SJC

Needless to day the towns not all taco trucks and indie rock. In terms of market area, San Jose is the southern lobe of the San Francisco market. It's fully embedded, and in fact in terms of DMAs it's inexplicably embedded in Sacramento and Stockton. In radioland that leaves it poorly defined. I've visited this town once before but my stay was very brief.

I caught San Jose on a bad day. Too much talk on that September day back in 2006 drove me away from from KSJS, KSQQ and KPFA. I ended up listening to KPIG. Nothing wrong with KPIG you know, but there's a lot more to be heard here.My plane landed on a Sunday night so that's when I did my first band scan. 91.1 KCSM was cranking out some Hammond organ -fueled jazz. 91.5 KKUP was running an old radio play. 89.7 KFJC was rocking boogie-woogie piano and old bluegrass. Mysteriously this has nothing to do with what the kids had on the schedule that night. Monday morning I checked in again and 90.5 KSJS was laying into a strange mix of obscure oldies and rockabilly. I don't hear the Bob Wills version of "Straighten Up and Fly Right" very often. This afternoon I caught a drone-rock program on KFJC and some great brit-rock on KSCU.

When you look at your non-coms in San Jose it's interesting how few are really based outside the metro. KZSC and KUSP are both really in the Monterey market However 88.1 KZSC is completely blocked by a KAWZ satcaster K201FW . KFJC, KSCU, KKUP, KMTG, KSJS, and KZSU are all in on or around San Jose. If you're unfamiliar with the bay, you might not know that KMTG is boxed in on 89.3 by KOHL in Fremont. Strangely I can only hear KOHL in San Jose today. In 2007, KMTG owned their corner of the bay for a couple days when KOHL went off air. KOHL plainly explained their outage as follows:

"The cause was found to be normal weathering of the antenna, exacerbated by hawk excrement. This is the longest KOHL has been off the air in more than 20 years."

Tonight the best game in town is on 89.1, KCEA where I caught the program ""Two Hour Tuesdays" hosted by Ms. Victoria. 

San Jose Travel Missive

San Jose radio is pale beside Monterey. Pioneer High School station 89.3 KMTG was running commercial hip-hop as was 90.5 KSJS. KSCU never seemed to come in clearly and KPFA was running talk in the afternoon. I mean Democracy Now is an interesting program but I was looking for tunes. Maybe it was the wrong time of day. I'd heard that 96.1 KSQQ was kind of eclectic Portuguese music but that too was talk while I was in town.

I caught KFOG (simulcasting on KFFG) and I can see why KPIG has been slowly gaining on them since the addition of KPYG to the market. The K-FOG playlist is very safe, mixing only the most popular classic rock tracks with the most centrist Triple A cuts. Of course neither is progressive compared to a station like KCMP.

The infamously eclectic 89.7 KFJC sounded like they were having technical problems, then I realized what I was hearing ten synthesizer keys held down at once and a woman holding a flat note over it. They followed that up with a cassette tape from 1980 of two biology students banging trash can lids together. When I checked back an hour later it was someone beating two sticks together and shouting random nouns. I can say ... as least they are original, and they plug local shows between sets of noisy crap.

I ate at a Chinese restaurant with ducks hanging in the window. I couldn't read the menu and they couldn't under stand me. Food arrived spontaneously at my table anyway. Someone in the kitchen made a safe bet I assume. It was some of the best chicken I've ear had and I don't even know what the dish was called.

I had been wondering why one metro would have three Asian AM outlets: KVVN-AM, KSJX-AM and KYAA-AM. Now I know they have an Asian population that rivals that of Seattle. Entire plazas are lit with signs in mandarin and similar-looking characters. Might be a book store, might be a bakery. I can't tell from the road.

On the drive back I caught a blues show on KKUP that ran a long set of Slim Harpo and Lighting Hopkins. The Route 101 traffic near Route 880 was thick and the friendly music was welcome. 101 thins out to two easy lanes after Watsonville giving me a little time to look at the country. The grass on the hills was yellow, but all the fields were green. I'm out of here tomorrow morning and I think I have one more chance to hit that foggy and chilly Marina beach. I kind of wish I packed a coat.

Montery Travel Missive #2

The Juniper trees by Sloat Ave. are massive and gnarled like overly muscular arms cranked from steroids. ...and the Hickory Trees have left shells all the way to Hawthorne. It was a strange thing to fixate on after a walk through Cannery Row, but it's what I remember now. I also recall vividly that the street signs were carved out of wood. I walked to the aquarium to check out the otters, and at first saw none. Then I noticed one fat sea otter lying on a rock facing away from me. It did nothing cute like the ones on TV. It's just looked fat and somewhat bored.

KNRY-AM turns out to have a studio on the row. The rest was dull tourist shops and restaurants that smelled like wine and fish. (I like neither) I met two men who used to have a show on KNRY-AM who were very funny and charming and knew just where to get a good sandwich. We went to a local joint called Randy's (10th street & church?) It's only open for lunch 11:30 -1:30 Monday thru Friday. I had the Jaws2 hoagie which had turkey, ham, salami, bologna, provolone mayo and was on a soft sesame roll. Truly a sandwich to be reckoned with. I ate that sandwich in the park and then got a ride in a Ferrari at about 90 mph in that little tunnel before Lighthouse St. Fun people out here.

I bought a couple books at Bookbuyers used books on the same street. We were only going 35 when we passed it, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to read the sign. Tremendously knowledgeable and engaging bibliophiles in there. Next door is recycled records, a viny shop, which sadly was closed for a dinner break when I finally happened by. www.bookbuyers.com

In related Monterrey News, I noticed that Melanie Walker, former morning show host of KAZU has reappeared as MD of KCMP in Minneapolis replacing Thorn. We she here I would have coughed her show, in liu I spent some time listening to a Tropical show on KKUP, their first break from the reggae. It was a set of Venezuelan harp rock. Host Cristina Boyd presided over a st of music like nothing I have ever heard before. It began with recognizable Afro-cuban jazz and ended with surreal call-and-response music with the call consisting of Hammond B3 Organ and the response being the same line etched in harp picking. The program is called Amenidades Latino Americans and only airs every other week.

I also discovered 1410 KRML-AM which runs all jazz and blues but leaning nostalgia across both. It's much less fruity than the two standards outlets KIDD-AM and KABL-AM running zero show tunes and zero Streisand. It was a relaxing discovery this evening. http://www.krmlradio.com/

Salinas Travel Missive

The radio programming today (and the TV) is the worst I have seen in my life: worse than Xmas, worse than the Macy's Parade... worse than election Night. All channels, all stations are talking about 9/11. Even NPR was guilty. Yes, even Garrison Keilor was roped into it. [for shame!] The 5 year anniversary is inescapable.

Every station was fixated on two people reading a long list of names and the George W. Bush trying to look humble for ten minutes. The hype was unbearable. Only Randy Rhodes had anything intelligent to say . If you don't like the way things are, blame the party in power. It's not that complicated. http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/live/

What does this gratuitous grief, serve at the Grand Guignol?
It's hype. I was a promoter and I know hype. It's hype to distract you from one story and to fixate you on another. Yes forget all that and please watch the following patriotic montage:

The purpose to coax some guilty patriotism out of the ignorant masses with the idea that it makes you more likely to vote Republican in 60 days. anyway, political railing aside...

Marina is foggy every day apparently. No one mentioned that to me before I booked the trip. I am on East Coast Time in my brain and woke at 5:3o AM which is actually late for work on EST. I had breakfast because I was hungry, then at 8:30 when I could begin thinking about going to work... I was hungry for lunch... I am so messed up. It was 55 degrees until the fog finally rolled back around noon. Then it jumped up to 85 in 3o minutes. Apparently 10 miles up Route 1 in either direction and the fog goes away. bizarre.

So anyway the politics sent me scanning down the dial for anything that wasn't about Bush, Towers or self flagellation. I found KKUP actually playing music. For years I've assumed KKUP was wildly eclectic with their lefty logo and reputation but no. they seem in practice to be a 24 hr Reggae station. Oh well. "The People's Radio" apparently was meant mostly for Jamaican people. http://www.magic63.com/home.php

I spent some time listening to 700 KMBX-AM expecting a Regional Mexican station but instead found an eclectic mix of mid 70s Spanish pop; I think. It had lots of keyboards and reverb. It's Jose-AM, a deep catalog Spanish format, I think it's an Entravision experiment: Adult Hits En Espanol! 600 KIDD-AM continued to play a kind of fruity mix of Nostalgia skewing away from big band and toward Broadway show tunes. I couldn't stomach most of it. http://www.magic63.com/ 1460 is KABL-AM but they skew Soft AC which is even worse. http://www.kablradio.com/

RECOMMENDED: I got a ruben at Mecca, a German Deli and it was so strong tasting I am still wrangling with the idea of what a ruben is and what it can be. Read about it here
NOT RECOMMENDED: Also hit the Steinbeck Museum. It was aimed at 9 year old and I was kind of let down. FYI: if you do go with the kids, Do not park on the street. You wont be able to back out for 17 hours. Park in the municipal lot and pay the dude.