Here is an article about his show--written by the late author David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest, et. al.)
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/host/303812/
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2005/04/host/303812/
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Remember John Ziegler of KFI
- Thread starter radiocph
- Start date
...gee, thanks a lot. I could have gone another five years without being reminded of that nutcase...
I’m not going to discuss the particulars of the John Zeigler situation. He has bitter feelings and a personal axe to grind towards his former employer - the merits of which it not for me to try sorting out. What the the Atlantic Magazine reveals about the professional level of KFI’s operation is another matter.
In addition to the host(s) and guest(s) a modern KFI talk show is a team effort. The broadcast has both a board op and screener in studio with feeds from a minimum of two additional locations: newsroom and traffic center plus studio design and equipment that’s been developed for decades. And this was the old Koreatown studios – not the new facility in Burbank.
“Across the soundproof glass of the opposite wall, another monitor in the Airmix* room … which both the board op and the call screener are watching with half an eye.
“Pendent in front of John Ziegler's face, attached to the same type of hinged, flexible stand as certain student desk lamps, is a Shure-brand broadcast microphone that is sheathed in a gray foam filtration sock to soften popped p's and hissed sibilants. It is into this microphone that the host speaks:
“When Mr. Z.'s impassioned, his voice rises and his arms wave around (which obviously only those in the Airmix room can see). He also fidgets, bobs slightly up and down in his executive desk chair, and weaves.
“Although he must stay seated and can't pace around the room, the host does not have to keep his mouth any set distance from the microphone, since the board op, 'Mondo Hernandez, can adjust his levels on the mixing board's channel 7 so that Mr. Z.'s volume always stays in range and never peaks or fades.
“Keeping the studio signal from peaking is one of 'Mondo's prime directives, along with making sure that each of the program's scheduled commercial spots is loaded … and run at just the right time, whereupon he must confirm that the ad has run as scheduled in the special Airmix log he signs each page of, so that the station can bill advertisers for their spots. “
Ira Glass included the Atlantic article in his anthology ”The New Kings of Non-fiction,” with the following additional background about “peaking”
“Mondo’s lay explanation of what peaking is consists of pointing at the red area to the right of the two volumeters bobbing needles on the mixing board. “its when the needles go into the red.”
“The overall mission, apparently, is to keep the volume and resonance of a host’s voice high enough to be stimulating but not so high that they exceed the capacity of an AM analog signal or basic radio receiver.
“One reason that callers’ voices sound so much less rich and authoritative than host’s voices on talk radio is that it is harder to keep telephone voices from peaking. Another reason is mike processing, which evens and fills out the host’s voice, removing raspy or metallic tones, and occurs automatically in the Airmix. There’s no such processing for the caller’s voices. .”
To return to the main text of the Atlantic article:
“ … the entire studio is lined in acoustic tile with strange Pollockian patterns of tiny holes. Much of the tile is grayed and decaying, and the carpet's no color at all; KFI has been in this facility for nearly thirty years and will soon be moving out.
“Both the studio and Airmix are kept chilly because of all the electronics. The overhead lights are old inset fluorescents, the kind with the slight flutter to them; nothing casts any sort of shadow.
“The great L-shaped table that Mr. Z. sits at nearly fills the little room; it's got so many coats of brown paint on it that the tabletop looks slightly humped. At the L's base is another Shure microphone, used by Ken Chiampou of 3:00—7:00's John & Ken, its hinged stand now partly folded up so that the mike hangs like a wilted flower. “
I had the privilege of being in the 13-studio Koreatown studios (shsared with KOST/KACE) several times, as well as the Vermont studios (Auditorium-Blue-Coral-Diamond-Red - shared with then co-owned KECA) which preceded it. Both were anything but stations "run out of a closet." I can only believe that the current Burbank facility builds on that heritage.
* Airmix – brand name for a high-end console board capable of handling and mixing input from multiple microphones, studio feeds, telephone line and recording devices.
In addition to the host(s) and guest(s) a modern KFI talk show is a team effort. The broadcast has both a board op and screener in studio with feeds from a minimum of two additional locations: newsroom and traffic center plus studio design and equipment that’s been developed for decades. And this was the old Koreatown studios – not the new facility in Burbank.
“Across the soundproof glass of the opposite wall, another monitor in the Airmix* room … which both the board op and the call screener are watching with half an eye.
“Pendent in front of John Ziegler's face, attached to the same type of hinged, flexible stand as certain student desk lamps, is a Shure-brand broadcast microphone that is sheathed in a gray foam filtration sock to soften popped p's and hissed sibilants. It is into this microphone that the host speaks:
“When Mr. Z.'s impassioned, his voice rises and his arms wave around (which obviously only those in the Airmix room can see). He also fidgets, bobs slightly up and down in his executive desk chair, and weaves.
“Although he must stay seated and can't pace around the room, the host does not have to keep his mouth any set distance from the microphone, since the board op, 'Mondo Hernandez, can adjust his levels on the mixing board's channel 7 so that Mr. Z.'s volume always stays in range and never peaks or fades.
“Keeping the studio signal from peaking is one of 'Mondo's prime directives, along with making sure that each of the program's scheduled commercial spots is loaded … and run at just the right time, whereupon he must confirm that the ad has run as scheduled in the special Airmix log he signs each page of, so that the station can bill advertisers for their spots. “
Ira Glass included the Atlantic article in his anthology ”The New Kings of Non-fiction,” with the following additional background about “peaking”
“Mondo’s lay explanation of what peaking is consists of pointing at the red area to the right of the two volumeters bobbing needles on the mixing board. “its when the needles go into the red.”
“The overall mission, apparently, is to keep the volume and resonance of a host’s voice high enough to be stimulating but not so high that they exceed the capacity of an AM analog signal or basic radio receiver.
“One reason that callers’ voices sound so much less rich and authoritative than host’s voices on talk radio is that it is harder to keep telephone voices from peaking. Another reason is mike processing, which evens and fills out the host’s voice, removing raspy or metallic tones, and occurs automatically in the Airmix. There’s no such processing for the caller’s voices. .”
To return to the main text of the Atlantic article:
“ … the entire studio is lined in acoustic tile with strange Pollockian patterns of tiny holes. Much of the tile is grayed and decaying, and the carpet's no color at all; KFI has been in this facility for nearly thirty years and will soon be moving out.
“Both the studio and Airmix are kept chilly because of all the electronics. The overhead lights are old inset fluorescents, the kind with the slight flutter to them; nothing casts any sort of shadow.
“The great L-shaped table that Mr. Z. sits at nearly fills the little room; it's got so many coats of brown paint on it that the tabletop looks slightly humped. At the L's base is another Shure microphone, used by Ken Chiampou of 3:00—7:00's John & Ken, its hinged stand now partly folded up so that the mike hangs like a wilted flower. “
I had the privilege of being in the 13-studio Koreatown studios (shsared with KOST/KACE) several times, as well as the Vermont studios (Auditorium-Blue-Coral-Diamond-Red - shared with then co-owned KECA) which preceded it. Both were anything but stations "run out of a closet." I can only believe that the current Burbank facility builds on that heritage.
* Airmix – brand name for a high-end console board capable of handling and mixing input from multiple microphones, studio feeds, telephone line and recording devices.
TeaPartyDude
Banned
I miss his show and talents. He was the only true sincere voice on KFI. He has the guts to tell the truth even at great personal cost. I am impressed by his courage to expose and out the phony KFI flamboyant personalities.
Look what we got in exchange for John Z? Tim Conway Jr who constantly recycles his stale old jokes and stories!
Look what we got in exchange for John Z? Tim Conway Jr who constantly recycles his stale old jokes and stories!
...gee, thanks a lot. I could have gone another five years without being reminded of that nutcase...
To each his own. I found Ziegler genuinely entertaining, and miss his presence on the radio.
He was stalking someone at CPAC a few years ago, and stabbed Palin in the back.
- Status
- This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.