Keze Format Returns, But At A New Location On The Dial
Remember KEZE-FM, Rock 106? It has been resurrected as KEZE-FM, Rock 96.9.
New management, new frequency, but it has the same album-oriented rock format as the old KEZE.
The old KEZE ranked as one of Spokane’s top stations for many of its 14 years. But last October, it switched to an adult alternative format and changed its call letters to KAEP (The Peak, spelled backwards).
John Rook, the Spokane radio entrepreneur who already runs KNJY-FM (Z-Rock) and KCDA-FM (Real Country), said he saw an opening when KEZE abandoned its call letters.
“There was a sizable audience upset that there was no Rock 106 anymore,” he said.
So he acquired KSPO-FM, 96.9, a Christian talk station. then he applied for and received the abandoned KEZE call letters and went on the air Monday with Rock 96.9, “Quality Rock.”
Rook said the station strives to be an exact duplicate of the old format. Listeners this week heard everything from Cream to Springsteen to the Police to Pearl Jam. “Four decades of quality rock and roll,” says an announcer.
Rook said this station, like Z-Rock, uses mostly satellite programming now, but he plans to add local programming in the future.
Alex Wood’s last week
Alex Wood, longtime talk show host on KXLY-AM, is resigning from the station Wednesday in order to try his hand at politics.
Wood apparently has his eye on a state legislative race. Look for an official announcement on Thursday, after he signs off for the last time.
Wood can hardly be a candidate and a radio host at the same time. Can you imagine the equal-time problems this would create? Wood has been at KXLY since 1988, and most recently he has been hosting the “Talk Back” sessions in the evenings, as well as hosting the noon news hour.
KXLY executive news director Michael Espinoza said he has not chosen a replacement for Wood. He will be trying out some guest hosts in the coming weeks.
And what if Wood’s new career hits a snag in November?
“He would always be welcome back, if I had a talk opening,” said Espinoza.
Lloyd Webber postponed
No sooner did I ballyhoo April as Broadway musical month in Spokane than one of the main shows bailed out.
But only until May.
“Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Music of the Night” has been switched from an April 29 opening to a May 21 opening at the Opera House. The switch was made due to what are described as “routing problems.”
Ticketholders, including Best of Broadway subscribers, can use their current tickets. If you hold tickets for April 29, your date will switch to May 21 at 7:30 p.m.; April 30 switches to May 22, 7:30 p.m; May 1 switches to May 23, 7:30 p.m.; and May 2 switches to May 24, 8 p.m.
An additional show is scheduled for May 25. Ticketholders with a conflict can exchange for a different night by taking their tickets to the Opera House box office or the 720 W. Mallon (Arena) box office, or call 325-SEAT or 1-800-325-SEAT.
Kienholz in New York
Edward Kienholz, who was born in Fairfield, Wash., and who died in 1994 in Hope, Idaho, is creating a posthumous sensation in New York.
The Whitney Museum of American Art has mounted a massive show of Kienholz’s installations; it covers two floors of the museum.
Controversial in life, Kienholz remains controversial in death. New York Times critic Roberta Smith wrote of the show: “Parts of it are awful: Kienholz is often an intensely nonvisual artist, with a fatal attraction to puerile subject matter.”
However, she also called it an “exemplary retrospective” and went on to say “a Kienholz show of this scope will never happen again and therefore should be seen and studied.”
Local radio drama
The Spokane Civic Theatre and KPBX-FM, 91.1, are collaborating on a pilot project of local radio drama beginning this week.
On Thursday at 6:30 p.m., local actors will read “The Last Touchy-Feely Drama On the American Stage” by Greg Gamble and Lee Howard, a satire in which a father-son reunion drama is treated like a Monday Night Football broadcast, with announcers analyzing every bit of dialogue.
On March 21 at 6:30 p.m., local actors will read “Atlantic Crossing” by Jeffrey Embler, about a poet who has a chance encounter with an aspiring writer on an ocean liner.
Both plays were performed at last year’s Playwrights Forum Festival at the Civic. Maynard Villers directs both.
If audience response is strong, a search for funding will begin for an ongoing series.
Oldies but goodies
KEYF-FM (Oldies 101.1) is one of the finalists nationwide for the National Association of Broadcasters’ Crystal Radio Awards.
These awards are for community service, and KEYF-FM was nominated for helping to raise $217,717 for area non-profit groups in 1995.
The winners will be announced in April at a convention in Las Vegas.
‘Dating Game’
Are you a swingin’ bachelor or bachelorette? (Try saying that with a straight face.)
The live local version of “The Dating Game” is looking for participants. Call 536-0690.
This event will be held at Cavanaugh’s Inn at the Park on March 29.
, DataTimes