All week I’ve been hearing on 103.1 how they are going to go commercial free all day today and tomorrow in celebration of the 24 season premier, sponsored by them in fact. So this morning I drive to the grocery store expecting commercial free 103 but what do I get? the ENTIRE time I was in the car the DJ was on his knees blowing fax and 24 and going on and on about how they are sponsoring 103 all day so there are no commercials and everyone should go watch 24 because OMG Jack Bauer is soo bad ass and go watch 24 and yeah no commercials all day. Except guess what? THAT IS A COMMERCIAL! Commercial free would be the DJ talking about the music and then playing it. Yapping on and on about a TV show everyone should go watch because they paid to sponsor the whole day is just different kind of commercial. Puke.

For all of you Crispin Glover fans out there–and I know you’re out there–I just heard that Mr. Glover will be guesting on the Adam Carolla show (97.1 FM on your radio dial) tomorrow morning. Sorry, don’t know where in the lineup. But I do know I will likely forgo Nic tomorrow to find out.

Woodwork squeaks and out come the freaks…

I’m having trouble getting the online streaming player for 97.1 FM KLSX to work at the moment, but Caryn just called me and said the afternoon triplets Frosy, Heidi & Frank are on air right now so drunk they can barely talk. Apparely it’s amazing. If you are near a radio, turn it on. If you get the streaming thingy to work, post in the comments.

Yeah, you heard me, Jill. You, and your bland, inoffensive focus group generated identity can give back the best part of yourself: your name. Which, might I add, is mine.

I’m referring to JillFM, Jack’s spinoff station. According to the LA Times article (“Jack May Be Annoying, But Jill’s An Airhead”), Jill is not widely available in all of the SoCal area yet – but she’s on her way. She is not so much a radio station, but a composite identity of a woman who owns a radio station, and therefore, plays what she wants. She likes cosmopolitans, but will drink a beer after surfing, she might have a bad girl streak, she has a mountain bike and maybe a Mercedes coupe. She is a self-made woman whose daddy bought her a radio station.

Even if I wasn’t named Jill myself, I would be offended, as a woman, at this station. It isn’t just the music, but the entire concept of the personalized, inoffensive station personality. The website is a makeup mirror. The logo is a lipstick print. The station is “fun with a sassy attitude!” (what, it isn’t sassitude?). And the music itself is equally stereotypical and boring, with songs that range from bland to blander. “AC, Hot AC, CHR, Oldies, Rock, even Country!” (By the way, I don’t even know what AC and CHR are – but I assume the former is Adult Contemporary, a genre I find nauseating at best)

So Jill, please give my name back. Stop degrading me, and fellow Jills everywhere. And by the way, Jillian’s in Citywalk? I’m coming for you next.

Following the abrupt dissolution of KZLA, LA found itself with no country music station. I have good news for disappointed fans — at least those of you with XM Satellite Radio or the inclination to get it.

Reader and ex-Angeleno David, who happens to work for XM, sent me a press release announcing that they’ve taken over as sponsors of “Country Music Bash 06,” formerly hosted by KZLA. The complete release, with information about the various XM country stations, is behind the cut.
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…so I am probably not the ideal person to post this. (Alternate title: blogging.la isn’t a news site, but here is some news.)

A trip to Franklin Avenue finds the news that KZLA is making the dramatic switch from country music to dance/top 40 and changing their name to Movin 93.9. Furthermore, Rick Dees will be the host of their new morning show. Oddly, I am sure I remember Dees, though it seems unlikely that I listened to KIIS FM much in the two months between when I moved here and when he left the station.

The question is, what will LA do with no country music radio? (And what will I do without the “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” billboards to make me laugh?)

Read the full story at Franklin Avenue.

I’ve been a KCRW subscriber for years–an Angel, for the flush ones. (I listen to a lot of NPR in between Dr. Laura and Tom Leykis.)

But these are leaner times chez communicatrix, and I’ve had to cut back lately to the $100 pledge level. Less than I’d like, but the nice volunteers during Weekend Becomes Eclectic (where I’ve pledged since Joe Frank went off the air) seemed satisfied, and I still got 5-count-‘em-5 CDs of my choosing plus, if I timed it right, a free subscription to Los Angeles magazine.

To my great dismay, I’m listening to the (interminable) pledge drive this morning during Nic Harcourt’s show and I hear a lot of “4-pak at the $100 level”, but no 5-pak! Damn this inflation. Between that and Ann Litt off having her baby, this could be the worst pledge drive ever…

So I’m all set to brave the heat and the madding crowds of Costco just now and I bust out the front door to find a DHL box on the steps. At first I figure it’s something for my wife since I certainly wasn’t expecting any deliveries, but when I pick it up nah, it’s got my name on it. Full of curiosity I see it’s come from an M. McGuire at KFWB-AM and immediately I’m all “no frickin’ way!” loud enough that the old unneighborly neighbor examining his overly manicured front lawn across the street looks up at me dourly as if I’ve just confirmed to him that indeed I am a raving loon.

I give him a half wave and bust back inside, practically giddy. In fact I was entirely giddy because I knew that inside the yellow box was the prize for a contest I had entered around the middle of June, and one that I had figured I hadn’t won since there’d been neither a personal notification sent nor nothing I could find on the KFWB website.

The contest? I can’t remember the exact title but it was something like “Super Shooter” and the station was looking for photo submissions that focused on “favorite moments at Dodger Stadium.” And while I have plenty of fave moments from the many games I’ve watched there over my lifetime, there’s only one that I captured digitally, and that was this one taken Sept. 17, 2001, from the top deck prior to the start of the first baseball game to be played there after 9/11 terrorist attacks.
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Santa Monica-based radio station KCRW is looking for volunteers. Broadcasting to Los Angeles and Orange Counties, this member-supported station hosts such favorite programs as Which Way LA with Warren Olney, Art Talk with Ed Goldman, and This American Life by NPR dreamboat Ira Glass (in fact, KCRW is NPR’s California flagship station). This August 11-21 KRCW invites both new and returning volunteers to help with their new computerized pledge drive:

Welcome to KCRW’s new volunteer website.

We are very excited to announce that we have entered the modern age and our pledge drive is now fully computerized!

What this means to you is that all volunteers will be using computers to enter pledges, so please be sure that you feel comfortable working with computers before signing up.

KCRW’s Summer Sign-Up will be held from
August 11th-August 21st, 2006

Go to the Volunteer page for more information. If you’re new, they have loads on info, questions, and orientation materials.

Dear Indie 103.1,
Here’s a little tip for you. If you are going to mention in an e-mail that Joe Escalante is going to be the new morning show host and you want it to stay a secret, you might want to do two things. One, BCC the mailing list and Two, not send it to people who are going to forward it to us with a note saying:

“Hey Blogging.la – Got this today in my work email… I’m still not putting Indie 103.1 back on my radio dial.. Michael Steele can go suck a big fat corporate d**k. Let the world know!! p.s. Note the anti-choice thing at the end of the wikipedia profile.”

This is especially true if the list of people you are CCing is chock full of @infinitybroadcasting.com, @abc.com, @clearchannel.com, @kdka.com and about a hundred other media entities e-mail addresses. And even more so when the e-mail itself has cell phone numbers and studios and hot lines.

Anyway, all that aside, obviously we were just forwarded an e-mail referencing a phone interview with Melora Hardin that will probably be happening next Thursday, May 11th. Personal and Work e-mail addresess and phone numbers removed, here’s the meat of it:

From: gwen727
To: so many e-mails I don’t even know what to do about it.
Subject: Re: Melora Hardin-“The Office” Marsha
…please put Indie 1031.1-L.A. on the phone schedule for Melora Hardin…here’s the info….fyi….this is a new morning show host and they aren’t making the announcement ’til Fri. so mum’s the word…thanks. Gwen
Station: KDLD/KDLE Indie 103.1 Los Angeles
Host: Joe Escalante Show
Times: 6a-10a
Hot Line: 323 xxx-xxxx
back-up # 323 xxx-xxxx
Either Joe or his producer Mike will answer the phone Interview will run live or within 30 minutes of taping Joe’s asst. is Stacey…cell # 323 xxx-xxxx”

For what it’s worth Joe’s legal advice show as actually pretty entertaining (however the standard “oh I totally have the answer to your question, what you are going to do is go to my website and check out…” answer is getting a touch old), but Indie spending how many weeks now before moving one of their current DJs into the morning slot doesn’t lend a whole lot of credibility to the “Dicky was fired because of ratings” story, and makes the Dicky’s “they got pissed and fired me” version seem a lot more believable.