KNX dumps overnights
The rumors had been making the rounds for weeks, but they still seemed unbelievable. Would Audacy really play the audio from KCBS/San Francisco overnights on KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM)? Are they truly that desperate? That pathetic? That lame?
Turns out, yes, they are. In more proof that Audacy is unfit to hold a broadcast license, Los Angeles now gets its “local” news from San Francisco between the hours of 12 midnight and 5 a.m. And by “local,” I mean local to the Bay Area, including their traffic reports. I found out about it myself when I started receiving emails from readers telling me they thought they thought they were dreaming.
It’s the latest move from Audacy, a company struggling to avoid irrelevancy and insolvency. In reality, the best thing that could happen to radio is if the likes of Audacy, iHeart and Cumulus went under or were forced by an FCC to divest all of their stations, remembering that the one thing radio has for it is being local. This is most certainly not good. Let those who know how to program run the stations.
Christmas Programming
In what has become a holiday tradition, the online Top-40 Hit Clock (find it at bit.ly/3ZAQLdj and on the StreamS HiFi Radio app) is once again presenting the Drake-Chenault radio production of “Christmas at Our House” hosted by former LA DJ Sonny Melendrez.
The program features plenty of holiday music, along with stories and vignettes about how Christmas is celebrated in various countries around the world. Running time is about 7-1/2 hours, and it will “air” at noon on December 24th, with a repeat on Christmas Day at 8 a.m.
Hit Clock is also airing a special selection of Christmas Music before and after the program December 24th; on Christmas Day the music will be immediately following “Our House” until 6:30 p.m., at which time classic Christmas radio shows will air through the rest of the night.
Want to jazz up your holiday? Another local online tradition is returning as well: Sounds of the Season, a 36-hour presentation of holiday jazz music will air starting at 12 noon December 24th online at jazzknob.org as well as in San Diego on KSDS (88.3 FM).
This year, eleven decades of music will be represented, including such artists as Ella Fitzgerald, Marcus Roberts, Duke Ellington, Samara Joy, Ramsey Lewis, Sue Raney, Vince Guaraldi, and Kenny Burrell, among others.
The dramatic presentation of Chuck Niles reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas” will air during the program at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
KMAX Tribute
The year 2025 marks 50 years since Max and Mary Ellen Isoard sold KMAX (now KSSE, 107.1 FM), which was licensed to the city of Sierra Madre. It was marketed as “The Informal Voice of the San Gabriel Valley at 107.1 on your FM dial.”
And informal it was. As just one example, music programming consisted of … almost anything and everything. While I never heard the station myself, a story published in industry newspaper Radio World back in 2012 said that, “listeners could hear easy-listening, big bands, top-40, polkas, old jazz, classical, Hawaiian, pipe organ, movie soundtracks … you name it, KMAX played it.”
The station went on the air in 1960, the dream of Max who was born in 1918. From his earliest days, he had that dream … and in fact got in trouble for it. As the Radio World story tells it, “Max was a ‘radioaholic’ almost since the day he was born in 1918. His first foray into broadcasting was as a kid of 13, playing records on the ham radio bands. This caught the attention of the local radio inspector, who made a visit to ‘W6MAX,’” a call sign that Max had simply made up.
Quoting from an article in QST Magazine back in 1932 entitled “Bootleg,” the story goes this way: “In a chair sat a badly frightened boy while his father paced the floor. Upon the table was a letter with the heading ‘Department of Commerce, Radio Division.’ It instructed Max to appear at the Supervisor’s Office to explain why he had been broadcasting music, operating without a station license, and using a fictitious call…”
Fortunately that didn’t stop the young man from eventually accomplishing his dream, and KMAX was born.
Top-40 Hitclock (see the link above) will present a special tribute to KMAX on December 26th starting at 10 a.m.. Included will be airchecks, such as the final Polka Party as aired on March 28, 1975 — the last time that Max and Mary Ellen were heard on the air. Stories and memories from past employees and listeners will be a large part as well.
If you want to read more about KMAX, head over to https://henryeng.com/kmax.