An ayoda on radio

  I met Sam Rubin once at a KTLA remote. I told him I enjoyed listening to him on his weekend show, an offering over 20+ years ago on "710 The Zone" (KMPC), he thanked me. That was about it in terms my one-and-only personal encounter with him. Yet hearing about his passing on Friday left me speechless. I was out assisting on a community project, yet I couldn't help streaming KTLA on my phone to hear more about the 30+ year morning fixture on local TV, later watching the continuous coverage well into the evening. Carlos Amezcua, Sam Rubin, Barbara Beck, Mark Kriski It's worth noting that Sam was both on the radio and a fan of the medium. One of his first jobs while attending University High was to answer the KHJ request lines for Bobby Ocean  and MG Kelly . "I was in the room when then PD Chuck Martin put down the phone and announced, 'We have just hired this guy from Memphis named Rick Dees  and we are going to pay him one hundred thousand dollars.' At th...

Trading the mic for a couch: One of the best known voices on the local dial, Jennifer York , is about to pursue a new career as a full-time therapist with Kaiser Permanente later this month, fulfilling a long-held ambition. She offered the following memo to her KNX colleagues: Well, after ALL these years, the time has come. I'm saying goodbye to the broadcasting business. Trading yoga pants, tennis shoes and bun hair for glasses and suits (in determination of being taken seriously 😂) and starting a job at Kaiser Permanente as a Licensed Marriage and Family therapist. 11 years in the making and $130,000 in student loans, now seems like the perfect time. I’ve been getting up at insanely early hours since 1984 after graduating from UCLA and starting at Good Morning America in NYC. Never looked back. Would like to leave you with the biggest thank you I could ever show to all of you at KNX. My prayer is that you felt loved and respected by me. I also pray that you know your wo...

  As we offered a couple of days ago, Audacy Inc. -- which just recently emerged from bankruptcy -- cut approximately 100 positions nationally. The current round of layoffs follows the 12 positions cut this past February from the company's "Pineapple Street Studios" which oversees many of Audacy's podcasts. Locally, the hardest hit station is all-news KNX. We previously reported evening anchor  Brian Ping  was released , we have now learned news writer  John Nuño  was also let go. Evening traffic reporter  Tanya Campos  has not been heard on KNX the past few days, but we've been unable to confirm her departure. It appears the station will now utilize solo anchors except in morning drive. Here's the company's official statement about the layoffs: Audacy is performing well against our 2024 business plan, and we are on track to emerge as a stronger and healthier company, well positioned for a bright future as a differentiated, scaled industry...

  We are learning there are layoffs within the Audacy Los Angeles group. Brian Ping , evening anchor, will be departing the station. We're hearing there will be additional layoffs, both at KNX and possibly at other Audacy properties, but nothing has been confirmed. A St. Louis native, Ping graduated the University of Missouri with a degree in Political Science. He also received training at the renowned St. Louis Broadcast Center.  He arrived at KNX in 2011 after three years at KDWN Las Vegas. He looked forward to a career in broadcasting, being inspired by his frequent listening of St. Louis Cardinals radio broadcasts and the newscasts that followed.  Ping has family roots in Southern California. His grandfather worked as a recruiter for the Howard Hughes Corporation and raised his family in Torrance. His grandmother still lives in a house near La Jolla’s Windansea Beach that’s been in the family since the early 20th century. Ping found the beaches and the California life...

https://memegenerator.net/instance/81673981/sick-person-had-argument-with-flu-i-lost It’s been awhile, as I spent much of the past two months catching up after being really slowed down with the flu (yes, I did get the shot and got a strain not covered -- and that cough would NOT go away!), apologies for again being offline for awhile. I actually did write the usual year in review, but given it’s already April, I’ll roll out some of my comments in the days to come. Meanwhile, a few updates: The radio odyssey…er, Audacy…continues: There were few who were surprised with Audacy filed for bankruptcy at the beginning of the year. The move reduced their debt from $1.9 billion to $350 million. Now, George Soros (yes, THAT George Soros) has become the largest stakeholderin Audacy, acquiring more than $400 millon of the company’s debt and allowing the company to emerge from bankruptcy. More recently, there’s been talk that Soros will merge Audacy with Cumulus , another beleaguered radio en...

  (We will be back soon with a regular column, I wanted to ensure readers learned of some breaking news.) We're sorry to report KIIS-FM veteran Domino  has suddenly passed away. Most recently the afternoon personality nd assistant PD at Classic Hist 105.9 Sunny FM (WOCL / Orlando), died on Monday, March 4 . Born Tony Lini, he arrived at KIIS-FM in 1993 via KHKS / Dallas and WPLJ / New York. Every night he offered his listeners an on-air party. He was perhaps best known for the nightly feature "Desperate and Dateless." He returned to KHKS in 1995. Domino was also heard on 99.1 KGGI in the Inland Empire. "Almost four decades in Radio and still going. It never gets old, I just do," Domino wrote on his Facebook page. In 1990 Domino worked nightsat WPLJ-New York. The party jock joined KIIS for frantic evenings in the late summer of 1993 after a similar post at KHKS-Dallas. He hosted a nightly feature, "Desperate And Dateless." In the summer of 1996, he went...

  (click to enlarge all of the pics) I’m recovering from my annual bout of the flu. I do get the vaccine every year, so my symptoms are attenuated – in other words, I only feel like a zombie for three days instead of four, but as always, I digress. Anyway, whenever I reveal I’m down with the flu, I would get an email, text, or phone call from Don Barrett who would always tell me “you opened the window and in-flu-enza!” A corny line to be sure, one I never quite understood, but somehow it was endearing. It also reminded me Don Barrett was more that my (and likely your) radio guru. To me, he was my historian, occasional annoyance, mentor, and most of all, friend. \ Somewhat similar to my parents' radio, Lohman and Barkley Don Barrett the historian: My memory of radio goes way back to the upside down (for better reception) Philco tube radio sitting on my parents’ kitchen counter, listening every morning to Lohman and Barkley on KFI, “the World’s Biggest Radio Station.” My paren...