At first blush, this purchase makes little sense: CPR had been looking for another FM station so that it could program all news on one signal and all classical on the other. But now it'll have a news/classical mix on FM, at 90.1 on the dial, and constant classical on aurally inferior AM. In acknowledging this contradiction, Wycisk says some minor format tinkering could be done down the line.
Initially, Crawford declared that KLVZ would charge full-steam-ahead with its classical scheme despite CPR's move. But classical buffs who tuned in to the station on October 9 expecting to hear Mozart got contemporary Christian tunes instead. Reached that afternoon, Crawford confirmed that classical had been ruled out, but added that a change would still have to be made because of the sale two days earlier of KWBI-FM by Colorado Christian University to Sacramento, California's Christian-oriented Educational Media Foundation (EMF), which promptly replaced KWBI's traditional inspirational approach with the same contemporary Christian music KLVZ has been spinning.
Rand Carlson
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This whirlwind left CCFM loyalists dizzy. As organization vice president Doug Crane notes, KWBI, which EMF purchased along with stations in Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs, would have been a better fit for Colorado Public Radio than lowly KKYD; after all, KWBI is on FM, at 91.1, and operates at 100,000 watts. Now, however, no commercial operator will be offering classical, and Crane says CPR's new purchase "still doesn't address the problem of not having continuous classical music on FM with the full fidelity the music deserves."
Hence, CCFM is still working toward bringing classical back to FM; its next meeting is slated for 1:30 p.m. Saturday, October 21, at the Virginia Village Branch Library, 1500 South Dahlia. "We haven't given up hope," Crane says of the organization's goal. "But there are no new developments right now."
Oh yeah? There seem like plenty of new developments to me.
Changing his tune-- again: As those of you who visited this space last week may remember, representatives of KBPI, a Clear Channel station where the phrase "slinging mud" is taken quite literally, have a history of saying one thing and doing another. Well, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, here they go again.
Back in 1998, during a period when syndicated controversy-magnet Howard Stern was being courted by two area stations (the Hawk, which ditched him, and the Peak, which signed him up), KBPI program director Bob Richards repeatedly identified himself as a true believer in local morning shows. In our October 22, 1998, edition, he said, "We think it's in our best interest to come up with a topical Denver morning show where the personalities live and breathe here."
Cut to the present day, when Richards is programming both KBPI and new contemporary-hit-radio station KISS, at 95.7 FM. In the September 21 Denver Post, Clear Channel honcho Mike O'Connor denied that the latter frequency was set to pipe in the early program helmed by Rick Dees at Los Angeles's KIIS-FM, but the show the station started airing a couple weeks ago originates from the very same place: Host Sean Valentine does afternoons for KIIS. Richards insists that the Valentine opus is being assembled specifically for Coloradans, but that's hardly apparent from what's coming over the airwaves. I've monitored significant portions of four separate broadcasts, yet I've heard the word "Denver" mentioned only once. What's more, none of the between-song material was even remotely local -- unless you consider Valentine bragging about his close, personal friendship with Howie from the Backstreet Boys local.
Defending the move, Richards says: "Valentine had Linda Blair and the Goo Goo Dolls and Sting on in the same week, which we wouldn't have been able to do here. But he can also promote contests around shows in Denver. So it's really the best of both worlds."
Would you buy a used rationalization from this man? Me neither.
