The Wires - San Diego (November 2, 2002)

Editor: Yup. King Tanny I is right again! KGB's morning crew is out of ideas and are scraping the bottom of the sewer lines for ideas. I didn't know they piled shit that high at KGB! Talk about irresponsibility in radio. What a bunch of jackasses there!

Radio Wires (October 31, 2002)

The San Diego Reader Blurt
Editor's Note: Mojo and Mikey in the blurts. Let me say that "Cheap" Channel has earned its name well for budgeting a measly $15,000 for a nighttime radio shift on Rock 105.3, barely above minimum wage! How appalling! David Tanny is now seeing the day when he's making more money than most radio employees, but who knew that it would be the mostly disposable "Cheap" Channel folks that are making less money than a delivery driver who writes this stuff on the Internet. Shouldn't it be the other way around? More on Mojo in a moment.

North County Times - Randy Dotinga
From 'Everywhere' to Nowhere Man... AM stereo couldn't survive infancy. Beta videotapes and laserdiscs suffered through long, lingering illnesses. Vinyl records? R.I.P. Eight-tracks? Please

Letters: More Radio Thoughts (October 31, 2002)

"San Diegans can get KWRP 96.1 out of Riverside. It plays Music of Your Life type standards in stereo.

"What we need here is for 94.9 to switch from the noise to soft adult contemporary music of the past 50 years. We don't need any more talk stations (z90, 91x, etc). I want a station to relax to, not to shock me.

"What about playing Anne Murray, Neil Diamond, James Taylor, John Denver, Ambrosia, Luther Vandross, The Carpenters, Chicago, Barry Manilow (including his newer music), Barbra Streisand, Kenny Rogers, Rita Coolidge, Firefall, Olivia Newton-John, and other soft pop singers popular in the 70's. Throw in some soft 50's and 60's love songs, plus only the best of the 80's and 90's, and you have a radio station that could beat KYXY and KIFM in the Arbitrons instantly.

"No rap, no striptease singers, no fashion shows, no kid bands. I see nothing but Radio Disney being programmed all over the FM dial!

"My ideal AC station would even feature big band/nostalgia music every Saturday night.

"What do you think about it, David?"

Editor: Back before there ever was an MTV, adult contemporary artists were once plentiful on the Top 40 charts through 1983 when MTV's influenced Brit pop/new wave rock music engulfed the charts and became so dominant that few if any soft balladeers could make it on the pop charts anymore outside of established artists such as Lionel Richie and Toni Braxton. This soft music has basically very little appeal to the younger listeners, who spend about five hours a week listening to the radio in the 70's decade while busy with school, sports, and television.

Why didn't any of the soft music artists make videos for MTV in the early 80's when the channel was launched? They didn't exist, according to the MTV programmers, and they needed to fill 24 hours of programming with obscure new wave acts that made videos from up to five years ago, but gained very little exposure. Once MTV began playing the new wave and alternative rock videos, sales in the States began to rise as their collective footprint eventually took over the Top 40 charts in 1983, while interest in soft music began to fade except for those such as KYXY, KFMB-FM (B100), and the just-then launched KLZZ 106.5 (which replaced KPRI-FM in 1984) that specialized in soft pop formats.

Soft music as a separate genre is still a viable format; it has no youth appeal, however, as many younger listeners very much eschew the kind of music that their parents like to hear, so the teens rebel and listen to harder and faster music like I did in the 70's. MTV won't play these soft pop artists now, even if they made videos for them. VH1 is too hip for them as well. Many of them won't fit on the CHR (which has supplanted Top 40) pop radio stations formats as they are strictly aiming for the 12-24 demographics with teen-appeal music featuring rap that a few letter writers here say that doesn't appeal to them. Maybe the teens would like to hear soft pop on these stations.

Will that kind of format make a decent profit for the radio station in a short time? Will a pop station softer than KYXY rate well in San Diego? I want to hear your comments.

I have more letters, but that will have to wait until next week. I'm out of time. Happy Halloween!

Mojo Nixon Stumbles Out The Gate (October 31, 2002)

Dave the Abromoable Snowman sleeping nude with three other guys in the "Cheap" Channel headquarters. (Is one of them really "Mikey?")

Editor's comment: KGB firing McInnes and replacing him with that loon Mojo. KIOZ paying the untalented Mikey barely minimum wage. The unfunny Dave, Shelly, and Chainsaw show continuing to milk Abromowitz for as much unfunny as possible. Clear Channel is the Enron of radio broadcasting. Enron? Yea: BANKRUPT! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! No wonder they don't tip pizza drivers well; they're incapable of a mature brainwave.

Mojo Nixon Stumbles Out The Gate (October 31, 2002)

His first name is Mojo, but listeners by now are surely thinking of something else when they hear his voice ---- "Oh, no."

It's not just that Mojo Nixon, the new late-afternoon disc jockey on classic rock station KGB, pales in comparison with his predecessor, Jim McInnes. Mojo would be truly awful no matter whom he replaced.

How bad is this former rock music icon? Let's count the ways: He yells. He stumbles over words. He sounds like he's drunk, overcaffeinated, in need of a medication adjustment, or all of the above. All this after four years on the air at a station in Cincinnati.

Take his show on Monday. First, he played a Gregg Allman song and then ---- using an obnoxious, skeleton-oriented verb ---- wondered if the rocker remembered having sex with Cher.

Later, he sang a song he wrote about celebrities who died in small plane crashes. Here are a few lyrics: "You gotta be insane to fly those teeny tiny planes/ Patsy Cline blew her mind, Lynyrd Skynyrd exposed his innards, Otis Redding went lake bedding / the Big Bopper was a big fat dropper / Richie Valens and Roberto Clemente were speaking Spanish on the way to the big empty."

Then Mojo threw it to veteran traffic reporter Cal Walker, who was flying in, you guessed it, a teeny tiny plane.

As Mad Magazine would say, yecch!

A station as good as KGB ---- home to San Diego's best (those are Dotinga's words, not Tanny's) and most popular morning show ---- needs to dump this goon. Mojo should head across the dial to the crude-and-rude Rock 105.3, where he belongs.

The San Diego Reader Blurt
"It's like being in the Twilight Zone. Who would have thought 20 years ago Mojo Nixon would be doing afternoons on KGB?" asks Nixon rhetorically.

Last week Mojo Nixon spent his first full week as the new afternoon DJ at classic rocker KGB (101.5 FM). The San Diego punk rock hillbilly drew national attention ten years ago for his tweaked novelty tunes like "Elvis Is Everywhere," "Bring Me the Head of David Geffen," and "Stuffin' Martha's Muffin." For the past five years he's been on Cincinnati radio -- first as an AM talk show host, then as the "rabble-rousing malcontent" on a top-rated three-man morning show on WEBN-FM.

"I was the third wheel," Nixon says. "We crushed Howard Stern [in the ratings]."

"Some guy called me up on the air [on KGB] and asked, 'Since when did you become such a corporate whore?' I said, 'Dude, where've you been? I've been a whore for five years.' I told the guy, 'I'm a commie, but a commie's got to eat.' "

WEBN and KGB are owned by Clear Channel.

Now Mojo flies solo. "Hopefully I'll eventually be able to get me an Ed McMahon." He said he currently gets to talk four times an hour, between classic rock hits, but he hopes he can extend his airtime.

"Within a month or two, the full Mojo-osity will be kicking in all cylinders."

Singer/guitarist Nixon regularly opened for the Beat Farmers. The two acts defined the San Diego music scene in the '80s and early '90s.

Nixon, 45, said he owes a lot to the KGB DJ he replaced, Jim McInnes.

"I can't believe they got rid of Jim McInnes.... He's been my friend forever. He used to have a local music show [on KGB]. He gave me my first radio airplay.... He's not mad at me, but it does make it awkward."

Mojo Nixon is heard weekdays on KGB 3 to 7 p.m.

It took Mojo Nixon all of two days on the air to prove he has no tolerance for political correctness.

Nixon saw the arrest of Viejas tribal leader Steven TeSam on murder charges at an October 18 Nelly concert as a chance to break out his Native American joke book.

"What if the Indians had won at Little Big Horn, and we all had those Indian names.... We might be describing people...[like] 'One-who-lurks-near-restroom,' 'Fritters-away-savings,' 'Urinates-in-shower,' 'Longs-for-the-day-when-hair-was-shiny.'"

The joke wasn't so funny for Stephen Redfearn, Viejas's vice president of marketing and entertainment, who reports to TeSam and books the big-name acts at Viejas.

"I can't talk about what happened...I have no comment."

In a related story...

KMEX Goes Digital en Espanol (October 30, 2002)

Letters: KRCK (October 29, 2002)

They seemed to be totally automated, as I never heard a DJ. But the most unusual thing about the station is that it was *commercial free.* Aside from station promos, I never heard any commercials at all. Don't know how they managed to pull that off. The web site (krck.com) says the station is owned by Royce International Broadcasting Corp out of Sacramento.

Unfortunately, the KRCK signal doesn't reach LA. I lost it shortly after I got past the mountains when a Spanish station began to drown it out. But it was sure great to actually look forward to listening to the radio every time I got in the car. I haven't had that feeling since Channel 103.1 dropped its broadcast signal two years ago.

Radio Wires (October 29, 2002)

Radio of Yesterday Better

Please let me know by dropping off an e-mail.

Letters: San Diego Radio Good and Bad (October 29, 2002)

From Curtis James: "I like to listen to CHR music, but the problem is all the rap music that z90 and 933 play all the time. I am part of their target demographic groups, but I can't listen to them because of all the stupid rap music they play.

"I don't like Eminem and I tune away whenever they play his songs. I am not an Eminem fan or a fan of anybody who talks with a repetetious melody they stole from a more talented musician and the stations should understand that all this rap is causing people like me to turn to file-swapping mp3s instead of listening to them while their ratings go down with all the listeners tuning out of the station.

"The only time I tune in to 933 is when they play three hours of pure dance music but its on so late (Saturday nights 11:59pm to 3am) that I can't stay up to listen to the music. When I wake up, its the stupid rap music again. Same thing with 91X and 92.1 as they play a lot of that stupid rap music instead of singing music I prefer to hear.

"I am very much turned off by these pop rock stations as they don't understand what kinds of music we prefer to hear on the radio and buy at a record store. Dave, has Top 40 ever been this bad before. I wasn't born until the 80s and I have no memory of what Top 40 radio of the past was like on the radio.

"And you're right, San Diego needs a dance station that plays the happy songs instead of the depressing rap."

D.T. responds:

Top 40 music was once an adult-friendly format, in fact, it played only a small amount of teenage hits that somehow appealled to adults from artists such as Donny Osmond, Shaun Cassidy, Andy Gibb, Michael Jackson, The Archies, and others that had kid appeal, but none of these songs I heard were bad enough to drive the adults away the way today's rap music (note the today's part) is doing today.

The landscape of Top 40 radio once had many varieties of music, well, back in the 50's and 60's before FM radio's niche formats began to take hold in the 70's, the Top 40 stations were all on the AM band, and most of them played a wide variety of songs, but each station somehow sounded different than one another (unlike what Z90, 91X, 93.3, 94.1, and 105.3 do now) since each of the stations were owned by all different radio owners back then. Some Top 40 stations leaned heavilly towards the older listeners such as KOGO 600, KFMB 760, and XTRA 690 when it was playing beautiful instrumentals in the late 60's through 1980, all very much run and produced in a far more mature manner than what is being produced from the "Child" Channel staff today (I swear the people that run Clear Channel are 25 or younger, too young to appreciate how good radio once was back then.)

KDEO AM 910 played the hits of today, meaning the late 60's and early 70's, plus the oldies, many of which crossed into the younger listening demographics, and the same with Boss Radio 1360 KGB, or 136 KGB as the jingle said from 1965-71. But these two Top 40 stations would have been the most popular in this market if it weren't for the 50,000 powerhouse, KCBQ 1170, playing not just Top 40 for all ages, but also playing some deep progressive rock and roll cuts (there was a KPRI-FM 106.5 playing the progressive rock, but KCBQ did not compete with that station. KCBQ competeted with KGB and KDEO.)

Out of state corporate radio has been in San Diego for a long time with KCBQ being run by the Bartel Family, which owned seven AM stations, the most any radio company can own under the FCC rules back then, and KOGO was once a Disney-owned radio station after Time-Life sold it the station in 1972. But corporate radio back in the 50s through the 80s were absolutely nothing like that of Clear Channel, Emmis, and Infinity where they took corporate radio ownership to extremes such as nationwide contests and payola via indies, which are turning off the listeners one by one each second.

But the Bartel family had the same basic goal as todays' corporate radio owners: make money. But they did it by making their radio stations such as KCBQ fun to listen to with a varying variety of music, fun contests, and engaging personalities. KCBQ, by default of its huge listening base, as well as its powerful signal, dominated the radio landscape for most of the period from the late 50's through the end of the 70's when FM radio began to take hold. More on the evolution of FM radio in a future article.

You see, when you make a radio station fun to listen to, people tune in, and stay tuned in, even if they don't bother with the contests and stunts the station promotes on the air, people tune in because they like the music mix they are hearing, and that's the real listening base of KCBQ in the 60's and 70's. They used the music to bring in the listners first, then once they get it stablized, they go after listeners from the other stations by stunting contests and getting them hooked to KCBQ even after the contests end, and when you do that, you can bill the advertisers higher commercial rates, and the station rakes in more money.

Format changes happened a lot back then, unlike what we have today with one corporate radio building running 14 stations in a market, with seven performing sub-parly, yet doing nothing to improve their listening bases. With one owner's station taking a dive, a format change happened and brought in some new listeners from another station or wherever. In the 1970's, KCBQ killed off Boss Radio once it robbed the station of Shotgun Tom Kelly, probably the most memorable locally based radio jock ever, as well as a few other personalities, and also KO'd KDEO in 1980. KDEO was a low power 1,000 station, and still is today, but it was the loudest popular music station in town.

In the 1980's, rap music was just beginning, but back then, rap music was of the fun type such as Sugarhill Gang, Nucleus ("Jam on It"), and The Rapping Duke to name a few. R&B music back in the 80's was still melodies and rhythms with bridges and all those varying verses and such, unlike the repetetion talk that dominates R&B of today.

You were too young to hear what the 80's music on the radio was like. What passes for that on B94.9 doesn't do justice; all they do is play 200 songs from the same 2-3 genres of the decade instead of the wide variety of genres pop music of the 80's was like. Back then, you would hear soft pop like Christopher Cross ("Sailing"), new wave by Devo ("Whip It"), R&B by Stevie Wonder ("Do I Do"), rock and roll from Billy Squier ("Stroke"), country cross overs from Kenny Rogers ("Coward of the County"), soul from Quincy Jones ("Just Once"), Brit pop from Duran Duran ("Hungry Like The Wolf"), some goofy novelty from Buckner and Garcia ("Pac-Man Fever"), as well as many many other groups too numerous to go into here.

San Diego needs a dance station without all the rap. Back in the 80's, a station from out of Los Angeles, Power 106, was so popular up there that many people like me tuned in to hear the unique mix of Top 40 and R&B with dance remixes of popular songs. This is not what Channel 933 is like today; they play too much rap and slow jams and far too few dance to suit me.

But in my opinion, the best musical decade of Top 40 radio ever was the 1960's, a decade I barely remember, but thanks to specialty formats on the Internet playing 60's music, I got to hear a wide variety of music today's KOOK 95.7 isn't bothering to explore. In the 60's, you got the adult pop stuff, the bubble gum stuff, the British Invasion rock, the Motown soul, some doo wop, some Duane Eddy guitar riffing, some surf rock, some garage rock making it big, the bossa nova pop, the Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass jazz, some country, some pop crooners, some whatever else there was. The 80's Top 40 era is my second choice for the music of the decade with the 50's in third, the 70's in fourth (let's not go there), and the 90's in last (thanks to the decline of Top 40 radio quality).

I ranked the 50's as third, yet I wasn't even born during the decade. How, you ask? Simple. Educate yourself by going to live365.com, search for 50's music (or other decades if you wish), listen to many of the stations that play the music of the decade, and you can make an opinion for yourself on how the music of a decade before your time made you think about the examples of lyrics and melodies and how they compared and contrasted with the variety of music from the other decades. The 50's, especially 1958, featured novelty pop music that often hit the Top 10 Billboard charts (not anymore in today's radio climate). Many of the songs I heard before I was born are among my all time favorites. Heck, if you can get rocked by Amadeus, then you can get rocked by Buddy Holly and The Crickets as well. You don't need to be born in the past to appreciate great music of those past eras! Isn't that what your schools are trying to teach these kids today? I've proven my point.

You can form your own opinions on each of the individual songs of your time, and before your time. Many of these songs from the past get covered by newer generations of musicians for airplay decades later ("I Think We're Alone Now" by Tommy James in the 60's and Tiffany of the 80's, who wasn't even born in the 60's.) I happen to like the Tommy James original the best of the two though I was too young to remember hearing the song when it was popular on Top 40 radio in 1967, but Tiffany's 1987 version is the one I heard all the time when it was popular, and her cover is not bad at all, but thanks to K-Earth 101, I got to hear some of the popular songs of the past I missed hearing the first time around.

But when I was a teenager in the 70's, I wasn't interested in radio at all. Just sitcoms, game shows, variety hours, and stupid crime shows on TV. Radio for me as a teen just didn't matter at all with only a smattering of music I was interested in (Frank Zappa, Cheech and Chong, and stupid disco), and back then, I listened to just two or three stations (KCBQ-AM, B100 from 1976 on, and Magic 91 at 910 AM) in the seventies while I was in high school. I was just too busy to bother with music back then. I didn't even own an album until I was 18 when I first bought a Boston cassette. I was dumb as a doorknob in the 70's when it came to music culture (I couldn't name any of the Beatles believe it or not), but I could recite the cast and characters of Laverne and Shirley and Eight is Enough with no problem at all.

If you wan't radio that sounds closer to what Top 40 was like, try Star 100.7, and if you like the adult rock hits of today, tune in KPRI 102.1.

To close, I must say that Top 40 has changed, probably for the worse, maybe worse for you than it ever was for me in your current teenage years. The only difference I must add is that Top 40 from the 70's was mostly for adults (and rightfully so), while Top 40 of today is supposedly for the teenagers, and judging from your letter, it looks like they are failing to get you as a listener. Very interesting thought.

From John Porter:

"What's with adult contempoary radio at KYXY? I like hearing Gene Knight in the afternoon, but they don't play much of the newer softer hits anymore; I have to tune in KIFM over at 98.1 in order to hear them, which is supposed to be jazz. I also tune in to KSON to hear the adult contemporary songs, but they say its country, but I hear mostly pop on the station.

"Radio of today is ridiculous! Diversity has disappearred from the local airwaves! Even from different owners, the stations all sound like pop!"

Radio Wires (October 27, 2002)

Melinda Lee, a KFI 640 host, launches her own website at, well, melindalee.com! Lee's show airs 1-4 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays on KFI.

Art Bell Leaving Late-night talker Art Bell is leaving - again. It seems like only yesterday - but it was April 27, 2000 (the Montlhy "Weird Al" Day) - when Bell announced his retirement because of family problems and a need to find balance in his life. A year later - spring 2001 - Bell returned. In his one year away, "Coast to Coast" ratings disappeared faster than one of his UFOs, and many stations bailed out. With Bell back in the mother ship, ratings returned and life looked good. But he was increasingly absent. Was he spirited away by alien forces or was he having new personal problems? We got the answer this past week when he announced that because of continuing back problems, he will leave the program Dec. 31 and be replaced by George Noory. Until then, the current schedule stays in place - Bell three nights, Noory three nights, and Barbara Simpson the seventh night. Noory, familiar to Midwest listeners as "The Nighthawk," was doing a show similar to Bell's when heard by Bell's syndicator, Premiere Radio. Bell's show is on 525 stations, including KFI/640 AM here, and after the transition next year, Bell indicated he may guest host for Noory. So what is the nature of Bell's back problem? He told the trade newspaper Radio & Records he got the injury years ago when he slipped and fell about 20 feet from a pole. "Even though the injury continued to flare up a couple of times a year and twist me like a pretzel, I would simply deal with it for several days or a week and then snap back and go back to work. "But my doctor kept telling me that, over time, the condition was likely to get progressively worse. It has now reached a point where I am no longer able to sit or stand for the four hours a night that are required to do my show. The pain is so severe that it curls me up in such a way that I now walk with my body at about a 30- or 40-degree angle," he told Radio & Records. Surgery? "Yes, but (my doctors) have told me that there is, at best, a 50-50 chance of success. Success means a reduction of the severe pain I have, but my mobility would be significantly decreased. I have decided I am not going to take that step until I absolutely have to," he said.

STATION BREAKS KLAC/570 AM will air a new version of "The War of the Worlds" 5-6 p.m. Wednesday. The original Orson Welles version of the Martian invasion will air at 9 p.m. Thursday and 2 a.m. Friday on KNX/1070 AM.

Palm Springs Radio (From Oct 2001)

Life in Palm Springs:... "What IS very much alive here is a tradition of an EXCITING AND LOCAL AND LIVE radio marketplace...two small-ish groups which own a few stations and a lot of wild and wooly mom-and-pop outlets which are just plain fun to listen to! On-air feuds between stations and talent...practical jokes between stations...lots of fun in a very affluent and cosmopolitan atmosphere, which happens to be over 250,000 people. Anyone in L.A. wanting to experience some of the fun of LOCAL radio should spend some time here in the Palm Springs area where it is alive and well and growing...but come on weekends, so you can hear my show!" - Steve Parker, CAR NUT/CAR DUDE

Strength in Palm Springs... "I can't really fault Rick Dees with his comments this week after 'Star 103.9' pulled the plug on his show in Palm Springs. Competitor KWXY [home to former L.A. superstar Dave Hull] continues to play The Caravelle Orchestra and Percy Faith in heavy rotation and THEY have great ratings! Ain't that a 'kick in the pants'!" - Barry Nielsen, Palm Desert

A couple stations to check out... "Tune into 97.7 KRCK- Rock of the 80s. Interesting station, lots of rare KROQ 80s music and no commercial. I understand this station is out of Sac. Also tune into KDES 104.7- It's a pretty good oldies station. Other than that, I can't think of anything lese that stands out. Interesting side note: Most Palm Springs station are, gasp, are mom-and-pop own stations. It's shocking the evil channel hasn't had a chance to spread its greed, yet" - Jason

More on Palm Springs Radio

From laradio.com:

** Sun Sun Sun
"An article in LARADIO.com caught my eye about Palm Springs radio. I thought I'd add my two cents. There are still some mom and pop stations that are standing up to the big corporations. KDES for instance is still locally owned and operated by the same couple who own KPSI AM/FM and KGAM. KPLM, KJJZ, KMRJ and KWXY AM/FM are also locally owned and operated.

KWXY is Southern California's last Beautiful Music Station. They still officially sign on at midnight including the station call letters, the station power and antenna height, as well as an ID for the studio transmitter link, then go into `Songs In The Night.' Sounds like the old KDUO's `Stereo by Starlight.' There are even some of these stations that still employ overnight jocks. Terry Carson for instance has been the overnight voice on KDES since the mid 80's. It's nice to have a friend that you know is really there and not a computer. KWXY also still has an overnight person who gives hourly newscasts. It is my hope that these stations continue to succeed and stay `live' as long as possible.

Some of these big corporations don't get it. The owners of these stations enjoy what they do and money is no object. I hear it now, `We'll give them 20 million and send them off to the Bahamas.' The fact is that most of these people could do that anyway because of the success of these stations. The fact is that if they sold their station, they wouldn't have anything to do during the day. You see radio is their life! It's what they do.

One former owner I know who sold out to the big boys has done his share of traveling and now spends his time at the beach reading a book, eating a $5.00 sandwich, and listening to Spanish radio because he doesn't understand it. How sad it is. Whenever I call him guess what he wants to talk about? Radio! When are these big guys going to figure out that money can't buy happiness. Keeping busy doing what we love brings happiness.

I remember one of these big boy managers telling me that they were going to voice track the evening dedication and request show. They still solicited calls over the air even though there was no one at the station to answer the phones. They also made up dedications. The manager's response was that the listener wouldn't know the difference. How dumb does he think people are? The many messages left in the general voice mail box told a different story.

I told this manager that voice tracking the evenings would bring the ratings down and this would bring their points down which would hurt agency buys. He said they where the big boys and didn't sell that way. Points didn't matter. What did I know anyway I was just a local program director that helped take this station from nothing to the number one adult station in the market. After three bad books this guy was history.

Over the years there have been several L.A. jocks who made Palm Springs radio their home - Al Lohman, Dave Hull, Russ O'Hara, and Bob Morgan to name a few.

Palm Springs is a very competitive market that can stand on its own. It's one of the few markets that still has independent stations with independent program directors. Kinda like it used to be when KOST and KBIG were in competition with each other. Those were the days. It's nice to know that competition still exists in this country and in a beautiful place like Palm Springs. I hope many of your readers get a chance to visit Palm Springs during this time of the year. The weather is cooler and the air is clean." - Dale Berg, KDES Radio

Letters: Union-Tribune (October 27, 2002)

McInnes' listeners fire back at his firing

In 1974, I was 10 years old. Nixon resigned his presidency and Gerald Ford slipped through the back door into the oval office.

Pete Wilson was in his third year of being mayor of San Diego. The Coronado Bridge was less than five years old. San Diegans didn't yet know the names of Ted Leitner, Tony Gwynn, Junior Seau or even Jeff and Jer, yet. Heck, Junior was just starting kindergarten, but on an FM frequency (101.5), during a time when AM radio was the big hit, a guy named Jim McInnes went on the air for the first time.

Remember when Bobby Riggs played Billie Jean King? McInnes was on KGB. Remember when Bill Walton took UCLA to an undefeated season? McInnes was on KGB. Remember the first time "Roots" aired on TV? McInnes was on KGB. Remember hearing your first disco tune? McInnes was on KGB. Remember Billy Beer? McInnes was on KGB. Remember Steve Garvey and Kurt Bevacqua's home runs in '84? McInnes was on KGB.

He was on the air at the same place in San Diego for 28 years. He was the familiar voice for as long as I can remember. He was there through rock 'n' roll's ever-changing faces from Alice Cooper to Van Halen, from Poison to Pearl Jam. McInnes was there taking San Diego on a long, strange trip through the airwaves of a rock 'n' roll station.

On Oct. 11 – the music died in San Diego – Jim McInnes was called into some suit's office after his radio shift and was terminated ("KGB afternoon drive's McInnes is fired after 28 years on station" by Preston Turegano, Oct. 16). A legend in San Diego radio was then asked to empty out his locker and was escorted out of the office and watched by only one person as he drove off.

Why wasn't there a parade for this guy? Why wasn't there a tribute to him in the Union-Tribune? Why didn't the station give him the proper farewell, a man like Jim McInnes deserved?

Jim, from a kid that grew up listening to you, thanks, dude.
Tommy Sablan
San Diego
Sablan is producer of the
"Jeff & Jer Showgram" on
KFMB/FM 100.7

In 1978, when I was driving down to live in San Diego from Los Angeles on the day of the PSA crash, I listened to Jim McInnes. When my eyes misted over his firing from KGB, it wasn't because of the bad thing that happened to my friend – it was the bad thing that happened to me as a listener.

I'm a listener who has always had a button on my radio for KGB, and who has always found comfort in McInnes. He's one of our people. Maybe what baby boomers like isn't so important anymore. It's a sad wake-up call. I don't want to get too heavy, but it's like a little something has died in our community.

I'll miss JM in the p.m. on the FM very much.
Shelle Wisdom
Rancho Santa Fe

The unceremonious dumping of McInnes from KGB after 28 years is simply the latest episode in the ongoing and pretty much complete destruction of FM radio nationwide.

Almost everything on the radio these days is controlled by a few large corporations who have no interest in providing musical creativity or diversity. No real interest in music at all, for that matter.

Clear Channel alone now operates something like a dozen stations in San Diego, and the result is generic, predictable junk up and down the dial. Most people I know have just given up. We still listen to KPRI/102.1 FM, an independent station interested in providing quality and variety, and maybe KPBS/89.5 FM for news, but nothing else.

Good music can still be found on the Internet. I recommend KPIG out of Santa Cruz (www.kpig.com). It was one of the first stations to simulcast on the Internet, starting back in 1995.
Paul Kaye
Encinitas

As I sit here and listen to the new Tom Petty CD ("The Last DJ"), I couldn't not but think of JM. One line in the song says, "You can't turn him into a company man, you can't turn him into a whore"; another line, "there goes the last human voice, there goes the last DJ."

He will be missed. JM was the only reason I kept a preset button for that station. His musical insight and humor were refreshing; he said what he wanted to say.

Surely another great radio station will be more than happy to have him. Jim, please inquire with KPRI, it appears to be much like KGB was back in the day. And remember all the cool guys are named Jim.
Jim Grant
La Mesa

And George Varga Gives His Perspective

McInnes has Rhythm... Clear Channel Communications' decision to fire veteran KGB-FM rock jock Jim McInnes on Oct. 11 came as little surprise.

McInnes, who started at KGB on May 1, 1974, is unusually passionate and knowledgeable about many styles of music, and his on-air persona was as unaffected and engaging as his favorite rock, blues and jazz artists. As such, he stuck out like a sore thumb in a radio world that favors do-as-they're-told automatons whose collective musical insights are about as impressive as Britney Spears' geopolitical expertise.

A tireless champion of the local music scene, McInnes has boosted many bands and solo acts - including Mojo Nixon, his successor on KGB. Nixon's irrepressible personality also goes against the Clear Channel grain, though it's doubtful he was hired for his music-programming acumen. But if Clear Channel were more savvy, they would have kept McInnes and given Nixon his own slot.

McInnes was justly hailed Oct. 15 at the San Diego Music Awards - which he hosted for the seventh straight year - by winners and presenters alike. One presenter, KPRI honcho and DJ Bob Hughes, noted how he dreaded going up against McInnes each weekday afternoon. As the head of the only independently owned and operated rock station in town, Hughes would do well to put this San Diego radio legend back on the air, pronto.

For now, McInnes plans to continue playing guitar with the band Modern Rhythm, which will perform Saturday night at the Tiki House in Pacific Beach.

"Being a radio personality is all I ever wanted to be, besides a rock star, said McInnes, a 1970 graduate of Southern Illinois University's School of Communications. "My first job was as a classical-music and jazz announcer, and I'd like to remain in my chosen profession. If you're a true radio person it doesn't matter what format it is, so long as you are able to be yourself and not some phony baloney, jive-o act."

And a letter about lack of quality network TV

Pssst! Laurence, we've switched to cable TV

I'm here to tell (television critic) Robert P. Laurence (re: his fall TV reviews) that we aging baby boomers are not watching the Big Three networks anymore. I appreciate Laurence's reviews, and I used to get excited about network programming but now, with the exception of "The West Wing," the networks have very little to offer.

I have turned to PAX, the WB and USA. "Monk" is clearly the most clever hour on TV these days, genuinely funny, and the storylines are interesting. "Cause and Effect" brings new faces (who can act by the way); and "Body and Soul," while a bit slushy at times, has an interesting take on alternative medicine. We were never the audience for "reality" shows – really stupid people doing really stupid things – and we can only stomach so much gratuitous violence.

So look for us on cable, where programmers still tell good stories. If Laurence has any connections at NBC, CBS or ABC, he might want to tell them so.
Kay Hughes
La Mesa

The Wires (Oct 2002)