5/26/88-Radio fare has racers and Soviets

VICTOR STREDICKE May 26, 1988 – * Victor Stredicke’s Radio Dial column formerly ran in The Times’ Sunday Arts & Entertainment section. It now appears each Thursday in the Scene section* (1988).

In addition to the rushing race cars of the Indy 500, there’s a lot of Russian talk. And jazz coming up.

The Indianapolis 500 race broadcast begins 8 a.m. Sunday on KIRO, 710 kHz., and KWYZ, 1230 kHz. Voice of the Indy 500 is veteran sportscaster Lou Palmer.

The Motor Sports Network, normally a docile program distributor, says the annual five-hour auto-race broadcast draws the largest outdoor sporting-event radio audience in the country – and that includes Super Bowl and the World Series.

— “Radiobridge,” a multiple-day series of broadcasts from the Soviet Union, will air beginning Monday on KING-AM, 1090 kHz. The series is produced by Radio Moscow and distributed by IBD Communications group, state-side syndicator.

Content runs from a survey of pension programs to a performance by an Armenian jazz trio. On June 3 one of the concluding segments will be a political profile of Nikita Khrushchev, former Soviet leader.

The station will present the features after 8 p.m. Monday through next Thursday, preempting initial segments of “The Larry King Show.”

— Two of the Mutual Broadcasting System’s most popular programs, “The Larry King Show” and “America in the Morning,” will originate from Moscow next week. Both will be hosted by Jim Bohannon.

The 8 p.m. time conflicts with the “Radiobridge” programs, but the King show repeats all night until 5 a.m.

— NBC and Mutual national newscasts for morning-drive radio programs will be anchored from the Soviet Union, Monday through Thursday; occasional special reports will be available for affiliate use. KING-AM will clear the “America in the Morning” segments at 5:05 a.m. the four days.

— Another international radio event, “Calling Moscow,” connects U.S. and Soviet listeners, at 3 p.m. tomorrow on KUOW, 94.9 mHz. Soviet broadcaster Vladimir Pozner is one of the participants. The program is designed as a monthly event produced by KPBS, San Diego. The first topic will be Soviet-American relations.

Closer to home

Fifteen parts of a series “Exploring America,” with Charles Kuralt, run through the holiday weekend on KIRO, 710 kHz. The four-minute segments range from tracking wild turkeys in Arkansas to preparing for the Asparagus Festival in Stockton, Calif. These features will be heard at 55 minutes past the hour, most daylight hours beginning 7:55 a.m. Saturday and 1:55 p.m. Sunday.

Back to Wobegon

It’s billed as the “Second Annual Farewell Broadcast,” as Garrison Keillor mounts a special edition of “The Prairie Home Companion,” from his more-spacious digs at Radio City Music Hall, in New York City. The two-hour show airs June 4 at 8 p.m. on KUOW, 94.9 mHz.

Audio history lesson

KVI’s “History of Northwest Rock” airs from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday on KVI, 570. According to compilers Mike Webb and Peter Blecha, it began with such first-hour performers as the Fleetwoods, the Wailers, the Frantics, Little Bill and the Bluenotes, the Ventures and the Dynamics.

A special broadcast, “Vietnam’s Women Veterans,” will be broadcast at 9 a.m. Memorial Day on KPLU, 88.5 mHz. In this program, women describe wartime experiences that left many feeling helpless and alienated.

Twisting the dial

— Bill O’Mara is new sports director at KRKO, 1360 kHz.

O’Mara, who has been in radio for 50 years, previously was sports director at KWYZ, but had been transferred to a Yakima station.

— Next week, June 9-10, R.P. McMurphy & Mark Pierce and Chris Wood, broadcast their morning show on KRPM-AM-FM, 770 and 106.1, from San Diego.