Archive for August, 2014

Frosty has finally updated his Facebook page.  Says he will eventually close the Frosty San Francisco page so those with Facebook accounts who want to follow him should flip over to this page:

https://www.facebook.com/froststilwell

He does not have a broadcast job yet, but the comments include people asking him to start a podcast.

You can read his entire update at his page.

Time to Meet at the Pods

Posted: August 31, 2014 in Uncategorized
Tags:
Chrono” by Rémi Dubot – Own work.  Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

I stopped listening to Bay Area radio after Frosty left the airwaves.  Someone informed me that John Rothmann and Ed Baxter, along with some other rotating hosts, have been filling Frosty’s time slot on Talk 910am.  Real hosts, not those two guys who supposedly filled in the week following Frosty’s departure.  That was when I stopped listening altogether.  If John and Ed show up, maybe I’ll turn on the radio that now sits on my desk and collects dust.  Definitely will not listen to Gil’s show on Fridays.  I’ve heard from people that the shrieking voice of his wife is still shrieking and interrupting and speaking agonizingly slow to try not to screech.  umm, maybe for two minutes but she can’t turn it off.

I can.  With a click.  But I haven’t bothered to even turn the radio on lately.

I’ve heard from other former KGO listeners that John Rothmann and Ed Baxter are broadcasting from The Talk Pod and promoting it on-air.  I found the site and here’s the link to it:

http://thetalkpod.com/

Also, Rothmann recorded a piece about Ronn Owens.  I haven’t listened to it, yet, but here’s the link:

http://thetalkpod.com/john-rothmann-ronn-owens-profile-courage/

I see, also, The Talk Pod includes podcasts from Lloyd Lindsay Young, Stan Burford, Ed & Rosie, and Barbara Simpson, among others.  My security settings block the audio player but that can be corrected easily.  I’ll certainly try listening to some of these podcasts on Fridays.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been listening to This American Life and Radiolab:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

http://www.radiolab.org/

They are fine for awhile, interesting stories with good production values.  But, it’s nice to have a variety of voices and guests to hear, as well as current news every so often without having to flip over to another site.  So, I thought, what else can I try?  Why not music?

I decided on YouTube.  On Friday, I’d stayed late at the office to finish projects that could not wait until Tuesday and I thought music would help to take my mind off the time.  In the past, I’ve enjoyed the segments on BBC Radio 2 when Simon Mayo (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p2dfq) takes requests for long-plays.  It is so wonderful to hear those old songs in their full five (or more) minutes.

Mayo introduced this series as well, on the top 100 guitar riffs, and this article lists the results: http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2014/08/bbc-radio-2-listeners-pick-all-time.html

But I wanted something more.  I would one-up Mayo and go the full album route.  yep.  He’s got the Mayo but I’ve got the meat.  Not just a bite, but the full, freakin’ meal.

When I typed in full album on YouTube, I was amazed at all of the choices.  Old albums, new albums, obscure albums, cover albums, it’s all there.  I even saw one I haven’t seen for decades – Richard Harris’ album, Slides, but it’s split into separate YouTube video tracks, so you have to click each song to hear the entire thing.  That album was old when I was young.  I remember hearing it on my next door neighbor’s turntable.  It always skipped near the end of ‘Sunny-Jo’.

I’ve always loved listening to the voice of Richard Harris on Slides:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdJvXcRlylg

But that was not my choice on Friday.  I settled on The Moody Blues’ album, Days of Future Passed.   As I listened, I realized I’ve never heard this Moody Blues album in its entirety.  Oh sure, I’ve heard the songs on the radio but I haven’t listened, really listened, to the full album.  What a different experience than clicking and flipping one song, then another, and another completely different.  To sit through an hour of one cohesive compilation was both refreshing and nostalgic.

Maybe that’s how we’ll remember talk radio decades from now.  Streamed from an audio sharing service we’ll hear those familiar talk radio voices of our youth and think of the good ol’ days when people actually called to voice their opinions and the talk radio hosts listened and engaged conversation.

It really is only a memory now, isn’t it?

 

I just saw this article today.  Had no idea.

http://www.mercurynews.com/celebrities/ci_26403272/ronn-owens-says-he-has-parkinsons-disease

According to the San Jose Mercury News article, by Tony Hicks, Owens was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2001 and wanted to go public with it after learning about Robin Williams’ diagnosis of the disease before Williams ended his life.

Owens told his listeners on Monday, August 25th, during his radio program.

 

And, here’s the sfgate article about it:

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Ronn-Owens-of-KGO-radio-has-Parkinson-s-disease-5710278.php

whoa!  That was a shaker this morning.  As of now, it’s being listed as a 6.0 earthquake but that will probably change as more data comes in.  I’ve seen it listed as a 5.7, 6.0, and 6.1 on different maps.

Times like this I really miss the old KGO, when everyone would call in and talk about what happened in their area.  There is no television coverage about it, either (at the time this was posted, it was at least an hour after the earthquake).  Only a scroll on a KPIX paid-programming show that lists the magnitude and that’s it.

Pathetic.

We’re on our own, public, and no longer have a place to share this stuff.  How pathetic is it?  I actually went to sfgate to read about it and the comments that have populated from 17 to 73 to 162.  That’s the only place left to share, I guess.

Here’s a link to David Wiegand’s article on sfgate about the local coverage:

http://www.sfgate.com/tv/article/Quake-Rating-local-TV-coverage-5709019.php

This is no surprise.

I listened to Frosty every day, it was my morning routine at work.  BBC Radio 2, live online, is the first audio of the day (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2).  That hasn’t changed for many years.  Steve Wright in the Afternoon (London time) plays a nice mix of new and old music, along with celebrity interviews.  He even plays Demis Roussos every so often and that makes my day!  (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wr4r)  Following Steve, is Simon Mayo’s Drivetime show (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p2dfq) and he has a Confessions segment that has me hooked.  Right after the Confession (http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/confess), in the first hour of Mayo, there is a short financial report and one more song before the top of the hour.  I wait until the song ends before I shut down BBC and turn on the little radio on my desk.  I do not want to hear one single word of Armstrong & Getty so I always wait for the song to end because I know A&G will be off the air.

Then, it’s 10:00am and time for Frosty.

In the same way, I turn off the radio the moment Frosty’s show ends, because the following ‘so-called’ show begins and I don’t want to lose my lunch.  Two guys talking who have nothing to say.  Now, we all know Gil’s wife is gawd-awful, she has tainted Gil’s product (but Gil hasn’t done much to salvage his reputation either), but why a supposed-talk station chose those two new guys for a new show is beyond lunacy.  Keeping Gil’s wife on the air with that shrieking voice only a dog could love is a major blunder, but adding that disaster of a new show is too much.  There is nothing on that station now that is worth listening to and the good thing is I won’t have to hear the same commercials over and over again of that woman yelling about something.  Who knows what she’s saying, I never could listen to those spots.

I do have one shout out: Hellloooo! Lloyd Lindsay Young.  I will miss hearing your voice on the radio.  You are one of the good ones.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Lindsay_Young

Frosty was the last link to radio I had.  That’s it for me.  I’ve been listening online to Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com/) and This American Life (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/) and Radio Lab (http://www.radiolab.org/) to fill in the lack of good talk.  Eventually, someone will put together live podcasts of talk shows, hopefully with callers, that we can stream and customize content according to topic or host.

So, Frosty signed off for the last time on Talk-910AM on Friday, August 1st.

As I said, this was no surprise.  He’d mentioned his on-air anniversary a few months back but made no mention of a contract or another year.  Plus, his lease had expired on his apartment and he’d packed everything up in storage and was living in a corporate, furnished apartment temporarily.  He talked about looking for a new apartment at one time, but hadn’t mentioned it for some time.  See?  No surprise.

He said he couldn’t come to a contract agreement so he’s heading back to LA.

You can see what he says about it on his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/froststilwell

This is his San Francisco page and he says farewell there as well:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Frosty-San-Francisco/151619138189638

His podcasts have disappeared from Talk 910AM’s site.  None of my links to his shows will work.  sigh..

I should mention another Facebook page has disappeared.  The Former KGO Listeners Facebook page is gone.  Don’t know what happened, but maybe they became frustrated with the lack of content two years after Cumulus destroyed radio in this market.  What more is there to say?

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Note: I received a note that there is another Facebook option:

https://www.facebook.com/NoMoreKGO

Thanks, H. Bjerre!  I’ll check it out.
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