Sioux City Journal from Sioux City, Iowa • 41

June 8f 2003 EL MSMiaatnoinuLcM Lli b1 flJULf gjuu mil ii ft 5) ftsi 5 5 AM radio survives thanks to the proliferation of talk programming i V- y77 stations for eight years and said "AMs still play music but, in this market, they are just news talk and sports stations." KMNS program director Steve George said at the few national stations playing music, there won't be any pop faves, just adult standards and country. "Music-wise you won't find anything on AM that will appeal to anyone under age 50," George said. Further, he said, no one under age 35 would turn to AM to look for music in the first place. The trend to talk on AM dates to the 1980s, George said, and music on the AM dial "died in the early 1990s." However, two AM stations had music until the last two years KWSL played Big Band numbers until undergoing a funda By Bret Hayworth Journal staff writer When looking for some music, whether the latest pop or a golden oldie, hit the FM button of the stereo. The AM dial in Sioux City is the domain of newstalk radio, where listeners can hear nationally syndicated programs or chime in themselves on local call-in shows.

No country tunes, pop, rock, active rock, adult contemporary, hot adult contemporary or even what those in the biz call "urban adult contemporary" music is available on the AM dial in Sioux City. That is true for the three local AM stations (620 KMNS, 1360 KSCJ and 1470 KWSL) and also the case if broadening the field to include the nearby station with the strongest signal, AM570 WNAX in Yankton, S.D. Station formats are constantly in flux in the world of radio. Bill Rine-hart of KMNS recalls working I he of talk radio quite my mind was the of evolution AM to is simple in -it salvation AM." 4n 2 teiy son, the voice of hockey Musketeers and football Bandits. KWSL had aired live local sports and those were well received, Zaber said, "so we thought a sports station would work.

Plus, people had asked for it, that is really a big part of it. It has gone really well. Ever since we put it on, we have heard from both males and females that they love the show." That leaves it to KSCJ and KMNS to spar over the title of top Sioux City radio news station. Radio and Records ratings put it at not much of a contest KSCJ has the highest ratings of the AM stations, although KMNS is narrowing the gap. (When ranked with all Sioux City stations, KSCJ places fifth, behind four FM music stations).

The two news stations take a different approach that has them not directly butting heads. While KSCJ has call-in shows, KMNS sticks with syndicated national talk shows and bread-and-butter local news. KMNS has tried a few local call-in shows, but they were short lived. "That has been a couple years back," explained Zaber. "We have had good success with the syndicated shows.

For now we are really satisfied." "We consider ourselves the news leader, Sioux City's news radio," said Zaber. 'There is no question about it, we do beat that station (KSCJ) to news," he contends, in breaking stories. Bullock counters by touting the experience of KSCJ newscasters compared to KMNS, whom he called "the new kids on the block. My broadcasters over here have literally decades in the news genre." The station with the most locally-originated talk radio is KSCJ, which has six hours of live call-in broadcasts with Randy Renshaw's three morning hours on "Open Line," two in the afternoon with Willie Clark plus another hour in the evening with Chris Var-ney's "Sports Line" show. Of the 286 metro radio markets nationally, Sioux City ranks 261st in size, just ahead of Rapid City, S.D., and Mankato, Minn.

So while it isn't like the fame of a major market, the long-tenured Rcn-shaw has the local reputation with the most bounce. Ren-shaw is the radio sounding board for a core group of listeners on national issues like tax cuts and the war on Iraq as well as local issues like school funding and city water rates. Bullock said Renshaw is "the most recognized (newscaster) for sure and I think he has an excellent rapport with his listeners. He really is KSCJ and KSCJ is Randy." Will music ever return to the AM dial or are recent developments an irreversible trend? Bullock believes with emerging technologies, it is possible that music will come back, maybe not in the next five years, but perhaps after that. "I think there is a distinct possibility that the AM band may air music again," Bullock said.

1 cU Trill- mmiii mail-' ll ,,,1 x- I tr mental change to 24-hour sports talk, while WNAX' just in December 2002 nixed what little country music it still aired. WNAX operations manager Jerry Oster said "we weren't playing many records, maybe four or five a day" between news blocks. Oster said the change away from country "was hard for some," particu larly the older listeners. "A lot of people at first told me they didn't like it," Oster said, but from subsequent word-of-mouth, "we've seemed to find pretty good acceptance." KSCJ was airing a lite hits format until the late 1980s, Bullock said, "then we went to talk and sports," and was one of the first affiliates to air Rush Limbaugh, whose program brought notice to talk radio nationally. The prime factors in pushing music to FM? Some of it is simply that music sounds better on FM.

"FM is stereo and high fidelity," Oster said. "The listeners have told us that they want to listen to music there." Bullock said about 15 years ago there was an attempt to get stereo capabilities onto the AM band, but that endeavor went by the wayside, which furthered the trend of music off mono AM. Another factor, Bullock said, ties to demographics of the aging Baby Boom Generation. "It is a fact of human nature," Bullock said, "that as you age, you want more information, you may become more cerebral and want less music." Thus, he said, the Boomers who wanted to hear nothing but poprock music in the 1960s and '70s are now prizing newstalk programming. "You look at radio and it has evolved." Oster explained.

Before the 1950s, the fare on Marconi's invention was generally composed of one- or two-hour blocks of at A.p90 in Omaha where, shortly after he assumed his position, the station not only changed its format from country music to adult standards but also to a new name, from the classic WOW to KOMJ. Yet the move to no music on AM is a departure from the historic norm. For years all music was on AM stations Sioux City didn't get a Top 40 music station on the FM dial until the mid-1970s. Far from lamenting the AM trend, KSCJ's station manager Dennis Bullock said, "The evolution of AM to talk radio is quite simple in my mind -it was the salvation of AM." Bullock, who has worked in the radio field in Sioux City for two decades, said AM had been sluggish, but the talk format attracted listeners back to the dial. Two of the three AMs have common management, as 620 and 1470 are both owned by Clear Channel Radio (which also owns FM music stations KG95, Z-98 and KSFT).

Rich Zaber has been operations manager for the Clear Channel Christina Pearson, top, uses old albums as an ottoman at KCHE, top, since the Cherokee station is programmed by satellite. Above, Willie Clark and Candace Nash banter on KSCJ. (Top photo by Tim Hynds, bottom by Jerry Mennenga) here, we've changed a lot," Oster said, "but it has been a gradual change (to phase down the country). But the basics are the same, you know news, sports, markets." This is the station, he said, that was "doing egg markets way back in the 1920s." WNAX, the "five-state station," given its huge transmission range from Yankton, keeps to its farm roots, airing Sioux City hog markets, grain and cattle markets hourly from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., as well as ag weather and auction schedules.

The fare on KWSL1470 is the syndicated FOX Sports Network, with local sporting events called by Curtis Ander programming from soaps Gal to comedies and Harriet" and "Amos and to western or mystery serials Lone Ranger" and "Sky So stations now airing the couple-hour blocks of nationally syndicated programs with themes of politics (Sean Han-nity, Bill O'Reilly), financial news (Bruce Williams) or on-air counseling (Dr. Laura) is "in some ways almost a return to the old days," Oster said. In the 1950s, AM radio, "as a direct result of television," Oster said, became the place for Top 40 music. When TV surged in popularity, Oster said, "the fear in the industry was that it would kill radio, "CMMMIII AND but radio adapted, like it always has." WNAX played Lawrence Welk, other Big Bands and polka shows in the 1940s and '50s, and Sunday afternoons were a big day for live performances. "They had live music here into the 1960s," Oster said, then moved to a middle-of-the-road format with singers like Ray Conniff.

Delineating itself from The Beatles and the growing rock phenomenon, Oster recalled the station running ads in the 1960s saying "You won't find any big beats here." Country music came to WNAX in 1969 and Oster arrived in 1976 as a newscaster. "In the time that I've been MCM 9 KOI SM.f 11 CS ix. Dob 9fv Hu-ri hot (ASCAPl tsv.O TU.l WE DANCED wM () jet a A A IiS- STEREO 3 Own id 'UlRvftrt rc Wi )jvM iH iniiJiirl inir.ilii I i ri i i.innnlll Talk has taken over where records once reigned. Willie Clark, above, and Candace Nash; right, host a KSCJ talk show. Center, KCHE announcer Christina Pearson shows an old-fashioned record..