Rethinking my take on the CPRN and Entercom deal

Earlier I wrote:

Only CPRN's solid offer to take over KDFC's classical format would have given Entercom the confidence to buy KUFX. CPRN's action cleared the way for Entercom to repurpose the 102.1 frequency for simulcasting to the San Francisco area that KUFX's South Bay transmitter couldn't reach.

Two seconds after I posted that entry I reread that part and thought, "That's really dumb."

The fact that KDFC was one of the last commercial classical stations in an urban area suggests that the classical format at best wasn't making Entercom as much money as another format would. Entercom wouldn't have had any qualms about shuttering the classical format in favor of one more profitable, so it wouldn't have looked around for someone to take the format off its hands. It's more likely that CPRN found out, or suspected, that KDFC's classical format was on shaky ground, and approached Entercom. Entercom would probably have gone through with the format change for 102.1 without CPRN's offer, though.

For Entercom, what counted was acquiring KUFX. What happened to KDFC and KUSF was nothing more than fallout.

It's an historical oddity, by the way, that Entercom owns the two frequencies that most recently broadcast classical music in San Francisco: 95.7 FM (formerly KKHI) and 102.1.

Murray Attaway still active

A little disappointed that the version of "Always Saturday" I found was in mono, I grubbed around the 'net and stumbled across a reference to Murray Attaway's new band, Bomber City. He's joined by, among others, his former Guadalcanal Diary bandmate Jeff Walls.

Bomber City was originally intended to provide a live outlet for songs that Attaway has written over the last twenty years, both individually and as collaborations with Walls (many of them unreleased). The group’s set list has evolved to include material from Attaway’s 1993 solo album In Thrall (Geffen) along with Guadalcanal Diary-era outtakes, oddities, and the occasional surprise cover. Bomber City also delivers a handful of requisite Guadalcanal Diary faves with augmented instrumentation and fresh new energy.

I haven't been this excited about a resurrected musical favorite since the Effigies. Unfortunately for those of us not in and around Athens, GA, Bomber City appears to be a strictly local outfit for now. I also don't see any recorded material for sale or download, but YouTube has a taste of what the rest of us are missing: a Bomber City version of "In My Book" (from In Thrall).

S.F. tidbit: 102.1 ad and the KUSF deal

As part of the deal that handed the University of San Francisco's license for the 90.3 FM frequency to the Classical Public Radio Network (owned by the University of Southern California), the classical format of 102.1 FM, KDFC, was moved to 90.3 FM (becoming noncommercial in the process). Entercom, which owns the license for 102.1, quickly began simulcasting its South Bay rock outlet, KUFX "The Fox." Today I saw the first TV ad for the now dual-frequency station.

TV ads for radio stations aren't that common any more, but they do catch the eyes of those whose ears aren't listening. In this case, Entercom had several million reasons for wanting to pump its audience numbers up. According to radio-info.com, Entercom paid $9 million to buy KUFX in early January 2011.

This is the kind of fill-in deal for Entercom that would've been done pretty naturally in the trading climate of 5-6 years ago. Its announcement now suggests that things might be turning - and that Entercom's feeling comfortable enough to do the deal.

In retrospect, we now see what gave Entercom that level of comfort. Only CPRN's solid offer to take over KDFC's classical format would have given Entercom the confidence to buy KUFX. CPRN's action cleared the way for Entercom to repurpose the 102.1 frequency for simulcasting to the San Francisco area that KUFX's South Bay transmitter couldn't reach. Only that expanded audience would have justified the high price Entercom paid for KUFX.

That wasn't Entercom's only recent investment, by the way. It's touting the addition to KUFX's DJ linuep of "Big Rick" Stuart, a popular local radio personality who until recently was a fixture at San Francisco's KFOG. Stuart could not have been an inexpensive acquisition.

Closing the circle, Big Rick got his start in radio at KUSF -- the station squeezed off the FM airwaves as part of CPRN's deal with USF.

[UPDATE: corrected mangled writing in the first paragraph. Also, I revisited some of this post's thoughts not long afterwards.]

My Obsession Now: Guadalcanal Diary, "Always Saturday"

Guadalcanal Diary's Murray Attaway wasn't cut out for pop stardom, and his songwriting showed it. Attaway's obsessions, notably the history of the South and spirituality, dominate his lyrics. These lyrics and the often minor-key melodies in which they were embedded provided moments of great joy for brooding spirits like myself but guaranteed that radio programmers would shy away from the band like germophobes from a leper.

Guadalcanal Diary's best-known tune, "Watusi Rodeo," was as upbeat and conventionally pop as anybody thought Attaway and his colleagues could get -- that is, until their final album, Flip Flop, produced "Always Saturday," an unabashed stab at the pop charts.

Lyrically, it's a romp through idealized images of halcyon days that might or might not ever have been real, interspersed with a dig or two at contemporary culture, sprinkled throughout with a touch of Attaway's trademark irony and wistfulness.

"Always Saturday" emphasizes the beautiful, strong harmonizing the rest of the band (Jeff Walls, Rhett Crowe, and John Poe) could provide. Their call to Attaway's response makes for an irresistible chorus. (It may bear mentioning that I'm a huge fan of Attaway's clear, strong voice: it rings as brightly as the band's guitars.)

As if to emphasize the band's goal of hitting the charts, there's a video for the song. If the upbeat melody and arrangement fool you into thinking this is a simple, happy summer song (everything about it says "summer" to me), the footage in the video will undercut your expectations. I think the song works better without the imagery, but I'm glad to have seen the video just for the chance to see Attaway in all his 1980s glory, looking like Elvis Costello in wire-rims.

I first heard and obsessed over this song more than fifteen years ago when I stumbled across the only copy of Flip Flop I've ever seen. The song beguiles me as much today as it did then.

UPDATE: The aforementioned video not only is in mono, but also is an edited version of the song. Find a used copy of Flip Flop if you can. (I did, just the other day. The album is better than I remember.)

One more thought about the Kochs

In "Kochs pay to play in Wisconsin" I accused the billionaire Koch brothers of looking out for their wallets under the guise of saving capitalism. However, I forgot to mention the biggest reason their pretense doesn't convince me.

If they think their cause is righteous and pure, why are they so careful to avoid publicizing their considerable financial support for it?

Operation Smile Train not a happy merger

On Valentine's Day the charities Operation Smile and Smile Train announced they were merging; the new entity would be known as Operation Smile Train. The two organizations address the same malady, cleft lips in children, so the merger made sense and seemed uneventful.

Only it wasn't. As the New York Times reported, the merger was more like a hostile takeover engineered by one of Smile Train's cofounders, Charles Wang.

The terms of the deal are hard to believe:

• Only a third of Smile Train's assets will be assigned to the merged entity. The rest of Smile Train's assets will be part of a fund under Wang's control.
• Half the money Operation Smile Train raises over the next three years will also be placed into the Wang-controlled fund.
• Operation Smile's cofounders will have "lifetime tenure."

Wang had disagreed with Smile Train's other cofounder, Brian Mullaney, about how the charity should plan for the future. Coincidentally, Mullaney's own disagreement with Operation Smile's founders while on its board of directors had led him to create Smile Train with Wang some years ago. It certainly looks as if Wang engineered the merger in part to get back at Mullaney, though the large amount of money that will be under Wang's control if the merger goes through probably was a big factor, too.

The only reason I know about Smile Train is that its incessant and unsolicited mailings have irritated me for years. I'd like to believe its current travails are karmic payback for being a singularly annoying outfit.

[UPDATE: I've gotten a lot less tolerant of Smile Train's begging letters. My 19 July 2011 posting explains why you shouldn't send a penny to this disreputable and unscrupulous outfit, while my 26 September 2011 posting is the first of what I imagine will be an endless set of entries documenting further unwelcome solicitations from the weasels at Smile Train.]

The Supreme Court and race: unfinished business

The New York Times' Linda Greenhouse gives a heads-up with respect to a few Supreme Court Justices' sentiments on civil-rights legislation, and how those sentiments might play out if the Court addresses a pending challenge to the Voting Rights Act.

I'm wary of promoting opinion pieces (this is from Greenhouse's Opinionator blog), but I have a particular interest in the Court and I respect Greenhouse's insights. She puts the cases she discusses into context, explaining some of the parties involved (conservatives might well argue she spends more time exploring the conservative organizations supporting the challenges than the presumably liberal ones opposing them) and the reason why the challenged laws were put into place by Congress. That context alone is reason enough to read her blog entry.