Airwaves: July 3, 2009
Rantels Replacement
After a two-hour heartfelt goodbye show last Thursday night -- if it seemed
like four hours it was because they repeated it -- KABC (790 AM) evening
talker Al Rantel passed his microphone over to his producer, John
Phillips, who officially began his new gig exactly one week ago.
I spoke with Phillips this week to get an idea of where he was coming from
... to see if hes as weird about radio as I am (he is) and see where
he plans to take his former bosss show in the future.
First the background: Phillips was producer for the Rantel show for a year,
followed by producing and acting as the Sports Princess on the
morning drive Doug McIntyre Show. He knows the KABC audience.
He describes himself as a skinny, white vodka drinker, telling
Don Barretts laradio.com that, like Rantel, he can recite every line
of dialogue from Mommie Dearest. The vodka is an important part
part of the Mommie Dearest experience, he said, Its impossible
to watch that movie sober. His goals: Get good ratings and sell
a lot of (stuff), he said. Oh, yeah: and not get sued.
When I caught up with him he was entering a cellphone no-mans land, so the
interview was short. And hilarious.
I wanted to go into radio as soon as I learned how to talk, he said. I
mean, who wouldnt want a job where you can show up to work in your pajamas
without having to refer to Heidi Fleiss as boss?
To prove hes my kind of radio man: Ive never understood why
so many people use radio as a stepping stone to get into television. Radio
is so much more creative. In television youre implementing somebody elses
vision and are dependent on 800 different people. In radio, its heres
a microphone, create a world. You can let yourself go ... how can you
beat that?
He became producer for Rantel because he loved Als show, couldnt
stay away from radio, and the thought of staying in grad school and finishing
up my Ph.D. made me want to get a booty call text message in front of Chris
Brown. I really have no clue what that means, but it sounds funny.
Regardless, his show will evolve a bit from what it was under the direction
of Rantel. Rather than focussing almost exclusively on issues, my show
will be a blend of local news, national news and all those wonderful tabloid
stories that make Geraldo Rivera get excited.
And a lot of crying. Glenn Beck signs off every one of his shows
like a Jimmy Swaggart apology, and now hes got the #2 rated cable
news show. Perez Hilton wept like a baby after his run in with the Black
Eyed Peas and now he gets 10 million hits per day on his blog ... although
in all fairness to Perez, hes much better equipped to take a punch than
I am.
Fair enough. Check out the all-new John Phillips Show weekday nights from 6
to 11 PM, and Saturday nights 7 PM to midnight on KABC.
Rantel Response
Milford Walker wrote in via e-mail to ask, All the fuss about right-winger
Al Rantel, but did you forget Michael Jackson? The best open-minded
talk host ever on KABC?
Actually I didnt. I plan to speak with Jackson in the very near future
so I can give an update on what hes doing right now. Stay tuned.
Problems at Clear Channel
San Antonio, Texas-based Clear Channel Communications -- owner of 800 stations
nationwide including too many here in Southern California -- is being beat
down by its own hometown newspaper. The San Antonio News-Express wrote
this week that the largest radio group owner will have trouble making
scheduled payments later this year and may either be forced to sell more
stations or be headed toward bankruptcy, wherein lenders will force it to sell
stations anyway. Wow.
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Copyright © 2009 Richard Wagoner and Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
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