When
Westwood One's, 'Groovin' Oldies'
died, I had certainly spent more time with Gold formats
than any other between my experiences at 66
WNBC in New York as well as both the 'Oldies
Channel' and the '70's Channel'
satellite formats. It should come as no big surprise then
that my next stop on the airwaves has been at KOLA 99.9
in San Bernardino, CA.
KOLA
had been in the format since the early '90's when I arrived
in 2001. I began pulling a Sunday afternoon shift primarily
for the fun of it while I went back to school and was professionally
trained in web design and graphic art. To this very day
I have maintained that shift through the continual evolution
of the station into a format less dependent on '60's tuneage
and one in which today has come to encompass a predominance
of '70's material. Six years into my tenure, the station
made the switch to '70's & '80's based, Classic Hits,
just in time for the advent of Arbitron's PPM ratings methodology.
San Bernardino was the third market in the nation to received
MRC accreditation. From that point on, KOLA shot to #1,
6+ and never looked back. In recent years, I've also enjoyed
when the station goes All-Christmas with a decidely more
uptempo library than a typical AC's!
To
its credit, KOLA is one of the most promotionally active
stations I have ever worked at. With its geographical proximity
to Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs and even Las Vegas,
coupled with the burgeoning population growth in the Inland
Empire, it is poised to reach new levels of ratings and
revenue growth heretofore unrealized. And because it is
far enough away from LA that it posed no competitive threat,
it did not interfere in any way with my off-air position
as New Media Director with ABC Radio at KLOS / KABC / KSPN
/ KDIS.
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