New Guys, New Time Slots and Change On The Radio

I find myself thinking a lot about, and answering email about, the line-up changes coming to KTSA on Monday June 17th.

You know, I’m a radio listener too. All my life. I get how you feel about all these moves.

When I was growing up in Boston, there was this amazing, unique radio talk host named David Brudnoy. I don’t know how you would label him by today’s standards, because he was conservative about many things, liberal on some, libertarian here and there, and flat-out brilliant. I say “unique” because he was intellectual without being condescending. You learned, but it didn’t feel like school. No other host taught me more. Every time I turned the dial, his time slot or host station changed. Seemed like he worked all over the place, but the truth was he delivered great radio and profit wherever they put him.

At the time, I naively thought he controlled these moves, but now realize others were moving the chess pieces.

When I moved from WOAI to KTSA (20 years ago next month), I wondered whether WOAI listeners would follow me to AM 550. They were replacing me with Rush Limbaugh, so…you know. I can’t say how many followed,  but I wouldn’t have lasted too long if there weren’t some.

The other challenge for me was being the “new guy” at KTSA. They hadn’t made many changes over the years. The other hosts were older. Heck, when I was the “new guy” at WOAI, my office mates were gentlemen like Bill McReynolds who had been on the station since the ’50s. At WGY in Albany, NY, it was the same thing—like working at a museum of radio. Heck, there was an orchestra pit.

But this “new guy” got a warm welcome and fair tryout from some very skeptical KTSA listeners. I’ll always be grateful.

If I might ask a favor: give the new guys, “Markley and Van Camp” a fair shake in the 11 A.M. to 1 P.M. timeslot. It would mean a lot to them.

And give the “old guys” in their new timeslots a chance, too. You could learn something. Or they could.