August 02, 2007
Walton and Johnson move to 950 AM

I noted before that the unfunny duo of Walton and Johnson was to move from rock station 103.7 KIOL to talk radio station 950 AM KPRC. They make their debut next week.


They'll host the morning talk show 5:30-10 a.m. Mondays through Fridays.

The two began their new show Monday. They left KIOL on July 20.

At KIOL the duo provided talk programming in the midst of a hard-rock format. At KPRC, they join an all-talk format.


That makes them the second Wacky Morning DJ to make such a transition in recent days here, following in the footsteps of Sam Malone, who did double duty on KHMX and KTRH after he jumped ship at KRBE. Interestingly, Malone's turn as a KTRH yakker appears to be at an end, since he's not on their revamped lineup. I have to wonder how successful this kind of change is likely to be for the Wacky Morning DJ types. Will this be basically the same old schtick - with sidekicks and recurring characters and whatnot but without the occasional need to play music - or will they fully transition to Serious Talkers talking about Serious Topics in Serious Tones of Voice? Because if it's the latter, it seems to me you're taking a winning formula and throwing out much of what made it a winner. (If it's the former, then I guess KPRC is taking a bit of a chance with the talk radio format.) Will the yokels who used to listen to W&J on KIOL follow them to KPRC regardless? Will they fit in with KPRC's existing listener base? I guess we'll find out.

Not that I really care - I'd rather undergo root canal sans novocaine than listen to those morons - but I am curious about the result. I don't understand the logic behind the move, but you never know. HouStoned has more.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on August 02, 2007 to Music
Comments

They make their debut next week.

Umm, the format flipped Monday.

And W&J are still as unfunny and grating as they were last time they worked for Clear Channel (with no music now as a buffer).

Not that I really care

You must care a TEENY bit, given the amount of original writing you've done about the topic in this post! :)

Posted by: Kevin Whited on August 2, 2007 9:58 PM

Umm, the format flipped Monday.

Oops. I misread "began" as "begin". My bad.

You must care a TEENY bit, given the amount of original writing you've done about the topic in this post!

I am curious as to whether the concept of taking Wacky Morning DJs who happen to include politics as part of their schtick out of that environment and putting them in a straight-up political talk format can work. This was tried once with Sam Malone, and I can't see W&J being any better suited to the task, but who knows? So as far as that goes, guilty as charged.

I suppose I mean I don't care whether they succeed or fail, I just want to know what happens.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on August 2, 2007 11:10 PM