KZTI 105.3

[ronald54321]

There's a new standards station KZTI in Reno. It's on TuneIn.

 

[ronald54321]

After listening to it a while, this station is somewhat tacky.

 

[AlexBrowne]

And co-owned WZTI (formerly WMCS), an AM station in Milwaukee, just flipped to Martini Radio yesterday, too. They had been mostly African-American talk.

 

[Gregg]

Uh-oh. I was listening to KZTI Fallon Station-Reno's webstream. They just played "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the Nirvana song, re-done by Paul Anka. Should they really play something like that? Anyone over 50 won't know or like the song. Anyone under 50 will groan.

Then the woman who's hosting the show remarked that "this is the only place you're likely to hear that version of Nirvana." She was laughing about a song like that, being surrounded with Tony Bennett (they had played "Old Devil Moon") and Louis Jordan (they played "Beware.") But unfortunately she pronounced Louis like Lewis. Not like Louie, as the name is really pronounced. And she pronounced Jordan like the country in the Middle East, not "zhor-DAH." Now they're playing another Tony Bennett song, only 20 minutes after the previous Tony Bennett song. And another Sinatra song, 20 minutes after "Pick Yourself Up."

Unfortunately with the mission to play "Modern" Adult Standards, I suspect the person choosing the songs doesn't have any real feeling for this music. We're going to get Paul Anka redoing Nirvana. Maybe we'll hear that Pat Boone album from a few years ago where he redoes Heavy Metal songs.

And we'll NEVER hear soft ballads. No "Love Is Blue" or "It Was A Very Good Year" or "You Needed Me" or "Michelle" because those will be deemed too soft for this format. Trying to create an Adult Standards format to please younger people who might like Diane Krall, Michael Buble and Harry Connick Jr. will, in the end, please nobody.

Here's the recent playlist...

Goldfinger--Shirley Bassey
Because--Louis Jordan
Old Devil Moon--Tony Bennett
Smells Like Teen Spirit--Paul Anka
Nice 'n Slow--Freddy Jackson
Too Darn Hot--Sammy Davis Jr.
The Boy from Ipanema--Peggy Lee
Pick Yourself Up--Frank Sinatra
Nobody But Me--Lou Rawls
The Moment of Truth--Tony Bennett (Bennett again?)
Fly Me to The Moon--Julie London
What Is This Thing Called Love?--Cheryl Bentyne (of Manhattan Transfer)
The Summer Wind--Frank Sinatra (Sinatra again?)

 

[KERCAlum]

Kind of on topic, but kind of off....

Agreed that trying to program a EZ/BM station for today's younger audiences is a failing proposition. And kudos to those who continue to try. I know there are a lot of younger folks out there who want some variety, and maybe even some stress relief, who are looking for something like this.

But if you don't have a feel for the music, it'll fall flat. In the same vein as the KZTI announcer who played SLTS, "The Breeze" in Crown Point, Indiana, played the same Norrie Paramor song twice in the same 15-minute block this morning. They've done that numerous times over the last several months. It serves no one if you simply put your music collection on "shuffle" instead of truly programming the entire day. Having said that, though, I note that they have blocks of certain songs by individual artists or groups, but covered by others - for instance you might hear 101 Strings perform "The Long and Winding Road" followed by The Beatles "If I Fell", followed by another instrumental rendition of a Beatles song. So that's nice, but sometimes they overdo it.