Sunday, March 11, 2007
Don "Big D" Black started out last Tuesday as the morning jock on WZPW-FM Power 92, now owned by Regent Broadcasting. That afternoon, he was on the air at WPIA Kiss FM 98.5, owned by Independence Media.
Black made the move to Regent after the radio group paid former owner AAA Entertainment $12 million for Power 92 and WXMP-FM Mix 105.7 back in October. But he never got comfortable with the new set-up.
Yet Black doesn't harbor any ill well. "I have nothing bad to say about Regent. It's a case where I needed a challenge.
In the three years I was at Power 92, we took it to No. 1," he said. A youth-oriented station, Power 92 has been a ratings yo-yo over the years, spiking (tops among listeners 12 and older in spring 2006) and then dropping back.
Now Black is back at the old Brandywine studio where Power 92 used to be when part of AAA. Kiss FM is now owned by Independence, but he's still Big D, a radio presence that shines among those Jacked-up, iPod-inspired wall-of-noise formats that denigrate human involvement. Black's not afraid to be heard.
Besides, he's funny. Remember his campy campaign to be mayor of Pekin? In radio since 1991, Black worked in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Chicago before landing in Peoria.
He vows that his 3 to 7 p.m. shift at Kiss won't vary much from his Power 92 morning schtick.
"We'll just try to have some fun," he said. Peorian Ed Klein recalls radio station WWXL, that broadcast from the Jefferson Hotel downtown. Klein, who started there in 1949, worked there as a DJ known as "Cousin Ed.
" The station featured "hillbilly music" (now country), he said. But the station also generated media stars such as Tom Connor, who later moved on to WEEK-TV, Channel 25, as did Bill Houlihan, who handled announcing duties at the station before turning to the weather. "Lee Rothman was also one of the announcers there who, after the station closed in 1952, moved to New York, where he appeared on national television in commercials for Hamms beer and other products," said Klein.
When the station closed, the transmitter site was converted to a television station that became WHOI-TV, Channel 19. Basketball fans, take note: WMBD-AM 1470 will be picking up key NCAA tournament games this year. Program director Jamie Markley said that a hefty portion of the nation's premiere basketball tourney would run on the station - part of an ongoing effort to air major sports events.
WMBD previously aired the World Series and Super Bowl. Wal-Mart is now selling HD digital radios for the car. The company announced plans to stock the JVC HD-W10 Mobile HD Radio receiver for about $190.
Across the United States, more than 1,100 radio stations now broadcast in HD with more than 600 offering multicasts that can provide different formats and content. As we noted in this column earlier, WGLO-FM 95.5 and WCBU-FM 89.
9 are the only local HD stations with WCBU the lone multicaster. A distinctive vocalist who doesn't get much attention these days is spotlighted from 7 to 9 p.m.
Tuesday on Laura Kennedy's "Swingtime" program on WGLT-FM 89.1/103.5.
Helen Forrest became famous for her work singing with some of the biggest of the big bands - groups led by Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman and Harry James.
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