RIP Jed the Fish

I've said it before and I'll say it again - could somebody PLEASE invent a time machine so I can go back to the 1980's and stay there?

One of the best things about living in L.A. in the 80's (and there were many things) was The World Famous KROQ, the ROQ of the 80's. The music was great, of course, and KROQ - our alternative music station - blasted our soundtrack with a lineup of DJs and on-air personalities that was an embarrassment of riches: Rodney Bingenheimer, Richard Blade, The Poorman, Dusty Street (and her gloriously raspy voice), Raechel Donahue, Tami Heidi, Swedish Egil, Freddy Snakeskin, Sluggo, and Jed the Fish. The AM drivetime Kevin & Bean show alone hosted a boatload of talent over the years, among them: Adam "Mr. Birchum" Carolla, Jimmy "The Sports Guy" Kimmel, traffic reporter Lisa May, news reporter Doc on the Roq, entertainment reporter Ralph Garman, and Michael the Maintenance Man (an actual maintenance man in the building who became part of the show).

So it was crushing to see the news that Jed the Fish passed away this morning at the age of 69. He had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. Jed was at KROQ from 1978 to 2012. And another part of my early adulthood is gone. RIP Jed.

The voices of 1980's Los Angeles.

 

Rough week for celebs

Rest in peace to some talented individuals who left us recently.

Oscar-nominated actress Gena Rowlands (June 19, 1930 - August 14, 2024) due to complications from dementia.

 

French star Alain Delon (November 8, 1935 - August 18, 2024) from natural causes.

Peter Marshall, host of The Hollywood Squares (March 30, 1926 - August 15, 2024) due to kidney failure.

 

Singer-songwriter Greg Kihn ("The Breakup Song") (July 10, 1949 - August 13, 2024) due to Alzheimer's complications.

 

Famous Amos (Wally Amos), successful talent agent turned cookie mogul (July 1, 1936 - August 13, 2024) due to complications from dementia.

 

How scary is it that three of those five were afflicted with Alzheimer's/dementia? Has that devastating condition always been so common?

And sadly, it looks like Matthew Perry's drug overdose death last year could have been avoided, at least at the time: arrests have been made in connection with his death. 

Oh, and speaking of unnecessary deaths, I hope these guys fry. Unfortunately, Los Angeles has a "DA" (cough *George Gascon* cough) who loves felons and will probably let them off with a slap on the wrist.

Updated 8/19/24: Adding one more...

Daytime TV talk show icon Phil Donahue (December 21, 1935 - August 18, 2024) following a long illness (undisclosed at the time of the announcement).

A fond farewell to a Los Angeles legend and another part of my L.A. youth/early adulthood is gone forever

95.5, KLOS!!!

Legendary Los Angeles radio DJ Jim Ladd has passed away and taken a huge chunk of L.A. music history and life with him.

This one really hurts. Can someone please invent a time machine so I can go back to the 80's? ASAP, please!

 

The mighty MET.

 

Jim Ladd, high in the Hollywood Hills ;) As we all should be, forever.

And you know what? Good for him.

 

He is the boss. You are the peons. Pay up. Or don't, he doesn't care.

Backstreets, the long-time Bruce Springsteen fanzine, has shuttered in protest over astronomic ticket prices for Springsteen's current tour. Aw, that's cute. You guys thought someone insanely rich and famous cared about you, the little people. Adorbs.

That was mean. I do feel for his fans. They've been devoted and bought into the "everyman" mystique for decades. Backstreets began publishing in 1980 and has been kept going ever since by the fans, for the fans, meaning a lot of people put forty years of time and effort into creating and supporting something in honor of someone they admired and probably in many cases, idolized. And guess what The Boss himself has to say about the pricing? From the Deadline article linked above:

Springsteen himself made no apologies for the rising prices. He told Rolling Stone that he typically told his handlers to align ticket prices with what “everybody else is doing,” then charge a little less.

But that changed. “This time I told them, ‘Hey, we’re 73 years old. The guys are there. I want to do what everybody else is doing, my peers.’ So that’s what happened. That’s what they did…. I know it was unpopular with some fans, but if there’s any complaints, they can have your money back.” 

Unpopular??? How nice. How about betrayed? We all know that that last statement is basically, "If you don't like it, stuff it. Stay home. Keep your filthy peasant money. I don't need it." And if that doesn't sting enough Springsteen faithful, keep in mind it's coming from a man with a net worth of about $650 million. He owns multiple homes. His daughter rides horses that cost more than some of his fans annual income. He hasn't been an "everyman", but a rich, famous celebrity for many, many years. Decades. A lifetime.

I went on TicketMaster to check out tickets and initially it looked like, at least in some venues, you can get in for a decent price if you buy the tickets directly from them, assuming you do it early on. But TicketMaster also has what it refers to as "Verified Resale", which is a boatload of the seats that aren't available for the venue's prices, and that's when the prices start to skyrocket into the high hundreds and even thousands of dollars. There's also something called dynamic pricing which seems to be involved in jacking up prices. Plus, they're selling tickets for seating behind the stage, which to me seems the epitome of greed. Who they hell wants to watch a concert from behind the stage? And some of those seats are a couple hundred dollars. That's crazy.

Oh, and let's also add in the fact that at least in the U.S. the economy is in the toilet, costs of basic needs like groceries, gas, and electricity have skyrocketed, and our dollars are worth way less than they were even a couple years ago. I can tell you from personal experience that many people don't have the expendable income, or faith in our financial situation and future to feel comfortable spending chunks of money that we would have, a couple of years ago. Just a friendly reminder not to vote for someone just because your favorite rock star told you to.

Apparently this kerfuffle started last July, when Backstreets published a piece called "Freeze-Out" about the sky-high ticket prices that included comments like this:

We're feeling old, listening to the outcries of fans feeling similarly betrayed by last week's ticket sales, and remembering that things were different a decade ago.

...when Ticketmaster's first U.S. onsales for the 2023 Tour left many Bruce Springsteen fans in a state of shocked disbelief.

 From our point of view, this so-called premium, algorithm-driven model violates an implicit contract between Bruce Springsteen and his fans, one in which the audience side of the equation appeared to truly matter...We believed it because he told us repeatedly it was true. 

Bruce Springsteen tickets have been historically and notoriously difficult to obtain. That's the nature of the beast, with so many wanting to witness the power and the glory of rock 'n' roll, and relatively few seats to hold them. But the issue has rarely been the money.

But the ideals of Springsteen's music put forward - they're still alive, aren't they? ...If one can't say yes - if only for a few hours every so often - then maybe the magic really is just tricks. 

Springsteen has been paid a king's ransom, and we've never begrudged him that, either. Not the reported $500 million sale of his life's work, which hardly fazed us, not the Broadway prices, not the Jeep commercial. We believe in the value of his music, his work; those other transactions and the arenas in which they take place feel beyond out purview. 

My research apparently didn't even scratch the surface - Backstreets included this image at the end of the post:

Jaysus. I can see why they're feeling crushed.

Just below this image is a post entitled "Dynamic Pricing: A Fucking Shitshow" if you want to learn more about that. I don't, this post is about the fans and the artist, not the business side of things. But apparently this is a tool to potentially jack up the cost to fans and in many cases, price them out.

It looks like Bruce feels secure enough in his financial security and legendary rock God status to not even work up the appearance of righteous indignation on behalf of the faithful. His response, via Rolling Stone? The aforementioned "keep your money" comment. Also, it looks like Deadline did a little bit of creative editing on his comments - here's how they actually read in RS (bold mine):

This time I told them, “Hey, we’re 73 years old. The guys are there. I want to do what everybody else is doing, my peers.” So that’s what happened. That’s what they did [laughs].

This is what's known as laughing all the way to the bank. I'm sure his devoted, long-time fans see the humor in that and hilarity will ensue.

But if there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.

Sure you can. Good luck getting your refund from TicketMaster or any of its "Verified Resellers" after the fact. He's basically telling his fans to pound sand.

All of which has led Backstreets to this. Some excerpts:

If you read the editorial Backstreets published last summer in the aftermath of the U.S. ticket sales, you have a sense of where our heads and hearts have been: dispirited, downhearted, and yes, disillusioned. It's not a feeling we're at all accustomed to while anticipating a new Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tour.

Judging by the letters we've received over recent months, the friends and longtimers we've been checking in with, and the response to our editorial, disappointment is a common feeling among hardcore fans in the Backstreets community. 

When I revisit that writing now, it reads like a cry for help; most discouraging was that six month went by with no lifeline thrown.

These are concerts that we can hardly afford; that many of our readers cannot afford; and that a good portion of our readership has lost interest in as a result. (Bold mine - keep in mind these are some of Springsteen's most ardent, long-term fans.)

Whatever the eventual asking price at showtime and whether an individual buyer finds it fair, we simply realized that we would not be able to cover this tour with the drive and sense of purpose with which we've operated continuously since 1980. That determination came with a quickening sense that we'd reached the end of an era.  

Yes, you have.

"I spent most of my life as a musician measuring the distance between the American Dream and American reality." -Bruce Springsteen

Yes, you have.

And it's been pretty damn lucrative for you. But the difference between your American Dream and the reality of your fans - who have made you rich and famous - has become your greatest irony and hypocrisy.

My sympathy to the fans.

Writing words of wisdom from a true master...for the rest of us

I've probably mentioned this a few times in the life of the blog, but Rod Serling taught writing to college students at Antioch College (his alma mater) and Ithaca College both during and after The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. I've always thought that being fortunate enough to be one of his students would be a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that your writing instructor is Rod Serling. The bad news is that your writing instructor is Rod Serling. I'd feel like the world's biggest hack submitting a story to him. Oh, but can you imagine if he liked it? I'm not much for idol worship, but one small word of praise from him - can you imagine how exhilarating that would be? I would save that note forever.

By all accounts Serling loved teaching and was damn good at it. The reason I bring all this up is because this popped up on my Facebook feed this morning:

 

As much as I'm sure she appreciated the sentiment, I've have to respectfully disagree with the master here. Most writers have to learn how to write. Very few are born with it. In fact, Ernest Hemingway himself said, "It's none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way."

 

But i also believe that every now and then there is someone who was born that way, just artistically gifted, and despite his education and how much work he put into his craft - he spent years writing for radio before achieving massive success in television - I really do think that Serling was one of the brilliant few who were born that way. Between his talent and drive I can't imagine a scenario where he isn't successful. So respectfully I think that in this case, as much as I admire humility, that the man doth protest too much.

But what a great experience for that student and great advice for the rest of us.

Holy moly - "Twilight Zone" episodes as old time radio dramas!

This just popped up on my YouTube feed - a channel with Twilight Zone episodes performed as radio dramas! How have I never seen these before? And it kicks off with "To Serve Man"? AWESOME!!!

From the channel's description:

The Twilight Zone is a nationally syndicated radio drama series featuring radio play adaptations of the classic television series The Twilight Zone first produced for the British station BBC Radio 4 Extra in October 2002, with the final show released in 2012 for 176 episodes in all. 

 

Many of the stories are based on Rod Serling's scripts from the original Twilight Zone series, and are slightly expanded and updated to reflect contemporary technology and trends (e.g., the mention of "cell phones" and "CD-ROMs" which, of course, were not around when the television show aired in the 1960s) and the lack of a visual component. 

 

In addition to adapting all of the original episodes aired on the 1959-1964 TV series, the radio series has also adapted some Twilight Zone TV scripts which were never produced, scripts from other Serling TV productions, and new stories written especially for the radio series.

Stacy Keach does a wonderful job of stepping in for Rod Serling as the radio show's narrator. So far I've only listened to "To Serve Man" (Blair Underwood plays Mr. Chambers) and it did not disappoint. There is a glitch in the audio near the end, but it corrects in time for the big reveal. Check it out!

Another great one gone - RIP Vin Scully

Vin Scully, long-time voice of the Los Angeles Dodgers, died yesterday at the age of 94. It was a life well-lived, but also a tough loss for Los Angeles, where Scully was a legend and part of the soundtrack of so many Angeleno childhoods and lives, including mine. It's been years since I've watched a Dodgers game, but I can still hear Scully's voice in my head announcing, "It's time for Dodger baseball!"

Part of Scully's appeal was that in addition to being one of the very best at what he did, he was also a class act. I have literally never heard a negative word about him. A devout Catholic, he credited his faith and his work in surviving the premature deaths of his first wife and his eldest son. His second wife, to whom he was married for 48 years, passed away last year. 94 years is a good, long life, but the world is a poorer place without Vin in it.

This article on mlb.com has some great vids of some of Scully's many finest moments in the broadcast booth.

"You and I have been friends for a long time, but I know in my heart that I've always needed you more than you've ever needed me, and I'll miss our time together more than I can say. But you know what? There will be a new day and eventually a new year. And when the upcoming winter gives way to spring, rest assured, once again it will be "time for Dodger baseball." So this is Vin Scully wishing you a very pleasant good afternoon, wherever you may be." (Vin Scully's signoff after his final game.)

Podcast News: James Ellroy gets a second podcast

The Demon Dog is apparently enjoying the podcast biz - it was just announced that James Ellroy is embarking on a second podcast project: an adaptation of his novel American Tabloid. From the linked article:

The idea is that the L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia author and the Jared Gutstadt-run company are going to go where many others - including David Fincher, Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks and James Franco - have tried and failed before and take his book from the page. But rather than make it as a film or a TV series, he's going to turn it into a 12-part audio project.

Ellroy's novels are notorious difficult to adapt, in fact in my opinion the only time someone was able to pull it off was the feature version of L.A. Confidential adapted by Curtis Hanson and Brian Helgeland (who won well-deserved Oscars as a result). I've found other movie versions of Ellroy's novels lacking, and even two attempts to adapt LAC to television (in 2003 and 2019) failed to get past the pilot stage.

Time will tell if this pays off, but it seems like Ellroy's found his sweet spot with podcasting. From the Deadline article:

Ellroy: "I read the narration. Hotshot actors read the dialogue. Now I know why God made me a bass-baritone. This podcast will work some jolting juju and incite incendiary insurrection in Radioland!!!!"

Audio-Up CCO Jimmy Jellinek: "Audio is the perfect medium to deliver American Tabloid," said Jellinek. "We can build out the book's massive internal world through sound. Traveling from the Jungles of Guatemala to Castro's Cuba, Mid Century Chicago, Los Angeles, 1963 Dallas and the Jim Crow South alongside these characters would be prohibitive... 

...we're creating what may very well be the first true, scripted epic of the podcast era for what it would cost to feed the grips for half a day...

...When we're finished, you'll hopefully know we're the HBO or 70's Paramount of audio..."

Sounds ambitious and entertaining as hell if they can pull it off. And it's probably pretty much the only way you could dramatize a novel like American Tabloid. The novel runs 776 pages containing 100 chapters. When I was in junior high one of the local news radio stations played episodes of the old CBS Radio Mystery Theater (you can check out the shows at the link) and I loved listening to them. If American Tabloid succeeds, it could open the floodgates to tons of audio adaptations and I think that would be great, both as a listener and a writer.

The article also included the info that Ellroy's first podcast, now known as Hollywood Death Trip, will debut October 8 (which would have been my Dad's 81st birthday), so I'm looking forward to that.

Offended? Here's a dime, call someone who cares.

Ask for Jenny.

Via 80s Forever And Ever on Instagram.

You know they've got a hell of a band

I'd been hearing for years that he's had health problems, but it was still a shock to see this pop up on my Facebook feed a few minutes ago: guitar legend Eddie Van Halen has died. You know, just in case 2020 wasn't sucking enough for you.

We now live in a world in which David Bowie, Prince, Tom Petty, Ric Ocasek, and now Eddie Van Halen no longer exist. And that just sucks.

RIP Eddie and thanks for all the great music.

Updated 5:28pm: The death of Johnny Nash, singer-songwriter of the classic "I Can See Clearly Now" was just announced. He was 80 and had been in declining health in recent months. Rough day for music fans.

Recent reading: "All I Ever Wanted: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir"

 

All I Ever Wanted: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir by Kathy Valentine

The recent Go-Go's documentary on Showtime sent me on a big fat nostalgia-fest about 1980's Los Angeles and the 80's in general, plus I was a big fan of the band back in the day. One of the many things I took away from the doc was that among all the Go-Go's, bassist Kathy Valentine was the one who really seemed to understand what they had, how amazing it was, and how lucky they were to have it. As the band crumbled around her Valentine tried desperately - and unsuccessfully - to keep them together. It made me want to read her memoir, released earlier this year.

Growing up in Texas, Valentine was "raised" by a single mother who was more interested in having a good time than in parenting. As a result Valentine grew up without a lot of supervision and she grew up fast. She lost her virginity before she even entered her teens, requiring an abortion at age twelve. Her mother turned it into a fun trip to California, abortions not being available in Texas at the time. 

During a trip to her mother's native England, Valentine saw Suzi Quatro perform on Top of the Pops and was riveted by the idea that a woman could be more than an ornamental lead singer backed by men, or part of a girl group programmed by men. Upon returning home she began learning to play the guitar and became obsessed with being in a rock band. She attended countless shows and became a student of music and musicians. And she eventually started playing in bands. 

At nineteen Valentine decided to try her luck in Los Angeles. There, in late 1980 she met Charlotte Caffey, a member of the Go-Go's, who although not yet signed to a label were enormously popular in the L.A. music scene. The Go-Go's had a problem: they were scheduled to play a series of shows over New Year's but their bass player, Margot Olavarria, was ill. Caffey asked Valentine if she could play bass. Valentine, a guitarist, said yes, then spent three cocaine-fueled days and nights learning to play a borrowed bass and the Go-Go's songs. 

By the time the shows were over and the new year had been rung in, Valentine was in love with the band and they seemed to return the sentiment. Margot, who had been with the band through much of their growing popularity was unceremoniously dumped, although there was more to it according to the documentary: she had been voicing dissatisfaction with the band's changing sound. The Go-Go's had begun as part of the 1970's L.A. punk scene, but by 1980 they had drifted toward a decidedly non-punk girl-pop sound and image that would soon take the world by storm. Valentine was deemed a better fit and the invitation to join the Go-Go's gave her not only the band, but also the family she had always craved. It also gave her a Go-Go's dependent identity that would make it difficult to function when the band imploded a few years later.

The Go-Go's were finally signed by I.R.S. Records and proceeded to make history when their debut album Beauty and the Beat became the first album by an all-female band who wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the charts. Suddenly, they were stars.

One thing I noticed from both the doc and Valentine's book is that for as hard as the Go-Go's worked to become successful, once they achieved success and stardom they often didn't seem to want to work to keep it, nor did they seem at times to appreciate it. They complained about the production on the album that would make them world-famous. They complained about having to make the "Our Lips Are Sealed" video that put them in heavy rotation on MTV and boosted their visibility. I can remember a clip from back in the Go-Go's heyday of Belinda Carlisle being interviewed while she signed some albums or posters (I can't remember which) and she complained about having to be in an office signing autographs instead of being at the beach. I remember wondering what the hell she was complaining about. She was in such an enviable position, and one she'd worked hard for. I couldn't figure out what her problem was.

Another thing I thought was odd was that despite their hard-partying ways, no one in the band seemed to realize that Caffey had a serious, years-long heroin addiction. When Paula Jean Brown joined the band after Jane Weidlin's departure, she picked up on it right away. In fact it was Brown who flat-out asked what they were going to do about it. And it was Brown, who had experience dealing with addicts and interventions, who helped Caffey into rehab, probably saving her life. 

The Go-Go's achieved overwhelming fame and success at relatively young ages - they were in their early-mid twenties, and as Valentine describes herself, seemingly with the maturity of teenagers. Despite the fun they had together, they could also be insensitive to each other at times. Weidlin's departure was partially fueled by the band's refusal of her request to sing one single song on their third album, Talk Show. It wasn't even one of the singles and she made the request because the song was important to her. Being turned down was the beginning of the end of her Go-Go's days.

There were also hard feelings about the discrepancy in their paychecks - as the primary songwriters, Caffey and Weidlin out-earned the others to a point where it festered. Never mind that it required them to do a lot of work the others weren't doing. 

But the cruelest act of all was when Carlisle and Caffey decided to end the band without including Valentine or drummer Gina Schock (much less newbie Brown) in the decision. Kathy and Gina were suddenly summoned to the band's manager's office where they were blindsided by the news that the Go-Go's were no more, news that was delivered coldly by Belinda and Charlotte. Valentine's dreams and the only real family she'd ever been a part of were over and there wasn't a thing she could do about it, and it left her floundering. Her heavy drinking and cocaine use didn't help.

Valentine spent several years attempting to recreate the magic of being part of a successful band, but was never able to duplicate the experience of the Go-Go's. When she finally got sober she also seems to have grown up and gotten not just older, but wiser. If I have a complaint about the memoir, it's that she rushes through the years following her sobriety and the first Go-Go's reunion. 

And even after that first triumphant reunion, there are issues. Valentine makes a barely passing reference to being "fired" by the band in 2012 but doesn't elaborate beyond that; her wikipedia page indicates that she had to drop out of a Go-Go's tour due to a broken wrist, but also filed suit against her former bandmates in 2013. Ever the dysfunctional family that can't quite seem to go their separate ways, Valentine has toured with the band since then. Ever the peacemaker, Kathy doesn't seem to be able to ever completely quit this group of women, no matter what they put her through. I don't think it's insignificant in the documentary (which I thought was excellent) that each Go-Go was interviewed separately. We only see them come together again as a band for yet another reunion at the very end of the film. I came away from both the documentary and the book feeling like Kathy deserved better.

I'm glad that Valentine seems to have made peace with the demons of her earlier years, but I wish she had spent more time in the book on her later years and the Go-Go's on again/off again relationship, plus it also left me wanting to know more about her post-non-Go-Go's life. But All I Ever Wanted is still an impressive memoir of rock & roll, bygone eras, the sheer love of music, and a really admirable woman and musician. 

Gina spoke up: "It's our band, too; you can't just decide it's over." Belinda looked Gina dead in the eye and told her, "Yes, we can."

Suddenly Charlotte proclaimed, "I write the hits and she is the voice." It enraged me. How dare she? After everything, after the tours and radio visits and shows and interviews that gave us our careers, all of it done together, Miss Hits and Miss Voice were tossing us aside with less emotion than getting rid of old clothes.

The continued cratering of the formerly World Famous KROQ

This article went up on Variety a couple days ago: It's the End of the World Famous KROQ as We Know It. It's laden with a boatload of business stuff that turns my brains to mush and lists of songs/artists that seem to go on forever, but a few things really stood out for me. First up (bold mine):

The decision to blow up the morning show brought severe consequences. In the past two months, according to Nielsen’s most recent L.A. report, KROQ has dropped more than a share point among listeners age 6 and up (from a 2.5 to a 1.4 share of the market) — placing the Entercom-owned station far behind its alternative rock competitor, iHeartRadio’s KYSR-FM Alt 98.7 (at a 2.2 share). What’s more, according to one metric, KROQ lost half of its listenership in the weeks following the decision to yank “Kevin the Morning with Allie & Jensen” off the air.

As I predicted in this post, Entercom's decision to trash the morning, especially the way they did it by unceremoniously booting Kevin Ryder, has had a devastating effect on KROQ's ratings.

But then came the decision to pull the plug on “Kevin in the Morning” during the early days of the COVID-19 stay-at-home quarantine. It left listeners who had formed a deep attachment over 30 years of “Kevin & Bean” without a familiar routine that would have mattered even more these days, and wound up demoralizing the staff that was left behind.

The reaction from KROQ’s most loyal audience was swift.  Two months later, the station is still constantly deleting angry comments on its social media posts (particularly on Facebook), while listeners en masse write how they’ve stopped tuning in.

“Many of these people on social media, they haven’t listened to KROQ in years,” says Kaplan defensively. “They just wanted to glom on.”

How the hell would he know if commenters have listened to the station recently or in years? It shows a breathtaking arrogance and disrespect for the station's longtime listeners. It also makes it clear he doesn't want to deal with the aftermath of Ryder's firing. Whether or not Kaplan or anyone else at KROQ or Entercom want admit it, they fucked up.

Ryder's contract was set to expire in November 2020 and the article offered a way management could have taken the high road, easing Ryder out in a way that would have been respectful to both Kevin and the listeners and could have made the loss easier to absorb:

Indeed, KROQ could have taken much of 2020 to celebrate the 30-year legacy of Ryder’s run — and perhaps even have reunited him with longtime partner Bean for a true farewell. KROQ’s sales team could have signed up sponsors and monetized it as an end of an era event. And management could have capitalized on the pomp and circumstance to spin a proper passing of the baton to new morning show “Stryker & Klein.”

That sounds like a fantastic idea, not to mention kind of obvious. How they didn't take that route and can keep their jobs is beyond me.

I guess what I personally take away from this article is that I was fortunate to be an Angeleno when KROQ was in its glory days, but unfortunately nothing lasts forever. KROQ will probably never be what it was to the L.A. of the 1970's - 1990's, but then again, Los Angeles has also changed and not for the better. In a way, the city and radio station may have peaked together. As a Southern Californian it just kind of sucks to see both move beyond their glory days. It was fun while it lasted.

The end of the world as we know it, indeed.

There are epic public relations disasters, and then there's Entercom/KROQ's firing of Kevin Ryder

Not sure how I didn't hear about this sooner, but early this morning I learned about KROQ's unceremonious dumping of Kevin Ryder and everyone associated with his morning show yesterday morning. And as if unexpectedly axing a hall of famer who spent the last thirty years building your brand wasn't shitty enough, someone who is still actually working there thought posting this to KROQ's social media was a good idea:

Uh, oh yeah, P.S.: Thanks for thirty years guy!

Assholes.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall among management this morning as they review these comments. With this one badly handled decision they just erased KROQ's standing in the Los Angeles radio community. I couldn't have done a better job of destroying the station in one fell swoop if my life depended on it. It's really kind of amazing, albeit in a truly awful way.

I've been listening to KROQ pretty much all my life that I can remember. Entercon, on the other hand, I've never heard of, but I do know this about them: They have no concept of their audience. They don't know the listeners, they don't know the community, and they obviously have no idea of KROQ's history, importance, and place in said community. Or, even worse, they just don't care. Either way, they just cratered KROQ's audience and ratings.

For some strange reason - even though they had three guys escort him out of the building - the station's management did let Kevin on air to say goodbye to the listeners. And he didn't go quietly. Good for him. His criticism pales in comparison to the online reaction from KROQ listeners, who are incensed over the loss of the morning show that has been such a huge part of our lives for decades here in Los Angeles. Kevin and Bean got me through a lot of shitty commutes over the years and provided me and a lot of other people with countless hours of awesomely hilarious entertainment for which I'm incredibly grateful.

The funny thing is that I was out uncharacteristically early Monday morning running errands and came across Kevin's morning show on KROQ, and although I don't listen much these days since I don't commute, it was nice to hear his familiar voice on the radio. And now that's gone. I honestly think KROQ's listenership and ratings are going to crash spectacularly because of this decision, and I hope heads at Entercom will roll as a result. There are ways to run a business and this ain't one of them.

If I was currently running a rival station in L.A. I wouldn't be able to hire Kevin fast enough. And when someone does, I'll be tuning in.

RIP Tim Conway

Legendary comedian Tim Conway passed away yesterday. There wasn't much I could say about his genius that wasn't being said anywhere else, but then his son, radio broadcaster Tim Conway Jr., tweeted this cartoon by Randy Bish and it got me right in the feels:

Because of course, this:

I don't know how they ever got through a sketch.

Harvey's been waiting so long for someone who can make him laugh.

Blast from the past

This recording is an hour from the KMPC Los Angeles morning drive broadcast on November 26, 1979, complete with news, weather and traffic. It was a different Los Angeles then. It was a different world then. If I had a time machine...

More info about this broadcast can be found here at Past Daily.

H/T to Vintage Los Angeles on FB for this.

Somebody send me...

Today would have been David Bowie's 72nd birthday (and two days from now will be the third anniversary of his death). I was just thinking recently how odd it feels to live in a world in which David Bowie, Prince, and Tom Petty no longer exist. Yeah, it makes me nostalgic. I don't care if it makes me sound like a cranky old broad yelling at the kids to get off my lawn, the 80's were so much better for so many reasons, and chief among them was how much better music was back then.

I remember watching this one on MTV constantly. Loved the song, loved the visuals, loved the effortless performance.

Somebody send me...

How one Hollywood family spends Christmas Eve and Christmas Day...

A heartwarming Christmas with Joan and the kids, including future best-selling author Christina.

"I always see to it they give up something they really love..."

Belated blog post: KCRW's 24-Hour Radio Race and The Last Thing You'd Expect

I had really meant to keep the blog updated, but you know, real life and all that.  It's actually been some good stuff though.  I'm getting ready to embark on a new education which hopefully will lead to a second career (and if not, will still be a heck of a lot of fun).  However, that's not the point of this post.  More on that later.  The point of this post is to start getting caught up on stuff I should have been posting.  My next few entries will probably fall under that category.  This is the first of them.

The Brother and I participated in KCRW's first annual 24-Hour Radio Race (as described here) a couple months back and it was truly an adventure.  We didn't win anything, but had a great time writing it.  The actual recording of it was a bit more of a struggle.

The topic was released Saturday morning at 10am and the finished product had to be up on Soundcloud by 10am the following morning.  The topic was great: "The Last Thing You'd Expect".  We loved it and after kicking around a few ideas I remembered this.  Even though that article from two years ago tried to blow off the idea of legitimizing "minor-attracted persons" (you know, pedophiles), it's recently come up in the news that recent pro-gay marriage rulings by the Supreme Court have emboldened these people to start coming out of the shadows and demand the same type of rights and acceptance that gays have won over the past couple of decades.  And having seen the success of gay mainstreaming, pedos have decided to basically follow the same playbook.  Legitimizing and eventually demanding acceptance of child molestation?  We thought it was a subject that screamed The Last Thing You'd Expect. 

We spent most of the afternoon researching, editing and refining our project until we were satisfied with it.  Here's the written version:

This is Team Work in Progress for KCRW wondering…Where Do You Draw The Line?

He was my seventh-grade math teacher. He was probably in his thirties and mentioned a wife and baby at home. It didn’t matter. In my twelve year-old mind, he was the love of my life. When he called on me, it made my day. Any attention paid to me only encouraged my childish fantasies.

Luckily, my story doesn’t have a sordid, inappropriate ending. I mooned over him, he was oblivious (and probably would have been horrified at the thought of a relationship with one of his students), then the semester ended and we both went our separate ways. I’m kind of embarrassed to admit I don’t even remember his name now.

But will a schoolgirl crush be more than just a crush in the near future?  It might in the next twenty or thirty years, if a certain group has its way.

Did you ever imagine you would see the day when a NAMBLA-type organization would be emboldened to not only reveal themselves to the mainstream, but would feel brash enough to publicly demand acceptance of pedophilia in the same way the homosexual community has mainstreamed in the past several decades?

You have now.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision favoring gay marriage, activists in the pedophile community have decided they know a successful playbook when they see one. And with the dust barely settled from the Supreme Court decision, they’re already hard at work putting it into play.

The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its official list of disorders in 1973.  B4U-Act is an organization devoted to making this happen for pedophiles, including referring to them as “minor-attracted persons” rather than pedophiles in an attempt to remove the stigma of their practice, much as “homosexuals” became “gay”.  B4U-Act’s website and press releases are riddled with language intended to re-educate the masses: “fear”, “misunderstanding”, “stereotyping”, “stigma”.

B4U-Act and other supporters of pedophile rights are using the same arguments used to break down traditional barriers of societal acceptance of homosexual relationships:

·      They argue that they can’t help their “orientation” (who they’re attracted to) any more than heterosexual and homosexual adults can.

·      They make assurances that they are only interested in “consensual” sex with minors they deem to be mentally and emotionally mature enough to embark on such a relationship.

·      They point out that age of consent can vary from state to state, from country to country, and society to society.

And that’s the problem: However much society may find the idea of pedophilia – and the idea of associating it with homosexuality – offensive, you do have to give them credit for ingenuity in adopting a proven method of sexual acceptance.  Distasteful?  Sure.  But it’s also actually kind of brilliant.

If gay people really, genuinely can’t help who they are attracted to and can use it as an argument for equal rights, then why can’t pedophiles, or minor-attracted persons, or whatever you want to call them, do the same?  Where do you draw the line?

The potentially terrifying aspect of this argument is that, like it or not, they have a point. If modern society agrees that straights and gays can’t help whom they’re attracted to, can you not make the same argument for pedophiles?  And if it’s no longer acceptable to stigmatize non-heterosexual relationships, then why shouldn’t this consideration be extended to “minor-attracted persons” as well as gays?  Where do you draw the line?

The one obvious argument is whether or not a minor is mentally and emotionally mature enough to make the decision to be involved sexually with a much older adult.  They may think they are, but are they really?  Shouldn’t an adult in this situation be mature enough to say no? There are reasons age of consent laws exists. But the argument could also be made that one person could be more mature at 17 than another person is at 21.  One size does not fit all.  But still, a line has to be drawn somewhere. So where do you draw it? 

Factor in the loosening of morals in modern American society and you have to wonder if, in a few decades, pedophile relationships will in fact achieve acceptance on the level that gay marriage enjoys today. 

Imagine a world in which your twelve year-old daughter embarks on a sexual relationship with her math teacher and if you object, you are an intolerant, closed-minded, bigoted hater.

With that in mind, will “minor-attracted persons” become the new gay?  Should they?  Only time will tell where we draw the line.

"This piece was produced by Thomas Prochnow and Melinda Loomis as part of The 24-Hour Radio Race from KCRW's Independent Producer Project." 

My biggest fear was that it might seem we were advocating for these perverts, which couldn't be further from how I feel about these selfish bastards.  There's a reason To Catch a Predator is one of my all-time favorite TV shows.  I find it disturbing as hell that these people are feeling comfortable enough to start emerging from the shadows to demand that their sexual victimization of children be treated as a right.  But the fact is that the "born this way" argument is kind of evil genius, because if you are willing to apply it to one group, are you not a hypocrite if you refuse to apply it to another?  The term "devil's advocate" comes to mind.

Then came the adventure of actually recording it.

We started at around 5pm.  We don't have any recording equipment, but The Brother felt that the recording app on his iPhone would do the job.  It doesn't have any editing capabilities, so we had to nail it or start over.

The original plan was for me to read the first three paragraphs (true story, BTW) and then he would come in to do the reading honors, but he had trouble with points of emphasis and inflection.  After a couple of tries he had me read it out loud, since I did the writing, hoping it would help him to hear how it sounded in my head.  It helped a little, but not enough, so the decision was made for me to read the whole thing, which kind of sucked because I don't have a great voice.  He would read the opening and closing to give it some variety.

Did I mention that we couldn't edit it, so it had to be read clear through without a hitch?

I actually got through my first recording pretty much flawlessly, but when we played it back I was talking way too fast.  The second time I made a point of speaking slowly and deliberately, but on playback it proved to be positively snooze-inducing.  It droned on and we went to Take 3 without even letting it finish.

We recorded it several more times, but although I got the pacing figured out, there was at least one point in each of them where I stumbled over words.  By this time it was around 10pm.  We were determined to persevere until we got a clean take, but then the recording app decided to quit.  Brother kept tapping on the icon, but it simply wouldn't respond.  He fussed with it for almost an hour, but it had had enough of us.  Around 11pm he was frustrated and we were both exhausted, so we finally decided we would go with what we had.

Here's the recorded version: Where Do You Draw The Line?

Yeah, I'm a lot better at writing than performing.  I actually got more comfortable with it after a few tries and would like to have kept going, but stupid iPhone app.  It's pretty rough, but considering we had never done anything like this before, we were proud of ourselves for at least getting it done.  We learned a lot in the process and enjoyed it immensely.

There were 101 entries.  Here are the winners.

On your mark, get set...

The Brother (a long-time KCRW fan and supporter) brought this one to my attention: KCRW's first annual 24-Hour Radio Race is on for August 16.

In KCRW's 24-Hour Radio Race, producers of all experience levels from all over the world will have 24 HOURS to write, record, and edit a non-fiction radio story. On Saturday at 10AM PT, contestants will be emailed a THEME. They will then have 24 hours to create a story that somehow relates to this theme. Halfway through the 24 hours (at 10PM PT), contestants will receive another email with an optional BONUS ELEMENT, which they can choose to incorporate into their story for extra credit. By Sunday at 10AM PT, their finished piece must be posted on Soundcloud for judging.

I get the writing part of the project.  The Brother works with voice over artists and therefore knows how to create audio files and upload them.  He also gets the recording part, as I do not have a voice made for radio.

Click on the link above for additional info and rules.  See you at the races!