August 12.cwk

Airwaves: August 12, 2011

More Dees, Please

Can't get enough of Rick Dees on Hot 92.3? I was checking out Uncle Ricky's Reel Top-40 Radio Repository and stumbled across a gem of a recording: a composite of Dees from his early days in Los Angeles on KHJ (930 AM) from 1979 to 1980.

It is an amazing look back at Dees and his "cast of idiots," many of the voices being done by his wife, Julie.

Dees had been brought in to help KHJ recover its audience, which had been lost mainly due to bad programming. The format and personalities that master programmer Chuck Martin assembled was amazing, but alas, in spite of a jump in the ratings (ratings that KHJ never approached again), the suits in New York changed the format.

The site also has recordings from Dees' early days; though for some reason more recent material is missing.
Head over to www.reelradio.com (small donation required) and check it out.

KFWB takes its shows to Beach cities

KFWB on Your Corner will showcase the cities of Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and El Segundo when it broadcasts from Riviera Village and the Redondo Beach pier Aug. 24.
Penny Griego and Phil Hulett will present the morning news live (on 980 AM) beginning at 5 a.m., followed by Bob McCormick from 9 to 11 a.m. at Henessey's in Riviera Village. The restaurant, at 1712 S. Catalina Ave., will offer breakfast specials throughout the morning.

Then at 2 p.m., the station will head over to Kincaid's at 500 Fisherman's Wharf, on the Redondo Beach pier. Les Brown will broadcast live from 2 to 4 p.m., followed by the afternoon news with Maggie McKay and Michael Shappee from 4 to 7 p.m. Kincaid's will serve up happy hour specials throughout.

The focus of the broadcasts will be local political issues, along with improvement projects, tourism, entertainment and the environment.

On hand will be civic leaders from all of the cities and what the station describes as "colorful personalities" from the area.
For more information, go to www.cbsla.com/onyourcorner.

Helping out

Chuck Southcott called to say that the recent KABC (790 AM) Larry Elder Mini-RadioThon benefitting Operation Homefront Southern California raised more than $20,000, with an average donation per person of $124. Elder (on air from 9 a.m. to noon weekdays) obviously has a generous audience.

Operation Homefront Southern California provides emergency support to families of enlisted military personnel and honors and supports wounded warriors of any rank.

Correction

Last week, I made an error reporting on interference on the radio bands.

I made a reference to Edwin Armstrong, inventor of FM and other technologies, and accidentally gave him credit for the invention of AM. Armstrong, in fact, did not invent AM, but he did design circuits to help better receive it.

I'll let reader Hal Kneller explain:

"Good story with a lot of good information. In the industry we have known this noise interference for years and years. We've even given talks to industry groups. BUT, as much as we love Major Armstrong, he did not invent AM radio; he was only 16 years old when AM was invented. He invented the super-regenerative receiver (not used today) and the superheterodyne receiver (used today on virtually every radio in existence for the last 80 years). He did invent FM.

"Reginald Fessenden is credited with AM radio using developments by Lee De Forest and (Guglielmo) Marconi, considered the inventor of radio (although Marconi only broadcast CW (continuous wave) not modulated which Fessenden did. Marconi's invention could be used to send Morse code, for instance, but not talk or music."

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