Oh I've been a Traveling Man

I thought I'd stop my historical tirade of trivia for a moment and tell you about some of the amazing radio I've heard in the last couple weeks. I've been to Seattle, Houston, Miami and a lot in-between. I am in a Miami hotel right now, its about 105 degrees and everybody is taking a siesta waiting for the sun to go down.
WTIP 90.7 FM Grand Marais, MN  - Link.

WHSA 89.9 Brule, WI ...I heard this great Jazz show, whose Dj had that classic ashtray voice that so belongs to Jazz radio. - Link.

WVUM 90.5 Miami, FL ...In the sweltering Miami heat after work I did nothing but hide in my hotel room and crank the radio and the AC. I heard so much music that I will be buying next week. Great goddamn station. - Link

CKUA 97.3 Medicine hat Alberta CANADA ...an amazing blues show "The Long Weekend". Just amazing. I hit 97.3 and heard Tampa Sed singing Juicy Lemon Blues. You just can't beat that. I was just awed. They focus on music between 1918 and 1939. - Link.


Here is the playlist: The Long Weekend: Program #39:

1. Tampa Red: "Through Train Blues" (1928)
2. Ma Rainey: "Blame It On the Blues" (1928)
3. Tampa Red and Georgia Tom: "It's Tight Like That" (1928)
4. Tampa Red's Hokum Jug Band: "Come On Mama, Do That Dance" (1929)
5. Tampa Red: "Juicy Lemon Blues" (1929)
6. Tampa Red: "You Got To Reap What You Sow" (1929)
7. Tampa Red & Georgia Tom: "New Stranger Blues" (1931)
8. Tampa Red: "Bumble Bee Blues" (1931)
9. Tampa Red: "I'll Kill Your Soul" (1934)
10. Tampa Red: "Sugar Mama" (1935)
11. Tampa Red: "Denver Blues" (1934)
12. Tampa Red and the Chicago Five: "Maybe It's Someone Else You Love" (1936)
13. Tampa Red and the Chicago Five: "Rock It In Rhythm" (1938)
14. Tampa Red: "Travel On" (1937)15. Tampa Red: "Anna Lou Blues" (1940

In Houston I kept getting lost and doing laps of Route 610. I listened to a lot of radio: KJIC a quintessential Gospel station, KSBJ a real taste-maker for christian CHR, KPFT a strong and intelligent left-leaning talker, KTSU's great late night jazz programs and KTRU!!! holy Taquitos that station rules. I heard hours and hours of programming that just lined out song after song like a brilliant mix tape. Then I ate Taquitos from Whataburger.


In flight I was able to catch KZZY in North Dakota.  They have a whole set of station IDs and breakers totally milking their slickly-named city of license: DEVILS LAKE! ...Now that is a city for a rock station. I heard so many other cool snippets but I couldn't readily identify their calls. If I figure out more, I will let you know as always.

MULTICASTING

The initial purported purpose of IBOC was greater fidelity. As FM triumphed over AM so was HD.... Well that lasted about five minutes. When the consultants got ahold of the idea they realized what everyone else already knew, but knew was a bad idea. PAY RADIO.

Each HD station has the option of brodcasting one clear signal or multiple inferior signals. Currently they broadcast one analog signal and one HD signal. These hybrids are supposed to be phased out and radioland go all-digital but the FCC keeps pushing back the deadline.
The multicast idea starts innocently enough. The first HD multicaster was WFAE 90.7 Charlotte, NC. As usual Public Radio paved the way. They experimented with up to 11! channels one day last April. There were only a few models of HD tuners at that tie and I am uncertain if there were ANY that were multicast-capable. The initial talk is about splitting talk programming and music programming into seperate channels, or to have channels of all local traffic information. It all seems so idealist at the time, stations would provide programming because they could, because they wanted to, because their listeners would like it. NPR promises 24 more multicasting outlets by the end of this year. [It's rumored that Phillys local 90.1 WRTI intends to split Their Jazz and Classical programming into two seperate channels eventually. ]

Then came the consultants. At the time of this writing WRAL, WUSN and WJMK all have second channels of differnt music content. The second channel in this case becomes a testing ground for new music, an outlet for a dropped format etc... but the big talk is that the other channel could be subscription only. Let me say that again SUBSCRIPTION ONLY!

Oy Vey. So the model is that people will pay for local radio. So it's kind of like satellite radio except there are ads, and it you cant receive it 30 miles away... Normally I give technology the benefit of the doubt. People like new toys, more bells and whistles, more pomp and flash but this does not wow me. The idea of paying for local FM channels of low quality audio does not grab me. If any of you find it compelling please let me know why because right now I do not get it.

Radio Brands Part II

I see radio brands used and misused all sorts of ways. I will post more about thsi in the future for certain but let me focus the microscope on this bit of minutea. Today's lesson is about call letters being used to carry a brand name.

There was a classic case in the 1980s right here in Philadelphia. When WDVR was flirting with the beautiful music format decided the station should beknown as Easy-101. They changed calls to WEAZ but the air staff only refered to the station as EAZY101. At the top of the hour, they would sneak in the legal ID .. but it was typically burried in programming tags. The four letters W-E-A-Z were never used on air in a correct legal ID. They were using the calls in conjunction with the brand.
more here: http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/hmr0796.txt

WDVR was certainly not the first. I have only anecdotal evidence on the following so please add salt. if you know something I don't, please fill me in!

The story goes that the first call flip ever was in Boston. I have assumed this excludes all call flips required by early name regulations. In the Korean war this station took an anti-war position. As the war drew out it killed its ratings. Over the years even after the war ended the reputation stuck to the call letters regardless of format or ownership change. They filed with the FCC for special permission to change their calls... and got it.

My only problem with this is that I am fairly sure that call flips preceded the Korean war. but... It's probably got some truth in it.

Below are some nice and obvious examples of a call sign serving the brand
K-Love
KLOV, KLUV, KLVE
Jack-FM
KJJK, KJCK, KJJK, KJKK

K-Rock

KROQ, KROK, KROC
Progressive Talk
KTLK-AM, WLIB-AM,
Conservative Talk
WGOP-AM (fact: Republican Party nickname GOP stands for Grand Old Party)

Nice history of some Philly call flips here:
http://phillymemories.tripod.com/id15.htm

Radio in Comics

There isn't a whole lot of radio in comics. In the 1930s it was the point of every technology joke the dailies came up with. We now see these recycled as PC jokes. This modern one is from 2003 by Jeff Harris. It's basicly a childrens educational cartoon, but it's still worth the read.

Click the header for this winner as a pdf..

KRUD RADIO COMIC STRIP

To my knowledge there is only ONE ongoing comic strip about radio. Its right here.

These are all jokes only for radio people. If you dont work in radio most of these will seem absurd. They wont be funny to you. I repeat: These are for trained radio professionals.