KROQ says goodbye

Karen S. Kim

MEDIA DISTRICT WEST -- After 15 years of commanding the airwaves from

the ninth story of 3500 W. Olive Ave. in Burbank, KROQ-FM (106.7) is

moving to Los Angeles on Friday.

“It’s not that we don’t love Burbank,” said Trip Reeb, general manager

of the station. “We certainly do, but this turned out to be the most

advantageous move from a financial standpoint.”

KROQ is bunking in with fellow station KRTH-FM (101.1), 5901 Venice

Blvd., in Los Angeles. Both stations are owned by New York-based Infinity

Broadcasting.

Listeners won’t experience any change in programming or service, since

airwaves will still be beamed to KROQ’s existing transmitter site in

Glendale, Reeb said.

But the move seems to have hit the station’s employees the hardest.

“I’m going to hate the commute,” said Jed the Fish, KROQ’s afternoon

disc jockey who lives in Pasadena. “I’m going to be hopelessly miserable.

I get off at 6 p.m., so there’s no way to be happy about that.

“I’m considering buying a second home in Los Angeles just to avoid it.

Maybe it’s just arrogance, but I’m so used to sitting here while

everybody else is in traffic.”

Reeb said leaving Burbank was going to have its disadvantages.

“One of the things you miss is the feeling that you are in the media

capital of the world here when you’re right in the middle of the studios

and all,” Reeb said.

But KROQ’s new facility has been remodeled with state-of-the-art

equipment in preparation for its arrival, a selling point for Jed the

Fish.

“I’m so thrilled about the studios,” he said. “Other studios in Los

Angeles are converted office buildings, but this will be the

best-equipped stand-alone radio station here.”

The on-air personality joked that the Burbank Fire Department would

probably be glad to see KROQ go.

“They won’t have to rescue our disc jockeys from the elevators

anymore,” Jed the Fish said, adding that a few times, nighttime disc

jockeys had gotten stuck downstairs after a smoke break. “They really

hated having to come over here in the middle of the night to rescue

someone who wasn’t supposed to have left the control room anyway.”