Jet joins Harcourt Mornings
Adult album alternative Independent 88.5 FM is making changes to the Nic Harcourt Show, heard weekday mornings on the station from 6 to 11 a.m. Effective immediately, 4-year 88.5 personality Jet will join Harcourt on the newly-named Nic Harcourt Morning Show with Jet.
Jet — who has previously been heard on the air nights and weekends — will offer a “supporting voice” to Harcourt; Harcourt has been Jet’s mentor during her four years at the station.
The move comes at an interesting time in local morning radio, with budget cuts and other realities causing the loss of Frosty Stillwell and Lisa May from KLOS’s (95.5 FM) Frosty Heidi and Frank show, and KROQ (106.7 FM) first losing half of Kevin and Bean due to retirement, then firing the other half and the rest of the morning crew, replaced by former afternoon drive-time’s Stryker and Klein.
No doubt 88.5 management hopes to pick up on disgruntled listeners from those two, along with anyone else who is tiring of predictable and often pre-recorded radio.
Says 88.5 General Manager Patrick Osburn, “Harcourt is regarded as the ‘ultimate tastemaker’ in music, with many artists — including Adele, Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, KT Tunstall, Interpol, Lana Del Rey, The Record Company and Florence + The Machine — crediting him with putting them on the map and helping them achieve success.
“Jet,” he concluded, “is active in the local and national music scene, while still handling promotions and social media for the station.”
The focus of the show? Music, information, and fun.
“We’re living in challenging times, and it’s more important than ever to spin great music and deliver information the audience can use and, yes, have some fun! “ Harcourt commented. “Adding Jet to the mix brings a fabulous new perspective for both myself and the audience.”
Not Quite Right
It’s too early to truly evaluate fairly. KROQ’s Stryker and Klein have been together for a ling time, but in afternoons. And afternoons are a different animal than mornings, with different pressures. It takes a while to find a groove sometimes.
That being said, I can’t help but feel that something is wrong. The shows I’ve heard sound to me as far too rehearsed, lacking the fun open banter the team had when they were the station’s afternoon stars.
Of course part of it could be the “distance broadcasting” I assume the station is using; it is doubtful that the two are in the same room, instead broadcasting from independent home studios due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That would take some time to get used to, especially if they are not as comfortable broadcasting outside of the studio. There is also a rumor that they are being told to pre-record and edit their banter, but as of now that is just a rumor… and one that is hopefully false. It would be a grave mistake to take a show that thrives on spontaneity, and make it … not.
Survival
COVID-19 is the big issue of the day across most of the world, but one thing you can do to make things better; Play more Al Green. At least that’s what a former local General Manager said to do to make the station more successful. Perhaps he was right.
Play K-Mozart
With smart speakers, the cool thing is you can say “Play Go Country 105,” and your speaker does. Say “Play Alt 98.7,” and it does. But say “Play K-Mozart” and it doesn’t. Why is that?
Turns out to be a technical issue that is being worked on as we speak. The voice tags work when those tags are registered with one of the radio streaming services recognized by Siri, Hey Google and Alexa, such as Tune In or the awful iHeartRadio. In the creation of K-Mozart, that was not set up. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.
Thinking Positively
Janeane Bernstein’s show, Get the Funk Out, is a local show designed to inspire and uplift. Bernstein herself says that the show “is filled with positivity through these challenging times.” It is heard over the air on UC Irvine’s KUCI (88.9 FM), you can hear it Mondays from 9 – 10 a.m., or via recorded podcasts after the show airs live. More information at kuci.org.
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