Man, Steve RadioRewind you need to GET OUT more often.... That is, get out from being a SLAVE to listening to those LA radio stations and try some out of market stations .... You don't have to go small like Peoria, Portland and Boston have some good stations. They don't repeat in the manner you speak of, even with their currents/recurrents/new tracks. Yes radio can be radio that radio fans can appreciate, just not in this area of the country. And of course LA's not the only wasteland market missing what I feel is "good radio". If its the demographics so be it. No one can control who lives where they want to live and thus the radio business has to cater to their tastes. My feeling is that I cannot be the only one (along with ChannelFlipper) of 0.001% of the potential radio listening audience in SoCal who knows how good radio can be. But I accept the fact and have found other options for satisfaction. Steve, you DO NOT have to be a captive of ridiculous playlists!
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KRTH 2013 Labor Day Countdown
- Thread starter oldies76
- Start date
Man, Steve RadioRewind you need to GET OUT more often.... That is, get out from being a SLAVE to listening to those LA radio stations and try some out of market stations .... You don't have to go small like Peoria, Portland and Boston have some good stations. They don't repeat in the manner you speak of, even with their currents/recurrents/new tracks. Yes radio can be radio that radio fans can appreciate, just not in this area of the country. And of course LA's not the only wasteland market missing what I feel is "good radio". If its the demographics so be it. No one can control who lives where they want to live and thus the radio business has to cater to their tastes. My feeling is that I cannot be the only one (along with ChannelFlipper) of 0.001% of the potential radio listening audience in SoCal who knows how good radio can be. But I accept the fact and have found other options for satisfaction. Steve, you DO NOT have to be a captive of ridiculous playlists!
Again, Steve, if I did that with the stations I listen to, I would find little if any repetition. BTW, one station I like plays new and old, including new rock tracks with a sprinkling of songs such as "Got to Give it Up"-Marvin Gaye, and "She's About a Mover"-Sir Douglas (Sahm) Quintet. When I heard the latter, it sure was an Oh Wow feeling.
T
Thomps2525
Guest
I'm hardly a "captive of ridiculous playlists." I very seldom listen to any Los Angeles music stations anymore---occasionally I'll listen to KKGO or KHHT but not often enough to get tired of them the way I'm tired of KRTH. I really like WLNG.com out of Long Island and San Diego radio legend Rich "Brother" Robbin's RichBroRadio.com.
Rich was also an L.A. jock, but never stayed long enough at KIQQ, KKDJ or KTNQ to become a legend. Too bad, because he was awesome. The handoffs from Steele to Rich Brother on TenQ were some of the best high-energy radio I ever heard.
Here is one you might know the answer to: was anyone else ever PD of both KHJ and KTNQ?
Not during English-language programming, David. I think you're the only one.
KHJ's PDs during the Top 40 era were Ron Jacobs, Jim O'Brien, Ted Atkins, Bill Watson (on an interim basis only), Paul Drew, Sean Conrad, Gerry Petersen, Charlie Van Dyke, Michael Spears, John Sebastian and Chuck Martin.
KTNQ's were Jimi Fox, John Driscoll and Mike McVay.
The only L.A. Top 40 programmers of that era that I know of who programmed 2 or more L..A. stations in their careers are Ted Atkins (KHJ and KIIS), Bill Watson (KHJ and KIQQ), Shadoe Stevens (KRLA, KROQ and KMET), Rick Carroll (KKDJ, KEZY and KROQ), Bill Pearl (KRLA and KIQQ), John Rook (KFI and KABC), John Sebastian (KHJ, KTWV and KZLA) and Chuck Martin (KHJ and KWST).
Actually, I forgot at least two: Johnie Darin programmed KRLA and then the original KROQ-AM and Humble Harve programmed KBLA and KUTE.
T
Thomps2525
Guest
While driving to work in the morning, I listen to KFI until one of those 20-minute commercial breaks begins and I tune to another station. Yesterday I turned on KRTH and was surprised to hear REO Speedwagon's Take It On The Run, which I hadn't heard KRTH play before---at least not in this century. Then Gary Bryan mentioned the death of Cal Worthington: "He used to work at KHJ when it was a middle-of-the-road station." Wrong, Gary! It was KXLA. In fact, Worthington was the last DJ to be heard on KXLA, August 31, 1959. At midnight, top-40 KRLA made its debut with Jimmy O'Neill.
You're right. It's so much easier looking at this through the rear view mirror. Now some 30 plus years later- *you asked what Sebastian could have done and what would have worked. I never understood, even in 1980 as music was dying on the am band, why or if there was any attempt to preserve the KHJ brand and take it to fm at 101. Was that not an option? KFRC would have lived on past *1986 and much longer had they taken this approach. Unfortunately they had nowhere to go as RKO sold off their fm counterpart at 106, which eventually became KMEL. Fittingly ,they and KITS evolution to top 40 damaged the big 610 enough to eventually force them to go to adult standards and rebrand themselves as magic 61.*
As for KHJ I can't help but wonder if Charlie had remained there past 1977 and the station stayed the course if the scenario would have been much different. I think Michael tried some of the elements there that were so successful at KFRC. It didn't work. That and the advent of FM pretty much began the slide. No doubt Sebastian walked into an unenviable position. My bone of contention with him was that he made KHJ unrecognizable and alienated the life long listener. Removing the jingles, taking away all elements of personality - Bobby ocean reduced to reading liner cards was too hard to take for even the most hardcore listener. And he was playing the same music you could hear on FM? Why would even the most loyal of listeners stay? And by programing to beat KMET didn't he open the door for KFI? It seems to me he was boxed in and had nowhere to go. It was that same sense of desperation that eventually brought KFRC to it's knees and eventual demise when walt sabo instituted the "game zone". Less than a year later, the big 610 was just a memory.
As for KHJ I can't help but wonder if Charlie had remained there past 1977 and the station stayed the course if the scenario would have been much different. I think Michael tried some of the elements there that were so successful at KFRC. It didn't work. That and the advent of FM pretty much began the slide. No doubt Sebastian walked into an unenviable position. My bone of contention with him was that he made KHJ unrecognizable and alienated the life long listener. Removing the jingles, taking away all elements of personality - Bobby ocean reduced to reading liner cards was too hard to take for even the most hardcore listener. And he was playing the same music you could hear on FM? Why would even the most loyal of listeners stay? And by programing to beat KMET didn't he open the door for KFI? It seems to me he was boxed in and had nowhere to go. It was that same sense of desperation that eventually brought KFRC to it's knees and eventual demise when walt sabo instituted the "game zone". Less than a year later, the big 610 was just a memory.
The trouble with moving KHJ to FM was that by the time that made any sense, KRTH was taking off. The move from Oldies to AC in 1976 was a smart one. By fall of '77, KRTH was only 1/10th of a point behind KHJ in Arbitron and the demos were more salable. KRTH only went up from there and KHJ only went down.
As for alienating the life-long listener....I'm not sure there were that many. Gerry Cagle's year as PD (sped-up records, a revolving door of B-list jocks apart from Van Dyke, Machine Gun Kelly and Billy Pearl) probably chased them away four years before Sebastian got there.
Again, remember...when Sebastian arrived, the situation was that KMET was the threat to KHJ. KFI really wasn't taking KHJ's audience. And KFI actually lost share (3.1 to 2.6) while Sebastian was at KHJ. And in the Fall '79 book, when KFI became the #1 Top 40 station, it was only a 0.7 increase. KHJ lost 0.3 and there was a 2.1 from KTNQ that went somewhere.
Most of it went to KMET.
By the way, KFI only had the #1 slot in 1979 and 1980. By '81, both KIIS and KIQQ were beating them. It was just the time and the place.
So what's next, Justin Beiber or Bruno Mars impersonators?
No, they'll probably get Justin and Bruno themselves first....especially given this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...igns-30m-las-vegas-showgirl-deal-8821538.html[/QUOTE]
Good for your Spears.....She won't last long. I'd rather listen to Debby Boone perform for 8 hours straight over this nonsense.
No, they'll probably get Justin and Bruno themselves first....especially given this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...igns-30m-las-vegas-showgirl-deal-8821538.html[/QUOTE]
Good for your Spears.....She won't last long. I'd rather listen to Debby Boone perform for 8 hours straight over this nonsense.
Good for your Spears.....She won't last long. I'd rather listen to Debby Boone perform for 8 hours straight over this nonsense.[/QUOTE]
We'll see. Planet Hollywood caters to that demo...and they've given her a guaranteed two-year contract at $15 mil per year.
T
Thomps2525
Guest
For the upcoming weekend, October 4-5-6, KRTH is "shutting down the music." During the playing of any song, the recording could slow down and stop. Then a buzzer will sound and the 9th caller will get a Fleetwood Mac CD and be entered into a drawing to see the band in Las Vegas. The contest is dumb...but different. Of course there will be a lot of guys like me who will hear the words "Shut Down" and think of the Beach Boys.
http://kearth101.cbslocal.com/2013/10/03/k-earth-101-is-shutting-down-the-music-all-weekend/
http://kearth101.cbslocal.com/2013/10/03/k-earth-101-is-shutting-down-the-music-all-weekend/
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