Oh man, I am HOT. Major insulted. Let me check...still alive, still purchasing, not stupid.

"As the music landscape has become more and more fragmented, it's clear that there will be a limited available audience for KBSG's music programming." ?????

KBSG played KHITS type music. This nonsensical press release means what? "Limited available audience"? Last time I checked, we weren't dead but were quite unlimited and very available. Such BS.

I'm afraid that this is just the beginning of the changeover from music radio to all talk radio....or maybe "Reality Radio"? Most of network TV is now reality TV...{where is the pukey emoticon? }

Demographics. Fragmented musical landscapes. Limited available audiences. Just another way of saying that there is no money in playing ancient hits/music of the baby boom generation. But yeah, we're still here, still listening, and we have more disposable income than the XY Gen Xer's or whoever else they are catering to!

I know that new technology is amazing...and probably necessary, but when it starts to supplant things like records, CD's, radio shows {all for the sake of a download or two!}, I have to mildly, and probably futilely, protest.

Well let's see. We are the baby boomers are we not? We are the largest age group are we not? WE have had the most fun, most advantages, made the most changes in our lives, have we not? Ok, then let's REALLY STOPour buying, enjoying and changing and see what happens. OKAY I know there I go being logical again.
The first time I saw Mark was in the late 80's and there were teens there. I asked them later what they were doing at the oldies show. WE LIKE THIS MUSIC. Well. So we are not the ONLY ones that purchase from this era.

That really IS true....we have kids at our day care {one boy in particular} who wears T-shirts of his fave bands...Zep, Pink Floyd, Skynyrd, Nirvana, AD/DC...and he plays guitar and that's the stuff he listens to! Parents have a big influence on what their kids are exposed to, early on. And that affects their buying choices too.

Oh, and this boy is 11....

I don't blame you for seeing red, Deb. The idea that our generation can be dismissed as an "undesirable" demographic for broadcasters is both insulting and untrue. Targeting youth, in both advertising and media is nothing new, but it's awful to see people of our age being portrayed as dottering fools who are living in the past.

I had to laugh at the idea of a fragmented "musical landscape" when it's the broadcasters themselves, especially the large companies that own so many stations in a single market, that fragmented it. They've cut playlists and homogenized their sound so that a Clear Channel or CBS station in Baltimore sounds just like a Clear Channel or CBS station in Chicago or Seattle. It doesn't matter what the format may be, it sounds the same (boring!).

They wonder why the audience is diminishing? It's because we can't find anything worth listening to (or watching on TV for that matter). Radio no longer has any personality; jocks are unnecessary in some formats or technology allows one jock to work multiple markets, and what jocks do exist are there to shock and play to those easily amused by crude humor.

I remember Mark saying that music changed when the music business became the music business and radio is no different. Add to that how much we were spoiled by listening to radio in the 50s and 60s when every town had a station or two with strong individual personalities and it's no wonder the audience is "diminished."

Is it any wonder that we enjoyed Mark's radio shows so much???

When KISN flipped from FM to AM (kiss of death), it was one of the highest-rated stations in the market. But the "deadly demo" -- coupled with a 20-something sales force who had no clue about the music -- destined it for the radio graveyard.

What was their reason for going from FM to AM? I have to say, I've never heard of a radio station doing that before -- going from FM to AM... very strange...

Since ratings didn't translate into revenue, they replaced KISN-FM with Charlie (read younger demo). Charlie hasn't achieved KISN's ratings, but is presumably more profitable, not necessarily through stellar sales, but by savings through automation vs live jocks (except for mornings I believe).

How sad is that -- the "personal touch" through radio seems to be disappearing. Who would have thought as I rode my bicycle as a kid, transistor radio swinging from the handle bar, listening to Cousin Brucie (in NY) announce the newest Raiders' song that it would ever come to this? Ahhh, Cousin Brucie, Wolfman Jack, Jim Kerr, Pat St. John, Tony Pigg, Scott Muni, but to name a few. It's true I did tune into a particular station for the music, but it was the DJ's that made it fun. I remember all too well listening to Wolfman Jack on a Saturday night (if I'm lyin' I'm dyin').

I believe it was January 2005 that WCBS-FM 101.1 introduced Mickey Dolenz as the new morning DJ. I started listening to the radio in the mornings again and really enjoyed listening to him!! It was April/May of that same year that when I turned the radio on in the morning, Mickey was gone and there was something new called "Jack radio" wherein they stated, "We'll play what we want." Oh, yeah? So long. That was the end of that. I understand they finally got smart and brought back the live DJ's.

The "death" of the live DJ...the radio personalities...was as devastating to me as the demise of the 45... I, too, remember vibrant radio DJ's....B. Mitch Reed at KFWB {"Channel 98!"}, Lord Tim at KRLA, Dick Biondi at WLS, Johnny Rabbit at KXOK....and SO many more. They were stars in their own right! Dictating the action, making special appearances....and having the honor of introducing us to the songs and sounds that would make up the Soundtrack Of Our Lives...

I still have my transistor radio. Doesn't work anymore---it was an Arvin, turquoise with a nice brown leather case. And it STILL has the faint pen MARKs I made on the dial---the one for KXOK, WLS, WCFL....I got it on my 8th birthday {um, a few years ago today, in fact } and it literally stayed on until I went to college in Sept. 1970! It was only allowed to rest when I was in school, church, eating a meal, and sleeping....{yes, it came to the bathroom with me too! I would carefully put it on the covered toilet seat while I took my baths...}. Such great memories of those times. And they DO seem like yesterday. I guess that's a GOOD THING.

Well, Deb, you definitely hit a nerve here. I realize that I'm "preaching to the choir" as we all seem to be in that "listened to my transistor under the sheets at night" age group (DOB 12-16-54). Those were the days when the DJ's were part of our radio listening experience and had PERSONALITY! When will radio industry understand that the expendable income belongs to us? We are the radio audience - I have teenagers and the only time they listen to the radio instead of their ipods is in the car (and sometimes not even then).
I'm in the Fitness business and we are just as youth-oriented as the music business. I'll spare you the details, but same demographic is being catered to at our club (18-35), even though the majority of our members and instructors are over that age.
Bottom line, KHits and the radio industry should be thankful for dj's like Mark who are entertaining and not crude AND have a large and loyal audience, and stop trying to appeal to an audience who would rather listen to their ipods anyway!
Whew (deep breath - no graemlin for that)

Yes Johnny Rabbit on KXOK. He was back a few years ago, but I think it was his son. did not sound quite the same.

quote:

Originally posted by Maj Ann:
Yes Johnny Rabbit on KXOK. He was back a few years ago, but I think it was his son. did not sound quite the same.

I remember that there were actually TWO Johnny Rabbits...and there was a dispute as to who was the "real" one. The one I listened to would have been from '63 to about the end of '67. And he had a sidekick---Bruno J. Grunion. That was the show that I heard my first Beatle song on {"Twist and Shout"}. George's sis, Louise Harrison Caldwell, lived about 100 miles from St. Louis, in Benton, Ill. And she FINALLY got the boys played on KXOK, in Nov. of '63. And she used to have a short radio spot as well, telling us about the Beatles..."Hello. This is Louise Harrison Caldwell, and I have news of the boys...."

I listen to the morning team at our local little podunk radio station because I enjoy them. The station plays stuff from the 80s and 90s but I listen to the morning team and then turn off the radio. What I do is turn on my computer to a fabulous oldies 'station' I've found and I enjoy very much. Of course, I can't take my computer in the car with me, so I do miss having a local oldies station. I guess the joke is on us, though, because the radio business now thinks that WE'RE the oldies.

We have a great oldies station here KGOR 99.9 FM. I love the morning team now headed by Dave Wingert. He moved here from Seattle about 18 months ago and had been on the air in Omaha about 20 years ago. I'll bet Deb will remember "mighty 1290 KOIL" (and the KOIL GOOD GUYS)an am station we listened to in the '60s. It's now an FM talk radio station. Deb, do you remember listening to Roger W. Morgan and Todd Chase? Todd did the 7pm-midnight shift on KOIL. I would write a poem about each Raider for his birthday and would go down to the KOIL station and Todd would read my poem on the air. Too bad I didn't save all those poems! Anyway, KGOR is online so you can listen to it in the am in case you can't find any other good oldies stations to listen to! It's one of the Clear Stations too.

Oh, and I think I still have my old transistor radio too and I used to listen to it when I walked home from school. I also now have a shower radio that I listen to in the bathroom (It's shaped like a fish---ha,ha a "tuna fish").