Radio Notes June 15, 1986

June 15, 1986
Amnesty International has been celebrating its 25th year as an organization campaigning for human rights by staging and endorsing “A Conspiracy of Hope” concerts across the country.
Sunday’s concert, from Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., will be an all-day spectacular with headliners including U2, Bryan Adams, Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Peter Gabriel, Jeff Beck, Jackson Browne and Santana. A stereo broadcast from noon to 9 p.m. will air on KISW, 99.9 mHz. The video version, on MTV, will run from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. MTV video jockeys will co-host the show. Beau Phillips, program director, said KISW will be one of about 100 stations across the country to carry the live radio broadcast. The event is distributed by Westwood One, Los Angeles radio-syndication firm. “Not that these causes aren’t important,” Phillps explained, “but some of the heavily promoted `events’ the past year or so have been difficult to listen to. This will not be a `beg-a-thon.’ ” A feature will be the reunion of the rock band Police. Arts listing resumes publication Radio listeners may rejoice in the return of Soundings Northwest, a monthly publication filled with arts-and-events listings and program information on some radio stations. The periodical, assembled in Tacoma, merged its listings into the national classical-music magazine Ovation in 1985. But in March, that foundering magazine dropped Puget Sound listings. So Floyd Wige, publisher, has decided to resume Soundings Northwest as a local, digest-sized publication. Since Wige acquired the publication in 1983, radio formats have changed and programming philosophies simplified. The revived magazine will have KING-FM’s classical-music titles and whatever information can be squeezed out of KUOW and KPLU: stations now content just to let the phonograph needle drop in locally prepared music segments. Wige said the July issue will be on newsstands June 23. Hydroplane season begins First of the season’s hydroplane-race broadcasts begins Sunday on KVI, 570 kHz., with the Budweiser Unlimited Race, in Miami, at 1 p.m. Seattle time. The broadcast series will supply half-hour coverage of the final heat in most races, plus brief 3:30 p.m. features the Friday and Saturday before each Sunday race. Jim Hendrick, Michigan announcer, continues with race calls, assisted this year by Don Poier, Seattle-area sportscaster. Eleven hydro races will be covered, including the Aug. 3 Emerald Cup Seafair Regatta in Seattle. That race, of course, will be given extended coverage by KPLZ and KVI, who hold exclusive radio rights in the area. Twisting the dial KIRO has begun broadcasting the CBS Radio series of baseball games of the week, leading to the league championships and the World Series. Next game: Saturday, San Diego vs. Los Angeles, with Brent Musburger calling the play, at 6:50 p.m. on 710 kHz. KUOW has added music festivals as a source for some of its “Saturday Music” show, Saturday afternoons until 4 p.m. This week and next: bluegrass bands from the Old Time Music Festival, a Midwest event. A new late-Sunday-night feature, “Manhattan Jazz Hour,” combines extemporaneous performances and conversation with jazz artists. John S. Wilson, jazz critic for The New York Times, is host. The program is produced at a New York City studio, the Manhattan Recording Company. Air time is 1 a.m. (Monday) on KPLU, 88.5 mHz. The other Mike James, program director at KAMT, departs to manage KMMZ-KMZQ, Yellowstone. Taking over the KAMT morning program, 6-10 a.m. weekdays on 1360 kHz., on Monday will be Lou Robbins.