Friday, May 25, 2007

WABC Rewinds on Memorial Day!

Thankfully taking a break from all the rightie rhetoric, this Monday May 28th - Memorial Day - WABC (770 AM) presents "WABC Rewound" for the 8th straight year. From 6 am to 6pm, the station presents old airchecks from its storied past... here's the schedule:

6AM – Ross & Wilson, Ron Lundy, Johnny Donovan from 1981
7AM - Top 100 of '67 Part 1 – Bruce Morrow/Chuck Leonard
8AM - Harry Harrison from 1976
9AM – Dan Ingram composite from 1966 & 1978
10AM – Roby Young from 1968
11AM - George Michael from 1974 Part 1
NOON - Top 100 of '67 Part 2 - Chuck Leonard/Charlie Greer
1PM - George Michael from 1974 Part 2
2PM - Dan Ingram from 1973
3PM - Dan Ingram from 1975 Part 1
4PM - Dan Ingram from 1975 Part 2
5PM – Bruce Morrow/Chuck Leonard from 1974

After 6pm on Monday, Mark Simone presents a talk show to wrap up the day's events. (Although there's something kinda depressing about Mark Simone... he does dj the great Saturday night oldies show... but I can't stand his right-wing hoo-ha.)

(Which is not to say I'm anti-right wing radio - I like it when it's done well, or at least entertainingly.)

Anyways, you can hear a Johnny Donovan preview of the special here (on Real Audio) or here (in mp3). I will most definitely be recording this on my Radio YourWay!

Speaking of WABC's storied past, it was almost exactly 25 years ago that the station switched over from Top 40 radio to all-talk. If you miss the station like I do, you MUST check out Allan Sniffen's amazingly great tribute site!

80% chance that the merger won't happen

Things aren't looking swell for the XM Sirius merger, I'm afraid to say.

I want the merger to happen. There's plenty of stuff on XM that I'd love to have access to (like this). A single service where the best of both services is offered would be ideal, and would help satellite radio compete against it's real competitors - i.e. not each other, but terrestrial radio and iPods. Keeping the companies battling each other for that early-adaptor audience just hurts the medium, at a time when the medium is struggling to stay afloat.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

OK, I can't stand it

There's just so much going on right now. Artie Lange announced he is going to take a 6-month break off of the Howard Stern show in January. Free-FM is switching back to "K-Rock" at 5 o'clock today, with Opie and Anthony still on in the mornings (but for how long?) Several "shock jock" personalities have been chased off the airwaves because of inopportune statements. XM and Sirius are trying to merge - not too successfully at the moment, it seems.

Meanwhile, I am the proud owner of both a Sirius Stilletto and a Radio YourWay - two groovy gadgets that serve as "Radio TiVos". So I can listen to all kindsa radio on my schedule. And fast forward past the stuff I don't like.

For various reasons, I'm a radio nut. So I'm gonna start up this blog again.