Another Tuesday newsday

Here's what's the haps for today...

More Randi on the radio

As kind of an update to last week's entry, a couple more affiliates have added Randi Rhodes, both owned by Clear Channel, which syndicates her show. WXXM Madison, after not being able to agree with her on a suitable time slot, has compromised with a little shuffling. Her show will air on 92.1 The Mic weeknights 6-9P (CT) starting May 26. Mike Malloy has been shifted to 9P-12A, followed by Ron Reagan 12-3A.

In Denver, KKZN adds her to the 7-10P (MT) shift, replacing Ron Kuby.

And if you don't mind staying up late, Ohio Majority Radio, which offers its own streaming station, is webcasting her show in the 1-4A ET time slot.

WWR(e)Location time

With the shuffling of Air America's talent lineup, 'flagship' station WWRL in New York has done some minor tweaking. Montel Williams is now airing in the 3-6P ET time slot in place of Ron Kuby. Also the station has added the third hour of Stephanie Miller's show in the 11A-12P slot, following the station's two-hour mid-morning infomercial juggernaut.

In case you missed it, Kuby moved his show to the vacant 12-3P slot, and Air America is currently airing a replay of Williams' late-morning show in the (now vacant) 3-6P slot.

And Jon Elliot is no longer at Air America, having taken over afternoons at XEPE in San Diego. You can hear his show streamed 3-6P PT (6-9P ET) here.

No further word on any network replacements thus far.

More radio mayhem

They say that radio programming runs in waves. Some formats become the flavor of the month, while others become audio pariahs. The latest dying format appears to be smooth jazz, which has just been nuked in two of America's biggest markets. In San Francisco, KKSF dropped the format after a more than two decade run, switching to classic rock. And in Chicago, WNUA, another long-running smooth jazz outlet, is reportedly reaching for the handle. Both stations are owned by Clear Channel, which appears to make all their programming decisions in bulk.

Granted, perhaps only a scant few will shed tears over the slow demise of smooth jazz. The mix of bland funk and elevator music really can't be considered 'jazz' (I call it 'supermarket jazz'), particularly when the likes of Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and other true 'jazz' geniuses (which, incidentally never get played on a smooth 'jazz' outlet) are weighed in on the mix. Rather, the increasingly watered-down 'fuzak' format features unspontaneous light jazzers like Kenny G (who is to jazz what Nickleback is to grunge) mixed with dreary lite-rock fare like Phil Collins, a recipe for an audio valium tablet. I briefly did a smooth jazz format myself and found it quite dreadful, but perhaps that's just me.

Granted 'real' jazz is an even deader format on the nation's airwaves (save for a few non-commercial outlets and some really good streaming services), but maybe, just maybe, a pending death of smooth 'jazz' will help return the term 'jazz' to it's proper place.

Steel Town shakedown

Here's an added update for Wednesday. Sheridan Broadcasting is selling three of its Pittsburgh stations, including WAMO-AM/FM and WPGR to a religious broadcaster. For local listeners, that means that the city's only urban contemporary-formatted station, the venerable WAMO-FM, will soon be gone, and along with it a strong community voice and employer of African-Americans in on-air and management positions.

What it means to liberal talk listeners in the city is that local talk fixture Lynn Cullen will soon be out of a job again. She started working at WAMO's AM outlet only a few months ago. Also gone will be the syndicated Bev Smith. Cullen is pondering retirement, as she refuses to leave Pittsburgh and her on-air options there are very limited.

KMNY shuffles lineup

Here's another Wednesday item. KMNY (1360AM) Dallas ("Rational Radio") is not adding Randi Rhodes at this time (as far as I can tell). However, they are replacing Ron Kuby with a popular local duo. Pugs & Kelly (a.k.a. John Myron and Kelly Mohr) will air from 1-4P CT, taking over Kuby's 2-4P shift, and cutting off the last hour of Thom Hartmann's show.

Pugs & Kelly have worked at three local stations in the past year, with a long stint on the now-defunct FM hot-talker KLLI (Live 105.3), and briefly at KDBN ("The Bone").

The station airs a healthy amount of local programming compared to other similar stations.