What’s it take to get a good shootout going in this burg?
When the upstart country radio station KWLE 92.5-FM (“Willie”) rode in on its high horse a month ago, I figured the local sheriff, KYGO 98.5-FM, would be itching for a gunfight at the FM Corral.
“Willie” is game. Don Howe, senior vice president for parent CBS Radio Denver, brought in radio gunslinger Bill Gamble from Chicago as his program director. When it went on the air in December, KWLE ran promotions promising old and new country and a wider range of tunes, a clear put-’em-up to KYGO. “They’re not playing anything near the number of songs we’re playing,” says Howe. “They’re a great radio station, but they’re playing current hits. We’re playing five decades.”
Joel Burke, program director at KYGO for five years, won’t be lured into a quick-draw contest. “The official statement is we don’t talk about anything. We let the station talk for itself. Our biggest competitor six months ago is still our biggest competitor – ourselves.”
C’mon, Joel, just one shot? “I let the scoreboard speak for itself.” Not a bad idea because KYGO is a ratings monster, the No. 1 station in the 12+ category 10 of the past 12 Arbitron books.
Be that as it may, KYGO, unlike the boys around the campfire in “Blazing Saddles,” isn’t squatting on its laurels. The station’s website promises, “More country variety than ever before!”
Howe snorts, “They’re clearly responding (to us). They’re trying to reinvent themselves.”
Them’s fightin’ words, podnah! Or not.
On top of the news
Sometimes you get the bear.
KDVR-Channel 31’s “Good Day Colorado” scored a coup Friday morning when its helicopter, airborne for weather coverage, came across the charter-bus crash on the Boulder Turnpike.
Fox, the first local TV news outlet at the wreck, got riveting shots from its copter of the rescue of passengers from the bus, which landed on its side.
“Live and local!” crows Fox news director Bill Dallman. “We decided to stay on (past 9 a.m.) because of weather concerns. Sure enough, traffic was a problem.
“When you have the longest (morning) show, that’s what you’re there for. We were happy we were on.”
Around the dial
Are we obsessed with celebrities? I don’t know but just to be sure, I’m tuning in to “Colorado Inside Out Live” to see Brian Malone’s locally made documentary “Breaking News,” about media coverage of the Michael Jackson and Kobe Bryant cases (8 p.m. Wednesday, KBDI-Channel 12). … Michelle Shocked and The Gourds headline the taping of the etown radio show at the Boulder Theater Feb. 26. Tickets, info at 303-786-7030. … Quotable: “If any of my competitors were drowning, I’d stick a hose in their mouth.” Ray Kroc
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-820-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
