Listen For Nostalgia On New Station
There’s a brand-new radio station in town, KWQL-FM, aka “A Touch of Class at 106.5 FM.”
Tom Read, the veteran Spokane broadcaster who is programming the station, calls the format “beautiful and familiar music,” with an emphasis on nostalgia.
Read said he purchased several 78-rpm record libraries, so he is playing plenty of great Big Band era instrumentals from the ‘30s and ‘4Os. The station also plays the easylistening heroes of the ‘50s and ‘60s, such as Andre Kostelanetz and Peter Nero.
Read said Spokane already has a format devoted to the singers of that era, but this is the only station devoted mainly to instrumentals.
The station also plays “light classical music” (Boston Pops, for instance) from midnight to 6 a.m. every night, and on Sunday afternoons from noon to midnight.
Read hopes to add more nostalgia-based specials and programs to the mix. Another one of the station’s tag lines is: “Radio As It Used To Be - And Is Again.”
But it’s not all nostalgia. In an unlikely marriage, KWQL-FM also runs the Oliver North and Larry King talk shows. North runs every weekday from noon to 3 p.m., and King runs from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. every day (it’s a simulcast of “Larry King Live” on CNN).
The station is owned by Vera Broadcasting, headed by Dan Toms of Spokane. It has 6,000 watts of power, enough to cover the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene metropolitan area.
The radio ratings
The summer Arbitron ratings for radio are out, and the leader is: KEYF-FM, better known as Oldies 101.1.
This station is consistently in the top five, but this is the first time this station has ever been No. 1. In fact, according to program director Scott Valentine, only a handful of oldies stations in the country have ever been No. 1 in their markets.
I’m trying to figure out exactly what KEYF’s win means. Maybe it means that Spokane loves its oldies station.
Or maybe it means that summertime is the season when everyone likes to kick back with the Beach Boys on the boom box.
Or maybe it means that the radio ratings are just plain arbitrary. In the past five quarterly ratings books, four different stations have been No. 1.
Other observations:
KISC-FM continues to slide, from a high rating of 13.2 in 1991 to a 8.2 in 1993 to a 5.7 this quarter.
KAQQ-AM remains the top AM station with its hits of the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s beating the news-talk of KGA-AM and KXLY-AM.
Wondering why KEZE-FM switched to an alternative rock format last week? Check out its ranking, measured when it was still a hard-rock station.
Here are the summer Arbitron rankings, average quarter-hour share, all persons 12 and over, copyright 1995, The Arbitron Company:
1. KEYF-FM/AM, oldies, 9.7.
2. KDRK-FM, country. 9.0.
3. KZZU-FM, contemporary hits, 8.4.
4. KKZX-FM, classic rock, 7.9.
5. KNFR-FM, country, 6.6.
6. KAQQ-AM, oldies, 6.4.
7. KXLY-FM, soft hits, 6.2.
8. KISC-FM, adult contemporary, 5.7.
9. (tie) KGA-AM, news-talk, 5.1.
9. (tie) KXLY-AM, news-talk, 5.1.
11. KCDA-FM, country, 4.8.
12. KEZE-FM, album rock, 4.4.
13. KNJY-FM, rock, 3.9.
14. KJRB-AM, talk, 2.3.
15. KTSL-FM, Christian, 1.8.
16. KHTQ-FM, contemporary hits, 1.6.
17. KVNI-AM, adult contemporary, .7.
18. (tie) KSVY-AM, classical, .3.
18. (tie) KTRW-AM, sports talk, .3.
News from KPBX-FM
Spokane’s Public Radio Station, KPBX-FM, 91.1, is missing from the above list because Arbitron ranks only commercial stations.
But don’t forget about them, especially not now. The station is in the middle of a crucial pledge drive, trying to come up with enough members and pledges to make up for the reduction in its federal money. The station set a record for new members on its first day, but it still has a long way to go (the drive ends Friday).
The pledge drive will feature a special live performance Monday at 8 p.m. by the Devienne Trio, which consists of Bruce Bodden, Bohdan Hilash and Lynne Feller. They will play a piece specially written for the occasion by Dan Grabois of New York’s Meridian Arts Ensemble, titled “A Gala Night In Hell.” (Does that refer to Halloween or to the pledge drive? We can only guess.)
In other KPBX news, reporter-announcer Joe Zupan left the station last week to run a Peace Corps educational radio project on the island of Vanuatu in the South Pacific.
‘Muskrat Love’ alert
As an expert on annoying songs, I wanted to be the first to issue this bulletin:
The Captain and Tennille are re-recording “Muskrat Love.” You have been warned.
A sit-in for charity
A hearty pat on the back (please, no lower than that) to KZZU-FM’s Jason Valentine, who sat in every seat in the Spokane Arena on Tuesday and Wednesday to raise money for Project Share, which helps families pay their heating bills.
Valentine sat in all 11,000 seats in a non-stop 24-hour marathon. He employed the “slide technique,” just touching down in one seat before moving on to the next.
He was understandably sore in the nether regions after the marathon, but I’ll bet he was feeling glad all over about the results: $22,000 in corporate and listener pledges.
The end justified the means, if you catch my drift.
‘Bella Vista’
KSPS-Channel 7 airs an interesting documentary, “Bella Vista: An Unseen View of World War II,” on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
It’s about 1,000 Italian civilians, mostly merchant marine sailors, who were interned at Fort Missoula in Missoula during World War II. You might remember this topic from a July package in The Spokesman-Review.
Journalist Kathy Witkowsky and producer Lori Hudak have put together an informative half-hour documentary. I saw an advance copy, and it’s worth checking out. It will be repeated Nov. 5 at 2:30 p.m.
, DataTimes