from the San Antonio Express-News
December 18, 2003
Jeanne Jakle
Chris does crank-call segments and other bits for the radio/TV icon. According to KTFM, he'll continue to do so even after moving to San Antonio.
Chris is expected to debut his morning show here on what soon will be KSRX (tagged KS-ROX at 102.7 FM) the first full week in January.
Judging by comments on various Web sites about Chris' old show in Sacramento, Calif., the 29-year-old may potentially affront, offend and, yes, shock, like Stern.
"He's on the edgy side," Reid Reker, general manager of KTFM/KTSA, said of his new hire. However, he added: "I don't believe in shock; you really can't shock anybody any more."
(Actually, if memory serves me right, Drex, the closest thing S.A. had to a shock jock before he got a new show in Chicago, still was able to offend people up to the time he left KTFM last year.)
Reker described Chris as an "entertaining character" who may be inspired by Stern but has no plans to rip off his act.
He currently lives in Syracuse, N.Y.; before that, Reker said, Chris helmed a popular nighttime show on an FM talk station in Sacramento.
He'll be the first full-fledged air personality on the new KSRX (KTFM's call letters are expected to officially change on Friday), which cleared out its disc jockeys, including the morning's Joey Deee, in mid-October and has played wall-to-wall music ever since.
That's when the station also switched from its previous Top 40 format to rock. Artists played include Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Aerosmith, Pearl Jam and Audioslave.
Reker said he'll ease in new DJs slowly. Music director/afternoon personality Mark Landis, who was a vice president for Big 3 Records, will debut in mid-to-late January. A team that has worked in Dallas, Free Beer and Catfish, will kick off a nighttime show about the same time.
Clearly, the new KSRX is going after a similar audience to that of San Antonio's dominant hard-rocker KISS-FM, which has been a leader with male listeners ages 18 to 34 and 25 to 54 for years.
However, Reker said it seems to be attracting more women than KISS because of its "more-familiar" tunes, with the ratio of men to women being 60 percent to 40 percent.
Interesting. No matter how outrageous and "edgy" this new morning guy is, however, KISS' fully entrenched Lisle and Hahn morning team will be a tough nut to crack.
--snips--
from the San Antonio Express-News
October 28, 2003
--snips--
Stern next?
It was KTFM that got the most attention over the weekend, however, with its switch from Top 40 to rock. It now calls itself K-Rock 102.7.
"After listening to it for a while," commented Roland Bazaldua, "it sounded like someone took KISS and KZEP and mixed them in a blender."
Others commented on how the station doesn't seem to make up its mind. "Perhaps KTFM should change its call letters to KMAD (for Madonna) or KAAG (for Al Gore), since it always seems to be reinventing itself," wrote one e-mailer, who added: "It's been Hot 102.7, Wild 102.7 and now it's K-Rock. What's next? An all-Lawrence Welk format? 'Weird Al' Yankovic?'"
Probably not, but boss Reker did indicate that Howard Stern was available for mornings. After all, he said, the shock jock is doing great guns on Reker's old Dallas station.
But before you start getting too worried -- or excited -- Reker is aware that San Antonio "may not be the right market" for Stern, considering those tasteless remarks he made about Selena right after her death that almost got him tarred and feathered by South Texans.
--snips--
from the San Antonio Express-News
October 24, 2003
The station now bills itself "The New K-Rock 102.7" and plays artists such as Led Zeppelin and ZZ Top. "We're not a classic rock station, not an alternative rock station. We're just a rock station," said Reid Reker, general manager of KTFM/KTSA.
KTFM will be without disc jockeys for 30 to 90 days while a search ensues for "the best morning show we can find," Reker said.
The station previously had a rhythmic Top 40 format. Reker said research indicated the battleground for the 18 to 34 age group targeted by the old KTFM was too crowded. The station now is aiming for the 25 to 44, predominantly male crowd. That's somewhere in between the audiences attracted to San Antonio's existing rock stations, the younger skewing KISS and classic rock outlet KZEP.
Updated: 18-December-2003
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