Making Themselves Heard : Radio anchors used to all be men, but Judy Ford, Linda Nun~ez and Tammy Trujillo are changing that.
You can just about count on the fingers of two hands the number of women who are--or have been--full-time weekday anchors on the local all-news radio stations, KFWB-AM (980) and KNX-AM (1070). And that’s going back to 1973.
Currently three women hold such slots: Judy Ford, anchoring at KFWB since 1985, who in August was moved with anchors Paul Lowe and Ken Jeffries from afternoon drive to morning drive (5-10 a.m.); Linda Nun~ez, who since 1994 has been doing morning drive at KNX with Tom Haule; and Tammy Trujillo, who on Sept. 30 was added to the KFWB afternoon anchor team (2-7 p.m.) with Ron Kilgore and Dan Avey.
While local TV newscasts have long had male-female anchor teams--what George Nicholaw, KNX’s 30-year general manager, dubs a “picture-perfect” pairing--radio tended to rely on authoritative, deep-toned, male voices.
Radio executives maintained that that’s what the audience wanted--especially women. They also noted that women just didn’t have experience in the news business. And one argument reinforced the other.
Bob Sims, news and program director at KNX, says that when the station hired Miriam Bjerre as the market’s first female co-anchor in 1973--she stayed until 1977, when she became a West Coast correspondent for CBS--”we got a lot of complaints. But almost all were from women. They said they . . . wanted to hear news from a man.”
But gradually, as the world outside the broadcast studio changed, so did radio. Of course, radio and TV also got a strong push in 1980 from the Federal Communications Commission, which revised its hiring guidelines for stations with regard to women and minorities.
“When I first came [to KFWB],” Ford notes, “deep-voiced guys were doing the news. It was telling the news rather than communicating. Today [that delivery is] much more personal. Women are 50% of the audience. And they [don’t] all want to hear men.”
Moreover, she points out, as do the other female anchors, that assignments are evenly distributed, that they’re not gender-specific. “I’ve done a couple of sports pieces, including professional sports,” Ford says, “and Ken has been doing back-to-school pieces. All three of us [morning anchors] have kids under 12.”
Nun~ez, who grew up in Long Beach and graduated from UC Berkeley in 1986, recalls with obvious humor that before she got the anchor slot with Haule, his previous partner was Tom Sirmons.
“Both anchors were named Tom, so for a time it was ‘Good morning, Tom’ and ‘Good morning, Tom.’ ”
After working at stations in Santa Barbara and San Francisco, Nun~ez joined KNX in 1990, anchoring on weekends. For three years in a row, beginning in 1994, she and Haule won first-place honors from the California Associated Press Television-Radio Assn. for being the best radio anchor team in the state.
Trujillo, who joined KFWB as a sportscaster a year ago, most recently has been a reporter for KNX and an anchor-reporter at talk station KFI-AM (640). She began her radio career in 1979 and graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 1981.
She readily acknowledges that the FCC helped move things along. “Obviously we’ve made inroads into this industry. When I got into it, women were put there because we had to be. And we’ve proven that we can contribute to the news. Obviously women in the audience like to hear us--they identify with us. We’ve earned our spots.”
One for the Road: Traveling out of town in your car and don’t know where to turn--on your radio dial, that is--for news, sports, music--or traffic? A new glove-compartment-sized travelers’ guide, “Radio on the Road”--listing more than 15,000 stations in the United States and Canada, including sections on top talk shows and public radio--has just been issued by William Hutchings and his company, Arrowhead Publishing.
The book, notes Hutchings, an inveterate radio listener, was born out of frustration. He was traveling to a meeting several years ago in the Eastern Sierras, “and, boy, I wanted radio so badly, and I couldn’t tune in at all. And then I got to a little town with a big billboard advertising the AM radio station I could have tuned to a half hour before. And I thought, ‘Maybe there’s a book here.’ ”
This is the second edition of the $14.95 book, which, in a short, introductory essay on talk radio, reports that the format began in 1909 on a “little 15-watt station at the southern end of San Francisco Bay. Dr. Charles Herrold, a radio pioneer, used to begin his broadcasts with ‘This is San Jose calling.’ That was before we had call letters. . . .”
Hutchings also lists stations and air times throughout the nation for seven leading syndicated hosts: Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlessinger, Michael Reagan, Art Bell, Don Imus, Bob Long and Howard Stern. His favorite? “Dr. Laura,” he says in a heartbeat. “She cuts to the heart of things so quickly.”
“Radio on the Road” can be found at some book chains or can be ordered directly at (800) 431-7274.
Murder, They Said: Want to watch radio in the making? California Artists Radio Theatre is recording a new 52-week series, titled “Mysteries of the Air,” which will be heard on National Public Radio starting in March.
The first three 30-minute programs will be done before a live audience Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at the Beverly Garland Hotel in North Hollywood. The scripts are by Mort Fine and David Friedkin.
The programs deal with Bathsheeba Spooner, the first woman executed in the U.S.; Nero of ancient Rome and the murder of his mother; and Lizzie Borden, who murdered her parents with an ax.
CART’s shows are heard on KFPK-FM (90.7) Sundays at 10 p.m. For reservations, call (213) 683-3422. Seats are $15 with an advance reservation; otherwise, $20.