Radio AM to FM - August 28, 1998

Radio AM to FM: August 28, 1998

New KIEV

KIEV (870 AM) has brand-new owners and a brand-new lineup. Some of the programs are holdovers from the old ownership team, but Salem Communications hopes to build KIEV into a respectable conservative talk station.

Here's the new schedule: 6 am: Morning Magazine with Larry Moreno. 8:30: Your Mind Can Keep You Well. 9:30: Natren. 10:00: American Health Radio Show. 10:30: Roex. 11:00: Winning on Wall Street. 11:30: American Advisor. 12 pm: George Putnam's Talkback. 2:00: Michael Medved. 5:00: Ray Breim. 7:00 Talk to Marty (Irv Kase on Sports, Fridays). And at 8 pm: Michael Reagan.

Bruce Out

KFI (640 AM) late-night personality Tammy Bruce is o-u-t of the Cox-owned "Stimulating Talk" station. Apparently Bruce was just a bit too stimulating for KFI management when she made some comments regarding Bill and Camile Cosby on her July 8/9 program. She has been relieved of her duties.

KFI programmer David G. Hall and manager Howard Neil prepared a public apology that aired eight times during Bruce's time slot last week, stating that they are sorry that Bruce "made various comments about Mrs. Cosby and her husband Bill Cosby that were unfounded, mean spirited, and simply inappropriate."

The comments made by Bruce were in response to an essay written by Mrs. Cosby that appeared in USA Today following the conviction of Mikail Markasev for the murder of their son, Ennis. Bruce characterized Mrs. Cosby as "incredibly unstable, crazy, paranoid, just nuts and the like" according to the on-air apology.

Bruce, for her part, doesn't plan to take this lying down. "I'm shocked and disappointed at the statement aired by KFI management," she told Radio Digest's Tomm Looney. "This will have a chilling effect on the nature of talk radio itself and the importance of the First Amendment." A detailed statement of Bruce's course of action will be made next week.

Goodbye Spike

Only animal lovers can possibly understand how hard it was to write the column this week. For the first time in over six years, my feline companion Spike was not sitting at my side as I wrote it. He was hit and killed by a car last Sunday night.

Spike -- named so because my wife Jean and I wanted a tough sounding name as a complement to a facial injury he suffered as a kitten before we found him -- was a cat that loved life and loved being around people. He followed us everywhere around the house and sat on the couch next to me as I wrote this column almost every week since we brought him home. He was as inquisitive as he was sweet, loved to play with (and talk to) his toys, and he purred constantly -- whenever he was around people.

His favorite radio stations were KKGO (105.1 FM) and KUSC (91.5 FM); apparently classical music really does soothe the savage beast. It sounds so silly, but I will miss him tremendously. Goodbye, Spike. You were quite a cat.

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