KTKK is good radio!
May 20, 2013 8:46:49 GMT -6
Post by bonnevillemariner on May 20, 2013 8:46:49 GMT -6
Tuned into KTKK yesterday just for fun and got stuck there for two hours. Kudos to United Broadcasting Company and local talent for doing exactly what commercial radio is supposed to do: hook the listener and reel him in!
So I tune into a show Saturday morning featuring 3-4 democrat/liberal hosts piling onto an intelligent, yet stammering caller. He believes the recent White House scandals in the news are quite serious, the hosts obviously disagree.
(IRS targeting political opposition-- what's the big freaking deal? Benghazi lies? Definitely *not* a sign of administration ineptitude or, heaven forbid, political CYA. The Obama admin would neeeeeever do that! Nothing to see here, folks!)
Thing is, the lefty hosts are letting this caller have his say, which doesn't happen on commercial talk radio. The program is also periodically interrupted by audible beeps, which turn out to be the female sidekick's phone alerts. She's getting alerts from KSL classifieds, which diverts the conversation briefly to KSL, before a return to more political banter with which I completely disagree.
But I'm still listening. Why?
I run a few errands and come back to the car to hear the host of Western Life Radio, Brian Brinkerhoff, filling live time because the next host for some reason hasn't arrived yet. Brinkerhoff doesn't do live radio (Western Life is canned and heavily edited), but he's doing pretty well. I pull into my driveway but hesitate to turn the car off so I can keep listening.
Why?
Because when you can't rely on production polish or predictability ("KSL Travvvik and weather together on the nines!"), seemingly random programming and unpredictability work just as well! That may seem like something of an insult, but I don't mean it as such. It's actually quite true.
I know exactly what I'm getting when I tune into KLO, KSL, or KNRS. KTKK is like radio roulette-- I have no idea what views I'm going to hear at any given time. Which sparks a certain curiosity. The hosts of that democrat show engaged me enough that I kept listening for quite some time. Western Life Radio (which I guested on a few years ago) is always really informative. And who knows why the next host hadn't shown up yet, but I stayed tuned in for the same curiosity. How will Brian do? Why is this next guy late? Brian just announced that Electric Lake has stocked with kokanee salmon, making Electric the highest elevation habitat for kokanee in Utah. That's awesome!
I set a preset to 630. Perhaps I'll take a trip to Electric Lake to angle for kokanee when they're grown enough. And perhaps KTKK will someday update their website to reflect their current lineup, so I can email the hosts of that lefty show and school them on the issues.
But my point is I listened to KTKK on Saturday much longer than I have tuned into any other station in recent years.
Was it just the train wreck factor? Maybe partially (hey, listeners are listeners regardless of why they're there). But it was also the absolute localness of it. The charm of the less-than-polished. Local, spontaneous talk-- warts and all. It's anti-cookie cutter radio.
And frankly it's good radio.
So I tune into a show Saturday morning featuring 3-4 democrat/liberal hosts piling onto an intelligent, yet stammering caller. He believes the recent White House scandals in the news are quite serious, the hosts obviously disagree.
(IRS targeting political opposition-- what's the big freaking deal? Benghazi lies? Definitely *not* a sign of administration ineptitude or, heaven forbid, political CYA. The Obama admin would neeeeeever do that! Nothing to see here, folks!)
Thing is, the lefty hosts are letting this caller have his say, which doesn't happen on commercial talk radio. The program is also periodically interrupted by audible beeps, which turn out to be the female sidekick's phone alerts. She's getting alerts from KSL classifieds, which diverts the conversation briefly to KSL, before a return to more political banter with which I completely disagree.
But I'm still listening. Why?
I run a few errands and come back to the car to hear the host of Western Life Radio, Brian Brinkerhoff, filling live time because the next host for some reason hasn't arrived yet. Brinkerhoff doesn't do live radio (Western Life is canned and heavily edited), but he's doing pretty well. I pull into my driveway but hesitate to turn the car off so I can keep listening.
Why?
Because when you can't rely on production polish or predictability ("KSL Travvvik and weather together on the nines!"), seemingly random programming and unpredictability work just as well! That may seem like something of an insult, but I don't mean it as such. It's actually quite true.
I know exactly what I'm getting when I tune into KLO, KSL, or KNRS. KTKK is like radio roulette-- I have no idea what views I'm going to hear at any given time. Which sparks a certain curiosity. The hosts of that democrat show engaged me enough that I kept listening for quite some time. Western Life Radio (which I guested on a few years ago) is always really informative. And who knows why the next host hadn't shown up yet, but I stayed tuned in for the same curiosity. How will Brian do? Why is this next guy late? Brian just announced that Electric Lake has stocked with kokanee salmon, making Electric the highest elevation habitat for kokanee in Utah. That's awesome!
I set a preset to 630. Perhaps I'll take a trip to Electric Lake to angle for kokanee when they're grown enough. And perhaps KTKK will someday update their website to reflect their current lineup, so I can email the hosts of that lefty show and school them on the issues.
But my point is I listened to KTKK on Saturday much longer than I have tuned into any other station in recent years.
Was it just the train wreck factor? Maybe partially (hey, listeners are listeners regardless of why they're there). But it was also the absolute localness of it. The charm of the less-than-polished. Local, spontaneous talk-- warts and all. It's anti-cookie cutter radio.
And frankly it's good radio.
