Gift ideas: Books, speakers and even radios
It’s that time of year. In fact, for some radio stations, it has been that time of year since Halloween. That’s when WKIM in Memphis went all-holiday music. According to Inside Radio, at least 15 stations switched to Christmas songs two weeks before Thanksgiving. Why? Because it works. Listeners dig it, and advertisers dig listeners. KOIT has known that for years and pulled the Santa switch just before Black Friday.
So, with Kelly Clarkson or Bing Crosby crooning away, here are some lastminute gift ideas. For radio fans, you can choose from any number of devices, including, of all things, radios. You won’t go wrong with either a Sangean table model (WR-11, $75) or a more portable EP Pro (from C. Crane, $85). But the hot gift has to be the new Sonos One speaker, which incorporates Amazon’s Echo and its AI assistant, Alexa. If you don’t need Sonos’ superior, $200 speaker, pay half and grab the Echo. You can ask Alexa to play any of tens of thousands of stations via TuneIn and other streaming services.
Sirius/XM satellite radio is available only by direct subscription, and a gift sub is a good idea. Sorry, commercial and public radio, but there’s nothing quite like the satellite service. Lovers of any kind of music, of sports, of news and talk — from NPR to Howard Stern — will be happy.
I’ve been on board from the beginning, around 2001, seven years before XM merged with Sirius, and I’ve stuck with my favorite stations, including The Loft, Deep Tracks, Soul Town, and the Elvis, Tom Petty and Siriusly Sinatra channels, while constantly jumping around decades — from the ’40s to the 2000s and back — and to the latest from Taylor Swift and Lil Pump. All with no commercials.
And, of course, there are books. The induction in July of the late Bill King into the broadcast wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame reminds me of A’s announcer Ken Korach’s excellent tribute, “Holy Toledo!” Matthew Lasar, media instructor, offers a recent history of radio, from consolidation (and before) to the Internet (and beyond) in his latest book, “Radio 2.0: Uploading the First Broadcast Medium.” And there are a couple of fine books by Mike Adams, professor emeritus of radio, TV and film at San Jose State. One is “The Radio Boys and Girls,” about radio hobbyists in the early 1920s, doing their early version of social media. Another is “Lee de Forest: King of Radio, Television and Film,” about de Forest’s inventive work in Palo Alto, long before Silicon Valley. Random notes: Annalisa ,a popular voice on KFOG until she and others were dismissed in March 2016, has landed afternoon-drive duties in her home area, Boston, at WXRV (“The River”) … Another of those who Cumulus Media sent packing from KFOG, morning co-host Renee Richardson, is doing a weekend shift on KRSH (“The Krush”) in Santa Rosa — or, as she puts it, “a real radio station.” … Also doing a weekend stint in the Wine Country: Dave Benson, former program director at KFOG. Add “Big Rick” Stuart at KVYN and Paul “The Lobster” Wells at KVRV (“The River”), and you’ve got a load of San Francisco talent on the grapevine … Hall of Fame football coach John Madden, out with health issues since July 2016, is back on KCBS, doing football analysis and sports commentary live at 9:15 a.m. Monday and Friday, with repeats on air and online … The documentary about KSAN, the fabled free-form FM station, has hit a bump. Modestly entitled “The Radio Station That Changed the World: KSAN Jive 95: The Movie,” the film has been in the works for three years. Now, its brainchild, senior producer Kenny Wardell, has withdrawn from the project, which is co-produced by the California Historical Radio Society. “I need to attend to other matters of greater importance to me at this time,” he said. The CHRS said it is moving on, “full speed ahead.” To the moon! It has been two years since Moonalice, the eclectic jam band, launched its station, with me as programmer and DJ (9 to 12, day and night). After a few bumps, we are rockin’ steady, and, thanks to Live365, our distribution platform, now can be heard via TuneIn. That means you can find Moonalice Radio on Sonos and Amazon’s Echo. Just ask Alexa to play Live365 and then, after her greeting, say “Play Moonalice,” and she will. Holidazed: Speaking of holiday gifts (weren’t we?), the Broadcast Legends presents its annual holiday lunch Dec. 15 in South San Francisco, with a program including a reading by Dan Odum and music from Abe Battat, The Trillium Quartet, and a radio columnist. Yep, I’ll sing “Blue Christmas,” with backing from keyboardist George Yamasaki and guitarist Kurt Huget. For info, go to www.BroadcastLegends.org.