Radio Stations

A crowd has formed around Y100's Preston Elliot on the lawn at the Tweeter Center. It's early afternoon, and he's taping radio interviews with some who arrived early for the daylong modern-rock Feztival. The confessions are flowing. He finds a firefighter who admits, sheepishly, to calling in sick to work. High school students, already partying, tell how they persuaded their moms to get them out of school on one of the last Fridays of the semester. Everybody has different bands they're looking forward to seeing.

Radio, more than any other electronic medium, has the endearing capacity to cement an emotional bond with a listener. The music, conversation, dialogue and personalities leave an indelible mark. When a broadcast facility sets out to accomplish specific goals and, in the process, breaks the trust between station and audience, listeners and viewers become justifiably upset. Yet change is the nature of broadcasting. Public radio hasn't significantly changed over the past 20 years, and that's a warning signal to both broadcasters and our audience that our contemporary relevance is in question.

Douglas "Jocko" Henderson, a slick-haired, silver-throated, legendary pioneer in Philadelphia and New York radio, died Saturday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania after a lengthy battle with cancer and diabetes. He was 82 and lived in Germantown for many years. Henderson, one of the first black disc jockeys in Philadelphia, was known for his rhythmic patter between songs. The trademark Jocko rap he sprouted at the beginning of his "Rocketship" radio show was so popular that kids recited it to keep time while jumping rope.

Shadow Traffic Network, the commuter's advisory on radio stations in Philadelphia and New York, is buying the traffic-reporting service in Chicago. Shadow's parent company, Shadow Communications Corp. of Philadelphia, today is scheduled to close on a deal to buy Lee Communications Inc. of Chicago, said A. Richard Marks, Shadow's president. The Shadow Network is heard on 50 radio stations in Philadelphia, 75 in the New York area and will be heard on 40 in Chicago and Indiana, Marks said.

Traffic jams? You want to talk traffic jams? Just ask Walt MacDonald, that 25-year airborne veteran of reporting the latest traffic tangle on the radio, to recall the worst of the worst. MacDonald, whose voice is better-known than many of Philadelphia's disc jockeys, won't have to think too hard - the massive midday clog during Jan. 22's snowstorm gets the regionwide gridlock award. "It was all over. . . . There were literally thousands of people who were stuck," said MacDonald, who clocks about 960 hours a year in a helicopter checking out traffic for the Shadow Traffic Network.

The body of radio and TV journalist A. Brahin Ahmaddiya, in traditional pine casket, is carried into a Janza prayer service at the Clara Muhammad School yesterday. Ahmaddiya, who was 57, died Sunday of a heart attack at his Delaware County home. HIs broadcast career included stints at KYW-TV (Channel 3), and radio stations WWDB, WDAS and WEEZ in Chester.

Add the Icelandic sextet Of Monsters and Men to that list of rock acts with a "Philadelphia story. " Joined by seventh musician Ragnhildur Gunnarsdóttir on trumpet, accordion, and keyboards, the cheerful Icelanders delivered an exultant 90-minute set at the Theatre of Living Arts on Tuesday. It was the first of two sold-out nights and their purposefully chosen live Philadelphia debut, coming on the release date of their keenly anticipated debut album, My Head Is an Animal. The Philly honor roll that Of Monsters and Men has now joined includes old regional faves such as Yes and Peter Frampton (both playing before 130,000 at a gate-crashed JFK Stadium gig in June '76)

Frank Kastner, 82, a classical music host and radio announcer for more than 50 years, died of heart failure Monday at Springfield Hospital in Delaware County. Since 1999, and as recently as the Friday before he died, Mr. Kastner was heard on the air at WRTI-FM (90.1), where he pinch-hit for the station's regularly scheduled classical music hosts. In 1949, he was the first announcer to sign on when WFLN-FM (95.7) went on the air as a classical music station, and in 1997, when the station went off the air, he hosted its last midnight shift.

BARRY BONDS is not a nice person. He took steroids, and he apparently lied about it. But he was only doing what baseball allowed him to. What a shame that the media has blown this out of proportion and is ruining his life. Please - someone write what really happened. Shake down baseball, not Barry Bonds. Burk FitzPatrick, Villanova The Philly radio derby I was angry that no Philadelphia-licensed radio station carried the radio broadcast of the Kentucky Derby.

Three executives in a now-defunct Philadelphia advertising company were indicted yesterday for allegedly bilking an Atlantic City casino by charging it for radio commercials that were never aired. The executives at Custom Marketing & Advertising told the Showboat Hotel & Casino that they had bought time for commercials on five Philadelphia radio stations. The three executives forged receipts saying that the ads had aired but never contacted the stations, according to the 12-count indictment by the state grand jury.