November 5

Radio AM to FM: November 5, 2004

Green Acres Calling

Veteran Los Angeles newsman Ken Gallacher, who was the news voice of KFI's Bill Handel program for the last 11 years, hung up his headphones last Friday and will move on to greener pastures. Literally.

Green Acres is where he's heading, via an 11 acre farm in Virginia complete with horses and goats.

As part of a special going away broadcast, Handel producer/sidekick Paul T. Wall put together a montage of some of his work. If you missed it, you can find it on the Bill Handel page of KFI's web site, www.kfi640.com.

Short Takes

• The story at Don Barrett's laradio.com began: "Technical difficulties on yesterday's Jamie & Danny KYSR show were so bad it was almost unlistenable." Apparently there was a problem getting the equipment to work correctly as the duo broadcast from the top of a Las Vegas hotel.

So this time, apparently, it wasn't the hosts that made the show unlistenable as per usual. Any chance they could stay in Vegas? Permanently? Without the equipment to do a remote?

• The transistor radio turned 50 on October 18. Hitting the shelves at a price of $49.95, the Regency TR-1 ran for 20 hours on a 22 volt battery.

Correction

An editing snafu caused a bit of confusion in this column two weeks ago. While reporting on the ratings, a sentence was changed to make it appear that Johnny B (Jonathon Brandmeier) was hired by KLOS. Obviously that is not the case. What I was trying to point out was that the hiring of Johnny B by Arrow 93 apparently helped out KLOS, as Arrow's ratings tanked after the hire making KLOS the top classic rock station in Los Angeles.

I apologize for the confusion.

Mail Bag

I received a few letters regarding my comment that I now listen to KZLA. Reader Linda Elliot was typical in her email:

I can't tell you how excited I was to see that your new favorite music station is KZLA, I am a faithful listener of KZLA and wrote to you years ago when Peter Tilden joined and then again when Sean Parr disappeared (later found out he was fired then rehired). I read your column every week in hopes of seeing something about the things happening on KZLA (like when the wives and husbands were the DJ's for April Fools Day).

I am glad that you finally got some good taste and am joining us country western fans.

I forwarded the email to my wife, Jean, who still makes fun of me.

Play Thing

What happens when two emotionally disconnected men are chained to a post with an endless amount of time stretching before them? Find out when KPCC's (89.3 FM) The Plays the Thing presents Hotel Oubliette tomorrow night at 10:00.

Written by Jane Anderson, the play stars Edward Asner, Marsha Mason and Arye Gross.

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