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Friday, February 8, 2008
RADIO WAVES
Ben Fong-Torres
San Francisco Chronicle
                                                        
   MILLER TIME: Green 960, formerly the Quake, felt a tremor the other day.
In December, owner Clear Channel replaced Program Director Bob Agnew with
John Scott, who'd hosted the station's "Progressive News Hour." On Jan.
21, Scott made his first big move, reducing the syndicated and very funny
Stephanie Miller 's morning show to a cameo, from 6 to 7 a.m. In her
place, Scott chose ... himself, anchoring a news block. He was blunt about
why he made the change: "It's ratings and revenue. Stephanie has not been
able to achieve a level of ratings where we can make a buck." A mere eight
days later, Scott e-mailed a photo of himself holding several reams of
paper. That, he said, was just part of the e-mail response - all negative
- that he'd received over the truncating of Miller's show. The station got
3,500 letters. "I was moved by the response," he said. "It represented the
previously unrecognized voice of the station. The decision was pretty
easy." Miller's full program returned on Tuesday. Now that he has free
time on weekday mornings, Scott, who's director of AM operations for Clear
Channel locally, "will seek out the fans of this show and talk to local
businesses." In other words, he wants ratings and revenue. In afternoon
drive (4 to 7 p.m.), where Scott had done the news, he has inserted Air
America's Randi Rhodes, who previously was on the Quake. Rhodes is
followed by Rachel Maddow. Scott is working on filling the 3 to 4 p.m.
hour with a green-themed program. And he has added Peter B. Collins'
syndicated show, "Live From the Left Coast," in the midnight-to-3 a.m.
slot. Still, says Collins, "it's great to be back on in the Bay Area. My
last local stint was on KSFO, which ended when KGO bought it in 1994."
Coincidentally, Collins began at KGO in 1976, became a DJ at KRQR, then
returned to talk, at KNBR and KSFO, when the latter went all-talk in 1993.

   IMUS IN THE NORTH BAY: No, Don Imus has not been picked up by any San
Francisco station. But if you're in or around Sonoma County, you'll find
the I-man on KSRO (1350 AM), a news talk station, from 9 a.m. to noon
weekdays. Imus got into hot water and lost his nationally syndicated talk
show and his MSNBC simulcast in April after uttering racially derogatory
remarks. He returned in December by way of ABC Radio and RFD-TV. Jeff
Clark, GM of Maverick Media, said that he considered Imus' apologies to be
genuine and that Imus has a record of doing charity work. "Underneath his
flinty exterior," Clark said, "there is a man who really cares. In
addition, he brings entertainment and an exciting point of view to Sonoma
County." Imus' show follows a news show anchored by Dave Wesley Page and
Curtiss Kim.
  
   TALL STORIES: In October, The Chronicle told the story of Glynn
Washington, a 37-year-old Oakland resident who was one of six finalists in
a talent search conducted by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The
CPB was looking for a new radio show featuring true stories. Well, here's
the happy ending to that story: Glynn is in. "I'm one of three winners,"
he told us at the recent Walden House Celebration of Achievement at the
Palace of Fine Arts, where he delivered the keynote address. He received
$10,000 to produce a pilot of his idea, "Snap Judgment," a collection of
stories about people who've made quick, life-altering decisions, and he
and co-producer Mark Ristich have completed the first show. "Who knows
what's going to happen next," he said. "The CPB may fund one, or three, or
none of the ones they picked." But Washington, director of the Young
Entrepreneurs Program at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, isn't
waiting. "Snap Judgment" already has been picked up by NPR stations in
Eugene, Ore., and the Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard area in Massachusetts.
Washington's impressive, often riveting first show is at www.
snapjudgmentradio.com.

   AM RADIO? WHAT'S THAT?: An amusing posting, aimed at veteran radio types,
is making its way around the Internet. Former free-form KSAN staff members
Hank Rosenfeld, Fred Greene and Jim Draper helped spread it through the
jive95.com site, and now, via good old-fashioned print, I pass most of it
along to you.
   You Know You've Been in Radio Too Long If ...
   You were hired by a general manager who actually worked in radio before
becoming GM.
   Sales guys wore Old Spice to cover the smell of liquor.
   You were playing Elvis and Beatles hits when they were alive.
   You played practical jokes on the air without fear of lawsuits.
   You used to smoke in a radio station and nobody cared.
   You remember when normal people listened to AM radio, and only "hippies"
listened to FM.
   Radio stations used to have enough on-air talent to field a softball team
every summer.
   You're at least 10 years older than the past two program directors who
fired you.
   You can (start) a record, run down the hall, go to the bathroom, and be
back in 2:50 for the segue.
   Somebody would say, "You have a face for radio," and it was still funny.
   Sixty percent of your wardrobe has a station logo on it.
   Your family thinks you're successful, but you know better.
   You've been married at least three times or never married at all.
   You used to fight with the news guy over air time. After all, what was
more important: your joke about your ex-wife, or that tornado warning?
   You ran a phone contest and nobody called, so you made up a name and gave
the tickets to your cousin.
   You have several old air checks on reel-to-reel tapes in a cardboard box
in your closet that you wouldn't dream of letting anyone hear anymore, but
you'll never throw them out or tape over them.
   You still have nightmares of a song running out and not being able to find
the control-room door.
   One recipient, radio vet Tom Ballantyne, responded with an admission of
his DJPSS ("DJ's post-traumatic stress syndrome"). "I've been out of radio
for three decades and I still have that dream," he wrote. "Impending dead
air, can't find another record to drop cue because the library has
completely disappeared, somebody hid the emergency music (cartridge) you
had on top of the cart machines, can't even find a station ID. Then I wake
up. My wife whispers groggily, 'You had the Häagen-Dazs before bed again,
didn't you, honey?' as she rolls over and falls back to sleep."

   CH-CH-CH-CHANGES: Consumer reporter Michael Finney is back on KGO, with a
consumer talk show from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturdays, and appearances on the
station's Friday afternoon news (4 to 7 p.m.) with "Finney's Friday Free
Stuff" ... And a fond farewell to Chris Mays, PD of KLLC (Alice@97.3) for
the past couple of years. She's headed home to Seattle. "It's been a great
couple of years in the city by the bay," she e-mailed friends, "but I left
my heart in Seattle." Greg Nemitz, the station's VP/GM, praised Mays for
her leadership "through a very challenging and exciting time in our
industry." Mike Preston, VP of programming for CBS Radio and PD of sister
station KMVQ (Movin' 99.7), is expected to add Alice to his plate. {sbox}

   Ben Fong-Torres is a freelance writer and host of "Backstage" on KFRC.
E-mail him at fongtorres @gmail.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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