The Wires (May 9, 2008)

Inside Music Media: From Jerry Del Colliano -- CBS is moving in the direction of trying to get radio into new technology. It revealed a new media player that will feature several radio stations at once including Internet brands. They've jumped into the personalized radio business with Last.FM. Have a deal with AOL. Their own individual station streams and so on. My experience with the next generation does not bode well for any strategy that proliferates traditional radio onto new delivery systems. The next generation doesn't like radio. Not the stations. Not the concept. There's simply less need for it in their lives. New technologies will not only replace radio among the next generation, they already have

The Wires (May 8, 2008)

Inside Music Media: Radio groups that have been chopping away at expenses are beginning to see the ratings repercussions of their actions. Morning shows -- down and in some cases out. Total ratings down (especially with a weakened morning show). The decision makers decided they had to cut to the bone and their companies are getting ready to pay the price. You can't get top rates for declining shares. The economic downturn is prompting some advertisers not to buy as deeply in the top ranked stations for their desired demographics

Randy Dotinga: Clear Channel: Profits of doom. This is the first of two columns about the company Clear Channel and how it changed radio in San Diego and across the country. About eight years ago, the host of a local morning show told me about a new technological wonder that had appeared at his station. The host ---- not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, if you know what I mean ---- thought it was called the Profit System. It was actually the Prophet System, a computerized gizmo that made it easier to pre-tape radio shows and then skedaddle. Radio personalities didn't even have to be in the same hemisphere when their shows ultimately aired. It wasn't called the Profit System. But it might as well have been. Clear Channel Communications, which owned the station, wanted to make more money. And if a radio host could tape his on-air bits from a four-hour show in 45 minutes, well, all the better. And if you didn't need to pay DJs to sit behind the microphone 24 hours a day, well, great! Neither of us knew it then, but Clear Channel's drive for profit would soon turn it into one of the most despised companies in America. The critics, the intelligentsia and any hipster under the age of 30 were in the vanguard of the I-hate-Clear-Channel brigade, but the monolithic company developed a vaguely disreputable reputation even among those who didn't pay much attention. The only notable exceptions were on Wall Street, where Clear Channel shareholders watched the prices of their stock go through the roof. Now, all that history is, well, history. Clear Channel still exists and still owns 1,200 stations, but it's trying to shrink its holdings and go private.
Read the rest at Dotinga's page.

Top 5 Stories of the Week (Apr 28-May 4, 2008)

4. My air conditioner in my car broke down.

3. Padres keep on keep on keep on keep on losing and losing and losing...

2. The Mad Music Archive converts their shows from podcasting to streaming only.

1. Star Wars Day on May 4. May The Fourth Be With You?

The Wires (May 7, 2008)

Inside Music Media: From Jerry Del Colliano -- The radio industry is just now acknowledging the brain drain in the radio industry. The trades are all abuzz. I guess someone just figured out that a lot of the good and talented ones got away -- more precisely were driven away and that it puts radio in peril. As a result the best and the brightest don't want a career in this business. Again and again it's the handful of people -- could I call them thieves -- running away with their shareholders money while delivering little or no return on investment. You'd think the shareholders would yell STOP before the big explosion (read more - Inside Music Media)

All Access reports that KYXY Night Show Host Kris Toledo Exits. CBS AC KYXY (SOFT ROCK 96.5)/SAN DIEGO night-time "LOVE SONGS' host KRIS TOLEDO has resigned to relocate her family to LOS ANGELES. No replacement has been named at this time. Submit resumes and airchecks to jodi.burns@cbsradio.com.

Chris Cantore on X1FM (May 6, 2008)

Chris Cantore kicked off his first show from 8am-NOON on x1fm.com (corrected) In a bad sense of timing, I had to leave for work at 8am, and I don't have one of those portable wi-fi radios yet if they exist at all, so I couldn't hear what his show sounded like, or whether he took any potshots at his former employer 91X who fired him last December.

All of the radio critics including myself say that there will be a day soon when there will be a convergence of technologies that will allow cars to enjoy Internet radio. When the heck is that ever going to happen? I'd like to see Nokia, a sponsor of X1FM.org, or somebody come up with a wi-fi car radio that will fit inside the dashboard of my car so you can listen to any streaming radio station while you drive.

With KPRI 102.1 faltering in the ratings, maybe it's time the owners of KPRI, Compass Broadcasting, team up their resources with X1FM and let X1FM provide the programming of its alternative rock format to 102.1. It couldn't hurt. Anything's (musicwise) better than what KPRI is offering these days. AAA is triple dead. It's dead. It's days are so Melrose Place era. The AAA era is dead. AAA is not pinin'. AAA's passed on! This format is no more! AAA has ceased to be! AAA's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! AAA's a stiff! Bereft of life, AAA rests in peace! It's metabolic processes are now history! AAA's off the twig! AAA's kicked the bucket, AAA's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-FORMAT!!

The Walrus Has Personalities (May 6, 2008)

Former Rich Brother® Frank Anthony holds down the noon-3pm shift.

From 9am until noon is something they call Wallapalooza. I'm not sure why they called it that.

No personalities in other time periods as of yet.

The Wires (May 6, 2008)

Broadcasting and Cable: With only minor modifications, a bill to allow full-power TV stations along the border with Mexico to continue to broadcast in analog after the switch to digital has passed the Senate Commerce Committee

All Comedy Radio: www.allcomedyradio.com - A unique and diverse format service is currently on HD-2 stations 24/7 in Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver, Kansas City, Memphis, New Orleans, Buffalo and others. For affiliate information for your HD-2 station contact: Al Perrotta at acrnews@mac.com Got that, Clear Channel? XTRA 1360 doesn't get the listeners. Are you reading, Bob Bollinger?

Yes, way Jose! KLYY 97.5 Riverside flipped to 'Jose', a Spanish-language adult hits format as "97.5 Jose FM." The new station website is up, at http://www.jose975.com/