LA Radio Waves

Radio: October 4, 2020     Internet-based KNXFM93.Com — available online at the site and on your smart speaker as well as through apps such as TuneIn, MyTunerRadio, and StreamS — has announced big event: another Classic Mellow Sound Music Special. This time it’s the words and music of John Denver, just as it was presented on KNX-FM (now KCBS-FM, 93.1) in 1973.     The two hour special will run on Saturday, October 10th at 5 p.m.     Hosted by Tom McKay, the program eludes positiveness. Denver was a tremendously positive about his career and his life, and he presented that in his music. The interview gave him a chance to “talk about things I don’t always get to talk about,” and speak of the joy that he has in his life. 1973 was just as his career was getting its high point; in 1974 he would become one of the best-selling artists in the country.     His music spanned an era in which positiveness was needed by the country, coming off of  the Vietnam War and heading into Watergate. An avid pilot with a love of flying, Denver’s life was cut short on October 12, 1997, when at the age of 53, he crashed his experimental light plane into the Monterey Bay near Pacific Grove, California. Investigation into the accident indicated that Denver was unable (or did not notice the need) to switch to an auxiliary fuel tank as he was running low on fuel. The accident led to new standards on plane design and pilot training.     In addition to his music, Denver starred in several movies and television specials; perhaps the best-known movie is 1977’s Oh, God!, in which he played supermarket manager Jerry Landers, chosen by God (George Burns) to spread His message to a skeptical public.     Denver was also active politically, especially in later years, focusing on environmental issues, hunger, and humanitarian work.     Stern to Spotify?     InsideMusicMedia.Com’s Jerry Del Colliano says he is calling this one early: Howard Stern is moving to Spotify.     Well, he’s not saying it’s definite. But apparently negotiations are taking place as his contract renewal talks at SiriusXM continue. Will it happen? In my opinion, the word is doubtful. But Del Colliano is not often wrong, so it makes for an intriguing story. Stay tuned on this one.     More Letters     “Delayed response to your Sept 13 column – sometime around the mid-late 60’s in L.A. was KBLA, I think 1580 or thereabouts; its playlist/format was a half-step closer to FM - it was to KRLA what KRLA was to KHJ. Didn’t seem to last more than a few years.” — Gary Peck     You are soooo close: Super 15 KBLA was a hipper alternative to KHJ, but was found at 1500 AM. There isn’t much history of the station, but it definitely has its place in local radio history.     Ken Levine once described KBLA’s signal as being “worse than a baby monitor.” Coming out of Burbank and high up on the AM dial, the station had trouble reaching all of Los Angeles due to limited power and a directional antenna system designed to protect the signals of stations in other parts of the country at night.     But did it try. With a roster that included Harry Newman, Roger Christian, Harvey Miller, Dave Diamond, Vic Gee (Jim Carson), and William F. Williams, from 1965-1967 it played more “hip” songs that traditional AM stations of the time, including a few album cuts. Dave Diamond, previously of KHJ (930 AM) did an evening show second to none, The Diamond Mine. My friend (and true radio guy) Jeff Leonard once gave me a tour of the area in Burbank where the station was once found — now just outside of a mall — showing where he would go to try to meet the DJs.     PastDaily.Com has a great set of recording of Diamond’s last show on KBLA, June 16, 1967, just as the station was going to change to country at m

 Radio: September 27, 2020     Last week I told of the changes coming to Entercom, owner of 234 radio stations nationwide and locally of KNX (1070 AM), KROQ (106.7 FM), KRTH (101.1 FM), KTWV (94.7 FM), Amp Radio (97.1 FM), and Jack (93.1 FM). Beginning with their country and alternative formats, the company plans to move all stations and formats to national and regional programming, with few stations having more than one local show, if that. A bit ironic considering that Entercom’s webpage brags of local being at the core of everything they do. But I digress.     It appears the same types of changes at Entercom will be coming to iHeart, owner of over 850 stations nationwide and eight in locally: KFI (640 AM), KEIB (1150 AM), KIIS-FM (102.7), KOST (103.5 FM), KBIG (106.7 FM), Real (92.3 FM),  Alt (98.7 FM) and KLAC (570 AM).     Note that in both cases the companies actually own more than that listed: iHeart owns seven stations in the Inland Empire, while Entercom owns one (KFRG, 95.1 FM) … which means I misspoke last week when I stated that the country format consolidation would not affect any local stations.     In the case of iHeart, as reported by Jerry Del Colliano of InsideMusicMedia.Com, the focus will be similar, though not identical. Many heart stations are already doing this, but the focus will be solely mornings and afternoons. The time period from 9 or 10 a.m. until 2 or 3 p.m. will be an afterthought, as will any shift after 7 p.m. That’s when listening is at its lowest point, and the suits that run radio think it has nothing to do with lack of content. So out it goes.     iHeart apparently also plans to emulate Entercom as far as nationalizing or regionalizing programming, so expect a lot more syndication of shows based out of town and music programming out of town or even out of state. Essentially, local radio is dead among the large companies.     Which brings up some interesting thoughts regarding radio…     • The large companies are dead. There is no way they can compete other than through being cheap, and being cheap can only get you so far. Local content has always been the key for radio, and no one will care about national programming when it’s loaded with the requisite 15-20 minutes of commercials per hour typical on Entercom and iHeart stations. I expect both to be gone, or at least totally irrelevant within four years.     • This opens up opportunities for smaller companies to swoop in and steal listeners. A station that super-serves its local community is vastly preferable to local advertisers, who want an active listening audience. The death of Entercom and iHeart can be a tremendous opportunity for everyone else — ironically, including money-losing Cumulus — to jump in and take up the slack. I want Bonneville back in Los Angeles … it many happen as station prices continue to drop.     • Internet radio suddenly got more competitive. Part of Entercom’s and iHeart’s plan is to make use of virtual radio stations, in which the few DJs actually working do their work from their homes. Well, I can do that too. And I can start allowing local businesses to advertise on my net station. And I can “geo fence” the station to keep my “signal” local if I need to keep streaming and licensing costs down. And I don’t have to pay for an over-priced CEO to drag me down. Don’t believe me? Tune into KNXFM93.com … a recreation of the original Mellow Sound station and a better light-rock format than you’ll find on the air anyway. And you can even  hear it via your smart speaker.     In other words, radio is not dead. Large corporate radio is, though. It’s all in how we all handle it. I think — after a tough time — the industry will rebound with fresh ideas and truly good programming. And if it does not, the net-casters will  take up the slack.    &

 Radio: September 20, 2020     It’s a tough job programming to a mass audience. Case in point: K-Surf (1260 AM, 105.1 HD2), also known as LA Oldies. The station started playing the early days of Rock and Roll, focussing primarily on the years of 1955-1970.  And listeners were happy.     Then the station added more songs from the 1970s. In general, most listeners remained happy, though a few grumbled about all the new songs being added. But new listeners found the station and overall it worked well.     Later songs from the 1980s started showing up. And the rebellion began. Listeners tended to stay,  but the grumbling got louder, and in general for good reason … KRTH (101.1 FM), KOLA (99.9 FM), and Jack (93.1 FM) were already playing ‘80s hits. Did K-Surf really need to do so as well?     Tough call. On one hand, it makes sense. Add in the best ‘80s tunes while keeping the expanded playlist back to the ‘50s, and you generally keep people tuned in. It would work for someone like me, who tires of one era. But in my experience, most people who love songs from the ‘50s and ‘60s at best tolerate the music from the 1970s, and detest the ‘80s.       Station owner Saul Levine recognized that it was a problem, and announced last week that K-Surf would be going back a bit more to its roots and is removing ‘80s hits from the playlist. A look at the playlist — you can see everything played on the station for the past three days or so at laoldies.com — proves this to be true.     It’s not all the way back … in fact, I see very few songs form the 1950s at all. But lots from the 1960s and ‘70s, and a good variety at that. From Sam Cooke to War; Vogues to Reo Speedwagon. In general, K-Surf is a station you can just leave on all day and occasionally hear an unexpected treat. With few to no commercials.     Downward Ho!     Only Entercom CEO David Field could think we’d fall for his scheme. He is trying to hype a supposed improved listener experience for local markets by taking away local markets.     In other words, Field is giving up on radio, and he is trying to milk what he can out iff his stations before he kills off the company completely. And he has the gall to call it an “improved listener experience.” Perhaps he is right, after listeners leave his stations for alternatives.     Here’s the plan: National formats, national and regional talent. Centralized programming. Absolutely nothing local. Think SiriusXM with 15 minuets of commercials per hour instead of being commercial-free. Makes sense, right? Only to David Field.     Two formats per month are expected to be converted to national delivery, according to InsideMusicMedia.Com's Jerry Del Colliano who has been reporting on this for weeks. Del Colliano said last week that country and alternative will be the first to go, and this was confirmed Monday by an internal email sent out to Entercom employees and released by AllAccess.Com.     In the email, it was announced that, among other things, Mike Kaplan, programmer of KROQ (106.7 FM) here in Los Angeles, has been named as the national Alternative format program director, and will be called the “format captain.”     It won’t be totally national, at least for now. But talent will be either regional or national, and it is expected that no more than one local personality will remain at any one station. For now, anyway. My hunch is this will devolve into 100 percent national delivery very soon.     Kevin Kenney from New York’s Alt 92.3 will do a national show to be heard on all 15 Entercom Alternative stations at night; KROQ’s own Stryker and Klein will be heard in San Francisco, Dallas, and Kansas City; Cane and Corey from New York will also be heard in Baltimore, Buffalo, Miami and Orlando … the list goes on and o

Radio: September 13     I received a lot of interesting responses arrived recently related to the last few columns; it is obvious that radio means as much to you as it does to me. Here is a sample.     “I saw your article in The Sun recently. I didn't grow up around here but spent most of my time in the Mid West and the South, traveling between Kansas City MO and Nashville TN.     “There was a station in Little Rock Arkansas, KAAY.  They were a typical top 40 station, but around 10:00 or 11:00 at night the Clyde Clifford show would come on. Clyde would play something a harder than top 40. He rarely talked during the show, but just played music.  The show would go on for 3-4 hours, followed by an hour long radio serial called Chandu the Magician.  The station could be picked up in Kansas City and in Nashville at night. I would stay awake until 1:00 to 2:00 in the morning just to listen.”     “Thanks for letting me share.” — Jay Still     Thank YOU for sharing. I love the memories.     “Love your column! To add to the subject of early AM radio and DXing, I began as a listener in the late ‘40s when we would listen to the radio in my Dad’s 1940’s Chrysler.  We had only one station in Yuma at that time.     “Later, as a teen, we would wait until after sundown to tune into KOMA/Oklahoma City (1400 AM) or the “Mighty 690” in Tijuana for our daily dosage of rock n roll. Eventually, we got our own station, KBLU and had access to local DJs.     “By the way, the radio in my dad’s car had a buzz like a hornet coming from it. I later understood that this was an object called a vibrator which changed DC current from the battery to a form of AC. This was needed to power the vacuum tubes within the radio!      “Currently when I DX, I frequent KSL/Salt Lake City (1160 AM), KKOB/Albuquerque (770 AM), and KKOH/Reno (780 AM). Keep up the good work!” — Nick Yagar, Anaheim     Those vibrators are interesting. It doesn’t quite generate AC, but it creates pulses in the DC, allowing a transformer to, as you stated, increase the voltage required for the tubes which was then smoothed out again with a rectifier. Back then they were mechanical and not the most reliable part made … today there are electronic versions that can be used in vintage radios. Much quieter, too!     “I meant to email you last week, but I got busy. One top 40 radio station you may not be familiar with was KFXM (590 AM, now KTIE), which covered what we now call the Inland Empire. It was (is) based in San Bernardino. I graduated from Hemet High School in 1971 and it was the station that many of us listened to. The school cafeteria even played it at lunch time! They even printed up weekly handbills which they distributed to record stores, including ours here in Hemet … one side listed the top 40 singles for the week. The back had a listing of the DJ’s and their shifts. KFXM had a professional DJ staff equal to any Los Angeles station.     “Thanks for bringing back those memories!” — Mike Christie     My wife, Jean grew up in Redlands; she has memories of listening to both KFXM and KMEN (now KKDD, 1290 AM). Both stations helped launch many careers in broadcasting. And you can learn more at http://kfxm-kmen-radio.blogspot.com.     “I really enjoy reading your articles in the Star news....Listened to KRLA and KHJ religiously as a teenager. I remember Dick Biondi coming to our school for a football rally! Dave Hull was a kick; Bob Eubanks, Casey Kasem, and of course Emperor Bob Hudson all made and impression in my life as teenager growing up in the sixties     “And the crew at KHJ did the same...the Real Don Steele and  Robert W. Morgan to name a few. But I wanted to add one more name to your top 40 stations….KOMA/Oklahoma City. My girlf

KNX 1070 AM, one of the oldest broadcasting stations in the United States dating back to 1922, is about to celebrate 100 years on the air. If those numbers don’t add up, you’re right. But it’s a technicality that I am letting slide. Here’s the full story as it has been told to me: On September 10, 1920, Fred Christian started broadcasting his amateur radio station, 6ADZ. A former shipboard radio operator, Christian was manager of the Electric Lighting Supply Company in downtown Los Angeles. Broadcasting primarily to customers who had constructed radios they assembled from parts bought at the store, his first transmitter put out five-watts and used the 1500 kHz (AM) frequency. Now, five watts doesn’t sound like much, and it isn’t. But in the early days of broadcasting, there wasn’t nearly as much man-made interference in the air as there is today, and five watts would actually travel pretty far. Especially with no other stations on the same frequency … or almost any frequency, for that matter. There were truly only a handful of stations in the entire country at the time. In early December of 1921, the Department of Commerce, which was placed in charge of regulating radio broadcasting, formally adopted rules that placed all stations on just two frequencies — 619 kHz (to be used for market and weather reports) and 833 kHz (for entertainment). Christian’s station was thus issued an official license to broadcast on 833, using the call letters KGC and the hours of 2 – 2:30 and 7:30 – 8 p.m. KGC shared 833 with six other stations, all off which also had specific hours with which two broadcast. Here’s where it gets interesting. In May of 1922, the Supply Company was issued a second license to broadcast on 833, with the assigned call-letters KNX and a broadcast time of 9 – 10 a.m. For whatever reason — probably related to allowed broadcast time — the Supply Company decided to broadcast exclusively on KNX, and gave up the KGC broadcasts. KGC got deleted from the Department of Commerce station list; the Department then decided that, since they were under common ownership, KNX and KGC were really the same station,. KNX thus “assumed” KGC’s identity and used December 8, 1921 as the date it was first licensed to broadcast. That means the experimental broadcasts — by default — became part of KNX history as well. And that history is valid, I believe. I don’t know, but I am assuming that the Supply Company originally wanted more broadcast time and a new set of calls was needed under the 1921 regulations to do so. That means KNX was really just an extension of KGC anyway … if anyone can confirm or deny this (radio historian Jim Hilliker, I’m looking at you), please let me know.So as KNX begins the plan to celebrate 100 years on the air, what can we expect? The station is mum, but I expect on-air tributes, and if they were found, early recordings of KNX itself. I doubt there are many of the very early days that still exist (if they ever did) but what an exciting thing if they are around. KNX’s Bill Nesbitt has been sharing posts on social media over the past months looking for such historical audio; he announced on Facebook that there will be “a lot of historical audio, jingles, and memories” on September 10th, and my bet is that this will continue through the month. As it should: it’s not often that your station turns 100 years old. Other upcoming centennial birthdays include KHJ 930 AM, and KFI 640 AM, among others. Speaking of the Past. Dave Beasing, formerly of The Sound (now KKLQ, 100.3 FM) and now head of Sound That Brands, sent me a link to 1940sradiowlvn.com. What is it? A recreation of a radio station from the 1940s. “It all started with the purchase of my first antique radio, a 1935 GE Tombstone,” says the anonymous creator on the website. “This has been a 2-year journey and finally, WLVN Radio was established in 2020, in Livingston, MT with one simple mission in mind: to bring you back in time to the 1940s. “I have always enjoyed lis

 Country stars Luke Bryan and John Langston are coming to a radio near you Luke Bryan and John Langston will be hosting the 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. midday shift on Go Country (105.1 FM). Bryan and Langston will be heard weekdays starting Monday and running through Sept. 25. Expect a lot of stories … both are known for storytelling in their music and my hunch is they will be entertaining as DJs spinning their favorite country tunes. Go Country station manager Michael Levine says, “We couldn’t be more excited … They have such a loyal following in Southern California, and I know listeners will be thrilled to hear them on the station each day!” More Sports There’s a brand-new station in town. Well, almost in town. And almost brand new. Flamethrower station XEPRS (1090 AM) — the onetime home of Wolfman Jack — was sports-formatted The Mighty 1090 when it abruptly went off the air over a year ago in April of 2019. Bill Hagen of Out the Window Advertising put together a business plan to get the format back on the air. Now known as The Mightier 1090, there are no studios … everything is done from home studios and “the cloud,” but listeners won’t be able to tell due to the magic of modern technology. Besides, due to Covid-19, most stations are doing essentially the same thing. Related Articles On the air weekdays as of August 17 is The Morning After with Ariel Epstein and Jared Smith (6 a.m. – 9 a.m.); Rich Eisen (9 a.m. – noon); Coast to Coast with Scott Ferrall (1 p.m. – 3 p.m.); Scott Kaplan and Crew (3p.m. – 7 p.m.); On the Bench with Scott Ferrall (7 p.m. – 9 p.m.); Into the Night with Tony Bruno and Harry Mays (9 p.m. – midnight); SportsRage Late Night with Gabe Morency (midnight – 2 a.m.); Bagels and Bad Beats with Scott Wetzel (2 a.m. – 4 a.m.) and The Early Line with Kevin Walsh and Dane Martinez (4 a.m. – 6 a.m.). Weekends include Mike Blewett, George Kurtz, Joe Lisi, Kevin Walsh, Dane Martinez, Elissa Walker Campbell, Jake Asman, John Michaels and many more. I am impressed that they have programming 24-hours per day without repeats, but come on … Scott Ferrall twice a day? That’s just torture. Top-40 Responses No, I’m not going to count them down. But I am impressed that you so quickly sent your additions to my list of “the best” top-40 stations of all time … keeping in mind there is absolutely no way to create such a list. And I am also aware that there are numerous other stations that can be recognized as well, both current and in the past, from different formats. That will happen in later editions of this very column. A sampling so far: Russ from Glendale: “Richard, here in no particular order, is my list of favorite Top 40 radio stations: KFWB, KHJ. KRLA, KKDJ, KGBS, KTNQ, KMGG, KROQ (when it was an AM station), KIQQ, KEZY KFMB” By the way, KGBS is in a league of its own for various reasons, I want too highlight the one-time daytime station in the near future. Rick Shafarman of Santa Clarita: “To me, as a kid growing up in the NYC suburbs, the gold standard was always WABC in NYC. Dan Ingram, Cousin Brucie, Chuck Leonard, these guys were the greatest. I’d walk around with a little transistor radio listening. I distinctly remember as a 9-year-old, one wintry Sunday night, watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, going to bed listening to WABC, and waking up the next morning listening to WABeatleC. They really embraced the Beatles. It was from listening to WABC that I yearned to be a DJ.” Mike Weyhrich: “I wanted to add a favorite to your list. It is a station that is often overlooked in the powerhouses you noted. It is the “Mighty 1290 KOIL” in Omaha, Nebraska. If you look at its history it was the launching point of so many top 40 names like the real Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Gary Owens, Fred Winston at WLS and more. “By the time I made it out to Orange Country in the late 70’s, the great LA top 40 stations were fading. I got attached to KFI because of Lohman and Barkley. It was only a couple more years and mostly all the

Radio August 23, 2020     I didn’t see it until earlier this month, but in August of 2017, Radio Ink (radioink.com) ran a story on the “greatest top-40 radio stations of all time.” You can read it yourself at tinyurl.com/rw0823.     It’s an interesting read, though in my opinion it is an impossible list to create. Even the two “programming experts” — Lee Abrams and Randy Michaels — didn’t agree. I myself have some ideas, but I am in no way qualified to find the “greatest” simply because I have not heard them all.     Nor can I use my formative years as the basis for the list, as early top-40 stations (before my time) that set the standard were working from a different starting place yet still influenced the industry as much or more than the later stations generally credited with being the most influential. KHJ, for example.     What makes the list viable, though, is the idea of what would put a station onto the list itself. Abrams details what he looks for: 15 elements including such aspects as on-air production, music, personalities, swagger/vibe, audience respect, the ability to influence record sales, and more. His choice for the top station? KHJ. Michaels top-pick? KIIS (alluding to both the AM and FM versions). The station chosen by readers of the piece? CKLW/Windsor-Detroit.     Again, my perspective is somewhat limited. I was born in 1963 so early stations were often gone by the time I started listening to the radio. And I am limited to Southern California, as I have lived here all my life, plus recordings I hear via sites like ReelRadio.Com and YouTube. But if I were to come up with a list, I would use basically the same criteria as Abrams, with a focus on the on-air presentation, the stations vibe, and the excitement generated by all elements of programming, from the personalities, to the contests, to the breaking of new music.     In no particular order, then, are stations that I would place on such a list, and the reasons why.     • KRLA/Los Angeles. They knocked KFWB out of the top-spot and brought the Beatles to Los Angeles. They also launched the careers of many television stars, as well as Casey Kasem who went on to count down American Top-40.     • KHJ/Los Angeles. No list can be complete without KHJ, arguably the most imitated station ever. In its prime, it was flawless. Exciting promotions, great DJs, excellent news coverage, special events and concerts for listeners, and engineers who could get the best sound and distance one could get from a little 5000 watt transmitter.     • KFRC/San Francisco. When KHJ was at its prime, it was flawless. So was KFRC, and KFRC was at its prime more often than was KHJ, which suffered from a revolving door of programmers in the 1970s and a resulting inconsistent sound. KFRC, on the other hand, maintained its sound throughout its history and actually held ion to the format — and top-ratings — about five years longer than did KHJ. On the other hand, KHJ got screwed by owner RKO when the decisions as made to go country … had Chuck Martin continued as programmer in the 1980s, it might be a different story.     • WCFL/Chicago. Purists will say that competitor WLS was the winner, and indeed it did often beat WCFL in the ratings. But to my ears, WCFL — owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor — was more exciting. But that’s why this is in no particular order.     • WLS/Chicago. Realistically, you cannot include WCFL without also including WLS. Many of the personalities worked at both stations, and WLS had a flamethrower signal that in the 1980s make it to Southern California — cleanly — at night. The competition between the two stations was intense and made both of them better.     •KCBQ/San Diego. One of my earliest listens. The same elements as with the local Drake/Boss station KGB, but even more polis

This radio website has the hit song chart information you used to get at record stores If you grew up in the 1960s and ‘70s, one of the things you would pick up at your local Music City, Sears, Penny’s, Wards, Licorice Pizza, Wherehouse or Music Plus when you went to buy your favorite 45 RPM records was the local radio station music surveys. In the early days, the lists were more akin to station newsletters. The KRLA Beat, for example, had station, artist and music news presented in a newspaper style. The later surveys such as the KHJ Boss 30 lists included a list of the top hits of the week — “hitbounds” (that were often not) — a little blurb on one of the DJs and perhaps some info on the latest contest. Essentially they were cheap promotions for a station, and they were a great way to keep up on the latest hits during an era when so much music was available, an “oldie” was anything more than a few months old … today music even a few years old is considered “new.” Reader Marilyn Kirkpatrick of Covina remembers. “I’ve never seen you mention this in one of your columns, but, for those people who might have listened to local L.A.  stations in the past, there is a web site — oldiesloon.com — that has weekly lists of charted songs for the following stations: KRLA (1959-1966), KFWB (1958-1967), KHJ (1965-1975) and KFI (1979-1980). These are the weekly lists that used to be available in record stores. Although I realize that these are mere lists, they are a really nice reminder of the music that a lot of us grew up with. They have also been invaluable as resources for class reunions, such as the top songs for the week when we graduated from high school.” Absolutely. And it’s an interesting way to find songs you haven’t heard for years, as many of the top songs of a station were not necessarily popular nationwide, or for whatever reason just are not played today. In addition to oldies loon, I found another site that has the actual scans of the surveys from KHJ in addition to a ton of station information focussing on the early years Boss Radio, 1965 through 1973. You can see what they have to offer at https://93khj.blogspot.com. Mess around Entercom is making a mess of mornings … with a new morning show on Amp Radio (KAMP, 97.1 FM). As you read about in Kelli Skye Fadroski’s piece on the Morning Mess crew, the new show with Joey Boy, Aneesh Ratan, Jeana Shepard, and Karla Hernandez started August 3rd and runs weekday mornings from 5-10 a.m. In a press release, Entercom Regional President Jeff Federman said that “Joey Boy and The Morning Mess are a true reflection of Southern California. They are diverse, dynamic, socially responsible and completely transparent.” They are not, however, in Southern California. The Morning Mash is a morning show out of sister station KALV-FM/Phoenix, with a bit of local content added in order so it seems like it’s a local show. It’s not. As reported extensively over the past few months by InsideMusicMedia.Com‘s Jerry Del Colliano, Entercom is in the process of reducing its talent payroll by position cuts, salary cuts, and plan to syndicate talent around the country rather than having local programs. “The plan would give the company a chance to syndicate what they consider their top-rated (and paid) talent so they can fire largely morning hosts in other markets,” he wrote on July 22nd, and it appears Del Colliano is right on the money. In my opinion, a major, full-power station in Los Angeles using a syndicated morning program is an embarrassment; there is absolutely no excuse for the cuts Entercom CEO David Field is making, which seems designed to run the company — and all of its stations —  into the ground. At least, host Joey Boy was grew up in Los Angeles, while Ratan and Shepard were raised in the Valley. Hernandez is a native of Napa. And honestly, I have nothing against the show itself nor any of the hosts; they are seemingly great people. I’ll do a full review of the show in a few weeks

 A "career spanning" interview with Ken Levine (aka on the radio as Beaver Cleaver) Ken's blog:  http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/ Ken's podcast: https://hollywoodandlevine.libsyn.com/

Radio: August 9, 2020     Entercom is making a Mess of mornings … with a new morning show on Amp Radio (KAMP, 97.1 FM).     It started August 3rd and runs weekday mornings from 5 - 10 a.m., with Joey Boy, Aneesh Ratan, Jeana Shepard, and Karla Hernandez presenting The Morning Mess.       In a press release, Entercom Regional President Jeff Federman said that “Joey Boy and The Morning Mess are a true reflection of Southern California. They are diverse, dynamic, socially responsible and completely transparent.”     They also are not in Southern California. Keeping with Entercom’s corporate mandate to do everything on the cheap, the Morning Mash is actually nothing more than a morning show out of sister station KALV-FM/Phoenix, with a bit of local content added in order for them to be able to pretend it’s a local show.     It’s not.     As reported extensively over the past few months by InsideMusicMedia.Com's Jerry Del Colliano, Entercom is in the process of reducing its talent payroll by position cuts, salary cuts, and plan to syndicate talent around the country rather than having local programs. “The plan would give the company a chance to syndicate what they consider their top rated (and paid) talent so they can fire largely morning hosts in other markets,” he wrote on July 22nd.       It appears Del Colliano is right on the money.     For a major, full-power station in Los Angeles to use a syndicated morning program is an embarrassment, and an indictment of the leadership of Entercom itself, including CEO David Field. There is absolutely no excuse for the cuts he is making, other than the fact that he is running the company — and all of its stations —  into the ground.     There is, at least, a tie to Los Angeles for the team: Ringleader Joey Boy — aka Nachoo — was raised in los Angeles, while Ratan and Shepard were raised in the Valley. Hernandez is a native of Napa. And honestly, I have nothing against the show itself nor any of the hosts … they are seemingly great people. I will also do a full review of the show in a few weeks, once I give them a fair shake. My only complaint has to do with the idea itself - radio is local, and should have local shows. Phoenix is not local. Sorry.     Feeding LA     While Entercom is destroying the radio industry, it is trying to be a good neighbor. The company has teamed up with the Los Angeles Unified School District to raise money and help feed needy children and families.     All Entercom Los Angeles radio stations — Amp, Jack-FM (93.1), The Wave (94.7 FM), KRTH (101.1 FM), KNX (1070 AM) and KROQ (106.7 FM) — are participating. From August 3rd to the 28th, stations will encourage listeners to donate by texting “NEED” to 76278. The money generated will bring meals to those in need throughout the region through the school district’s Grab and Go program.     More than 50 million meals have been provided via 62 Grab and Go Food Centers since the program began in March, according to LAUSD’s Superintendent Austin Beutner. About one-third are adults hard hit by the COVID shutdowns.     Donations can also be made by visiting need.givesmart.com, and you can get more information on the program by heading to radio.com/feedourfamilies.     Help Request     The special interview that KNXFM93.Com ran a short time ago with Carly Simon brought in some nice emails, many oof which mentioned interviews they remember from years past as heard win the original KNX-FM (now Jack-FM). The problem, explains net station volunteer and production director Douglas Brown, is that no one has the tapes. The Simon interview just happened to be in Christopher Ames’ garage. Others are MIA.     So I thought I’d ask you … if you have, or if you know people