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Airwaves: July 8, 2011

Summer Concerts from The Sound

The Sound (100.3 FM) and the County of Los Angeles Parks Association have teamed up to present the 2011 Summer Concert Series at Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles.

The series kicks off Saturday July 16th with A Flock of Seagulls and concludes August 20th with the English Beat; along the way you can hear performances by The Romantics and 10,000 Maniacs, The Untouchables and more. The concerts are free and begin each Saturday night at 8 PM.

Bring a lawn chair, blanket and picnic basket and enjoy the music under the stars along with other festivities. The concert lawn opens to the public at 7:30. Check out www.thesoundla.com. This, by the what, is what real local radio does.

Race to Hawaii

Sirius/XM talk diva Dr. Laura Schlessenger is on her way to Hawaii aboard a racing sailboat this week as she participates is Transpac 2011.

This is her first ocean race. And not a shabby one either: over 2000 nautical miles from California to Hawaii. She’ll be at the helm of her boat Katana, along with eight crew members. Along the way she promises to update listeners directly from the boat, assuming the weather and satellites cooperate, using a satellite telephone. Of course she won’t be taking listener calls directly; the show (heard locally on Channel 107 11 AM to 3 PM) will be airing “Best Of” shows until July 18th when she begins live broadcasts directly, albeit temporarily, from Hawaii.

I like Dr. Laura ... she’s not part of my talk-show avoidance policy. The best part of her show is trying to figure out why some people call in when they have to know already what she is going to say. Almost as much fun as hearing people argue with the fake guests on Phil Hendrie’s show (locally on KTLK 1150 AM, 10 PM to 1 AM).

Letter Bag

“I enjoy reading your column in the Star News. My husband used to listen to Lohman and Barkley and Ken and Bob in the morning. Now he just listens to the politically-charged stations which do not get the day off to a happy beginning. Do you know of any stations that have a light comedy approach each day?” -- Nancy Sele, email

Funny that your email happened to come today. And believe me, I feel your pain ... that is why I have given up (most) talk shows myself for personal listening. I just cannot stand the misleading statements being presented as facts just to garner ratings. My afternoons in particular are far more pleasant now that I avoid such shows.

Anyway, this morning I happened to tune in to KLOS (95.5 FM). Mark and Brian, who have been waking Los Angeles since the Truman administration (slight exaggeration, it was actually September of 1987) had the closest thing to “gentle humor” that I have heard outside of Perry and Price in Hawaii. Topics ran from a trivia game show to people calling in with wedding mishaps.

None of it was raunchy, none was insulting. All that I heard was in good clean fun. And I say that with a bit of humbleness ... I never really was a fan in the past, having a mindset that I should be hearing music and news in the morning; perhaps I never gave them enough of a chance. I did find their promotional bits hilariuos, though, including one which got them into a lot of trouble years ago.

If you don’t mind a show that is perhaps a bit more pop-oriented than what you are probably used to, you might check it out. And be sure to let me know what you think. They can be found on the classic rock station from 5 AM to 10 AM.

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