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Ken Chiampou Technical Issue On Air Blow Out

sdwulfdawg

sdwulfdawg

I was a bit surprised to hear Ken Chiampou have an on air conniption at the start of the 4 p.m. hour of the John and Ken Show at the apparent internal technical difficulties that have not been ironed out as of that time. From what it sounded, Ken seemed to be broadcasting his part of the show from his home remotely. Sometimes he actually seems to show up in Burbank. This started at the beginning of the pandemic that he was on the show remotely.

He started complaining loudly that he could hear the music bed but could not hear John Kobylt through his return feed nor was his microphone working. From what I could tell, Kobylt is in the studio with Debra Mark who does news and regularly chimes in. From what I have understood, Chaimpou has a camera on him at his remote location.

While Kobylt is usually the first to blow up over an issue they are covering on their show, it is Chaimpou who is the calm voice of reason. This time, Chiampou started blustering naming names on the technical side of KFI "this should have been fixed." Kobylt seemed to be surprised at Chiampou's blow up and for once seemed to be a bit quiet not knowing quite how to react.
 
ragazzo-pazzo said:
Agreed, and yet it happens more often than gets reported - at least it does in Los Angeles.
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When broadcasting from a remote location, it's always important to arrive early and test all systems, microphones, return audio, etc. I lay the problem squarely on the shoulders of Ken Chiampou.
 
By the way, this was on Wednesday. I might try to find audio of this exchange.

As someone who has been involved in broadcasting (radio/TV/multimedia), the whole exchange really came off really cringey.... It would be definitely one of those moments that if I was the PD, I would call him in about that....

Part of it was that he really came off as really condescending like has never done before.
I'm wondering if he is not burned out after forty years in the biz? He is about ten years older than Kobylt. That he is not willing to come in to the studio from his home on the beach makes me wonder about that.
 
Apparently since the move, the hosts and the rest of the staff, have been experiencing Internet connectivity issues. You have to realize this has been going on for a week. The level of frustration has been growing. Shannon did not hold back either today. She explained that it has affected their ability to do the show, and said that she has given up complaining to mgmt as they won't let the staff know what's going on with any updates. She said a radio station like KFIi depends on the internet to function. They are being told by mgmt to keep doing their shows no matter what, minus their most important tool. Keep in mind, this situation has been going on for a week.
 
This sounds to me as if everything was not thoroughly tested by the iHeart engineers before the new studios went live.

Right now there are probably a lot of people there who miss the late Mike Callaghan.
 
K.M. Richards said:
This sounds to me as if everything was not thoroughly tested by the iHeart engineers before the new studios went live.

Right now there are probably a lot of people there who miss the late Mike Callaghan.
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When you reduce the technical staff to what amounts to a skeleton crew, expect problems. Bean counters might be happy, I doubt that Doug Irwin is. I'm not sure placing blame on the engineers who are incredibly understaffed is a fair criticism.
 
This is what is happening with the Walmartization/Dollar Generalization of U.S. broadcasting.

I listened to Shannon's blowup on their IHeart podcast. I'm surprised it was not edited out.
 
On the other hand, wether something goes wrong on the air here.. I openly fess up to it on air. since I'm the only full time employee and the one responsible for fixing it, i let people know whats going on.

One day at the end of the live 5pm AKDT sat feed of All things considered, i caught that fresh air hadnt updated in the computer yet, not pushing the recorded playback files from our XDS SAtellite reciever to the automation... so i stuck in a CD and let it play about 10 minutes worth of jukebox rock while i rebooted the XDS and computer.

then about 608pm, after everything looked normal.. i went on air and said "you probably wonder why theres been rock music and no fresh air while wondering what in the world paul is up to over there.. let me explain..."

Another time, we had dead air when the statewide 5pm satelitte fed newscast was supposed to begin from AK Public Radio.... as soon as i discovered it i dropped a song or two into automation , let it play while i quickly did some troubleshooting. came on after the song, acknowledged the dead air and said "it appears the satellite dish is full of snow, im going to go brush it out and as soon as thats done, audio should return.. enjoy the rock music". went and took at 12 foot roof rake to the dish and viola.. back in business

Airing our "dirty laundry" has helped... to give listeners perspective. I dont have an engineer and one isnt nearby. Its me and only me. Listeners feel like they have a stake in what happens , have a bit more understanding.. theyve all shown me alot of grace and patience here when things go sideways
 
frankberry said:
That is about as unprofessional as anything I have ever heard about. You NEVER air your dirty laundry in public.
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Except, as noted, Stern, Imus and others made a fortune doing just that.

Robert W. Morgan was another. And there are two airchecks of him at KHJ going off about technical issues.

The first was 1969, when the Bossline number was changed from 741-1141 to 520-1970. Except---on day one, it didn't work. No one could get through. Wouldn't even ring. So Morgan stuck to the format, doing live promos every ten minutes:

"The new Bossline for L.A. and the Valley is 520-1970---but I wouldn't risk a dime in a pay phone."

Morgan got so upset about it that he took the handset of the phone and smashed it down onto the panel that held the buttons for each line. Then went on the air and demonstrated that the buttons would no longer stay down.

"That means, boys and girls, that I can't call out. So, if ONE of you would call Pacific Telephone and tell them the Bossline is broken..."

And the entire Hollywood exchange melted down.

Four years later, the phone company installed a new hotline (for management and programming to call the jock) in the studio. But someone unclear on the concept failed to mute it and connect it to a flashing light. Instead, it rang....out loud...like a regular phone....even when the mic was open.

Morgan got an entire show out of that.
 
Ken Chaimpou seemed to be back in the studio since Monday.... The sound "seems" to be clearer and there have been no on air rants anymore....unless Robin Bertolucci put out a company-wide memo telling the on air folks to quit their complaining about technical problems on the air. When Chaimpou is in the studio he has a way better connection with John Kobylt (naturally).
 
Andy Ludlum said:
Radio insiders are offended, but some listeners probably dug it. I used to enjoy hearing Jim Eason at KGO bitching about conditions, management - everything - and it was deliciously seditious.
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And sometimes it was staged. Way back when in Puerto Rico, our morning team built a stereotypical gringo character which I played at least once a week. I was always in around 6 AM to do the day's paperwork, and they would haul me in and I'd do an awful bad Spanish bit which was based on my misinterpreting words in their dialogue to make funny stupid responses.

It was all staged, and I was the classic non-Spanish speaking boss commonly known in Puerto Rico which everyone found funny. The station had a 29 to 30 18-34 share, too.

Example: they called me in "as I was passing by in the hall" because I bought disgusting American coffee instead of good Puerto Rican coffee and I would not understand when they said it "tasted like piss"... making for just barely acceptable language and situations.
 
sdwulfdawg said:
Ken Chaimpou seemed to be back in the studio since Monday.... The sound "seems" to be clearer and there have been no on air rants anymore....unless Robin Bertolucci put out a company-wide memo telling the on air folks to quit their complaining about technical problems on the air. When Chaimpou is in the studio he has a way better connection with John Kobylt (naturally).
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Not saying that it was, but remember that shows can use inconveniences to build a bit around. If it was amusing to the listener, it was good radio.
 
K.M. Richards said:
This sounds to me as if everything was not thoroughly tested by the iHeart engineers before the new studios went live.

Right now there are probably a lot of people there who miss the late Mike Callaghan.
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One of many great LA engineers.

I had the pleasure of working with several, including Greg Oginowski, Doug Holland, Tom Koza.
 
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