KTRB/860 Move To Bay Area: The Saga Continues

Pappas Radio has submitted a minor engineering amendment to their proposed move of 50,000-watt KTRB/860 from Modesto to San Francisco. At the same time, they have submitted a corresponding engineering change on their "replacement" station in Modesto, 5000-watt KPMP/840.

Although the applications were just filed on Friday (May 20; listed as received by the FCC on May 25), if the changes were requested by the FCC, this could mean that the process may be reaching its late stages, and the move could be getting closer on the horizon.

As the Pappas family has been a significant contributor to the Republican Party over the past few years, I'd venture a guess that the application might have a pretty good chance to be fast-tracked, and we'll have a new news/talk station blanketing the Bay Area soon.

If A Tree Falls...

...in the middle of a forest and there's nobody around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

On that note: Salem Communications, owner of KNTS/1220 in Palo Alto (but operating out of studios in Fremont), have applied to the FCC to boost their nighttime power from a puny 145 watts (non-directional) to 1,500 watts (directional) from their transmitting plant near the west end of the Dumbarton Bridge.

I haven't deciphered the pattern yet, but I'm guessing that they want to blow the signal up towards San Francisco. (Pretty obvious guess?)

I'll also guess that the ten-fold increase in power will help them to exponentially increase their current nighttime audience of seven listeners...

(Originally posted on Radio-Info.com)

Open Sores Radio

Oh. My. God.

I have tried — honestly tried — to listen to this new variation on KYCY/1550, and I give up. This is garbage that, at most and at best, maybe two people would want to listen to. And I'm counting the person who created the "podcast" and his/her mother in that tally.

They're touting this "genius" Dave (um) Winer (um) as the (um) Great White Father Of Podcasting (um) and playing bits from his monotonous podcasts incessantly, and it's like (um) being stuck in an (um) endless business meeting with (um) the IT geek and he's babbling (um) about cr*p that NOBODY CARES ABOUT. You went to Harvard. Good for you!

Um.

There's a reason why these pod-people aren't working in real radio! There is a reason that the music they are playing is by bands who are "unsigned" or on "independent labels." It's because they are not any good.

Three-quarters of the stuff is unlistenable. Another 15% is garbage. The balance is from idiots that would get cut off if they called in on KGO, KSFO or any self-help line.

I'm assuming that today — Day One Of KYOUradio, as it is being promoted by Infinity — is a showcase of the very best they could find. I can't wait until the novelty wears off in three weeks, and the quality really goes down.

Right now, an idiot is babbling about not being able to sleep on a plane. And how plane food is bad. (His advice: bring your own food. Genius!)

I'll drop a buck in the KYOUradio Death Pool: June 20, and I'm being generous. Bad, bad, bad, bad radio.

RETRACTION: Is it too late to change my bet? (6/8/2005) Yeah, it looks like I'm going to lose that dollar. My June 20 prediction for the end of faux "podcasting" on 1550 will most likely not come true, as Infinity won't be moving the KFRC call letters over from 610 to 1550 until after the A's season is over. As the A's will be playing their last game of the 2005 regular season on October 2 (at Seattle), and barring them getting into the playoffs, look for Monday, October 3, as the possible date for a call letter and format change on 1550. (610 will, of course, become KEAR at that time, with Infinity taking over 106.9 from Family Stations.)

(Also posted on Radio-Info.com)

David Jackson: Voice Of America

There are literally thousands of David Jacksons out there, and I'm one of them. As far as fame goes, I'm about a quarter of the way up the list.

Maybe I'm exagerrating a bit. I'm probably only an eighth of the way up. However, by actual independent scientific research (conducted by Sidney Logan) I am the 214th most famous person to come from Hayward.

I recently received an e-mail asking about my connection to the head of the Voice Of America (VOA), the propaganda wing of the U.S. government, which is not to be confused with the Fox News Channel, which is the propaganda wing of the Republican Party. (No need to write; I just slapped myself on the wrist. Sorry.)

The current director of the VOA is, in fact, another of these David Jacksons (he's pictured at right) — David S. Jackson, to be precise. Before becoming head of the VOA, he was with Time magazine for 23 years as a correspondent, bureau chief and senior correspondent, and was the creator and Editor-in-Chief of DefendAmerica.gov, "the Defense Department's principal web site devoted to news about the war against terrorism," according to his bio.

Aside from both being handsome, well-educated, dignified men with powerful jobs in the broadcasting industry, we are not related.

The VOA currently broadcasts news and nearly a thousand hours of programming in 53 languages via radio, television and the Internet each week, with an estimated audience of 96-million people around the globe.

Atta boy, Dave. I'm proud to share my bland, boring undistinguished name with you.

Regarding Oldies Radio Today...

On Radio-Info.com, Chris Kidd wrote:

I have seen a lot of posts on Oldies stations not being pure by going into the 70s. I also read a post that an Oldies station should talk about past events more and be be into now times. I beleive that nothing could be further from reality and here is why:

A radio station to have appeal needs to be informative and entertaining. The songs of the past still sound the same, however the events of our lives today are different.

My reply:

I think that these are two different subjects: first, I agree that an oldies station should talk about current happenings. But I still believe that radio is Theater Of The Mind, and I'm listening to an oldies station because it's a nostalgia thing for me. Go ahead and do the news, do the traffic, give me the baseball scores, and tell me that your going to have the station's Funmobile out at the Safeway this Saturday.

But when it comes to oldies, Sixties Top 40 is NOT the same as Seventies Top 40. And Seventies Top 40 is NOT the same as Eighties Top 40.

Look at your hits and artists from the Sixties, then compare them to those from the Seventies and Eighties -- and I'm speaking broadly here. The Monkees, Paul Revere & The Raiders and The Temptations have nothing in common with Bread, The Carpenters and The Main Ingredient. There is a distinct sonic difference between the Sixties and the Seventies.

And there is a bigger sonic difference between the Seventies and Eighties. Trying to bridge the sonic difference between the Sixties and the Eighties -- Prince, Culture Club and Cyndi Lauper, for example -- is too extreme.

If you are programming to the listener who is interested in listening to Sixties-era Oldies, that listener may like Seventies and Eighties music, but these are different types of music. (One more personal opinion: you can get away with more Seventies music on a Lite Rock station than you can on a Sixties-style Oldies station.)

You can, however, get away with playing "pre-Beatles" (mid-Fifties to 1964) pop and R&B on a Sixties Oldies station: nearly every artist from this era was directly influenced by the early rock'n'roll era, and much of it is relevant to the 1964-1970 period.

As someone who was just a kid during the Sixties, I want my Sixties music to be Sixties music. I am an Eighties music addict, but I have just as many records, CDs and MP3s in my Sixties collection as I have in my Eighties vault. But I keep them away from each other for good reason.

{A little assistance getting down from the soapbox, please. Thanks.}

DJ