Radio Column December 29, 2006

Listening In

December 29, 2006

By Sandy Wells

Top radio stories of 2006


KZLA vanishes; Rick Dees returns on new KMVN

It was a strange day in August when the country music format vanished at KZLA-FM 93.9. The new “Movin’ 93.9” was born by stealth, with not a hint of things to come offered by Emmis Comunications, the corporation that owned LA’s only country outlet. Many country music lovers felt outrage, once they got over the shock of hearing Madonna and the Black Eyed Peas instead of Toby Keith and Sara Evans, not to mention the loss of morning DJ Peter Tilden. The silver lining in the cloud was the announcement that former KIIS-FM morning man Rick Dees was coming back to wake up Los Angeles.


Huggy Boy dies

Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg died this year following a period of failing health. The 78-year-old pioneer DJ who began spinning R&B hits in the 1950s from Dolphin’s record store in South LA evolved, in his later career on KRLA-AM 1110, into a radio institution among LA’s Latino communities. The Ohio native’s unpretentious presentation of “low rider” oldies with its emphasis on soul and R&B classics plus requests and dedications connected with people of all ages.


Comedy and sports don’t mix well

Can comedy and sports work as a talk format? KLAC-AM 570, made a half-hearted go of it with two comedy acts that ended up going nowhere, or in the case of Phil Hendrie, into TV sitcoms. Chicago’s mighty Mancow was heralded as a kind of new and improved Howard Stern. However, Mancow’s high-energy clowning cacophony sounded like it needed to be on FM as he is heard on his home base station in Chicago where higher fidelity and stereo help sort out the voices amid a pounding heavy metal soundtrack. But I give him credit for packing more entertainment bits into a show than any other radio morning man I’ve ever heard. And they were often very funny. Hendrie, moved from a high-profile evening slot on KFI-AM 640, was often preempted by sports on KLAC’s evening slot. He is now developing his comedy for TV. And KLAC is now programming sports shows with Joe McDonnell in the evenings and “Roggin and Simers Squared” with KNBC-TV’s Fred Roggin and sports writer T.J. Simers with his daughter, Tracy.


Country music on AM

Independent broadcaster Saul Levine came to the rescue of country music fans after KZLA changed to Movin’ 93.9. He “flipped” the format of his AM stations first XESUR-AM 540 and later, KKGO-AM 1260, trading Ferrante and Teicher for Brooks and Dunn.


Jhani Kaye programs K-Earth 101

I had to scratch my head over this one. K-Earth 101 (KRTH-FM 101.1) hired one of radio’s pre-eminent adult contemporary “soft rock” programmers with KOST-FM 103.5 and KBIG-FM 104.3 to reinvent the legendary oldies station. Jhani Kaye started in January. Like a glacial ice flow moving south, the music has changed to the point where except for the old jingles and a smattering of 60s classics the oldies sound has almost melted away. Kaye inserted ex-KBIG personality Joshua Escandon into early afternoons, giving the station a decidedly AC flavor during a key “listen at work” daypart. He also put Gary Bryan back in mornings. Hollywood Hamilton went back to New York radio after a year of waking up Angelenos with the Four Tops and Righteous Brothers.


Tough act to follow on KLSX-FM

KLSX-FM 97.1 Program Director Jack Silver has had his work cut out for this year. Programming a station with top-rated Howard Stern as the morning guy was like owning an Arabian oil field. With Stern gone to Sirius, Adam Carola has faced the daunting challenge of trying to keep as many Stern fans tuned in while developing his own following.


Behind the scenes drama at Star 98.7

Hot Adult Contemporary Star 98.7 KYSR-FM 98.7 has endured some tabloid-style sturm and drang this year, beginning with the firing of practically the whole air staff in order to put the focus back on the music. That move led to thousands of emails reportedly demanding that Jamie, Jack and Stench be given back their morning show. Management put the trio back on and also hired DJs Lisa Foxx, Tom Mitchell and Richard Blade to put some more personality between the records. The year came to a calamitous end when KFI’s Bill Handel, another morning host from the local Clear Channel cluster based in Burbank, burst into the Star 98.7 studio while the on-air lamp was lit, and loudly and profanely went off on Jamie for yelling at his kids, who had strayed down the hall while visiting their Dad’s show. There were a lot of “beeped out” words during that incident.


Revolving doors on urban radio

More evidence that personality is makes for compelling music radio surfaced as Urban AC “Hot 92” KHHT-FM 92.3 put weekend syndicated Art Laboe on a weeknight schedule with his signature requests and dedications. Laboe, a LA veteran broadcaster, helped Huggy Boy get started in the business in the 1950s. Comedian Steve Harvey, who was a huge hit on KKBT-FM 100.3, “The Beat” reemerged on old school hip hop KDAY-FM 93.5. KDAY also added Tha’ Goodfellas following their successful run of afternoons spinning hip hop hits on Power 106 KPWR-FM 105.9. Earlier this year, “The Beat” replaced morning man John Salley with Tom Joyner as it transformed from a hip hop and R&B to Urban Adult Contemporary sound. Joyner exited this month as the Beat’s new program director Kevin Fleming replaced him with KJLH-FM 102.3’s Cliff Winston.