Jeff Katz Exits Charlotte

[Laurence Glavin]

You may have noticed that talk-show host Jeff Katz has exited Charlotte (Charlotte, NC, that is). He was once a host on WRKO, a station that just MAY be looking for someone to replace one of its non-performing "assets". Just sayin'.

 

[kjlassoc]

Seems to me that he keeps on moving down the East Coast. What happens when he hit Florida?

 

[raccoonradio]

He used to do a night slot (10-mid. I think) and did a promo which made fun of the ol'-timers
who listened to another station where they could, oh boy, win a pen for answering some trivia
question about Glenn Miller...then he was paired with Darlene McCarthy for a morning show.

He had mentioned on air that he got fired in Sacramento, CA for making a joke about hitting
illegal immigrants with their cars:
http://www.phillytalkradioonline.com/archive/katz_jeff2.html

Dan Kennedy wrote about Katz's WRKO morning gig in this Boston Phoenix "Don't Quote Me" piece:
http://bostonphoenix.com/archive/features/98/01/22/DON_T_QUOTE_ME.html

 

[kjlassoc]

Funny to read Dan Kennedy describe WRKO's morning shift as one of their "crown jewels." Does that mean that these days it is cubit zirconium?

Maybe Katz's best career move would be to reunite with Darlene McCarthy. They could same money by recycling the old bumpers.

 

[DJbobo]

Funny to read Dan Kennedy describe WRKO's morning shift as one of their "crown jewels." Does that mean that these days it is cubit zirconium?

Maybe Katz's best career move would be to reunite with Darlene McCarthy. They could same money by recycling the old bumpers.

Dan Kennedy is like one of those annoying nerdy, latchkey kids in detention hall who has got the whole world figured out. He knows about less radio than Jeff Katz knows about being a talk show host.

 

[OFFICENERD]

From this morning's Charlotte Observer

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/story/389812.html

Read the comments at the end of the article, he had lots of fans it looks like.

 

[SonicOverload]

Funny to read Dan Kennedy describe WRKO's morning shift as one of their "crown jewels." Does that mean that these days it is cubit zirconium?

Maybe Katz's best career move would be to reunite with Darlene McCarthy. They could same money by recycling the old bumpers.

Dan Kennedy is like one of those annoying nerdy, latchkey kids in detention hall who has got the whole world figured out. He knows about less radio than Jeff Katz knows about being a talk show host.

actually, I regularly read his blog and like his appearances on Greater Boston. I think he knows his stuff...

 

[raccoonradio]

One of the bumper jingles for the old WRKO morning shift was a perky if not screeching "Katz and McCarthy! Jeff
and Darlene! Katz and McCarthy on 'RKO. La la la, LA LA la LA" (the last bit taken from the Banana Splits
theme which was also perhaps borrowed by Bob Marley for "Buffalo Soldier" but I digress)

 

[Don Juan]

Dan Kennedy is like one of those annoying nerdy, latchkey kids in detention hall who has got the whole world figured out.

I am hoping that attitude from Dan was just due to the election fever...which a lot of people were drawn into, with a lot of emotions.

Dan could be one of the better commentators in the city, but he has shown that he is simply a partisan who will do and say anything for his cause....rather than do thoughtful media commentary.

 

[radiotony]

I was never a big fan when he was here in Boston with or without Darlene. I mean, on and on and on with the same blathering nonsense was awful. And the whole "MLK's a communist" thing was just bore-ing, laughable, and sad ...

Beyond Howie Carr who is niche and WBZ, if talk radio in Boston is to survive, it has to try new and different things instead of just offering Rush retreads. It can't just be the same old thing over and over again. You need to mix it up a bit.

Stations also need to let callers talk for more than 30 seconds, especially if they seem like they can put a few sentences together.

Lastly, let's bring talk radio up to some standards again. Use the Gene Burns/Jerry Williams/David Brudnoy/Ted O'Brien model for intelligent conversation about important issues not just hotheads with GOP talking points. We have some problems to solve and talk radio in Boston had always been the place to have conversations about important issues. Right now, Dan Rea seems to be the only one doing this.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Lastly, let's bring talk radio up to some standards again. Use the Gene Burns/Jerry Williams/David Brudnoy/Ted O'Brien model for intelligent conversation about important issues not just hotheads with GOP talking points. We have some problems to solve and talk radio in Boston had always been the place to have conversations about important issues. Right now, Dan Rea seems to be the only one doing this.

Well, as you may know, Progressive talk is (probably only temporarily) back in Boston for six hours a day (Jeff Santos--locally produced--from 6:00 to 9:00AM and Peter B Collins--syndicated, don't know by whom--from 6:00 to 9:00PM, when not pre-empted by play-by-play sports) on leased-time WWZN 1510. The Progressive programming began only this past Monday, 12/1, so its too early to count it out, but I must say that I am not at all impressed by Santos. OTOH, Peter B Collins does quite a good show. If you liked Tom Hartmann when we could get him here back when WKOX (simulcast on WXKS (AM)) carried AirAmerica, you would probably like Collins.

The supporters of Progressive talk like to offer the absence of daily local programming as a major contributor to the format's demise on WKOX. Unfortunately, because there is now a daily local Progressive talk show on WWZN, when the format dies on that station, as it surely will before too long, the supporters will not be able to offer the absence of a daily local show as an excuse. The result will be that the format, which has already died once in the market, will be even deader than dead here. What Santos is in the process of proving, however, is NOT that format can't work here but that, if a daily local Progressive show is necessary for the format to succeed here, that show needs to be a compelling listen. Santos' show isn't--at least it hasn't been from what I've heard of it so far. It hasn't even been close!

 

[Smoke]

Beyond Howie Carr who is niche and WBZ, if talk radio in Boston is to survive, it has to try new and different things instead of just offering Rush retreads. It can't just be the same old thing over and over again. You need to mix it up a bit.

Stations also need to let callers talk for more than 30 seconds, especially if they seem like they can put a few sentences together.

Lastly, let's bring talk radio up to some standards again. Use the Gene Burns/Jerry Williams/David Brudnoy/Ted O'Brien model for intelligent conversation about important issues not just hotheads with GOP talking points. We have some problems to solve and talk radio in Boston had always been the place to have conversations about important issues. Right now, Dan Rea seems to be the only one doing this.

Such brilliance deserves to be quoted.

 

[Smoke]

Progressive talk fails here and other markets because, in part, the signs it ends up on are weak or rimshot.

 

[DanStrassberg]

Progressive talk fails here and other markets because, in part, the signs it ends up on are weak or rimshot.

WWZN runs 50 kW full-time from 198-degree towers. It's a very potent AM signal! Of course, the top-of-the-dial frequency is a liability (reduces coverage) and the poor soil conductivity near the Tx site is an additional libility (also reduces coverage). In addition, the night DA pattern, which is very restrictive to the west and southwest, eliminates coverage of much of the market outside of Route 128 at night. All that said, however, WWZN has one of the market's better AM signals. As I see it, it is surpassed by WBZ, WRKO, WEEI, WEZE, WBIX, and WROL (the last two daytime only). When WKOX gets its 50 kW-U signal on the air, it will be more-or-less comparable to WWZN. The next tier down will include WAMG, WWDJ, WMKI, and WRCA (when it gets its new signal on the air), although maybe I should bump WAMG up into the group that includes WWZN and WKOX.

 

[SonicOverload]

I'm pretty far to the left and I'm finding Jeff Santos kind of dull so far. And the fact that he allowed Steve Sweeney on on Monday to do his tired impressions of Kevin White and Mike Dukakis didn't help. What year is this? 1986? The fact that White has Alzheimers now makes it more offensive and sneaking in a racist word (macaca) to describe Obama while imitating White is way lower than anything Stephanie Miller does. I'll give it a little more time but I miss the Young Guns already.

 

[DToTheJ]

The fact that White has Alzheimers now makes it more offensive and sneaking in a racist word (macaca) to describe Obama while imitating White is way lower than anything Stephanie Miller does.

But Jim Ward doesn't actually say the offensive material himself, he says it through a character!

Now, the way you say the call letters is: W-W-Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-N!

 

[radiotony]

Hah, thanks! ;D

Beyond Howie Carr who is niche and WBZ, if talk radio in Boston is to survive, it has to try new and different things instead of just offering Rush retreads. It can't just be the same old thing over and over again. You need to mix it up a bit.

Stations also need to let callers talk for more than 30 seconds, especially if they seem like they can put a few sentences together.

Lastly, let's bring talk radio up to some standards again. Use the Gene Burns/Jerry Williams/David Brudnoy/Ted O'Brien model for intelligent conversation about important issues not just hotheads with GOP talking points. We have some problems to solve and talk radio in Boston had always been the place to have conversations about important issues. Right now, Dan Rea seems to be the only one doing this.

Such brilliance deserves to be quoted.

 

[radiotony]

My punk rock buddy Al! HTHAY?

Great point here.

Personally, I don't want to get into left/right but instead, would like to stay on the point of productive conversation. I didn't agree with Gene Burns or David Brudnoy much at all but the time I spent listening was an education to me. It was enjoyable and never wasted because I learned things. This can be done regardless of liberal or conservative.

I remember one time when Colin Powell was on Brudnoy and I actually got on and asked him about Operation Garden Plot, an old 1960s plan to round up people in case of civil disobedience which was floated in the 1990s as a conspiracy theory. Well, he acknowledged that the plan existed but could never be implemented because it was against posse comitatus, which, as we all know, has been thrown out the window now in the wake of 9-11. My point though is that Brudnoy's show gave me access to Colin Powell, access I would have never had before. There are few talk show hosts who offer a listener that now and it is a tragedy. Blathering dunderheads from either political spectrum yelling and screaming, while occasionally amusing, doesn't provide this at all.

One other quick point about the future of talk: Look at all those kids who worked for Obama in different states. How come they aren't a talk radio audience? How come they aren't plugged in? How come we aren't connecting them to the forum that is the radio of the air? It is hot, immediate, and when done well, beyond anything else out there as far as information sharing and conversation. We need to activate all those young people - and young people who were out there working for Ralph Nader and McCain/Palin too - to get into this format and that will save it. Anyone mildly interested in politics, never mind obsessed with it, should be connected to talk radio. But the only way to do that is to give the listener variety done well. Is that Jeff Katz? Is that Curt Schilling? Gosh no. Not at all.

Admittedly, I haven't heard Jeff's show but I will try. I'm in New Hampshire at that hour of the morning. But I will try and find out if there are Podcasts and check it out.

I'm pretty far to the left and I'm finding Jeff Santos kind of dull so far. And the fact that he allowed Steve Sweeney on on Monday to do his tired impressions of Kevin White and Mike Dukakis didn't help. What year is this? 1986? The fact that White has Alzheimers now makes it more offensive and sneaking in a racist word (macaca) to describe Obama while imitating White is way lower than anything Stephanie Miller does. I'll give it a little more time but I miss the Young Guns already.

 

[raccoonradio]

So that was Sweeney doing Kevin Hagan White's voice? I tuned in for a few seconds and heard him ask
"the mayor" if he was using a computer these days and I didn't really hear it long enough for me to
determine. The real White these days is dealing with Alzheimer's, as Al said, and lost hearing in one ear.

Are the younger, more liberal folks listening to NPR, or Ipods, or music radio instead, or what? I do know "prog talk" is on the powerful WWKB 1520 in Buffalo ("a new voice, a new choice") which comes in pretty
clearly here at night (Press, Steph Miller, Schultz, Rhodes, Leslie Marshall--from this area, right?, and
Colmes is their lineup.) Owned by the same folks who give a paycheck to Finneran and Howie! So
there's a pretty powerful signal for libtalk.
Time will tell if they're doing well in the ratings. I don't know how well WWKB does.

A couple times at work (N. Reading) I tried to see how well WWZN came in. It was definitely on the
shaky side (about 4 miles north of 128)

As I've said before, I wonder if talk radio appeals more toward middle-aged and older folks than the young,
and the young may tend to be more liberal. Take note though that some hosts may not be straight-across-
the-board conservatives; Phil Hendrie (WTKK) for one, who considers himself "progressive" but not on
every issue. At times he sounds conservative but he both endorsed Obama and predicted he'd win.
Hendrie has said the old-fashioned definitions of liberal and conservative don't work anymore. So, should
radio strictly go for hosts who are solidly in one corner or another, straight across the board in the
prog. or cons. camp? Being entertaining is key of course.

Let me add that Michelle McPhee has been doing a pretty good job on WTKK. I have said before I
wasn't too fond of her voice, and that's true, but she's done a lot of local politics (lately even
helping with a toll-hike-protest movement that brings back memories of Jerry Williams and his
crusades against mandatory seat belts, New Braintree, Congressional pay raises, et al). Good to
have local politics on there.

Is Santos doing the same? Interviewing local lawmakers or activists, taking calls about the local
issues...? I'd hope so as local talk is important.

>>Stations also need to let callers talk for more than 30 seconds

Some shows are or were notorious for that. Yes they want to keep it fast paced, etc., and take many calls but when you have a caller say a couple sentences and then the host blabs for four minutes...

 

[DanStrassberg]

A couple times at work (N. Reading) I tried to see how well WWZN came in. It was definitely on the
shaky side (about 4 miles north of 128)

I would not expect WWZN to come in very well at night four miles north of 128 in N Reading--especially inside of a large steel-framed building. BUT during the daytime, and especially during critical hours (the two hours after sunrise or the two hours before sunset), I would expect the signal to be reasonably good. You can check the signal strength by entering the appropriate Zip code at http://www.v-soft.com/ZipSignal/zip_answer.asp. For AM stations, the site provides day and night signal strengths. It doesn't know from critical hours, however.