KGO San Francisco flips from their long-time talk format to Sports Betting talk, and the MW DX community flips their wig over it.
In this article I discuss this change at KGO, as well as some changes in the MW radio scene -- and at the bottom is a section on the band PANTERA, who are recently reformed.
As many of my readers probably know, I frequently write about the hobby of long distance MW radio listening, also known as 'Medium Wave DXing', and I also DX ("distance listen") the Shortwave broadcast bands, too.
It's fun hearing music, foreign languages, and other programming beaming and phasing its way over the hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of miles, sometimes coming from the other side of the Earth, and making it into my radio's headphones.
Most of my articles are about various aspects of the hobby, as well as the radios one can use to enjoy it.
I also frequent some of the online Radio and DXers forums, and am a member of a couple social media MW groups. One thing I've noticed frequently is that a large percentage of MW DXers and SWLs have nothing but complaints about what they're hearing on the bands.
I hate to actually say it, but a lot of them sound like the stereotypical old curmudgeons saying "Get off my lawn!"
Only in this case, it could be "Get off my Kilocycles!!"
Being that we are probably entering the last stages of SW and MW use, I find this "AM radio sucks" and "SW is nothing more than religion, Cuba and China" attitude curious at best.
I mean, we have maybe 15 to 20 years left of MW, if that -- and SW may not last longer than 10 more years, especially if propagation (caused by the sun) continues to suck -- and yet so many MW and SW radio fans are bitching and complaining about the state of programming on the bands, as if the bands going to be active forever. Some of the more vocal complainers even insist that if the stations refuse to play the programming that they like, the stations should just go off the air, as if that would remedy the issue of AM band programming.
No kidding -- there are some who actually say that.
What in the world are they thinking?
My conclusion: they're not thinking it through enough.
There is indeed good music and programming on the AM band, even today. There also is some interesting sounding stuff on the SW bands (when propagation permits). However, you probably have to tune around to find it. And then you gotta listen.
But some recent changes in some stations' formats has brought the old "AM programming sucks" complaints to the fore again.
KLYC, McMinnville, Oregon (1260 AM) is a station that plays a great mix of Classic Hits, and they are often audible here in the Seattle area at night. They went off the air for about eight months or so several years ago when they had transmitter issues. The new owner put them back on the air, and they serve their community well -- they even have local spots, which is great to hear, as it means they have some support from the local business community.
They can be heard in stereo online on TuneIn!
(TuneIn link at the bottom of their website)
KGO FLIPS, AND MW DXers FLIP THEIR WIGS
A case in point: recently, a long-time popular West Coast station on the AM band changed formats: KGO, San Francisco, 810 on the AM dial.
KGO used to be what you could call a literal radio powerhouse: They had a night time audience up and down the West Coast of the US. As late as the early 1980's they made the night time ratings in places like Portland and Seattle. My grandmother used to listen to KGO's talk host Ira Blue at night in the 1960's. Even non-radio enthusiasts knew about KGO. It's how good their talk programs were, and also due to how well their signal got out up and down the West Coast of the US. Even today, there are nights were KGO can be almost local quality 800 or more miles away from their transmitters.
KGO was so vital a part of San Francisco's media culture that Bill Wattenburg, a Sunday night host -- who had a wide-ranging audience all over the Bay Area as well as much of California, and other parts of the West Coast -- even appeared in a Clint Eastwood 'Dirty Harry' movie!
..... And Enter the PORTABLE PEOPLE METER
As late as the early 2000's, KGO had high ratings and popular talk hosts who ranged from conservative to liberal to somewhere in between.
When the ratings system switched over from diary-keeping to the "PPM" -- the "Portable People Meter", an electronic device that somehow could tell what station you listened to, and how long you listened -- around 2006, the ratings for KGO and a lot of other stations (as well as individual radio programs, like the famous night time 'Delilah' music and talk program) dived.
The PPM was apparently highly accurate compared to the previous diary methods of ratings gathering. Consequently, many stations and programs saw their ratings fall, because during the diary-keeping era people would fill out an entire block of listening time, in their diary, listing one station or program -- while the later, electronic PPM showed they either weren't really listening to that station or program, or they were switching through several stations during that period.
It was a major shake-up in the radio industry (perhaps even worse than the Telecom Act of 1996), to say the least. And KGO was one of the victims. For several years after the mid 2000's various versions of the talk format were attempted on the station, to try to bring the ratings back up. Apparently none of the changes were helping the station's bottom line. Even the installment of solar power (which reportedly supplied a third of KGO's daytime transmitting power) didn't offset the expenses of running a big-city radio station.
Fast forward to late last year, November 2022. KGO's owners gave up its news-talk format, embracing a new, up and coming trend in AM talk radio: Sports Betting.
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TURNING YOUR RADIO INTO A 'SLOT MACHINE'? Nope
Now, I don't bet or gamble. I never have found it appealing in the slightest. Even if I play poker or similar card games, it's only with chips, or played with no betting whatsoever. But a lot of people apparently love to gamble. Tribal casinos in my state make a LOT of money off of gambling, and Las Vegas didn't build those magnificent and sparkling, high rise, luxury hotels because there is no money in gambling.
The Rise of Fantasy Football's Importance
There is a TON of money in gambling. And a lot of sports fans apparently love to gamble on games. Even a simple search on the subject will show that the fantasy football craze has a gambling aspect. Fantasy football, when it started, was a somewhat odd and geeky looking hobby for sports nuts, who worked it all out on sheets of paper, making up their 'fantasy' football teams, and they 'played' against other guys in the office or at college. Then, eventually, gambling entered the picture.
Combine that with the widespread reach of the internet, and Fantasy Football is apparently big business. During the lulls in the NFL TV ratings during the kneeling controversy in 2016-2017, there were some observers who believed that Fantasy Football enthusiasts (a.k.a. sports bettors) were part of what kept the ratings as high as they were.
Some would say that gambling and betting is part of what has made fantasy football such a big deal. Consequently, Sports Betting is a big deal.
And Sports Bet talk on Sports radio is a big new deal. I first heard about it over a year ago when an AM station Back East somewhere flipped to Sports Bet talk. In fact, it was the first time I'd heard of there being a radio format dedicated to the subject.
However, KGO's flip to Sports Bet talk in November 2022 was pretty big -- as they were probably the largest AM station with the biggest legacy to flip to Sports Betting.
Now they didn't go to 24/7 sports bet talk. They have a lot of CBS Sports Radio programming during the day, including Jim Rome's popular sports talk show. And at night they have CBS Sports Radio's Amy Lawrence. They broadcast a lot of NFL Football Games, too. I can hear that programming at night, via skywave.
But when KGO flipped to sports bet talk, you'd have thought that the end of the world happened. Guys who have never even heard KGO in their life were complaining about the flip. They were denigrating the Sports Betting format, and saying it was a 'new low' in AM station programming. When KGO's ratings dipped further after the new format took hold, some MW DXers said "I told you so!" There was the perennial call for Oldies music, or "live and local!"
Of course, before the format flip, KGO was indeed "live and local". And "live and local" simply wasn't making enough money.
So they went for a format that apparently makes the station some money: Sports Betting talk. And as for the lower ratings, Sports Betting talk, like Sports talk radio, doesn't depend on ratings. Apparently a Sports or Sports Betting station can still make money with low ratings. The advertisers aren't looking for big numbers of listeners. They are more interested in a specific type of listener instead. And sports talk radio, and sports betting radio, generally have the listeners those advertisers seek.
It's El-Dullo, but the regular Sports programs are still good
My take on Sports Bet talk is that it's boring. The other, standard style Sports talk programming on KGO is still good, though, but when the actual Sports Bet talk people are on, in my opinion they just don't sound compelling, or even entertaining. But does that matter? Apparently not. It's making the station -- and increasing numbers of stations across the US -- enough money to keep the lights on. And that is keeping KGO on the air.
And it's not just Sports Betting stations that talk about sports betting. The regular Sports Talk stations discuss betting on games, too. Last night I heard at least two advertisements on one of the main US sports talk radio networks, promoting a popular fantasy football betting program and website. I've heard prominent sports talk hosts mention the 'odds' one team had over another to win, and how much they either won or lost on the game's outcome.
Even in AP News items on football games -- the story about the upcoming Seattle Seahawks game against the Los Angeles Rams being an example -- a separate story on Fantasy Football betting odds is linked right next to the start of the AP story.
Gambling is big business, folks.
And, consequently, Sports Betting is big business.
Are you located out of the Western US and Canada, and want to hear KGO? Here is their Tune-In stream link.:
THERE STILL ARE OLDIES AND CLASSIC HITS -- JUST LISTEN FOR IT
In the MW DXer community, however, KGO's flipping to sports betting talk didn't just center on Sports Bet talk, but the change also brought about a lot of convos about AM station programming in general. And a lot of the comments were -- naturally -- fairly negative.
They were the usual complaints about AM radio programming -- about how the stations program "junk", i.e. nothing but conservative talk, ethnic programming, religion, sports talk, etc. It seems that a lot of MW fans wish it was still 1966 and they were in L.A. hearing 93 KHJ playing the Beatles and the Monkees. A lot of MW fans still wish they could hear Top 40, 60's Oldies and Rock music on the AM band. Such formats on AM are pretty rare, indeed.
The Top 40 music and Rock music ship on AM sailed long ago, guys. The Top 40 ship sailed when Radio Disney gave AM radio the boot in 2015. The Rock format exists on maybe a couple stations nationwide (KBRE 1660 Merced being one of them). But that's about it for actual Rock on AM.
Here is my blog post on Radio Disney, which sadly left the AM band in 2015, and gave up on radio completely in 2018 and 2020:
And here is my blog post on KBRE, The Bear, 1660, Merced -- a really cool Rock station which still plays hard rock on AM all over the West, and FM in the Merced - Los Banos metro of California. They also stream.:
And here is KBRE The Bear's website, with a "Listen Live" button, if you want to hear their stream. I don't think they geo-fence. I am 900 miles N of them, and out of their market, and I hear their stream!:
As for pure Oldies, there are some oldies you can hear to some extent, on some Classic Hits stations, amazingly enough. I hear some oldies at night on CJYM 1330 out of Saskatchewan; KLYC 1260 out of McMinnville, Oregon; KAJO 1270 out of Grants Pass, Oregon plays a lot of classic hits, including a few oldies. KBAI 930, about 90 miles north of me in Bellingham, WA, includes a few 1970's and 80's oldies in their classic hits mix. KVNI 1080, Coeur D'Alene, ID, about 320 miles east of me, also plays a good mix of Classic hits. KSWB, 840 out of Seaside, OR plays a good mix, but I haven't heard them in a while (probably because of the bizarre MW propagation over the past several years).
CKJR, 1440 khz, Wetaskiwin, Canada, plays oldies.
A station I don't hear often, but when it comes in, it comes in well, is CKJR 1440 Wetaskiwin, Alberta. They play a 60's heavy selection of Oldies. So if you live in or near the northern tier of US states west of the Mississippi, 1440 may be a channel worth checking.
A semi-local station about 50 miles north of me, KRKO 1380, plays classic hits from the 70;s and 80's 24/7. I think they even toss in a couple big late 60's / early 70's R&B hits.
There is other, non-rock older music on AM that I can hear, also. Two stations north of me play Classic Country: KXA 1520, out of Snohomish plays nothing but Classic Country, and KAPS 660 out of Mount Vernon includes a few in their modern country music format. Sometimes KRLC, 1350, Lewiston, Idaho comes in and they play Classic Country.
There's a station in B.C. Canada, in Penticton on 800 that plays a lot of recent and classic pop and rock hits: CKOR, which calls itself "Bounce Radio". Further east in Canada I can often hear CKJH Melfort, SK, which plays a similar format, and they call themselves "Beach Radio". A station out of Medicine Hat, CHAB, on 800, also plays some older hits but it's usually covered up by CKOR.
So there are stations on MW in North America that play the older hits from time to time.
You just have to LISTEN for them.
Then you have the Asian and Indian Subcontinent format music stations, of which there are a handful I can hear, especially at night, when they tend to play a more traditional style of music. One station out of Sacramento, KFSG 1690, plays everything from ethnic music to Asian and American electronic dance pop. There even are a couple standards stations that sometimes come in at night.
All this I can usually hear most nights on just a decent AM radio, in a moderately populated area of the US. But I'm hearing music, on the AM band, every single night. It can't be all that different in other parts of the US and Canada.
MW enthusiasts and DXers should know this. After all, they supposedly listen when they DX, don't they?
A lot of stations play music on the AM band!
FM TRANSLATORS ALLOWING AM STATIONS TO PLAY MUSIC = BAD?
You Gotta Be Kiddin' Me
It makes the complaints over the "lack of music" on AM sound lame, lame, lame. And usually those complaints mean they despair the lack of 1960's and 1970's oldies on AM. But, as anyone with ears can figure out fairly quickly, one can hear plenty of music on the AM band, especially at night -- even some 60's and 70's oldies here and there -- as I just mentioned.
Some bitch and complain about AM stations having FM translators, even when those translators allow the AM's to play music on the AM band. The stations are now playing music on AM, thanks to the translators, but that's somehow bad. At least 2 or 3 of the stations I mentioned above that play Classic hits or Classic Country have FM translators.
A lot of the MW fans say the AM stations with translators only mention the AM frequency at the top of the hour, and the rest of the time ID as an FM station. As a MW listener, I understand that frustration, but the economics of radio justifies the pushing of the FM translator, and, face it -- it keeps the AM alive.
Either way, it seems that with some of these MW DX'er curmudgeons, the AM stations simply can't win.
There just seems to be an attitude of bitching and complaining in the MW DX hobby that -- after a while -- gets tiring. It's understandable, as it's similar to the comments under any YouTube music track that is over 10 years old: "The music was better back then". "Music sucks now". "Remember when there was no autotune". Etc., etc., etc.. Missing the past is a common human element. I've seen it expressed on YouTube by Boomers, GenX'ers, and Millennials alike.
I miss the 2010-2014 era of pop music. I even had more than one blog post about it. Yet I am not a Millennial. So I get it. We all miss the past. And we all complain about how the present is worse than the past was. And for some, maybe it's truly that way. I get that, too. Believe me. Most of my family is gone. I understand that feeling.
Unfortunately, there are no Time Machines.
And until they come up with time machines, we're stuck with the radio bands we've got, oldies or no oldies, sports betting or no sports betting.
And -- last but not least -- I remember when I was younger, I would tune around and DX to hear different stations play pop and rock music from far away. I tuned in stations from places like Vancouver, B.C. (CKLG and CFUN); Yakima (KMWX); Lewiston, Idaho (KRLC); Walla Walla, WA (KUJ); Aberdeen / Hoquiam, Washington (KGHO); Centralia, WA (KITI); Mt. Vernon, WA (KBRC); and even Chico, California (KPAY) just to hear their take on pop and rock (as I live in an area with very little DX on FM, on that band it was locals-only on my radio).
On the internet forums, a lot of MW DXers talk about when they were younger and tuned around to hear music stations.
Have they completely forgotten about tuning around at night to hear music?
My old Penncrest 1993, AM-FM-SW transistor radio, pic taken when I switched it on this Christmas Eve. The radio itself was a Christmas present on Christmas Eve a long time ago. It was my first transistor radio. I used it on every camping trip, and used it at home to listen to the AM and FM bands, as well as SW. I even hung out a 60 foot wire antenna and I first heard Radio Australia with this radio. It's the radio on which I first heard AC/DC. In 2011 I cleaned it up and switched it on. It took a while for it to work. I think the capacitors had to recharge. Ever since then it's worked well. I turn it on about once a month to keep it running. And every Christmas Eve since 2011, I turn it on, and remember the days.
THE WALL-TO-WALL STATIC, 31 METER SW BAND
And the days for the AM and SW radio bands are numbered, folks. We all know it. Even FM's days are numbered. The internet is taking over everything. Streaming is the new "radio", and "radio" is just another form of "content". The future is already here. It just hasn't completely taken over yet.
This complaining about "lack of good programming" on MW and SW is just shooting yourself in the foot. We all need to enjoy what we have, while we still have it.
If you don't agree, just tune across the 31 Meter SW Band some night. I just did that, about eight hours ago. Instead of hearing maybe 5-6 stations, I heard ZERO. Not even WWV was coming in. It was wall to wall static. The sunspot cycle obviously isn't really getting the job done. But it's not just the horrible propagation -- from increasingly dudsville Solar Cycle 25 -- that makes the band devoid of stations. There are less and less SW stations, too.
Never in my life before 2017 or so, when the last Solar Cycle (#24) died, had I heard the 31 Meter Band be nothing but static. It always was wall-to-wall signals. WWV was always audible. And during the Cold War, when SW was used for propaganda purposes by both sides, there were always plenty of loud signals to hear, even when the propagation was down. But since the sunspot dive in 2017, the old, dependable 31 Meter Band has been dead, dead, dead more than once.
I used to listen to Radio Australia nightly for years -- decades, actually -- on 5995 and 9580 khz, regardless of the Solar Cycle. They pumped a pretty hefty signal in our direction here, and it came across the Pacific, regardless of sunspots. If the Sunspots were up? 5995 and 9580 came in well. If the Sunspots were down? 5995 and 9580 came in well.
Not any more. The Australian 'liberal' government yanked Radio Australia off the air. Like a lot of international broadcasters, they didn't see the point of having internationally based Shortwave broadcasting anymore -- despite the fact that rural Australians in the Outback actually depended on R. Australia's news and information programming.
It's an example of the sad fact that there are less stations to hear on SW, and what stations there are on SW are prey to the Sunspot Cycle, which seems to be touch and go lately.
But there still is plenty to hear, when the propagation is working well. I've heard China broadcasting to Europe in German and Russian, from places like Kashgar. I've heard China broadcasting to India in English and Hindustani, from central China. I've heard Radyo Pilipinas broadcasting from the Philippines to the Filipino workers in the Middle East in Tagalog. I've heard TWR, a religious broadcaster, broadcasting in Russian and Castilian Spanish to Europe, from Madagascar. I've heard the VOA broadcasting to West Africa in English from Botswana, and the BBC broadcasting in English to West Africa from Ascension Island.
All on my Grundig G2 or other, simple SW radios.
There still is a lot to hear, and not all of it is Brother Stair. You've got to tune the band, channel by channel, and ACTUALLY LISTEN.
It's the same thing with the AM band. You've actually got to listen to appreciate whatever programming you're hearing. Sometimes it means you learn to ID languages, or learn to appreciate forms of music you didn't grow up with.
But some day, if you live long enough, you'll tune across the MW band and hear nothing but static. It may be 15 years, it may be 25 years, but it's destined to happen. Just as I heard this past night on 31 Meters -- a band that used to be SLAMMED , wall-to-wall, with radio signals nightly -- you'll tune around and hear NOTHING.
And all those complaints about "there isn't any good programming on AM" or "there's nothing but Cuba and Brother Stair on Shortwave" will mean absolutely nothing.
A pic I took of my Christmas lights -- a couple strings that are hung up permanently over the garage. I didn't put any out on the Hawthorn tree because my car (and a friend's car which was partially broken into by criminals this Summer) is in the way. No one would see them. And yes, I did include the Jack O' Lanterns for a few weeks. It's my way of thumbing my nose at society, I guess. Also, the neighbor kids across the street like seeing the pumpkins. I did remove the Jack O' Lanterns on Lille Julafton, December 23rd, which -- to me -- is the start of the actual Christmas Holiday. Gotta show at least some respect, right? :-)
IN OTHER LIFE: NEW YEAR'S WAS A BIG YAWN
In the world outside of the radio hobby the holidays came and went, including New Years, which was low key for me this year. I stayed home. I actually slept through much of it. I could hear a few fireworks being blown off on the nearby hillsides, and maybe one or two skyrockets shot off down the valley somewhere, but the old year passed and the new year arrived and I really don't care about it. It's another number to tack onto the end of the designator -- from 2022 to 2023. That's it.
The weather has been cold but not like it was two weeks ago, when it got down to 12 degrees (-8C or more). Now it just barely hits freezing at night. The daytime temperatures feel like March -- well, when March is normal. The last few years March and April haven't been normal. They've been cold. I still think the Solar Cycle has affected the weather patterns a lot more than we've been told.
PANTERA!!!!
During the lull between Christmas and New Year's I did a lot of cruising YouTube, listening to music. I rediscovered a lot of the 90's US metal band Pantera's music. I was fan in the 2000's, as I got into them late in the game.
So I will end this blog post with a couple of Pantera vids. The first one is an interesting one, with Pantera opening the Monsters of Rock show in Moscow, 1991. The band were in top form, and knew it.:
It was an amazing performance of an (at the time) up and coming metal band. Pantera were simply on fire here. And the Monsters of Rock show in Moscow had reportedly over a million people in the audience. Incredible. Of course, this was also during the breakup of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War.
What a way to celebrate -- with Pantera, the Black Crowes, EST (a Russian metal band), Metallica and AC/DC!
Here is Pantera's official video to "I'm Broken", the song that made me a fan of theirs.:
Pantera were sort of unique in that Dimebag Darrell Abbott, their excellent guitarist, preferred solid state Randall amplifiers over tube amp models (another prominent metal player who recorded with Randalls was Dokken's George Lynch).
Solid state amps used to get a bad rap amongst guitarists, but solid state can sound good, as Pantera's music indicates. And as a fan of solid state, I can tell you that there is NO SAG with a good solid state amp! You hit the chord, it instantly slams you in the ass.
Either way, the 1990's were a terrific era for music, and Pantera are just one example of what was once popular among young people (and older metalheads). Two of the band are gone from us now (the Abbott brothers Dimebag Darrell and his drummer brother Vinnie), but the singer (Phil Anselmo) and bassist (Rex Brown) have reformed Pantera with Steve Vai (a virtuoso guitarist who played with Ozzy Osbourne and Black Label Society) and drummer Charlie Benante (of the metal band Anthrax) -- and they are presently touring.
There are video clips of some of their shows, and they sound pretty good. Here is one I found two nights ago, of the reformed Pantera playing a show in Monterrey, Mexico. The fans seemed to be enjoying hearing the band play.:
Well, that's it for this installment. I have a SW/MW loggings listing to finish, which I'll post here soon, and also a review on a new SW/MW/FM/LW radio.
Right now, tonight, it's about 48F outside (+8C) and it feels like Spring, even though it's early January. We're having some odd weather, but I'm not complaining about it -- my cats don't like the cold, and -- frankly -- neither do I. As I finish this article, it is still Epiphany weekend -- a holiday that Salvadorans and other Latinos I know call "Dia De Los Reyes" (the Day of the Three Kings) and it is also the Slavic and Orthodox Christmas.
It's as good a time as any to wrap up this article and post it.
Soon enough I'll switch off the Christmas lights. They lighten up the grey weather, but since Christmas is over, it's kind of pointless to keep them on. I think that my Mickey Mouse Jack O' Lantern shall stay up in the window for a while longer, well, just because.
Until next time, friends, PEACE.
C.C., January 6th, 7th and 9th, 2023.
