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I know radio stations face a degree of notability with the FCC license backing them up but this article is nothing but a blatant advertisement for at least two people that work at the radio station. It contains very little encyclopedic material and is written more like something you would find on the station's website. I for one say the article needs to start over, and become less of a promotion for two people and more like a real article that fits Wikipedia's standards. Unless it is extremely notable, I could care less about the talk shows themselves and more about the history of the station itself. Sounds like egos created this article to me. That's my 2 cents. If this article isn't an advertisement for the station and its personalities, I don't know what is. --ḾỊḼʘɴίcả • Talk • I DX for fun!05:56, 9 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
It reads exactly like it was copied and pasted from the KENI website. I already checked and the website is currently in some sort of rotating blog format which makes finding a particular piece of content difficult if not impossible. Here's what history I can remember:
KENI goes on the air in 1948 as the second radio station in Anchorage (after KFQD) and the second radio station launched by Austin E. Lathrop (after KFAR). Lathrop had been involved in Anchorage since the very early days (most notably his role in producing The Chechahcos) but was delayed by World War II in roughly duplicating his Fairbanks operations in Anchorage after he became very successful in Fairbanks from the late 1920s. He built the KENI Radio Building near the mouth of Chester Creek, then far from any significant habitation (Romig Hill, the access point to there from town, was mostly home to cabins and farms at the time). The station was mostly put together and run by the two individuals who had done likewise for KFAR, Augie Hiebert and Alvin O. Bramstedt. As was normally the case with radio stations of that era, it ran a general format.
Ronald Lewis Moore, an Anchorage native, served his hitch in the U.S. Army after high school and returned to Anchorage, becoming known as hot young disc jockey "The Royal Coachman". Moore hosted The Coke Show from 1959 to 1969, securing the sponsorship of Coca-Cola by himself after being told by station management that rock and roll didn't sell advertising. People of a certain age group who grew up in Anchorage tend to speak fairly often of Moore and his days hosting the show from The Bun Drive-In when mentioning stories of the old days. Here's a link. There's no attribution, but I believe the text is from an Anchorage Daily News article published in 1986.
The station aired a Top 40 format during the 1970s and 1980s. Art Bell frequently spoke on-air over the years of working at KENI ca. 1975. A former co-worker of mine kept telling me of hearing Bell say this, then explained that he worked there at the time and didn't remember Bell. This could be explained in that the station was "on the radar" enough by ca. 1967 that a lot of radio professionals passed through in the course of padding their resumes. KENI has aired Coast to Coast AM pretty much since it was in national syndication, replacing a short-lived fiasco hosted by Alan Colmes as the bridge between the Larry King and Art Bell eras in late night.
Another person associated with the station back then was Larry Wayne, who spent in the vicinity of a quarter century in Anchorage radio, even remaining in secular radio after becoming a very committed born-again Christian. Wayne helped start Air 1. He and another former Anchorage disc jockey, JD Chandler (best known in Anchorage for his early 1980s stint at KRKN), are currently on the air at K-LOVE.
The station started airing talk shows in the late 1980s, but wouldn't become a full-time talk station until several years later. Dick Lobdell wound up in the morning drive-time slot around this time, airing a traditional morning news format rather than the heavily partisan talk favored by his successor Rydell. Afternoon drive hosts of note during this time were J. J. McCartney (sp?) and Fritz Pettyjohn.
The station was owned during the 1990s by Tom Tierney. This is just from memory, but I believe he was a businessman heavily involved in politics, and was a staffer for Anchorage mayor Tom Fink immediately prior to purchasing the station. I believe Tierney is also the current owner of KBYR. This makes sense, since that station's recent controversial figures, Jack Frost and Eddie Burke, were often on-air at KENI as fill-ins when Tierney owned it.
It was during Tierney's ownership that KENI took advantage of the consolidation of radio formats and switched frequencies to take advantage of the current frequency's clear-channel signal. KYAK was a country station until country stations on AM went out of vogue. This 50,000 watt station inexplicably aired Radio AAHS from ca. 1995-1997 before the switch. The station moved to the Dimond Center around this time as well.
As for the present, I dunno, as I haven't been to Anchorage in a while. The statement that Rydell's show is simulcast in Fairbanks is outdated. Fairbanksans had no interest in an Anchorage-based show, even though the current morning show aired on KFBX is dreadfully dull in comparison. KENI does produce Alaska news updates which air throughout the day on KFBX. Missing from all these mentions of Rydell is that he reinvented himself as an ultra-conservative hero to get back on the air. In the 1990s, he contined to pursue a morning show format in FM which became tired and eventually obsolete once J. J. Michaels came to Anchorage from Honolulu and started going from station to station putting Howard Stern clones on the air. Rydell spent nearly a decade working construction before returning to radio. If I recall, before he appeared on KENI, he made his first appearances on his old station, KBFX, being kidded by Bob Lester and Mark Colavecchio about being run out of the business the whole time.RadioKAOS (talk) 09:43, 9 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Can you point me to where this is on their website. I must not be looking in the right place to find this information. I believe you, because I work in radio and some of this stuff is floating around somewhere in cyberspace or in book form. I will look into adding some of it, at the risk of being attacked myself. --ḾỊḼʘɴίcả • Talk • I DX for fun!19:42, 10 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.A summary of the conclusions reached follows.
I'd appreciate a discussion of the rationale for the proposed merge into this article, since the building is no longer associated with the station and has independent notability on two fronts. Is there a particular reason (apart from the former association) for a merge? I'd be inclined to agree if it still housed KENI, but it doesn't. Acroterion(talk)19:11, 29 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Too many NRHP stubs. Too many of them contain no content apart from attempting to establish that their placement on the NRHP is the sole reason for their notability, which is a stretch for anyone otherwise famililar with the histories of the buildings and any related aspects (such as in this instance, this station). That was mainly the reason. If the building is currently not associated with the station, does that cancel out the fact that the building was associated with the station for approximately half a century?RadioKAOS (talk) 22:26, 29 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Not even a "See also" on either article, like they completely exist as islands unto themselves. I'm sure as far as some folks on here are concerned, they do.RadioKAOS (talk) 22:29, 29 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
"Too many NRHP stubs" isn't a valid argument in this case, although I've made such an argument myself in other cases where there was substantial overlap in coverage between two articles. The building presently has no connection to the station: it should be mentioned in the KENI article, but moving the content associated with a building that formerly housed the station into the station's article would be undue weight, particularly given the even more stubbish nature of KENI. The building's sufficiently significant for its architecture to have been covered by HABS, in addition to the NRHP, so I don't buy the argument that it has no independent notability now that it's not a radio station. Furthermore, it's covered in The Buildings of Alaska (as referenced) for its architectural merits: inclusion in the Buildings of the United States series (Society of Architectural Historians/Oxford University Press) is clear indication of independent notability - the books are fairly selective. By the way, KENI is linked from the building's article, so there's no need for a "see also." Acroterion(talk)22:45, 29 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.
CORRECTIONS! -- KENI 650AM, operates the former KYAK. KYAK went on the air in 1967 with 5000 watts daytime and increased to 50,000 watts on 650AM full-time two or three years later. KYAK was a successful country music station for many years until ownership changes and the shift of music programming to FM led to its decline. KYAK tried children's programming without success. Meanwhile, KENI 550AM, which had been a popular Top 40 station for many years, switched to KYAK's 650AM with 50,000 watts and began a News-Talk format which has been highly successful, and continues today.
Bill Brink, Program Director at KYAK for 8 years in the 1970s. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.49.2.6 (talk) 00:10, 10 February 2014 (UTC+9)
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