Another Legendary Rock Station Bites the Dust

Over the years, I have been blessed to work for some legendary rock stations.  One of them was the mighty KDKB in Phoenix.  KDKB was the sixth longest running rock station in the country.  It was founded in 1971 and it rocked Arizona for 43 years on the largest FM signal in the southwest. Until today at noon, when their new owner changed the station's format and fired most of the staff.

Sadly, this happens all of the time in radio.  Big corporations deliberately ignore their audience and the cities they purport to serve.  And our industry wonders why the audience keeps shrinking.  Some radio stations are more than just jukeboxes, especially rock stations.  They become a part of your life.  Maybe it was the DJ who gave you tickets to a concert or the morning show that made you laugh so hard you almost got into a car accident. Whatever it was, radio used to mean something to a lot of people and many of the great rock stations are going away.

My first boss in the radio industry was a legendary programmer named Rich Hawk.  One of his mottos was "don't s#$@ where you eat".  Sadly, the executive vice presidents at these big corporate McRadio chains are doing just that.

The list of heritage rock stations that have been silenced by national corporations and out of town consultants is long and legendary.  KUFO/Portland, Q101/Chicago, KSJO/San Francisco, KLOL/Houston, WBCN/Boston and many, many more. It's a shame.  Not just for the broadcasting industry, but especially for rockers who grew up in a era when your hometown radio station actually cared about connecting with people.

Here at the Hawk, I'm proud to say we are a locally focused radio station that listens to our listeners.  If you've got a question or a comment, we will respond. We play requests every day. And even though we haven't been around forever, Sam Talkington has been rockin' Billings for a million years.  And he's not going anywhere.