READER COMMENTS

• From Bob Mason, Music Director/Mid day Air Personality at Real Oldies 1480 and 850 regarding the July 25^th story Spring 2016 Ratings: Grand Rapids [link].

Mason writes:

I don't know you and you don't know me. I've read your resume and it's very impressive. However, I have a bone to pick with you about your article last week when you mentioned our radio station [WGVU-AM] Real Oldies 1480 and 850.

You wrote that you were listening to us playing the song “We're Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister.” That sir is impossible as the song isn't even in our computer system or rotation what so ever.

KEN SAYS:

Bob Mason is correct, I heard it on another station and mistakenly thought it was on WGVU.  I apologize for the error. Now I know that Twisted Sister is NOT played on Real Oldies 1480 and 850. See more about Real Oldies at [link].

Mason continues:

You also made mention of my playing un-hip songs like “The Happiest Girl In The Whole USA,” “The Candy Man,” and “Alone Again Naturally” back to back. What you didn't mention was that you were listening to our highest rated show every week The West Michigan Top 40 Countdown show featuring Grand Rapids Top 40 songs from July 24, 1972.

Please let me tell you a little bit about our radio station. We are 2 AM only stations that were given up for dead many years ago. The format was changed to Real Oldies in the summer of 2009, the brainchild of Len O'Kelly and the late Bill Bailey (both former major market talents in Chicago and elsewhere) and myself.

When we took over the station they had a cume rating of around 200 and a share rating of 0.0. The last ratings you mentioned gave us a rating of 1.3 and a cume of around 27,000. Not great ratings but good enough to place in the Top 20 in Grand Rapids and the only true AM station to place in the Top 20. 

DONNA FARGO

As for un-hip, looking at your blog, most of the stuff you write about, NPR news/talk, AAA format, and Jazz Format are un-hip and boring to me, but that's only my opinion and it seems to work for other people.

In conclusion, I don't really mind you dissing our radio station, but if you do so in the future, make sure you have and present all the facts. It was impossible for you to hear Twisted Sister on our station and as long as I'm in charge that song will never play on our station.  A retraction of your saying we played Twisted Sister on one of your future articles would be appreciated.

KEN SAYS:

Again, Twisted Sister is NOT played on Real Oldies 1480 and 850. Twisted Sister fans must look elsewhere.

I salute WGVU’s moxie for bringing two old AM signals back to life. WGVU has been in the radio and public TV business for a long time. WGVU-AM 1480 began simulcasting WGVU-FM on May 22, 1992.  In 1999 WGVU added WGVS AM 850 in Muskegon. On August 24, 2009, WGVU and WGVS became Real Oldies, offering music from the 50s, 60s and early 70s to west Michigan.

There aren’t many successful noncommercial, CPB-funded AM stations.  So the fact that you folks have been able to make it work is remarkable and deserves praise.  However, “The Happiest Girl in Whole USA” by Donna Fargo is truly the most un-hip song I’ve ever heard. Best wishes for your continued success.

• From Aaron Read, engineer, radio scholar and historian regarding the August 3^rd story Radio In the Shadow of Los Angeles [LINK]

Read writes:

AARON READ

There's been a lot of juggling of what outlet is on which frequency in recent years in those markets. For a long time KCLU-FM in Ventura had a slightly (and oddly) different news/talk lineup from KCLU-AM in Santa Barbara. BUT, KCLU had an FM translator in Santa Barbara on 102.3 that relayed KCLU-FM for years (and did so through an extremely rare FCC waiver that let them feed 102.3 via a T-1 line instead of over-the-air reception).

But when the FCC started allowing FM Translators to relay AM stations, they switched the translator to repeat KCLU-AM instead, and boosted the Translator's power as well. I believe they consolidated the programming schedules around that same time. Either way, the point is that there's probably some confusion in the diaries about which "KCLU"...AM, FM or Translator...that people are actually listening to.

Ditto for KCLU adding the new signals up in the SLO market, too. It's been a volatile time; it might explain why KCBX lost a bit of audience, too.

Beats me why KUSC (KESC) in Morro Bay/SLO took such a nosedive, though. (shrugs) It'd be easy to point to the KDB acquisition but neither KDB nor the now-KDRW signal reach anywhere near SLO; the mountains just north of Santa Barbara block it entirely.

KEN SAYS:

Hope you got all that because it will be on the test. Thanks, Aaron.