KFWB Dumps All-News Format, Workers Mourn+Memorialize

I happened to hit the button for KFWB on my car radio this morning just in time hear "Witch"Dr. Laura praising Joe Wilson for his "You Lie" comment and bemoaning the fact that he apologized for his inappropriate outburst.

I've had a button on my car radio for KFWB for years, but that ends now. They've already screwed up weekends with "infomercials" and now they've chosen to air the views of a Stepford Woman who parrots the views of the right wing males.

Hasta La Bye Bye, KFWB. To borrow a phrase from a cable TV program, "Your show has been cancelled._

All I can say is thank goodness for KNX 1070. Otherwise there would be no where to turn for LA news and traffic. I miss hearing my old friends.

Thanks very much for your memorial piece on Off Ramp.

I was KFWB's director of engineering from 1975 to 2002. KPCC's memorial to what was KFWB brought back many good memories. I am proud that my tenure at KFWB spanned great coverage of many events that are part of Los Angeles history. I am also proud to have worked not only with the many editors, reporters, writers, anchors, "desk assistants", front office staff and sales people who all made KFWB what it was, but the engineers who kept the station on the air. A word or two about the man who had the vision as the head of Westinghouse Broadcasting Company (Group W), Donald McGannon. A true broadcast legend. Another word about KFWB's first General Manager, Art Schreiber, a class act and a great leader. As we see the continued blurring of the line between news and what passes for entertainment, at least I know I worked with great people of KFWB who used to get it right.

How long before CBS looks at new ways to screw up KNX? How easy to take an L.A. legend like WB and make it into a clone of so much of the right wing drivel already out there..."all news, all the time" has become "all syndication, all the time" (except for the token local news and where they whored themselves out for the Angels and soon to come - Clippers - 2 entities that deserve each other.) Look at the management - brought in from Cheap Channel and read the writing on the wall. Pathetic.

I was privileged to work at KFWB as a news assistant in the mid'70s with some real pros: Chet Douglas, Don Schrack, Charlie Brailer, Cecilia Pedroza and the erascible Gary "Car 98...Out" Franklin. "You Give Us 22 Minutes and...We'll Give You Almost Half-An-Hour." Great memories of 3:00 a.m. coffee runs to the nearby all-night cafe on Hollywood Blvd. and learning the basics from those who'd come up the hard way.