Is KRTH amazing for that matter? Larry will join KRTH as APD along with On Air duties. In addition Greg Simms will join as Music Director and an airshift. Do we know who is exiting, do we really care? Just mere months ago we were informed there would be no major staff changes, then everything changed. "K-EARTH is one of the preeminent radio brands in the world,” according to at least their new PD. We wish them well...
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The New KRTH. Is Larry Morgan really "amazing"?
- Thread starter MadMan
- Start date
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Thomps2525
Guest
Do you expect Simms to make any changes to the playlist? In the past hour, KRTH played September, I Melt With You and Old Time Rock & Roll, three of around 20 songs that get played three or four times a day, every day. KRTH's ratings haven't suffered from the mind-numbing repetition of the past year and that leads me to believe that the playlist will not change. On the other hand, Simms might think that some changes could result in even better ratings.
And does a music director actually "direct" the music? Or does he simply look at the results of auditorium music tests and stick to only the songs with the most "mass appeal"? I'm thinking that the modern-day music director is little more than a figurehead. {Anyone who wants to respond, please keep in mind that I do not work in the radio industry. Be kind.)
And does a music director actually "direct" the music? Or does he simply look at the results of auditorium music tests and stick to only the songs with the most "mass appeal"? I'm thinking that the modern-day music director is little more than a figurehead. {Anyone who wants to respond, please keep in mind that I do not work in the radio industry. Be kind.)
The main function of a Music Director is to do the daily. A good one will not just take the output from MusicMaster or Selector, but will spend time editing and making the flow the best that is possible. They will also spend time tweaking the scheduling rules to improve flow and rotations.
The Music Director will also be working on preparation for music tests, and will spend time interpreting the tests and establishing the right category for each song. Today in PPM markets, they will likely look regularly at each song's MScore and make between test decisions on songs that turned less positive. They also may make regular category moves for songs that scored right at the cut-off point from a higher and lower rotation, letting them play more for a while and then less for a while.
MDs generally do an airshift or fill some additional position at a station.
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Thomps2525
Guest
The January 19 Rewind that I wrote for LARadio.com concerned a 1968 memo that KHJ program director Ron Jacobs sent to the Boss Jocks. Among other things, he berated a DJ (unnamed) for playing the “bad combination” of an Otis Redding song followed by a Joe Tex song. If the music director tries to "improve flow and rotations," then was that "bad combination" his fault? Or was the DJ responsible? At any rate, I don't think any listeners cared...but Jacobs had the idea that no two r&b songs should be played consecutively. I know not why.
Back then, the function of the Music Director had more to do with picking the new songs and checking the research (store sales, juke box tally data, etc) than with scheduling a log.
And KHJ had one of the best music directors on the planet: Betty Brenneman.
Songs back then rotated through cycles mechanically. When conflicts came up, such as two ballads in a row or something else that was forbidden, the jock would invert the play... typically in the lower rotating category... of two songs. This was done "on the spot" as there was no printed music log back then... it would be nearly more than a decade before computer scheduling became at all common.
Yeah, he'll throw in that 1977 Eagles song every 90 minutes!! I had to mention that!
But don't worry, we won't debate the Eagles anymore. At least not on my end.
Larry Morgan is a good guy.
Is he APD material?
That remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, I wish him well.
Is he APD material?
That remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, I wish him well.
Perhaps we could implore the "Comment Director" here at Boss Radio Discussions to pull references to Hotel California out of the rotation - or at least play them less frequently. Ah nostalgia - I remember two years ago when posts on the Eagles were still a Boss Hitbound.
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Thomps2525
Guest
Lew, since you brought it up, KRTH today played Hotel California at 4:27 and 9:34 and will probably play it at least two more times in the remaining ten hours of this day. You want to talk about nostalgia---I remember when KRTH had a playlist so large that they didn't have to play certain songs four or five times a day! I, too, wish Larry Morgan well...but I don't expect any significant changes at KRTH.
Yeah, but 4:27 and 9:34 are more than 5 hours apart, not "every 90 minutes," so Oldies76 was WRONG! Ha! ; )
And for the record - I hate that song. Hated it when it was new, hate it now.
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Thomps2525
Guest
Don Henley, who co-wrote Hotel California with Glenn Frey and Don Felder, told Rolling Stone magazine that the song is not about an actual hotel but is an "interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles." There are several hotels with that name, though---in Palo Alto, Palm Springs, Santa Monica, Paris (!) and Todos Santos, Baja California. Unless you can afford a trip to Paris, I recommend the hotel in Palm Springs. I'm assuming they don't have the song playing over and over on their Muzak system. 
http://www.palmspringshotelcalifornia.com/
http://www.palmspringshotelcalifornia.com/
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K.M. Richards
Guest
Interesting. When the song was current in 1976, the rumors were that it was about the state mental hospital in Camarillo which was repurposed as a State University campus five years after its closure.
I was just a child when the song came out, but even then I well understood the message the lyrics convey: living a lifestyle in excess in a land that was once full of promise, but the excess and abuse of those now living there had spoiled the promise that once existed. Don has never said that the lyrics mean any different. The lamentable fact is that Don felt he was commenting on the state of affairs in this state in 1976, but now almost forty years later, it is all of that and so much worse.
We live in a state that should be (and used to be) a magnet for people all over the country and indeed, the world. But the state has been so mismanaged that quality companies and the middle class that work at them are leaving in droves; the only ones seeming to be left behind are the very rich who can afford to live wherever they want and the very poor that serve them. Any time this happens, the very fabric of a society starts to tear, which has definitely happened here. The one irony that exists is that it is the liberal policies that the state has embraced (which Don in general supports) that is the main cause of this destruction to the state, not the fact that some strung out hippies are ODing in a hotel somewhere.
I used to think it was something of a sad song when I was a kid, it is even more so now. That KRTH and other stations play it like it is some sort of an emblem to be proud of without the hint of any of this irony is a sad affair unto itself.
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Well, at least you'll have a multi-billion dollar high speed choo-choo train linking NorCal with SoCal. In the meantime, the mass exodus continues with more and more giving up on California Dreamin' and moving to Phoenix, where life is a little more normal. Just a little.
Glad to see K-Earth 101 is still playing Bang 545!
Home of right-wing politicians including that bizarre Jan Brewer person, the heinous and venal Sherriff Joe Arpaio stomping on every non-white person's civil rights, and 120 degree summer temperatures. No thanks - I'll happily stick with weird old California; smog, crime, crowding, and all.
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Priceless.
Nurse Jeff and I'll be transporting woozy Super Bowl revelers back to the Media Hut in the back seat of the '76 Gremlin. If that doesn't straighten them up, we have some old videos of Gene Scott to show them. After all, there is an el Lay connection here in Buckeye!
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K.M. Richards
Guest
I would have thought you would know by now that it only still gets airplay because it continues to test well. Emblems or pride or irony have nothing whatsoever to do with it.
KMR,
I know you like to boil every discussion down to short playlists, testing results, and ratings, but that was not the point. The comment had nothing to do with whether or not the song belongs on the playlist or whether 90 or 120 minutes should be allowed to pass before it is spun again. I have already covered those topics in great detail and will not be returning to them.
The comment was about how the song is presented. KRTH and the other stations give the song a great amount of adulation as being a (positive) representation of the "California Lifestyle" and it is presented that way to the listeners. As I noted, the song is indeed about the "California Lifestyle", but there is nothing positive in it either in Don Henley's lyrics or my analysis of the song as it relates to the current state of affairs in California above, and thus the obvious dichotomy to anyone who is actually paying attention. It is actually quite similar to MTV in the mid 80s, which used Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" as the almost official anthem of the channel, when of course the song itself paints MTV in a very negative light.
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