Post 4th of July short takes

 

Lots of accolades for Frank Mottek as he returned to the airwaves on Tuesday via KABC. The first guest on “Mottek on Money” was Ben Stein, reviving their previous feature “Frank & Stein” to discuss a variety of business and economy news topics. When I posted Mottek was back, some comments included: "Awesome Frank!" "Go get 'em, Commendatore!" "We've missed you Frank!" His show runs weekdays at 6 p.m.

 


One of the delights on the local dial is Lara Scott now heard middays on KRTH (K-EARTH 101). There’s a wonderful story of how she got her start as a radio personality on the motherhoodinhollywood.com website. Read her story here.




It’s still a risky venture to start a new station, but if the variety of advertisers is any indication, KBLA Talk 1580 appears to be off to a decent start. I’m hearing ads for a number of local businesses plus a few national spots. The station highlights it’s Black owned-and-operated, operating from studios in Leimert Park. I mention this because back in the 1970s, I remember when AM 1580 was known as KDAY, competing with KGFJ for the R&B audience. Whenever we had an event at my weekend Japanese school (located in the mid-city), KDAY was the station of choice. And hip hop alive and KDAY live on today at 93.5 FM.



She’s still heard periodically on KFI, but Jo Kwon is currently most prominent as a reporter on Spectrum News 1. She’s also an avid surfer in love with the local beaches. Of course Kwon is the perfect reporter to tell stories about visiting the coast check out one of her stories about Corona del Mar at her Twitter site (see it here).



Want some perspective? July 7, 2021 marks the 81st birthday of Ringo Starr (yikes!). The former Beatle is featured on the 88.5 FM (KCSN / KSBR) in honor of another journey around the sun (see it here). There’s also a nice interview with Ringo about his EP “Zoom In” with midday host Andy Chanley, offered earlier this year, hear it here. And in case you’re wondering, fellow Beatle Paul McCartney is a young 79 years.



I think I mentioned teaching is my day job. This is how I felt at the end of this past academic year. Thanks to the Plymouth Rock Teachers Lounge for this one.

To be informed about blog updates, please send your email to ayodaradio@gmail.com. Hope your summer is a good one!

Comments

  1. AnitaJuly 11, 2021 at 6:23 AM

    I'm enjoying your radio updates. This one's full of news!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Breaking news: Don Barrett in his own words

Image
If you have not yet heard, LARadio.com , which stopped publishing new material but has continued to reprint stories from the archives, will go dark in a few days. In his own words, Don Barrett offered the following on social media: An amazing two loves for the founder of LARadio.com as an era comes to an end.  I discovered the writings of Joan Didion late in life. She coined the phrase, ordinary instant. Perhaps the phrase leaped off the page because death comes in such a rushing finality. She wrote: Life changes fast/Life changes in the instant/You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. Joan’s husband was robbed of 3,500 days. In an ordinary instant. For the past two months, I have been in constant pain. Doctors, hospitals and ERs. Yesterday I was in the San Luis Obispo ER for more tests. And there it was in an ordinary instant – advanced stages of liver cancer that had spread. The doctor was sorry to pass on the news and couldn’t hold back tears. Cherie and I looked at each
Read more

So what happened at KFI?

Image
  My mailbox has been full over the past few days. I first became aware of the controversy involving evening host Tim Conway Jr. and executive producer Sheron Bellio  via a May 14 article in AsAmNews , a publication that offers both original stories and aggregates news about the Asian American community (read it here ). Louis Chan, their national correspondent, wrote about a skit done during Conway’s May 3 program. Among the highlights from the story:   ·        When (listener) Keith Kawamoto heard a bit by Tim Conway Jr on KFI-AM 640 imitating a Japanese American woman, Kawamoto “couldn’t believe” they were doing that. The sketch on May 3 involved the long time Los Angeles radio host supposedly interviewing the wife of (KLAC-AM 570 LA Sports) sportscaster  Vic “the Brick” Jacobs , Yuko Sakamoto.   ·       “The imitation was so stereotypical with the character saying “Moshi-moshi” & “Ah-so” type comments in a sing-song voice interspersed with karate screams with gongs gonging
Read more

Bulletin: Layoffs at KNX

Image
We're hearing from "sources on the street" some veterans of Audacy's all-news outlet have been let go. Frank Mottek , business correspondent and Randy Kerdoon , morning sports anchor have exited KNX, along with Rich Hudson, a production coordinator. Mottek arrived at KNX from South Florida via WMJX ("96X") -- where he started when he was 16 years of age -- and then all-news WINZ. He was heard nationally along with CBS News correspondent Christopher Glenn  when they covered the Challenger explosion in 1986. For the past 29 years at KNX, Mottek has served as field reporter and news anchor, but is perhaps best known for his work reporting from the financial desk. He hosted a weekly program entitled "Mottek on Money" and previously anchored the daily "KNX Business Hour." Mottek was also seen on both TV on KTLA and KCBS-TV. When he arrived at KNX, one of his first field assignments was to cover the festivities at the West Hollywood Halloween c
Read more