{"id":3093,"date":"2024-12-20T18:31:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-21T02:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/?page_id=3093"},"modified":"2024-12-20T18:31:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-21T02:31:15","slug":"2024-1220","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/2024-1220\/","title":{"rendered":"Radio Waves: December 20, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Special programming for the season<\/strong><\/h1>\n

It\u2019s time once again for two often-requested special holiday programs to make their yearly appearances.<\/p>\n

First up is \u201cChristmas at Our House,\u201d produced in the early 1980s by the Drake-Chenault company. Hosted by Sonny Melendrez, the program was heard on hundreds of radio stations across the country \u2026 for many years.<\/p>\n

Melendrez is one of those DJs with an infectious positivity. And it\u2019s not fake – I worked with him at Magic 106, and he was every bit as caring and kind in person as he sounded on the air. He\u2019s a perfect host for a holiday show, one of the reasons people will still write asking when it will be repeated.<\/p>\n

This year the roughly 7-1\/2 hour program will run twice on the Top-40 Hit Clock online stream, available at bit.ly\/HitClock – December 24th starting at 3 p.m. and then again Christmas Day at 3:30 p..m.<\/p>\n

The show features plenty of holiday music along with interesting stories and information on how Christmas is celebrated in countries around the world. You\u2019ll also hear artists and celebrities describe their own celebrations, and what makes the season special to them.<\/p>\n

In addition, three hours of holiday music specially curated by Drake-Chenault alumni Dave Kephart will air at 10 a.m. Christmas eve and at 3:30 p.m. Christmas Day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The stream works on both computers and smart phones, though you have to turn your phone sideways for the play button to show up . it can be a little tricky, depending on the phone you use. I am listening to the Hit Clock right now, and it sounds phenomenal.<\/p>\n

The other special program is \u201cSounds of the Season,\u201d a 36-hour program now in its 15th year. Available online at JazzKNOB.org and again this year in San Diego on KSDS (88.3 FM), it will start at noon on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n

Featuring music from the 1930s to the present, artists include Ella Fitzgerald,\u00a0 Marcus Roberts, Duke Ellington, Samara Joy, Ramsey Lewis, Sue Raney, Vince Guaraldi and Wynton Marsalis and many more. Every year the mix is just a little different, and definitely is a treat.<\/p>\n

Legendary jazz DJ Chuck Niles will be heard from a past recording reading \u201cTwas the Night Before Christmas\u201d at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More Reading Material<\/p>\n

Before we move on, I wanted to mention two more radio-related books.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The first comes from one of the few DJs able to give KHJ (930 AM) a run for the money when he was on competitor KRLA (now KWVE, 1110 AM) back in the 1960s: Dave Hull. Called \u201cHullabaloo! The Life and (Mis) Adventures of LA Radio Legend Dave Hull,\u201d the book tells, in detail, Hull\u2019s radio life story, the antics both in front of and behind the microphone, and gives a glimpse into his family life \u2026 including the dating rules he had for his daughter.<\/p>\n

Hull was wild, but in a gentle and kind way. Think Jack Benny playing top-40 if you\u2019re old enough. Or if you\u2019re younger, think of comedian John Mulaney, someone you should know if for no other reason than his routine regarding The Salt and Pepper Diner I first heard on SiriusXM. But I digress.<\/p>\n

I am told that Hull never swore. Ever. Not on the air, obviously, but never anywhere else either. And he was a nice guy, too. Hull passed away in October of 2020.<\/p>\n

Ben Fong-Torres is a highly respected writer, first gaining notoriety in 1968 at Rolling Stone magazine, where he stayed until 1981, and then at the San Francisco Chronicle. He\u2019s a music and radio historian, with some roots in radio as well as writing for dozens of magazines.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Hits Just Keep on Coming,\u201d he tells the inside stories of early top-40 giants from around the country, focussing on the west coast legends such as KFWB (980 AM), KRLA, KHJ and San Francisco\u2019s KYA and KFRC among many others.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Claude Hall writes on the cover notes, \u201cBen Fong-Torres knows radio and its legends because he has \u2018been there, done that.\u2019 Ben seeks to preserve the reality as well as the myth of real radio, and the men and women that we enjoyed immensely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grounded<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In another round of cuts, KFI (640 AM) has grounded its famous \u201cK-F-eye in the sky.\u201d As of three weeks ago, the station no longer features airborne traffic reports, one of the programming elements that helped make the station famous.<\/p>\n

I realize that airborne reports are probably obsolete with modern traffic reporting systems, but it\u2019s a sad sign of the times when another element of what made KFI successful is dismantled. I can\u2019t help but think the station will be totally irrelevant within the next few years. Very sad indeed.<\/p>\n

Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com<\/p>\n

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

Special programming for the season It\u2019s time once again for two often-requested special holiday programs to make their yearly appearances. First up is \u201cChristmas at Our House,\u201d produced in the early 1980s by the Drake-Chenault company. Hosted by Sonny Melendrez, the program was heard on hundreds of radio stations across the country \u2026 for many […]<\/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-3093","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3093","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=3093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3094,"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3093\/revisions\/3094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socalradiowaves.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}