Saturday, April 26, 2008

And we get a little bit more of the shaft...

I was doing my thing at work last Saturday night listening to Rowdy Yates' classic country show on KILT, and he made mention of the fact that the show would be moving to Sunday nights starting this weekend. That night's 7-to-midnight time slot was occupied by Leslie T. Travis's Texas Roadhouse, a five-hour weekly spotlight on music from Texas artists. And I thought they might just be switching the time slots of the two shows -- which would have been fine. Well, apparently the station's management has decided to give the Texas music fans the finger yet again...

Much to my big surprise the KILT Texas Roadhouse is over.

At least the 5 hour, request intensive show I've been hosting there the last few years. The management at the station has decided to move Rowdy's Yates hugely popular "Solid Gold" show to the 7 to midnight spot on Sunday night.

While they have not completely done away with the Texas music on KILT, they are cutting the show back to 2 hours 10 to midnight Saturday's.

It will now be hosted by Steve Rixx, who is very knowledgable about the music. I do believe that the music will change drastically with the time restraints.

KILT Music Director Greg Frey will now be chosing ALL the music for the show. He takes phone calls regarding music every Friday from 10am until Noon (Central time).

So we're going from five hours of music largely chosen by listeners to two hours of music that's all ultimately chosen by some corporate hack. (As an aside, nothing against Steve Rixx here, but if he's not even choosing the music for the show, what the hell does it matter what he knows about it?) Thanks a lot, y'all. Leslie T. and the Texas Roadhouse was one of the best things KILT had going for them and you threw it away. Let me guess, some consulting firm told you it'd boost the bottom line. I know it's a business and as such its purpose is to make money, but I was under the impression that the niche programming such as the Texas and classic country was exiled to weekend nights in the first place was the fact that not as many people were listening. I mean, it was bad enough that we only got five hours a week, but now just TWO hours where we can't even ask for something to be played? Is Texas music really THAT unprofitable?! What the hell, over?