No, I'm just saying that ten years ago, "I Wanna Be Sedated" was testing well with women in their 30s.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
1090 XEPRS Has Gone Back to Oldies Plus Wolfman - L.A. Daily News
- Thread starter Daryl Lynn L.A.
- Start date
No, I'm just saying that ten years ago, "I Wanna Be Sedated" was testing well with women in their 30s.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
IMNSHO, extending performance royalties to broadcast would indeed cause a lot of stations to drop music formats. Those indie artists likely have the right mindset.
The remaining stations' payments would be a mere drop in the bucket for performers. There would likely be few payouts with more than three digits in front of the decimal point.
This would be a case where Santayanna would be proven correct, and essentially end radio, since there are only a limited number of non-music formats to adopt and still get any meaningful revenue.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Listen to Flashback Weekend, 7:00-midnight (MT) Fridays and Saturdays on KRKE,
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Per Mediabase, KROQ has played the Ramones 37 times this year. "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Blitzkrieg Bop" got the lion's share of that airplay with nearly equal totals.
The kind of music they did inspired the grunge and alternative music that followed. All of the early Nirvana, Soundgarden, and later Green Day songs were inspired by them. Green Day basically ripped off their whole sound. The same three chords over & over. Those are the two most familiar songs they had. Hard to imagine any women liking what they do. It's all 100% testosterone. Guys would go to their shows and "slam dance." That was a form of dancing that didn't involve touching, but rather hitting. If you watch their live videos from that time, you can see it happen. It's just drunk guys running into each other. They'd knock each other out and fall to the ground. You'll never hear their music on Oldies stations. It's the complete antithesis of what they do.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Indeed, we only play the Ramones on "Flashback Weekend", not the main format.
Let it be. JMO.
Richard Waggoner is a free-lance writer whose interest is radio. Basically, he's a professional listener. He operates in good faith and means well. He's not malevolent or mendacious (unlike a free lancer here in NorCal who's a hater). Waggoner is not a hater. You disagree w/ him about "old music", while you're busy programming.......old music. If Waggoner were in Albuquerque, he'd probably listen to KRKE ( or live stream it) and like it. Waggoner supports your medium and your business. Not everyone who is involved with radio has to agree at all times.
Last edited:
Are you talking about Ben Fong Torres?
No. Ben Fong-Torres is more fair and balanced. He's a fan of the Grateful Dead and has done a good job promoting Bay Area music.
Who are you talking about then?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Okay, this has gone on long enough for me to finally say this, in frustration:
It's Wagoner. With one "g".
I may not like the guy's column, but at least he deserves to have his name correctly spelled.
It's Wagoner. With one "g".
I may not like the guy's column, but at least he deserves to have his name correctly spelled.
Sorry ! You're correct, and I'm usually a stickler for spelling names correctly. My apologies. But still -- he's just a free lancer out of San Pedro, CA, who loves radio. Listeners see the medium much differently than people in the business see it.
But he sees it with 1980 glasses on. Even I did not thing that way about radio back three or four decades when I was actually managing and programming stations.
Yes -- because you are a business executive who has to crunch the numbers and pay the bills. You have to run the station by taking the bottom line into consideration. That's very important.
Someone started a thread here about listening to DJ's. It's the same issue. Radio executives here will say that air talent is too expensive. Listeners will have a different opinion. Wagoner is a listener from San Pedro who writes from a listener's perspective. You write from the perspective of an owner of multiple successful stations. It's two different perspectives.
Rich Lieberman. A real piece of...work.
United States: Bay Area Women Journalists Come Together Condemning Sexist Comments Of Blogger Richard Lieberman — Coalition For Women in Journalism
The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) stands with women journalists who voiced dissent against blogger Richard Lieberman who has for over a decade been quoted as a “reliable source” in Bay Area newsrooms, especially The Mercury News.
www.womeninjournalism.org
Here's the thing (and @Mike Stark , since you know him and I don't, feel free to correct anything I get wrong here):
Richard Wagoner took some initiative and tried to fill a gap in Southern California print reporting on radio.
The people who were in that space before him had some major advantages, and drew full paychecks and benefits from the Los Angeles Times (not bad bucks in those days).
Don Page was a journalist who worked as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, covered some media stuff, made the right contacts and was eventually given a weekly Radio/TV column.
His successor, James Brown---I can't find any bio for. Good luck in this day and age getting Google hits on a local media writer from 50 years ago up against the Channel 4 Jim Brown, the football Jim Brown and the Godfather of Soul hisownself.
BUT---the L.A. Times was a BIG deal when Brown replaced Page in the 70s, so I'm willing to bet there's a degree in Journalism and a pretty enviable resume' and portfolio of work that got him hired.
Claudia Puig has a Masters in Communications from USC. Started at the Times as a staff writer and at some point succeeded Brown, but essentially was an "Entertainment Reporter", not strictly covering Radio/TV. When she did, she did it well, though.
And when Claudia left for USA Today in 1997, the Times didn't really replace her. They'd have someone who usually did entertainment pieces covering news in radio if and when it happened, and often not the same person who'd written about the station or personality before. And that's kinda been the situation ever since.
Really, even after Brown, the Times scaled back its dedicated radio coverage. Claudia was more likely to write about TV or film than about radio.
Looking at LinkedIn, the story I think I can tell is that in 1987, Richard Wagoner is a high school teacher with a Bachelor's in Economics from UCLA who decides to pitch a radio column to the Los Angeles Daily News, and they said yes.
Now, he's not journalist or a writer. When he begins he's a high school teacher in Huntington Park (MAJOR respect).
He doesn't have time for the phone calls, the lunches, the industry promotional gatherings and cocktail parties. He can't build the network of sources that Page, Brown and Puig cultivated. He can't soak in the knowledge of how things actually work, how they're changing around him, and why.
But he grew up in L.A., loves the radio he grew up on and there's just enough of that left at that time that he can write about what he hears and he's writing for an audience that's probably very much like him in its memories and its tastes.
It's 37 years later, the landscape has changed dramatically, and he gets knocked for what he writes.
I'm not going to defend what he writes...in fact I've criticized it here over the years and even sent him a couple of notes when I thought he was way wrong.
But think about what you're comparing him to.
The reason there's no modern-day Don Page, James Brown or Claudia Puig is because the Los Angeles Times hasn't wanted to pay for one for 27 years. They don't see the value in that coverage.
But for 37 years, Wagoner has taken some of whatever free time he has to write and get paid either per-word or per-piece. And I'll bet you lunch you'd be shocked at how low either of those numbers probably are.
The first person to hire me to write freelance was @BossRadioDJ for the old Radio-i forget-it's 6:30 in the morning-dot-com (RadioInfo? RadioOnline?)
I got paid two cents a word and that stream of income dried up when it went under.
That was 1996-ish. I turned my focus to cars while still working in broadcasting. The next time someone paid me to freelance was 2009. AAA (the Auto Club) magazines in six states paid me 25 bucks apiece for reviews for three years until new editors came aboard in 2012. So, $25 a month for 36 months (that bought them the rights for all six magazines)---I made $900 in three years.
And at that point, I'd been a professional journalist for 31 years and writing about cars for 15. After that came BBC Autos, the NAPA Know-How Blog, then Forbes and Now U.S. News & World Report Cars. So stuff got better.
But again---I had advantages. The first 11 years I did cars, it was on TV stations in a large market. So even though it was a "side hustle", I made the contacts, I was given the opportunity to attend events. So when I separated my automotive writing from my general journalism career in 2008, I had that infrastructure in place to help me grow as a writer and to stay current with the industry.
There isn't a support system like that for local radio writers anymore, if it ever existed.
There are any number of current and former broadcast people living in Southern California who could have said "Hey, I have knowledge, contacts and a laptop. Pay me $100 a week and I'll write about radio on my patio for a couple of hours every weekend."
They didn't.
Richard Wagoner did.
Richard Wagoner took some initiative and tried to fill a gap in Southern California print reporting on radio.
The people who were in that space before him had some major advantages, and drew full paychecks and benefits from the Los Angeles Times (not bad bucks in those days).
Don Page was a journalist who worked as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, covered some media stuff, made the right contacts and was eventually given a weekly Radio/TV column.
His successor, James Brown---I can't find any bio for. Good luck in this day and age getting Google hits on a local media writer from 50 years ago up against the Channel 4 Jim Brown, the football Jim Brown and the Godfather of Soul hisownself.
BUT---the L.A. Times was a BIG deal when Brown replaced Page in the 70s, so I'm willing to bet there's a degree in Journalism and a pretty enviable resume' and portfolio of work that got him hired.
Claudia Puig has a Masters in Communications from USC. Started at the Times as a staff writer and at some point succeeded Brown, but essentially was an "Entertainment Reporter", not strictly covering Radio/TV. When she did, she did it well, though.
And when Claudia left for USA Today in 1997, the Times didn't really replace her. They'd have someone who usually did entertainment pieces covering news in radio if and when it happened, and often not the same person who'd written about the station or personality before. And that's kinda been the situation ever since.
Really, even after Brown, the Times scaled back its dedicated radio coverage. Claudia was more likely to write about TV or film than about radio.
Looking at LinkedIn, the story I think I can tell is that in 1987, Richard Wagoner is a high school teacher with a Bachelor's in Economics from UCLA who decides to pitch a radio column to the Los Angeles Daily News, and they said yes.
Now, he's not journalist or a writer. When he begins he's a high school teacher in Huntington Park (MAJOR respect).
He doesn't have time for the phone calls, the lunches, the industry promotional gatherings and cocktail parties. He can't build the network of sources that Page, Brown and Puig cultivated. He can't soak in the knowledge of how things actually work, how they're changing around him, and why.
But he grew up in L.A., loves the radio he grew up on and there's just enough of that left at that time that he can write about what he hears and he's writing for an audience that's probably very much like him in its memories and its tastes.
It's 37 years later, the landscape has changed dramatically, and he gets knocked for what he writes.
I'm not going to defend what he writes...in fact I've criticized it here over the years and even sent him a couple of notes when I thought he was way wrong.
But think about what you're comparing him to.
The reason there's no modern-day Don Page, James Brown or Claudia Puig is because the Los Angeles Times hasn't wanted to pay for one for 27 years. They don't see the value in that coverage.
But for 37 years, Wagoner has taken some of whatever free time he has to write and get paid either per-word or per-piece. And I'll bet you lunch you'd be shocked at how low either of those numbers probably are.
The first person to hire me to write freelance was @BossRadioDJ for the old Radio-i forget-it's 6:30 in the morning-dot-com (RadioInfo? RadioOnline?)
I got paid two cents a word and that stream of income dried up when it went under.
That was 1996-ish. I turned my focus to cars while still working in broadcasting. The next time someone paid me to freelance was 2009. AAA (the Auto Club) magazines in six states paid me 25 bucks apiece for reviews for three years until new editors came aboard in 2012. So, $25 a month for 36 months (that bought them the rights for all six magazines)---I made $900 in three years.
And at that point, I'd been a professional journalist for 31 years and writing about cars for 15. After that came BBC Autos, the NAPA Know-How Blog, then Forbes and Now U.S. News & World Report Cars. So stuff got better.
But again---I had advantages. The first 11 years I did cars, it was on TV stations in a large market. So even though it was a "side hustle", I made the contacts, I was given the opportunity to attend events. So when I separated my automotive writing from my general journalism career in 2008, I had that infrastructure in place to help me grow as a writer and to stay current with the industry.
There isn't a support system like that for local radio writers anymore, if it ever existed.
There are any number of current and former broadcast people living in Southern California who could have said "Hey, I have knowledge, contacts and a laptop. Pay me $100 a week and I'll write about radio on my patio for a couple of hours every weekend."
They didn't.
Richard Wagoner did.
I've read his cesspool site before. He has the same rose colored glasses as Richard Wagoner with 1970s radio/tv, but he also insults everyone under the sun and seems very bitter. I have no idea who donates to read his stuff/watch his Youtube videos that look like they're filmed in his messy bedroom. Some of the comments on his blogs are more vile than the blog entries themselves.Rich Lieberman. A real piece of...work.
United States: Bay Area Women Journalists Come Together Condemning Sexist Comments Of Blogger Richard Lieberman — Coalition For Women in Journalism
The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) stands with women journalists who voiced dissent against blogger Richard Lieberman who has for over a decade been quoted as a “reliable source” in Bay Area newsrooms, especially The Mercury News.
Oh no, not that rabbit hole...again.Rich Lieberman. A real piece of...work.
United States: Bay Area Women Journalists Come Together Condemning Sexist Comments Of Blogger Richard Lieberman — Coalition For Women in Journalism
The Coalition For Women In Journalism (CFWIJ) stands with women journalists who voiced dissent against blogger Richard Lieberman who has for over a decade been quoted as a “reliable source” in Bay Area newsrooms, especially The Mercury News.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
You left out Patrick Goldstein, whose "Pop Eye" column in the Times' Calendar section (which back then existed only on Sundays) also covered radio. In fact, one of his columns was indirectly responsible for me becoming acquainted with J.J. Jackson, Jim Ladd, Raechel Donahue, and the rest of the KMPC-FM/KEDG staff in 1989. (With the exception of "Triple J" and "The Laddster", I have remained friends with all of them, a quarter-century later.)
And I would also like to acknowledge the late Gary Lycan of the Orange County Register, who for many years doubled as their radio columnist, and the late Don Barrett, who took over Gary's column briefly after his death and who also, of course, created LARadio.com to fill the void left by the demise of both newspapers' radio coverage.
Sorry for the omissions. Point remains that Goldstein was a professional journalist and full-time employee of the Los Angeles Times. Gary Lycan was a journalist and a 40-year employee of the Orange County Register. Don Barrett was an insider who had the time and money to write a book about L.A. and start a website to promote the book that evolved into a news source.
It's unfair to compare Richard Wagoner to those guys.
Patrick morphed into a film critic and left the Times 12 years ago. Gary and Don are dead.
And again---there are dozens of men and women in Southern California who know the industry who could have said "Yeah, I'll write about what I love for lunch money a few hours a week" when Gary died or who could have taken over LARadio-dot-com when Don got sick.
None of 'em did.
So we have Richard.
- Status