As I pointed out in my piece, Fresno news, weather and even traffic was allegedly being aired in San Francisco unfiltered.
This info came from a radio man -- a good one at that -- with no horse in the Bay Area race who made an honest mistake.
He explains:
"I discovered that an error was made and that my AM in home non-digital studio radio was picking up a multi path of KMJ right next to the KSFO frequency. I live in Marin County and it just didn’t dawn on me that I could pick up a Fresno station in the middle of the day. I had checked my studio radio several times since I was bewildered by such a simulcast, but unfortunately I didn’t pick up on the discrepancy. I sincerely apologize ..."
So for those of you who wrote to say Fresno station content on a Bay Area station was unbelievable were right!
I apologize to VP/GM Mickey Luckoff and the folks at Peak, owners of KMJ. (By the way, no one made a demand for an apology or retraction which says a lot about them as well).
As you know I do commentary, humor and parody along with teaching about new media in this space and it is important to me that you know these articles are based on fact.
In the piece, I called for a letter writing campaign to the FCC based on the allegations that Fresno content was being aired on a San Francisco station.
The fact that the concept of local news, traffic and weather broadcast live in another market is plausible and speaks volumes after what consolidators have been doing to save money even if it is not correct.
We live in an era when radio has outsourced so much of its responsibility to run radio local stations in the name of cost cutting. Talent has been fired, repeater radio is on in almost every market, and the good and great local radio industry is fast becoming a mere shadow of its former self.
If you want to write to the FCC, that would be a good thing in light of fiduciary miscalculations on the part of radio CEOs, but not on Fresno content being aired on a San Francisco station.
For example ...
Failure to respond to the floods in Nashville -- start writing.
A good place to gather your facts is Phyllis Stark's outstanding Radio-Info column -- here.
Or trying to run a major market talk station long distance from another major market.
Sorry, Citadel I can't apologize for this one because you fired Paul Duckworth as PD of WMAL in Washington to save on a PD salary making WLS PD Drew Hayes do double duty from Chicago. (See Al Peterson's piece on this move here).
There is no shortage of ways that radio is being ruined by owners who cherish being bean counters over fiduciaries of the public trust.
As my tipster puts it,
"I do believe that the rest of the article is quite correct. KSFO is mostly syndicated with little local content, unlike its sister station KGO, and its rating performance in the P18-49 or P25-54 demo, whether morning drive or Mon-Sun 6a to Midnight, is quite poor. A check of the weekly PPM’s P18-49 or P25-54 Average Persons will confirm this ... This minor error however should not change the debate that as more stations become “tracked” or “syndicated” from outside the radio stations licensed market, the public’s best interest is not being served".
We'll continue to write about these consolidators' lapses in good judgment in this space.
Any lapses by me are also fair game, too.
You can rest assured that the commentaries and parodies you read here are straightforward and honest and so are the mistakes.
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