It's Official: Saul Levine no longer a hero

[Marv-L.A.]

For openers, SHAWN Parr is doing mornings on Go Country 105 (www.gocountry105.com), and his show is HYSTERICAL. He selects his own music, and actually takes requests.

His show IS being streamed; he put a listener who was streaming from his home inTulsa, Okla. on the air, and played his request, a Wade Hayes song from 1996 entitled 'On A Real Good Night'.

He's also fielded phone calls from the likes of Tracy Lawrence, Phil Vassar, Danielle Peck, Collin Raye, and Kix Brooks.

The station will increase its live content; ex KZLA MD Tanya Campos will do middays starting either this Monday or next Monday.

Whitney Allen's show is nationally syndicated, and airs live from 7 PM-midnight since it was launched on January 8th, as was another 7PM-midnight show hosted by 'After Midnite' host Blair Garner.

Levine was quoted as saying that EVERY agency in town has called him since Monday, and he has also stated he'd be DELIGHTED with billing $20,000,000, which should be a piece of cake, and all of those agencies told him that he NEEDED to be on FM.

Now that he's done so, has a GREAT signal (better than KZLA's, which was solely a directional one), I expect the station to do quite well.

The ethnic breakdowns for both LA and Riverside County are nearly identical according to upper-echelon executives at both KFRG & newly launched KRBV in L.A., and KFRG is also building a new tower for better coverage in Orange County which should be ready very soon.

They will also add more LIVE programming so that they can become a reporter to BB/R&R; their current mix on opening day this past Monday (22% current, 22% recurrent and 56% gold) will undoubtedly be MUCH different as they continue to add more live programming.

But having Shawn Parr in morning drive is indispensable; Peter Tilden had ZERO business doing morning drive at any other format beside talk; I have no idea why ex-KZLA PD R J Curtis (and currently the country radio editor at R&R) didn't sack him and move Parr to mornings.

Nevertheless, having country country stations launched in markets #2 and #4 (San Francisco) within FOUR days is something that all of Nashville is undoubtedly delirious about, and you can bet that Nashvilee will throw all of their weight and resources to both stations to get them off the ground.

 

[SuperRadioFan]

For openers, SHAWN Parr is doing mornings on Go Country 105 (www.gocountry105.com), and his show is HYSTERICAL. He selects his own music, and actually takes requests.
..........................................................
He's also fielded phone calls from the likes of Tracy Lawrence, Phil Vassar, Danielle Peck, Collin Raye, and Kix Brooks.

The station will increase its live content; ex KZLA MD Tanya Campos will do middays starting either this Monday or next Monday.

Whitney Allen's show is nationally syndicated, and airs live from 7 PM-midnight since it was launched on January 8th, as was another 7PM-midnight show hosted by 'After Midnite' host Blair Garner.

Levine was quoted as saying that EVERY agency in town has called him since Monday, and he has also stated he'd be DELIGHTED with billing $20,000,000, which should be a piece of cake, and all of those agencies told him that he NEEDED to be on FM.

Now that he's done so, has a GREAT signal (better than KZLA's, which was solely a directional one), I expect the station to do quite well.
...............................................................................
But having Shawn Parr in morning drive is indispensable; Peter Tilden had ZERO business doing morning drive at any other format beside talk; I have no idea why ex-KZLA PD R J Curtis (and currently the country radio editor at R&R) didn't sack him and move Parr to mornings.

Nevertheless, having country stations launched in markets #2 and #4 (San Francisco) within FOUR days is something that all of Nashville is undoubtedly delirious about, and you can bet that Nashvilee will throw all of their weight and resources to both stations to get them off the ground.

Shawn Parr is really into it, you can really tell by hearing him. I heard the Kix Brooks call and another one (forget who). How do you know he picks his own music?
I was jazzed to hear the original version of Ring of Fire play on Monday morning.

I believe Tanya Campos starts on March 12th. Whitney is on 3 pm - 8 pm. They've updated their website with the programs .. They're gonna have a Grand Ol' Opry program on the weekend. They also have a media kit link for those who have PowerPoint.

David Eduardo will disagree with you about their signal. What else is new?


I've also sampled 95.7 The Wolf in SF ... Their "intro" audio file is a hoot.

 

[ercjncpr]

For openers, SHAWN Parr is doing mornings on Go Country 105 (www.gocountry105.com), and his show is HYSTERICAL. He selects his own music, and actually takes requests.

His show IS being streamed; he put a listener who was streaming from his home inTulsa, Okla. on the air, and played his request, a Wade Hayes song from 1996 entitled 'On A Real Good Night'.

He's also fielded phone calls from the likes of Tracy Lawrence, Phil Vassar, Danielle Peck, Collin Raye, and Kix Brooks.

The station will increase its live content; ex KZLA MD Tanya Campos will do middays starting either this Monday or next Monday.

Whitney Allen's show is nationally syndicated, and airs live from 7 PM-midnight since it was launched on January 8th, as was another 7PM-midnight show hosted by 'After Midnite' host Blair Garner.

Levine was quoted as saying that EVERY agency in town has called him since Monday, and he has also stated he'd be DELIGHTED with billing $20,000,000, which should be a piece of cake, and all of those agencies told him that he NEEDED to be on FM.

Now that he's done so, has a GREAT signal (better than KZLA's, which was solely a directional one), I expect the station to do quite well.

The ethnic breakdowns for both LA and Riverside County are nearly identical according to upper-echelon executives at both KFRG & newly launched KRBV in L.A., and KFRG is also building a new tower for better coverage in Orange County which should be ready very soon.

They will also add more LIVE programming so that they can become a reporter to BB/R&R; their current mix on opening day this past Monday (22% current, 22% recurrent and 56% gold) will undoubtedly be MUCH different as they continue to add more live programming.

But having Shawn Parr in morning drive is indispensable; Peter Tilden had ZERO business doing morning drive at any other format beside talk; I have no idea why ex-KZLA PD R J Curtis (and currently the country radio editor at R&R) didn't sack him and move Parr to mornings.

Nevertheless, having country country stations launched in markets #2 and #4 (San Francisco) within FOUR days is something that all of Nashville is undoubtedly delirious about, and you can bet that Nashvilee will throw all of their weight and resources to both stations to get them off the ground.

I hope that, excited as you are, you will be able to forgive Mr. Levine when he realizes in a few months that he is not going to bill the $20 million and pulls the plug on the format (which, as you know, he is ultra-famous for doing)

 

[HollywoodFM]

What?

 

[HollywoodFM]

Country 105.1 is running on the cheap! I agree, Tilden should not have done mornings but Parr is horrible. Alll the man does is talk about himself! There's no content or appeal at all. Boring. He's great at middays but that's about it.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

You can't build a radio station around a morning show with Peter Tilden; he was FAR too dull, and KZLA NEVER should have hired him in the first place.

Parr has more personality in his ring finger than Tilden has ever had; having him in middays was indefensibly stupid, and having him in AM drive will do wonders for the station's bottom line.

 

[davideduardo]

I think "no ads" is a Clear Channel policy that others may have picked up.

It is a recommendation of the HD Coalition.

 

[rwagoner]

RE: Ads on HD-2

I've been listening a lot lately to KROQ's HD-2 feed via the internet, and they definitely run ads.

I'll have to listen more; I've not heard them on KROQ-2.

 

[semoochie]

I forgot about their recommendation. I remember now. Thanks!

 

[semoochie]

I suppose this belongs earlier in this thread but thought I'd share it anyway: I was curious as to how many commercial Classical stations still exist in America so I checked the Arbitron ratings for the top 60 markets. That appears to be enough. There are commercial Classical stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington, Boston, Seattle, St Louis, Milwaukee and Providence RI. That's all! The Providence station is owned by the same company as the one in Boston and has very similar call letters so there's a good chance they're simulcasting. I expected to find stations in places like Philadelphia, Detroit and several cities in the midwest, Atlanta and Denver.

 

[ajhenderson]

I suppose this belongs earlier in this thread but thought I'd share it anyway: I was curious as to how many commercial Classical stations still exist in America so I checked the Arbitron ratings for the top 60 markets. That appears to be enough. There are commercial Classical stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington, Boston, Seattle, St Louis, Milwaukee and Providence RI. That's all! The Providence station is owned by the same company as the one in Boston and has very similar call letters so there's a good chance they're simulcasting. I expected to find stations in places like Philadelphia, Detroit and several cities in the midwest, Atlanta and Denver.

WCLV/Lorain-Cleveland operates a weak signal (having formerly had a nice AM/FM combo) that operates on the commercial band but isn't really commercial.

 

[semoochie]

I think many places still have a noncomm Classical station. Cleveland is one of the places that surprised me, what with them having a rather famous orchestra! How many on this list are like the Seattle station, which was set up to be run commercially by a non-profit entity? I don't have the details, but when King Broadcasting sold, the FM Classical format was made a gift to Seattle forever!

 

[ajhenderson]

I think Cleveland's is similar. I lived there for a long time but don't exactly recall... basically, the "WCLV Foundation". I do know that many markets have NCE classical stations, but how many, unlike WCLV, are o&o'ed by colleges?

 

[semoochie]

I'm terribly sorry, I skipped right over the one in Cleveland! It may be because it was so far down the list.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

For openers, KKGO DOES play the Dixie Chicks, so let's put that to rest right away.

KMZT was not going to book $1,000,000 this year after booking $4,800,000 in 2006, according to Mr. Levine, so he had no choice.

KZLA's 2006 revenue was in the low $20,000,000 rane after after $28,000,000 was billed in 2005, according to Jimmy Steal.

But his patience in NOT flipping formats has to be applauded, given the VERY long runs his station had as both a jazz & a classical station.

 

[ercjncpr]

I think he needs to flip the 1260 back to adult standards because he isn't even going to book $250,000 with classical using old fashioned non-HD amplitude modulation with a 5kHz bandwidth

 

[davideduardo]

I think he needs to flip the 1260 back to adult standards because he isn't even going to book $250,000 with classical using old fashioned non-HD amplitude modulation with a 5kHz bandwidth

Standards would bill even less... the number of listeners under 65 is nearly zero. Classical at least has some "snob appeal" and can be sold... probably in combo with the HD2 channel on KKGO, which sounds very nice, by the way.

 

[ercjncpr]

I think he needs to flip the 1260 back to adult standards because he isn't even going to book $250,000 with classical using old fashioned non-HD amplitude modulation with a 5kHz bandwidth

Standards would bill even less... the number of listeners under 65 is nearly zero. Classical at least has some "snob appeal" and can be sold... probably in combo with the HD2 channel on KKGO, which sounds very nice, by the way.

HD Radio is like HDTV and like Broadband Internet...those that have it tend to think that there is universal access to it and we are a long way from that

 

[scooty430]

I think he needs to flip the 1260 back to adult standards because he isn't even going to book $250,000 with classical using old fashioned non-HD amplitude modulation with a 5kHz bandwidth

Standards would bill even less... the number of listeners under 65 is nearly zero. Classical at least has some "snob appeal" and can be sold... probably in combo with the HD2 channel on KKGO, which sounds very nice, by the way.

I agree that classical on AM isn't going to work. Give it to Chuck Cecil and let him play some swing.