KFOG, But Not 10@10

[radical347]

There is no evolution. I don’t even like the new music. It’s about 10-20 years newer, which I should have liked but the choices are equally safe, milquetoast, and repetitive. Nothing that the real KFOG staff couldn’t have played.

What we are getting is a new morning DJ with an annoying voice, and a semi-new afternoon DJ also with an annoying voice.

And quite frankly I’ll take Tears for Fears & New Order’s most overplayed songs over over REM and U2’s most overplayed songs.

When DC took over we were getting Stone Roses, Charlatans, Enigma, Blur (other than Song 2), Belly, etc for golds and Belle & Sebastian, Noah & the Whale, Airborne Toxic songs other than Sometime Around Midnight, Fleet Foxes, etc for currents. I do not see anything like that happening this time.

[RGMike]

I have not been listening yet, but based on comments it sounds like the much ballyhooed "evolution" is much ado about nothing.  After years of hacking away the various bits of uniqueness that made KFOG what it was, the corporate overlords finally decided to sandblast away all remaining traces of its former identity.  KFOG is now just another radio station.

Precisely.  And per radical's comment above, I really did kind of expect an alternative (and male-skewing) slant, since they kept NoName. But if that's the plan, why so much Sarah McLesbian, Paula Cole (!) and Adele? Makes no sense. Just a boring younger-skewing Triple-A.

The March rating book had KFOG holding steady with a 1.9 share (tied with Live 105  as they so often have been). Unless 105 disappears I don't see this incarnation doing better than that, but maybe the younger demo is all they care about.

[RGMike]

Listening for a half-hour or so:

1) No-Name is apparently "Mike" now, no more nickname. If anything he seems less "Bro"-ish than before, a surprise considering the FB comments about how the Pinfield show seemed like a total Bro-fest.

2) all the deejay-testimonial commercials (Car-telligent, SleepTrain etc) that had been divided up amongst AL, Renee, Webster etc are now ALL being voiced by No-Name, oops I mean Mike.

3) totally agree about the sound bites (laughter, noise, etc) -- they add nothing.

4) musically, it's as boring and consultant-approved as a Triple-A gets.

[RGMike]

When I punched them up in the car shortly after 6 I was just in time for the longest stop-set of commercials I've ever heard on KFOG -- had to be, like, 10 commercials in a row. I see folks on the Save KFOG FB page also commented on the number of commercials. So I guess the suits are quite pleased.

Also, Ben Fong-Torres latest column, about KGO/KFOG dropped today via the Chron (it will be on SF Gate next week, I guess) but this link should work:

http://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/radiowaves/article/Down-and-out-at-KGO-KFOG-7262471.php?t=8e0437988d7d4f3860&cmpid=twitter-premium

[Lightnin' Rod]

http://www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/radiowaves/article/Down-and-out-at-KGO-KFOG-7262471.php?t=8e0437988d7d4f3860&cmpid=twitter-premium

“Inside Radio” reported that KGO’s advertising revenue fell from $23 million in 2010 to $6.7 million in 2015, and that KFOG’s revenue declined from $16.2 million in 2010 to $4.2 million last year.

Well, I suppose they had to do *something*.  Those are really ugly numbers.

[darryl]

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.

[RGMike]

Darryl that was awesome -- thanks for listening so we didn't have to

And yes, the 9-minute commercial blocks are new and horrible. I guess the sales guys were out in force, drumming up "we're targeting a younger demo, so sign on now with a discount before our availabilities sell out!" business.  (I guess those "60-minute flights of KFOG music" came about because they couldn't sell enough spots?  KNBR sells more than THIRTY MINUTES of commercials an hour -- surely KFOG won't go *that* far?)

I noted in the Prince obit thread that AL did an all-Prince "Purple Friday" 10@10 on 3/4 when he was in town which (except for "Darling Nikki" and "Baby I'm a Star") was very mid-'80s-hits-centric.

I'm actually impressed they did 2 hours of the guy (even if it was obvious hits) since they just scrubbed their library of '80s.  Imagine what Kiss-FM woulda done had they not become "The Breeze" last week. (and what if it had been someone of equal stature but older?)

[radical347]

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.

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 before Sinead. There were also at least 3 or 4 others that def. weren’t the big hits. But the non-overplayed singles aren’t registering on Tunegenie.

[darryl]

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.

[RGMike]

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.

Yes -- Greg got mugged just outside the station, per various posts on FB.  I also wondered what the comments about "obscurities" were about, but that accounts  for the time gaps between songs (I *hoped* it didn't mean Pinfield was running his mouth for 10 minutes at a time )  IIRC, TuneGenie also failed to pick up non-playlist songs during 10@10, as when AL would play something she brought in from home.

[darryl]

Yes -- Greg got mugged just outside the station, per various posts on FB.  I also wondered what the comments about "obscurities" were about, but that accounts  for the time gaps between songs (I *hoped* it didn't mean Pinfield was running his mouth for 10 minutes at a time )  IIRC, TuneGenie also failed to pick up non-playlist songs during 10@10, as when AL would play something she brought in from home.

Goddamn, that sucks. I missed those posts - were those on GS? I think I may have bailed out from there.

Anyways, yeah, TuneGenie can clearly only deal with stuff in their computer... and their computer, is bullshit. Re: Purple Rain: "the version we have fades with about 3mins to go"

So wait. How would he know there's 3 minutes more than the 5 that they played? I reckon the computer has the whole track, and they've preset that fade point as "the radio edit" point?
...

UGh. Computers ruin everything! :-}

So HEY folks -- if No Name is only on from 3-7 (afternoon drive time)... are they fully automated from 10-3? And 7PM-6AM?

I guess they're saving a lot of cash not paying for 4.5 DJs. (Rosalie was only Sundays, right?)

But still... to hire and *move* Pinfield could not have been cheap. Still SMH about that.

[RGMike]

So HEY folks -- if No Name is only on from 3-7 (afternoon drive time)... are they fully automated from 10-3? And 7PM-6AM?

I guess they're saving a lot of cash not paying for 4.5 DJs. (Rosalie was only Sundays, right?)

But still... to hire and *move* Pinfield could not have been cheap. Still SMH about that.

Yeah its automation the rest of the time, tho' I saw somewhere that they still have Rockwell on the payroll; whether he's going to be the fill-in guy or do weekend shifts remains to be seen. I suspect that it was only Pinfield who moved, and not his family -- he has teens in high school in NJ, I think. Also he's already a Cumulus employee (does a weekend syndicated Classic Rock show and is starting a nightly alternative show too) so there's some kind of package deal going on.

[RGMike]

So HEY folks -- if No Name is only on from 3-7 (afternoon drive time)... are they fully automated from 10-3? And 7PM-6AM?

I guess they're saving a lot of cash not paying for 4.5 DJs. (Rosalie was only Sundays, right?)

But still... to hire and *move* Pinfield could not have been cheap. Still SMH about that.

Yeah its automation the rest of the time, tho' I saw somewhere that they still have Rockwell on the payroll; whether he's going to be the fill-in guy or do weekend shifts remains to be seen. I suspect that it was only Pinfield who moved, and not his family -- he has teens in high school in NJ, I think. Also he's already a Cumulus employee (does a weekend syndicated Classic Rock show and is starting a nightly alternative show too) so there's some kind of package deal going on.

And actually this inspires a conspiracy theory of sorts: The PD (who had worked with Pinfield in NYC) said "look, come to SF for a year and do mornings and Cumulus will give you a 2nd syndicated show that you can voice from here. They get a younger demo and increased commercial revenue and you go home next year with a nice piece of change in your bank account".

[RGMike]

It's true: Rockwell was on this morning doing a shift. Dunno what his hours were. As I said in reply to a comment about it on one of the KFOG FB pages, they obviously needed *someone* to fill in in case Pinfield or Nelson calls in sick...

[RGMike]

Man, how many times a day do they play that clip of Irish Greg saying "We need to do all this over again"?