The shape of things to come - or the shape of things today?
posted by CS | 9:50 AM 
UPDATE: The AFP story erroneously cites a station "KFWE" which does not exist. The actual station is "KFYE". See the comments for add'l details. -- Editor
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - After an ownership switch, KFWE-FM radio in the California wine district judged that Christian radio was unprofitable and decided to attract listeners by devoting its attention to sex.Well, if your god is Arbitron, then this switch makes sense.
"Christian radio stations never have very good ratings," Jerry Clifton, the new owner of KFWE-FM, told AFP on Friday.
Instead, the station broadcast a continuous loop of sexually suggestive music without commercial breaks for a whole week.
6 Comments:
Maybe they ought to get their call sign changed to KWFE-FM, and pitch it as "The Gettin'-It-On-With-Your-Wife Station." 'Cause then they'd be on the side of righteousness. The AFP story doesn't say whether the ownership decided the unprofitability based on making only some money as opposed to boatloads, or whether they switched format so as to, you know, not have to fire everyone and sell the station.
Here's another weirdness -- why can't I locate KFWE on the Web anywhere? It's extremely unusual for any media channel not to have an Internet presence these days, and the only references I find to KFWE in Google are repeats of this story. It also doesn't appear on the Wikipedia list of LA radio station since at least 29 November 2005. They might have changed their call sign. Are we sure about our sources here, or just chain-blogging?
It's worst than having no website. A FCC call letter query shows that the "KWFE" designation is not being publically used and is reserved for the Coast Guard.
Does this radio station even exist? I'm calling shenanigans on this story.
I concur. I did some of the same research at the FCC as did Protagonist - only to find no record of said station.
Hmm. I've never before cited an AFP story. Let me do some add'l research.
I think I have the answer. A search on stations in Kingsburg, CA produced this:
FM STATION APPLICATIONS FOR ASSIGNMENT OF LICENSE GRANTED
---------------------------------------------------------
CA BALED-20040325AHK KFYE 18860 EDUCATIONAL MEDIA FOUNDATION Voluntary Assignment of License,
E 106.3 MHZ KINGSBURG, CA as amended
From: EDUCATIONAL MEDIA FOUNDATION
To: MAPLETON COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
Form 314
---
So, it looks like a typo. Here's a CNN story referencing the true station name:
"KINGSBURG, California (AP) -- KFYE-FM hasn't budged from the Fresno-area dial, but it's about as far as you can get from the Christian music, sermons and Bible stories it was broadcasting until about a week ago.
Now it calls itself "Porn Radio" -- "all sex radio, all the time," with a suggestion that people under 21 not listen."
And a piece at the (local) Fresno Bee...
Porn Radio gets lots of attention
Format is off for now; Kingsburg official is not amused.
By Rick Bentley / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Friday, July 28, 2006, 4:58 AM)
Sex sells, especially when it comes to getting attention for the new owners of an area radio station. Kingsburg-based KFYE, FM 106.3, has been playing a Porn Radio format for the past week and a half.
The sexually laced format, which replaced the Christian programming previously heard on KFYE, is the work of radio consultant Jerry Clifton. He bought the radio station and launched the provocative programming.
KFYE was playing a mix of songs with suggestive lyrics, promotions laced with sexual references and the recorded moans of a woman.
Listeners could not believe their ears. Porn Radio became the talk of the town.
That format may be gone.
Thursday, instead of sexy tunes, KFYE was broadcasting a continuous loop of Clifton saying variations of the phrase "Now that we got your attention …."
and if you're reeeeeeally interested, here's the station's transfer authorization application (pdf file), which looks to be official as of June.
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