm also hearing other songs besides Franz Ferdinand. I wonder if they are trying out many new ones ...
 
Why does KFI need to have any rock music at the beginning of a newscast? It really seems inappropriate when the stories involve school shooters, family murders, suicide bombers, earthquakes, tornadoes, drunk driving deaths and other tragedies. And why do the hosts need to open each hour with rock music? And is Rush Limbaugh ever going to quit using that tired (and tiresome) Pretenders track?
 
News intro music changed again, no longer "Take Me Out". Anyone figured out what there are using?

Kinda got used to the Ratt cut.
 
Ratt's Round And Round made sense as a TOH sounder since news does run 'round the clock in this 24 hour news cycle world. I never gave it much thought about how old the song was but I guess other people did. Frankly, I miss the calendar date stamp KFI would do each hour but here we are, the world still spins on it's axis and no lives were lost from the change.

In the grand scheme of things, it's really nothing to get riled up about.
 
LARadioRewind said:
Why does KFI need to have any rock music at the beginning of a newscast?
Click to expand...

Because the average talk radio listener is approaching SIXTY years old. If KFI is going to exist in ten years, they know they need to start throwing a bone to the 35-and-under crowd. Rock may not be the right choice, but it's better than the horribly-dated orchestral news beds most stations use.
 
Okay. Next question: Do radio stations really need a background of drums and/or car horns for every traffic report?
 
It's branding. A programmer doesn't JUST want you to get a quality traffic report, they want you to remember you got it from KFI and not from KNX (or vice-verse).

The music/sfx subconsciously connect listeners to a specific brand, making them more likely to identify your product if they like it.
 
Can you define "quality traffic report"?
This such poppycock.
Traffic reports will be going way of the dinosaurs in less than 6 years.
And a music bed can be distracting.
Finally,who the F can even follow some of them on a music station when the announcer does his/her best to cram 3 minutes of info into 60 seconds.
 
Many times I've been stuck in a huge traffic jam on the 5 freeway---almost every time I'm on it, in fact!---and traffic can be backed up for ten miles and I'll turn on KFI or KNX to hear the traffic report and the traffic jam is never mentioned. And it drives me crazy to be stuck in five-mile-an-hour traffic for 20 minutes and then suddenly traffic starts going 60 mph again and I have no idea why it ever slowed down. But occasionally there will be a visible reason for a slowdown: an accident or an overturned truck or a stalled car...and KFI and KNX still won't report it. I guess I have to do my own traffic reporting---by looking out the car window!
 
Re
LARadioRewind said:
Many times I've been stuck in a huge traffic jam on the 5 freeway---almost every time I'm on it, in fact!---and traffic can be backed up for ten miles and I'll turn on KFI or KNX to hear the traffic report and the traffic jam is never mentioned. And it drives me crazy to be stuck in five-mile-an-hour traffic for 20 minutes and then suddenly traffic starts going 60 mph again and I have no idea why it ever slowed down. But occasionally there will be a visible reason for a slowdown: an accident or an overturned truck or a stalled car...and KFI and KNX still won't report it. I guess I have to do my own traffic reporting---by looking out the car window!
Click to expand...
Steve if you have an smart phone, the SigAlert app usually will show you the cause of a slowdown. Sometimes they're late but you will eventually be in the know.
 
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