Promotional spots have been airing numerous times a day all over the Inland Empire on 1050 AM. The spots play to a fast food generation that consume their talk radio much the same way as they do an order of fries. It's either a tiny bag that leaves them wanting more, or it's super size, which usually satisfies their taste.

 

This advertising blitz is designed to promote KCAA's plunge into 24 hour broadcasting, which is reported to take place "in November." It's an effective campaign not only in that it buys the station time to take care of any last minute technical bugs, but it also keeps its loyal listeners on the edge of their seats awaiting the announcement of a line-up that hopefully will include shows that perhaps had to move aside to make room for other programmers.

 

For over 3 and-a-half years, KCAA, along with its slogan, "the station that leaves no listener behind," has unfortunatley had to leave certain hours of popular programs behind because there were simply not enough hours in a day to play everything that listeners enjoyed and requested.  Until sometime this month, KCAA/Loma Linda will have been designated by the F.C.C. as a "daytime station," meaning sun-up to sundown broadcasting. Some months during the year this can mean 12 hours of programming, 7 days a week.  Some months it means 11 hours per day.

 

Probably around Thanksgiving, this will all change. An entire braodcast day will open up, and will start to fulfill a dream that KCAA's CEO, Fred Lundgren has worked toward since his Broadcast Management Services company put this station on the air in 2003. Until now, with the exception of shows in the 3 hour range of "Imus in the Morning," "From Left Field with Barry Gordon," and "The Many Moods of Vince Daniels," KCAA has either had to cut some of its existing 2 hour shows down to an hour, or eliminate it from its schedule entirely.   When the station goes 24/7, it's anybody's guess which shows will return and which ones will expand.  Will Randi Rhodes be back in prime time? How about Alex Jones? Can we expect an extra hour of Kevin Shannon perhaps?  If anybody knows, certainly no one is saying. It is perhaps one of the best kept programming secrets radio has known in many a year.

 

What is not a secret is the fact that KCAA's CEO wants people to talk. Period. He is sparing no expense to see that this happens.  Like any successful fast food restaurant, he has apparantly figured out that the best ones leave comment cards at the tables.  On KCAA's website, at KCAARADIO.com, Lundgren has long featured a guest comment page so that listeners can freely speak their mind concerning station programming policies and various hosts.  Lundgren also makes it a policy to personally respond to each and every person that writes in.  In recent days he has removed the comments of those claiming to be anonymous and who will not sign their name or indicate a city or a primary e-mail address.

 

For those that do not wish to identify themselves, and to those that do, Fred Lundgren has added a new Chatroom this week which can be accessed by going to the KCAA guest book and clicking where it says "Chatroom."  Recently, as a result of a lot of late night activity on the comment page, a chatroom was added with the idea that if this is what it's like late at night when KCAA is still a daytimer, imagine what people will want to get off their chest when they're actually able to listen in the all-night hours. How many other talkradio stations have figured this out, especially the ones owned by big media corporations?  That might be a good question to post in that chatroom.