The end of KFOG’s ten at ten Saturday morning marathon?

One of the bay area’s radio stations, KFOG, has a retrospective program called ten at 10. At 10 a.m. they play “ten great songs from one great year,” along with commercial jingles, sound bites from politicians or other cultural events, and clips from movies popular at the time. A little bit of nostalgic time travel in the midst of the daily hurly-burly. 

I first became a fan when I was a freelance book editor, back in the early 90’s. I had various tasks, some more demanding than others, so I’d take care of the stuff requiring concentration first, and save the easier stuff for 10 o’clock when I turned the program on.

They never pick a year in the preceding decade, and back when Dave Morey did the program he never picked a year earlier than 1967 (that I ever heard). So it was stuff circa 1983 and older. Good for me, in that I like the period from ’64 to ’73, as well as the new wave era, circa 1977 through the early 80s. When Morey retired, “Annalisa” took over and she will push it back a little earlier, circa 1966 or ’65, which is fun.

As I work 8-5 in an office now, I don’t listen during the week. But I used to turn on the Saturday morning marathon, when they’d play all five of the weekday shows back-to-back.  I cleaned the kitchen with ten at 10 on in the background, and would even check the web site to see the sequence of years they were playing, so I could have a year I really liked going while I loaded the dishwasher, cleaned bottles for my brewery, washed tupperware and scrubbed out pots and pans. It made a ho-hum task a lot more pleasant.

But I use the past tense for a reason. KFOG has stopped playing the Saturday morning ten @ 10 marathon! I’ve no idea why. Just shut it off on us cold turkey, man. One more example of life getting worse, ya know? Is it so much to ask that we keep one little thing making life a bit easier?

Is there a petition somewhere? A letter writing campaign to other radio stations telling them there is a ten at 10 void they might fill?

What was it, the 30- 40 minute block of time without current advertising? So stick in additional advertising segments rather than pulling the plug entirely, for cryin’ out loud.

Sigh.

On the bright side: another local radio station plays the Beatles every Saturday morning. So I’m filling the weekend morning gap with a lot of John, Paul, George and Ringo on 103.7, “the Band”. Take that, you unnamed Cumulus Radio exec who pulled the plug on my Saturday mornings!  I’ve gone over to the competition, baby.

And I’ve got a good mind to start buying the products they advertise, and to write letters to your advertisers explaining why I’m not buying their stuff, too …