I discovered by accident Sunday that there was adult standards music on one of my rock/metal frequencies (it's like chocolate in your peanut butter, only different).
Then on the car radio this morning Julia and I heard straight from the horse's mouth that KABL was officially relocating from 960 AM to 92.1 FM, effective noon today, with the 92.1 FM simulcast already under way. Given that the 92.1 signal originates from Walnut Creek, this is bad news for shut-ins and nostalgic people throughout the San Francisco peninsula.
On the other hand it's a chance for me to be a dork. Don't ask me why but I love radio format changes. Something about the transition has always intrigued me, how they do the segue, where the new audience comes from, where the old audience goes, whether anyone just hangs on to the frequency by inertia.
Ten years ago one of Tulsa's half-dozen country stations became an all-1970s(!) station effective January 1. Tulsa had just gotten its first self-described "classic rock" station a couple years earlier, but now this '70s thing... who on Earth thought of that? Nowadays are there many specifically-targeted '70s stations? '80s stations? Anyhow, I stayed up all night (because it was New Year's Eve, of course, but also...) specifically to see how they did the format change. The country station had a special countdown of the top 100 songs of the old year, then some Garth Brooks song cut off at 6 a.m. sharp for The Who's "Who Are You?" and then the new station's jingle.
Last year, barely a year ago, "The Drive" (local classic rock station) abruptly became a country station, restoring San Francisco from zero country stations to one. The classic rock station was on my car pre-sets; I kept the frequency for the country because... why not?
I could do that with the pre-sets again this year, except that I'm trying to keep the hard rock and the Julia-friendly stations separate, and right now 92.1 and 92.3 share my "KSJO - depending on where in the Bay Area I am" button. As it happens this knocks KSJO all the way down from three frequencies way back when (92.3 San Jose, 92.1 Walnut Creek, 92.7 SF/Monterey) to apparently just the one. Some ClearChannel monopoly that is.
And now an even more crowded dial in the 92's for San Francisco. The Sinatra/swing-band goodness of KABL was really staticky through downtown Oakland, with interference from all over. Hard rock (actually commercials between a lame syndicated morning show) just a tweak of the "Tuning" dial away. And as I already knew, hip-hop/dance just two more Tuning tweaks.
With that in mind, throwing game and making love is how I rocked the Mandela Parkway, except by the time I hit Emeryville I was telling the woman I loved that a girl I barely knew was having my baby. There's Zeitgeist here, especially juxtaposing the two songs in a row, but Chris Rock will have to finish this paragraph, since some things I'm just not in a position to say.
Then a quick flip back to the last remaining bastion of KSJO, and the lamest power ballad ever. It's a painful enough song as-is, without having flipped straight from the thumping rhythms of hip-hop over to the Scorpions' dirge tempo.
Anyhow, what replaces KABL at 960 AM? My top-of-the-head guess, without any research, is Air America. With research... am I good or am I good?
Posted by Matt Bruce at September 28, 2004 09:33 AMI don't think there are many '70s stations anymore, although we liked listening to the one in Chicago that existed for most of my sophomore year and part of my junior year in college. It was a passing fad, going on the old formula that things 20 years old was nostalgic enough to be cool (like the '60s revival in the '80s).
The '80s stations are starting to die out -- the one here in Atlanta was around for a couple of years and was dropped for "hot talk" earlier this year (and has since been dropped for an all-Latin music format).
But as I mentioned over on my blog, what's with the stations naming themselves after people? Atlanta has DaveFM and Dallas has JackFM. And after hearing both, it looks like it's just a formula for playing anything in the pop-rock spectrum, regardless of time period or secondary niche. (The Dallas station played Lita Ford and ABBA back to back one day, Hanson and Billy Idol back to back the next.)
Posted by: JQ at September 29, 2004 05:48 PMHmm... San Francisco has had "Alice" for years now. (Whether that station's naming origins have anything to do with Arlo Guthrie, I have no idea, though I'd like to think.)
Posted by: me at September 30, 2004 07:39 PMBeing in the south bay and now unable to receive the 92.1 signal I am extremely displeased with the frequency change of KABL and the switch of 960 AM to Air America.
First the stinking tree hugging liberal freaks try and take my guns, and then they pass new smog laws to try and force me to get rid of my classic cars, now they have taken away my old time serial radio shows and big band music and replaced it with bleeding heart *&#%@# (almost used a bad word). Oh well, time to move to the Nevada desert.