SisterSledgeSays

That’s what KRCL says as their new slogan: “All the radio you need”

Well, there’s so much about KRCL I want to say, rant, share, ramble on about, whatever you wanna tag this…unfortunately, I’m not a professional writer nor have I much blogging experience…so, bear with me as I attempt to convey my thoughts?

When I first moved to Utah from Washington, I missed so many things I was apart from…I won’t list them all here, I don’t like to dwell….

But, one of the things I missed a lot was the radio station I had listened to most often…music is an almost constant companion throughout my days and this station had been a really good fit for my tastes; a great public station, playing plenty of diverse music within a grant/donation-supported no-ads structure. The station supported the community interests and the community supported it.

This station was perfect as my main source for music and community awareness. My favorite programs were the blues shows that ran on Sundays and Mondays - practically two out of every three songs played would be a new experience for me and I had thought I was pretty familiar with the genre. I wish my memory were better, so I could share the radio station name, etc…but I don’t recall…small numbers way left on the fm dial…88.9? Sorry, it’s been ten years since then.

Anyways, after I’d been in Utah for a few months I discovered KRCL and was SoHappy (*remind me to tell my “SoHappy” story sometime)…as I was saying, I got into KRCL and found it was even better than the Washington station I lost. Only problem was that I couldn’t get very good radio reception on the station in my home or at the office (no streaming anything online allowed at work, so regular radio was the only option then). Thus, I mostly listened to KRCL in the car and suffered at home through static to listen to my fav program broadcast on Sunday nights DJ’d by Sohrab (it wasn’t called Ethnosphere then). So, I wasn’t totally vested in this station…until I got my laptop…with wireless…now I could listen online from any room in my house with crystal-clear sound I became a more regular listener and really got hooked! - this station was as close to “All the radio you need” as any could ever get with me!

Many years have ensued since I got that laptop…and for quite some time now I’ve also enjoyed the ability to listen online at work too and I’ve been listening to KRCL full-time during the day and sporadically at night (family, TV, chores, hobbies and reading take up most nights) - KRCL became as close to “All the radio you need” as any one station could for me. I wonder if you can imagine my disappointment when I heard earlier this year that KRCL was changing their format? Would I still love it? I had my doubts and change always comes a little hard for me anyways, so I was worried. Add to this the fact that I heard the news second-hand..from an article in the City Weekly with 336 comments (they have a blog post on it too). Their report detailed how the station was going through troubles and what changes they planned to make, but what concerned me even more was that KRCL wasn’t telling the story to their listeners…it was all being done very hush hush and felt underhanded…felt deceiving…felt uncaring…where was that community connection??? I began to doubt the morals of the organization I had grown so fond of and felt a part of, let alone worrying for my music source.

I listened to the station regularly and never heard a peep on-air about the upcoming changes nor could I find info posted on the KRCL website. I searched Twitter for any related info, looked for blog posts…nada The City Weekly article said the changes would take effect after the Spring radiothon…I waited with trepidation.

~sigh~ The wait is over and I’ve had many months to see how things have panned out and I must say, I’m disappointed but not entirely crushed…there’s less diversity in the music and voices, less community and some favorite DJ’s are outright gone…but much remains the same as well. I see that the sticky-note I keep on my desk to jot down finds on new-to-me bands/songs I learn about while listening to KRCL hasn’t had a notation added in months though - and I’ve sent my very first email to a DJ requesting begging that a played song never “grace” their airwaves again

Still remaining are those personal feelings of betrayal, etc based on the station’s less-than-open process throughout the change…and I’m not the only one with remaining angst. On Twitter I’ve seen tweets of unhappiness and I’ve found a blog created for no other purpose than to vent about the changes made to KRCL and their process for those changes - The “New Safe KRCL”. I’ve also found a follow-up article at City Weekly. Also, there seems to be discrepancies in reports of market-share increase/decrease since the changes, so I’m not sure whether there are more listeners now or not?

So many questions and yet I don’t think KRCL will ever open up the dialog with their listeners that is sorely missing so that I can get answers: How do you know what I need? Why did you do so few studies??? Why were there no listener surveys??? Where is the open dialog with the community you purport to support??? As a marketing professional, I wonder about KRCL’s lack of reputation management and the missed opportunities to convey their messages to their listeners as well as wondering about their lack of advertising to the community to grow their audience in these troubling and changing times. Will I be able to recommend this station in future as I did wholeheartedly in the past?

KRCL, I still love you but I feel wronged…and you’re no longer the only radio I need

Lastly, although I’ve only found out about it during my recent research and haven’t had a chance to listen yet…many of the lost DJ’s from KRCL are broadcasting here: Utah Free Media

Oopsie…here’s lastly: While on the subject of great music, I’d love to share this Utah band with you - Vile Blue Shades. I can’t convey just how awesome they are so hopefully you’ll check out these links to learn more for yourself - definitely get their music and see their live shows with go-go dancers - intense!

City Weekly article for Vile Blue Shades (written by Circus Brown, a KRCL DJ)

Vile Blue Shades on MySpace -their song Ensoniq is a fav

Just wanted to send out a thank you to HeadSetOption for creating the theme that ended my hunt SoHappy. Silk is the perfect theme for my blog and I love it!

I’ve added a few of the most common plugins to my blog as well as some from Yoast. I’ll write a post just on Wordpress plugins in future, but if you’re curious on this topic, here are a few links to get you going:

Sphinn WP plugins posts

Wordpress.org plugins

Learning how to edit my blog’s theme and Wordpress settings has been “fun”…okay, it really has been fun, though sometimes challenging and patience-breaking. I’m about finished with tweaking now and pretty happy with how my blog looks and functions…I hope you are too!

Here are a few of the aspects I found “troublesome” in editing theme/settings:

1): Found out I had comments set to require login to accept them…waaaay sad…who knows how many peeps I didn’t hear from.

2): Couldn’t figure out how to limit the number of posts on the main page and I had way too many displaying.

3): Left up fake ads and place-holder-text for a bunch of stuff because I didn’t know how to change or replace them.

4): Couldn’t figure out how to change that placeholder image in the footer to mine…got that now, just need time to take a fresh pic o’my mug…

5): Next up for me is improving my About page with better content/images - it was created first thing when I started this blog and could be nicer now that I’m more familiar with creating blog content.

If I can help y’all in any way in making your blog’s theme do what you want, feel free ask here in the comments…I’d be happy to try and help you figure it out:)