Local (and other) radio news

[RGMike]

not all radio puff-pieces in the Chron are written by BFT. This article about Greg Kihn appeared yesterday.

http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Greg-Kihn-off-the-air-on-creative-burst-4010087.php

I don't know who in this market would hire him at this point... but then, does he really *need* to work?

[urth]

KDVS, the campus station of UC Davis, is giving their studios over to the former staff of KZAP, Sacramento's original free-form FM station of the late 60s and 70s (not to be confused with the Classic Rock station it morphed into in the 80s and early 90s) for 48 hours beginning Nov 8 @ 6am and continuing until 6 am on the 9th. I can't imagine many of you will know any of the jocks, but it might be a nice flashback to what free form radio used to sound like. I'm hearing Dan Hicks' I Scare Myself right now, and heard FMac's Oh Well in its entirety earlier this morning.

http://www.kdvs.org/kzapschedule

[RGMike]

Just noticed this on Morey's WTF website, under the Tuesday on-air schedule:

Look at all these empty Tuesday slots - Waiting for you to make a show happen!

I wonder if you actually have to be in Michigan to do it *live*...

[urth]

Just noticed this on Morey's WTF website, under the Tuesday on-air schedule:

Look at all these empty Tuesday slots - Waiting for you to make a show happen!

I wonder if you actually have to be in Michigan to do it *live*...

Ben F-T had a show, so I believe the answer is "no" (although being a longtime radio geek and former RS editor probably did not hurt his case).

[RGMike]

Just noticed this on Morey's WTF website, under the Tuesday on-air schedule:

Look at all these empty Tuesday slots - Waiting for you to make a show happen!

I wonder if you actually have to be in Michigan to do it *live*...

Ben F-T had a show, so I believe the answer is "no" (although being a longtime radio geek and former RS editor probably did not hurt his case).

they also appear to be running Harry Shearer's "Le Show".

[RGMike]

New radio ratings just out -- covers the period from Oct 10 thru Nov 7. Not surprisingly KNBR is #1 with an 8.1 (!)  KQED and KCBS both up (elections, I assume).  KFOG and K-Fox each down a tick.

[RGMike]

FWIW, I note that Oldies 103.7 is promoting a "no-repeat workday" (remember those?) between 9 and 5 Mon-Fri.

[RGMike]

Geek Alert:  Dave Morey's WTF internet station is running "A Star Wars Christmas" this Friday nite at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific.  Not sure if he has a copy of the actual TV special of if it's just the sndtk LP.

[RGMike]

I had to share this -- there's been discussion on the NY Radio Message Board about the possibility of NYC getting a Country station for the first time in nearly 20 years.  A guy named Craig posted this analysis of Country as a format/genre. I could've written it myself. Dead-on, really.

Let's look at the lyrics from a recent Country hit by Tim McGraw. "Where The Green Grass Grows" is about a guy who has to drive a truck for a living but he dreams of owning a farm.

"I'm gonna live where the green grass grows.
Watchin' my corn popping up in rows.
Every night being tucked in close to you.
Raise our kids where the Good Lord's blessed.
Pointing our rocking chairs toward the west.
Plant our dreams where the peaceful river flows,
Where the green grass grows."

Why is every Country song about how "We're poor and we work hard but we love each other and that's all that counts"? In each Country song the singer didn't really succeed in life but that doesn't matter because simple things are more important. God, family, patriotism, farm. But not much financial success.

I'm sure you've heard the joke: What happens when you play a Country song backward? You get your wife, your job, your dog and your truck back. Notice in this one chorus of a three-minute Tim McGraw song, he manages to get grass, growing corn, the wife, the kids, God, rocking chairs, his dreams of a better life and The West into only a few lines of the song.

Tim McGraw is a good looking guy, married to Faith Hill who is also a Country singer. They're both incredibly successful. He attended college on a baseball scholarship. But he HAS to sing songs as if he's a blue collar worker who didn't get an education and is struggling to pay his bills. He HAS to wear a hat all the time, just like Brad Paisley, just like Kenny Chesney, as if they have to protect their heads from the blazing sun while herding cattle. They HAVE to wear the hat to prove to their rural, Country-lifestyle audience that they are one of them.

If you take the D train from Bay Ridge to your job in an office on Seventh Avenue, this music just doesn't speak to you. You don't dream about owning a farm, you don't drive a truck, you're more likely to wear a Yankees cap than a cowboy hat. You're probably Catholic or Jewish or go to a Black church or maybe you attend a Muslim, Hindu or Buddist temple... or belong to no organized religion at all. You're not Evangelical Protestant. You learned to swim at a city pool or the YMCA, not in the Chattahoochie River. You probably only rode a horse or fired a gun a few times in your entire life.

Yes, I know most of the music we listen is about lifestyles we don't REALLY live. Many Rock songs deal with how tough life on the road in a rock band is. Many Rap songs deal with growing up in the projects with violence all around. Many songs we like, we may not even understand what they mean.

But Country is such a stretch. I hear this Tim McGraw song, which starts off with a Country fiddle solo before the band kicks in, and I say to myself, they've simply taken the same old Country instruments and song concepts and only SLIGHTLY updated them for today. I just don't see a Country station ever making the Top 10 in NYC.

[Here'sToYa!]

Tim McGraw is a good looking guy, married to Faith Hill who is also a Country singer. They're both incredibly successful. He attended college on a baseball scholarship. But he HAS to sing songs as if he's a blue collar worker who didn't get an education and is struggling to pay his bills.

Bruce Springsteen

[RGMike]

Tim McGraw is a good looking guy, married to Faith Hill who is also a Country singer. They're both incredibly successful. He attended college on a baseball scholarship. But he HAS to sing songs as if he's a blue collar worker who didn't get an education and is struggling to pay his bills.

Bruce Springsteen

yes... sorta. Bruce sings "about" such people a lot but when it's in the first person it's clear he's playing a character (or at least it has always seemed so to me). In country, perhaps because of the twang (which is often exaggerated for effect) it seems more of a "this is me" thing. And Bruce's songs are more "man, life is hard" than, "we're poor but we're happy"

And of course, Bruce is a big pro-union type whereas most country artists tend to be Republican. (McGraw is actually that rare country superstar who is a Democrat; he has talked of running for office some day)

[Here'sToYa!]

Tim McGraw is a good looking guy, married to Faith Hill who is also a Country singer. They're both incredibly successful. He attended college on a baseball scholarship. But he HAS to sing songs as if he's a blue collar worker who didn't get an education and is struggling to pay his bills.

Bruce Springsteen

yes... sorta. Bruce sings "about" such people a lot but when it's in the first person it's clear he's playing a character (or at least it has always seemed so to me). In country, perhaps because of the twang (which is often exaggerated for effect) it seems more of a "this is me" thing. And Bruce's songs are more "man, life is hard" than, "we're poor but we're happy"

And of course, Bruce is a big pro-union type whereas most country artists tend to be Republican. (McGraw is actually that rare country superstar who is a Democrat; he has talked of running for office some day)

Well said. I guess I would have stirred up more s**t at another venue.

[ggould]

Tim McGraw is a good looking guy, married to Faith Hill who is also a Country singer. They're both incredibly successful. He attended college on a baseball scholarship. But he HAS to sing songs as if he's a blue collar worker who didn't get an education and is struggling to pay his bills.

Bruce Springsteen

yes... sorta. Bruce sings "about" such people a lot but when it's in the first person it's clear he's playing a character (or at least it has always seemed so to me). In country, perhaps because of the twang (which is often exaggerated for effect) it seems more of a "this is me" thing. And Bruce's songs are more "man, life is hard" than, "we're poor but we're happy"

And of course, Bruce is a big pro-union type whereas most country artists tend to be Republican. (McGraw is actually that rare country superstar who is a Democrat; he has talked of running for office some day)

Well said. I guess I would have stirred up more s**t at another venue.

I think you were essentially right about Bruce.  He wears a uniform too, but I think writes better songs.  I'm not so sure country wouldn't work in NYC, simply as an alternative.  Having never lived there before, I'm just talking through my (cowboy Giants) hat.  It probably wouldn't break the top ten in such a big market.

[Big Fingers McGee]

Tim McGraw is a good looking guy, married to Faith Hill who is also a Country singer. They're both incredibly successful. He attended college on a baseball scholarship. But he HAS to sing songs as if he's a blue collar worker who didn't get an education and is struggling to pay his bills.

Bruce Springsteen

There is no doubt in my mind that Bruce Springsteen's talent exceeds approximately 100% of the country world, and that he's more sincere than approximately 100% of the country world. That said, the G-snipe love for him borders on lunacy.

And I don't know NY well at all, but I'd have to say that the Bay Area would almost have to be more country music-receptive. And given that there aren't any country stations in the Bay Area proper, I would have to think one would not make the top ten, or even the top forty, in NY.

[RGMike]

Tim McGraw is a good looking guy, married to Faith Hill who is also a Country singer. They're both incredibly successful. He attended college on a baseball scholarship. But he HAS to sing songs as if he's a blue collar worker who didn't get an education and is struggling to pay his bills.

Bruce Springsteen

There is no doubt in my mind that Bruce Springsteen's talent exceeds approximately 100% of the country world, and that he's more sincere than approximately 100% of the country world. That said, the G-snipe love for him borders on lunacy.

And I don't know NY well at all, but I'd have to say that the Bay Area would almost have to be more country music-receptive. And given that there aren't any country stations in the Bay Area proper, I would have to think one would not make the top ten, or even the top forty, in NY>

If you mean NYC proper (the 5 boroughs) then yeah, it's very, um, "urban" (and I don't mean Keith Urban).  But the NY 'burbs are as receptive to country as Concord or Livermore are here.  The Wolf did kinda OK here for a while but Entercom had other ideas. And KRTY does well in the South Bay.