Come on Feel the Nuys

Starbucks: the sweet smell of roasted desperation

2009-11-06T03:38:30Z

It's the economy, stupid. And in response, Starbucks is starting a "rewards program." Earth to Seattle: We've been in shit soup for more than two years now. (And while I'm at it, ain't nobody gonna pay nearly $1 for single serving of instant coffee. What are you thinking?)

It looks like the Sbux brain trust realized nobody was going for that stupid pay-extra "Gold" card, and they're now admitting that it was a big bag of BS and offering that same privilege to anybody who makes 30 purchases with a "regular" Starbucks card.

The upside is that with every 15 uses of your Sbux card you get a free drink. And 30 uses ups you into the Gold ranks, the benefits of which still elude me. You get coupons and this: A "Personalized Gold Card - We'll send you a special Starbucks Card that recognizes you are one of our favorite customers."

Lipstick, meet pig.

My immediate question/issue: Do you have to buy 30 drinks before you start getting the 1 free drink every 15 drinks deal? That looks like the way it is. Does anybody vet this crap before they release it on a downtrodden public?

What really irks me about this announcement is that SBux is making it look like after five uses you get all these magical benefits that you used to get with using the card only once in any given month:

Free Wi-Fi - Up to 2 Continuous Hours a Day
Free Beverage Customization
Free Refills on Brewed Coffee
Free Beverage with Whole Bean Purchase
Free Trial Offers

Let's see ... instead of using the card once in a month, I have to use it FIVE times? Hopefully that'll be it ... they won't reset the "five times" meter every month. That way I can get my free WiFi, refills and "customization" in perpetuity. Is that how it is? I'm OK with that, but they're making it look like it's something special and new, which it isn't.

If only Coffee Bean went back to their free drink with every x number of purchases program. (It's been so long that I can't remember how many punches you needed on your card before the free flowed.)

My analysis: Starbucks is running scared. This smells of roasted desperation.

Photo by Boris from his Flickr page released under a Creative Commons license.

Daily News endorses Paul Krekorian in CD2 runoff; otherwise all is quiet in two-horse race

2009-10-21T20:30:00Z

Photos of Christine Essel and Paul Krekorian by John McCoy/Daily News

I'm a bit late on this, but the Daily News Editorial Board (which doesn't include me, in case you were wondering) re-examined the Council District 2 race now that a December runoff is set between Paul Krekorian and Christine Essel and issued this editorial endorsing Assemblyman Krekorian in that runoff:

Deciding which candidate is best suited and qualified to represent the 2nd District on the Los Angeles City Council has become much easier. The Sept. 22 primary narrowed the field from 10 candidates, down to two.
After considering their track records and what they consider important, the Daily News Editorial Board unanimously supports Paul Krekorian in the Dec. 8 runoff election.

The job of a City Council member is to balance serving the people of the district with the larger needs of the whole city — making sure constituents get the services and help they deserve, while being a legislator and a policymaker.

We believe Krekorian has established a record of doing just that.

In the interest of fairness, equal time and all that, here's a quote from the Times endorsement of Christine Essel:

Essel is a former member of the Airport Commission and former chairwoman of the Community Redevelopment Agency. She knows her way around the city bureaucracy but is not beholden to it. Unlike some of the self-styled grass-roots candidates, she does not regard City Hall as an occupying force, yet unlike current officeholders, she is independent from the political establishment. Essel offers the district the best chance at an effective representative who sticks up for her constituents while helping to run and oversee city government.

If you'll recall, the Daily News endorsed two candidates, Tamar Galatzan and Pete Sanchez, in the initial CD2 race.

None of the "grass roots" candidates had much game. They didn't raise a lot of money and didn't have high enough profiles, records or name recognition to either grab voter attention without a lot of money, or get the money to do so.

I suppose you could call it irony, but Galatzan was probably the CD2 candidate with the most name recognition due to her tenure on the school board. But she erred by sending out mailings focusing on her school-board work and not even mentioning her run for City Council or what she would do if elected. Some might call that "classy," but it looked more like a function of her having school-board campaign money left over and either no City Council money ... or a reluctance to spend it before the runoff, which I imagine Galatzan thought she would be a part of.

Didn't work out. The only high-profile candidate who actually lived in CD2 before deciding to run for its council seat looked really good on paper but just didn't bring it in terms of campaigning.

I took the top two candidates — Krekorian and Essel — to task not for emphasizing youthful upbringings in the Valley and minimizing their carpet-bagger status but for throwing so much mud in their mailers (especially Essel, who took Krekorian to task for accepting a few bottles of cheap wine, some Laker tickets and one expensive junket).

I don't like to see candidates get deep into that mud, but I do know it often gets results (especially in the absence of enough "positives" about the candidate(s) throwing not to, and that it often gets results.

But the candidates who put it to the wall, raised money and spent it, despite few in the district ever having heard of them, are the ones left standing for the Dec. 8 runoff.

What CD2 needed was a Huggy Bob. Somebody with a name and a record. Maybe Bob Hertzberg has other fish on the griddle.

Water ... bridge, as they say.

Back to the two candidates who are actually in the running for CD2 in December's vote.

What I'm doing is waiting for the rest of the campaign to unfold. Things have been pretty quiet, but I'm expecting the gloves to come off — way off — when the mailers start kicking up again before December.

I'm hoping both of these candidates make a case as to why he or she should be the CD2 representative. I don't want to hear about how they're going to reform City Hall because we all know that a freshman councilmember coming into the system has a snowball's chance of changing anything right when they get there.

I am interested in how the member will conduct him- or herself on the City Council, how he or she will treat those who provided all that campaign money vis-à-vis the people of the district.

I'd like to know how they're going to help not just the most politically active parts of CD2 but the rest of the council district as well.

So I'll be delving into all the material I can over the next month — as should all CD2 voters — to see if either of these two candidates stands out.

And I'll be watching the mailers. My interest in candidates falls as the volume of their mudslinging mail rises.

Paul Krekorian's official site
Christine Essel's official site
Paul Krekorian on Wikipedia (this is more pimped-out than I thought it would be ...)
Christine Essel on Wikipedia
Zuma Dogg seemingly endorses Christine Essel ... very interesting (if unconfirmed) reading ...

Are you as sick as I am of all the teeth-whitening ads on the Daily News Web sites?

2009-09-12T03:49:06Z

Everywhere you go on the Daily News blogs and main site, you're assaulted by ads for cheesy teeth-whitening products and other teeth-related things.

Just wanted to say I'm tired of it. They can't be making us all that much money, and ... I'm just tired of them.

City Council is really about delivering to constituents

2009-09-12T02:58:41Z

What nobody seems to be talking about in the CD2 race is that being on the City Council isn't about reforming government or stopping downtown corruption.

For those of us in the district, it's about getting the services we need.

It's an established L.A. thing: If you want something done, you call your local council office, the put-upon person on the other end of the line acts like they're going to help you (even if you're a wack job), and then if the councilmember is smart and has a good staff and a lot of downtown juice, stuff gets done.

In my neighborhood, the street that had been crumbling since the 1940s finally ... FINALLY ... was resurfaced a little more than a year ago. It still seems like yesterday when the crews came and ripped the pavement down to the dirt below, flattened the whole thing out and in a series of heavy-equipment machinations laid down a thick layer of sweet asphalt over it.

Gotta give credit to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, the latter of who's office probably got a few hundred phone calls from the neighborhood in the years before the job got done.

But a paved street (and picked-up garbage) provides the road to voters hearts (and their votes.

So ... which candidate can take the best care of CD2? Good question. I haven't a clue.

What about Zuma Dogg?

2009-09-12T02:52:55Z

Even though Zuma Dogg (aka David Saltsburg) might also be tagged with "carpet-bagger" status for moving into CD2 in order to run for the open City Council seat, it's hard to knock a homeless guy for bedding down wherever he damn well pleases, even if it makes him eligible to run in that area's council election.

I'm no Zuma Dogg veteran, and those who've seen him a lot seem tired of his dog/pony show during the public-comment portion of the City Council's meetings downtown. I've seen a little bit of Zuma Dogg, and thus far I'm a bit charmed. I've gotten to know more than a few council gadflies from various cities over the years, and that's probably softened me up for Zuma Dogg.

I don't know quite how he'd do if actually elected to the council, but when he talks about City Hall shenanigans, I have a feeling his idea of reform is a lot more sincere than that of some of the other candidates who seem more likely to play ball with the current council team.

CD2 candidates forum Monday, Sept. 14 in Sherman Oaks

2009-09-12T02:44:06Z

All 10 candidates for the open CD2 seat have confirmed to be at the Council District 2 Candidates' Forum on Monday, Sept. 14, under the auspices of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council

There's a "meet and greet" at 6:30 p.m. (free refreshments!) with the forum following at 7:15 in the auditorium at Sherman Oaks Elementary School, 14755 Greenleaf Ave. (one block south of Ventura Boulevard, just east of Kester).

The moderator will be former Assemblyman Richard Katz.

Carpetbaggers in the CD2 race: L.A. Weekly and Ron Kaye hit 'em hard

2009-09-12T02:30:00Z

This week's L.A. Weekly examines the motivations and records of two candidates for the open Council District 2 seat who until recently did not live in the district, Paul Krekorian and Christine Essel.

It's not pretty.

Krekorian, who didn't even live in L.A. until he made his move, is slammed for first leaving the Burbank school board and now the state Assembly as each institution was in the process of imploding.

And Essel is hit for both encouraging zoning changes to allow for more high-rise development as well as being a transplanted Westsider whose efforts to keep film production in L.A. seemed to do the opposite.

Also worth reading is my former boss Ron Kaye's assessment of the moneyed pair:

How can voters choose between a candidate that has represented the entertainment industry and downtown development interests for years and a state Assembly leader who bears a full share of responsibility for putting California in such dire financial straits?
It may well come to a choice between Essel, with heavy backing from the increasingly unpopular mayor, the powerful DWP union IBEW, and the same developer and Hollywood interests, and Krekorian who is backed by City Hall unions and the Democratic Party organization.

Before voters from Sunland-Tujunga to Sherman Oaks face that choice, they first need to ask themselves if either of them is qualified to represent their values, their needs - whether either of them will stand up to the City Hall machine and fight for what the residents in CD2 want?

Neither of them lacks the intelligence or experience to serve CD2. The biggest problem they share is they are carpetbaggers, moving into the district just in time to run for the Council seat left vacant by Wendy Greuel's election as City Controller.

The Weekly's contention, and I'm buying it, is that the powers that be in the city of Los Angeles would love to bring in a candidate of their choosing to count on for a vote; hence the support from major political players for Krekorian and Essel.

Right now the mailers are flying fast, and Krekorian and Essel — yeah, two candidates nobody's ever heard of, at least in CD2 — are dragging in the big-time endorsements.

My last Krekorian mailer lists the following endorsers: Congresspersons Brad Sherman and Loretta Sanchez, Assemblyman (and ex-Councilman) Mike Feuer, and Councilman Paul Koretz. And there's a picture on the front of Krekorian with former President Bill Clinton. "See ... I know Bill Clinton ... I'm a huge Democrat, and if you're a Democrat ... I know Bill Clinton ... never mind the mess in Sacramento, where I'm a member of the state Assembly," Krekorian never said (but his whole campaign seems to be putting out that vibe).

No word yet on whether Bill Clinton (or his wife, the current secretary of state, or the pope or Dalai Lama for that matter) is endorsing in CD2. But we know that Paul Krekorian and Bill Clinton have posed for a picture together.

Essel has brought the high heat endorsement-wise: Now-City Controller and former holder of the CD2 seat Wendy Greuel is in her camp, as is former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan. You don't find bigger players than that. The Greuel endorsement is huge (and she figures very prominently in Essel's mail campaign).

According to a recent mailer (my postman is very, very busy these days), Essel's endorsers include State Sen. Fran Pavley (who?), Councilmembers Janice Hahn, Jan Perry and Herb Wesson, former State Sens. Sheila Kuehl and Betty Karnette (again ... who?), environmentalist, actor and perennial Studio City man about town Ed Begley Jr. (again, huge, because we've heard of him, the Studio City Residents Association, the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, the Los Angeles County Democratic Party (hey, I thought Essel was a Republican .. how did that happen?), Paramount biggie Sherry Lansing (Essel also worked for the studio), L.A.'s favorite liberal Ed Asner and a whole bunch of union locals.

Clearly the party boundaries are being bent considerably for what is supposed to be a nonpartisan race in any case.

I say Essel isn't being very smart in her mailers, what with her "Chris Essel for City Council 2009" committee being headquartered on Wilshire Boulevard. What, she couldn't find office space in the district? Does she know how to get here? (Don't take Coldwater Canyon until the sinkhole work is done. Myself, I'm partial to Benedict Canyon-Beverly Glen when I have to hike it over the hill.)

One thing both Krekorian and Essel do in their many, many mailers is talk about their past associations with the Valley. Krekorian grew up in the Valley, and Essel attended CSUN. But that was then. Way, way back then.

My concern about the other "major" candidate in the race, non-carpetbagger and current L.A. school board member Tamar Galatzan, is that each and every one of her mailers bears her school-board title and address and solely covers her LAUSD accomplishments. That's great but doesn't pass the smell test.

It appears as if she's burning off leftover school-board campaign money and either hasn't raised any CD2 campaign cash or is loath to spend what she's dragged in. Any way you look at it, it's not going to get the job done. Except for where the money's potentially coming from (and I'd like some clarification from Galatzan on this), it's "taking the high road" in some way, only talking about what she's accomplished on the school board and not slagging the other candidates. But I want to know what she's going to do for CD2, not just what she's done for LAUSD.

Frank Sheftel appears to be getting around a bit lately. He's been in the Daily News office (I neither met nor spoke to him ...), and I saw the Candy Man at Wednesday's Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard event (which, by the way, was as well-attended as usual and will be continuing on the second Wednesday of next month).

I haven't seen any other candidates pressing the flesh, but maybe we will at tomorrow's Part of Sherman Oaks victory picnic.

In case you're enormously interested in the whole thing, I've been saving my campaign mailers. There have been puff pieces, hit pieces and Wendy-Greuel-loves-me pieces.

Just by numbers, here's how many mailers I've received from the candidates:

Paul Krekorian: 7
Christine Essel: 4
Tamar Galatzan: 3
All of the other candidates: 0

I encourage each and every CD2 voter to check out all the candidates for themselves.

You can start on the Web with this list of CD2 candidates and their Web sites. I'm sure there are complete lists of endorsements (and maybe more than school-board puffery from Galatzan). I'll be going there myself in the days ahead of the Sept. 22 vote to either fill the seat or choose two top candidates for a December runoff.

CD2 candidate Web sites

Mary Benson: www.benson4cd2.com
Augusto Bisani: http://augustobisani.org
Chris Essel: www.essel09.com
Jozef "Joe" Thomas Essavi: http://www.vote4essavi.com
Tamar Galatzan: tamarforcd2.publishpath.com
Paul Krekorian: paul4council.com
Michael McCue: www.mccuefor2.com
David "Zuma Dogg" Saltsburg: zumadogg.googlepages.com
Pete Sanchez: www.votepetesanchez.com
Frank Sheftel: www.sheftel2009.com

Part of Sherman Oaks celebrates with Victory Picnic on Saturday, Sept. 12

2009-09-11T18:40:00Z

Leslie Young of the Part of Sherman Oaks movement was kind enough to invite me to the group's celebratory picnic from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 12 at Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Park (specifically at the corner of Tyrone Avenue and Huston Street).

I wrote back to Leslie that I wasn't so much opposed to Part of Sherman Oaks as not in favor of it. Since the area in question, bounded by Oxnard Street to the north, Burbank Boulevard to the south, Sepulveda Boulevard to the West and Hazeltine to the east, is so geographically well-definied (in fact, it's square, Daddy-o), it would've been cool to pick a totally new community name. My favorites remain Xanadu, Shady Acres, Flood Plain, West Los Feliz, Autotopia and Starbuckistan (the latter only if we were promised a dozen more Starbucks, which I welcome anyway).

For those who want to read the real press release about Saturday's picnic, I've included a link to the PDF.

Allow me to get all newspapery with that very material:

"This is a celebration that embraces the spirit of civic activism and inclusiveness," said Part of Sherman Oaks organizer Laurette Healey, an early candidate for the open Council District 2 seat who declined to pursue that candidacy.

"We have discovered along the way that we are a community that cares about the lives of everyone in the Valley."

Healey says the Part of Sherman Oaks movement will continue and will be working on projects that include solar-powered street lighting and neighborhood beautification.

Since the area in question (where I also happen to live) hasn't exactly been fawned over by the Van Nuys Neighborhood Council (which still is the NC that covers the area, despite its "Sherman Oaks-iness"), I welcome and encourage any effort to better the look and safety of the neighborhood.

Healey also said in the press release that "the neighborhood," meaning the area and not her group in specific, I imagine, will aim to become more involved in the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, "the local chamber" (would that be the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of Commerce?) and the neighborhood councils.

Bet those NCs, particularly the VNNC, will be welcoming. (OK, not so much, if you didn't pick up on that).

Anyhow, the main event at the picnic will be the 5 p.m. speech by former CD2 Councilwoman (and now City Controller) Wendy Greuel, who's OK on Part of Sherman Oaks paved the way for the rest of the City Council to approve the change in neighborhood boundaries on July 14.

The picnic includes a catered barbecue (free food!), a raffle, music, and face-painting, games and a moonbounce for the kids.

I'm still coming to terms with the whole used-to-live-in-Van-Nuys-but-now-Sherman-Oaks nature of this whole thing, and while this has been done many times before in dozens of Los Angeles neighborhoods (and in many cases the "boundaries" of these real-estate-mandated communities are more than a little arbitrary), I still find the whole thing (the Sherman Oaks envy) a little unsettling.

But now that we're in the "what's done is done" phase of the operation, it seems to be time to look forward, not back (and grab the free grub).

Sherman Oaks has its own health-care rally, nobody loses a finger in the process

2009-09-03T22:59:22Z

I shot the two images above with my cell-phone camera (which I've been enjoying using very much, thank you) at the MoveOn.org-organized demonstration in favor of health-care reform at the corner of Van Nuys and Burbank boulevards in Sherman Oaks on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009.

Last night I happened by a sizable group of people at the corner of Burbank and Van Nuys boulevards holding candles and "honk if you support health care reform"-type of signs — and there was quite a bit of honking going on.

I'd say between 20 and 30 people who support the Democrats' health-care legislation were on the corner in advance of President Obama's speech next week to a joint session of Congress in an attempt to gin up support for the measure, which is opposed by most all Republicans (those elected to the Senate, anyway) and a few Democrats as well.

Our dog Poppy wasn't too crazy about all that horn-honking, but she wasn't about to bite off anybody's finger either, as one human did to another at a similar demonstration in Thousand Oaks.

Since last night I've learned that the demonstrations were organized by MoveON.org, which has a Flickr page with images from 350 such demonstrations across the country.

Argue all you want, ladies and gents, but let's leave the biting out of it, OK?

Rick Orlov writes about all 10 Council District 2 candidates

2009-08-26T23:51:18Z

The Daily News' Rick Orlov has a story that covers every one of the 10 candidates vying for the Council District 2 seat vacated by Wendy Greuel.

I'm not quite ready to decide who to vote for based on this one article alone, but Rick does ask a lot of the right questions.

He addresses carpet-bagger charges against Paul Krekorian and Christine Essel, both of whom talk up their Valley ties even though until recently they've lived elsewhere.

Krekorian's first mailer emphasized the Valleyness of both him and his family but didn't mention that he lived in Burbank (i.e. not even in the city of L.A.) until recently. Is he termed out in the Assembly? I'll have to look into that.

His second mailer, which has drawn more attention, criticizes the council for loaning money to the owners of the Hollywood & Highland theater for the purposes of bringing Cirque du Soleil to the venue. He tries to juxtapose the loan to H&H with the budgetary needs of the fire department. I'm not quite sure how the city is going to loan out that money, but I've got a feeling it's not a lump sum coming out of the general fund, and I've got a further feeling that they expect it to be paid back. So it's not like loaning out that money is preventing the city from funding the fire department. In any case, it's more than a bit ham-fisted.

In Rick's story, Tamar Galatzan criticized the DWP and said that the police and fire departments are of prime importance to those who live here. That sounds good, but the two mailers I've received from her both bear her school-board field office address. Their content is solely about education, and they made me feel more than a little squirrely because the City Council has nothing to do with the LAUSD. It looks like she's burning off her school-board campaign money for name recognition and isn't ready to tap her council-campaign money.

I'll write about the other candidates as time permits, and I've heard that we'll be having them over to the Daily News to state their respective cases for election to the council at some time in the near future, so hopefully I'll get to ask them all a few questions.I

KTTV Channel 11 covers Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard

2009-08-13T22:29:25Z

Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard is TONIGHT

2009-08-12T18:40:00Z

For more photos of the last Van Nuys Boulevard cruise night, click the image below. The link works this time:

Tonight — Wednesday, Aug. 12 — is the night for this month's Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard event.

The center of the action is at the old Rydell Chevrolet lot at the corner of Van Nuys and Burbank boulevards in Van Nuys. The guy in charge of the event, Reid Stolz, tells me that the Rydell lot opens at 6 p.m., with people starting to arrive at 5:30. The lot fills up by 7 p.m., he says, and I saw plenty of cars in the lot across the street just west of Ralphs market.

Cruising starts at 8 p.m. The group aims to have the Rydell lot cleared out by 10 p.m., so make sure you get there to soak up all that vintage steel.

Many, many cars — vintage, classic and otherwise — will be actually cruising Van Nuys Boulevard, just as they did (depending on how old you are, fill in your own number) decades ago.

The cruise night, which has been taking place on the second Wednesday of every month, has been good to local businesses, which looked pretty full on July 8, the night of the last event.

This morning, Four N' 20 Pies even had a "Welcome Van Nuys cruisers" message on their sign outside the Van Nuys Boulevard restaurant.

While walking the dog (infamous early-riser Poppy), we pretty much stumbled upon last month's Cruise Night, and I can safely say this is the coolest thing to happen to Van Nuys in much longer than I could ever remember.

I was amazed at how well the event ran. From that fact alone, my hopes are high about the event continuing. If you're in the area, come on out and see a whole bunch of really cool cars and the people who pour their lives and money into keeping this tradition alive.

Official Van Nuys Cruising Association Site
Dailynews.com story on the Aug. 12 Cruising Van Nuys Boulevard event
More photos here and here.
Van Nuys Cruising Association on Twitter
E-mail the Van Nuys Cruising Association
Rydell Chevrolet (the Cruise Night cars are at the OLD Rydell lot at Van Nuys and Burbank, not the new one on Oxnard).
Come on Feel the Nuys photo gallery of July 8, 2009's Cruise Night

KFWB: Goodbye Hollywood, hello news/talk

2009-08-11T21:00:00Z

I barely make my opinion known on KFWB-AM 980's entertainment-news format when the station announces it's going in a different direction: news/talk, picking up well-known personalities such as advice-giver Dr. Laura Schlesinger, right-winger Laura Ingraham and others along with an undetermined amount of news:

L.A. Observed: KFWB going all-talk, dropping news
Orange County Register: KFWB will switch to news-talk format, add Dr. Laura
Radio Online: News KFWB-AM/Los Angeles Readies News/Talk Flip

My take on the situation, before this announcement of the Sept. 8 format change, was that KFWB could make a go of the entertainment-news format given more time but would be better off incorporating an increased emphasis on entertainment into a larger commitment to local, business and national/world news ... kind of like the old "you give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world" KFWB.

I also noted that CBS owns both KFWB and KNX-AM (1070), the L.A. market's other news station, and appears content to keep the news audience listening to KNX with less competition from KFWB.

I still believe that the way to go with KFWB is more local, with KNX skewing more national and worldwide in its news coverage.

And I also believe that news is perhaps the most important format there is on radio, and it would be a local tragedy to lose KFWB as a news outlet in the Los Angeles area.

(Disclaimer: KFWB's Ken Jeffries reports out of the Daily News' Woodland Hills offices and occasionally interviews me for technology-related stories).

KFWB's Hollywood thing

2009-08-08T07:00:00Z

(Check out the "vintage" KFWB-AM logo at the right. Remember that "You'll give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world" slogan at KFWB? I never knew how they arrived at that "22 minutes" part, but the "we'll give you the world" part was what we were all interested in.)

Kevin Roderick's L.A. Observed has an entry pointing out Variety writer Brian Lowry's observation that KFWB-AM's (980) recent turn to Hollywood-focused coverage isn't something that industry insiders are paying much attention to.

Before I continue (and I won't be long), like Lowry I've also been on KFWB's air a bit of late. The station's Ken Jeffries has his office in the Daily News building, and I've done a number of interviews with Ken on technology-related stories due to my writing about that sort of thing both for the Daily News proper and my Click blog.

In contrast, I think KFWB is doing a fairly good job covering entertainment, and the station and its anchors, reporters and writers will only get better with more time focused on the industry.

KFWB's entertainment news isn't meant as a Variety-esque analog (even if received in digital) for industry movers and shakers. In my mind it's aimed at regular folks who have an interest in this town's marquee industry but who aren't necessarily (or even at all) embedded in it.

Like many I suspect, I would prefer that the station add more non-entertainment news to the mix. I like the entertainment coverage, but it would be better as one type of story in the all-news mix KFWB has been known for over the years.

One reason KFWB has focused on entertainment is that CBS owns both it and L.A.'s other all-news AM station, KNX (1070). So the whole notion of competition between the stations for news listeners is somewhat moot, since all the money goes into one CBS-held kitty.

KNX is where CBS seems to want L.A. listeners to go for a more traditional mix of news, and along with its bigger signal and longtime carriage of CBS Radio Network content, one thing you can say is that the two stations, KFWB and KNX, are more different than ever.

If CBS were to ask me what to do with the stations, and I'm in no way suggesting they'd do anything of the sort (other than stop using me as a source), I'd say KNX is looking pretty good these days, and the entertainment coverage on KFWB should be continued and developed but scaled back to give more airtime to local, national and business news.

And if there's any way to deep-six those weekend infomercials, I encourage CBS Radio to do so ASAP.

Another thing that would be cool: KFWB on FM. Half the time I'm in the car, I can barely hear the station. CBS could pop one of its many FM stations over to KFWB, and I'd be very happy.

(Below: KFWB used to be a music station. I found this cool shot of a KFWB album cover on the Web)

I still haven't changed this blog's name

2009-08-08T07:00:00Z

I no longer live in Van Nuys. Since my neighborhood became "Part of Sherman Oaks," as the movement so named, something within is telling me to stick with this name for the time being.

I have thought about a) changing the name and b) retiring this blog and starting a new one with a new name.