Liberal talk shows move in at KAQQ

The liberal talk-show network Air America is coming to the Spokane airwaves beginning Jan. 3.

KAQQ-AM (1280), now a nostalgia-oldies station with the moniker “Music of Your Life,” will switch over to a full lineup of Al Franken, Ed Schultz, Janeane Garafolo and others. It will be called “Spokane’s Progressive Talk Station.”

Kosta Panidis, manager of the Clear Channel stations in Spokane, said they decided to make the switch because there is nothing else like Air America in the market, and the network has been picking up steam (after a rocky start) nationwide.

“This format has been a huge success in other markets,” said Panidis. “In Portland, at one of our sister stations, it has been huge. It is also doing well in places like San Francisco, Phoenix and Seattle and (other markets) I’ve talked to.”

The daily weekday lineup will be: The Morning Sedition, 6 to 9 a.m.; The Al Franken Show, 9 a.m. to noon; The Ed Schultz Show, noon to 3 p.m.; The Randi Rhodes Show, 3 to 7 p.m.; Majority Report with Janeane Garafolo, 7 to 10 p.m.; Mike Malloy, 10 p.m. to midnight.

By the way, if you think Clear Channel is going left wing, remember that its other talk-radio station in Spokane is KQNT-AM (590), the home of Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura.

What about ‘Music of Your Life’?

Panidis said he regrets losing the “Music of Your Life” format on KAQQ, which has been a staple in Spokane for decades. It features American standards by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand and Nat King Cole.

Yet Panidis said the format was getting “less and less of an audience.”

The Arbitron ratings for KAQQ hit an all-time low last quarter, when the station ranked 22nd out of 24.

“As much as we like that format, and I personally like it, we are looking to deliver an audience where there’s more demand,” said Panidis.

Fans of the nostalgia format have a local alternative: KEYF-AM (1050, The Key), which plays a similar mix of music.

Clear out, new KGA morning team in

Local talk show host Richard Clear’s return to the airwaves didn’t even last a year.

KGA-AM (1510, The Big Talker) announced that a new morning team will take over this week in a revamped show called “First News This Morning.”

Clear disappeared from the airwaves about a week and a half ago. The syndicated Laura Ingraham show has been filling the morning slot in the interim.

On Monday (or soon thereafter), KGA will introduce Lorna Evans, who has been anchoring a morning news show in Houston, and Alan Justice, who was an anchor and reporter in L.A.

Dan Mitchinson, former KAYU-28 reporter and anchor and now KGA’s program and news director, will also be part of the team.

“We’re just moving the station in a new direction,” said Mitchinson. “The focus is strictly on news. We call it ‘real news, real fast’ without a lot of chit-chat. We will have two strong personalities, but the focus will not be on them, but on the news product.”

Clear, whose career includes stints at KXLY and KGA and a run for U.S. Congress, was hired in February to host a morning show titled “The Clear Edge.”

Chuck Norris and ‘Dodgeball’

In an interview last week with Chuck Norris, now filming “The Cutter” in Spokane, we asked him about his cameo appearance in Ben Stiller’s “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” recently out on DVD.

He said that when Stiller first asked him to do the cameo, Norris declined because it was being shot in Long Beach, a two-hour drive from his home.

“I said, ‘I don’t want to fight the traffic in L.A. just to shoot a cameo,’ ” said Norris. “But he said, ‘Come on, I’ll send a helicopter for you.’ I said, ‘If you’ll go to that much trouble to get me there, then all right.’ So they sent a copter to pick me up and we shot the cameo.”

Norris plays himself, judging the movie’s climactic dodgeball game. Norris awards the victory to the opposing team, which upsets the Stiller character. And that’s all there was to the scene – so Norris thought.

Then Norris and his wife went to the local multiplex to see the movie for the first time. At the end, Stiller’s character turns and utters this line: “That (blankety-blanking) Chuck Norris.”

“My mouth dropped to my chest,” said Norris, laughing. “It was the last line of the movie!”

KYRS-FM, loud and clear

KYRS-FM (95.3, Thin Air Community Radio) is a low-power FM station, which means many people have had trouble pulling it in.

Now the station has obtained a translator permit for a boosted signal at 92.3 on the FM dial. That signal can be picked up all over Spokane, as well as out in the Spokane Valley and points north and south.

So if you can’t pick up Thin Air at 95.3, try it at 92.3. You might be pleasantly surprised. The station has an eclectic mix of music, public affairs and multicultural programming.

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, one of the elite choirs of the world, is coming to the Spokane Arena on June 21.

Tickets are on sale through TicketsWest outlets (325-SEAT, 800-325-SEAT, www.ticketswest.com).

.