Short takes on National DJ Day
Salute!: On this National Disc Jockey Day, we start off this edition
of short takes with a salute to all of you who sat behind a microphone ad,
back-cueing records, loading cart machines or CD players, and doing the
point-and-click on a computer monitor to provide us listeners. Each of you
personified “multi-tasking” before that term ever existed. Thank you for
keeping me company while I labored finishing (overdue) homework assignments,
driving up-and-down and around California, or making my workday go by a bit more
quickly. I wish I could tune in to more of you right now, but am grateful for you being
our entertainers.
Who’s paying attention?: That was the title of one of the shows, hosted by comedian Alonzo Boden, on progressive talker KBLA. Boden has left the station to pursue his standup career, but the talent lineup has relatively been stable – Dominique Diprima, Tavis Smiley, Don Amiche, among others since 2020.
What’s not known is how is the station doing. KBLA does not show up in the Nielsen ratings, though that may simply be due to not subscribing to the service. Meanwhile, there’s speculation Smiley’s $7 million purchase of AM 1580 still may not be officially completed. The station provides welcome diversity to the talk radio dial, but there’s not enough information (yet) about the future viability of the station.
Another sign-off: Radio engineers are a unique breed. Some prefer
near anonymity because it means everything is working at the station, allowing
them to quietly do their maintenance tasks. Others do descend from the
transmitter site and have a bit more prominence and fun. One of the latter is Tony Dinkel, who kept the audio loud
and clear across the L.A. dial, but was primarily known for his work at talk
station KFI. Dinkel passed on January 12, 2023.
“Tony was literally the best, no, most BRILLIANT engineer
I've worked with in my 30 years at KFI,” said Michelle Kube, KFI Executive Producer. “You could hand him a fork,
a phone line and some chopsticks and he could get you on the air from anywhere
in about 20 minutes and he especially loved the challenge of a last minute
'there's no way we can do this' remote.
He always found a way, he was MacGyver!”
Tony was one of my best friends since I was in High School and I learned so much from him,” said Joe Talbot, also a veteran L.A. radio engineer. “I encouraged him to take his first radio job at KHTZ (97.1) in L.A. and it was kind of a tough sell as it was unfamiliar territory for him (at that time).” Dinkel eventually “grew to love it and moved down the street to work with Marv Collins at KFI.”
Dinkel was an important part of the effort to maintain KFI’s blowtorch 50,000 watt signal, plus he served at KOST, one of the most listened to stations in Southern California. Talbot said “it was a very solid team there, and KFI / KOST benefited from his RF savvy greatly.”
Kube described Dinkel as “kind, funny and he also LOVED to show people how he did what he did, he loved questions and always made time for you when you had them. So many wonderful memories, he will be missed. My heart goes out to his family.”
After leaving Clear Channel (now iHeart), Dinkel eventually landed at CBS Radio (now Audacy) Las Vegas, until the August 2022 round of Audacy layoffs. The multitalented engineer continued to offer his consulting services for broadcast and commercial microwave systems while moving to Oregon to look for work. He had experienced significant health issues before his death. A GoFundMe page has been established to help with his medical and hospice care bills.
Talbot reflected on the loss of his longtime friend and colleague: “My own experiences with losses like this have led me to this conclusion – I expect to be reminded of him most days of my life, as things that inevitably ‘come up.’ I won’t have that friendly voice available to share his knowledge and help solve my problems. He loved what he did, and from what I can see, he had many friends who loved him back. He just made things fun.”
Hoy no hay beisbol: An article this week in The Athletic tells of the Spanish broadcasts – or lack thereof – available for the American League’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (still referred by many as the “California Angels,” we again digress). Some highlights:
It
was more than three years ago, Tolentino said, after the 2019 season. More than
20 years since (José) Tolentino first
became the Spanish radio voice of the Angels. Back then, he was treated like a
legitimate major-league broadcaster. He said he made $80,000 a year and had
full benefits. The Angels broadcast all 162 games and traveled on the road.
But Tolentino had seen the team’s commitment to its Spanish broadcasts slowly erode. Fewer games were available in fewer places. He’d been unceremoniously relocated out of his Angel Stadium booth and wasn’t given a broadcast partner. He was forced to choose between calling games from a soundproof closet in right field, a studio in Los Angeles, or inside a laundry room from his Mission Viejo home.
He
was no longer a full-time employee. Instead, he made $350 a game as a
freelancer, with his producer making $110 per game for 6-8 hours of work.
Despite calling upward of a thousand Angels games, he felt as though the team’s
management couldn’t care less if they ever called one more.
The
meeting with (Angels president John) Carpino, Tolentino said, took place in the
team’s public communications offices in right field. Tolentino told him he
needed to make a living. He needed resources to go into his work.
In
response, Carpino told him they appreciated his loyalty.
But
then came the gut punch of reality. A few words that summed up everything he’d
already felt about his work. Tolentino says he was told that it was a part-time
job.
“I froze,” Tolentino told The Athletic. “Because when someone makes you feel like you absolutely don’t matter — which you’ve been feeling for 10 years — but when they really tell you that you don’t matter, it really hits home.”
The article offers a comparison between the Angels and their Spanish media and the full-fledged commitment of the cross-town Dodgers, spotlighting the recently retired Hall-of-Famer Jaime Jarrin. It noted Orange County is over 30 percent Latino, let alone the Spanish surname population of Los Angeles County:
Jarrín
recalled (Angels owner Arte) Moreno — the first Mexican-American to purchase a
major American sports team — asking him
how the Dodgers had successfully built a Spanish radio operation. How they’d
developed a listenership that, in turn, helped grow the fan base.
Jarrín
told him it was very simple. He said the team has to produce the broadcast
itself, and that it has to invest in it.
“He heard everything. But they didn’t care,” Jarrín said. “That’s my feeling. They didn’t care about the Latino market.”
Tolentino
played with the Astros in the early 1990s and managed the Mexican National Team
in the Olympics in 2008 and coached it during the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He has worked for both Fox and ESPN.
The month flu by: My strong suggestion is get the flu shot if you haven’t done so already. I think I came down with it when I had to wait overnight for six hours at San Francisco International Airport before proceeding to work with little sleep. I still have the cough and a few other symptoms a month later, although I’m no longer contagious. Cranky, but not contagious. I’m thinking the flu shot kept me out of the hospital.
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