What’s the deal with the Long Beach Business Journal’s Aug. 18-31 advertorial for KRTH (K-EARTH) Radio on the (unmarked) page 11? As far as vintage music is concerned, notwithstanding Art LaBoe’s Sunday night low rider oldies show, KRTH is the only commercial radio game in town.
In the full color full page spread, the Business Journal does a complete sales job for a CBS-owned radio station which, between major commercial breaks, features “Unchained Melody,” “Stand By Me,” some Motown, some Stones, “Good Vibrations” and that’s about it.
According to KRTH, the “greatest hits on earth” don’t include Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker, Bobby Bland and Little Junior Parker, all blues folks who had hits on the pop charts; Hank Ballard & the Midnighters, the Dominoes, the Dells, the Spaniels and Little Willie John, all R&B acts who had hits on the pop charts; Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Ray Sharpe, Wanda Jackson, all rockabilly acts who had hits on the pop charts.
What they do offer might compete against a well-stocked jukebox, but barely. If I’m wrong in my extremely foreshortened list, tell me when the record by one of the above artists or groups was played on KRTH along with its title. Don’t think you can do it.
Why is the Business Journal involved in touting this researched-to-death outlet? Was the article bought and paid for? Is there anything unpredictable or surprising or jarring on KRTH, or is it all wallpaper, only those hits that research well as KRTH/CBS corporate bragged about in the article, as if that’s a good thing.
Read the article carefully… you’ll note not one song or one artist or group was mentioned, apparently a superfluous fact not needed for an article which concentrates on station research about what songs “the audience wants to hear – and equally important, what songs they would rather not hear” and a paragraph about the DJ as your friend.
Then there’s the “Back To the Beatles” show that’s touted as well, ignoring other Beatles shows, like the “The Beatles Show” with Casey Piotrowski heard Tuesday 8 to 9p.m. on www.wpmd.org, that’s well-researched and lively, because the host is a fanatic, clear and simple. The KRTH hosts are anything but… take from a guy who’s not exactly a Beatles devotee… go ahead, call me to task for conflict of interest as I’m on WPMD also… but also recall, I believe Casey goes way, way overboard in his Beatles appreciation class, which is just the thing I look for on radio… passion.
I admit it. I got turned off to the whole KRTH article in the Business Journal when the current “Back To the Beatles” host, Jim Carson correctly noted, the predecessor show, “’Breakfast With the Beatles’ was a huge hit daring back to the 70s. Then the host passed away.” Right. Saying that is akin to profiling the LBJ administration, then noting that Johnson became president because his predecessor was assassinated…and leave it at that.
In case Carson isn’t aware, LBJ’s predecessor was John F. Kennedy and his death was much more than an opportunity for Johnson to fill out his term. So was the death of Deirdre O’Donoghue, whose death, in case Carson hasn’t bothered to find out, was the “opportunity…to pick up” the show. She was much more than a deceased predecessor.
O’Donoghue’s career was stunning, beginning with the legendary KPPC in Pasadena, the first free form radio station, now known as KROQ, the equally legendary WBCN in Boston, then to KMET, KCRW and to KLSX for her Beatles shift, which she hosted with passion, something KRTH won’t likely ever need to worry about in its constant fine-tuning of their sound.