Bye bye, KFRC-FM

[Johnnyrockin]

Good to hear somebody mention that terrain in the Bay Area is a major reason AM still does okay here. The Bay Area and Seattle probably have the worst topography of any major markets. As far as the demise of KFRC-FM, I thought the station was a bore, and cutting up the schedule for A's ballgames made it even worse. The oldies format that preceded it on 99.7 was no great shakes, either. Reducing the entire history of rock music to 1,000 cuts and beating "Satisfaction" and "You Keep Me Hangin' On" to death just sucks. And blowing up the station to do the "Movin' format was a dumb idea, too. It's amusing... CBS doesn't even have the expertise/capital to program and promote the stations they own and they had to buy another? If it weren't for KCBS, this market would be a total disaster for them.
I doubt very much that the air staff at KFRC will be retained to do HD programming; this was a cost-cutting move, plain and simple, and I can't imagine anyone "missing" KFRC-FM that much. It's a simple way to "do something" with the FM, and it costs nothing while retaining ownership of frequencies that could be better programmed by someone else. It's the same approach all the big groups use.

 

[goriajk]

I'm listening to KFRC 106.9 from LA on my iPod Touch (With AOL Radio/CBS Radio appl.) and while I'm saddened that KFRC is leaving the airwaves (once again) I'm sure Bay Area listeners will enjoy KCBS on the FM Band. My question is if and when KNX will move to the FM (I know they're on KTWV's HD2 already) here in LA - will they take KLSX and simulcast (only time will tell) --- Farewell KFRC and hello FM All-News KCBS. Joe G

 

[djj]

The one thing that I often wondered was why the jocks were never allowed to show a little personality.

It seems too often when a jock tries to do that his/her PD slaps it down and says in effect "shut up and play the damn record".
All the "shut and play another record" years have come full circle. Many listeners are now conditioned to tune out whenever a jock says anything without a ramp under him believing a stopset is coming. Even with the best personality in the world most stations don't bother promoting them, thus setting themselves up to fail. Back to "shut and play another record". Lather, rinse, repeat.

All of the above which leads to this quote:
"I don't think radio is selling records like they used to. They'd hawk the song and hawk the artist and you'd get so excited, you'd stop your car and go into the nearest record store."
--Herb Alpert, A&M Records co-founder (with Jerry Moss)

Says it all...

Since KCBS puts out a measley 500 watts toward the north at night (not even strong enough to kick on the Hybrid Digital signal in Napa, and I'm sure Santa Rosa, also), perhaps the 106.9 simulcast will help maintain coverage for those areas at night. Otherwise, I must agree with the previous posters that the simulcast really is unnecessary (other than being a cost-cutting measure, more than likely)...

And I, too, wonder when KNX and/or KFWB in da Southland will consider doing similar with one of its FM signals...sheeesh!

Anyone out there: Stockton, CA, and San Francisco were considered kingpin markets for AM listenership into the 1980s, with Stockton being the Number-One market for AM-listenership in the entire country. These days, especially in San Fran, how does AM listenership do in comparison, as I have not heard much about this until now? Still up there compared to other markets?
Thoughts?
--jay

 

[TheBigA]

"I don't think radio is selling records like they used to. They'd hawk the song and hawk the artist and you'd get so excited, you'd stop your car and go into the nearest record store."
--Herb Alpert, A&M Records co-founder (with Jerry Moss)

Says it all...

I don't think that's endemic of radio, but an overall sociological shift in the way we learn about music. It goes back to Generation X, and has grown to the current generation, thanks to social networking. They don't get information about music from the media, like Radio, TV, or newspaper reviews. You can include radio with writers like Ben Fong-Torres or Lester Bangs. The power of music writers and the rock press is gone.

Regarding radio, there's a sense that the only reason a DJ hawks a record or artist is because he's paid to do so. This grew out of the 80s when a lot of sub-par music was being pushed on radio for money. Now, the payola hearings have left a generation feeling that they can't trust anyone in radio for music advice.

So the record labels have simply used the artists as their own promotion devices. In the old days, it was tough to get artists to visit radio stations unless you were in a major market. Now, top artists visit stations or do satellite tours. So the audience can hear it from the artists themselves. Same thing with TV. The audience doesn't trust the TV hosts, so the artists come on to market their own music. There is no new Dick Clark. Ryan Seacrest is more of a celebrity interviewer than a musical advocate. All this is because of this sociological shift in the audience.

Some public stations have hosts who attempt to do the old-style musical advocate thing, but it takes a long time to establish credibility. But in the end, nothing sells music better than peer-to-peer word of mouth. That was the case even in the 60s. Even in a music city like San Francisco, only a handful of DJs had credibility with the public. Today, there is simply way too much media for a handful of radio people to get that kind of power.

Back in the day, the DJs were insiders who lived the music and were part of the rock community. Today, there really is no music community, and DJs are professionals who don't spend their free time with their audience. The only exception to this I see is in the black community with street music and mashes. The DJ is a respected leader in that community, setting the beat for the party. I think those of us in other musical genres could learn a lot from watching that society, and perhaps use it to help grow other types of music.

 

[LKellerIII]

"I don't think radio is selling records like they used to. They'd hawk the song and hawk the artist and you'd get so excited, you'd stop your car and go into the nearest record store."
--Herb Alpert, A&M Records co-founder (with Jerry Moss)

Says it all...

I don't think that's endemic of radio, but an overall sociological shift in the way we learn about music. It goes back to Generation X, and has grown to the current generation, thanks to social networking. They don't get information about music from the media, like Radio, TV, or newspaper reviews. You can include radio with writers like Ben Fong-Torres or Lester Bangs. The power of music writers and the rock press is gone.

Regarding radio, there's a sense that the only reason a DJ hawks a record or artist is because he's paid to do so. This grew out of the 80s when a lot of sub-par music was being pushed on radio for money. Now, the payola hearings have left a generation feeling that they can't trust anyone in radio for music advice.

So the record labels have simply used the artists as their own promotion devices. In the old days, it was tough to get artists to visit radio stations unless you were in a major market. Now, top artists visit stations or do satellite tours. So the audience can hear it from the artists themselves. Same thing with TV. The audience doesn't trust the TV hosts, so the artists come on to market their own music. There is no new Dick Clark. Ryan Seacrest is more of a celebrity interviewer than a musical advocate. All this is because of this sociological shift in the audience.

Some public stations have hosts who attempt to do the old-style musical advocate thing, but it takes a long time to establish credibility. But in the end, nothing sells music better than peer-to-peer word of mouth. That was the case even in the 60s. Even in a music city like San Francisco, only a handful of DJs had credibility with the public. Today, there is simply way too much media for a handful of radio people to get that kind of power.

Back in the day, the DJs were insiders who lived the music and were part of the rock community. Today, there really is no music community, and DJs are professionals who don't spend their free time with their audience. The only exception to this I see is in the black community with street music and mashes. The DJ is a respected leader in that community, setting the beat for the party. I think those of us in other musical genres could learn a lot from watching that society, and perhaps use it to help grow other types of music.

I'm not sure when Herb Alpert made that statement, but I think it's been true for a long time. I remember noticing as far back as the early 80s that DJs on many stations were rarely mentioning the songs or artists at all. I also remember reading a statement from a K-101 Program Director back then who said his station actually had a policy against discussing the music. He said clearly that the station was there to sell airtime to advertisers first, and promote the station second. And since they were working from a strict "more music'" less talk philosophy, there was no time to talk about anything else.

Obviously there are exceptions - "new music" is usually identified on Wild, KMEL, Star, etc - and stations like KFOG actually celebrate the music, whether new or old.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Following up on Jay and Llew's comments on promoting records and pay-for-play...

Remember back in the 1950s and 1960s when enterprising disc jockeys bought (or "brokered") time on local radio stations, went out and sold the ad time themselves, then played (and promoted) the music they played, or the restaurants they ate at, or the concerts they booked?

It's a model that some stations might consider going to these days. It's essentially what's kept many religious and foreign-language stations going -- selling the time to somebody who goes out and finds his own sponsors.

The best example I know is Wolfman Jack, who bought out the time on XERB in Rosarito Beach, sold the spots, plugged the music, promoted nightclubs and Oldies collections ... and made a pile of cash. Locally, you could hear guys like Sly Stone doing it on KSOL ("...that record was brought to you by Tony's Record Shop, where you can buy it this week for only 35 cents"), and Bouncin' Bill Doubleday on KWBR promoting bands, records and chicken-and-ribs joints between every song.

Heck, Marty Lurie does it after every A's game, too. It sounds like every other thing he says is a trade-out for some product or establishment. (And I'm not knocking it -- that's a great business model for anybody who has the talent and the hustle, and can go out and get it done!)

 

[TheBigA]

It's a model that some stations might consider going to these days.

I agree, and it may be the way radio goes in the post-crash environment. I expect we'll see a lot more stations offering brokered time to content providers who bring their own sponsors, rather than employing DJs who work 40 hour weeks with benefits packages. If you are passionate enough about what you do to attract sponsors, you will have a place in radio.

I believe the professionalization of radio in the post-payola days of the 60s is what took a lot of heart and soul out of radio. People did radio as a job, not a lifestyle, and they weren't connected to the music or the community. All of this has led to where we are now. There's no point in having a local DJ is he or she doesn't interact directly with the audience in some way. Some of that can be accomplished online, but it has to continue with in-person appearances. DJs need to approach their job the same way as a recording artist. They should build a fan base for what they do, just like recording artists. Otherwise, there's no point in having local DJs. If you're just a faceless voice, you can (and will) be replaced by a computer.

 

[DavidKaye]

It's a model that some stations might consider going to these days. It's essentially what's kept many religious and foreign-language stations going -- selling the time to somebody who goes out and finds his own sponsors.

Frankly, it's the only model left, so I guess it means that radio is going full cycle back to its roots when Sybil True (Doc Herrold's wife) played records and plugged a record store wayyyyyy back in 1909.

By the way, do you know anything about any plans for KCBS's 100th anniversary in April 2009? It's only months away.

 

[LKellerIII]

Following up on Jay and Llew's comments on promoting records and pay-for-play...

Remember back in the 1950s and 1960s when enterprising disc jockeys bought (or "brokered") time on local radio stations, went out and sold the ad time themselves, then played (and promoted) the music they played, or the restaurants they ate at, or the concerts they booked?

It's a model that some stations might consider going to these days. It's essentially what's kept many religious and foreign-language stations going -- selling the time to somebody who goes out and finds his own sponsors.

The best example I know is Wolfman Jack, who bought out the time on XERB in Rosarito Beach, sold the spots, plugged the music, promoted nightclubs and Oldies collections ... and made a pile of cash. Locally, you could hear guys like Sly Stone doing it on KSOL ("...that record was brought to you by Tony's Record Shop, where you can buy it this week for only 35 cents"), and Bouncin' Bill Doubleday on KWBR promoting bands, records and chicken-and-ribs joints between every song.

Heck, Marty Lurie does it after every A's game, too. It sounds like every other thing he says is a trade-out for some product or establishment. (And I'm not knocking it -- that's a great business model for anybody who has the talent and the hustle, and can go out and get it done!)

When I was about 14, I stumbled into a small daytime only station in LA - KTYM/1460 - "K-Time in the Daytime." The station was almost exclusively brokered shows, and some of them were very entertaining. I recently found an air check of one at reelradio.com - a soul music program called "The Godfrey Show" - broadcasting from a record store called Sam's and heavily promoting a Saturday night Dance Show in East LA (link below - though you need to pay an annual fee to listen). Godfrey didn't promote one product, but hunted for sponsors, then bought the radio time.

By the 70s, the fun shows were mostly over on KTYM when most of their time was bought up by Roy Masters - a spiritual-religious kook who is very much alive to this day.

I think I mentioned Art Laboe in another context in another thread - he was the most successful example of this - becoming very affluent buying time at KTYM and XERB to sell his "Oldies but Goodies" records. Laboe had been a regular DJ in the 50s, and again much later at KRTH - but for at least 2 decades, he made a living on brokered radio, and promoting Oldies concerts.

According to Wikipedia - Bob Smith (Wolfman Jack) turned a profit of up to $50,000 per month in the mid 60s (real money, then) - selling time to Southern California racetracks and evangelists...and finally lost the station when the Mexican owners of the station essentially forced him out, hoping to make that profit on their own without having to split it with the Wolfman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XEPRS-AM



http://www.reelradio.com/pmaestro/index.html#godfreyktym66

 

[DavidKaye]

I think I mentioned Art Laboe in another context in another thread - he was the most successful example of this - becoming very affluent buying time at KTYM and XERB to sell his "Oldies but Goodies" records. Laboe had been a regular DJ in the 50s, and again much later at KRTH - but for at least 2 decades, he made a living on brokered radio, and promoting Oldies concerts.

My mom bought me some "Oldies But Goodies" albums. They seemes strange to me because the songs were familiar to me, but the versions on the records were all being sung by black people. I'd heard "Earth Angel" by the Crewcuts (by then an oldie), but I'd never heard it by the Penguins. I was fascinated by this. It was later that I heard Art Laboe hawking the records on XERB. My mom wouldn't have ordered them via XERB, so they must have been available in a record store early on.

Given that most places in America weren't as culturally diverse as SF, I'd assume that Art Laboe sold way more albums via XERB than via record stores, at least until XERB went away.
[/quote]

According to Wikipedia - Bob Smith (Wolfman Jack) turned a profit of up to $50,000 per month in the mid 60s (real money, then) - selling time to Southern California racetracks and evangelists...and finally lost the station when the Mexican owners of the station essentially forced him out, hoping to make that profit on their own without having to split it with the Wolfman.

[/quote]

I remember when the Wolfman used to be very crude and told teenage girl callers to get naked for him, etc. It was quite a listen. What amazed me was that he recorded these programs the night before and they were hand-carried to Rosarito Beach, since it was illegal to connect to a station outside of the U.S. for rebroadcast back into the U.S. The shows certainly sounded live, and the callers probably didn't realize that they weren't on the air at the time they called.

The Wolfman sold baby chicks, "45 fabulous hits for $4.45" and things like fuzzy dice for the rear view mirror. Who knows, maybe he started that awful fad. There were, of course, the racetrack programs and the preachers, but I remember a lot of that going away and XERB doing basically music shows in Spanish prior to 9pm each night. The one I remember with the biggest cadre of preachers was XEROK and XEMO. (Were they the same station? I forget.)

For the most part I remember Wolfman promoting music shows, car dealers, and other sponsors in LA. Aside from a few mail order things I don't recall him promoting things that would appeal to people much outside of LA. At the time XERB came in hugely loud around here, even with KFAX on the next channel starting at 10pm when they used to sign back on.

 

[SFStatic]

As I recall, Wolfman started at XERF, later moving West. He hawked all kinds of stuff there too, and also had the preachers. With all due respect re brokered programs, there are damned few people (close to none) with the talent level and drive of Wolfman Jack. He had a heart of gold, too.

 

[LKellerIII]

I think I mentioned Art Laboe in another context in another thread - he was the most successful example of this - becoming very affluent

buying time at KTYM and XERB to sell his "Oldies but Goodies" records. Laboe had been a regular DJ in the 50s, and again much later at KRTH - but for at least 2 decades, he made a living on brokered radio, and promoting Oldies concerts.

My mom bought me some "Oldies But Goodies" albums. They seemes strange to me because the songs were familiar to me, but the versions on the records were all being sung by black people. I'd heard "Earth Angel" by the Crewcuts (by then an oldie), but I'd never heard it by the Penguins. I was fascinated by this. It was later that I heard Art Laboe hawking the records on XERB. My mom wouldn't have ordered them via XERB, so they must have been available in a record store early on.

Given that most places in America weren't as culturally diverse as SF, I'd assume that Art Laboe sold way more albums via XERB than via record stores, at least until XERB went away.

I remember when the Wolfman used to be very crude and told teenage girl callers to get naked for him, etc. It was quite a listen. What amazed me was that he recorded these programs the night before and they were hand-carried to Rosarito Beach, since it was illegal to connect to a station outside of the U.S. for rebroadcast back into the U.S. The shows certainly sounded live, and the callers probably didn't realize that they weren't on the air at the time they called.

The Wolfman sold baby chicks, "45 fabulous hits for $4.45" and things like fuzzy dice for the rear view mirror. Who knows, maybe he started that awful fad. There were, of course, the racetrack programs and the preachers, but I remember a lot of that going away and XERB doing basically music shows in Spanish prior to 9pm each night. The one I remember with the biggest cadre of preachers was XEROK and XEMO. (Were they the same station? I forget.)

For the most part I remember Wolfman promoting music shows, car dealers, and other sponsors in LA. Aside from a few mail order things I don't recall him promoting things that would appeal to people much outside of LA. At the time XERB came in hugely loud around here, even with KFAX on the next channel starting at 10pm when they used to sign back on.

[/quote]

[/quote]



I don't remember how Laboe's Oldies but Goodies records were marketed other than brokered radio, but they must have been. I remember being surprised in the early 80s that my brother-in-law (then in the Navy) had the complete "OBG" collection on cassette. He's was an Oldies nut, but since he had lived mostly on the East Coast - not a former XERB listener, I'm sure.

In the late 60s and early 70s, My father worked in an animation studio on Sunset Blvd in LA. I remember discovering XERB "studios" a few doors down - a tiny dumpy building with one of those light-up "marquee" letterboxes that small retail businesses used in those days.

Needless to say, XERB boomed into LA from Rosarita Beach 24 hours a day. I've heard their signal could be heard after sunset very clearly up and down the west coast as far north as Vancouver.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

The one I remember with the biggest cadre of preachers was XEROK and XEMO. (Were they the same station? I forget.)

Not the same station -- XEROK was/is a true "border blaster" from Juarez at 800 kHz and was "X-Rock 80" for many years. XEMO (860 AM) was/is a 5,000 watt station in Tijuana. I remember XEMO back in the 1970s playing "Beautiful Music," with interludes that included the sound of waves lapping up against the shore and descriptions of sleepy Baja villages (very emotive at three in the morning)...

As for Wolfman and brokering time on the border stations, he didn't invent it, but he certainly was one of the best at it.

The origins of brokered time on "border blasters" goes back to Dr. John R. Brinkley and his goat-gland operations back in the 1930s from Villa Acuna, which combined his pitches for rejuvenation with hillbilly music, and helped create an industry that burgeoned during the 1940s and 1950s, as others sold "Crazy Water Crystals," bibles, fountain pens, rat poison, sheet music, prayer cloths, etc.

Wolfman Jack was the crown prince of all the border radio pioneers that came before him.

Pass the biscuits, Pappy.

DJ

 

[DavidKaye]

The origins of brokered time on "border blasters" goes back to Dr. John R. Brinkley and his goat-gland operations back in the 1930s from Villa Acuna, which combined his pitches for rejuvenation with hillbilly music, and helped create an industry that burgeoned during the 1940s and 1950s, as others sold "Crazy Water Crystals," bibles, fountain pens, rat poison, sheet music, prayer cloths, etc.

Indeed, Brinkley was probably single-handedly responsible for the mainstream popularity of country music across America. If nothing else he was responsible for the careers of the Carter Family. Prior to this, country music wasn't played much on the radio because it was considered "unsophisticated" and "hick" by the Great Programmers whose idea of music was operas and symphonies.

Somewhere I have a clip of Dr Brinkley. I was expecting a nasal self-important announcer, but instead heard a nice, chatty down-home kind of guy who wouldn't sound out of place on radio today.

 

[bobgowa]

Lew wrote:
When I was about 14, I stumbled into a small daytime only station in LA - KTYM/1460 - "K-Time in the Daytime." The station was almost exclusively brokered shows, and some of them were very entertaining. I recently found an air check of one at reelradio.com - a soul music program called "The Godfrey Show" - broadcasting from a record store called Sam's and heavily promoting a Saturday night Dance Show in East LA (link below - though you need to pay an annual fee to listen). Godfrey didn't promote one product, but hunted for sponsors, then bought the radio time.


[size=10pt]I walked in there as a high school kid and was amazed at the "old time radio" nature of the place - 15 to 60 minute shows with a live announcer in between. Still one of the most successful "umbrella market" stations around, KTYM is still there, doing the same brokered thing from the same old house on West Boulevard in Inglewood. The programs aren't as cool as Godfrey and Leo the horse race guy, but I still check 'em out online (www.KTYM.com) now and then for a chuckle!

Bob Gowa

 

[DavidKaye]

I walked in there as a high school kid and was amazed at the "old time radio" nature of the place - 15 to 60 minute shows with a live announcer in between. Still one of the most successful "umbrella market" stations around, KTYM is still there, doing the same brokered thing from the same old house on West Boulevard in Inglewood. The programs aren't as cool as Godfrey and Leo the horse race guy, but I still check 'em out online (www.KTYM.com) now and then for a chuckle!

Bob Gowa

Gosh, we don't have anything quite as good here, not since KFAX was bought by Salem. We do have KDIA 1640, but their programming is rather icky: http://www.kdia.com/programguideprint.aspx

Although, one thing is interesting about KDIA's programs: many of them are Word-crazy, to wit, a sample of programs from early one Monday morning:

In the Word
A Word With You
The Active Word
Wonders in the Word
Walk in the Word
The Word for Today

Their co-owned KDYA 1190 is more interesting.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Indeed, Brinkley was probably single-handedly responsible for the mainstream popularity of country music across America. If nothing else he was responsible for the careers of the Carter Family.... Somewhere I have a clip of Dr Brinkley. I was expecting a nasal self-important announcer, but instead heard a nice, chatty down-home kind of guy who wouldn't sound out of place on radio today.

We've gotten quite a bit afield from the original topic (howdy, Mr. Moderator!) but here's a brief snippet of old Dr. Brinkley -- perhaps the same one DK refered to -- from about seventy years ago:

http://www.sfradiocity.com/audio/extra/

A little taste of the Carter Family at work follows Doctor's pitch.

DJ