MICHAELS RETURNS TO DIFFERENT KWFM
Longtime radio personality Alan Michaels has accepted the position of operations manager at KWFM AM 1330.
Michaels, a winner of the American Advertising Federation Tucson’s Golden Mic Award, has worked in local radio for more than 30 years and is best known as the personality synonymous with the oldies format during his days with KWFM FM 92.9 and KWFM AM 1450.
Hudson Communications, which owns 1330 AM, picked up the KWFM call letters when Clear Channel Communications dumped them as the station at 1450 picked up a Spanish-language music format and became KTZR, its third format change in less than a year.
Previously, 1330 AM was known as KJLL, or The Jolt.
ROMO LEAVING KGUN
KGUN Channel 9 news anchor Kimberly Romo has decided to end her five-year relationship with the station.
Romo, whose family has deep ties to Tucson, joined KGUN as an anchor of Good Morning Tucson in March 2007.
GOAZCATS.COM GETS BACK UA CREDENTIALS
Rivals.com-affiliated goazcats.com has had its credentials reinstated by the University of Arizona Athletics Department.
The UA revoked the website’s privileges—including attending press conferences and live sporting events in a media capacity—when university officials said they discovered that former website owner Jim Storey was still involved with the business.
Storey’s connection to the privately operated UA sports website and a basketball tournament conducted at McKale Center played a part in NCAA sanctions against the UA men’s basketball program.
Shortly after the press credentials were revoked in early February, the university reversed its position.
“Compliance director William M. Morgan today notified (goazcats.com reporter) Tracy McDannald that documentation—a contract for sale and purchase of business provided to us (and reviewed by UA counsel)—sufficiently shows that goazcats is separated from the party in question, and we may reinstate the media credential,” said Tom Duddleston, UA Athletics’ media-relations director, in a statement.
‘TEMPO MAGAZINE’ MAKES ONLINE LAUNCH
A group of local music-lovers hopes a new Web endeavor can help boost interest in the scene.
Tempomagazine.net made its online debut last week. The project is the brainchild of a number of local music lovers who broke off from BSceneLive. The new website’s hook: providing a greater understanding of the personalities behind the music.
“We want to focus on getting to know the people,” said Stacy Fortson, Tempo‘s artist-relations director. “We’ll be talking about who the musician is and the personality behind that musician. It’s not about covering someone who’s already been here, but getting to know more details about that musician or band.”
Fortson and tempomagazine.net staff members have spent the past three months setting the stage for the project, hoping that what they produce online will catch the attention of potential advertisers while bringing recognition to the music scene.
“Our goal is to make money, but we don’t plan to do that at the beginning. We want people to see what we can produce. People aren’t going to advertise with us if they don’t know who we are and what we can produce,” Fortson said. “We may not be perfect in the beginning, but our hearts are in it, and we do this because we love it. If we make some money down the road, it’s a bit of a bonus.”
COZMIK JON PLAYS MUSICAL GREATNESS ON KXCI
It’s probably safe to say that prog-rock guitarist Steve Hillage isn’t going to pass through Tucson anytime soon, but there’s a chance you’ll be able to hear him on Mondays from midnight to 2 a.m. on Tempest Broog, the weekly prog-rock radio show hosted by John Paul Marchand, or, as he’s known on the air, Cozmik Jon.
Standing in the shadows of community-radio stalwarts Kidd Squidd and the Blues Review, Tempest Broog, now in its 16th year, is among the longest-running programs on KXCI FM 91.3.
A couple of months ago, Marchand reached out to me for guest-host purposes. It had been a long time since I’d stepped foot in the old South Fourth Avenue house converted into a radio station. About 20 years ago, I co-hosted a short-lived show called Movie Friday in a studio that’s now a dusty storage room.
Upstairs, where the slightly updated studios are now located, there’s still plenty of dust, a mainstay from radio days of old. Other mainstays: records and turntables to play them. (Watching Marchand do the quarter turn to cue up a record so the turntable gets up to speed and doesn’t give that slow-motion “wahh” warping sound was quite a nostalgic image.) There’s also a ridiculously vast collection of CDs and a control board that must have been handed down from the mid-’80s.
Damn it, this is what radio should be. Not the sterile, computer driven, empty-studio cleanliness the corporate behemoths demand today. And where else would I get to play German band Grobschnitt and some Swedish outfit I can’t pretend to pronounce while Marchand chips in with some cool local outfit called The Swigs and a delicious gem from Van der Graaf generator?
Even though Marchand has been the two-hour show’s DJ for 16 years, there’s very little concern about ever running out of material, because the average prog-rock song checks in at about 32 minutes.
Much thanks to Marchand for letting me sit in. Meanwhile, KXCI is on the tail end of what appears to be another deservedly successful fundraising drive.
This article appears in Mar 1-7, 2012.
“Romo, whose family has deep ties to Tucson” (Posted by John Schuster, this date)
Red Star has wondered about the hackneyed “deep ties” device. Seems coy, sly, possibly dirty, and inevitably lazy…
John c scott is doing 1000 times better now that hes gone to Kvoi!!
Kvoi = huge signal, great station, great show hosts, lots of support. Network of signals.
Kjll = Cant be heard North of Wetmore at all, horrible silences for hours at a time, nothing local worth a dam, 1 foot in the grave. Arbitron doesnt even list them anymore
Good luck Alan!!! If a radio business guru like John c couldnt save it, a voice over actor sure doesn’t have a chance.
It is always nice to read about (and HEAR) real radio, and not the packaged out of town syndicated slop heard on many of the “local” stations.
I can only hope that the corporate conglomerations clusters filling the Tucson airwaves will start to collapse, and allow local owners and talent to recreate what once was a viable “fun” medium.
The Jolt-Kwfm is owned by an Out of towner and is solid syndicated programing that’s pumped in from a out of town company. Thats when brain child that is the engineer can actually get it to play correctly and not go off-the-air.
Hey Wild Boy-Alan Michaels is a great DJ…or was about 30 years ago. As it is now, he’s just one more radio elephant lumbering about to find a place to expire, and the Star should fit the bill nicely. I doubt he’ll be able to undo the damage done by Dawn Avalon and Dr. Sprei’s neuroses-this decision fits right in with the caliber of their previous ones. After all, who brings in a dj to save a talk station, no matter his ratings? Unless KWFM (genius moniker for an AM station!) is planning to go all-music, its owners’ level of idiocy is staying remarkably consistent.
1330. the laughing stock of Tucson radio. No wonder no one listens.
One of the former jolters was caught vandalizing 1330s towers last night. Seems a neighborhood watch is in effect out there. Guess they are out for Michaels as well as the lovely Dawn Avalon. Interesting.
Ah, the greatest part of the internet. alleged allegations without the need to provide proof. What exactly could be done to a radio station that takes itself off the air on its own at least 10 times a day? hahahahah. Keep up the good work kwfm!
THANK YOU!!!! EXACTLY what needed to be said. “…THE INTERNET. ALLEGED ALLEGATIONS WITHOUT THE NEED TO PROVIDE PROOF.” Precisely the aspect of these comment threads and forums on the internet. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THE TRUTH IS AND WHAT TO BELIEVE. Guess we just have to figure it out for ourselves. 😉
Does this mean the station will actually be on the air????? Everytime I tune in to it, its off.
So who was the former “jolter” supposedly caught vandalizing the station’s towers on March 1st? Hopefully, Mr. Schuster will explore this dastardly crime further in a future column, assuming Dawn Avalon or Dr. Sprei deign to make themselves available to spew more empty allegations as I seriously doubt the existence of a police report, a.k.a. “proof”.
Fletcher, like Spider Amy posted, THE INTERNET. ALLEGED ALLEGATIONS WITHOUT THE NEED TO PROVIDE PROOF.” Precisely the aspect of these comment threads and forums on the internet. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT THE TRUTH IS AND WHAT TO BELIEVE. Guess we just have to figure it out for ourselves. 😉
Since you seem to be the authority on these threads and have so much time to follow-up, why not do it yourself. I’m sure Mr. Schuster has better things to do. Pull up the Martha Vazquez police report too.
If as I’ve read there was vandalism at the towers, could be copper thieves plain and simple. The copper was stripped at the KTKT towers on Jackrabbit Road. Sadly those AM directionals have a ton of copper for grabs.
Alan Michaels has a dream and a plan and a goal. I can’t imagine an owner of any broadcast property that doesn’t want it to work. Alan is a hard worker and a long way from being out of touch with the Tucson market. I say let’s sit back and give him a chance to get things in place and see what happens! Good luck Alan!
That’s the point, “Undisputed Truth”-there is no police report to pull up because there was never any vandalism to begin with. Had copper thieves truly struck, the station would have been off the air for at least a day or three, which obviously didn’t take place. The post alleging vandalism such was a pathetically transparent attempt on the part of the current management to throw more mud at people with legitimate grievances against them, much as they did after deep-sixing Nicole Cox. But I’m sure you know that already, since you’ve taken the time to follow my prior posts.
Besides, since it’s Mr. Schuster’s job to explore the machinations of the local media, I’d say a bitter former employee vandalizing the towers of his former employer would be decidedly newsworthy, wouldn’t you? Or wouldn’t you? After all, if Martha Vasquez pulling a five-finger discount can be explored in depth, so can this tale of (alleged) treachery-news organizations exist to expose the truth, however inconvenient it may be for those with something to hide.
Alan Michaels is in for a rude awakening. The station is broke. There are no advertisers. Their in complete violation with the FCC as far as EAS and other requirements(since the last I heard from an inside source). Every employee who had a clue is gone, and even the one’s that didn’t. And all that’s left is a demented, clueless GM.
You see, this is very typical of these kinds of people. She is at the end. The point where it was time to come clean and show that she had nothing and no plan on how to save the already flat-lined radio station. No one she could point at and goto Stan the owner and say “It’s all THEIR fault”. She was out of scapegoats. And just as the radio station is about to implode, she found him! Alan Michaels. The great hope! But you see, all he is for her is her ticket out of the blame. Hey, The station fails and it’s not her fault! It’s Alan Michaels fault! After all, she put all her trust in him. Right?
This kind of transparent, pathetic personality type is in every psychology book you can buy off the rack in the airport. You’re not fooling anyone Dawn Avalon. You also failed in trying to kill off John C Scott in the broadcast world. He is doing better than ever! He just got back from taking his show to Washington DC! We all listen to him religiously. Nothing you can do will stop the community support that man has.
Alan, run. If you are reading this, you need to get out now. There is no amount of good or amount of money you can do for Hudson communications , Dawn Avalon or Stan Sprei that will stop them from slowly beating you down and taking your sanity. I watched from the outside as people crumbled under these demons. Don’t be next…
The Eagle –> Dawn Avalon (that is all anyone needs to Lol.)
/End comments
All we see is Dawn Avalons name on here. We are forgetting Christopher Lidberg, Nicole Cox, John and Amy Ulm, Randy Howard, Joel Caton and Chuck Aubrey. These are the failures and quitters who walked out on the owners of 1330. “Lets make the radio station a memorial to Aldona Sprei” they all said. Yet every single one of them walked out on her. They blame GM Avalon. LOL!!!! Professionals don’t walk out, unless maybe they have something to hide. Where is all that professional radio experience guys???? Where are you now, JOLTERS????
Alan Michaels is a PROFESSIONAL and he only works with the best. I think that says it all.
I also found out Nicole Cox, the former business manager and bookkeeper, sent the flowers for Aldona Sprei’s funeral from the staff and the station paid for it. The jolters were so cheap they didn’t even pay for their own flowers. They made the deceased pay for them. THATS SAD. GM Avalon has the receipt posted on the wall in her office as a reminder. SAD, VERY SAD.
Keep lashing out at people Dawn, you do know that all it does is confirm everything being said here is correct, right? All these anonymous commets all having the same look, theme. Same message. You trying to discredit people that are simply stating the truth. There are 7 to 10 people that all say the same thing about that situation. They all say the same story and say the same names. But they are ALL in some grand conspiracy to launder millions from a $10K a month AM radio station.
I look around and I see all the people you claim to have destroyed doing quite well, as well as all the local show hosts you blew out. So sorry GM Avalon, the world which you live is not the same as the rest of us. It’s one you have made up to justify your horrible horrible actions. And now, you’ve run out of pawns to play. Everyone has their eyes on the Queen.
That aside, your radio station is a trainwreck. It’s off more than it’s on. You had 20 local shows that all seem to have left the station and gone elsewhere. And the entire broadcast community including ad agencies won’t even pick the phone up to talk to you. It’s just pathetic. Even your sales staff ran!
But hey, keep blaming those people in your posts, John, Nicole and the others, I’m sure they are the reason you still can’t turn things around a year later huh?
From reading these comments over the last few months, John C Scott was the best thing that ever happened to Jolt and Sprei but they tossed him out like bad rubbish for a cheap piece of …. .. oh well that’s life.
We all wait for your next attack GM Dawn, will it be… John,s the devil? Or Engineer Howard? who sabotaged the station? Again, you just make yourself look pathetic. And you state the same facts, that NO ONE else would know and then claim you “heard it some where”. Funny. The readers here must be all too stupid to figure it out huh?
A radio station GM acting like a bitter 13 year old girl in Jr. High. Yelling out ” Nuh uh! Nuh uh!” That’s what this is. Keep up the good work.
Good luck Alan. Looks like you’re going to really need it.
Well done John C Scott for taking such a massive hurdle in stride and continuing to succeed. Tucson loves you.
Way to go Amy!!!! (Holy water) Of course, cowards and crooks do what they do best, they run. What we saw with KJLL is unexplained sums of money and trade missing from a runaway radio station, under the management of the John Scott. Could it be possible maybe it is explained away as part of his compensation package? I remember a day when Amy Ulm, John Scotts wife and manager and sales associate could not answer the questions of Dawn Avalon and stormed frantically out of their offices nearly breaking the glass door. Talk about anger. Or maybe guilt? Sure made her leave in a hurry. Seems like guilt to me. Some people just can’t face the truth. Lidberg also left in a hurry, right before Christmas, resigned over the phone, not having the courage to face Avalon. LOL.
Its been said before Amy, “THE INTERNET. ALLEGED ALLEGATIONS WITHOUT THE NEED TO PROVIDE PROOF.” How long can you go on with the lies???? At least Avalon has the proof and everyone WILL have a hell of a time explaining themselves. They should be thankful for Stan Sprei not wishing to pursue them. In other words, he would rather move on than spend his remaining days in legal battles with losers. Of course, there are also criminal charges that could be pursued. Should we go that route Amy?????
7 to 10 people huh? Maybe we can all just lie and stick together and people will believe us. Guess again. The more you keep at it Amy, the more people are getting wise to your plan.
Avalon never destroyed anyone. People who walk out on a job or those who are terminated, as in how Clear Channel and Journal went about it, they moved on. Accoring to what is posted here, this has not been the case with KJLL. The JOLTERS and Amy Ulm are angry because Avalon ruined their game. Stopped the stealing. Ended the wide variety of free food, car repairs, eye care, dental care, veterinary care, dry cleaning, computer repair, Arbuckles coffee, bakery and dozens of other services – ALL FREE, just for having your husband the manager of the radio station. Imagine all the free things you get as well as siphoning money as needed. NICE! Really helps in this economy. So, YES, we all understand why you and the other JOLTERS are angry Amy. The game is over. The end.
Anyone else wondering why this nutjob is speaking about herself in the 3rd person 1 second then saying “we” this and “we” that, the next.
Someone needs to understand they are making a fool of themselves. Welcome to internet 101.
I hope there is a court case with all this so- called proof!, I am loving these comments! ahah
*grabs popcorn*
Awaiting the next scoop of crazy to get piled on. Go Star/Jolt GM Go! lol
What? No comment about the topic Amy (Misty Avalon). Truth is often confusing in your situation. It was for me until I met Dawn Avalon and she helped me. I feel much better now. I love what she is doing with KWFM. You go Dawn Avalon, Go girl… 😉
Per Wikipedia: “Psychological projection or projection bias is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people. Thus, projection involves imagining or projecting the belief that others originate those feelings.[1]
“Projection reduces anxiety by allowing the expression of the unwanted unconscious impulses or desires without letting the conscious mind recognize them.
“An example of this behavior might be blaming another for self failure. The mind may avoid the discomfort of consciously admitting personal faults by keeping those feelings unconscious, and by redirecting libidinal satisfaction by attaching, or “projecting,” those same faults onto another person or object.”
Is there a better description of the psycho (and I do mean psycho) drama unfolding here in the comments section? You have a paranoid, pathological prevaricator of a GM vainly attempting to defend the indefensible through outright lies vs. a plethora of justifiably bitter ex-employees. Speaking as someone who knows ALL the principals, I’d like to answer the charges made one by one.
“What we saw with KJLL is unexplained sums of money and trade missing from a runaway radio station, under the management of the John Scott.” This is an utter fabrication worthy of a libel suit as the station had returned to the black under Mr. Scott’s tenure. Previous managers such as Kim Kelly, Yvette and Jerry Meisner were indeed thieves, which is what forced the owners to turn to the Scotts, a pair of seasoned radio professionals with a deep clientele’ roster that kept the station afloat. Did he exchange airtime for services from said clients? Yes, this is a standard industry practice and was approved repeatedly by Aldona Sprei and then her husband in the wake of her death. I can’t speak to alleged missing sums of money, but can only observe that station employees were consistently paid on time, in full, under Mr. Scott’s management. This, of course, went out the window the day Dawn Avalon assumed leadership of the station. Coincidence…?
Once she’d secured Dr. Sprei’s affections, Ms. Avalon’s first official act as Vice President of Hudson Communications was to fire the bookkeeper, Nicole Cox, accusing her of theft. Of course, they attempted to reverse their decision once they realized there wasn’t a shred of evidence to support their contention, begging her to return via a pathetic series of phone calls and emails, but Ms. Cox told them to go to hell, lawyered up and took her former employers to the cleaners in court this past January. I can’t divulge the settlement details, but let’s just say it’s a good thing Dr. Sprei managed to sell off the land surrounding his station’s towers to have extra capital on hand.
“At least Avalon has the proof and everyone WILL have a hell of a time explaining themselves. They should be thankful for Stan Sprei not wishing to pursue them.” The only thing Avalon has proved over the past year is that she suffers from an abundance of wishful thinking, having nothing resembling proof of her melodramatic claims. In a post with a different name, she asserts, “All we see is Dawn Avalons name on here. We are forgetting Christopher Lidberg, Nicole Cox, John and Amy Ulm, Randy Howard, Joel Caton and Chuck Aubrey. These are the failures and quitters who walked out on the owners of 1330. ‘Lets make the radio station a memorial to Aldona Sprei’ they all said. Yet every single one of them walked out on her.” Let’s explore this allegation more deeply.
Christopher Lidberg: After surviving the initial purge as there was no one else left to keep the lights on, Mr. Lidberg hung on for nine months or so, having need of a paycheck more than his pride. If anyone kept that station on the air in the wake of last spring’s disaster, it was he and yet even he ultimately had to escape. Currently at KVOI (where Scott and a few other “Jolters” wound up), he is finally selling airtime for someone honest and sane.
Nicole Cox: After her unjust termination, Ms. Cox took KJLL’s owners to court and made them her bitches. Do recall that in the face of all the threats from management about prosecution of former employees, they are to date the only ones who’ve had to deal with legal consequences. Doesn’t exactly jibe with “Avalon has the proof and everyone WILL have a hell of a time explaining themselves”, does it? Sad…
John and Amy Ulm: Hired by KVOI a few months later, John Scott is back on the air after being fired by Avalon at KJLL, begged to return and then fired again in a rage the same day when he wouldn’t knuckle under and lie for Sprei and Avalon to defend against the lawsuit from Cox. Oddly, his current employer has absolutely no complaints about fraud or theft.
Randy Howard: After the owners seesawing back and forth because they needed his technical skills to stay on the air, the former engineer was ultimately fired for complaining about the rubber checks issued whenever the management felt like paying its employees. Given his advanced age, he is unlikely to secure further employment, so this person’s life could definitely be marked down as “destroyed”.
Joel Caton: This talented former producer walked out after the paychecks began their erratic schedule and turned to rubber, which coincided perfectly with Ms. Avalon’s arrival, calling her a “wall-eyed cunt” to her face and stalking out the door. It can be debated as to which party had something to hide, but there was definitely good reason for Mr. Caton’s departure on his part-when all a station’s clients are deserting it, they won’t need a producer to record nonexistent commercials. There’s a reason KWFM runs exclusively on PSAs and show promos-nobody will buy airtime there anymore. Which brings us finally to…
Chuck Aubrey: This man was fired for having the temerity to respond to a pay cut by attempting to renegotiate his contract to include late fees for every day past the 1st and the 16th his check arrived and an agreement that the management would cover all bills missed as a result of tardy or bounced paychecks, including penalties. Ten minutes after laying out this admittedly provocative proposal to Dawn Avalon, she walked back to his office and asked him for his key to the building. When he asked if he was being terminated, her response was, “Oh no, we’re just implementing some new security measures”, to which Mr. Aubrey responded, “Lady, don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining” and walked out. Who deserted whom, exactly? When a manager doesn’t have the guts to tell an employee they’re fired after a good-faith attempt at contract negotiations, there’s simply no management there in the first place and you can’t blame professionals for exiting a situation like that. Desertion, indeed….
So to recap: five people fired (Cox, the Ulms, Howard and Aubrey) vs. two (Lidberg and Caton) who got fed up and let the idiot have the tar baby. Does this even remotely resemble “Yet every single one of them walked out on her”? And if not, then how does this affect the veracity of Ms. Avalon’s other statements via temporary screen names? I leave it to the reader to decide, having posted this factual account for the benefit of Alan Michaels to render an informed decision about his future. Good luck, sir-you risk accepting what seems to be a cursed position at an asylum station run by the inmates.
Notice how RJFletcher (previously posting under Misty Avalon and other names) now comes forth, off topic, presenting us with this fabricated story about Dawn Avalon. Directed only at Avalon with the sole intent to damage and destroy her reputation and business.
Lets look further at the motivation of RJFletcher. Why would they post such an elaborate story? Simple. GUILT. An attempt to defend their actions with lies. They hope to mislead the readers of this thread. It worked with the owners of KJLL. It DIDN’T work with Dawn Avalon. Will it work with the readers of the Weekly?
On the internet, a good rule is not to believe what you read. If you’re interested, do the research and check the facts.
Hudson Communications has not settled with Nicole Cox. You can search the case at Pima County Superior Court:
http://www.agave.cosc.pima.gov/PublicDocs/Search2.aspx
In summary, the lies of RJFletcher and other Jolters will continue here and elsewhere until they are stopped legally by Avalon and Hudson Communications. Keep in mind, their sole intention is to destroy Dawn Avalon and the radio station. Without the internet, they would be lost. Where would they go? Certainly not to court. You’d better have a case and money to play that game. As of this date, only Cox has tried taking her baseless claims to court. She failed.
Avalon has well over 300 hours of recorded conversations and office banter with the Jolters. There are also recovered files from hard drives that were believed to have been deleted by the Jolters. There are company files stolen from the premises and discarded by Mr. Scott. Many things left and forgotten in the feeding frenzy. Then there are the written and verbal accounts of people who were there and witness. It will be fun to see the Jolters memories refreshed.
Per Wikipedia, “Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted.”
Sound familiar? Lets continue, “More often than not, embezzlement is performed in a manner that is premeditated, systematic and/or methodical, with the explicit intent to conceal the activities from other individuals, usually because it is being done without their knowledge or consent. Often it involves the trusted person embezzling only a small proportion or fraction of the funds received, in an attempt to minimize the risk of detection. If successful, embezzlements can continue for years (or even decades) without detection.”
It would be easy to list the actual names, dates and amounts. There is a serious audio clip of Mr. Scott stuttering and explaining how he would have to discuss the trade accounts with Amy and then he goes on blaming all the missing money and trade on the deceased owner. Typical scheme. Deceased or not, I think when this is presented to a jury, they would NEVER accept such large amounts of money/trade being part of a “compensation package”.
BTW, people are terminated from work. It happens a lot these days. They move on with their lives, find new jobs. Mr Michaels is smart enough to make his own decisions. I don’t think Dawn Avalon has the ability to make Alan Michaels, veteran broadcaster, do something he does not honestly want to do. Of course, you know that, and thats the point here. It hurts to see him in the job you once had and you want the world to know. Got it!