OKLAHOMA BROADCASTING NEWS II April 1999: KOSU, 91.7, Stillwater, brought us another excruciating foulup due to automation and nobody minding the store, Sunday morning, April 4. I've never heard anything like this before: two program sources mixing, evidently the overnight jazz show, and Sound Money, when checked at 6:08 am CDT - but instead of a blend, the two audio sources were rapidly alternating, maybe 10 times a second in rapid pulses of each. This evidently went on for at least an hour, still the case when rechecked at 6:59, including during local promo -- so not strictly an NPR network problem. On and on into beginning of Weekend Edition Sunday, and finally fixed by 7:08 when I suspect someone actually showed up at the studio to prepare a news capsule for 8:04 (gh) March 16: KOCO-TV 5 OKC, the ABC affiliate, has been milking M*A*S*H for all it's worth, re-running it and re-running it after Nightline for years, delaying Politically Incorrect half an hour or more from its original 11:05 pm feed. M*A*S*H was great, and I watched every episode first run, and a few of them on second run, but why would anybody want to keep watching it 25 years later? And frankly, a little Hawkeye Pierce goes a long, long way. Now M*A*S*H has been moved to 1:12 am, because upon very short notice first seen last Friday, KOCO-TV has decided to run Oprah not only at 4 pm but at "11:05 pm" (not sure if same episodes) starting Monday night. One promo at 11:07 pm still claimed it was at 11:05! replacing "boring programming by popular request". What a waste, but is P.I. still on sometime? I rolled a tape and found the next morning that yes, it now follows Oprah at 12:11 am, along with Access Hollywood at 12:43. Oprah really started at 11:10 pm, following a full 5 minutes of local commercials and promos. Why didn't I just look in TV Guide or newspaper listings? Because the change was on such short notice. I'll bet it didn't even make next week's TV Guide or weekly newspapers. There's still no excuse for DAILY TV listings, such as in the Enid News & Eagle, not to have the correct info. They had at least 3 days to get it changed, but listings appearing daily are obviously still set weeks in advance. KOCO might have at least run a streamer at the beginning of Oprah explaining the new times for M*A*S*H, AH and PI but did not. 12:11 am for taping PI is OK with me, since I'm less than impressed with Tom Snyder's successor come March 29. Or I can sometimes get it at 11:05 pm from KAKE-10 Wichita (gh) March 16: From: Capt. Ironbeard Finally, the Heartland Free Radio Network is back with not just one but two programs. The first program is a very interesting presentation given by Robert Hastings, a long time UFO researcher. Using government documentation he gives compelling evidence that something out of the ordinary is out there in the sky. The second program covers the speech given by the Oklahoma director for the ACLU at the Drug Policy of Oklahoma Forum meeting held Feb. 10th. Find out what a brave, fine lady the director is for wanting anything to do with the ACLU after the hellish terror she went through in the past. And if you think California is bad for misjustice relating to the drug war, find out how bad it gets in Oklahoma. For example, misjustice must be getting pretty bad when the U.S. Army has sought assistance from the ACLU for an awful attack by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol upon one of its Black innocent men. For filler you will hear what the Jim Hightower Radio Review sounds like every week on the Phantom 101FM. And finally, for an escape from all this seriousness it's the rude, crude and lewd obscene comedy of Mr. Ginger Lamar taped while performing at the Copa club in Oklahoma City. Caution is advised here since this is an obscene as it dare gets on the Phantom 101FM. It will be interesting if the plans for LPFM are allowed to be finalized and put into effect. Actually, don't know if it will mean, if I will be able to get a license since I don't think there's really all that many vacant frequencies here. If things go to a bidding process, I doubt if I would have a chance if the opposing bidder is say a church with a 1000 members. I don't want more secular and religious right discussion on the radio. There's already more than enough of that around here. Because of that, I am motivated to try for a license, nevertheless, should the opportunity arise, so I can put on the licensed air other voices that don't get heard from around here such as Jim HIghtower along with the other voices heard on such programs as Making Contact, Counterspin and Alternative Radio. (A - Infos News Service via Saul Chernos, amfmtvdx) Evidently a pirate in OKC in the 101 MHz range; anyone know frequency?? LONGTIME RADIO MANAGER PAT MURPHY DIED March 2 in an Enid hospital; he was 77. Began radio career at KADA in Ada, then KWSH Seminole. In 1954 became manager at KCRC and later KNID in Enid, until retired in 1986. He served as a P-47 fighter pilot in WW II and was shot down over Germany. He was a POW for seven months (Scott Fitzgerald, Enid News & Eagle March 4) Pat Murphy had the first chance to hire teenager bh as a radio announcer at KCRC, but we declined when he only offered an entry-level position sweeping floors... (gh) 930 - WKY OKC has replaced Dr Dean Edell during the weekday noon hour with local medical call-in; this is an improvement? Co-operated KTOK 1000 also seems with more local talk 1320 - KCLI Clinton is back on the air, first noted March 3 in daytime, no longer //WWLS-640 but simulcasting "Oldies 107"; had been off for several months 1450 - March 3 around 2010 UT, a very mushy distorted signal was heard here as well as on 1440; did not correlate with KCRC- 1390 as spur, and not sure whence, maybe KGFF Shawnee or KSIW Woodward 1490 - KOKC Guthrie is still off the air, checked midday March 9 1600 - KUSH Cushing is still on the air, contrary to NRC FCC info, when rechecked midday March 9 1610 - Vance AFB, Enid TIS after another hiatus is back on the air, with same old "Threat Condition Alpha -- an actual state of alert and not, I repeat not, an exercise...report any suspicious personnel, objects or activities to security forces..." which has been going on for many months. Ever hear of crying wolf? 88.5 - Per Enid News & Eagle, Fairview has its first radio station, a 250-watt [sic] KJIL translator, from the Kansas empire- building gospel-huxter network (no, not the way they put it) already with several OK and KS translators. Residents raised $15K to put it on, obviously putting higher priority on this than on, for example, public radio. Started about March 1 45 - The Enid translator of Cornerstone TV from PA remains off (gh) KWTV-9 OKC heard on 26450 with "News 9 at Noon", local OK news, March 2 at 1805, including about an election in Enid (Alan Roberts, Montreal PQ) 1600 KUSH OK Cushing: license CANCELLED, call DELETED (Buffalo K. Foonman and his imaginary friend Jerry Starr, NRC DX News AM Switch Feb 15) A surpise to me, as KUSH always there on daytime bandscans, and still there when checked Feb 16 at 1857 with full ID, and I do mean full, ending with "Milky Way Galaxy" (gh) OKC's 1340 outlet, originally KOCY and a popular rocker in the 60s, has undergone several transformations, and now has a split personality. Most of the day when we can hear it, it's "Radio Caliente" in Spanish. A half-page ad in the Jan 1-15 issue of OKC's Black Economic Times freebee says Edwards Broadcasting, KEBC 1340 AM is: "The Groove--The Adult Urban Choice in OKC...Temptations, Dramatics, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, Johnnie Guitar Wattson, James Brown, Chi- lites, Kirk Franklin, Prince [sic], Toni Braxton, Luther. The Best in Soul Classics and Current Urban Hits. Featuring your favorite DJ's... Walter Williams, Johnny Soul, Sonja Vaughn, Marcus Wayne, Edward E., Van'ce, L.J. the D.J. -- M-F 7 pm-7 am, Sat-Sun 7 pm-9 am"BTW, airhead anchor department: The OKC Fox affiliate, KOKH-25, devoted about 15 seconds to the quake Monday night, during which the anchor told us Colombia is in Central America, and the illiterate- in-charge-of-graphics spelt it "Columbia". The anchor's claim to fame was a lawsuit against his former employer over his wig (gh)
CLINTON TRIAL. One can scan the entire AM, FM and TV broadcast bands here and find this momentous event covered live on only one station. The TV networks covered a bit of the first day, as I recall, and then quickly lost interest. KROU polled its listeners and decided not to carry it live, but NPR's one-hour wrapup at 7 pm. KROU even referred listeners to WKY-930 which was running it gavel to gavel. But WKY didn't have it on every day thereafter; it's owned by Eddie Gaylord of the Daily Disappointment, No. 1 Clinton-hater, and seemed more likely to run the trial when the prosecution was speaking. On other days, newsradio KTOK (which also operates WKY in LMA for Gaylord), had it instead. Gavel-to-gavel we could also hear from NPR on KMUW Wichita (gh)
As you know, the Jan. Columbia Journalism Review called the DAILY OKLAHOMAN "America's worst paper". A D.O. staff member wrote a response to the CJR article posted at: http://www.ionet.net/~gpalmer/Letter.html I found it at a tabloid site--The Obscure Store and Reading room: http://www.obscurestore.com/ The original CJR article is at http://www.cjr.org/year/99/1/worst.asp (Chet Copeland)
TV AUDIO. KWTV-9 in OKCOK has a much "louder" sound than any of the other stations in the market--so much so that one is obliged to turn it down or up when switching channels. Must be using some different audio processing, but shouldn't they all be the same level? This is really annoying (gh)
ARGUS, WE HARDLY KNEW YE -- KTOK-AM radio listeners don't have comedian Argus Hamilton to kick around anymore. The news-talk radio station last week dumped Hamilton's nightly show, which originated from his adopted home of Los Angeles. "While Argus is a very talented individual, it just wasn't working on the radio station," said KTOK program director Bruce Collins. He said the decision to replace Hamilton with local talk-show host Cam Edwards was not prompted by the comedian's left-leaning politics. "If I could find a good liberal talk-show host that would go on the air and get some great ratings, I would stick him on immediately," Collins said. Hamilton, a native Oklahoman, was something of a talk radio curiosity, proving to be a strident -- and insufferably obnoxious -- defender of both President Clinton and Daily Oklahoman publisher Edward L. Gaylord. Now, that's an odd couple. Edwards, KTOK's former assistant news director, will incorporate news and entertainment on his program. "Cam's show is to try and reach a younger demographic," Collins said. (Phil Bacharach, Oklahoma Gazette, January 13, via John Norfolk)
KROU/KGOU: The Sunday morning at 10 slot continues to go to waste, despite cancellation of NPR's Only A Game - one week it was a presumably soporific speech about economics from the Commonwealth Club -- but availability of that is a hopeful sign; the next week it was the National Press Club with that ******* J. C. Watts and numerous reps of the Daily Disappointment at the head table. Station says they are interested in getting the new Bridges shows (gh)
ENID: The ch 45 Cornerstone satellator has been off again for a few weeks now; good riddance, but could pop up again anytime
ENID: KOFM 103.1 for a couple months now has been putting spurs on about 103.8 and 102.4. The former is especially troublesome for KEYN 103.7 Wichita which can no longer be heard without a good tropo opening.
OKC: Ch 43, the UPN station, quietly changed calls recently from KPSG, which it had used since purchased last summer from OETA, to KAUT and put on a Gene Autry film festival. KAUT were theoriginal calls for this channel, when it was owned by Gene Autry, possibly resumed in tribute to the late cowboy-broadcaster. When itstarted, KAUT tried on-air scrambled subscription TV for a few months,with main channel sound carrying a barker. Some dimwitted newspapers never got around to changing their listings from the originalKAUT calls, all during the OETA years when it was KTLC, and during the KPSG period, and now are correct again! (gh, Dec 21)
KGGF, 690, Coffeyville KS, but covering much of Oklahoma has Paul Harvey at the convenient delayed time of 12:40 pm; but on Jan 4, barely after he had started, he was interrupted by several takes of a commercial for the Silver Moon Cafe, accompanied by hemming and hawing, as if the production studio were inadvertently put on the air. This went on for about 5 minutes before PH came back.
WKY, 930, Oklahoma City, broadcast the exact same Dr. Dean Edell hour at noon, at least three days in a row, Dec 31, Jan 1 and Jan 4. Wake up, expletives!
Vance AFB TIS on 1610 after several week's absence, was back Dec 31 afternoon, first noticed some 50 miles away on the road back from OKC, with the usual "Threat Condition Alpha" alert message, as if an enemy attack were imminent.
KOSU, 91.7, Stillwater, one Sunday morning, maybe Dec 20, at 7 am failed to bring up NPR Weekend Edition Sunday, but instead started repeating the 6 am NPR Money program; and it started for a third (?) time at 7:30, automation gone wild? I finally phoned their 800 number around 7:35, and bingo! They turned on WESUN before ever answering the phone. Sounds like their AM operator was literally asleep, not the first time.
KROU/KGOU 105.7/106.3, Norman, has been running NPR's Only A Game on Sundays at 10 am for several weeks since Bridges was canceled. But the GM was heard admitting on the air that the show was not getting enough support to keep it on, and suggested dedicating that hour instead to NPR Press Clubs and misc. other specials. I told her, yes, please, ASAP; surprised in of all places, Norman, a sports show wouldn't make it, but then Norman is supersaturated with a Sports Animal on 640 and 104.9; I notice the 640 has applied for a daytime power increase from 1 to 5 kW, which will have a negative impact on a public radio neighbor, WOI in Iowa, and on hearing KFI in the daytime as far as eastern New Mexico.
Subject: PULSE INTERNET RADIO [posted here Oct 22] The following letter from Derek Goodson appears in the October 14, 1998 issue of the Oklahoma Gazette: The Gazette's Letters to the Editor section has featured a steady stream of people over the years complaining about how bad the local radio stations are. A. Smith's recent letter made me so sad, because he didn't hear that there was a good radio station in Oklahoma City for a little while, Pulse 22.5, located at http://www.pulsemusic.com, was an Internet-only radio station located on N.W. Expressway. I found the station in March and listened faithfully until they signed off at the end of last month. I e-mailed the program director to ask why they signed off, and he said that the immense cost of putting the station on the Internet ate them up, but they were working to finding cost-cutting solutions to get them back on the air. When they do, you'll want to be there, believe me! If you have tunnel vision and only want to listen to one type of music, like alternative, you won't be completely satisfied: Pulse played everything! You can see what their last play list looked like by visiting the website [ http://www.pulsemusic.com ] -- alternative, R&B, rock, pop, even some crossover country. This is what a true Top 40 station is supposed to be -- the best of everything! Unlike the other stations in town, they didn't play the same songs over and over; they boasted in one of their jungles that they had over 7,900 songs in their library! I don't think I ever heard the same oldie more than three times during the whole time I listened, and they didn't beat the new songs to death either. Even if I didn't like some the artists they played, it was worth listening just to be relieved from hearing the same songs repeated every three hours! If one of the "real" radio stations in town would dump their current lame programming and put Pulse's brand of radio on, it wouldn't surprise me if they were No. One immediately. Several of my friends that I told about the station got addicted to it and have been depressed ever since they signed off. I, like Smith, have reverted back to my CD collection, including many CDs by artists that I would only exposed to through Pulse. If you would like to be notified when "good radio" comes back to Oklahoma City, got [sic] to their website and send them an e-mail and they will let you know when they sign back on. When that happens, you'll never listen to over-the-air radio again! (via John Norfolk, OKCOK) Oct. 6: The major OKC TV stations blew away their entire prime time schedules Sunday night for continuous tornado warnings. No Sixty Minutes (tho I got part of it snowily from Wichita, which also had tornado warnings but more sensibly used split screen, etc., missing very little of the program). No 20/20, The Practice. No Rob Roy. Touched by an Angel finally got played at 2:15 am (not that I wanted to see it), cutting off the last few minutes of Siskel & Ebert, which also had its first few minutes cut off for more tornado warnings--KWTV repeatedly treats S&E as mere filler, totally expendable, also routinely joining in progress its other airing, if it happens, the morning before at 4:35 am. Ch 34, the WB affiliate, doesn't have a news department, but has an automatic system to cut off the program audio for tornado warnings from the NWS while the video continues, most annoying, as it could just as well be a video streamer only. Ch 25, the Fox affiliate, was wrapped up in a stupid ballgame, delaying the season premiere of Deep Space Nine by 43 minutes. I had to keep an eye on the game, yecch, to be sure I didn't miss DS9. The extremely competitive big 3 in OKC ran non-commercially the entire evening, and got some great live shots of tornados before darkness fell, especially ch 9. Once again Enid escaped any severe weather, which tracked both north and south of here, especially south. But I've got to get the hell out of here. It's nerve-wracking, to say the least, never knowing whether your house will be destroyed in the next storm, with nothing but fortuna to rely upon. Back to broadcasting. How did we get into this situation, where the best means of tornado-warning must coexist with major network primetime TV? Perhaps multi-channel DTV in a few years will finally allow normal schedules to continue unscathed on one subchannel while storm warnings occupy another, but I'm not counting on it. If I subscribed to a DBS service, I would not be eligible for network TV, since I'm in the coverage area of local stations -- but this is exactly when I would need access, temporarily, to NBC, CBS, ABC from some other city! Once it was clear Enid was out of danger, but the storms were still a major threat to the south and east, I was ready for normal TV, but couldn't get it from OKC. I'm not begrudging the potential life-saving aspect of the tornado stations, and next time it could very well be me in the path. But in this already multi-channel age, why must entertainment and emergency occupy the same channels, only one at a time? (gh) The new AMC Southroads 20 movie complex in Tulsa, near 41st and Yale, has movie showtimes on 88.5 FM, as widely publicized on signs around the place. Must be quite low power, as starts to fade at the exit from the parking lot, and just about gone by a block away (gh) Tulsa cable notes as of Sept 24: the Prevue Channel (24) has SAP activated, carrying "Cable Radio Network", what a waste, with a psychic call-in when I checked. I happened upon a low-priced motel which not only has the advertised HBO, but lots of other premium channels in the clear: Disney, Encore, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz! not to mention a non-scrambled "PPV" continuous sex channel with titles bilingual English/Portuguese! (gh) Here in northern OK, 95.1 is normally dominated by KICT in Wichita KS, which I usually check only once a week, Sundays at 6 am for their public-affairs interview show (probably their only listener who would rather hear that, depending on the topic, than their music), but on Sept 13 it was getting overriden by an OK station I had not heard before, KQCV-FM in Shawnee, religious, and claiming both Oklahoma City and Tulsa in its coverage! -- probably the only FM station to make such a claim, tho it's a lot closer to OKC. The 1997 FM Atlas lists it as KABH 100 kW non-commercial, but the 1998 M Street directory still has it as a 100 kW CP for commercial KQCV, i.e. with the OKC AM 800 station. Perhaps it just started up, but under normal conditions Wichita still dominates, and I wonder if Shawnee is at full power and full schedule yet, and where the transmitter site actually is. Sept 24 at 8:24 am CT check, with the antenna aimed at OKC, this was atop KICT with religion, but not //800 religion. Offered KQCV program guide for both AM and FM (gh) GRITZ FOUND SHOT - Wound apparently self-inflicted (Wire and staff reports) BOISE, Idaho -- Enid native James "Bo" Gritz, the former Green Beret colonel and leader of the right-wing Patriot Movement, was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound along a highway near his home after falling into despair over his pending divorce. Clearwater County Sheriff Nick Albers said the 59-year-old Gritz shot himself in the upper left chest with a .45-caliber handgun. Albers would not say whether the shooting was an attempted suicide, but he did say it was not accidental. The wound was not life-threatening, Albers said. Gritz grew up in Enid. His father was killed during World War II. He was raised by his grandparents, the late Tillman and Mary Gundy in their home at 1716 E. Oklahoma. Gritz attended Longfellow Junior High and then left Enid to attend Virginia Military Institute. He returned to Enid occasionally to visit his grandparetns and his great-uncle, Dr. E.C. Gritz. In an interview on Thursday, Gritz (rhymes with "frights") admitted he had contemplated suicide because of his marital problems, said Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report. "I've thought about looking at the other end of my pistol a few times ... because what kind of life do I have without my bride?" Potok quoted Gritz as saying. "I have lived such adventures, ... but what else is there to live for except for her, really? She's been my dream girl. Now my reality is my nightmare." (Enid News & Eagle Sept 22 via gh) KVLH, Pauls Valley harmonic heard last week on 2940 = 2 x 1470 is now gone, no sign of it before or after 1100 Sept 15, and actually already missing a few mornings before in brief spot check (Glenn Hauser, Enid) However, again heard at 1055 check Sept 30 on 2939.8 with ID. KOKC, 1490, Guthrie is back on the air, first noted Sunday afternoon, Sept 13, with TalkAmerica network show It's Your Money after local noon; at 12:59 ID was "The Metro-Talk 14 Network, 1400 KNOR, Norman-Oklahoma City, and 1490 KOKC, Guthrie-Edmond. We had heard KNOR was planning on getting KOKC back on to complete its coverage of the OKC metro area, and now it makes it easily as far as Enid; presumably all duplicated, including WORLD OF RADIO Saturdays at 7 am (gh)