KFI (640 AM) was the local radio winner at the 76th Golden Mike Awards, presented by the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California. This year, the awards were presented in late March at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles.
Winning five awards, KFI was honored for Best Newscast Under 15 Minutes (Division A) for the 12 p.m. News with Michael Monks; Best Live Coverage of a News Story (Division A) for coverage of the L.A. Immigration Protest; Best Long Form Program or Documentary for “L.A, Fires, a Path Forward;” Best News Talk Show or Public Affairs Program (Division A) for “Michael Monks Reports;” and Best Entertainment Reporting for “The Benn Family – From Ashes to AGT.”
KNX (1070 AM) was honored in four categories: Best Newscast Over 15 Minutes for “L.A.’s Morning News;” Best Continuing Coverage (Division A) for “ICE Protests in Downtown L,A,; Best Live Coverage of the 2025 SoCal Fires; and Best Use of Sound for “LASD Altadena Looter Patrols.”
KPCC (89.3 FM) earned three: Best Individual Writing for “Becoming an American,” Best Serious Feature Reporting for “No Help Came in Eaton Fire,” and Best Light Feature Reporting for a special feature on legendary children’s show broadcaster Mr. Rogers.
KUSC (91.5 FM) won an award for Best Radio Series Reporting for “Notes from the Fires.” Other award winners included California Lutheran University’s KCLU/Santa Barbara, KVPR/Fresno, and from San Diego, KPBS and KOGO.
Correcting the Dees’ Record
I received a nice follow-up in response to the recent story on Rick Dees; it came from none other than Paul Joseph, who corrected and clarified some of my information.
I had written that Danny Lemos was the producer of Dees’ show on KIIS-FM (102.7); Lemos was indeed a major part of it, providing the voice of Chuy from La Puente as well as writing much of the material. However, it was Joseph who was the producer.
Tall Paul, as Dees would sometimes call him, put it this way: “I am always happy to have positive comments about our show, as we worked 24/7 to prepare and produce and perform four hours of material five days a week.
“Rick was a champ and made it shine. (General Manager) Wally Clark, (Program Director) Gerry DeFrancesco, and I worked together to build the show, which skyrocketed KIIS-FM from the sleepy station to number one.
“It is one of those moments — if you can call 22 years a moment — that will never be duplicated on radio!
Oddly, I knew that, but in reaching back that far, I’d forgotten. I do have an excuse, though: Lemos was the executive producer of the Rick Dees Weekly Top-40. That’s close …
Setting the record straight, Joseph explained, “I was Executive Producer/Producer of The Rick Dees show for 22 years from 1982 to 2004. At that point, I continued at KIIS-FM and created and produced On Air Live with Ryan Seacrest.”
Save the Date
I mentioned the movie “Hendrie” a few weeks back, which looks at the Phil Hendrie Show that used to be heard on KFI. Long Beach low-power station KLBP (91.1 FM in Long Beach, klbp.org online) wants to make sure you see it for yourself … and meet Phil in person.
On Sunday, May 3rd, the station is planning a special screening of “Hendrie” at the Art Theater, 2025 E. 4th Street in downtown Long Beach. Beginning at 2 p.m., the presentation will be followed by a moderated question-and-answer session with Hendrie himself.
Tickets are $25, with proceeds benefiting the station as it moves into new studios to better serve the community. As of press time, tickets were not available for sale yet, but I am told that they will be available soon.
AM Music
I found another music station on the AM band. Of course, it’s not local to us, as locally most owners have essentially given up on the world’s original broadcast band. But searching some of the apps available in phones and in the car, I discovered KBRC out of Mt. Vernon, Washington, running a classic rock format on 1430 AM.
Apparently, 1430 is a fertile frequency for music: This is the third music station I’ve found at 1430 AM – the others being the excellent WION from Ionia, Michigan, and Reel Country WRDN out of Durand, Wisconsin.
Both WION and WRDN broadcast using the C-Quam analog stereo standard, a system unfortunately abandoned by most but still being used by a dedicated group of AM broadcasters. WION, in fact, uses an AM stereo tuner to feed its online stream … what you hear over the internet is what you’d hear locally, IF you owned a good AM stereo tuner. Unfortunately, few such tuners can be purchased new today, the one exception I know of being available at Meduci.Com.
Of course, no local AM broadcasters use analog stereo either. And that’s a shame.
Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com