{"id":2605,"date":"2023-01-18T18:41:48","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T02:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/?page_id=2605"},"modified":"2023-01-18T18:41:48","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T02:41:48","slug":"2023-0113","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/2023-0113\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio Waves: January 13, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

Changes at the Blowtorch<\/strong><\/h1>\n

To borrow a slogan from ABC-television in the 1970s – unfortunately when they cancelled my favorite game show, Split Second<\/i> – It\u2019s a brand new day on KFI (640 AM), and it all started January 3rd. Tim Conway made the announcement of the change on the last day of his told time slot, January 2nd at 7:00.<\/p>\n

Some of the shows remain the same: Wake Up Call with Jennifer Jones Lee still starts the day at 5 a.m.; Coast to Coast<\/i> with George Noory still ends the day at 10 p.m. But between the two some shows were shortened and times adjusted in order to launch the all new Later with Mo\u2019 Kelly<\/i>. More on that, um, later.<\/p>\n

It could be said that the changes reflect a reality: in talk radio, longer shifts can be tough. I think even in music radio, four hours can be too long, especially if the show is entertainment-based. Perhaps that explains why so many morning shows repeat segments or even full hours rather than having new content throughout the morning. Three hours in my opinion is a much better program length, but I digress.<\/p>\n

Bill Handel loses an hour and will be heard from 6-9 a.m. Gary and Shannon keep the same length but move up an hour, taking on 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Next is John and Ken 1-4 p.m., followed by Tim Conway 4-7 p.m; both also sans one hour each shift. And then \u2026 Later, 4-7 p.m.<\/p>\n

I had a chance to talk with Mo\u2019Kelly, and he explains his new show this way: \u201cThink the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but on the radio rather than television.\u201d Rather than being issues-oriented like his old weekend show, he says this one will be entertaining. \u201cSure, a guest may want to talk about something political, and I\u2019ll let them. But it\u2019s not going to be a political show. It will be fun, joyous \u2026 hopefully magical.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely a gamble for the station, which just saw it\u2019s ratings high enough to be tied for the number two station in the city. But it\u2019s also been a while since any real changes have been made \u2026 by my count, no major changes have been made since 2013, the year Rush Limbaugh moved over to then-new KEIB (1150 AM), also in early January.<\/p>\n

I have yet to reach KFI programmer Robin Bertolucci, but I can surmise a major reason for the changes was making sure the station didn\u2019t get stale, along with trying to make sure that its audience didn\u2019t get \u201ctoo old.\u201d Just as KRTH (101.1 FM) has remained at the top of the ratings by constantly evolving to continually attract new listeners, KFI wants to make sure it doesn\u2019t become what KABC (790 AM) had become: old and stale.<\/p>\n

But to do it at the almost top of the ratings? There has to be information Bertolucci has that I am not privy too. Yet I can guess: Most of the shows have not changed in years. John and Ken have been doing essentially the same show for about 30 years, for example, and moving earlier in the day may actually expose them to a newer audience. Conway seems an odd fit at his new time, but again: new audience, new potential. And Kelly? He\u2019s been a wasted talent on the station for years; his new show gives him the chance to shine \u2026 and bring a whole new crop of listeners to talk radio.<\/p>\n

So why didn\u2019t KFI promote the heck out of these changes? They never do. KFI has always been run as a top-40 station that plays talk instead of music. It\u2019s the station experience rather than any one host that has always gotten top-billing. As it continues to evolve away from issues and politics and toward general entertainment \u2014 ironically the format that KABC ran when KFI did it it \u2014 I can see it helping to keep talk radio viable. Certainly KABC\u00a0 <\/span>\u2014 and KFI sister station KEIB \u2014 constantly prove one simple fact: that political talk as a full format is dead \u2026 both stations are consistently toward the bottom of the ratings lists.<\/p>\n

The Greatest Ninths<\/h2>\n

K-Mozart (1260 AM, 105.1 HD2) will present what station owner Saul Levine calls the greatest Ninth Symphonies \u2014 the Schubert, the Mahler, and the Beethoven \u2014 beginning at 12 noon on January 22nd.<\/p>\n

Listeners have a chance to voice their opinion on the subject matter as well; during the presentations, votes will be taken via email for their own thoughts on the best of the three.<\/p>\n

And as I visited the K-Mozart website – Mozart.com – I was reminded of Levine\u2019s dedication to shelter animals \u2026 on the top of the page, as on all of his station websites, is a link for information on pet adoptions. Levine has been a proponent of shelter pet adoptions for many years, and that definitely continues into the new year. I like that.<\/p>\n

\/\/\/<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Changes at the Blowtorch To borrow a slogan from ABC-television in the 1970s – unfortunately when they cancelled my favorite game show, Split Second – It\u2019s a brand new day on KFI (640 AM), and it all started January 3rd. Tim Conway made the announcement of the change on the last day of his told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2605","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2606,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2605\/revisions\/2606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}