Wow, a syndicated night show on K-Hits! I'm sorry to see the local angle go out the window for nights. Any word of Jeff Thomas' fate?

Here's the R&R story:

The Tom Kent Radio Network continues to stampede across half the planet like a giant Steamroller of Radio Love. New believers include CBS Classic Hits KLTH (K-Hits 106.7/Portland, OR...

http://www.tomkentradionetwork.com/

This is probably just a sign of things to come. The music on KHITS is great, but the talent has left something to be desired. I predict more syndicated programming.

Was jeff Thomas fired? Because his name is still on the k-hits website. I hope Not. He was live and local and sounded great.

http://khits1067.com/Jeff-Thomas/1460552

No matter what the market, I much prefer the LOCAL guy keeping me company. Someone who goes to the same restaraunts I do, gets hung up in the same traffic, makes a joke about some local politician or snafu that I can relate to, etc.

Not taking anything away from The former "Truckin Bozo" but whether it's Tesh, Delilah, Blair Garner, or countless other out of market syndies, it's all a loss of the LOCAL angle that this industry seems more than happy to abandon. Yet they complain that listeners are drifting to other venues.

Damn it's NOT JUST THE MUSIC. I own everything they play and then some, and like a lot more that never see the light of day, (Draggin Wagon, Watch the Flowers Grow, Back When My Hair Was Short anyone?)as many of us do. I can play my own, but I want a LOCAL FRIEND on the radio when I tune in. I think many do but they're just not as vocal about it.

That's the WHY! Not the music, the guy on the other side of the mic.

Incidentally, the show is on now!

The Tom Kent show sounds pretty good!

99.5, 103.3, 105.1, and now 106.7 is running syndicated night programming. Who will be next?

Hopefully NOBODY!

Another thought on Syndication: If the goal is to stack so much "non local programming" on the dial, then there certainly is no need for so many stations. As an example, in this area, I can Tune in Rush Limbo on 6 stations, Savage on three, Dr. Laura on two, Romie Da Homie on three, Coast to Coast on eight, Bob and Tom on five, Leapin Lea on five, Tesh on three, Delilah on four, and various others on two or more. Couple that with quite a few regional simulcasts, and there is a noticeable hole in the live local voice segment.

So the question is: If the argument is that listenership is trending downward, and the product offered is degraded, doesn't that lead to increased listenership decline?

Let's say my radio dial is set at 770 and I catch Limbo every afternoon on K***. Now the kid fiddles with the dial and when I come back the next day I scan the dial looking for my show. OK, found it but now the dial is set at 1050. Sure I got the program, but 770 has lost a listener. So now I don't hear the local news insert, the local ads, just the generic nationwide pap. Extreme example, but mutiply that across the country and the potential is there for continued loss of loyalty.

You might argue the merits of this example, but the fact remains, a national show is not going to connect with the listener on a local level. I don't really care about Bob in Tampa and his opinion on whether Michelle Obama is better dressed than his opponents wife, or Wanda in Hooterville Hollow trying to decide whether she wants to hear a "Lovin or Leavin" song, but I am interested in a phoner in my neck of the woods talking about the latest gaff by our Mayor, or playing the local guys contest "movies that will never be made, near miss song titles", or commenting on last nights concert at the arena.

When Rush talks about his Sleepy Time Bed, I wonder if they gave him one to try as part of the deal, not whether I should buy one. When local Bob does his live spot talking about Biff's Heating and Cooling, or the great pie at "Grease and Eatz" I am more likely to try the places.

Sure most of the syndies are solid radio people, but they don't connect on the local level. Yes, the lousy local guy is a turn off. But the lousy local guy is more of a business choice to save a buck for the cluster rather than having the best available. Plenty of great people outside looking in, and too many "Not Ready For Prime Time" on the air in markets or on stations they aren't ready for. I am sure most hear can come up with examples

Was a time in years gone by, that air talent used to listen to airchecks that arrived in the mail at a station, just to size up the competition. Many stations would not hesitate to find a slot for a good voice on a tape, and some talents would make a good tape disappear before the PD ever heard it. That was an era when a station wouldn't hesitate to add a better voice to their sound. You might have brought him in from Boston, but bet he didn't spend time talking about Boston sights and sounds when he got here.

OK, another rehash of loss of local out of the way.

Now back to our regularly scheduled thread, in progress.

Listened to the Tom Kent show last night, thanks for the heads up Semooooochie!

Thought the music was refreshing, a nice break from the usual KHITS rotations, heard some stuff I had not heard in a while.

Was nice to hear a DJ do an actual "Show" with energy and personality, especially now when so many DJs sound like, just some guy.

The Tom Kent production elements were good, they sometimes sounded odd next to the usual KHITS production bits/drop-ins with Poindexter and Harriett the matron. Made them sound even more sleepy and MOR-ish! I suggest adding some Red Bull, or something stronger, to the next drop-in recording session.

The negative was that it clearly sounded like a syndicated show. The big Tom Kent intros let you know that this is recorded show. That part is sad, because you know that here in "Keep It Weird" Portland, there are even better talents standing on the sidelines who could play off Portland and thus bring in a larger audience, in all dayparts.

Roger,
I don't think those days are gone completely. Sure, we have more syndication and VTing, but local air talent, where they still exist, have to come from somewhere. All Access online has a dozen or more job postings every day, many of which proclaim to be a "rare" live opening. So maybe the initial demo is MP3 instead of cassette, but obviously air talent still move from market to market sometimes.

I did enjoy your post though.

Hey Shane you're right, but unlike Syndicated shows, most of the local/live jocks are restricted to liner cards, its horrible. They can't have any personality at all, they just read the liner cards than turn the mic off.

It almost seems like most pd's don't trust live and local talent to actually have some coherent/interesting talk breaks. They feel that if they just stick to liner card reading than every thing will go smooth.

The jocks on Jammin(Outside of the morning show) are restricted to liner card radio. I was listening to the new night guy on jammin and on some of his talk breaks, the music ends and he says "The new Jammin 1075", than the music starts, thats what his talk breaks consists of, it is ridiculous. Whats the point of hiring live air talent if they just mention the name of the station and thats it. Its very poorly programed! Its not the jocks fault, its the management at CBS for not understanding how to properly execute the station.
Alexa the midday jock on jammin, who Sounds Awesome has a lot of talk breaks where she comes on and says "The new Jammin 1075" than the music starts and thats it, thats one entire talk break. Alexa is an Awesome air talent, let her have some personality.

CBS muzzles the jocks on jammin, and then they wonder why the ratings were not higher. CBS needs to get a freakin clue and let the jocks have some personality on that station. The talk breaks are horrible because they are so short they do absolutely nothing! The new jammin 1075 is lacking the energy and the fun from the jocks, It just does not sound as good as the old jammin 95.5.
The liner card radio on Jammin 1075 is going to hurt them.

Jammin 95.5 was one of the most entertaining Portland stations of our time. It's really too bad that those days are gone. Hopefully, Jammin 107.5's next owner will put some real effort into the station.

As for the Tom Kent show, I wish K-Hits had those kind of production elements, all day long. Those sleepy Poindexter liners completely lack any kind of "hipness." K-Hits has evolved by adding more songs from the early 80's, and I'd say it's time for a new imaging voice!

Why the hell is K-hits playing 80's CRAP???

"jack and Diane" By John Cougar Melloncamp. ARE YOU F'ing Serious? That is soooooo LAME! No wonder the ratings on K-hits have droped! They are adding 80's artists that the K-hits audience DONT WANT TO HEAR!! I think they are going in the wrong direction with the music, and the ratings are showing that. There is PLENTY of 60's and 70's music for K-hits to play, BUT they only want to continue to play the stuff that tests well.

As for CBS- they are Completely Clueless on how to run a jammin format. Its programed like an adult contemporary station, NOT a hip hop station. When will they get a clue, and an afternoon team that they desperately need!!!

I actually emailed Tom Kent, and his response back suggests that he is right and I am wrong. The only reason I listen to KHITS is because of the local DJ's talking about local things. I don't have any motivation to listen to the Tom Kent show at night, I might as well plug in my IPOD and listen without any commercials.

I think Craig Adams is by far the best jock on that station. His talk breaks are always interesting. THey should put him in middays and pull Brad Dolbier out.

The K-Hits ratings have probably dropped because Kool is affecting their time spent listening.

I have to agree with Roger in the above posts. Outside the area talent has no knowledge of what is going on in the community. They can't begin to have a flow or passion about the local scene or pulse of the audience. Live and Local is becoming more of a thing of the past. Hell the VT'ers can't even get it right.

Stoners time machine will HAVE to come to K-hits to bring the ratings up.

That and they need to drop the John Cougar Mellancamp crap that that has been tainting the playlist.

"CBS needs to get a freakin clue and let the jocks have some personality on that station. The talk breaks are horrible because they are so short they do absolutely nothing! The new jammin 1075 is lacking the energy and the fun from the jocks, It just does not sound as good as the old jammin 95.5."

I never listen to that station, but I don't doubt that you're right. It's kind of odd though, as all the other CBS FMs in town allow there jocks to be human on the air to a certain extent.

Dennis thinks my act is old school and does not fit his format.
The TROUBLE with his format is that he left out "F.U.N".........
Take that from this old hack who lived the dream in the hey day when it was fun and we had freedom. My advise....open up that playlist....play some lost gold now & then and let the staff at it.
Take your liner cards and burn them...and get rid of that imaging and step up and buy yourself a jingle package. God..I feel better now

Evn if K-hits keeps their stale playlist during the work week, at least open up the playlist on the weekends. Didn't Robin already say that the weekends need something different from the normal programing during the week, so listners don't turn elsewhere during the weekend?
Stoners show would be perfect on the weekend, it is much needed on Khits because Im already hearing about people getting burnt out on K-hits playlist.

I feel better now too, Stoner. Thanks for saying what I have been thinking for awhile.

Stoner: ain't it funny when the Old school guys get to call the shots then seem to forget what made radio so dynamic in the past. It's seems like many Classic Hits stations leave out the F.U.N. In most cases the PDs are younger than the music and may not know what the F.U.N. is or represents. D.C. should know.

I have to second your tip sheet.

These PD's have to get away from the computer screen with all the bullshit so called research and start running stations from the GUT. The great pd's that WON and WON big had the imagination and allowed the air staff to have a good chunk of freedom. The computer has screwed up radio as much as Wall St who owns it.

Another major problem with the research is that the audience now refuses to participate in it. One of the biggest Music Call-Out services was "calling out" to their clients a few weeks ago, saying that fewer studies would be delivered, or else. Or else they'd just have to go out of business. It's so hard to get participants for a music test. Cell phones being one of the main problem areas. Music Call-out is dead.

Music Call-outs? I was under the impression they used auditorium testing of a station's listeners.

Case in point:
Today just before I was leaving the house I answered the phone, and it was someone from a 'university research lab calling on behalf of a local government agency.'
I politely told her "I'm sorry, I don't have time right now (true), thank you (click)."

Music Call-outs? I was under the impression they used auditorium testing of a station's listeners.
Well they have to find the people to sit in the auditorium somehow.

In response surveys, all you're getting are people that agree to be surveyed. You don't even get to the rest that don't agree to be surveyed, whose opinions might be the majority and perhaps more opinionated than those that agree to be surveyed.

Although I generally lean towards individual privacy, I'm starting to think secret remote data capture will be the survey method of the future. Most public places already have the audio/video surveillance systems necessary. Imagine if by simply walking into somewhere like DMV, a survey company will know what songs are on your cell phone, what your ringtone is, what radio station you listened to last on it (and how long), etc.

Yes, I do think the above is scary!

Just responding to Stoner talking about radio programming off bogus computer research, I think many of radio's audience research systems are lacking big time, not to mention the ARB not being so spectacular.

We're flyin' blind!

Not just with the ratings but also with the programming tools we depend on to target our audience. The answer is, the Internet. But it isn't happening yet.

If you ask 100 people a series of questions and do the same with another 100 people and another and another and you get the same answers, you don't have to ask 10,000 people because the answers will be the same within an acceptable margin of error. If someone from your favorite radio station called, asking for help with the music selection, would you hang up on them?

The point is how do you reach those people if they have unlisted (and/or cell) phone numbers.

Political surveys the same... McCain losing big..
next group.. mcCain closing the gap...next group McCain even... and statistically such a small sample to be useless.

For radio better to sit people at a main intersection and when the cars stop for the light, ask them what they have on the dial.

On a related note(to the topic), does anyone have a thought as to why Kool ran a retrospective of the 1968 Elvis TV special tonight? As far as I know, they've never run any special programming at all! If it had been K-Hits, I wouldn't think anything of it but this strikes me as fairly strange. I almost expected a different format when it was over!

I'm sure it's for the anniversary of Elvis' passing...

ELVIS IS DEAD?

Jeff Thomas is now doing morning drive, I can't remember the guy they had on there before, but his name is no loger on the web page.

But the morning drive shift appears to be the kiss of death on K-Hits.

They are also using Mike Turner for news. Maybe they should have a tire company sponsor them as retreads.

Although my gut reaction to the redundancy of being able to hear "Coast-to-Coast AM" on x different frequencies, "The Radio Factor" on y different frequencies, and "Talk of the Nation" on z different frequencies is, "Ugh! What a waste of spectrum," I wonder whether this is really something new, or is it a misperception. In other words, before the mid 1950s, would a bandscan revealed that the same NBC, CBS, and Mutual programs were being simulcast on a plethora of frequencies?

I sincerely hope so! Dave Hood did afternoon drive on KGW in the 70s.

Something else about syndicated programming is you lose local control over music.
Turned on K-Hits right now, Tom Kent is on, and the song is...
Level 42, "Something About You"
?
I had to re-check my radio to make sure Mix 107-5 hadn't returned! The song seemed to be on heavy rotation on that old station, I think this is the first time I've heard this on any radio station since!

The music selection on the Tom Kent show seems to range from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s. As far as syndicated shows go, I think that this is a much better show than the John Tesh Program. Tesh's show has nice advice and thoughtful commentary. However, the music played on that show never seems to have any relation to what Tesh says when he goes on mic. This gives the show a modular, "snap-together" sound, as if its producers designed it so that affiliate stations could drop in any music that they wanted to in between Tesh's mic breaks. Tom Kent, on the other hand, sounds like he is having FUN with the music that he is playing!

"But the morning drive shift appears to be the kiss of death on K-Hits"

Talk about going out in style! I'd rather the "former morning guy", as opposed to the "former night guy"!

"Jeff Thomas is now doing morning drive, I can't remember the guy they had on there before, but his name is no loger on the web page."

So I guess the Dave Hood experiment is over?

and I agree, K-Hits has definately hit it's downswing. KOOL 105.9 now seems to be taking the mantle of "heir to 62 KGW" away from them (even referencing them in their bumper promos).

Now is the time for Kool to start taking away K-hits thunder. K-hits is at a vulnerable stage right. No morning show, syndicated night show.

Don't you know the poor KiNK humanoids are thinking, "What's going to happen, next?"

I think a show like Tom Kent makes better sense on a station like 105.9 which doesn't have any evening announcer anyway.

The problem is Not Tom Kent, The problem is that geeky voice guy that just doesn't fit the station.
K-hits has so much potential, but they are only hurting themselves and killing off listeners by adding way too many 80's songs.

The voice guy comes on and says "Home of the 60's and 70's, then all of the sudden Tommy Tutone 8675309 comes on the air. How does that make any sense?

The real problem with KHITS since they started the oldies format is that they are playing music from an era when the presentation was very exciting and high energy.KHITS is not high energy and exciting. it sounds like a Light Rock station playing Top 40 from the 60's and 70's. Presentation is everything, and has to fit the product you are trying to sell. Tom Kent's show is a reflection of that era, it shows in his presentation. If you added jingles from the 70's with Kent's presentation, and had local jocks relating to Portland,the numbers would be quite amazing! But, that takes a lot more work to create than what you hear on local stations. Great radio is more than adding up the shares you have with your 5 or 6 stations. Creativity, excitement, great leadership and a solid staff are all needed to pull more than a 3 or 5 share of the market. It's no longer competition, just addition...

I enjoy K Hits when they have the weekend specials. Especially when they do a few hits from the 50s each hour. I notice they play a few hits from that era but they need to increase their playlist. Did they let Dave Hood go?

(sigh) FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WAYNE pay attention!!

Yes Dave Hood was let go.

Give me a break will you? I just came back and didn't see it.

What???You don't monitor this board 24/7 like most others?

We probably watch the stations closer than some of those who manage them!

No Jim I don't look at all of the threads on here.

I hear you Wayne. I skip the Politics side completely. and anything started by Fresshhh. I don't understand a word he writes so why waste my time.......

Somewhat on topic, I've been meaning to mention that the new "Beatles Basement" on K-Hits is hosted by Archer, who, as I recall, was the first morning guy on KMJK, also on 106.7!

It's funny, I've noticed some of the part-timers on K-HITS trying to imitate Tom Kent's style recently. It makes me cringe though, when they try to rhythmically talk up a song intro like Kent does so masterfully, and it sounds very unnatural and contrived. If I were the PD, I'd tell them to knock it off and develop a style that suits them better.

maybe try speaking to THEIR OWN audience

Isn't Archer the guy who worked at KOIN 970 in the 70's ?

Foreground radio stations used to look for jocks with some ego, and manage them all into a cohesive team. Who has time to do that now, with every PD managing more than one station?

If you were Dennis, and had the KINK monster to keep on track as your main job, how much time and attention would you budget for K-Hits?

maybe that's why they invented assistant PDs.

K-hits is a mess. The format is confusing listeners and they are playing too much 80's music.

I've got to hand it to the Tom Kent show for having a very tight on air sound. I am blown away that they can get away with using recorded station IDs to post songs! When I heard this last night, I wanted to take a stopwatch to figure out how long the K-HITS ID that gets played leading up to the post is. I timed the ID that plays after songs at 2 seconds. Unfortunately, I had more important things to do, so I couldn't hang around to listen to the next time that the shorter station ID was played.

With Boortz no longer on KPAM, now it is a toss up between whether to listen to Tom Kent or to TBTL on KIRO.

I'd like to hear more 80's music on K-Hits!

Boortz is still on KPAM....later after Ingraham. I briefly heard him about 11:55PM tonight as I was switching the dial.......

I screwed up. I should have said with Boortz no longer on KPAM in the 8:00PM to 10:00PM time slot. If I listened to Boortz at 11:00 PM, I would be missing Phil Hendrie. The 1:00 AM delayed broadcast of Phil Hendrie on KPAM is too late for my schedule.

Automatically tape it and play it back during the day. Yeah, I still use a cassette tape recorder to time delay for my convenience something I want to hear. I have a dual deck recorder that will record both sides of one and then go to the other deck and record both sides. I can get 4 hours on two 120's. I play them in my car or on a different deck in my computer room. FF through commercials and other breaks. I use my CC Radio+ and it has a connector that I wired to the cassette deck so that when the CC+ goes on, it starts the recording. I put the deck #1 in record pause mode and wired the pause switch to a plug that goes to the CC+.

Tape delaying brings back memories: When I was in college and shortly after I moved out here, I used to tape delay Coast to Coast AM on a reel-to-reel deck. One of my college roommates nicknamed that deck "The Art Bell Machine." I would put the reel-to-reel on a light timer. At 1 7/8 ips, I could get six hours per pass of the tape if I used 1/2 mil tape.

That is what we used to run for the all night show at Lewis and Clark. Problem was that machine used a big reel and went so slow that it would tend to attract dust from the floor and environment and it would build up on the heads at the end of the path. That head was a split metallic head that you would put some metallic tape at the end of the reel and it would close the gap in the head and trigger the circuit to reverse. By the time it got there, the dust was enough so that the metallic strip never closed the gap so it ran off the end of the reel and shut down.

One of my reel-to-reel decks has an auto-reverse tape (metallic strip) sensor. I remember that many years before I bought that deck, the auto-reverse metallic tape used to be available from Radio Shack. Today, that stuff falls into the category of "unobtanium." I haven't tried too hard to find the auto-reversing tape because my deck only supports playback when running in reverse.

Some years ago, a friend gave me some old reel-to-reel tapes that he had gotten from a friend who died in the late 1980s. Some of those tapes had the auto-reverse strips, but on many of these tapes, the adhesive on the strips had broken down to the point that they fell off when they got to the sensor.

I would rather K-Hits have a local deejay on in the evening. it could be the same style as Tom.
I think Tom would be a better fit on KOOL 105.9 which doesn't have a deejay in the evening.

The music is all wrong for Kool: not enough 60s and too many 80s, which at this point, is any at all! Kool really should cut off everything after about 1972. It would flow much better and clearly set them apart from K-Hits! The only problem would be making it harder to evolve but does anyone actually expect that to happen?

I agree! I would like to see Kool go earlier into its music file. What they have is far too limited of a playlist. I would like to see it play some 50s and early 60's hits in addition to what it already has. Maybe a standard once in awhile would give it more variety. And let them
have the Stoner back on on Saturday afternoons with his forgotten oldies hour! Thats what I miss the most.

If the the term "evolve" in this context means to shift the playlist to later years to reduce aging of the audience, then my answer is no, I don't expect KOOL to do that. This is Clear Channel; when the format becomes undesirable to them for any reason, I expect them to "blow up" the station.

Kool can't go earlier than they already are. They're too early now! The problem is that agency accounts aren't interesting in reaching anyone my age, let alone 10 years older. We're going to wake up some day and at the very least, the mid-60s will be gone!

This just in: The "placeholder" Oldies station in Chicago is now #1 in a demo I've never heard of before, 6+!

sad. best music ever made

6+ is the new baseline demo in people meter markets. Get used to it. 12+ is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, replaced by 6+.

(And stoner, people used to say the same thing about the oldies by Mozart and Brahms. Live long enough and everything becomes a dusty relic. :-)

Moochie why stop there? Let them play all new music! seriously I bet a lot of the younger listeners don't like the new stuff thats on now. at the Christian dances the oldies are the most popular music they play. Kool can't keep doing what they are doing. I mean I once heard them play the exact same oldie K-Hits played at the exact same time. Plus Kool had bigger ratings when smooth jazz was on there.

I have been working on a video lately that I needed some music from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. finished it last week and needed to watch the whole thing straight through on the burned DVD to make sure I got all the slides and video clips correct. Took me three times to verify everything in this 80 minute video. My 12 year old grandaughter was over and sat and watched it, also, playing it throught the surround sound system. Surprisingly, many times on the 60's (spread throughout the decade), she knew the songs and was singing along with them. She even said she loved those songs. There were some 70's and 80's, also. The 60's were not all the top charters, either. Well, Sonny & Cher was.
How she heard them and got to know the songs is beyond me. She was not born during any of that era and her parents weren't either..... well, the 60's anyway.
Yeah, she is into radio disney, Nickolodeon, Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana, etc., but she still knows the oldies. I ask her where she heard them and she doesn't know.

Yes,I don't know if I agree with Stoners exact era but I feel the same about the music of the mid 50's-60's as some of the best music in general. And it isn't on the radio much anymore. So, where did she get it from??????

People almost always feel that the music of their youth, was the best music ever made.

> So, where did she get it from??????

Might some of these songs have been used in TV commercials?

Maybe some,
but commercials would only be a "snippet". She knows all the words and sings along to the whole song. So, she heard them more than once, I would assume.

Radioexpert,
I believe there is some element of truth to that. Likes are all relative and opinions. We all have them. I have seen discussions of artists and music here that I think are complete noise. But, that is just my opinion. I would not say that "ALL" music from the era I like is good. Heavens no. There were some real bad things during that time, also. How they ever became popular, even for a short time, is beyond belief.
Actually, I like music from all decades. I think the desire to hear the older stuff is kinda from the lack of hearing it. If it were played all the time, I probably would have a different view of it.

A lot of the movies have the early hits in them now. That might explain some of it.

This from R&R:

-------------Tom Kent & ABC Radio Networks Join Forces-------------

By Keith Berman

The Tom Kent Radio Network is jumping onboard the ABC Radio Networks train, bringing Kent's weeknight show, his Saturday night "Ultimate Party" and Sunday night "My '70s Show" with him. ABC will now manage all advertising sales for the three shows, as well as growing the already exploding affiliate base.

"Tom is truly a maestro who moves and conducts the music on his shows with genuine energy while understanding how each song relates to his listeners' lives," said ABC Radio Networks senior VP of programming & distribution Carl Anderson. "His career has been built on recognizing the needs of the adult audience and engaging them with entertaining content and the music they want to hear. We're proud to welcome him to our network family and make his shows available to our affiliates."

"With each of our shows, the goal is to create a fun experience for the listener, complete with all the classic songs they love plus the banter and listener interaction that ties it all together," said Kent. "We've been able to reach so many people who appreciate the brand of radio we're delivering. With the emergence of new technologies and the growing need for real content, I'm delighted to join forces with the ABC Radio Networks team who will move us to the next level."

>>-------------Tom Kent & ABC Radio Networks Join Forces------------- <<

Especially interesting since ABC and veteran oldies talent Dick Bartley are ending a nearly two-decades-old relationship later this year. Perhaps ABC sees Kent as a Bartley for a younger generation. Or maybe he'll work for peanuts.

Portland has become one of Tom Kent's anchor markets. His show and K-Hits at night have been #1 with 25-54 adults for the past two Arbitrends.

I've listened to Tom Kent's show on occasion, thought to myself "this is great radio, the stuff he talks about is relevant, the phoners sound like the older adults who call have the enthusiasm of their youth, I'm in the lower end of the supposed-'money-demo' and even I like the show, and it's too bad this isn't being done locally."

Later that night, I'd hear about the layoffs at sister station KUPL.

Just my opinion, but Tom Kent is one of those guys who has been flying under the radar for some years. He was part of the last group of personalties on WLS before the format change. Great timing, good sense of humor, quick and creative. I am happy to see the guy finally get the success he deserves.

This from All Access, yesterday:

--------------------------Tom Kent Grows----------------------------

The TOM KENT Radio Network adds three more affiliates by way of CURTIS MEDIA with the addition of Classic Hits WWMY/RALEIGH, Classic Hits WKIX/GOLDSBORO, NC and NEXTMEDIA AC WMYB/MYRTLE BEACH.

TKRN VP KAREN NEWTON said, "If anyone’s keeping score, that makes a total of 127 affiliates to our exploding radio network in just under nine months! It’s taken nine months to give birth to something we’re all really proud of. Thanks to every one of our affiliates who have made this possible, and of course we want to thank our amazing host who tirelessly works day in and day out to deliver the most fun radio on radio!"

"Portland has become one of Tom Kent's anchor markets. His show and K-Hits at night have been #1 with 25-54 adults for the past two Arbitrends."

I can't believe anyone thought that CC was going to flip 106.7 to another format. K-Hits is a solid performer with 3 years of heritage, not to mention the days of "Portland's Classic Hits" KMJK and "Oldies 106.7" KMXI.

This from All Access:

----------------------Tom Kent Hits The 150 Mark----------------------

"The crusade to end boring radio" continues as the TOM KENT Radio Network adds three more affiliates by way of SAGA AC WSNY/COLUMBUS, OH for "The Ultimate Party" every SATURDAY night from 7p-mid, ENTERCOM Classic Hits WOLX/MADISON for all seven days beginning MARCH 18th and Classic Hits KMJO/FARGO.

Said TOM KENT, "It was one year ago on MARCH 16, 2008 that I started all over again with nothing but my good name and a mustard seed of faith. With our new additions, we now have exactly 150 affiliates and the ABC Radio Network! I’m most thankful to the Good Lord for blessing me with all these great stations and folks who believed in me when I was having trouble even believing in myself. There are too many to mention but I am truly grateful and humbled by their tremendous support."

I like the specials K-Hits has had and the number one his is enjoyable. It needs to go on in the evening too though.

...."The crusade to end boring radio" continues as the TOM KENT Radio Network adds three more affiliates.....

Meaning What? I guess those live local shows are all boring!

Now, I really like the Tom Kent show, I just think that being on 150 stations means 149 other people DON'T have shows...

You can say that he is replacing VTs, or segue serenade for the most part and be right. The issue is all of these stations happily serve up generic radio, but everyone of us know some damn good, talented people who have been shown the door in recent times, and THAT is what sucks.

So congrats on TKs success, but like the other syndie shows, their success comes at the expense of many hundreds of talented people who no longer get to do what they did well.

It would make better sense to have Tom on KOOL than Khits since KOOL doesn't have a deejay past 7pm. I would rather hear a live deejay at least on weekends that would keep the special programming going. the same old 70's songs gets boring. I like the number one hits idea because we hear oldies that I haven't heard in a long time. I also would like the Stoner on K-Hits.

There is simply no way that both stations will survive very long after the upcoming ownership change. It occurred to me that an option I hadn't considered would be a traditional Rock based, Classic Hits format. With KGON moving more and more into the 80s, it seems likely that someone will go that direction eventually. Here's another possibility with common ownership: Have one station lean Rock and the other Pop but keep the same era on both to complement each other.

The next River City radio station will be ... "The Lake."

Why on earth would Clear Channel keep Kool 1059, when K-hits has had much stronger ratings.

To me, It's a no brainer, Kool will get blown up and K-hits will stay.

"Kool" is Clear Channel's brand name for the format. Whatever frequency they keep will be Kool.

Have one station lean Rock and the other Pop .

Thats a good idea I would say. Have one lean toward the classic hits and rock and the other play standards and mix in the older stuff. I think that way the stations would compliment each other and they both won't play the same old songs.

If by "standards", you mean "Elton John" then, yes. We are fast approaching a time when we won't be hearing any 60s at all UNLESS they appeal to an audience that doesn't remember when they were hits.

I don't know what you call it but I find myself listening to 105.9 more than KHITS. Most of the time I land on KHITS, they are playing something I don't like and I rarely will stay to see what is next.

I find I prefer the stuff played on KOOL more than KHITS. IF they change focus to a later era, I will probably stop listening to them, also.
But, I am no longer in anyone's demo, it appears.

plus many of the younger folks like the oldies better than the newer stuff. I don't see the radio dumping the 60's for awhile. If anything needs to be dumped its the 80's. Which is why the number one hits weekend is so fun. I haven't heard one 80's hit put plenty of 50's songs are there. I hope its a sign of things to come on K-Hits. I hear songs I haven't heard in a long time. The only bad part about K-Hits is the evening. They play way too many 80's. Let KOOL do the 80s. Have one station or the other do 80s but not both.

CBS still owns and operates K-Hits, a situation that will change as soon as Clear Channel takes over. Whatever you hear now is just part of their last hurrah. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they didn't have a "first decade" weekend, since they have nothing to lose.

"Kool is Clear Channel's brand name for the format. Whatever frequency they keep will be Kool."

I'm quite sure that Portland will be losing it's "Kool." Clear Channel no longer owns very many "Kool" stations, and CBS owns KOOL in Phoenix. The "Kool" moniker isn't so cool in Portland.

Just looked at the lastest ARB on R&R:

2.8 for KHITS, 2.5 for KOOL... considering margin of error, isn't that pretty much dead equal?

Looks like someone is about to have a 5.

Looks like someone is about to have a 5.....

I never liked combined ratings to boost the selling angle. The 5 only comes into play IF the client is taking advantage of a combo buy. The fact is if your spot is running on K-Hits, the KOOL people aren't hearing it. and versey vicey.

In the Pitsburgh market there is a simulcasted group of country stations. While the combined numbers moves them up as a whole, Individually the best of them is middle of the pack. Advertisers don't get 5 for one, and the listener can only tune into one at a time, If your spot is on one of the others, this listener isn't hearing it. At least KOOL/KHITS are in close proximity These Pissburgh simulcasters are for the most part fringies, which means you run the risk of advertising to listeners out of your shopping range.

NO 5....

Agree Roger! I was just guessing that maybe one will change to something totally different, thus creating a combined audience (somewhat) which would total about 5. Just speculating!

The cluster mentality is missing soooo much with this business line. They have taken the concept of combining operations too far The result is more work for fewer people and the service suffers. Revenue is impacted. Oddly enough the solution seems to be more cuts.

(Airplane analogy coming up)

Even a B-17 could fly on one engine.....

...for awhile...

Big box radio is flying on one engine....

Hopefully they do better than The CW, where they took 2 networks, both with a 2 share, combined them as 1 network, taking the strongest shows from each and ending up with little over a 1 share instead of a 4!

105.9 should have a new format before the Spring book is complete. Considering that Tommy Austin and I think a lot alike, I'm expecting an automated Hot AC/Modern AC type of format, with ID tags at the end of each song. The station would get less than a 3 share (12+)...but would be a better money-maker than "Kool."

If you think that 105.1 has the Hot AC/Modern AC audience well covered, think again. 105.1 is heavily talk-based in mornings, afternoons, and evenings. 105.9 could easily grab the listeners who just want to hear their favorite music, without all the "blah, blah, blah."

I hope we don't have another new music station!! I mean we have way too much of that garbage. We need a mellow format on fm that would contrast to the rock that is everyplace on there. Why not have a standards and adult oriented station instead? If you notice 105.1 is the only new music station thats doing well at least from what I have seen. but there needs to be a change at 105.9. modern is not the way to go.

Every station on the dial is adult oriented unless you want to count Radio Disney and KBPS! If age is any kind of barometer, you need to be over 70 to be compassionate about standards. This is not to say there aren't exceptions. I'm sure there are some teenagers who think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread but you'd be hard pressed to send a sales staff out to reach them.

My 24-year old brother likes Sunny 1550, and liked "1010 Radio Oregon" when that was around.
The bad news for advertisers is he refuses to work or do anything but sit around watching TV all day because he wants to "stay off the grid." (sarcasm) So yeah, lots of money available there! (end sarcasm)

Last night, sitting in for Tom Kent was Steve Kent. The last time I can remember something like that happening was when John Steele sat in for Emperor Don Steele on KISN in 1963!

1550 would be great if they didn't have sports on every night. thats a format that needs to be on FM. Maybe Pamplin needs to buy an FM station and put the music there. and have 1550 for local news and sports. I love the music on there and when they have sports on I have this on:
http://www.classicvinyl101.com/STD/

they follow the format pretty closely. I like NetOldies.Net too. it depends on the mood. I have Klove on now.

The FM frequencies in this market today are probably way too valuable for a format like Nostalgia, which is unattractive to advertisers due to the old demographics to which it appeals. Remember that having a largely older audience was one of the main factors responsible for Easy Listening's disappearance from the FM dial.

actually many of the listeners to oldies are the younger crowd. Go to any of the dances where oldies are played and see for yourself. There is no good new music that I have heard. I sat in my dentist's chair today and he had KINK on and I recognized none of the artists and couldn't figure out the songs. If you might notice KKAD does play some of the newer artists. Many of them do standards now themselves. they would sound great on FM.

WRONG WAYNE!
There is plenty of great new music, some on the radio, a lot of it is not!

So just because you are unfamilar with a song you hear on a radio, that means its bad????????

Im tired of hearing the same "MOLDY" oldies day after day! GIve me some new music.
Remember wayne, not everyone sticks to the old Crusty "Familiar songs" that you like.

There is plenty of new music but the stuff I heard is pretty bad. there are thousands of older music that the radio won't play. Not everyone likes the modern junk either. 105.9 has failed everytime it has tried a modern format. It won't work now either.

This show appears to be gone from the K-Hits airwaves! In its place, I heard the dulcet tones of Mr. Craig Adams. It makes me wonder if there might be changes coming sooner than I expected. Across the street(radio lingo), I thought I heard Scott Tom all day long again.

I wonder if 1080 will change soon now that the Mariners are no longer there.

Tom Kent seems to be back. I don't see how it could be technical difficulty because Craig Adams was right there to fill in.

Right! Tom needed the night off. He gave me a call earlier in the day.

Nice out!

How much of Tom's shows are repeats? I bet a lot.