Geo’s Media Blog. An inside look @ music movies radio & life (Robert’s Radio Rants) 9/20/18

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I think my buddy Bob Christy (pictured above with me doing what we do best whenever we’re together) has decided to see if he can find a decent radio station in America. A few days ago he heard LITE-FM in New York and decided that they were very light. Today he listened to a station in his hometown of Los Angeles and you can read his take on it by clicking on the link below.

For a sneak peek at Geo’s Media Blogs under construction, go to GeorgeJohns.com. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Comments and sharing appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 thoughts on “Geo’s Media Blog. An inside look @ music movies radio & life (Robert’s Radio Rants) 9/20/18

  1. We’re going up to wine country this weekend, I have to decide between the NFL Channel on Sirius/XM or something over the air, there used to be a pretty damn good morning team in Santa Maria. I think when we hit San Francisco I’ll tune in the smoking wreckage of KGO.

  2. As a kid who learned radio (and then Engineering) in the 1960s while working at Radio Piss Whistle in Somewhere, Arkansas, Bob Christy is exactly right. At my first station, the Carts used foil tape sensors and the station rewound its own carts by hand. Lubricated tape was expensive, so we had a lot of 35 second and 65 second carts, which taught us timing. And we didn’t have much in the way of audio processing, so a loud note would knock the transmitter off the air and the Engineer would have to drive to the transmitter and reset the breaker. That taught us to watch our levels very carefully. So, yeah, we could all mix levels better than they can.

      • The Feds had just raised the minimum wage from 75 cents an hour to $1.25 and was the local celebrity – the only rock jock on a block-programmed daytimer. Everybody did everything and we were an affiliate of the new Arkansas Radio Network. It was fun until the owner started cheating the GM, who left. And the station never recovered. But yes, George, some were.

        • When I was growing up just south of the Canadian border, the first top 40 station was KFGO in Fargo. KFGO was Pulse rated #1 in 70 counties in three states and was a big deal in Winnipeg as well. One day it disappeared, gone! My Jr High friends and I were stunned. They were playing big band music because the new owner couldn’t believe anybody could like rock and roll. The station swirled down that toilet that shows up all over the dial, KFGO reappeared years later as a Country station went #1 again and has successfully transitioned to News/Talk and Sports. Geo told me that Charlie Boone from KFGO (before he went on to team up with Roger Ericson at WCCO for 30plus years) used to fill the Winnipeg Auditorium for Sock Hops, Winnipeg is over 200 miles from Fargo. Bobby Dale of LA radio fame worked there when it was Top 40 as well.

          • Bobby Dale and Charlie Boone came up together and it was at the Winnipeg Arena. And yes I did have to hold Quail’s jacket as he kicked the shit out of a guy who bumped into him and then mouthed off.

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