Rick Dees Out At KHHT FM

[jasonharper2013]

Rick Dees Is Out at KHHT FM "Hot 923 FM" Radioinsight And LAradio.com Has More info

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Rick Dees Is Out at KHHT FM "Hot 923 FM" Radioinsight And LAradio.com Has More info

Hmmm...kinda odd, this one. It isn't clear who is telling whom goodbye, but it is somewhat surprising in that it seemed like he was helping the station move the needle a bit (this is just my perception, others with more precise data can help us with specific daypart ratings).

On the few occasions I tuned in, it seemed really pathetic because it just didn't sound like his heart was in it. I felt like I was listening to a tired shadow of Rick Dees, not the slick Top 40 jock with a lot of energy and timely bits (some of which were even funny) that I grew up with.

So let me be the first to start the (most likely untrue) rumor that CC is dismantling Hot in preparation for the new 92.3 KFI-FM. I'm so gullible, I'll actually believe it when it gets back to me!

 

[pjc1961]

From the O.C. Register's Gary Lycan: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/channel-362102-clear-dees.html

Interesting move by CCM+E announcing Rick's departure the night before a holiday ("burying the story") so that outside of people in the industry + radio fans, not many in the general public may notice right away.

Although in the age of Twitter, Facebook and other web-based spreaders of "news" (or entertainment, etc.), word will still filter out - just maybe a tad slower than the norm we've recently become accustomed to.

The piece does say "Starting Monday he won't be hosting morning drive" - which may mean Rick'll get to crack the mic for 2 more live shows (Thu./Fri. 7/5-7/6 assuming he's off Wed. 7/4). Unless they're voicetracked or "best-of" shows...to be determined...

 

[michael hagerty]

From the O.C. Register's Gary Lycan: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/channel-362102-clear-dees.html

Interesting move by CCM+E announcing Rick's departure the night before a holiday ("burying the story") so that outside of people in the industry + radio fans, not many in the general public may notice right away.

Although in the age of Twitter, Facebook and other web-based spreaders of "news" (or entertainment, etc.), word will still filter out - just maybe a tad slower than the norm we've recently become accustomed to.

The piece does say "Starting Monday he won't be hosting morning drive" - which may mean Rick'll get to crack the mic for 2 more live shows (Thu./Fri. 7/5-7/6 assuming he's off Wed. 7/4). Unless they're voicetracked or "best-of" shows...to be determined...

They all sounded voicetracked to me. Was he doing any of them live?

 

[Bug on the rug]

He'll do a podcast like Leykis! ;D

 

[davideduardo]

Hmmm...kinda odd, this one. It isn't clear who is telling whom goodbye, but it is somewhat surprising in that it seemed like he was helping the station move the needle a bit (this is just my perception, others with more precise data can help us with specific daypart ratings).

In 25-54, on average, he was about 30% or more below the station average for other dayparts.

He was dragging the station down. I suspect he made a deal based on performance, and neither owner nor talent was happy with the outcome.

 

[wdb2003]

I have to admit the show actually got better later on down the road. So I guess we seen Ricks last stint in the mornings for LA?

 

[michael hagerty]

I have to admit the show actually got better later on down the road. So I guess we seen Ricks last stint in the mornings for LA?

I wouldn't bet on that...necessarily. KHHT hardly gave Rick the on-air latitude his fans expect or promotion needed for them to find him. I think he still could deliver for a station that knew what to do to maximize his impact.

On the other hand, the clock is ticking. It's been 8 years since KIIS-FM, he's 62, making him the second-oldest morning man in (relatively) recent memory. Robert W. Morgan died at 61. Dick Whittinghill was pushed out at 66 (and was considered ancient at the time...1979).

KRTH probably makes the most (only?) sense demographically (as it did 8 years ago, after KIIS), but I imagine KRTH's probably happy with Gary Bryan.

 

[jamiestarr]

I think Rick's age shouldn't be a factor really. 62 in 2012 is different than it was in 1979. It's just a number anyway. I've heard his Weekly Top 40 show and he doesn't sound "old" to me. He is more relaxed than he used to be. Obviously, Rick wasn't doing the Hot gig for the money. He's loaded and has been for years. It's a passion. If you love radio, you know the feeling. I've talked to people who have worked with Dees. Same story from each one. Nice guy. Great broadcaster but an "odd bird" at times. Michael, KRTH does make the most sense, but no place for him right now. What are your thoughts about RICK on JACK-FM?

 

[calguy]

Age shouldn't be a factor here, if it was then Art Laboe who is at least 20 years older than Dees would be gone too. Rick's Hot 92 show was voice tracked and as time went on it got better. But at times it was easy to tell it was tracked as some of the levels were awful with Rick getting buried at the beginning of some sets. Not surprising as the ducking feature in Prophet only goes so far. David E says that Dees was dragging the station's numbers down, but if my memory is correct Hot started rising in the overall ratings after Dees showed up. But to those who grew up with Dees, this wasn't exactly the show they remembered and at times it showed. My guess is that it may have been under performance and money issues combined to end his time there, not that he was ever really there in the Hot studios. Amazed that Greg Ashlock actually come out from under his desk to address the subject. For all we know CC will bring in a Premium Choice jock to fill the bill for a lot cheaper than Dees.

 

[michael hagerty]

I agree age shouldn't matter and that Rick doesn't sound old. But I'm not hiring, and age discrimination is a real thing.

Art Laboe is unique. He's 86, I think, but has never been off the air, has a loyal multi-generational following that is desirable to certain L.A. stations, and owns his show and syndicates it. Carrying Art Laboe at night and hiring Rick Dees for mornings are two different things.

I think a morning show on Jack would probably backfire...the audience wants music.

 

[SimiRadioListener26]

I agree age shouldn't matter and that Rick doesn't sound old. But I'm not hiring, and age discrimination is a real thing.

Art Laboe is unique. He's 86, I think, but has never been off the air, has a loyal multi-generational following that is desirable to certain L.A. stations, and owns his show and syndicates it. Carrying Art Laboe at night and hiring Rick Dees for mornings are two different things.

I think a morning show on Jack would probably backfire...the audience wants music.

People listen to who they identify with. Older people generally listen to older people, younger people generally listen to younger people. It isn't only the employers who discriminate, everyone discriminates. You're not going to get young people to listen to an older DJ on an alternative station, but then we are talking about "oldies" music anyway so I think "ageism" is naturally less of a problem for that kind of audience (hence the success of people like Laboe and Charlie Tuna).

 

[Steve Eberhart]

I was in LA last week listening to K-EARTH a lot.

A couple of "outside" observations:

Charlie Tuna sounds GREAT! Relevant, Topical, Humorous, Perfection in content/delivery/executioin. Why he is only weekends is mind boggling.

Gary Bryan: Functional, good voice, good execution but content - not so much. I would say the same about the midday guy.
My feeling is when jocks are relying on artist information for relates, "...he wrote this while watching his wife walk down the street - here's 'Oh, Pretty Woman', Roy Orbison..." as opposed to topical LOCAL relateables...

With Dees available, it would seem a natural to put Dees in mornings and let him loose.
For my buck, I'd put Dees in mornings, Tuna in middays and let Shotgun cook in afternoons.
Trade out some cars and give away a car every week with forced listening contesting...

KRTH sounds better on FM radio than any station I've heard technically in recent years, the music is right on, CVD positioning is awesome, but the air talent could be better. With these guys apparently available, they'd be foolish not to take advantage.

 

[michael hagerty]

I was in LA last week listening to K-EARTH a lot.

A couple of "outside" observations:

Charlie Tuna sounds GREAT! Relevant, Topical, Humorous, Perfection in content/delivery/executioin. Why he is only weekends is mind boggling.

Gary Bryan: Functional, good voice, good execution but content - not so much. I would say the same about the midday guy.
My feeling is when jocks are relying on artist information for relates, "...he wrote this while watching his wife walk down the street - here's 'Oh, Pretty Woman', Roy Orbison..." as opposed to topical LOCAL relateables...

With Dees available, it would seem a natural to put Dees in mornings and let him loose.
For my buck, I'd put Dees in mornings, Tuna in middays and let Shotgun cook in afternoons.

No offense to either Gary Bryan or Jim Carson, but I like that idea a lot.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

I was in LA last week listening to K-EARTH a lot.

A couple of "outside" observations:

Charlie Tuna sounds GREAT! Relevant, Topical, Humorous, Perfection in content/delivery/executioin. Why he is only weekends is mind boggling.

Gary Bryan: Functional, good voice, good execution but content - not so much. I would say the same about the midday guy.
My feeling is when jocks are relying on artist information for relates, "...he wrote this while watching his wife walk down the street - here's 'Oh, Pretty Woman', Roy Orbison..." as opposed to topical LOCAL relateables...

With Dees available, it would seem a natural to put Dees in mornings and let him loose.
For my buck, I'd put Dees in mornings, Tuna in middays and let Shotgun cook in afternoons.
Trade out some cars and give away a car every week with forced listening contesting...

KRTH sounds better on FM radio than any station I've heard technically in recent years, the music is right on, CVD positioning is awesome, but the air talent could be better. With these guys apparently available, they'd be foolish not to take advantage.

Steve has said very eloquently what I have thought for a long time. Jhani has done a good job updating the music, but not so much the DJs and their presentation, some of whom, for example Christina Kelly, just simply do not feel like the right fit for an oldies station. By implementing his recommendations, K-EARTH could make the leap from being a good station to a great station, although in order to get there the music repetitiveness has to be dealt with as well. Without the wider playlist and deeper cuts, the station often sounds like a bad jukebox with small talk in between. In short, the station has no soul.

 

[jamiestarr]

That's a dream lineup and makes perfect sense. Who would follow Shotgun? Jojo
Kincaid comes to mind.

 

[davideduardo]

Steve has said very eloquently what I have thought for a long time. Jhani has done a good job updating the music, but not so much the DJs and their presentation, some of whom, for example Christina Kelly, just simply do not feel like the right fit for an oldies station. By implementing his recommendations, K-EARTH could make the leap from being a good station to a great station, although in order to get there the music repetitiveness has to be dealt with as well. Without the wider playlist and deeper cuts, the station often sounds like a bad jukebox with small talk in between. In short, the station has no soul.

Irrespective of fit, Dees was not doing particularly well in the sales demos. The music on KHHT was not bad... and if you like Dees, you could make the point that he played all of it when it was first popular.

Beyond that, KRTH does not want to be an "oldies" station. They want, internally, to be a 35-54 station. That means what the industry calls "classic hits" and a presentation that is a bit of the 70's mixed with a bit of today. The "today" aspect is due to the fact that the PPM does not reward chatter while the diary converted chatter into recall and ratings; anything too talkative or too much like 60's radio is just not going to be appropriate in LA today.

We've already debated "deeper cuts" and "wider playlists" and, at about 800 regularly rotated titles, KRTH is at the sweet spot for its format type... any more songs and the TSL collapses and deeper cuts and both cume and TSL are destroyed.

Programmers would love to find they could play a thousand or more songs... it makes programming easier and more fun. But if you know that each further song you add causes listener erosion every time it is played, you just can't do it: it's a radio station, not a museum.

 

[calguy]

I was in LA last week listening to K-EARTH a lot.

A couple of "outside" observations:

Charlie Tuna sounds GREAT! Relevant, Topical, Humorous, Perfection in content/delivery/executioin. Why he is only weekends is mind boggling.

Gary Bryan: Functional, good voice, good execution but content - not so much. I would say the same about the midday guy.
My feeling is when jocks are relying on artist information for relates, "...he wrote this while watching his wife walk down the street - here's 'Oh, Pretty Woman', Roy Orbison..." as opposed to topical LOCAL relateables...

With Dees available, it would seem a natural to put Dees in mornings and let him loose.
For my buck, I'd put Dees in mornings, Tuna in middays and let Shotgun cook in afternoons.
Trade out some cars and give away a car every week with forced listening contesting...

KRTH sounds better on FM radio than any station I've heard technically in recent years, the music is right on, CVD positioning is awesome, but the air talent could be better. With these guys apparently available, they'd be foolish not to take advantage.

I agree with most of what you're saying but.... That midday guy is Jim Carson. An institution in LA radio. He came to LA from KFRC where he did mornings for a time. He was a boss jock in the 60's and while he may sound low key, he's super smooth and more consistent than just about anyone I know. Would Tuna sound great there, yes, that's a given, though I do feel he uses a little too much audio and at times I just wish he would come out over an intro and talk it up without playing something recorded from the TV. Dees almost had a deal in place to do mornings at KRTH before he went to Movin', but talked CBS out of it with stupid demands. I think that if he had gone to KRTH he would have reinvented himself and been just about unstoppable. But he used up that goodwill with his listeners by being on a bad radio station and as time marched on became less relevant. As of now I doubt that he would want to put in the effort and be there "live" every morning.

After saying all that, I do agree, the talent isn't what you would expect at times, but you could say that about just about any station now days...

 

[nmoore6676]

Steve has said very eloquently what I have thought for a long time. Jhani has done a good job updating the music, but not so much the DJs and their presentation, some of whom, for example Christina Kelly, just simply do not feel like the right fit for an oldies station. By implementing his recommendations, K-EARTH could make the leap from being a good station to a great station, although in order to get there the music repetitiveness has to be dealt with as well. Without the wider playlist and deeper cuts, the station often sounds like a bad jukebox with small talk in between. In short, the station has no soul.

Irrespective of fit, Dees was not doing particularly well in the sales demos. The music on KHHT was not bad... and if you like Dees, you could make the point that he played all of it when it was first popular.

Beyond that, KRTH does not want to be an "oldies" station. They want, internally, to be a 35-54 station. That means what the industry calls "classic hits" and a presentation that is a bit of the 70's mixed with a bit of today. The "today" aspect is due to the fact that the PPM does not reward chatter while the diary converted chatter into recall and ratings; anything too talkative or too much like 60's radio is just not going to be appropriate in LA today.

We've already debated "deeper cuts" and "wider playlists" and, at about 800 regularly rotated titles, KRTH is at the sweet spot for its format type... any more songs and the TSL collapses and deeper cuts and both cume and TSL are destroyed.

Programmers would love to find they could play a thousand or more songs... it makes programming easier and more fun. But if you know that each further song you add causes listener erosion every time it is played, you just can't do it: it's a radio station, not a museum.

All of which speaks to the erosion, in intelligence, of Americans. When I was a teenager I listened to what my friends did, mostly top-40 I suppose it was called then. But at least on my own I dabbled in other stuff, mostly swing and big band. At the time I avoided "country and western" even though my parents dialed in every Saturday night to WSM for the Grand Ole Opry. Later since I admired people like The Wolfman and Dick Biondi I hung out at the local station and eventually got a chance to get on the air. Later I went to a public radio station and since we did classical I learned to like that and in addition I got to do a little traditional country and folk on Saturdays so I started appreciating that music more.

My point is that once I stopped being a kid my music tastes broadened. Yes I do like to hear my favorites on the radio but I especially enjoy a surprise once in a while. And wonder of wonders, now I have I-tunes and Amazon to acquire my absolute favorites to play any time I wish. So now whenever I have my radio on it is like an exploration expedition to find tunes I've forgotten or never heard before. My current passion is for Rockabilly, Doo-Wop, Golden Age rock (Elvis and Beatles) and classic country from the 50s through the 70s. I still have some swing stuff in my collection I and really enjoyed Saul Levine's forays into that type of programming as well as KLAC when they did it.

Maybe I am a strange duck and especially since I thought that the Edsel was a good idea I might very well be. But there must be some out there that can get by without hearing the same twenty songs, if you can call some of today's stuff that, over and over.

 

[SandyG]

Finally time for KFI FM?