Bill Virgin's Radio Beat August 9, 2007

Includes archive of Bill Virgin's columns fromJ une 2006 - March 2009

Bill Virgin's Radio Beat August 9, 2007

Postby radiofan » Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:12 pm

On Radio: New York Vinnie and Ron Reagan Jr. get the boot in KIRO-AM shakeup
By BILL VIRGIN
P-I REPORTER


The changes announced by Bonneville International for its Seattle news-talk outlet KIRO-AM (710) are more notable for what is gone than what has been added.

Gone, for example is Vinnie Richichi, better known to local audiences as sports talker New York Vinnie, who had been hosting a weekday evening show.

Gone, too, is evening sports talk. KIRO management says an issues/lifestyle talk show eventually will fill that slot.

Also gone is Ron Reagan Jr., the son of the former president, who had been hosting a one-hour show at noon weekdays. Program director Rod Arquette said Reagan may return as a fill-in host.

Finally, gone are the top-of-the-hour news updates from CBS from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Arquette says KIRO will continue to be a CBS affiliate and will draw upon its reports for national and international news. But "putting community news first is important," he said. Dropping the CBS reports "gives us the flexibility to go to a local story first or a national story first."

What has been added is "The Big Story @ 6," an hourlong news show at 6 p.m. hosted by Tony Miner. The show will devote at least the first 15 minutes to the top story of the day, longer than commercial-station newscasts normally devote to a single topic. If the top story is of the magnitude of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, it might take up the entire hour.

Arquette said "The Big Story" also may include excerpts and highlights from KIRO's talk shows earlier in the day.

The moves are aimed not just at KIRO's crosstown rival KOMO-AM (1000), but at public radio station KUOW-FM (94.9), which for the second straight quarter was the top-rated station in the Seattle-Tacoma market (see item below).

"The attraction of NPR stations around the country is they devote some time to stories," Arquette said. Since commercial stations are sometimes criticized for not devoting much time to certain stories, "The Big Story" is an attempt to answer that.

While morning rush-hour commuters want the regimented delivery of news, traffic and weather during their drive to work, afternoon audiences may be in the mood for a somewhat different approach, he added.

KIRO will use fill-in hosts while it looks for someone to permanently take over the 7-10 p.m. slot. Arquette declined to say whether the people he's looking are from inside or outside the Seattle market.

The KIRO lineup now has Gregg Hersholt and Jane Shannon with the morning news 5-9 a.m., Dave Ross 9 a.m.-noon, Dori Monson noon-3 p.m. and Ron & Don 3-6 p.m. KIRO plans to offer traffic reports on the :07s in morning drive, on the hour and half-hour from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and every 15 minutes, at the quarter-hour, 3-7 p.m.

Arquette said the decision to drop Reagan's show was made because "our strongest ratings were when we had Dave and Dori back to back."

Since taking over three Seattle stations from Entercom earlier this year, Bonneville has been making changes to all three. At talk station KTTH-AM (770) it added Glenn Beck's nationally syndicated show, while at KBSG-FM (97.3) it continued the shift from oldies to a classic-hits format and a new brand image as B97.3

In other radio notes:

Spring-quarter ratings and rankings for non-commercial stations in the Seattle-Tacoma market are out, and by interpolating them with the commercial-station data released last week by Arbitron, it's apparent that KUOW finished first, as it did in winter quarter. The top-rated commercial stations were KMPS-FM (94.1) and KOMO. KPLU-FM (88.5) came in 14th on the combined lists. Other non-commercial stations with enough listenership to register in the Arbitron data include KEXP-FM (90.3), KNHC-FM (89.5), KBCS-FM (91.3), KVTI-FM (90.9), KSER-FM (90.7) and KXOT-FM (91.7).

Lizz Sommars' guests on "Conversations" at 6 a.m. Sunday on KISW-FM (99.9) and KKWF-FM (100.7) include Dan Imhoff, environmentalist and author of the book "Food Fight."

The Sunday edition of Jim French's "Imagination Theatre," heard at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on KIXI-AM (880), includes a new Harry Nile mystery.

P-I reporter Bill Virgin can be reached at 206-448-8319 or billvirgin@seattlepi.com.

Bill Virgin's Radio Beat Thursday in the Seattle P-I
Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who couldn't hear the music.
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