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KGB ... and the Radio Revolution
- Thread starter Sixeye
- Start date
Finally. They've had teasers on YouTube for six years.
I’m watching it now. If you don’t already know and love KGB, this is pointless. If you do (and I do), it’s still a slog.
Zero context, no logical progression of a story—-back and forth in both chronology and topics. It feels like someone just rotated raw tapes, a minute from this one, a minute from that one, until they had an hour. Virtually no audio of the station itself.
People identified by font twice, three or four times. Jim McInnes is anonymous for his first ten sound bites and then they font him 39 minutes in.
This could be a souvenir DVD for alumni at a reunion, but it should have been SO much more.
Zero context, no logical progression of a story—-back and forth in both chronology and topics. It feels like someone just rotated raw tapes, a minute from this one, a minute from that one, until they had an hour. Virtually no audio of the station itself.
People identified by font twice, three or four times. Jim McInnes is anonymous for his first ten sound bites and then they font him 39 minutes in.
This could be a souvenir DVD for alumni at a reunion, but it should have been SO much more.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
In other words, the modern day equivalent of Major Bowes and Ted Mack.
The people you see and hear from are pros. There was insufficient thought and/or execution in putting it together as a production.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
It was the producers I was alluding to, Mike.
San Diego is a top 20 market. In the latest ratings, KGB-FM is tied for #11. But I guess that's not good enough for more than a few local shows. At least AM and PM drive are local. Weekdays being with "Big Rich, TD and Fletch." And Clint August is local in San Diego in PM drive time. All of the bios on their station webpage talk about what San Diego neighborhood they live in.
But I suppose the other dayparts are voice tracked from somewhere else. I notice on the other bios, they carefully avoid saying anything about themselves that would indicate where they are. One DJ's bio tell us he likes watching "college football" but avoids naming any team.
KGB-FM now has liners saying 80s, 90s & today. So, it looks like they finally dumped Stairway to Heaven, Free Bird and other 70s classics that have been played a zillion times.
Nope. They're just not promoting them.
In the past four hours, "Take It Easy" by the Eagles (1972), "Two Tickets to Paradise" by Eddie Money (1978), "Roxanne" by The Police (1978) and "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin (1975).
Find the most recently played songs on 101.5 KGB
Find the most recently played songs on 101.5 KGB , San Diego's 80s, 90s and more!
How can they get away with that? Because the typical listener isn't an obsessive about stuff like that and probably couldn't tell you the year of a given record if you offered them ten thousand dollars and a brand new car.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
That bears repeating, so I did.
People outside the business frequently come to the same conclusion as @Signal Geek ... that these songs are, as one well-known poster used to claim, "burned to a crisp". Yet, even in the Classic Rock/Hits universe, there is still music testing going on (I know of 17 CH stations in the top 40 markets that still do that) and these songs which some of the armchair quarterbacks think listeners are tired of still test the highest.
In fact, it is now easy to tell the participants here who have no industry experience -- or at least, no programming experience -- because sooner or later they make that claim. David (Eduardo) Gleason calls them "outliers" because their listening is outside the typical patterns by the majority of listeners ... people come and go all day, tuned in for short bursts of time, and do not hear most of the repeats that those with longer listening spans do. And we program to the typical listener, not the outlier.
A good programmer recognizes and sets up the music scheduling rules to take advantage of the typical pattern. For example, I have two key rules set for the highest-playing categories on The Eighties Channel™ and they are not exactly industry secrets or proprietary: A song has to play in two other dayparts before it can repeat in one, and when it does repeat in a daypart it has to be in a different hour from the one it played in last that daypart.
I guarantee our naysayer that the vast majority of listeners will only hear a song repeat once -- occasionally twice -- in any given seven day period. And because CR/CH programmers adhere to the "consensus favorites" model, those repeats are welcomed if a day or two has passed since a listener heard a specific song on a station.
That "played a zillion times" is not, as SG intended it to be, an insult. It means the PD is doing the job right, and -- more importantly -- that programming philosophy is not going to change (especially not because a bunch of people with no experience post their objection on a message board). And the sooner people get that in their collective heads, the sooner they will stop wasting time posting that non-complaint complaint.
Thank you for the correction, Michael. And I noticed KGB's website says "80s, 90s and more." So, the "more" could cover the 1970s or even the 60s 🤔
I was wondering about your original quote of the liner as "80s, 90s and today"...were they adding currents?...but went after the 1970s thing and promptly forgot the rest.
Yeah, in my original post I used the word "today" from memory. Sorry. I should have checked the station's website first.
From now on, I'll ban myself from morning posts on RD until *after* I my first cup of coffee. You and KM can hold me accountable 😄
Hell, that's one I don't even always manage myself.
Nope. They're just not promoting them.
In the past four hours, "Take It Easy" by the Eagles (1972), "Two Tickets to Paradise" by Eddie Money (1978), "Roxanne" by The Police (1978) and "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin (1975).
Find the most recently played songs on 101.5 KGB
Find the most recently played songs on 101.5 KGB , San Diego's 80s, 90s and more!101kgb.iheart.com
How can they get away with that? Because the typical listener isn't an obsessive about stuff like that and probably couldn't tell you the year of a given record if you offered them ten thousand dollars and a brand new car.
And I, for one, am glad that KGB-FM is still playing some 1970s material! When I read the liner about "80s, 90s, and today," all I could think of was that IHeart had decided to compete with its own KIOZ-FM at 105.3 mHz.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Ted, I absolutely guarantee you that iHeart will never have two of their stations in any market directly competing with each other. Nor will Audacy, Cumulus, Connoisseur, Beasley, or the rest of the major owners. Since we are actually in the advertising business, we will always program our stations to have different approaches to a common demo. The agencies love when a combo buy gets them that.
As as as iHeart, having the word "Classic" associated with rock appears to have been scrubbed clean, removed from slogans, the websites etc. Replaced with, for example, New York's Rock, Seattle's Rock, etc. KGB would be San Diego's Rock, but already used for KIOZ.
Don't know what to make of that.
Don't know what to make of that.
I'm guessing there's perceptual research that shows the word "rock" is a positive in a desired demographic. Like the slogan for KGB, I don't think it necessarily reflects any significant change in what they play.
If I'm not mistaken KLOS does the same thing. They don't identify as Classic Rock. They're "Southern California's Rock Station"