Airwaves: January 14, 2011
Pastore Wins Award
KKLA (99.5 FM) has something to celebrate: the station’s own Frank
Pastore Show was recently named the Radio Program of the Year by
the NRB, also known as National Religious Broadcasters.
This is the second time since 2007 that the program has won this award, and
it comes in time this year to help the station celebrate its 25th anniversary.
The program has been on the station since 2004.
Born in Alhambra, Pastore is a former baseball pitcher, playing with the Cincinnati
Reds from 1979 to 1985, and the Minnesota Twins in 1986. After leaving baseball
he earned a degree in Business Administration from National University, a Masters
in Philosophy of Religion and Ethics from Biola University, and a Masters in
Political Philosophy and American Government from the Claremont Graduate School.
His KKLA show was chosen as the best program based on its compelling, relevant,
informative and entertaining impact made on listeners, according to the NRB.
The award will be given at the organization’s 68th Annual Convention held
next month in Nashville.
Hear Pastore for yourself weekdays from 4:00 to 7:00 PM.
What’s Your Name
I recently changed out the stereo in my truck with one that had been in my
attic for a time. The “new” model isn’t much different than
the old one, with minor changes in buttons and features. Like the old one,
the replacement saves FM stations using Radio Data System (RDS) text to save
stations by name rather than by frequency.
RDS -- or more accurately in the United States RBDS for Radio Broadcast Data
System -- allows stations to send two different text lines. One that is designed
for short messages such as the station call letters and another to be used
for longer messages like station slogans, the current song title, or even advertising
messages.
The problem is that some programmers don’t think about these features.
For example, K-FROG form the Inland Empire never sends it’s
station name or calls at all on the short text line. Which means the best that
I can get on the preset readout is “Ribbit,” what the station displays
during commercials. Otherwise I get parts of song titles ... such as “Save
A,” from when they play Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy.
Other stations make similar mistakes, such as Power 106 rarely having their
name “Power” or even KPWR on the display; the best I could
get is “power” with a lower case p as part of power106.com. And it
took a LOT of waiting for that to show up.
KLOS (95.5 FM)) gets it right -- sometimes. Depending on the song being
played you either can catch KLOS on the display or KLOS tied with another word. The
Sound does it right but has -- or at least had -- another problem, as when Bob
Seger songs came up as being by Barry Mannilow in the song title
line. Sound programmer Dave Beasing laughed and explained that it was
a glitch they were working on.
Certainly one could argue that RDS is an old system that will be obsolete when
HD Radio -- with its better information screens -- becomes more popular. But
more people have RDS on their car stereos than HD ... so let’s fix it!
Playing Fair
Last week I opined that David Vassegh could have (should have?) done
better on a recent UCLA Bruin post game show, in which he chastised a caller
for calling Vassegh “Guy.”
To the rescue was Petros Papadakis from the Petros and Money Show
on KLAC, who took the “blame,” explaining that he himself
trained Vassegh how to disrespect callers. Why the mention of the column on
air at all? In addition to doing BruinTalk, Vassegh is the producer for the
-- you guessed it -- Petros and Money show. He also serves as a sidekick and
a reporter.
I was not kind to Papadakis in the past either, such as when he was a guest
on Bill Handle’s morning show on KFI (640 AM). So to clear
the air and support the local guys, I want to state for the record that Papadakis’ style
has grown on me over the past year or so, that I like the Petros and Money
Show and can understand why it is among the top-rated sports-talk shows in
town, and that, yes, I was probably too hard on Vassegh who was obviously having
a good time on the night in question.
Hear the best sports-talk program in town weeknights from 7 to 10 PM; the 7:00
hour is exclusive to the local market while the rest is nationwide over the
Fox Sports Network.
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Copyright © 2011 Richard Wagoner and Los Angeles Newspaper Group.
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