104.5 KMCQ GOES LIVE- A NEW 100,000 WATT STATION HITS SEATTLE---My Critique....
I was in the "Emerald City" from Friday night thru Sunday afternoon...and I decided to give 104.5 a listen.....it took a little longer than I expected for me to pick it up on my radio....but once the signal came in....generally it came in just fine all over Seattle.....Bellevue, Tukwila, Renton, Sammamish, Isssaquah, Kirkland, Everett, Edmonds, and North Seattle.....I was pleasantly surprised.....
My only bad observations.....there were a handful of song NOT in stereo. "Black Water," was one.....the stereo generator was on but the song was NOT in stereo. And that sounded awful. Musically it sounds like KJR-FM's "Super Hits Of The 60's & 70's" which was such a fun format when I worked on the air there...and Bob Case was programming it. KMCQ-FM is a fun station to listen to, and not nearly predictable as KJR-FM....it was nice to hear "I Say A Little Prayer For You" by Dionne Warwick. I did seem to hear alot by the Supremes for their 60's songs. But the did play some nice stuff like "Close To You" by the Carpenters, a song or two by Bread, and then the Doors "Love Her Madly." I'm sure when some BIG company gets ahold of it, they will ruin what is nice and fun station to listen to.....I must say it is REALLY ODD to hear a station play NO commercials..and just some pre-recorded liners and drops periodically.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the future to this station.
On other notes...KOMO-FM's signal really gets out nicely...I was very pleasantly surprised...and it's amazing on the weekends how many infomercials there are on AM radio...very very sad to say the least. I realize it's money....sure would be nice to hear some real fun radio again....AND I did enjoy hearing the Casey Kasem countdown Sunday morning on KJR-FM, it was cool when Casey played BOTH sides of a CCR hit.....and Casey really did sound great in the 70's...I had forgotten. ONE BIG DISAPPOINTMENT----I could hear the Mariners games on the air in Ellensburg(when I was driving back to Spokane) and a couple of other cities but NOT on KIRO-710...what kind of a flagship station are they?!?!?!?!?---when they don't carry the games themselves, instead you hear syndicated ESPN stuff...that is NOT good programming in my humble opinion.
It was great to have some Dick's Cheeseburgers and fries, dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and stopping by Dicks on the way out of town and bringing back 14 of those Cheeseburgers, putting them in my freezer, and then when I'm in the mood, popping 1 or 2 in the microwave and enjoying a real treat.....It was really nice in Seattle on Saturday & Sunday....nice to be back home once again......
JJ Hemingway....Your Spokane Radio Pal...