What do KCAL-FM (Inland Empire, California), 99X (Atlanta) and Howard Stern all have in common? LAYOFFS

I first heard about KCAL-FM, Redlands, California, in 2000 when my favorite local rock band, New American Shame, was getting frequent airplay there.

New American Shame were a hard hitting rock band, which sounded like a cross between AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, and Buckcherry, with a little GNR thrown in. They were all local Seattle, and 'South End' (i.e. South King County) musicians, and veterans of the Seattle and suburban Seattle rock scene. New American Shame had one hit, Under It All, and another smaller radio hit after that, American Shame.

New American Shame stopped playing gigs in 2002 or so (with three gigs in the 2010's), but they had a good run. They turned out one local album, an updated national album with 4 extra tracks, a terrific B-side (Stand On The Pedal), and at least one track that made it to one of the Crow movie soundtracks, Rusted Wings (on 2000's The Crow: Salvation).

And KCAL-FM, a hard rocking Active Rock station out of the 'Inland Empire' -- the large, sprawling suburban region east of LA in sunny Southern California -- played New American Shame a lot more than most other US Rock stations. New American Shame's two hits were getting a lot of airplay, and they were routinely in KCAL's Top 20 of their playlist.

I know, because that the time I had access to the charts for most of the Rock stations in the US, because such charts were printed in the Radio industry publications that were on the big desk where I used to work.

KCAL Rocked, and they Rocked hard.

Now they have gotten rid of the Active Rock format, and they got rid of all of their Airstaff.

KCAL-FM are going 'Classic Rock'. Jockless 'Classic Rock', which means they won't have any DJ's, or airstaff at all.

KCAL-FM are owned by a small radio company, Anaheim Broadcasting, and they have a couple sister stations in the Inland Empire and San Bernardino market. The layoffs of all the airstaff was a surprise, as the station was doing well in the ratings, getting a 2.9 in June, 2026.

But Radio in general is seeing sliding revenue, as online advertising takes over, and a lot of Radio companies are cutting back. My last several blog articles have covered these cutbacks, and shutdowns. Radio is an industry in contraction, and the layoffs at KCAL are just another symptom of an industry in decline.

I hate it, because I worked in Radio for 20 years, and it was the best time of my life in many ways. All the music, and being in an industry I wanted to be in when I was a kid. I was actually able to live the dream, in many respects. 

Now that dream is dying for a LOT of people in Radio.

KCAL-FM may or may not make money running AI liners or voicetracks and worn out 'Classic Rock'. But they are not alone in having to deal with declining revenues and an eroding listener base.

Another station has just seen all of its airstaff laid off: 99X FM in Atlanta, WNNX-FM, a station that was recently relaunched, playing Alternative Rock, with real DJ's. All the DJ's just got their pink slips over this past week.

The scuttlebutt on the Radio forums is that Cumulus simply couldn't make money off 99X, they couldn't get enough advertising revenue under the Alternative Rock format.

Then again, Cumulus, WNNX-FM's owners, have been laying off a lot of airstaff and radio programming staff nationwide lately. The online Radio industry magazine Ramp247 says that Cumulus has laid off at least 23 people from their FM stations nationwide, due to Cumulus financial issues.

Here is the article.:

https://ramp247.com/programming/cumulus-undergoing-more-downsizing/

SiriusXM is the Satellite Radio company where shock talker Howard Stern has been broadcasting since January, 2006. Before that, he had 26 million US terrestrial Radio listeners.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST -- HOWARD STERN LAYS OFF MANY OF HIS STAFF

Howard Stern, one of the few remaining 'shock talk' hosts from the 1990's and 2000's, is still well known in Radio circles, even after he moved his popular show from terrestrial radio to Sirius/XM (back then it was just Sirius) in 2006.

During the heyday of his popularity, when he was on a large network of FM rock stations across the US, he had about 26 million listeners. After moving to Sirius Satellite radio in 2006, his numbers understandably dropped, but for a Satellite show, he was the big guy.

He wasn't known for a short time as the 'King Of All Media' for nothing. He was popular. He even had a movie he made in the late 1990's, Private Parts, that had bands like Type O Negative on the soundtrack. The movie actually played in the theaters. 

That's how big Howard Stern was.

Then in the 2010's his Satellite radio show started losing listeners. Last September, when he was rumored to be leaving the air, it was also rumored that his listenership numbers were in the hundreds of thousands, with one estimate being 100K listeners or so. I wrote an article about Howard's decline in September 2025 -- you can read it here.:

https://interrocknation.blogspot.com/2025/09/howard-stern-shock-jock-that-wont-go.html

That said, even after signing his new contract, Howard's show has apparently not been slamming Sirius's version of the 'ratings', and Howard has recently fired about 75% of his staff, and on top of that, he is now only doing two new shows a week (on Monday and Tuesday), and he will drop that down to just one new show a week after Labor Day.

You can read about the layoffs here, on this Yahoo! News article.:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv/articles/howard-stern-show-got-rid-210433333.html

Here is a Barrett Media article on the one show a week.:

https://barrettmedia.com/2026/07/14/howard-stern-one-new-show/

What is the real reason Howard is firing so many of his people? No one really knows. But he had over 50 people running his show, and many in the Radio forums are asking 'How many people do you need for just one radio show a week?'

Perhaps Howard is just cutting costs. But the writing seems to be on the wall -- it seems that Howard doesn't really want to do Radio anymore. He used to be on the airwaves every weekday morning. Now, his Satellite show is two new shows weekly, and the rest of the week it's all retreads of old material.

A lot of Stern listeners are wondering if it's worthwhile to tune in a satellite radio show that only has one new show a week, with the rest of the shows broadcast being retreads.

If you go to a few of the Stern-fan forums, the consensus seems to be that Stern's star has faded, he's no longer interesting to listen to as he used to be, and he seems to be looking at the exit door.

It's sad, in a way, because Stern WAS 'shock talk radio', a format which was big in the Roaring 90's and Rip-roaring 2000's. He definitely is a talented talk host. Stern was one of the handful of Radio talk hosts of any type who became household names. One would think he could still do exciting Radio as he did in 2005.

But that was another era -- 20-30 years ago. In the case of the 90's, that was another century.

Everyone apparently has moved on.

EXPECT MORE RADIO LAYOFFS, SHUTDOWNS, IN THE FUTURE

I expect that in the future there will be many more layoffs in Radio, and more stations, including FM stations, shutting down. I will continue to post articles on it as it happens. Why? Because I still love Radio, and I still think it's an important medium. I also think that when stations lay off all their people it's a big deal -- I was laid off from the industry in 2006/2007 (New Year's), so I know how it feels.

I used to listen to KGRG-1, 1330 AM, every day while working out, doing bench presses in my spare room. It was fun hearing Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam's Breath, Alice In Chains, and other classic alternative tracks on my Superadio while trying to increase my bench presses.

KGRG-1 went off the air over a year ago, after having AM transmitter problems. Even after fixing the transmitter, the college decided to pull the plug on the AM.

The FM, KGRG 89.9, went off the air because of some separate issues, and the college has been trying to sell the station, to no avail. FM radio doesn't have the magic pull it used to in the 1970's and 1980's.

We're in a different world.

Some commenters online think that non-commercial FM (i.e., 'College Radio') will weather the storm. They think that college radio will survive.

Oh really? Just 20 miles south of me a college station, KGRG, not only pulled the plug on its AM station on 1330 kHz, which covered South King County with Grunge and Classic Alternative (and they had a stream), they recently pulled the plug on their FM station on 89.9 MHz as well. The FM could be heard in the South County region, as well as Tacoma.

Green River College now have the FM station up for sale. There, so far, have been no takers. The college apparently wants out of the Radio business. Colleges nationwide have seen revenues drop, due to smaller enrollments (GenZ is smaller than the Millennials that preceded them), and other factors. So when they see a college Radio station's budget, and look at the future of Radio, they sometimes put Radio on the chopping block. That's apparently what GRCC, the college that owned KGRG, determined.

Radio in general is fading, folks, and that includes college radio. It sucks, but it's just the reality.

The cover for the first New American Shame CD, which was later released with a newer cover and 4 extra songs.

From NEW AMERICAN SHAME to DROP THE STAR

I'll end this article with a couple New American Shame music vids. Why not? They were kickass. I saw them play at least five different times -- once at Bumbershoot, two times at a now-defunct rock club in Algona called Planet Hot Rod, once at the now-defunct rock pub Sit N Spin, and once at the now-defunct Renton rock pub Pounders. New American Shame fans were rabid. Going to a New American Shame show was like experiencing rock family. 

Here's a CD version of Under It All, their biggest hit.:

Here is a live track posted to YouTube by New American Shame's singer, Johnny Reidt. It's the official New American Shame to their second radio hit American Shame.:

This is the track that was on one of the Crow soundtracks, Rusted Wings.:

This is one of the opening tracks on their album, a track called Broken Bones.:

And last but not least, this is a track done by Johnny's new band, Drop The Star. It was written for a friend of his who had to spend an extended amount of time away from home and family. It's called Welcome Home. It's damned good. It would probably be a massive radio hit except Radio doesn't support new rock like it used to. 

Enjoy.:

And with that, my friends, stay safe, and

Peace.

C.C. August 10th, 2026

KDWN 720, the Station that put Art Bell on the radio map, is shut down for good

The old logo for Las Vegas's KDWN, 720 AM, a 50 Kilowatt station that put night-time talk host Art Bell on the American radio map. KDWN's owners have turned in the license, after pulling the plug on the station. Another one bites the dust.

Yet another AM radio station in the Western US has gone off the air permanently -- i.e., the signal is switched off, the plug is pulled, the land is sold, and FCC license has been turned in. This station is one of the biggest US AM'ers in recent history to be yanked off the air.

KDWN, 720 kHz, owned by US radio corporation Audacy (one of the bigger radio companies in the country), was a 50 Kilowatt radio station in Las Vegas, Nevada -- a growing metropolis in the high desert, a city of more than 2 million people, known for excitement, entertainment, and gambling. It also was one of the fastest growing cities in the US for many years.

KDWN was best known for being the radio station where famous night-time talk host Art Bell (who retired from radio before passing away a few years ago), got his career started. Although Art officially started his night-time talk show on another station, it was his KDWN stint that made him famous, as KDWN could be heard all over the Western US wherever there wasn't another station on 720 -- in other words, all of the West outside of parts of Western Oregon and Washington where other stations' signals clobbered the 720 kHz channel.

Here is a link to an article I wrote about Art Bell and his famous, night-time show, which was extremely popular during the 1990's.:

Interrock Nation: ART BELL -- The Storyteller of the Radio Night-Time

In recent years, with the increasing use of the Internet for entertainment and information among all demos, and the aging out of the prominent demographics that listen to AM radio (GenX and older), Radio has lost listeners, with AM stations taking the bigger economic hit. Some AM'ers still do well in major metros. Others are struggling, propped up by being part of a larger station "cluster". In my city, KIXI 880, which plays standards and light oldies, gets low ratings but is part of a greater cluster that includes several decently and highly rated FM's (pop station KQMV 92.5 being one of them). The other stations keep KIXI on the air, and sometimes a station like KIXI can be included as a demographic-rich 'package' for advertisers.

A radio expert on one of the radio forums I go to (RadioDiscussions) who has owned and operated stations all over the US, informed me that even a low rated station like local, Tacoma station KHHO 850, an affiliate of the Black Information Network (BIN), could help the rest of the cluster in demographic breadth and reach. This concept of "demographic breadth" is a part of the reason that in many cities underperforming stations ratings-wise can still be part of the revenue generation machine for a radio company or 'cluster'. Some stations, like Sports talkers, do not depend on ratings. The advertisers know that such stations -- regardless of their overall listenership -- are the best place to reach sports fans.

The economics of radio obviously is more complex than "Ratings high = You're a millionaire / Ratings low = You're sunk".  As mentioned, Sports talk stations, and Sports Betting stations, are typical of stations that can survive without good ratings. But eventually, your stations need to be pulling their weight somehow, and in KDWN's case, the land where the transmitter was located was worth much, much more than the revenues the station was pulling in.

KDWN's new online logo, mentioning the FM translator, although the FM translator is also apparently going off the air.

So, it's bye, bye KDWN.

Oh -- I almost forgot to mention. KDWN had an FM translator. 

The FM translator station DID NOT SAVE IT.

And, whaddaya know? KDWN had/has a stream!

The stream, obviously, did not save the Over-The-Air radio station.

Here is a link to KDWN's stream, which still is operating, as of time of writing. It includes commercials, including at least 3-4 commercials that are LOCAL to my own listening region (geolocation being used, obviously -- pretty smart move!):

K-DAWN - The Talk of Las Vegas - LISTEN LIVE | Audacy

SO WHAT WAS AUDACY'S TAKE ON ALL THIS?

The "KDWN" stream is part of Audacy's greater streaming platform. I'm not sure how locally oriented the online KDWN is -- so far it appears to be a satellite network affiliate -- but it's all that remains of the station that put Art Bell on the Radio map.

The puzzler to me, in the case of KDWN, is why the owners -- radio company Audacy -- didn't try harder to make a go of it with a 50KW AM signal, and what does it say about their view of OTA Radio as a viable medium? A 50KW signal could blast much of the metro with a Sports Betting format, even better than the one Sports Betting station Las Vegas already has (one Sports talker in Las Vegas, KRLV 920, has some sports-bet talk included with regular sports talk). Sports Betting networks pay bills. They could have dropped the power a bit and still covered the metro OK. KGO's owners (Cumulus) have kept San Francisco's once failing KGO on the air by switching to Sports Betting talk and Sports talk. KDWN could have been diplexed with another AM station Audacy already owns -- KXNT 840, and other formats could have been pursued.

Instead, Audacy -- which just went through bankruptcy, because of debt they allowed to be piled up during one of their shakeups a few years ago -- decided to cut their losses, and pull the plug. They've left the KDWN stream on -- I guess that is something. The bankruptcy may have been an issue, although they have stations that make a lot of money. It's more highly probable that KDWN just would be too expensive to operate for Audacy justify dumping more money into it. The AM audience is dwindling, and AM diplexing (the sharing of two stations using the same towers) is expensive.

A famous photo of Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, which -- along with Reno, maybe 350 miles to the north -- was THE center for legal gambling in the US for decades. The Golden Nugget was famous nationwide -- even if people never went there, they knew what the Golden Nugget Casino was. In the late 1960's the Las Vegas Strip began to take over, as large resort hotel/casinos began to predominate. Now, most of the tourist action and gambling takes place on The Strip.

Photo courtesy the family of Edward N Edstrom

Audacy, like other radio companies before them (IHeart, Radio Disney) are concentrating on their streaming platform. The radio companies see streaming as the future. They might be correct, as younger demographics don't listen to radio, they listen to streaming on their phone. However, the economics of streaming actual radio stations is a lot different from that of an already well-established Spotify, Pandora, or Apple Music. So we won't really see the results of this move of Radio from OTA radio to online streaming for another 15-20 years.

On their KDWN stream, Audacy promote an afternoon talk show, that appears to be Las Vegas only -- Steve Sanchez -- and it's also broadcast on the Audacy streaming platform and app. Does Sanchez get enough clicks or streaming ratings without a 50KW OTA signal to push the visibility of his podcast? It's hard to tell.

But this all begs the question: If one of America's largest radio companies doesn't believe in the potential of a metro-covering, 50KW OTA radio station, what does that say for the health of OTA radio in America?

Online, on social media and radio forums, the reactions to the demise of KDWN are somewhat mixed, with what seem to be the usual opinions one sees when these AM stations go under. The fact is, Over-The-Air broadcasting -- AM or FM -- seems to have a lifetime, and the end of OTA radio is probably another decade-and-a-half away before the AM band is static and hiss, and the FM band is increasingly brokered, ethnic, and religious stations, with maybe some sports betting stations thrown in.

Either way, it's sad to see a once well-known radio station in a US major metro go under. I suppose that those of us in the radio listening and DXing hobby should prepare for more of these plug-pulling instances happening. AM radio is not a cheap medium to operate, and its loyal audiences are aging out of the advertising demographics because of the economics of advertising, demographic research, and what appears to be the ageism prevalent in the advertising industry. At the same time, AM audience shares are indeed dropping. Younger demos do not listen to AM radio.

It's the new reality.

Luckily, when I tune my Realistic DX-375 or Sangean PR-D4W across the AM band it's still full of signals, so all is not lost. Still, it's not a great feeling.

Here are the two Radio publications that posted news articles on KDWN.:

From RadioInk.:

Vegas Station That Started 'Coast To Coast AM' Turns In License - Radio Ink

From _________________.:

[LINK REMOVED, Aug. 2025]

TFFT -- TATTS FOREVER, FOREVER TATTS

There is not much more to talk about. The weather is picking up a bit. My cat Squeakers is doing better. She is eating more. During the cold spell last month she wasn't eating as much. But she's improving. I always have to keep an eye on her, and I always make sure I watch her eat. :-)

I'll end this with a bit of upbeat music from Australia's Rose Tattoo, probably my favorite band to come out of that awesome country. 

The first two vids are off of a Tatts album I played to death, Assault & Battery. It was a soundtrack of my college years. This next track is called Suicide City, and it's said to be about Canberra, the Australian national capital. 

Guns N Roses, who were fans of the Tatts early on, are said to have been influenced by this song when they wrote Paradise City, a song off their first album, Appetite For Destruction.

Suicide City is one of the best tracks on Assault & Battery, with a riff written by Mick Cocks, probably the best rhythm guitarist out of Oz, right next to AC/DC's Malcolm Young.

Oz rockers know.

Here is another track off Assault & Battery -- the title track. The lyrics are like a page out of singer Angry Anderson's life, and maybe turned up a notch. I played this track a lot. The gritty nature of many of the words to Tatts' songs -- combined with a literate, almost Shakespearean twist of poetic imagery included -- I found fascinating. Angry Anderson looks like a biker, but he's actually a well read man.

Now here is a live show from Amsterdam, 1981, during one of the Tatts' first forays into Europe, right after they toured the UK and played a couple songs for the BBC. In this performance you can generally hear Tatts' rhythm guitarist Mick Cocks a bit better than usual. In some live Tatts' shows they buried his guitar too much, but on this one -- and the BBC recordings, which can be found on YT, but the Blogger searcher can't seem to find -- you hear his Super Distortion, souped up Les Paul Black Custom a lot better. 

Here 'tis -- Enjoy. The Tatts at the Paradisio, Amsterdam, April, 1981.

And with that, my friends,

Peace.

C.C. March 22nd, 2024.

HALLOWEEN; some Exhaustion, and Up The Tatts (Oz rock band Rose Tattoo)!

Halloween approaches. But I'm not ready.

Right now I'm typing this on a cold, frosty, early morning, and I've been recuperating from a lengthy period of longer-than-usual hours at work.

I don't talk about work all that much here on my blog, but I presently work in the legal field, working for a couple attorneys as a non-attorney assistant.

The past two years we have been representing a client who had a serious issue against a large, national corporation. The ensuing lawsuit was a bit time consuming. Naturally, when you are involved in a lawsuit, you want to make sure everything is done right. We finally had four days of trial last week, and it was interesting, stressful, and when all was done, I was exhausted. I am just now starting to feel 'normal' again.

It was a sunny day in Seattle as I was driving in to work Downtown. The Columbia Tower is the tall, black glass clad skyscraper in the center of the skyline. Once it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. The Smith Tower is the white, classic looking building to center left. For a long time, it also was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River.

This was the view from my car as I was driving home on my birthday, after the first day of trial. It was a grueling day, and I ended up working with my boss at the office after hours, until ten at night, going over preparations for the next day in court. The building on the left is "Seattle Lighting", just off the Second Avenue Extension on the southern edge of Downtown Seattle. I think there are at least a couple fixtures in my house from that place. They used to buy lighting fixtures from old, old houses before they were torn down. One wouldn't think there is a market for old, 1920's era light fixtures -- but there is.

The trial phase of the lawsuit took me to downtown Seattle for the first time since April. I usually don't go downtown very often, as it is 15 miles from where I live, and I no longer work downtown, so I have no reason to go there. Besides that, going downtown can be expensive, as parking is expensive (over $15 a day), and if one wants to take a bus, that means your car is in an open, non-monitored, non-patrolled, suburban Park-N-Ride lot for eight or more hours, where it can get broken into or even stolen -- which often happens.

And bus travel into town can be very slow. 

Anyway, it was interesting being downtown last week. The city is a LOT bigger than it was when I worked downtown in the radio industry from 1990-2006. Back then, I worked in Belltown, which -- at the time -- was a somewhat Bohemian neighborhood of Seattle just north of downtown which -- after I was laid off in December 2006 -- became more than gentrified with all the cool haunts and dive bars and restaurants being torn down and replaced by tall, soulless towers of million dollar condos.

A local display, from last year. The same house has a similar display this year.

Downtown itself -- the financial and retail core -- has grown, with tall, blue glass spires everywhere. Some of the photos in this article reflect that.

The four days was an interesting glimpse into the workaday world for the thousands of people who work Downtown, most of them who obviously make a lot more money than I do -- who maybe take the bus in from an inner suburb, or perhaps can afford to park their SUV, Lexus or Prius in a $18 garage all day, everyday -- while working in one of the tall office buildings.

The stores, of course, were a different matter. In April, when I was last downtown, if I looked in through the front windows of the clothing shops and other stores in the city center, I didn't see a lot of shoppers. This time it was no different. There were all these fancy shops with all these cool looking, and somewhat expensive looking, fashionable clothes, and there were few people shopping. I parked inside a popular building downtown, which is designed to be an indoor, fancy mall (which has a 6 floor parking garage beneath it), and none of the shops had shoppers.

Tall spires of steel and glass, and on ground level, shops mostly devoid of shoppers.

It was like walking into a Depression. The only people in the "mall" section of this fancy office building were people like myself, who were parking in the underground garage. Very sad.

Hopefully, the absence of shoppers in these stores was just a fluke.

Inside the Pacific Place indoor mall. One floor down from street level. It's afternoon rush. Where are all the people?

Inside the Pac Place indoor mall. One floor down from street level. The City has grown. But where are all the people?

Hello Seattle. Where are all the shoppers? They're missing. Very sad.

The skylight to Pacific Place. It really is a nice mall. It's just sad that there aren't more people inside the stores and shops.

The view of Westlake Avenue from inside the Westlake Starbucks. Starbucks had quite a few customers. Their 'Everything Bagel' was excellent. The baristas were into alternative music, and had a Starbucks music channel, alternative playlist on the soundsystem. As someone who used to work in radio and dealt with music formats, I was curious about what platform they used. It definitely wasn't 'radio.'

The Starbucks up on Westlake (an avenue that exits downtown, and also the name of a major 'square' on the north side of the financial and retail district), however, was busy. During the last day of the trial, I went for a short walk during the lunch break and got a 20 ounce latte and an 'everything' bagel. The 'everything' bagel was toasted, and awesome. The coffee was good, too. Some people thumb their nose at Starbucks' coffee but I am not one of those people.

A billboard on the side of a downtown Seattle building, promoting the local Duwamish Indian Tribe.

My city, Renton, was the site of one of the largest Duwamish settlements, and my valley was used as a trading route between the Duwamish lands in western Washington and other tribes' lands east of the Cascade Mountain range.

All in all, working Downtown like we did those four, long days was in interesting experience. I can't tell you how things came out during the trial, but working in a trial like that was something I probably won't experience again. 

So, right now it's late October, and my goal is to continue to get some extra sleep, make sure my cat eats enough, and attempt to get ready for Halloween.

Already, some houses in the area have some really cool decorations up.

I'm not looking forwards to the holidays in general, but I always like Halloween.

However, as it's been 21-25 degrees F every night and morning (around -6C or more) over the past week and a half before Halloween, I haven't felt like doing a ton of outside work when it's cold and I'm still tired a lot of the time.

Spooky Pumpkin Monster! This pic is from last year (I couldn't get a good pic of it this time around), but the Spooky Pumpkin Monster is up and delighting little kids this year!

UP THE TATTS, AND MICK COCKS LIVES!

I will end this with a couple videos by one of my favorite Oz pub rock bands, Rose Tattoo. I got into them soon after I saw their import LP for sale in a local record store, and was hooked. Mick Cocks, the rhythm guitar player, was one of the best in the world. He was like a fast Malcolm Young, with the amp cranked up a little bit higher (he had a Super Distortion pickup installed in his black Custom Les Paul in the bridge position, and also had a custom bridge installed on his guitar).

One astute, online genius described Rose Tattoo's music as "Humble Pie with Ry Cooder, all jacked up on speed." He wasn't too far off the mark in that description of the Tatts' sound.

The first vid here is a track from the Tatts' first LP, which was called "Rock N' Roll Outlaw" in the US, but was just self titled in Australia. The track is a blaster called Remedy. From the first jagged chords, you can hear how good Mick Cocks was.:

Here is a live vid of Rose Tattoo playing a couple songs in France in 1978. The show includes live versions of the Tatts' tracks "Remedy" and "Astra Wally". Here you can hear slide player Peter Wells, and if you listen to the drumming you can see that drummer Dallas Digger Royall was an excellent rock drummer -- he could deliver the classic, Oz-rock one-two punch, but at the same time provide just a bit of finesse and swing.:

Here is the LP track to Astra Wally, followed by a live track. It's a shot of boogie adrenaline. Mick Cocks' guitar is featured throughout. This song is quintessential Tatts.

Rose Tattoo, sadly enough, never took off in the US, and they didn't really have a large following in the UK either. I think they had a bigger fan base in Germany than they did in the US or UK. In Australia they didn't sell a ton of records, but they were well liked by the pub goers in the inner city 'hotels' and suburban beer barns, RSL's and Leagues' clubs throughout Australia.

I shall end this by adding the Tatts' ode to the state of Texas, apparently a US state they enjoyed playing. It's about the hot (and hot blooded) women in Texas, and women in Texas are different from the ones in my section of the country, I'm certain. :-) At least Angry Anderson thinks so. :-)

And here's the US FM Rock radio hit that should have happened in '82, but never happened, because most US FM Rock stations were too stupid or too afraid to play some hard hitting, Australian rock 'n' roll. Scarred For Life. Great guitar chord riff, courtesy of the guy who replaced Mick Cocks, Robin Riley.:

In this last vid you can see the guys playing, miming to the album track of one of the Tatts' three radio hits, We Can't Be Beaten. They are staged in a junkyard, as they were in another video I've added here below, their single Branded. The music on this track (and on Branded) was written by Robin Riley, who was (and is) a great rhythm guitarist in his own right. You can see him on the right hand side of the video screen, playing a beat up looking Strat (or maybe a Strat-copy, perhaps an Ibby?) outfitted with what looks like a Super Distortion pickup (and a mid-position P-90). It also has the name "Julie" painted on it.

Mr. Riley once talked about having to use Ibanez guitars, which he described as 'working muso's instruments', which Ibanez players can tell you they are. Ibbys get the job done. :-)

For slide guitar aficionados, Peter Wells is on the left side in the vid, and he's tuned to Open E. And bassist Geordie Leach appears to be playing a Thunderbird bass. 

Branded, released in the US, never got airplay. MTV may have played this vid a couple times before junking it. Such is life for an Oz band Stateside much of the time.

The Tatts never made it here in the States, but they did influence Guns N Roses and Motley Crue, however, so their impact did have some lasting importance here in the US. Sadly, all of the original members are gone, except for long time touring and recording bassist Geordie Leach, who retired from the Tatts in 2013 and apparently fronts his own band, and singer Angry Anderson, who -- despite his hardcore, rock 'n' roll rebel image -- is a very literate, well read, and a well-spoken man.

Until next time, I hope all my readers worldwide are doing well.

Happy Halloween.

Peace,

C.C., October 19th and 31st, 2023. 

Two photos added November 3rd, 2023, and a little more description.... and a correction. Rose Tattoo's former bassist Geordie Leach is still very much alive!!

December 10th, 2023. I realized I had more photos of my Seattle sojourn on my phone, and I added about seven of them to this post, as they covered the things I wrote about.