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The Last Dance

R

Radknowski

Amidst the tributes to KB, the question arises, "does today's format change to liberal talk come as a surprise to any of us?" Honestly. Given that just about every other Real Oldies station of consequence flipped to talk and that KB held on for three years, I'd say it had a good run.

I mean no disrespect, but the KB that re-emerged a few years ago was a mere shadow of the KB we all came to love and respect in its prime. The station was much like a sick relative, living on borrowed time.

I think we were all enamored by the legend of KB and the many names associated with the station over the years: Jungle Jay Nelson, Joey Reynolds, Stan Roberts, Dan Neaverth, Bud Balou, Rod Roddy, Jim Scott, Don Wade, Fred Klestine, Art Wander, Jon Summers, Irv Weinstein, Tommy Shannon, John Zack, Henry Brock, Joe Downey, Jim McLaughlin, Jack Sheridan, Mary Travers, Don Berns, Bob McRae, Jack Armstrong, Sandy Beach, Shane, Chuck Lakefield, Casey Piotrowski and a myriad of all night guys including Pat O'Reilly, Barney Luv, Jack Kelly, Don Kobiela, Tom McRay, Don Polec, Al Wallack, Jim Pastrick, Bob Bender, Jola, Hank Nevins, Beverly, Steve Mitchell and Jim Snowden.

Program Directors: Dave Sennett, The Legendary Jeff Kaye, Bob Harper, Sandy Beach, Tom Atkins and Tom Barney.

The KB that today faded to talk wasn't the KB we knew. It damn near kills me to write this, but give Entercom its due. They put the format on the air and tried to make a go of it. They invested three years and held on long after Clear Channel pulled the plug on its Real Oldies AM stations. Did Entercom give it 100%? Most of us didn't think so, but maybe they thought so. To a poster, it seems each of us had an idea to make it better. I had a sinking feeling about the station the day I walked through the Erie County Fair and saw their PT Cruiser sitting alone, covered with barn dust and unattended on one of the most active days of the Fair. Yes, I had issues too. But we're not the PDs or the GMs. In the end, we're a minority. It might be that the only contingent that appreciated KB is the one that posts here. You sure couldn't prove it by KB's ratings, 12+, 25-54 or 35-64.

Music on AM has been for many years, an uphill battle. Every year it gets more difficult. We've all said "wait til digital AM arrives, it'll level the playing field." Obviously, nobody at Entercom is holding their breath waiting for that to happen and it may be that they can't afford to wait.

So Entercom pulled the plug for whatever reason. Ratings. Billing. Corporate mandate. Local ego and competition with progressive talk. Not one of us knows the real story. In this regard, we're left only to speculate. And mourn.

Another teapot AM might fill the void but it won't be the same and it likely won't last long if it happens. FM, iPods, mp3, CDs, computer downloads are coin of the realm these days. Lucky KB was here for as long as it was.

Rest in peace, KB. You were known and loved by many.
 
Digital AM: The Disaster

> Music on AM has been for many years, an uphill battle. Every
> year it gets more difficult. We've all said "wait til
> digital AM arrives, it'll level the playing field."
> Obviously, nobody at Entercom is holding their breath
> waiting for that to happen and it may be that they can't
> afford to wait.

Digital AM reminds me of SSB being the savior of shortwave... then Digital Radio Mondiale being the savior of shortwave. Of course, once again this country decided we could do better doing it all ourselves while most of the rest of the world is adopting a different standard.

The iBiquity digital AM standard is already a major problem because skywave so messes up reception, it seems practical for daytime use only. Imagine that, don't adopt the system planned, developed and tested in the massively overcrowded 9Khz spaced European mediumwave band specifically to deal with interference and do your own thing that turns out to be not so great at dealing with interference in the 10Khz spaced, transmitter power controlled North American AM band.

So much for that. AM stereo anyone?

http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/guywire/gw.2005.10.19.shtml

The jury is frankly still out on where we are going with digital FM radio. With satellite radio providing respectable, albeit not currently local, service at low equipment prices and a pay model that also keeps commercial load to a minimum, I'm not sure how people are going to feel about a system that is going to cost several hundred dollars to purchase (at least at the outset), all to deliver the same mediocre garbage that made us flee to satellite in the first place. The -only- saving grace of over the air radio is local content and that it's free, and we can see what corporate radio has done to the concept of "local content" so they get what they deserve.

Assuming people do care about HD Radio, then the oldies format could happily exist on a sub-channel just like WCBS-FM is doing, for those who want it. It would probably sound better than AM too.
 
Nice post Mike and I agree but it could be that people were still just finding the station. If you look at the guestbook on David Fill's wkbwradio.com you'll see that every day more and more people were just finding KB.

You know even though it was a shadow of it's former great self KB still was pretty neat to listen to. I got to hear a great mix of oldies some fun production elements and once in awhile I could hear what was going on in Buffalo. All this from 720 miles away. Yes I know my listening from outside the market means nothing.

If this was a positive move I'd be happy but the last thing we need is more biased political talk. It doesn't pull ratings either, look at WCKY Cincinnati and WINZ Miami both 50,000 watt stations. We keep hearing how agencies want the 18-49 demographic. How many people 18-49 listen to this stuff?

As you said it's a relief that KB is gone. I mean we have been listening to a half hearted effort by a conglomerate that is interested only in the balance sheet. Rumors of a change this year have been circulating for a long time. So now it's done and I'm no longer listening.

If they were going to do something like this I would have much rather seen a 24 hour all news station. It would seem that a big group like Entercom or Clear Channel could pool the resources of several of their stations in a region and do a very good all around job sharing the cost to make it affordable. It's not a matter of money it's more like someone would have to get off their butt and do something. You might have to hire a few people. Well now it's much easier to put on a satellite talk show and get a few bucks for clearing network spots. Easier but not better, not good radio.

Enough!

MikeM
 
Re: Digital AM: The Disaster

> The iBiquity digital AM standard is already a major problem......


The iBiquity digital system on AM (and to some degree FM) is simply a waste of time and money. The transmission system of analog AM and FM is not the problem....the CONTENT is the problem! With all of the technical issues associated with this ridiculously flawed placebo, I find it hard to believe that any radio engineer can look me in the eyes and tell me this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Leave the AM and FM bands ALONE! Take the digital signals elsewhere! (Like the soon-to-be-vacant VHF analog television frequencies!)
 
>
> I think we were all enamored by the legend of KB and the
> many names associated with the station over the years:
> Jungle Jay Nelson, Joey Reynolds, Stan Roberts, Dan
> Neaverth, Bud Balou, Rod Roddy, Jim Scott, Don Wade, Fred
> Klestine, Art Wander, Irv Weinstein, Tommy Shannon, John
> Zack, Henry Brock, Joe Downey, Jim McLaughlin, Jack
> Sheridan, Mary Travers, Don Berns, Bob McRae, Jack
> Armstrong, Sandy Beach, Shane, Casey Piotrowski and a myriad
> of all night guys including Pat O'Reilly, Barney Luv, Jack
> Kelly, Don Kobiela, Tom McRay, Don Polec, Al Wallack, Jim
> Pastrick, Bob Bender, Jola, Hank Nevins, Beverly, Steve
> Mitchell and Jim Snowden.
>
>
> The KB that today faded to talk wasn't the KB we knew. It
> damn near kills me to write this, but give Entercom its due.
> They put the format on the air and tried to make a go of it.
> They invested three years and held on long after Clear
> Channel pulled the plug on its Real Oldies AM stations. Did
> Entercom give it 100%? Most of us didn't think so, but maybe
> they thought so.




I agree with the other post that calls your note a good one, Mike, although I must correct one name: the all night guy in the late 60s was Pat Reilly (not O'Reilly) with whom I worked at another station prior to his coming to KB.

Coming at this as somewhat of an insider (friends of friends who work there) I can tell you that Entercom dumped its money into the sound of the station (especially DJs) but had NO promotion budget. And when approached with free promotions they usually said no. I think this fact had a lot to do with lack of ratings, although the restriction of music to the 50s and 60s probably didn't help much either.

It was a worthwhile experiment that was probably not carried off as well as it could have been. Why that is the case is anyone's guess, unless someone from Entercom's home office wants to speak up.
 
> Coming at this as somewhat of an insider (friends of friends
> who work there) I can tell you that Entercom dumped its
> money into the sound of the station (especially DJs) but had
> NO promotion budget. And when approached with free
> promotions they usually said no. I think this fact had a lot
> to do with lack of ratings, although the restriction of
> music to the 50s and 60s probably didn't help much either.

As someone who only occasionally heard 'KB in its current incarnation... it sounded to me like they were skewing a bit older than I thought they should.

I'm 41, and the station sounded too "old" for me...and I listen a bit "up" for my age.

If you're aiming for more demographically desirable audiences, and you're still trying to get out of the way of the FM oldies station...I'd have dialed back on the 50's stuff, at least outside of specialty shows. I don't know WHTT all that well, but I figure there's room between where 'KB was living, and where WHTT lives, music wise, somewhere in mainly 60's music.

Admittedly, this view comes with little experience with both stations as a listener. But, a brief check of WHTT's website shows a promotion where they're giving away a "Billy Joel boxed set", so they've got at least some toes in the 70's.

BTW, Mike R. makes an excellent point. This is not your father's "KB 1520". No, literally, it's NOT your father's "KB 1520". It's a station that's done syndicated talk, business talk and other formats for years, that only recently returned to the kind of music which gave it a name back in the day. It was a nice 3 year run, but "the music died" on 1520 AM long ago.

-OA<P ID="signature">______________
Ohio Media Watch - <a target="_blank" href=http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com>http://ohiomedia.blogspot.com</a></P>
 
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