Messages

31

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 22, 2016, 01:31:33 PM »

As much as I dislike the regime change and wish it would have been AL doing the kind of tribute that only she knows how to do -- I listened to this thing and to be fair, this is NOT the complete list of what KFOG played. Off the top of my head, we got Controversy and Prince's live version of Nothing Compares 2 U right after Sinead. There were also at least 3 or 4 others that def. weren’t the big hits. But the non-singles aren’t registering on Tunegenie.

Hey radical - thank you so much for filling us in! I did see that somebody replied to KFOG's Prince post referred to "obscure songs" and I wondered what that was about. That is great to hear they played stuff that wasn't in the computer.

Did anybody happen to listen to the show earlier? A lot of posts to Greg said: "I'm glad you're okay and still able to carry on with your morning." and "Glad you are okay despite the beginning of your day."

I wonder if he got into an accident or if there was some other unfortunate event that he recounted earlier in the show.

32

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 22, 2016, 11:01:50 AM »

Grr. So much to say.

Re: Prince
So since I really only ever regularly listened to KFOG from 7-9AM, I didn't even think to tune in after hearing about Prince's passing.

Facebook comments on Greg's and KFOG's post about Matt and Greg coming back after hearing the news and playing Prince tunes mixed in with listener calls are generally positive. Looking back at my foglist, here was the playlist:

4/21/2016 12:27:02	Prince & The Revolution	Kiss
4/21/2016 12:12:01	Prince	Little Red Corvette
4/21/2016 11:45:01	Prince	When Doves Cry
4/21/2016 11:42:01	Prince	1999
4/21/2016 11:39:01	Prince	Rasberry Beret
4/21/2016 11:30:01	Prince	Purple Rain
4/21/2016 11:18:01	The Bangles	Manic Monday
4/21/2016 11:09:02	Sinead O'Connor	Nothing Compares 2 U
4/21/2016 10:42:01	Prince	Rasberry Beret
4/21/2016 10:39:02	Prince & The Revolution	Kiss
4/21/2016 10:33:02	Prince	1999
4/21/2016 10:27:01	Prince	Let's Go Crazy
4/21/2016 10:24:01	Prince	When Doves Cry
4/21/2016 10:18:01	Prince	Little Red Corvette
4/21/2016 10:09:01	Prince	Purple Rain

Yup, all the hits. Oh ok, got the Bangles and Sinead in there. Good. (Funny thing I learned yesterday - Sinead and Prince purportedly came to blows when she visited him after her recording came out.)

Still, compared to what Minneapolis' The Current radio station was spinning, it's a pretty shallow sampling. But I mean, that's the man's hometown, so not really a fair comparison.

But yeah, people listened. They called in. It was (apparently) good radio.

---

So listening this morning at 7AM -- Matt called up a good friend of his (man that's getting old), Dez Dickerson, Prince's former guitarist to get his remembrances. It was pretty light on details, and now that I've wikipedia'd him I know why: He last played with Prince in 1983 (and quit the band over Prince masturbating with his guitar). Wow, what a "get"!

Then Tony Bravo, Chronicle Style reporter and semi-frequent guest called in and had some nice points to make about Prince's contributions to *style*. Ok, that was fine.

Interspersed they played the same old Prince hits: Purple Rain, Little Red Corvette, 1999.

But then... a 9 minute commercial block. No. Turn it off. Let's try flipping back to KFOG. FUCKING COLDPLAY. NO! OFF. Minutes later, ok, let's give them a try. SHERYL FUCKING CROW? WTF? NO!

[So yeah, goddamn long commercial blocks. Awful. And how the hell are Sheryl Crow, Coldplay, Alanis Morisette, Train and Lenny Kravitz supposed to appeal to a younger demographic. Younger in Gen-Xers minds???]
 
But yeah, ultimately it was fine. But but. It could've been so much more with somebody like Dave or Annalisa getting the news. Would they have been able to pull something together after news broke at 9:49AM? Hells yeah. Would it have included deep tracks? Maybe. Would *today's* 10-at-10 blow your socks off? Undoubtably.

Hell, and with 24 hours, I bet even Greg, Renee or No-Name would've found usable audio from these incredible gems to play in the morning show:

A Tribute to Prince from the cast of The Color Purple

Hamilton Prince Tribute 4/21/16 FRONT ROW!!!

And from the sidestage:
G R E G O R Y ‏@ghaney22  16h16 hours ago Manhattan, NY
Celebrating the one & only PRINCE @HamiltonMusical #RestInPurple #PrinceRIP


(Seriously, watch the Color Purple one. It's fucking amazing.)

So yeah. KFOG did OK. Even Good. But it could've done Great. It could've gone above and beyond. It could have faith that listeners won't tune out when they hear a funky, slightly rare Prince track like "Baby I'm a Star" (which NPR's Morning Edition used as an outro, which was enough to get me to cue it up on my new Amazon Dot. So good!)

...

ARRRGH.

So Pinfield just did a nice signoff. Thanked callers. Thanked Greg. Then started spinning Purple Rain. But wait, is this a live version? Oh, a long version. Shazam pegs it as a track off of Ultimate Prince. Nice! Kind of rare, but Greg snuck it in under the guise of a hit, woo! Oh wow, it's 8:40 long? Damn! I post this on Greg's Facebook:

Greg McQuaid thank you for playing this *long version* of Purple Rain. So great to hear something a little rarer by the man.

BUT THEN... 5 minutes in, just as the guitar solo is peaking, they fade it out, I think play a KFOG tag, then play... Eagle Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight"!?! ARGGGH. So I replied:

Oh no! It got cut off! Was that a live version?

Greg replied:

the version we have fades with about 3mins to go

I don't want to be a dick (too badly), so I end it with:

Bummer! Shazam tagged it as from the "Ultimate Prince" album, with a runtime of 8:40. Would've loved to hear the whole thing. Oh well, guess I'll go buy it now. :-}

And I did. And I'm listening to it now. And it's resplendent:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GKK8YA/ref=dm_ws_tlw_trk8

Doh, I'm a dope. It's the original album (Purple Rain Soundtrack) version instead of the radio edit. I guess I don't listen with headphones enough. And I just gave Prince's estate another $1.25.

33

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 20, 2016, 11:06:18 AM »

They featured one fan of Pinfield, who purportedly phoned in about how great the music was. He was gushing so hard, it was difficult to believe it wasn't fake.

34

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 20, 2016, 10:04:21 AM »

One irritant about Pinfield to me was the incessant time and IDs *EVERY* time he's back on the air. It reeks of a slickly produced drive time show.

Also - all the pre-taped filler! Sound/music bites that have no relevance. Uggggh. So lame.

35

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 20, 2016, 08:16:42 AM »

Damn, previewed but forgot to post. So listening this morning since 7AM.

It's all your favorite hits from the 90s, with some carefully calculated new songs thrown into the mix.

Paula Cole's "Where Have all the Cowboys Gone"? REM's "Man on the Moon"? Sarah Maclachlan's "Building a Mystery"? Egads, shades of Alice Radio from the 90s. They're teasing that Stephen Jenkins from Third Eye Blind will be an in-studio guest? Wow.

Oh, loved how Pinfield said how he loved KFOG's commitment to local music, then he introduces Matt Simons "Catch and Release" (already in regular rotation) who he says is from Palo Alto.

Goddamn. Third Eye Blind is more "local" than this guy. AllMusic says:
> New York-based pop singer/songwriter who became an unexpected success in Europe.
> A native of Palo Alto, California, singer/songwriter Matt Simons' first taste of success came, ironically, in Europe.

Also, signed by Sony. Really big "find" there, Pinfield.

36

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 14, 2016, 12:06:49 AM »

And this:

wanted to send my love/thank everyone for their support in my move to SF doing  mornings on KFOG. Great station/great city.

https://twitter.com/mattpinfield/status/720279385803251712

37

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 14, 2016, 12:06:11 AM »

Ok, I stand corrected:

Not close to being done packing 1,000 of CDs Vinyl Books for my move to the beautiful SF!

https://twitter.com/mattpinfield/status/720270037710450688

38

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 12, 2016, 02:16:42 PM »

It's the callous handling of the staff which gets up my crawl (and I suspect most others).

Indeed. And yet, I suspect that my boycott (and the many who pledged to do the same on Facebook), will have 0 effect on ratings. And Mike, I really question whether 10@10 or Acoustic Sunrise/Sunset gave them that much of a bump in ratings. Those are pretty dead time periods anyways right? (After drive-time, Sunday morning/evening.)

39

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 12, 2016, 09:42:42 AM »

Trolling:
https://twitter.com/notyoutoo/status/719928529069015040

40

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 12, 2016, 09:36:23 AM »

Oh, and to whether Matt Pinfield will be moving, I'll refer you to this interview from 2011:

Q: Finally, where do you sees the NYC music industry headed as a whole. Is this still the place to be involved in music?
A: NYC is still the greatest city in the world. It always will be. It doesn’t matter the genre, beyond NYC and into the tri-state area, it’s still the place to be. People move here for a reason: There’s an energy about being a band in NYC that’s unmatched anywhere.

Even as things get gentrified or change, you’ll still find more excitement in an NYC area show than anywhere on the planet. And I know that because I’ve hung out everywhere. Artist for artist, venue for venue, it’s stronger here, and there’s a business to support it. It’s a great, proactive area. It’s the city of artists.

http://www.sonicscoop.com/2011/07/30/5-questions-with-matt-pinfield-taking-over-tv-again-with-the-return-of-120-minutes/

To be fair, that article also talks about his enthusiasm for music of all genres and a curiosity and passion about music that is impressive.

And then there is this bit about the reality of radio as a business:

Q: You talked comprehensively about the June sale of WRXP by Emmis Communications to Randy Michaels and GTCR in a recent “Hollywood Reporter” article. Why, specifically, do you think NYC has a problem keeping a rock radio station going? Isn’t this like LA not having an NFL franchise?
A: I’ll say this only once: The problem had nothing to do with the format or the music. It had to do with financial issues at the top of the company (Emmis).

There’s an incredible misconception that rock can’t work in NYC. That’s complete bullshit. We sold out five Christmas shows, bringing bands like Spoon, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon onstage. We were doing a lot of great things and our fans were really receptive. It had nothing to do with what rock could do in NYC. NYC radio at the moment is really lacking, and I think it would be ridiculous for someone to not pick up the torch and run with it.

But there’s so many politics about how people own stations, and how they look at their market share. Rock’s surely not down for the count, but the situation of the radio station being sold was all above our heads. There was nothing that we could have done as a staff for ratings, or whatever, that could have stopped that sale.

I had a great three year run with Emmis. I loved the opportunity, and that they believed in me and the brand of me. But when a company gets acquired, it doesn’t matter what the business is – it could be a shovel-making company – it’s going to change the dynamic.

41

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 12, 2016, 09:30:28 AM »

Sadly, despite myself, I'm *liking* this new mix of music. My little TuneGenie scraper lets me look at the history of a song on KFOG:
http://darryl.com/kfognew/

I *like* Jake Bugg, and this new Bishop track that they just started playing today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoO_EYPjh6o

They've added the BoDeans back to the playlist, who were rarely played in 2015, but in heavy rotation back in 2012-2013. (There's data is missing for 2014. I need to dig it out and backfill.)

So I was thinking - shit, this music mix is pretty decent. (Yes, sorry, barely anything before the 80s. R.I.P. Beatles and Stones. But hey, Changes and Suffragette City are in the mix, so that's... something!)

But but... why alienate so listeners by canning the DJs? I mean, I've been at Live & Local events, where it's clear that the DJs do no actual jockeying of discs. Sure, somebody back at the studio is cueing up tracks and then cueing up Greg/Renee/No-Name/Rosalie to backsell it and then cut to the next commercial, but that's the nature of radio today. They play what's on the list, they get to keep their jobs. So why couldn't they just play this possibly better (and more Arbitron friendly) mix of music?

Well, it's cheaper to have the computer do it. I mean shit, it's been doing it for almost 2 weeks now and do you think the casual KFOG listener even noticed?

So huzzah. KFOG is dead! Long live KFOG! :-{

42

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 12, 2016, 09:15:23 AM »

We flipped to KFOG this morning because my wife had heard a new voice and wanted to hear it again. There was a guy talking about how cool it was that his daughter was turning him on to new music and how excited he was about that.

She IDed him as Matt Pinfield.

Then in the car ride to drop off my boys at school I flipped to hear the tail end of a promo announcing Matt Pinfield in the mornings.

Wikipedia and his Twitter feed https://twitter.com/mattpinfield seem to indicate that he is based in New Jersey. Considering he's got two daughters (one in high school) there, seems highly unlikely he'd be moving.

So yeah, one of those bullshit voice-tracked shows. (Probably what he's already doing for Sirius/XM.) So he's either got a nifty home studio setup, or he goes in once a week to record bullshit intros/outros, music news, and other stuff that isn't local or relevant. He throws to the local weather or traffic person who says, "Thanks Matt!" and then fills that shit in.

So.

Fucking.

Sad.

And then they syndicate that shit. Kaching!
Add to that the money saved in not paying live DJs. Kaching!

Do you think they had to pay more for the "name brand" of Matt Pinfield? Ooof, really? Who in the Bay Area was clamoring to hear the dude from 120 Minutes do their morning show? No, they probably got him cheap.

43

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 01, 2016, 11:16:04 PM »

So I'm in the process of putting together a photo album of all the various KFOG events we brought our kids to as they grew up (now ages 8 and 11). God, it's like mourning a relative.

And I was trying to get dates for Kabooms, and I find KFOG's Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/kfog

And it's like, goddamn, they brought in some great artists last year -- Brandi Carlile, Guster, Chrissie fricking Hynde, Zella Dae, even the occasional local artists (although that's been rarer and rarer, thanks payola by any other name)

So on the one hand, KFOG was trying -- they were getting these great live performances, they clearly have a devoted, if not people-metered group of listeners, they had some solid community events (which dried up -- Kaboom, morning live shows, etc.), they'd have a booth at pretty much every concert/film festival/wine fest in the bay.

But where it counts, those people meters... nobody was listening. Do Fogheads not have time to carry pagers (for 1 day we were a Nielsen family, then they either found out I was planning to purposefully listen to KFOG/KSCU/KPIG all the time OR they found out I worked for a streaming video company, and asked for them back. :-(

I think it all goes back to their cowardly music programming. When I look at http://www.rudebadmood.com/foglist/, I barely see those artists they had play live if at all. And yeah, Pretenders -- same goddamn three songs: Brass In Pocket, Don't Get Me Wrong, Back on the Chain Gang.

I think about my brief visits to Seattle, marvelling at KEXP, and how that station seems to push new music on their listeners. I think about the great KGSR CDs I have which are chock-full of new music from artists old and new.

[OH. KEXP is a Public Radio station. Go figure. And KGSR is in Austin. So yeah, ok Austin, you fucking win. Happy now?]

And I think... maybe the Bay Area doesn't deserve a good station? Maybe they built it, and nobody came (listened)?

For a time KPIG broadcast up here, but it was too weak for me to get in San Jose. I don't recall that experiment lasting. Was it for lack of signal? Lack of publicity? Or lack of caring?

Profoundly sad that I've grown so used to the same old same they play on KFOG that when I do kick over to 97.7, I'm actually not surprised until I hear the Evolution spots. That maybe the mornings have a little less banter, but oh, there's that same Green Day song again, so ok, I'm comfortable with that.

Honestly I don't even feel worthy of this board since I've neglected listening to 10-at-10 for years, maybe catching a bit of the Saturday marathon here or there. I didn't make it a priority to stream it or tune it at night.

But yeah, thanks for letting me vent here, post memorials, and commiserate. I know most of you had figured KFOG for dead years ago, and I know where you're coming from. But now that it's really gone, there's a hole on the dial, and it sucks.

44

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 01, 2016, 09:09:20 PM »

SFGate's article on the KFOG slaughter:

http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/KFOG-axes-DJs-future-up-in-the-air-7223598.php

The morning drive team of Irish Greg and No Name has been left intact for now, though its third wheel, Renee, is gone.

Damn. What a hack. "Third wheel"??

1. What, were Irish Greg and No Name on a date?
2. What, was Renee somehow considered "extra" to the Morning Show? Uh... she's been there at least as long as Irish Greg, if not longer, and held it down solo after they axed Greg.

Ok, reading the rest of the article. It's well-researched, digging deep into KFOG's history.

Asked if there will be a farewell show, she said, “you never get to do it in radio, and it’s too bad because I already had all my songs picked out.”

Well, Dave got to do his. But he's the exception, I know.

Wait, I spoke too soon about well-researched:

It still leads into “10@10,” which seldom reaches back to the ’60s and ’70s anymore. The introductory antics are gone, and so is the “10@10 Marathon” on Saturday mornings.

Uhm... Annalisa had plenty of introductory antics. They're just *different* from Don Pardo spinning the big wheel. And uh, the Marathon was still running as of last Saturday. Anyways, his tenses are all screwed up. Those are all in the past now. *Sigh*

45

Stream of Consciousness / Re: KFOG, But Not 10@10

« on: April 01, 2016, 07:55:37 PM »

As mentioned above, Rosalie reposted and commented on this lovely remembrance and photo from Dennis Constantine:

A million thanks and blessings to everyone of our friends and listeners, colleagues and co-workers who have weighed in and commiserated, ranted and railed, and offered support, praise and memories. You are all incredibly generous with your praise and insightful in your analysis. We are beyond grateful, and your messages will continue to warm our hearts long after the furor dies down and the phones & FB cool down...that's when we'll need it most! Let's not lose touch; all of us, on both sides of the mic, have been part of something extraordinary together!
Thanks for the photo Dennis Constantine.

I've been overwhelmed and saddened by the news of the massive layoffs at my former radio home in San Francisco. There are many good people who have done incredible work over the years who find themselves out of work and unappreciated. At KFOG, Rosalie, with over 32 years of dedication and love for the station; my radio wife Renee with her enthusiasm and positivity; Phenomenal human being Annalisa with 10@10; Webster, who kept afternoons alive and fun, and Dred, one of radio's most creative voices. And then there are all the amazing, talented people at KGO who poured their heart and soul into creating great radio.

I know all too well of radio's challenges of finding the next generation of listeners. However, blowing up a brand name and hoping to rebuild from the ground up is not the best strategy. Other brands have been tremendously successful in rebranding. Others have failed miserably. I remember when the iconic Coca-Cola followed their "research" and "evolved" in the future by introducing "New Coke." Eventually, they needed to return to the classic Coke formula (even though they fudged on the sweetener).

In the cases of KGO and KFOG, now is not time for New Coke. Certainly, the programming formula could be adjusted to make the taste more acceptable to younger listeners, but there is no need to overturn the lives of the human beings who have been dedicated to creating great radio and the station's listeners who have come to depend on those stations. Now, instead of building upon a 2 share of listeners, the stations will need to build from scratch, which is a much more difficult road to follow.

Maybe this will all turn out to be a huge April Fools publicity stunt, and the stations will come back and apologize. But then again, who would purposely plan something like that. That would be just pure evil.

I will miss 10@10, Acoustic Sunrise and Sunset and listening to the fun of being on the air at KFOG and KGO. My love and devotion to all my friends who find themselves wondering what's next.
I love you.

https://www.facebook.com/rosalie.howarth/posts/10208068047491216