A pool of over ten million potential listeners in Los Angeles County submitted thousands of names in a contest held by KIBB (100.3 FM) management to find a new name for the "all new" station. Programmer Harold Austin, music director Ricci Filiar and consultant Guy Zapoleon considered every entry in order to find a name that best describes their station's mix of old and semi-current soul and dance music scientifically designed to appeal to the typical 18-34 year old woman living in Southern California.

It was a very difficult undertaking, the importance of which cannot be underestimated. For it is the name of the station -- much more than the music it plays or the personalities that host the programs -- that defines the station.

Hour after hour, day after day, Austin, Filiar and Zapoleon tested each potential name in what may be the most comprehensive research of its type ever undertaken. Once a name was selected, it was sealed in an envelope and transported by armed guards to the vault of an unknown bank, locked in secrecy until December 24, 1997, when it was removed from the vault and allowed to be used on the air.

The new name? "Mega 100. Oldies With Attitude."

I'm not joking.

OK, I embellished the details, but there actually were 55,000 entries with over 8000 names as part of a $25,000 contest. And yet, the best they could come up with was "Mega?"

Apparently so. Luckily, I have a list of the top-5 suggested names that were not used.

5. One on One Sports
4. Vega 100
3. The Oldies Zone
2. Radio Disney
And the number one suggestion for the new 100.3 that was not used: KRLA.

This Just In

Show tune fans that have trouble receiving KGIL's (1260 AM) signal in parts of the county can now try out the new KGIL simulcast on 1650 AM, part of the new expanded AM band.

Right now, there are few stations broadcasting in the expanded portion of the AM band, so the KGIL simulcast on a good AM stereo (or AM wide band) tuner sounds absolutely fabulous.

Passing

A public memorial was held for Roger Barkley last Wednesday (1/7) at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. He died on December 21st due to cancer.

Barkley's last on-air job was at KABC (790 AM), where he was paired with Ken Minyard in the morning from 1990 to 1996. He is perhaps best known, however, as half of the highly popular Lohman and Barkley comedy team wherein he and partner Al Lohman woke up Los Angeles for a quarter century, first on KLAC (570 AM), then on KFWB (980 AM) and finally KFI (640 AM).
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