What Happens in Vegas: Rush Limbaugh Eats Local FM Station

When I'm in the car, I usually listen to an MP3 CD, conservative talk radio (to see what they're up to), or Jack FM.  Jack is a format of mixed 60s-00s music, and that's pretty much what my CDs are like.  I know it is derided for being programmed elsewhere, has no local flavor, and is essentially soulless.  But then listeners of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck aren't looking for souls either, are they?

Lately, my listening habits have taken a hit.  The biggest conservo-talk station, KXNT, branded itself "News Radio" years ago, even though they weren't. They were talk radio. Hey, if FOX can call itself news, why not them?  But a recent shakeup of the station's format got it a little closer to the slogan. They removed Alan Stock from the morning, kinda neutered him, and stuck him in afternoon drive time. They replaced him with a jumble of a news show that is somewhat chaotic, and has no flow.  The former afternoon hosts, Casey Hendrickson and Heather Kydd, were 86ed, even though they were getting decent ratings (they've landed in a new gig though).  Consequently, the station--which used to get my blood boiling with all the wrong they were selling--is no longer much worth listening to. At least at drive times, which is the only time I listened.

Now, the new management has taken an even bolder step. They've hijacked my Jack FM station, and are replacing it with a simulcast of their diluted KXNT-AM programming.  Brilliant! Now Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity can be on two stations in the same town!  And still no liberal voices to be found.  I question the soundness of their decision.  I know that Jack wasn't burning up the ratings, but I suspect the same is true of KXNT lately.  I haven't been able to find any news on their current ratings, but if the buzz on the internet is to be believed, fans of their previous format are abandoning KXNT in droves.  I for one will be deleting the 100.5 FM button from my car stereo.

The new format--since it will be simulcast--will be referred to as, "NewsRadio KXNT 100.5 FM 840 AM" which is quite a mouthful.  Especially considering that the on air talent squeezes the name of the station in seemingly every 30 seconds.

Read more at: Radio-Info.com

What Happens in Vegas: Exiled Radio Team Finds New Home

I'm well known to be a lefty-liberal moonbat, but it wasn't always that way. Time was, I was a Reagan Republican. I shook that off years ago, and frankly, the nearly deified Reagan that right-wing talk radio rhapsodizes about these days bears little resemblance to what I remember.  As a lefty, how would I know that? Because I usually listen to right-wing talk radio in the car to-and-from work.  Oh, I'd probably listen to left-wing radio if I could, but no such animal exists in Las Vegas. Here--though we voted for Barack Obama and a slew of Democrats in the last election--we have three full-time (or one and a half to quote Casey Hendrickson) right-wing talk stations.  Supply and demand, my bippy. But that's a different blog post.

This one is about one station, 840 KXNT-AM (which they never get tired of saying, every other sentence) having shifted formats to a more newsy--but still right-wing--format, and dumping their evening talk duo. I've written about Casey Hendrickson and Heather Kydd before, not usually in glowing terms.  But they kind of got the bum's rush, having been highly rated. They're known as "team awesome" for unclear reasons, and had a youngish fan-base (being youngsters themselves). I've been following them on Facebook out of curiosity. So just to prove to them that not all liberals are big meanies, and "happy to see them fired," here's a free commercial for their new gig on one of those other right-wing stations. This time, it's a FOX "News" station, so I guess you could say they hit the big time.  So, good luck to team awesome. I've got a fairly tiny reach, but if I can help, I'm happy to.



From Hendrickson's Facebook Page: "Our new show will air starting Aug. 16th, 9-11am, Fox News 1280 KDOX."

Odd Timing: Las Vegas Right-wing Radio Changes Formats During Primaries

As I've mentioned before, I often partake in the swill that is right-wing talk radio on my short drive to and from work.  We have no liberal radio in Las Vegas, so what the hey. I figure it's opposition research for the blog.

The radio business is very changeable, with format changes occurring in the blink of an eye, usually with no warning.  Many markets that have had success with liberal talk radio for instance, have had their stations become all sports, all news, or even right-wing for no discernible reason.  But it's another thing altogether when a popular right-wing station shakes things up in the middle of primary season.

KXNT-AM 840 in Las Vegas is the home of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin. To give it a little local flavor, they had Alan Stock in the mornings, and two winners of the American Idol-like "Radio Star," Casey Hendrickson and Heather Kydd in the evening drive time.  Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin are harshly anti-Obama, Reid and Pelosi needless to say.  Stock, Hendrickson and Kydd offered little difference in that regard.  Stock has a bit of D-list celebrity for having been featured on Hannity and Colmes and other FOX "News" programs.  Hendrickson and Kydd have been on for a while, but both were youthful, and seemingly a little too certain of their far-right views for their relatively young ages.  Whippersnappers, my grandpa would have called them.

The latter two were jettisoned late last week, and Stock was switched to late afternoon/evenings.  This bumped Levin's show to the late-night replay hours, and opened up the morning show for a news program.  I discovered this on my morning drive, where I was surprised to hear the news reporters--previously relegated to brief updates--running the whole show.  It was clear that the seams were still showing, with some rough transitions, and former bit performers becoming full-fledged hosts.  One segment, called "Strip Tease," was a 90-second report on the happenings on the Las Vegas Strip.  It was a potentially cool feature with a tragically lame name, and it was repeated in Stock's evening show.

Alan Stock is an arch conservative, and I have locked horns with him in the past (when KXNT had a message board). He seems to have softened a bit in recent years, but still functioned as of last week as a Limbaugh-lite.  Now, he's been shoe-horned into a "news" program, so it remains to be seen if it will be more punditry or actual news.

All of this comes at a curious time, politically speaking.  In Las Vegas, we're currently in early voting for the 2010 primary.  On June 8, the primary proper will be held.  Up for consideration are embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Congresswoman Dina Titus and Shelly Berkely and our wacky Governor Jim Gibbons.  The entire former lineup was solidly in the hard-right conservative camp, with little tinges of Tea Bagger.  Things are heating up right. This. Minute.  So why would KXNT, the voice of Nevada's segment of Teabaggistan, change formats now?

To be sure, "Newsradio" KXNT's old motto: "Voices you know, news you trust" was never a very good fit. The only news they had was CBS on the hour (a news source right-wingers do not trust) and local news every half hour.  Maybe 4-1/2 minutes per hour were relegated to news?  Now at least, they have the morning news program, and Stock's questionably newsworthy evening show. 

And whither Hendrickson and Kydd?  If they follow in former Stock co-host Heidi Harris's footsteps, they'll land at a different right-winger station, and do well.  I'd lay higher odds (this is Vegas, after all) on Hendrickson than Kydd.  Hendrickson has developed into a pretty good radio professional, despite my 180-degree difference in his politics.  Kydd on the other hand has never felt completely cooked.  She's pretty though, so maybe she could end up as a FOX "News" Anchorbabe.

My biggest happy dance is because of the fact that Levin has been banished to late-night.  This loud-mouthed, whiny, incredibly hard to listen to ("there, I said it!) scumbucket is only half a notch better than the vile, contemptible Michael Savage. Ironically enough, Savage plays at the same time--on a different station--from Levin's old slot. So if Stock loses ratings to anybody, it will be to Michael Weiner Savage! Schadenfreude, baby.

My Take on the Death of Michael Jackson

Image from GroupieBlog

Some celebrity deaths you anticipate. Ed McMahon, for example, was elderly and had been quite ill for some time. Farrah Fawcett, who also died today, had been terminally ill with cancer, so was also not a surprise. But, Michael Jackson? We're used to bizarre behavior, and out-of-left-field news items, but death at age 50? It's hard to digest.

In the hours since, I have been surprised some more. I heard a snippet of The Mark Levin Show on the radio (something I do not advise), and heard a rather dismissive air of the story. Later, I heard the local Las Vegas conservative talk radio show, The Casey Hendrickson Show with Heather Kydd. This was far worse. The show airs on KXNT, the local sponsor of the Sean Hannity "Freedom" Concerts. Kydd was something of a fan, and was uncharacteristically reserved. Hendrickson was not. He was unbelievably crass, expressing "happiness" that Jackson had died. This dovetailed with a few of the posts you might read on right-wing web site FreeRepublic, though tailered for radio.

The source of this nastiness is of course the allegations of pedophilia that will loom over any discussion of Jackson. It is worth noting that Jackson was acquitted of those charges. "Paid off" or not, no accuser ever proved his case. Having known a little of the background of the story, from the inside as it were, I personally don't believe the stories had merit. Regardless, expressing elation at someone's death--especially given the freshness of the news--is beyond crass.

The reaction of the rest of the news media frankly surprised me as well. I've mostly watched MSNBC, where Keith Olbermann has been handling the anchoring duties. It has been wall-to-wall Jackson, without commercials. I flipped to CNN and FOX "News," and found them covering it as well. If nothing else, it is a testament to Jackson's celebrity that more than a decade after having any fresh music, that it would garner such coverage.

I'll close by saying that I enjoyed--and will continue to enjoy--Michael Jackson's music. I'll concede that he was likely a troubled soul, and that he took "eccentric" to a whole 'nother level. If there is any truth to the more salacious allegations, I would of course find that awful. But since no truth has ever been proved, I will not judge him for it. And if it wasn't true? What a horrible thing that it hung over the last decades of his life. RIP, Michael.