R
Rich Ransom
Guest
I learned of this site from David Jackson, who alerted me that someone graciously suggested I’d be a good fit for the “New” KFRC, a few months ago. Today was my first opportunity to cruise the place. Here are a few comments and opinions on recent board postings regarding KFRC and KMEL, if anyone cares!
KFRC – Outside of Dave in the morning, the station was flat-out boring, in my opinion. Some have suggested the Bay Area demographic has changed over the years with transplants, necessitating a more mainstream lean to the music of the new station – a sound resembling a Kenosha or Duluth station. As a San Francisco native, KFRC played what Casey Kasem played, but also tossed in what grooved on KDIA, KSFX and KSOL – regardless of national chart position. They did this because the Bay Area was and is a unique market and can’t be programmed from afar. My suggestions:
· Break out the old playlists and see what worked then. Funkadelic into Rod Stewart into Chicago into The Spinners worked. Novel idea – try it again?
· Find a few heritage KFRC jocks and make it worth their while to relocate. I had the pleasure of working with Jack Armstrong at B-95 in Fresno in 1988 (I was his news sidekick for a couple months), and nobody I’ve met had more passion about radio. Sure it’s been 20 years, and if he’d lose the gorilla….
· John Mack – I met him a few times when I was interning and he was burned out at KRQR, and I understand his apprehension of getting back in full-time. Despite the calls for him to do so, I ask myself the same questions when someone asks me – Why? As a listener, it would be great to have Jack, John Mack and What-A-Guy back.
· Hire a really out-there Promotions Director who has free reign to do something that will grab attention.
KMEL – It’s hard for me to listen to today’s KMEL. Granted I am no longer 23, but when I worked at KMEL, we were hands-down the market leader, with 2x the numbers of the second-place music station, and beating KGO in PM Drive, thanks to Rick Chase.
We also had Keith Naftaly, whom I believe has never received his due in transforming what was considered Top 40 Radio. We did not play Tiffany, Aerosmith or Billy Joel. Instead it was Rodney O & Joe Cooley, Stevie B and Alexander O’Neal. It was a mixture of R&B, Freestyle Dance and Hip Hop, with intelligent talk in more-or-less grammatically correct English, reaching the mass audience, instead of polarizing listeners with street vernacular. Keith told me one time that he wasn’t programming to the black or white audience, but rather everything in between.
Would I work in radio again? As a full-time job, no? From what I hear, the money is the same or less than when I got out in the early 1990’s. Good money for a 25 year-old, but not when you have 2 kids, a stay-at-home mom, and a Silicon Valley mortgage. And not if contracts are still the same: My 2-year KMEL contract included a 150-mile radius non-compete, bound me to the station for the duration but only provided a 2-week buyout if they tired of me. Oh, and 6-day workweeks?
Weekends…maybe. As a hobby.
KFRC – Outside of Dave in the morning, the station was flat-out boring, in my opinion. Some have suggested the Bay Area demographic has changed over the years with transplants, necessitating a more mainstream lean to the music of the new station – a sound resembling a Kenosha or Duluth station. As a San Francisco native, KFRC played what Casey Kasem played, but also tossed in what grooved on KDIA, KSFX and KSOL – regardless of national chart position. They did this because the Bay Area was and is a unique market and can’t be programmed from afar. My suggestions:
· Break out the old playlists and see what worked then. Funkadelic into Rod Stewart into Chicago into The Spinners worked. Novel idea – try it again?
· Find a few heritage KFRC jocks and make it worth their while to relocate. I had the pleasure of working with Jack Armstrong at B-95 in Fresno in 1988 (I was his news sidekick for a couple months), and nobody I’ve met had more passion about radio. Sure it’s been 20 years, and if he’d lose the gorilla….
· John Mack – I met him a few times when I was interning and he was burned out at KRQR, and I understand his apprehension of getting back in full-time. Despite the calls for him to do so, I ask myself the same questions when someone asks me – Why? As a listener, it would be great to have Jack, John Mack and What-A-Guy back.
· Hire a really out-there Promotions Director who has free reign to do something that will grab attention.
KMEL – It’s hard for me to listen to today’s KMEL. Granted I am no longer 23, but when I worked at KMEL, we were hands-down the market leader, with 2x the numbers of the second-place music station, and beating KGO in PM Drive, thanks to Rick Chase.
We also had Keith Naftaly, whom I believe has never received his due in transforming what was considered Top 40 Radio. We did not play Tiffany, Aerosmith or Billy Joel. Instead it was Rodney O & Joe Cooley, Stevie B and Alexander O’Neal. It was a mixture of R&B, Freestyle Dance and Hip Hop, with intelligent talk in more-or-less grammatically correct English, reaching the mass audience, instead of polarizing listeners with street vernacular. Keith told me one time that he wasn’t programming to the black or white audience, but rather everything in between.
Would I work in radio again? As a full-time job, no? From what I hear, the money is the same or less than when I got out in the early 1990’s. Good money for a 25 year-old, but not when you have 2 kids, a stay-at-home mom, and a Silicon Valley mortgage. And not if contracts are still the same: My 2-year KMEL contract included a 150-mile radius non-compete, bound me to the station for the duration but only provided a 2-week buyout if they tired of me. Oh, and 6-day workweeks?
Weekends…maybe. As a hobby.