KFOG, But Not 10@10

[radical347]

I shot an email to DC asking him about the new sound (didn't mention 10@10 tho) -- this just in:

"I agree with you that there's already plenty of classic rock on the radio and that's why you are now hearing more 90s and 00s music in the mix. This is our new direction. And, we'll keep the "different" songs coming, too."

Been hearing a lot more Killers, a few tracks from The Arcade Fire (besides "Modern Man") & Franz Ferdinand, "Seven Nation Army" as discussed and "There's No Other Way" by Blur a couple of times.  Also they're really piling on the INXS.

They recently added Fleet Foxes, Noah & the Whale, Airborne Toxic Event & Trevor Hall - none of these are in the AAA Top 30 yet.  This is a huge reversal of what seemed to be K. Ransford's policy when she was unofficially in charge of never adding anything that a) didn't hit the top 5 and b) wasn't already on its way out -- can't say I'm complaining.  They're also playing My Morning Jacket, Head/Heart & Iron/Wine.

Looking at a lot of the currents listed above + Noah/Whale, Fleet Foxes, MMJ...they're playing a LOT of stuff that Live 105 should be playing, but isn't.  

Remember when KFOG went all schizo on us and started playing some pretty far-out new music M-F evenings?  I wonder if Cumulus was testing things out and seeing if there'd be a market for that.  Then they decided there was and hired DC.  If they decided there wasn't, they might have just pulled the plug altogether.

A look at the Bone, KFOG's sister station, shows a lot more alt. over there too, esp. since Madden took over (and apparently, many on their FB are furious and calling it "Live 107").  Nirvana, Offspring, Metallica, RHCP...a lot of the stuff that Live 105 shouldn't be playing over and over, but is.

Between KFOG and The Bone...Looks like Cumulus is trying to deliver the final death blow to Live 105.  I say bring it.  That station hasn't sounded good in many years, sadly, and they've had about 1000 chances & blown every one of them (not to mention their heritage reputation.)  They sound worse than ever and their ratings are worse than ever (1.6, tied with KREV).  Most of the problem is that CBS just doesn't care about alternative (they killed off another heritage station, WBCN/Boston but not before ruining it first like they did with Live.)  With them & Channel both gone this would leave a gap in Bay Area radio, but I'm sure that another company would step up & flip to Alternative...and hopefully they'll do it better than Live circa 2010/11.

[RGMike]

Looking at a lot of the currents listed above + Noah/Whale, Fleet Foxes, MMJ...they're playing a LOT of stuff that Live 105 should be playing, but isn't.  

I'm curious, what exactly DOES Live 105 play these days? And does Alice play any of the stuff you mentioned above?  This has always been the CBS problem: Alice is the "girl" station and Live 105 is the "boy" station and there can be no overlap between the 2.

[radical347]

Looking at a lot of the currents listed above + Noah/Whale, Fleet Foxes, MMJ...they're playing a LOT of stuff that Live 105 should be playing, but isn't.  

I'm curious, what exactly DOES Live 105 play these days? And does Alice play any of the stuff you mentioned above?  This has always been the CBS problem: Alice is the "girl" station and Live 105 is the "boy" station and there can be no overlap between the 2.

Alice plays none of the above except for the same overplayed Killers tracks that everyone else plays (Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me.)  Alice is another station that needs to go straight into the trash can, though they too used to be very good before 2008.  Now they play Pink, Bruno Mars, Onerepublic, Katy Perry, Train, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5 probably at least 100 times a day each (between all their respective songs, since they all have multiple singles that they like to overplay.)  On the rare occasion that something does cross over from Live 105, they're the first to hop on it tho (i.e. Neon Trees, Shinedown, Florence+Machine) Which seems to be counterproductive since as you said, they are supposed to be the "girl" station...but I find them more "boy" than Mix or Star.  

Live 105 plays mostly overplayed grunge that was popular in 1990-2000.  Then they have some new songs by those same artists, but the new songs usually a) do not last for too long or b) become overplayed for the next ten years.

[RGMike]

For comparison, I just looked at K-Fox's "just Played" for today... talk about yeesh-worthy. They make the Drive and the Sound look like KPIG.

[darryl]

I shot an email to DC asking him about the new sound (didn't mention 10@10 tho) -- this just in:

"I agree with you that there's already plenty of classic rock on the radio and that's why you are now hearing more 90s and 00s music in the mix. This is our new direction. And, we'll keep the "different" songs coming, too."

Been hearing a lot more Killers, a few tracks from The Arcade Fire (besides "Modern Man") & Franz Ferdinand, "Seven Nation Army" as discussed and "There's No Other Way" by Blur a couple of times.  Also they're really piling on the INXS.

They recently added Fleet Foxes, Noah & the Whale, Airborne Toxic Event & Trevor Hall - none of these are in the AAA Top 30 yet.  This is a huge reversal of what seemed to be K. Ransford's policy when she was unofficially in charge of never adding anything that a) didn't hit the top 5 and b) wasn't already on its way out -- can't say I'm complaining.  They're also playing My Morning Jacket, Head/Heart & Iron/Wine.

Looking at a lot of the currents listed above + Noah/Whale, Fleet Foxes, MMJ...they're playing a LOT of stuff that Live 105 should be playing, but isn't.  

Remember when KFOG went all schizo on us and started playing some pretty far-out new music M-F evenings?  I wonder if Cumulus was testing things out and seeing if there'd be a market for that.  Then they decided there was and hired DC.  If they decided there wasn't, they might have just pulled the plug altogether.

That is really really good to hear.

I used to email Kelly Ransford regularly telling her how much we loved the stuff she played on New Music Thursdays and how I wished she'd play more of it during the day. From her e-mails back (and Twitter feed and her Twitter reports of SWSX, etc.) it was clear to me that she was a huge fan of newer music, but I always got the impression that higher-ups tied her hands from playing any of that stuff during the day.  Re: KFOG schizoness, that's funny, I noticed it pretty quickly and e-mailed her. She confirmed in Oct 2010 that they were doing that 8-10PM and then after 10@10.

Back in February Ransford joined Dave Benson at Seattle's "The Mountain", but Benson apparently just got axed in June. I don't know how their playlist compares.  Oh, hrm:  http://kmtt.tunegenie.com/onair/.  Hrm, looks pretty comparable to KFOG a few months back.  Too bad.

[RGMike]

I used to email Kelly Ransford regularly telling her how much we loved the stuff she played on New Music Thursdays and how I wished she'd play more of it during the day. From her e-mails back (and Twitter feed and her Twitter reports of SWSX, etc.) it was clear to me that she was a huge fan of newer music, but I always got the impression that higher-ups tied her hands from playing any of that stuff during the day.  Re: KFOG schizoness, that's funny, I noticed it pretty quickly and e-mailed her. She confirmed in Oct 2010 that they were doing that 8-10PM and then after 10@10.

Back in February Ransford joined Dave Benson at Seattle's "The Mountain", but Benson apparently just got axed in June. I don't know how their playlist compares.  Oh, hrm:  http://kmtt.tunegenie.com/onair/.  Hrm, looks pretty comparable to KFOG a few months back.  Too bad.

Sorry to hear about Benson; I didn't know that had happened.  Supposedly Kelly R went up to Seattle because she was getting no direction from Cumulus about WTF they wanted here (KFOG was without a PD for nearly 2 years after Benson left). I went to the radio-info.com Seattle board and there was a thread about Benson; apparently in his 2 years at The Mountain their ratings did not improve. It's said that the People-Meter ratings system (PPM) has not been kind to Triple-A formats.

[RGMike]

You've probably noticed KFOG is intensifying their use of Facebook; The "KFOG Radio" posts now identify who is "speaking" (Rosalie, Webster, Irish Greg) and it's a lot of "so-and-so on the air and ready to rock you -- what's up?"  (The Peak does the same thing; I swear both stations are being consulted by the same company.)  Dred Scott posted tonite and some poor woman commented "Can you play CSN Southern Cross for me? I am in Emery Cove working on my boat listening to K-FOG." Guess she didn't get the memo about old people.

Actually "Southern Cross" is from 1982 so maybe he actually played it. 

[ggould]

You've probably noticed KFOG is intensifying their use of Facebook; The "KFOG Radio" posts now identify who is "speaking" (Rosalie, Webster, Irish Greg) and it's a lot of "so-and-so on the air and ready to rock you -- what's up?"  (The Peak does the same thing; I swear both stations are being consulted by the same company.)  Dred Scott posted tonite and some poor woman commented "Can you play CSN Southern Cross for me? I am in Emery Cove working on my boat listening to K-FOG." Guess she didn't get the memo about old people.

Actually "Southern Cross" is from 1982 so maybe he actually played it. 

I confess, I stole your idea!

[RGMike]

You've probably noticed KFOG is intensifying their use of Facebook; The "KFOG Radio" posts now identify who is "speaking" (Rosalie, Webster, Irish Greg) and it's a lot of "so-and-so on the air and ready to rock you -- what's up?"  (The Peak does the same thing; I swear both stations are being consulted by the same company.)  Dred Scott posted tonite and some poor woman commented "Can you play CSN Southern Cross for me? I am in Emery Cove working on my boat listening to K-FOG." Guess she didn't get the memo about old people.

Actually "Southern Cross" is from 1982 so maybe he actually played it. 

I confess, I stole your idea!

LOL! I just saw your comment there. I was thisclose to saying something similar.

[ggould]

You've probably noticed KFOG is intensifying their use of Facebook; The "KFOG Radio" posts now identify who is "speaking" (Rosalie, Webster, Irish Greg) and it's a lot of "so-and-so on the air and ready to rock you -- what's up?"  (The Peak does the same thing; I swear both stations are being consulted by the same company.)  Dred Scott posted tonite and some poor woman commented "Can you play CSN Southern Cross for me? I am in Emery Cove working on my boat listening to K-FOG." Guess she didn't get the memo about old people.

Actually "Southern Cross" is from 1982 so maybe he actually played it. 

I confess, I stole your idea!

All credit to you sir!  I can delete mine, and let you deliver the line.

LOL! I just saw your comment there. I was thisclose to saying something similar.

[ggould]

You've probably noticed KFOG is intensifying their use of Facebook; The "KFOG Radio" posts now identify who is "speaking" (Rosalie, Webster, Irish Greg) and it's a lot of "so-and-so on the air and ready to rock you -- what's up?"  (The Peak does the same thing; I swear both stations are being consulted by the same company.)  Dred Scott posted tonite and some poor woman commented "Can you play CSN Southern Cross for me? I am in Emery Cove working on my boat listening to K-FOG." Guess she didn't get the memo about old people.

Actually "Southern Cross" is from 1982 so maybe he actually played it.  

I confess, I stole your idea!

All credit to you sir!  I can delete mine, and let you deliver the line.

LOL! I just saw your comment there. I was thisclose to saying something similar.

It's all yours!  BTW, someone had deleted the post about disliking Dred and missig Big Rick

[radical347]

I was also pleased to see that they played the Pet Shop Boys "Opportunities" in the 7:00 hour, but I've no way of knowing if that was programmed or if it was a Request-O-Rama prize.

They played it after interviewing the dude who caught Jeter's 3000th hit & gave it back.

[Alicat]

You've probably noticed KFOG is intensifying their use of Facebook; The "KFOG Radio" posts now identify who is "speaking" (Rosalie, Webster, Irish Greg) and it's a lot of "so-and-so on the air and ready to rock you -- what's up?"  (The Peak does the same thing; I swear both stations are being consulted by the same company.)  Dred Scott posted tonite and some poor woman commented "Can you play CSN Southern Cross for me? I am in Emery Cove working on my boat listening to K-FOG." Guess she didn't get the memo about old people.

Actually "Southern Cross" is from 1982 so maybe he actually played it.  

I confess, I stole your idea!

All credit to you sir!  I can delete mine, and let you deliver the line.

LOL! I just saw your comment there. I was thisclose to saying something similar.

It's all yours!  BTW, someone had deleted the post about disliking Dred and missig Big Rick

After BR went to KFOX, I posted something crass about G. Kihn on BRs KUFX FB page. It was deleted.

[RGMike]

Dred Scott just played the Alarm, "Rain in the Summertime"... which will pop up on the 10@10 replay again in about 40 minutes.  Oops.

OTOH, his story about the guy who confused the Black Keys with the Black-Eyed Peas was funny.

[radical347]

Dred Scott just played the Alarm, "Rain in the Summertime"... which will pop up on the 10@10 replay again in about 40 minutes.  Oops.

OTOH, his story about the guy who confused the Black Keys with the Black-Eyed Peas was funny.

Yup.  He's growing on me.