As a life-long fan of Country Music, and one who grew up in the S.F. Bay Area, imagine my surprise when I left home for a few years and came back only to find that this market no longer had a major Country Music radio station? For a few years, this was the case, as the major country stations in the area changed formats to urban or spanish music.
That all changed in 2007, when a new Country station called "The Wolf" debuted with a massive advertising campaign and a six-week long launch that featured nearly fifteen thousand songs without any commercials or dee jays. This is how new radio stations start out. They play continuous music for weeks and slowly start promoting who they are. This also happened in 2009 when popular Smooth Jazz station KKSF changed formats to Classic Rock.
Hearing non-stop Country Music was great. I quickly jumped on board, joining their listener club "The Wolfpack" and sending emails welcoming Country to the bay. I offered my own insights to Country Music and shared my memories of growing up with country giants like KSAN and KNEW and even KYA (when it became known as "Young Country"). I asked "The Wolf" to give us the music that we loved, take requests, bring country concerts back and always keep it country.
Apparently my emails went to their junk folder. They obviously did not listen to what I had to say. Shortly after the fanfare was over and the on-air personalities began appearing, I found I couldn't stand the format of this "new country" station. The dee jays were terrible and their shows were awful. The morning drive show quickly drove me back to Sarah and No Name (then Sarah and Vinnie). I even found myself listening to the dreadful Don Bleu over on Star 101. Finally I settled on the news and talk shows over on the AM dial.
When "The Wolf" filled the airwaves with this garbage that is about as far from Country Music as Neil Diamond is from Hip Hop, I knew there was something wrong and that I would not be part of it. This is also how I have felt about today's Country Music in general. It's not totally the Wolf's fault. They are simply a part of this massive effort from Nashville and the music industry to keep country relevant. The Nashville Sound has been replaced by corporate trash disguised as Country Music. The legends who built this music have been silenced in favor of teenagers and washed-up rock stars. I can rant about today's Country Music all day long. But this review is about "The Wolf".
Recently I was having a conversation with a good friend who has been a fan of "The Wolf" for a couple of years. She told me about the drama that was unfolding at the station over the departure of their morning drive team Ken and Corey. That show was replaced by show from Seattle called "Fitz In The Morning". The syndicated program is hosted by Cory "Fitz" Fitzner. This programming change at "The Wolf" had loyal listeners up in arms and in disbelief. Not only because their morning hosts had left, and were replaced by a show from another state. They were angry that one of the "co-hosts" from the prior program, Eddie King was relegated to doing traffic and weather reports. So she pleaded with me to listen to the station and let me know what I thought.
I gave "The Wolf" another try. This time it was worse than before. The Fitz show was neither here nor there for me. I find the guy a bit arrogant and unprofessional. He can't get through a segment without fumbling for words. During one of his "Fitzmas Wish" segments, he read a heartfelt letter that a listener sent in and then asked the listener what the letter was about. And don't get me started on the whole "Fitzmas" thing. A very bad play on words, AND a classic example of Fitzner's arrogance. I am not prepared to say that I think Eddie King should be given this station's morning show, but I think the idea of outsourcing your programming to a "sister station" is pathetic.
The problem with the programming at "The Wolf" is primarily that they don't play Country Music. They over play garbage from acts like Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban, and wear out songs by acts like Lady Antebellum and others who have found a home on a host of other non-country stations. They also don't play any music from country legends like Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Alabama, The Judds, etc. The dee jays are a group of hipsters who talk with echo effects and hip-hop background music that make me think I'm listening to a "top-40" or "urban" station. Those high energy beats and thumps are not meant for a country station.
But I've saved the worst for last. Forget about the morning show drama on this station. If Fitz fails to get your day off to a terrible start, the station's evening program will definitely give you nightmares. The real reason to never turn on "The Wolf" is Alan Kabel, host of "The 2nd Shift". This is another syndicated show that airs weeknights on "The Wolf". This guy is a total joke. Not a joker. A JOKE!! If you think a morning show piped in "live" from Seattle is bad for a local station. Try a night time show that is nationally syndicated and airs locally several hours after it was recorded "live".
The Alan Kabel show features plenty of phone calls and terrible bits that I guess are supposed to be funny, along with small doses of so-called Country. This "family friendly" program is better suited for Radio Disney. One night while driving home from work, I turned on his show and heard Kabel talking to an 11-year old girl who called-in, asking for Taylor Swift's phone number. He told her she would have to sing before he could consider it. After the girl made a fool of herself, Kabel delivered a punch line and moved on with the show. I was embarrassed for the girl, embarrassed for Kabel and "The Wolf", and I was embarrassed for myself.
You know...I remember circling the driveway, pulling up and turning down George Jones. Not only is that a line from Barbara Mandrell's song "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool", that was me, thirty years ago. And boy do I wish Country Music wasn't cool again. We used to hide the fact that we liked Country Music from our more hip friends. Today I still listen to rock and pop music. I just don't like pop in my country music. So I will go back to avoiding "The Wolf" and I know I'm not the only one. If this station doesn't get it's act together soon and start respecting the music that actually IS Country, Bay Area radio listeners will have another spanish or smooth jazz station at 95.7 on their FM dial.
UPDATE
In the two months since I wrote this review, KBWF and their parent company Entercom Communications have made a few changes. The Wolf (KBWF) has dropped "2nd Shift with Alan Kabel" from their line-up and replaced it with one of their local dee jays, Ali Wilder. While the music on the station still sucks (for the most part), Wilder is refreshing for a short car drive. The station continues to slip in the Arbitron ratings (currently 26th place). Entercom has sold their very successful (6th ranked) classical station KDFC, and replaced it on the dial with (gasp) ANOTHER classic rock station. It's anyone's guess why they would do this, but I suspect that it was a money grab.
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