Local (and other) radio news

[urth]

Now, granted, a New Times newspaper berating a media conglomerate for firing people is the ultimate Pot-Calling-The-Kettle, but this is still a interesting article in SF Weekly about KNBR:

http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/2006-06-14/news/news.html

Wow.  This is so similar to what's happened with the Village Voice this year, it's almost scary.  I wonder if that irony is lost on them.

Or a case of the left coast not knowing what the right coast is doing.

[RGMike]

Now, granted, a New Times newspaper berating a media conglomerate for firing people is the ultimate Pot-Calling-The-Kettle, but this is still a interesting article in SF Weekly about KNBR:

http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/2006-06-14/news/news.html

Wow.  This is so similar to what's happened with the Village Voice this year, it's almost scary.  I wonder if that irony is lost on them.

It is either lost on the writer (in which case, how fucking sad), or it's lost on the editors/publisher but not the writer (in which case, kudos for being subversive).

[RGMike]

Now, granted, a New Times newspaper berating a media conglomerate for firing people is the ultimate Pot-Calling-The-Kettle, but this is still a interesting article in SF Weekly about KNBR:

http://www.sfweekly.com/Issues/2006-06-14/news/news.html

Wow.  This is so similar to what's happened with the Village Voice this year, it's almost scary.  I wonder if that irony is lost on them.

Or a case of the left coast not knowing what the right coast is doing.

New Times hasn't just done it at the Voice, though... they're doing it in every city where they've bought a paper (especially where the merger involves more than one alt-weekly).  It'd be hard to imagine a NT employee who isn't familiar with what's going on.

[RGMike]

Listening to Live 105's "K-GAY" thang, and they're broadcasting live from the Pilsner (!) interviewing the ladies of Lez Zeppelin, the all-female Zep cover band, and playing real LZ between segments.  Not what I was expecting, but I'm totally diggin' it.

[Alicat]

Listening to Live 105's "K-GAY" thang, and they're broadcasting live from the Pilsner (!) interviewing the ladies of Lez Zeppelin, the all-female Zep cover band, and playing real LZ between segments.  Not what I was expecting, but I'm totally diggin' it.

Just heard Take your Momma Out for the second time.  First time was when interviewing Peaches Christ, http://www.peacheschrist.com/  which went on a bit too long.

[RGMike]

Listening to Live 105's "K-GAY" thang, and they're broadcasting live from the Pilsner (!) interviewing the ladies of Lez Zeppelin, the all-female Zep cover band, and playing real LZ between segments.  Not what I was expecting, but I'm totally diggin' it.

Just heard Take your Momma Out for the second time.  First time was when interviewing Peaches Christ, http://www.peacheschrist.com/ which went on a bit too long.

LOL! Drag Queens always go on too long.

[RGMike]

Shock shock horror horror shock shock horror!

"K-GAY" just played "Female of the Species". What a fab-yoo-luss record.

[Gazoo]

Shock shock horror horror shock shock horror!

"K-GAY" just played "Female of the Species". What a fab-yoo-luss record.

Ditto, shouting myself hoarse for her supernatural force

[RGMike]

nice piece from Slate about the "Jack" format, and why it's a lot like Dubya:

http://www.slate.com/id/2144538

[RGMike]

per Ben Fong-Torres' radio column in Sunday's Chron:

"Santa Rosa's KRSH ("The Krush," at 95.5 FM), one of the last bastions of free-form radio (with a country/rootsy bent, like KPIG), is streaming on the Internet now, at www.krsh.com. "

Worth checking out? Anyone heard this station?

[ggould]

per Ben Fong-Torres' radio column in Sunday's Chron:

"Santa Rosa's KRSH ("The Krush," at 95.5 FM), one of the last bastions of free-form radio (with a country/rootsy bent, like KPIG), is streaming on the Internet now, at www.krsh.com. "

Worth checking out? Anyone heard this station?

I added a direct link in the internet topic.  It works fine, but sometimes doth protest too much and says it doesn't work, while it's working!

http://eastweb.streamguys.com/krsh.asx

[RGMike]

interesting piece by Brad Kava on K-Fox's nightly freeform show:

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2006/07/kfoxs_greg_ston.html#more

Sounds like what KFOG was doing in that timeslot 15 years ago with "The Adventure Hour", only apparently the guy on K-Fox also plays new stuff.

[RGMike]

Last week, KPIG became one of the last radio staions in the country to automate its overnight; 2 DJs laid off and another demoted from full- to part-time. Predictably, listeners are upset:

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2006/July/08/local/stories/01local.htm

[darryl]

I just read Ben Fong-Torres' column from June 18 yesterday and found the interview with Alice's new PD Chris Mays (formerly of the highly rated Seattle station "The Mountain") interesting in where she feels Alice fits in relation to KFOG, Live 105, and Star 101:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/18/PKGDOILS7O1.DTL&type=tvradio

Still, I was interested in meeting Mays, a highly respected programmer of AAA ("Triple A") formatted stations. The A's stand for adult alternative album, roughly in that order. These are stations like KFOG, which mix classic rock with an eclectic array of newer music. Mays was coming into town from KMTT ("The Mountain") in Seattle, and her hiring triggered rumors that Alice would be deserting its format and going after KFOG.

My sense was not to go head to head with KFOG. First, it's an excellent triple-A station, and second, Alice is targeted toward women, and KFOG leans male, and it leans classic rock. Some women like that; women like all kinds of music. But my sense was it would be inappropriate to get into the classic rock game. Alice needs to remain a contemporary station. I refer to it as the Bermuda Triangle. The space in between KFOG, Live 105 and Star. I'm creating a format that's at the center of the three. If you shaved off the classic rock from KFOG, the Tool and the more aggressive side of alternative music from Live 105, and the Keith Urban and Mariah Carey from Star 101, in between there is a body of music for women who've grown up on rock 'n' roll, that's based on Dave Matthews, U2, Coldplay, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer and Jack Johnson, but that also includes more new music than what's found on a typical AAA station, and a little bit of the funky side that crosses over between Star and Live 105, like the Gorillaz and Outkast, which Triple A wouldn't touch, but still works for a female-based radio station. An example for this summer would be Gnarls Barkley and "Crazy."

I find this interesting since KFOG (well, Dave Benson) has shoved "Crazy" down our throats, er, into our ears since April of this year.  They also "broke" Corinne Bailey Rae around the same time.

Meanwhile, www.radioalice.com is featuring Corinne Bailey Rae on their front page, so I assume she'a fairly recent addition to their playlist.  Ah yes, right there under "New & Hot" with "Crazy" and Jack Johnson's duet with Black Eye Peas of "Gone Going" (huh, that last one is new to me).

So what does it all mean?  I dunno, but it is heartening to me that KFOG does sometimes break new artists well before other Bay Area stations get around to discovering them.  I just wish they would have a little more confidence in their picks and play them *outside* of the New Music Thursday ghetto.  I mean, look at the great response KT Tunstall has gotten.  And they were playing her well before her album was available in the US.

[RGMike]

I just read Ben Fong-Torres' column from June 18 yesterday and found the interview with Alice's new PD Chris Mays (formerly of the highly rated Seattle station "The Mountain") interesting in where she feels Alice fits in relation to KFOG, Live 105, and Star 101:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/18/PKGDOILS7O1.DTL&type=tvradio

Still, I was interested in meeting Mays, a highly respected programmer of AAA ("Triple A") formatted stations. The A's stand for adult alternative album, roughly in that order. These are stations like KFOG, which mix classic rock with an eclectic array of newer music. Mays was coming into town from KMTT ("The Mountain") in Seattle, and her hiring triggered rumors that Alice would be deserting its format and going after KFOG.

My sense was not to go head to head with KFOG. First, it's an excellent triple-A station, and second, Alice is targeted toward women, and KFOG leans male, and it leans classic rock. Some women like that; women like all kinds of music. But my sense was it would be inappropriate to get into the classic rock game. Alice needs to remain a contemporary station. I refer to it as the Bermuda Triangle. The space in between KFOG, Live 105 and Star. I'm creating a format that's at the center of the three. If you shaved off the classic rock from KFOG, the Tool and the more aggressive side of alternative music from Live 105, and the Keith Urban and Mariah Carey from Star 101, in between there is a body of music for women who've grown up on rock 'n' roll, that's based on Dave Matthews, U2, Coldplay, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer and Jack Johnson, but that also includes more new music than what's found on a typical AAA station, and a little bit of the funky side that crosses over between Star and Live 105, like the Gorillaz and Outkast, which Triple A wouldn't touch, but still works for a female-based radio station. An example for this summer would be Gnarls Barkley and "Crazy."

I find this interesting since KFOG (well, Dave Benson) has shoved "Crazy" down our throats, er, into our ears since April of this year.  They also "broke" Corinne Bailey Rae around the same time.

Meanwhile, www.radioalice.com is featuring Corinne Bailey Rae on their front page, so I assume she'a fairly recent addition to their playlist.  Ah yes, right there under "New & Hot" with "Crazy" and Jack Johnson's duet with Black Eye Peas of "Gone Going" (huh, that last one is new to me).

So what does it all mean?  I dunno, but it is heartening to me that KFOG does sometimes break new artists well before other Bay Area stations get around to discovering them.  I just wish they would have a little more confidence in their picks and play them *outside* of the New Music Thursday ghetto.  I mean, look at the great response KT Tunstall has gotten.  And they were playing her well before her album was available in the US.

I agree, and I made comments in another thread about the number of great new songs that Little Steven features on his weekly show that never seem to end up in rotation on either KFOG the Bone or Live 105 -- KFOG would do well to pick up on the new Cheap Trick (instead of Chris Isaak's lameass cover of "I Want You To Want Me") or Joan Jett or Willie Nile or that wonderful Stones-sounding Primal Scream song. I used to laugh at the Fogheads who called the morning show to complain that Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux "aren't rock" but it would be nice to have a bit more balance.