Radio AM to FM - June 4, 1999

Radio AM to FM: June 4, 1999

Kinder, gentler mornings ...

Only 27 days remain before John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou -- aka John and Ken -- return to the Los Angeles airwaves. KABC has even taken out a paid advertisement on Don Barrett's Los Angeles Radio People web site (www.laradio.com) announcing that fact: Visitors to the page can find out to the second how much time remains before John and Ken make their KABC morning debut July 1st.

John and Ken have been off the air in Los Angeles for the past two months in preparation for this event. Formerly the stars of KFI afternoons, the duo left KFI and their nationally-syndicated program for the money and prestige of KABC.

Satellite Minyards

From the files of "they're lame but look at their competition down the dial at 640 AM," the afternoon drive father-son team of Ken and Rick Minyard -- heard locally from 3 to 7 pm on KRLA -- have concluded their third week of syndication. At press time 16 stations had already signed up to carry the program.

And if that weren't enough, the program has literally reunited son with father: Rick, who has been doing his half of the show from studios in Northern California will be moving from Modesto to Thousand Oaks as soon as school is out for the Summer, allowing him to do the show from his father's home/studio in the Hollywood Hills.

In with the old, in with the new(er)

KRTH has been adding a few slightly more recent oldies to its playlist, apparently noticing that the '70s really did exist. Apparently it's not really programmer Mike Phillip's idea, but personally I think its a good one. KRTH was sounding quite stale and there are some good '70s tunes out there. KRTH once played them, in fact ... when they were new, and KRTH was good.

At the same time, KLOS is going slightly back in time to add a few more oldies to their playlist. Oops, I mean "classic rock," KLOS doesn't play "oldies." Waggy Award Winning KLOS programmer Rita Wilde insists that the station isn't giving up the new stuff, but plans to go a bit deeper into the '70s album archives.

Wouldn't it be fascinating if KRTH and KLOS both added the same songs?

Finally

KEZY programmer Ron Price, (yes, I know the calls are now KXMX but "Mix 95.9"sounds so stupid that I'm really helping out here), says that he is "aggressively" looking for new talent for the station. Expect a full air staff within the next few weeks.

In the meantime, KEZY still sounds fairly good if a bit repetitive. Price needs to pull the lame David Bowie tracks that he seems to think are popular (they never were, Ron), but between KEZY, Star, KLAC, KABC, KFI and Channel 103.1, I'm a happy camper.

For now, at least.

///

To subscribe to The Daily Breeze, call 540-5511