Once Rebellious KGB Now Advertising Its Sameness

It is difficult not to feel a twinge of sadness watching the new television commercial promoting KGB-FM (101.5).

Mad Jack’s isn’t mad anymore, Larry Himmel is doing weather and KGB is billing itself as the station where listeners will hear “nothing weird or unfamiliar.” It’s worth a moment of somber reflection when the radical becomes the conservative.

As recently as two years ago, KGB was promoting itself with a commercial that featured a fish being dropped into a blender.

The new television ad--the first since KGB began adjusting its rock ‘n’ roll format toward proven hits of the ‘70s and ‘80s--spotlights a 30ish, well-coiffed man in a sports coat (Music Television’s Alan Hunter), cooly and calmly extolling the virtues of the station.

Try us, he says. “Nothing weird or unfamiliar,” he promises.

There was a time when KGB didn’t mind being associated with the weird. For almost two decades, KGB symbolized hard rock ‘n’ roll, the rowdy element of San Diego. The station was synonymous with the counter-culture.

Any San Diegan who went through adolescence during the last 20 years and didn’t adore Donny and Marie, and didn’t run off to join “Up With People,” knows all about KGB. The bands that were defining the limits of rock ‘n’ roll, Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd were all on KGB.

It was the real rock ‘n’ roll station, the aggressive album-oriented rock outlet in the city. The station represented an attitude, as much as a musical style. For many years, its television commercials featured an old janitor who wandered into the station and began rocking out. It was definitely weird and said a lot about the image the station was trying to project.

KGB isn’t weird anymore. In the last two years, its music has moved more and more toward classic hits. Zeppelin. The Stones. The Beatles. Pink Floyd. They are all part of the station’s play list, just as they were 10 years ago. Except now they represent nostalgia instead of progress, marketing strategy instead of groundbreaking.

In many ways, the station is evolving. The new television commercial is an attempt to let people know that KGB is not necessarily the same station it was 10 years ago or five years ago, according to program director Ted Edwards.

“The commercial is just a straightforward message,” Edwards said. “We didn’t want the message of the commercial lost in comedy. . . . We wanted it to be presented in a way that is extremely clear and direct.”

Edwards emphasized that the attitude of the commercial doesn’t reflect the attitude of radio station. KGB’s morning team will still be wild and wacky, and its promotions as aggressive as ever.

“It isn’t the radio station, it is a commercial for the radio station,” Edwards said.

Yet, it certainly does represent the radio station, if not in attitude, at least in terms of its target audience and goals. Its audience has aged, and the station is trying to follow it.

“We’ve grown up,” Edwards said.

He said the station is as radical as ever, but there is no doubt that it is becoming more conservative in programming music.

“We’re more careful with new music. We play new music people like, instead of throwing it all up against the wall and seeing what sticks.”

The station was more aggressive 10 years ago because the “audience was more aggressive,” Edwards said.

“The way we look at it, we are a rock station for adults,” Edwards said. “We’re a station for people over 18.”

KGB has withstood a fistfull of challenges to its audience over the years. Now things are more competitive than ever. Three other stations are vying for various elements of the rock ‘n’ roll audience--XTRA-FM (91X), KSDO-FM (Classic 103) and KGMG-FM (Rock ‘n’ roll 102). Each is looking for its own audience, its own niche.

KGB is still a ratings power, but there is no doubt that some of its audience has eroded over the years. It’s hard to change an audience’s perception of a radio station, Edwards said, especially when a station has been in a format as long as KGB.

“This commercial is not meant for people already listening to KGB,” Edwards said. “It’s meant for people who aren’t listening to us.”

From a business point of view, there are probably sound reasons for moving to safer ground, seeking the largest audience possible. That’s part of radio.

In the ‘70s and ‘80s, though, KGB sought a different crowd. At one time, instead of a slick upwardly mobile type, it was represented by the KGB Chicken, a.k.a. Ted Giannoulas, who entertained the rowdier elements in San Diego with his bawdy antics at concerts and sporting events.

Now he’s simply The Chicken, and he seems tired, as he travels the country, appearing at minor league sporting events and Republican Party functions. There is something sad about that, too.

Tuesday KKYY-FM (Y95) General Manager Carolyn Howe held a staff meeting to discuss the future of the station, the day after the station announced the termination of the completely unsuccessful morning team of “Stevens and Grdnic.” Wednesday Howe was out. Her replacement is Bob Visotcky, a sales veteran with stints in New York, Chicago, Denver and Cleveland. Industry observers expect more changes at the station. . . .

Longtime KSDO-AM (1130) operations manager Jack Merker, who mysteriously and suddenly left the radio station two years ago, has resurfaced. Channel 39 has hired him as a producer for the new Roger Hedgecock-Allison Ross 4:30 p.m. news show. . . .

Television is often at its silliest when it tries to act serious. A couple of nominees for Great Moment of Television: KTTY-TV (Channel 69) movie host Fred Lewis, using his extremely serious, always profound, Alistair Cooke-imitation announcing voice, to introduce that very serious piece of cinematic art called “The Great Smokey Roadblock,” while incessantly plugging the clothing store sponsor that supplied his coat. . . .

Then there was the strangely titled syndicated program “Memories: Then and Now,” which is carried on KNSD-TV (Channel 39). Last week it presented an interview with Patty Hearst. Nothing wrong with that. But, in an impressive display of tackiness, the program did a video retrospective of her days with the terrorist SLA group, while playing the nostalgic ballad “The Way We Were.” . . .