"Big Announcement" Regarding John and Ken on Monday

[nick0814]

The J and K show's Instagram page shows a post announcing that "The John Kobylt Show" begins the following Monday. Whether that means just he and Debra Mark , or an eventual co-host joins John, who knows. But as has been wisely pointed out here, it's invariably true about one half of a heritage team's remaining in the time slot is a tough road to navigate. Kevin Ryder was bounced less than six months after "Bean's" retirement. The whole usually is worth more than the sum of the parts.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I heard ‘em when they aired. Even by that standard, KMPC’s (also done by Anita Kerr) were better. And that package (same year) had its cringeworthy moments.

Please don't take it the wrong way, but I doubt they were trying to appeal to you, assuming that you and I are around the same age. To make an analogy to what I was doing in 1969 or 1970, I know that I sure as heck wasn't listening to WHO unless parental proximity required it.

 

[TomásEstefan]

Oh, so this was after Disney sold the stations to Citadel in 2006?

No idea.

I doubt that the "ABC"/KABC thing was a factor. We didn't use ABC for newscasts at KFBK, either. It's a source of audio for your own locally-produced newscasts, provides special coverage in major news moments outside the market and gives you access to ABC News reporters and anchors for interviews. KFI may very well have had---or possibly even still has---the affiliation.

Interesting...I guess an infinite source of news soundbites !

 

[michael hagerty]

Please don't take it the wrong way, but I doubt they were trying to appeal to you, assuming that you and I are around the same age. To make an analogy to what I was doing in 1969 or 1970, I know that I sure as heck wasn't listening to WHO unless parental proximity required it.

That's fair. I was 13---and I actually kinda liked personality MOR as done by KFI, KMPC and KGIL. But I gotta tell you, those were four LONG years that KFI ran that package.

 

[davideduardo]

Then again, you, and the rest of us, are listening to the jingles from the perspective of 2023, and judging them with "2023 ears", not "1970 ears". For what was going on in 1970, they sound somewhat dated but not all that out of place for a full-service station of its time.

As someone who bought jingles... lots of jingles in that era... 1964 to 1985 at least... I'd say that those were not dated. They were just horrible. Way too long for AC or MOR (I had one of the very first Top 40 derived AC's in 1972 with TM Jingles) and that discordant instrumental interval is absolutely audience killing.

Remember, the very short jingle a la Drake came to us in the mid-60's and was widely used by 1970. And the KCBQ style "shotgun" originated around 1970-1971 and became widely used by the time ACs and Top 40's started making the transition to FM around 1972-1973.

 

[radiofan2023]

As someone who bought jingles... lots of jingles in that era... 1964 to 1985 at least... I'd say that those were not dated. They were just horrible. Way too long for AC or MOR (I had one of the very first Top 40 derived AC's in 1972 with TM Jingles) and that discordant instrumental interval is absolutely audience killing.

Remember, the very short jingle a la Drake came to us in the mid-60's and was widely used by 1970. And the KCBQ style "shotgun" originated around 1970-1971 and became widely used by the time ACs and Top 40's started making the transition to FM around 1972-1973.

If you got jingles you disliked immediately like those, how many times could you ask for them to be redone in a different style? Or regardless of which company you used (JAM, etc.) did you just get what you got and if you didn’t like it, tough cookies?

 

[nick0814]

Lohman and Barkley's weekend show on KNBC was pretty well-received and successful. I think it won a couple of local Emmys.
The last I heard of Al was in Palm Springs in the 1990s, hosting the morning show with Fort Michaels on "K-PALM."

 

[TheBigA]

Remember, the very short jingle a la Drake came to us in the mid-60's and was widely used by 1970.

My sense was that before the advent of those short jingles, the intent was to replicate the old time radio sound when stations had in-house bands that would create transition music. The old Don McNeill Breakfast Club had a live band and they did that kind of transition music. It sounded very dated and hokey in its final years. Then as you said things got shorter and tighter.

 

[Mark Roberts]

That's fair. I was 13---and I actually kinda liked personality MOR as done by KFI, KMPC and KGIL. But I gotta tell you, those were four LONG years that KFI ran that package.

For those of us who were in the hinterlands, it's most likely we would have known these personalities as daytime game-show hosts. I didn't realize until I was an adult that these guys were really just moonlighting on TV, though I always thought Bob Edwards had a very Top-40 way of talking, even on the Newlywed Game.

 

[Mark Roberts]

My sense was that before the advent of those short jingles, the intent was to replicate the old time radio sound when stations had in-house bands that would create transition music. The old Don McNeill Breakfast Club had a live band and they did that kind of transition music. It sounded very dated and hokey in its final years. Then as you said things got shorter and tighter.

That's kind of where my thinking was, too; I think it would have sounded dated even around 1970. Where I was, trends took time to reach; even our Top-40 stations sometimes didn't seem all that tight. Hearing this kind of thing in Los Angeles would have been a shock; less so in Des Moines (though I don't remember hearing that kind of thing from there).

 

[michael hagerty]

If you got jingles you disliked immediately like those, how many times could you ask for them to be redone in a different style? Or regardless of which company you used (JAM, etc.) did you just get what you got and if you didn’t like it, tough cookies?

Stations were usually very involved in custom packages---though Anita Kerr was kind of a big deal in L.A. and it may be that KFI didn't want to offend her.

I know several PDs who were unhappy with even the cookie-cutter jingles (PAMS, JAM, TM, Century21) and asked for re-sings---often attending the sessions themselves to make sure it was okay before everyone went home.

 

[michael hagerty]

Lohman and Barkley's weekend show on KNBC was pretty well-received and successful. I think it won a couple of local Emmys.
The last I heard of Al was in Palm Springs in the 1990s, hosting the morning show with Fort Michaels on "K-PALM."

It did win local Emmys...but didn't attract much of an audience (11:30 on Saturday nights). It lasted two seasons.

Al was in Palm Springs. I almost killed him when he stepped off a curb on Palm Canyon against the light in front of my Suburban.
I stopped just in time. It would have been horrible no matter what, but I was really shook realizing that I almost ran over a major broadcast idol of mine.

 

[TheBigA]

I know several PDs who were unhappy with even the cookie-cutter jingles (PAMS, JAM, TM, Century21) and asked for re-sings---often attending the sessions themselves to make sure it was okay before everyone went home.

There were many reasons to attend those sessions. Only the PD really understood how those jingles would be used. The creative team at the jingle house sort of lived in a vacuum. The opportunity to work with that team, and hear the results immediately was an experience few could turn down.

 

[michael hagerty]

My sense was that before the advent of those short jingles, the intent was to replicate the old time radio sound when stations had in-house bands that would create transition music. The old Don McNeill Breakfast Club had a live band and they did that kind of transition music. It sounded very dated and hokey in its final years. Then as you said things got shorter and tighter.

In L.A., KMPC actually pioneered jingles for adult radio---Bob Forward was the PD in 1956 who thought having several different jingles, with a common logo would give the station added production value. The original set were fairly tight---many just "KMPC, Los Angeles" in different tempos. I think the longest image piece was 15 seconds. This was two years before Chuck Blore at KFWB and the Broadway-inspired stuff that lasted up to a minute.

The KMPC jingles survived until a new PD, Russ Barnett, in 1963---who updated the jingles, but kept them tight.

KFI avoided jingles entirely until 1969, when both they and KMPC hired Anita Kerr, who created 20-plus cuts for each station, many as long as 60 seconds.

 

[michael hagerty]

For those of us who were in the hinterlands, it's most likely we would have known these personalities as daytime game-show hosts. I didn't realize until I was an adult that these guys were really just moonlighting on TV, though I always thought Bob Edwards had a very Top-40 way of talking, even on the Newlywed Game.

I think you're conflating Bob Eubanks, who hosted the Newlywed Game, with Geoff Edwards, who hosted Treasure Hunt and others.

Bob was a Top 40 jock---having worked at KRLA before going to TV full-time.

 

[radiofan2023]

There were many reasons to attend those sessions. Only the PD really understood how those jingles would be used. The creative team at the jingle house sort of lived in a vacuum. The opportunity to work with that team, and hear the results immediately was an experience few could turn down.

This video of the Johnny Mann Singers doing a jingle session is great:

 

[Mark Roberts]

I think you're conflating Bob Eubanks, who hosted the Newlywed Game, with Geoff Edwards, who hosted Treasure Hunt and others.

Bob was a Top 40 jock---having worked at KRLA before going to TV full-time.

Yep, I did and I knew better, too. Fingers and words, not always sure.

 

[nick0814]

In L.A., KMPC actually pioneered jingles for adult radio---Bob Forward was the PD in 1956 who thought having several different jingles, with a common logo would give the station added production value. The original set were fairly tight---many just "KMPC, Los Angeles" in different tempos. I think the longest image piece was 15 seconds. This was two years before Chuck Blore at KFWB and the Broadway-inspired stuff that lasted up to a minute.

The KMPC jingles survived until a new PD, Russ Barnett, in 1963---who updated the jingles, but kept them tight.

KFI avoided jingles entirely until 1969, when both they and KMPC hired Anita Kerr, who created 20-plus cuts for each station, many as long as 60 seconds.

KMPC even integrated the four-note logo into the L.A. Rams' traditional fight song used for the opening of its game broadcasts.

 

[Weiserguy]

I think you're conflating Bob Eubanks, who hosted the Newlywed Game, with Geoff Edwards, who hosted Treasure Hunt and others.

Bob was a Top 40 jock---having worked at KRLA before going to TV full-time.

Besides, Bob Edwards was, in the 70s, 80s and 90s, host of NPR's All Things Considered, and more famously, Morning Edition.

 

[davideduardo]

If you got jingles you disliked immediately like those, how many times could you ask for them to be redone in a different style? Or regardless of which company you used (JAM, etc.) did you just get what you got and if you didn’t like it, tough cookies?

I've never heard of a jingle being "redone" in a different style.

(A re-sing on the same tracks might be done if something was not sung right... but the tracks never changed)

A station hears demos (tapes way back when), CDs later and now online. They pick the package a jingle company has open in your market that they like.

Jingles are done in syndicated form except for major market custom work. The jingle company has packages with prerecorded tracks for K and W and different call letter or name syllable counts. You buy the package and they fit your calls or name into the existing track that is the best fit.

The instrumental track is not done custom for the vast majority of packages. You pick the package, and adapt the track lyrics to your station name and slogans and airstaff or program names.