LA Radio Waves

Radio: September 8, 2023 Trends are funny. Funny in an interesting way, and often caused by forces not necessarily obvious. Such an example is top-40 radio, represented locally by KIIS (102.7 FM). The station that almost single-handedly brought the format back from its death in the early 1980s while hitting record high ratings for an FM station, is on hard times now. The July Nielsens had the station tied for 8th place with a 3.7 share of the audience … a far cry from the 10+ shares of the 1980s. But I am not here to bash KIIS. I am merely using it as an example of some trends that have come together, and perhaps help find a way out. First and foremost, the appeal of oldies cannot be denied. Out of the top-10 stations, fully six are either fully oldies-based or rely heavily on them in the music mix. KRTH (101.1 FM) KTWV (94.7 FM), My FM (KBIG, 104.3), KOST (103.5 FM) Jack (KCBS-FM, 93.1) and KLOS (95.5 FM) all predominantly play songs not released in the last year. KIIS is definitely not alone. Top-40, or Contemporary Hit Radio as it is called today. has taken a hit nationwide. As the format tends to attract younger listeners, the fact that many younger listeners are getting their music from streaming services and apps like TikTok, it seems to be the natural progression. Indeed, InsideMusicMedia’s Jerry Del Colliano has extensively covered the migration to and influence of streaming; a recent Billboard.com story spoke of TikTok’s appeal to young listeners; top-40 stations across the country have added more “gold” to their playlists; and the idea of playing music that is old but “new to you” has taken hold as an easy way to attract listeners. But it doesn’t work to attract younger listeners, thus top-40 as a format suffers. Yet the answer lies in the appeal of the very things that are supposedly killing radio. TikTok is exposing kids to music, new and old, from multiple genres. Streaming services use curators to find music that listeners may like, based upon the songs they play — and those they skip. Add in Sean Ross, who writes in RadioInsight.com that most people fondly remember their own top-40 listening days from “when top-40 played it all,” and you have the answer: play it all. Top-40 has always thrived when it played it all, and has always stagnated when it limited itself. You saw it happen with too much “bubblegum,” too much disco, too much country, too much of “the Miami sound,” too much grunge, and too much Hip-Hop. All of those eras had temporarily success, but ultimately led to ratings declines as listeners left for other stations. Yet when “they played it all,” such as the 1960s where you could hear The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Jefferson Airplane and Cream all on the same station, it just worked. Same for when Prince, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and Foreigner all shared space on the same station. Today KRTH is leading the ratings doing nothing more than playing the music that once played on KIIS … Naked Eyes, Wham, Soft Cell, Tears for Fears, Madonna, Depeche Mode and Outfield. That variety of music makes things interesting, and today’s teens especially are, according to research, more willing to listen to different genres right now than any other generation. Inside Music Media’s Del Colliano suggests that perhaps it is time to hire curators — locally, of course, so you can better match the audience — to find new music and present it. “Young audiences are more eclectic than baby boomers, Gen X or even older millennials - they mix genres,” he explains. They are “spellbound” when they find it, open to fresh musical styles, “and amazingly curious.” Radio is losing young people, he says in part because, aside from the commercial overload, “radio no longer breaks new music and acts.” Fix it by doing so, and become the influencers you used to be, Del Colliano advises programmers, instead of letting social media do it. Ross takes it a step further and blames, in part, the record companies for not even...

Radio Waves: September 1, 2023 Antenna Mania I recently had a chance to try out a really cool looking — at least in the opinion of some — antenna for my truck. The brand itself doesn’t matter much as these are all similar in design: flexible rubber with some sort of spiral wire inside to, as the description says, optimize reception for both AM and FM bands. Most modern cars and trucks have special antennas that barely stick out of the body, and rely on signal amplifiers to get good reception. And most do quite well, including the one on my son’s Chevy Cruze … that radio gets better reception than almost any car radio I’ve ever used. But my truck is a 1999 Silverado, with the old school antenna. The factory original sticking up 31 inches from the fender, it is optimized for FM frequencies but does quite well with AM too, including picking up the HD digital stream of KBRT (740 AM) from San Pedro. and occasionally getting the identification from KMZT (1260 AM) even though I can’t get the actual HD sound until I get closer. FM is similarly solid everywhere I drive. But I couldn’t help wondering if the mini flex antenna — a “new generation” with a carbon-fiber base covering, built-in copper wire, and “optimized AM/FM reception by nearly 40%,” whatever that actually means — could live up to the hype and at least match or even beat my factory install. Turns out, it couldn’t, and I realized that the 40% optimized reception means the reception is about 40% of what I used to receive with my original. Most people may not have noticed the difference in FM performance, but I have an HD radio head unit, and it likes a good clear signal. FM stations generally did come in well with little interference similar to the original, though a few stations were just missing, such as KFBG (100.7 FM) and KGB (101.1 FM), which usually come in decently due to the signal shooting straight up the coast from San Diego to San Pedro … at least on a clear day. But the HDs were hit and miss, with more reception problems than ever. Even Go Country (105.1 FM) had trouble locking in the HD stream, and that is usually one of the most reliable where I like. AM on the other hand, was an entirely disappointing experience. Static everywhere, even over flamethrower 50,000 watt powerhouse KFI (640 AM). KMZT could not even be heard, and mid-signal stations such as KLAC (570 AM), KABC (790 AM), and KHJ (930 AM) were essentially unlistenable. To prove it wasn’t just weather or atmospheric conditions on the test day, I put my factory antenna back on and all the reception problems cleared up. Immediately. I bring this up not to bash the manufacturer of the antenna I evaluated. Instead I want to highlight the fact that antenna design, including length and other aspects, is exceedingly important to good reception. AM likes an antenna as long as possible, FM seems to work well with — on a car at least — that 31 inches preciously mentioned. Something to do with wavelength as I recall — engineers, feel free to confirm or correct me. Newer cars usually use special small antennas are just that: antennas designed to work with the car’s construction and electronics to optimize reception. Home radios and stereos can suffer from the same issues, and reception there can often be improved for AM by rotating the radio or moving it away from other electronics to cancel out interference. For FM, if you can connect it to a house antenna just like most televisions used to be, you’ll hear stations from greater distances than ever before. Of course all of this is moot if you listen via apps. But that’s another column … Sound Science Another new toy I recently evaluated is a special little box that turns my normal iPhone’s Car Play wired system into wireless. Not an amazing must-have, mind you, but really a nice thing if you do have it. When I start up the truck, the phone connects automatically and starts playing whatever I was listening to last. Yesterday I was driving my dog...

Radio: August 11 Hearing Taylor Swift 24/7 wasn’t enough for you? You needed more? On the heals of Taylor 105.1 HD3, in which one of the HD radio streams tied to Go Country 105 plays nothing but Taylor Swift (you need a special HD radio to hear it; new cars often have them) came word that KIIS-FM joined the trend. Scheduled for August 3-9 — so depending on when you read this it may already be over — KIIS-FM became “SWFT-FM,” playing at least four Swift songs an hour. Last weekend included classic Taylor hits, Monday was Merch-Monday in which listeners could win official Swift memorabilia, Tuesday was Taylor TWOsday — back to back Swift songs — and much more. Even morning man Ryan Seacrest got into the act giving way a pair of tickets for the final show on August 9th. Not to be outdone, Alt 98.7 was doing an “anything but Swift” promotion. Different strokes. Stunting While 105.1 HD3 continues to play all Swift through the end of the month, rumors are circulating on what will happen when the stunt is done. I originally assumed that the format would revert to the Adult Standards format that focussed on Frank Sinatra and friends, but there is word on the street that something new night be coming. And you know what happens when one assumes. HD radio signals are a tough sell, as the reach is limited compared with regular FM signals, due to a far lower number of HD radios in the hands of consumers as well as reception problems — dropouts — when the signal isn’t pristine. That can often be made up by the use of smartphone apps and smart speakers … unfortunately adding more costs, such as music streaming license fees and costs associated with computers. As most HD signals have few to no commercials or sponsorships, it is most definitely a labor of love for owners who truly try to make a go of it. Could the right format combined with the right promotion make an HD stream at least break even, if not profitable? That’s your question of the week: If you could program an HD stream, such as 105.1 HD3, what would you put on it and why? For extra credit, how might you promote the station to not only attract listeners, but advertisers? In the meantime, I’ll keep an ear to the ground to see if a new format will indeed be replacing All-Taylor. Not Quite “In a significant change for Los Angeles radio listeners, KNX has stopped simulcasting its broadcasts on 1070 AM, a frequency it had occupied for over a century,” read the story posted at newsbreak.com. “The shift comes about a year and a half after KNX moved its main broadcast to 97.1 FM.” The story — no longer available on line — went on to state that listeners were shocked when they tuned in to 1070 AM and didn’t hear the normal news format. A reader of this very column sent me the posting; at first I just assumed that management made a decision that was, um, questionable. Most people I know still tune to KNX on the AM band due to its significantly stronger signal, even if the fidelity on most radios is not quite as good. “Stupid,” I responded. But then I tuned in to hear it for myself. Same news as always, an exact simulcast as has been happening for the past year. That’s odd… Soon KNX management responded directly to the story: “Hi there, Alex Silverman here, Director of News & Programming at KNX News,” said the social media post. “Just want to clarify: we have not ended the simulcast. KNX News is still on both 97.1 FM and 1070 AM in all hours except weekend mornings (Sat 6-11a and Sun 6-8a), when 1070 AM airs some paid and specialty programming. “This has been the case for more than a year, and there has been no change recently. During those hours the news is available on 97.1 FM as well as the Audacy app and by asking your smart speaker to 'play KNX News.’” So what happened? AI, or artificial intelligence that can be used to wrote stories. According to sources close to the subject, it was a story written primarily by artificial intelligence, and I will go out on a limb and...

Radio July 21, 2023 Billboard Magazine announced last week that — with her song “Karma” making it to #1 on the Pop Airplay chart — Taylor Swift has tied the record for the most number one songs by an artist in the history of the chart. “Karma” is her 11th #1 hit, and that record puts her in good company, tying with Maroon 5, Katy Perry, and Rihanna who all also had 11 Number 1s. Right below them is Justin Bieber with ten Number 1s. No other artists are in the double digits. Now, you may be asking how can that be? What about The Beatles? The Bee Gees? Michael Jackson? Elvis? Well, it’s not really a technicality, but it has to do with what the list actually measures and how old the list goes back. In this case it is a measure not of sales, but how many times the song has been played by major stations across the country … and it only goes back as far as October, 1992. If you investigate the actual number of times an artist hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the leader in indeed The Beatles, with 20 Number 1 hits; Mariah Carey is second on that list with 19. Where’s Elvis? Third, with 18. Small Town Radio Brian Winnekins is the owner of WRDN/Durand Wisconsin, one of the handful of AM AM stations across the country still utilizing the Motorola C-Quam stereo system, which means that most current radios can’t decode the stereo signal, but many from the 1980s and ‘90s still can. With the improvements and investments in equipment he (and those in similar situations) have made, his stations sounds remarkable on any decent radio — stereo or not. Durand is a small farming town, with a population of only about 1900 residents in the 2020 Census. But unlike some small town stations, Winnekins doesn’t take the easy way out by just putting on syndicated programming or political talk. Instead he takes his community service roll seriously, and presents extensive agricultural news and information, local high school athletic games, local news, local events, and local weather. Oh, and country music. Note the word local. Back to that soon. Recently, Winnekins posted information on Facebook regarding the station’s Summer programming special: “Doing the community service thing from our first fair of season,” he wrote. “Yes we do live video streams of livestock shows. Don't laugh, we have 17 sponsors.” Seventeen sponsors, in a town of fewer than 2000 residents, not counting the cattle. On a station that is on the band that some say is dead. How can that be? Back to the word “local.” It is so key to connecting with your audience — and advertisers. That focus on the local audience is what makes the difference. An active audience that can then be reached by local advertisers who have no other easy way to reach their target customers. But certainly you could not do that in Southern California. Really? Why not? There used to be local stations … in fact all the stations used to be local in some sense. But the move to become “bigger” can hurt when you can’t compete against the big boys with, for example, a limited signal. Or even just a limited budget. The solution? Program local. The original setup of many stations was designed to be locally-focussed. As some stations grew, they became dominant, of course. But there was still room for stations serving a local audience. KGIL (now KMZT, 1260 AM) was designed and originally programmed for the San Fernando Valley. KEZY (now KGBN, 1190 AM) was for Anaheim. KFOX (now KDAY, 93.1 FM) was for Redondo Beach. How about a station actually programming to the local community, whatever that community may be? San Pedro … Wilmington … Huntington Park … Hermosa Beach… Fountain Valley… You get the idea. If I was a local business owner, I could probably never afford to buy advertising time on KIIS-FM (102.7), and it would probably not be worth it even if I could. But if I could advertise on a station targeting my local community, it might be the best marketing investment I could make. So as we continue the...

Radio Waves: June 30, 2023 Remembering John Felz John Felz began his radio career in 1971, working in the mail room of KMPC (now KSPN, 710 AM). In the small-world department, one of his colleagues in the mail room was future KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM) newscaster and personality Pat “Paraquat” Kelley, whose father Bob Kelley was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Rams. After a time, Felz was moved to the newsroom as an assistant, supporting the newsroom staff by sorting and compiling stories that came across the teletype machines from the various news services of the time, including the Associated Press and United Press International. His duties also included writing sports and weather reports for the news anchors and station personalities such as Dick Whittinghill, Ira Cook, Johnny Grant, Gary Owens, Geoff Edwards, Johnny Magnus, Wink Martindale and Robert W. Morgan. Eventually he expanded into more programming elements both within the station and as part of the Golden West Broadcasters Radio Network — Golden West owned KMPC and the station was its flagship — which carried games for the California Angels, the Rams, and UCLA football and basketball. Felz was in charge of producing in-studio and in-stadium broadcasts for the network affiliates. He moved on — and up — to hold positions in management, including Operations Director, Assistant Programmer, and producer for the morning show. He left KMPC in 1995 and worked at a few stations, notably KRTH (101.1 FM), KIEV (now KRLA, 870 AM), and the Music of Your Life Radio Network. Felz passed away on June 11th at the age of 78; no details on the cause of his death were released but friends say he had been having a series of health complications that most likely played a role. Friends and family will gather for a remembrance of his life on July 1st in Sherman Oaks. Bebop Deluxe No, not the band. After a year of preparations, KKJZ (88.1 FM) has launched a full-time bebop jazz sub-station, which can be heard online (look for the special button at jazzandblues.org) or on a digital HD radio tuner on 88.1 HD2. While I am certainly not an expert, I do know that bebop is a style of jazz music that is generally fast-tempo, uses many chord changes and even key changes … and a lot of improvisation. This came about due to a younger generation of jazz musicians pushing the creative boundaries of the genre in the early to mid 1940s. Unlike much of the music of the time, bebop was not intended as being danceable; instead it was to be heard. Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis are among the influential bebop artists and composers. Station consultant Saul Levine says that the music is being compiled by the KKJZ staff, directed by Jose Rizo. “We are fulfilling a need for jazz lovers, and we thank the California State University, Long Beach — owner of the station — for its support of our efforts.” “We are doing this in honor if Chuck Miles and the great bebop music of the past.” he said. Hayes Out The rumors proved to be true … I had heard rumors from absolutely reliable sources that KABC (790 AM) programmer and market manager Drew Hayes had parted ways with the station and owner Cumulus Media, but I could not get confirmation from any of the players involved. Turns out the rumors were true. AllAccess.Com confirmed that Hayes left the station in earlier June after many years with the station … this being his second stint. Hayes has extensive experience in the format and in radio, having worked at WLS/Chicago, ESPN Radio, and KABC itself the last ten years in addition to his first time at the helm back in the late 1990s. Where this takes the station is unknown. It has been years since KABC has been any type of force in the market, and conditions have gotten worse as owner Cumulus continues to shed costs .. and stations. I cannot even remember the last time I saw an ad for KABC … the last one I can remember featured Ken (Minyard) and Bob (Arthur) … meaning it was...

Radio: June 2, 2023 Whether it was the threat of legislative action that would require it, or just a reaction to simple lobbying by government officials, listeners and buyers alike, Ford announced that it has reversed its decision to remove AM radio capabilities from some gas-powered vehicles in 2024 and through a software update will add the ability to receive AM in its 2023 electric vehicles. One of the arguments for maintaining the ability to receive AM signals has to do with safety - the Emergency Alert System often relies on AM stations to spread news and information in the case of an emergency — KFI (640 AM) is the key link locally, for example — and the long-distance reception that AM transmissions offer can get news to distant rural areas with ease. It is honestly a compelling argument; while cell-phone notifications can also be used in emergencies, the cellular network relies on cell towers and internet connections, which are not nearly as universal or robust as AM transmissions. The notice was made by Ford CEO Jim Farley via social media posts, writing in Twitter, “After speaking with policy leaders about the importance of AM broadcast radio as a part of the emergency alert system, we've decided to include it on all 2024 Ford & LincolnMotorCo vehicles. For any owners of Ford EVs without AM broadcast capability, we’ll offer a software update.” Notice the year: 2024. Nothing is stated on any year further ahead, so the battle may not necessarily be over. And obviously Ford’s decision doesn’t affect the operations of other companies with what I consider bad engineering departments — those that can’t figure out how to eliminate interference from their electric vehicles even though it doesn’t seem to be an issue with the likes of General Motors, Toyota, and now, of course Ford. Yes, BMW, Volvo, Volkswagen, Tesla, Rivian and Mazda — all of which have already or plan to remove AM from the dashboard — I just outed your lack of basic engineering expertise. Convince me otherwise. So the legislative action continues and may indeed require AM reception in all vehicles in the future, similar to how television sets were required to offer UHF tuners starting in the 1960s. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that if more AM stations offered compelling programming and maintained their signals better, we wouldn’t be having this discussion at all. But you already know my position on that. Perhaps the renewed focus on AM will help start some programming momentum. Cheers and Jeers More on your radio loves and tune-outs: “My wife and I enjoy listening to the radio during the day. What we dislike is hearing the same five songs (on every channel) over and over every day and usually at the exact same times, when there is such a wealth of good oldies music available from the 50's, 60s, and 70s. Thank you for asking” — Tony Elia, Mission Viejo “My comment on news radio stations, particularly morning KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM), is that they read the news too fast and don't use proper nouns much. They usually say the proper noun of a city or person at the beginning of the story but from then on it's just: city or he or she. Sometimes I miss the proper name and don't know the location or who the story is referring to. Also, an introductory phrase between stories would help - sometimes I'm still trying to digest a story when they quickly read the next one without warning. “What I like: the three minutes of CBS news on the hour on KNX as well as the in-depth reporting, the Jerry Sharell show on KJAZZ (88.1 FM), and Rich on Tech on KFI (640 AM).” — Clive Soden “I love the Kevin and Sluggo Show on KLOS (95.5 FM) 3-7 PM. There are different daily segments like a funny or weird current news event, including audio, usually a human fail story. They have listeners call in with their responses to the daily topic; ie what is a tattoo you regret getting? There is a daily top ten list such as top-10 Easter candy sold. Then Kevin tries to guess at least...

Guest: Dave Beasing Radio Waves: May 12, 2023 Who do you love? Last week I spoke of an article from Inside Music Media’s Jerry Del Colliano in which he made a list of easily-fixed programming elements that turn listeners off. In case you missed it and want to take part, I am asking for your “things” … what would cause you to tune to another station or even turn off the radio completely. Before I follow up, though, I wanted to put together a list of things I like about radio. Scratch that – things I love. What keeps me going back to the radio every day? You can join in this as well. Without further ado: I love The Woody Show. Airing on Alt 98.7 FM weekday mornings from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. (kind of … they definitely repeat segments), the program has been a huge hit for the station … and for good reason. Starring Jeff “Woody” Fife, (Renae) Ravey, Sebastian “SeaBass” Davis, Greg Gory, Jason “Menace” McMurry, and Sammi Moreno, the show bills itself as “insensitivity training for a politically correct world.” I’d call it more of a gathering place to hang out with friends. Yes, at times, they get a little raunchy. But usually it’s good clean fun. They make fun of bad behavior, call people on their stupidity, and in general bring listeners in on their party every morning. I appreciate that, unlike some shows of the past, they are professional broadcasters as well, intelligent, quick-witted and extraordinary funny and entertaining. Ravey’s laugh is infectious. Bits and contests are well-designed, and include DUIQ, wherein listeners try to guess if a drunk partier can answer a simple trivia question, stories on stupid criminals, “redneck” news and occasional interviews. I include The Woody Show in the list of all-time best morning shows; the program has aired locally since April 21, 2014. I love Booker and Stryker, also on Alt 98.7 FM. Chris Booker and Ted Stryker got together just over a year ago — February, 2022 — but the flow of the show and the chemistry between the two makes it seem like they have been together forever. Like Woody mornings, they quickly become your friends and make the afternoon drive pass much faster … to the point where you don’t even want to get out of the car. Or leave work. Or whatever. As long as the show is on the air, I don’t care what I am doing; I even listen on my bike ride home from work. The two wouldn’t hurt a fly; this is one program where all ages can listen. I love Go Country 105 FM. Country music purists will disagree, but I really like modern country music … it reminds me of top-40 music of the past – songs you can sing along with in which the artists (or the country version of The Wrecking Crew, if one exists) still play real instruments. DJs are good, the commercial load is not ridiculous, and the station is locally owned by a guy who loves dogs and helps facilitate pet adoptions. What more do you want in a music station? I love KFI (640 AM). I don’t necessarily listen to every show, but they tend to be entertaining with a variety of topics. But what I really like is the news department – KFI news has always been top-notch, and the long history of good reporting continues today. Without question, KFI produces the best local newscast heard on the local commercial airwaves. Yes, better than KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM). I love the stations that go the extra mile to produce content for niche audiences. For example, you do have to use streaming or an HD radio, but the fact that Saul Levine uses Go Country’s signal to digitally send out classical music, 50s, ‘60s and ‘70s oldies, and adult standards focussing on Frank Sinatra and his friends — commercial-free, no less — does not go unnoticed. He does it because he wants to serve an audience that others ignore, and knows that it will never bring in much in the form of revenue. Levine just loves the art of radio. Local ownership at its best. And finally, I love that so many stations both locally and nationally stream their programming on apps...

All Day, Every Day: American Top 40 I’ve never been a fan of the iHeart Radio app you can download to your smartphone. I always thought it too cumbersome to use compared to alternatives, and I don’t like the way iHeart restricts its own stations to its own app rather than allowing them to be available on other apps as well. If iHeart really believed in the app, why do they not let it compete on an even playing field? But I broke down and started using it recently. Keep in mind I still don’t actually like it, but there is a reason to use it … American Top 40. Yes, the very same AT40 you can find on SiriusXM channels 7 — for the 1970s version — Saturdays at 3 a.m. and 9 a.m., Sundays at 6 a.m.; or our own semi-local KOLA (99.9 FM) which airs the ‘80s version Saturdays at 5 a.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. But what if you want to totally live in the past and listen to nothing but AT40, the countdown show hosted by former original KRLA (now KRDC, 1110 AM) personality Casey Kasem, launched on July 4th, 1970 on but a handful of stations, and eventually heard on stations around the globe as the most popular countdown show … ever? If that’s you, the iHeart Radio app — or iHeart.com on a computer — has you covered. A special channel called Classic American Top 40 plays old AT40 countdowns continuously. The ‘70s followed by the ‘80s followed by the ‘70s, etc. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As I write this they are just starting a replay from 1983 after the completion of a week from 1973. Audio heaven, for those who grew up listening to the classic program … and a major reason to use the iHeart app. Ryan Seacrest, by the way, hosts the current version of AT40 heard locally on KIIS-FM (102.7), starting at 6 a.m. Saturdays, 8 a.m. Sundays. Billboard Controversy Was the top song for at least one week of mid-July, 1978 not really the top song? Was there behind the scenes shenanigans? It wasn’t a problem with AT40 directly, but what AT40 used as the basis for the countdown list: Billboard Magazine. I read about this first on (I believe) the AT40 fan page of Facebook. The story goes that Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street should have been the number one song on the Billboard charts in the second half of July, 1978, but that pressure to keep Andy Gibb’s Shadow Dancing at the top spot won out. Here’s what I found at https://djrobblog.com/archives/6222: “Among the many tales of “Baker Street’s” undying legacy is the one involving a bit of chart shenanigans that may have robbed Rafferty of ascending to that coveted No. 1 spot. “As reported in several publications since, legend has it that in one of its final weeks at No. 2 in July 1978, Billboard had actually calculated “Baker Street” to be No. 1. At the time, Billboard’s charts were based on phoned-in radio station lists and record store reports, which staffers or computers would then compile, before the advent of more modern and accurate airplay and sales tracking technology in the early 1990s. Apparently, Gibb threatened to back out of a show being sponsored by Billboard if his song didn’t remain number one, said show being the pet project of then-chart manager Bill Wardlow. “It was alleged that Wardlow had a change of heart about the No. 1 position after having dined with Andy Gibb’s management on the night the chart was compiled. The story goes that Wardlow casually mentioned over dinner that Gibb’s tune had been displaced by Rafferty’s – much to RSO Records’ displeasure.” So Billboard issued a “correction,” apparently forcing American Top-40 to re-record the ending of the how, without the new number one song. Baker Street remained stalled at the number two slot on Billboard, though other sources did indeed put it at the top, such as including Cash Box which had it there on July 15, 1978. It is said that Baker Street is one of the all-time most beloved number two hits; the incident proves the power that top-40 radio once held over American culture. And as former newsman Paul...

Radio: April 21, 2023 InsideMusicMedia.Com’s Jerry Del Colliano posted a column on March 31 that — like many of his columns — could have been written by me. Great minds think alike, you know. Entitled The AM Station That Defies Failure, it tells the story of WABC/New York and the success it has had since being bought by a local owner from Cumulus. WABC is much like numerous AM stations across the country. Powerhouse top-40 format leaders in the 1960s and ‘70s, they lost their way when large corporate owners couldn’t figure out what to do with them. They dropped music, sometimes found temporary success with political talk, and then floundered once programmers focused more on their FMs. Weird how a neglected station would lose listeners. Anyway, for all intents and purposes, WABC was a failure in 2019 when Cumulus Media, owner of KABC (790 AM) here in Los Angeles, sold the station to a 74-year-old New York businessman named John Catsimatidis, Jr. — a guy with no radio experience other than being a radio fan. Catsimatidis then did what some think is impossible: brought a dead radio station back to life. How? He made it local. He served his local audience. He wasn’t afraid to embrace older listeners, and he started super-serving those willing to tune in. And tune in they did. The station has been above a 3.0 share for at least the last six months, and has had a 3.9 share the last two months. It is the top-rated AM station in New York. Under previous ownership, it had fallen to the mid to upper 1s. Could other stations learn from the recent success? Yes … more than that: the entire industry could learn from its success. The formula is so simple, it’s almost as if stations of the past could help with the lesson. In fact, that’s pretty much all Catsimatidis did … look at what made previous stations “tick,” and applied it to his new toy. WABC found an audience that was being underserved, then designed a format that would appeal to that audience, in this case an eclectic mix of talk, news, and music. Yes, music … on AM. Weird. Cousin Brucie, a legendary WABC disc jockey, plays oldies on weekends. The station runs its old iconic jingles. News coverage focusses on the local area. The talk hosts are mostly local, including former mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Rush Limbaugh producer Bo Snerdley, and a founding member of the Guardian Angels, Curtis Sliwa. Catsimatidis even has his own show, hosted by himself and local broadcaster Rita Cosby. While it is impressive that Catsimatidis took a failing station and made it successful, he is not alone. I’ve written about the success of stations such as WION/Ionia, Michigan and WRDN/Durand, Wisconsin. What all three and others like them have in common is local owners who care enough to program to their local audience and not rely on cheap syndicated programming. This approach benefits not only the stations and listeners, but local businesses that can advertise to reach an audience otherwise hard to find. That Catsimatidis does it in New York City, arguably one of the toughest markets in the United States, makes it even more impressive …. and in my opinion, frankly, embarrassing to owners like Audacy that has gone so far as to just shut down some of its AM stations. This lesson isn’t just for AM, though. FM stations definitely can use more local content , and in the cases in which the local audience is super-served, the results are impressive. Local content is the one thing that Spotify, Apple Music, or any other streaming service simply can’t match. Fight for the Dashboard On the heal of the news that engineers at Ford are as lazy or incompetent as those at BMW, Mazda, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo due to the decision to remove AM radio from their future automobile offerings — because unlike every other company they are unable to deal with interference — comes news that GM has decided to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support from future EVs. While I hate that AM...

SPECIAL Podcast: We are re-publishing our career spanning interview with the multi-talented Ken Levine - who is featured in Richard's column this week. The Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters/Hollywood Media Professionals played host to a special “Coffee With …” interview as Master of Ceremonies and interviewer Chuck Street spent two hours talking with Ken Levine. You may not know the name Ken Levine when it comes to radio, though he did use his real name on KFI (640 AM) in the 1980s. But he was a young, up-and-coming top-40 radio star known as Beaver Cleaver on Ten Q (KTNQ, 1020 AM) here in Los Angeles and on the great B-100 (KFMB-FM — now KFBG, 100.7 FM) in San Diego, among other stations. Why Beaver Cleaver, the name of the character on the old “Leave It to Beaver” TV series? It was catchy and helped him stand out much more than the name he used previously, Ken Stevens. Outside of radio, Levine is a highly-respected writer, producer, and director in the television and film industries, an accomplished playwright, and even a play-by-play announcer for Major League Baseball. His numerous credits include television programs “M*A*S*H,” “Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Wings,” “The Simpsons,” “Almost Perfect,” “Everybody Loves Raymond” and more; he has co-written feature films, and more recently has written and produced short plays acted live over Zoom. His baseball work includes stints with the Baltimore Orioles, the Seattle Mariners, and the San Diego Padres, and he spent a few years as co-host of Dodger Talk, the call-in program that followed every Dodger Game on the radio. And just to show that he can do just about anything, he is also an accomplished cartoonist, with his work appearing in the prestigious New Yorker magazine. In his spare time(?), he writes a blog and produces a thoroughly entertaining podcast … go to kenlevine.blogspot.com and hollywoodandlevine.libsyn.com/ Honestly, I have no idea how he manages to find time for all of his interests, let alone all the differing careers all the while being a loyal husband and family man. But the two-hour coffee interview just wasn’t enough … as many in the audience could attest, it was among the fastest two hours on record. Levine tends to downplay his accomplishments in radio, stating that his voice is “too squeaky” compared to his many heroes and contemporaries. I disagree, but regardless, he more than made up for any perceived personal deficiency with a quick wit, biting sarcasm, creative double entendres, and much more. This all came out anew during his interview, with such radio-related stories as: • Trying to get fired at KMEN/San Bernardino (now KKDD, 1290 AM). Management wanted him back in the overnight shift; he asked to be fired instead. They refused, so he stopped by the record store to buy a special album to play. “Radio stations were getting hip and playing album cuts more and more, so this idea was perfect.” The album he purchased to play in its entirety? “Fiddler on the Roof,” he said. “In Yiddish … I was fired before ‘Anatevka’ finished playing.” • Convincing the General Manager of WLS/Chicago — at the time one of the most popular radio stations in the country — to put him on the air during the overnight shift leading into Thanksgiving Day. Who was the GM? His father. “My Dad,” Levine explains, “left a memo stating that ‘My son will be doing the all-night show.’ No word on who I was or my experience on the air.” The guy on the air immediately before Levine’s shift had no idea who he was, so Levine pretended to be entirely clueless. “Wow, what are all these buttons,” he remembers asking the other DJ. By the time his shift was up, the other DJ was convinced this was going to be bad and was scared to leave the station in the hands of an amateur. “He was just freaking out,” Levine says. Finally, when the time came, the DJ watched as Levine leaned into the microphone, played the top-of-the-hour jingle, and opened his show with “This is Ken Levine; I’ve been on the...

Radio: March 24, 2023 It is time to admit: executives of the major radio corporations - Audacy, iHeart, and Cumulus, primarily - have no faith in the future of the industry they control. There is no fighting from them against automakers who are removing AM from the dashboard of new cars, and the potential future removal of FM. There is no marketing plan to attract listeners to their stations, and hasn’t been for years. And they don’t even pretend to try to attract younger listeners, the lifeblood of the future. You need proof? Remember KROQ (106.7 FM)? You know, the station that knocked KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM) totally out of the album rock format by beating it to the punch playing new bands and new artists, just as KMET had done years before … before they got too successful and, one might argue, lazy. KROQ became the “Roq of the ‘80s,” and earned a reputation of being the place to go for new music. That was a long time ago, though. Now KROQ is basically an oldies outlet playing music primarily from decades back. Need proof? Here are two sample hours taken from the 3-5 p.m. shift on a random day about a week ago. Now remember, this is afternoon drive, which is one of the dayparts that would in the past have been programmed to young people just getting out of high school or college classes for the day, not the mid-day hours where more oldies might be found: 3-4 p.m.: Toxicity (System of a Down), from 2001; Bad Dreams (Cannons), 2001; Basket Case (Green Day), 1994; Somebody Told Me (Killers), 2004; Time to Pretend (MGMT), 2007; Welcome to the Black Parade (My Chemical Romance), 2006; Landslide (Smashing Pumpkins); 2001; Bones (Imagine Dragons), 2022; Kryptonite (3 Doors Down), 2000; Africa (Weezer), 2018 4-5 p.m.: Tighten Up (Black Keys), 2010; Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode), 1989; Uprising (Muse), 2009; Clint Eastwood (Gorillaz), 2001; The Boys of Summer (The Ataris), 2022; Black Summer (Red Hot Chili Peppers), 2022; Friday I’m in Love (The Cure), 1992; Sex, Drugs, Etc. (Beach Weather), re-released but originally from 2016; In Bloom (Nirvana ); 1992, Jumper (Third Eye Blind), 1997 There was a time that KROQ would not even go back more than a year or two, all music being new and current. In fact, most stations popular with young adults did so, including KHJ (930 AM) when they played top-40, KIIS-FM (102.7) of the 1980s, and even, yes, KMET. That in two hours, KROQ only played five songs released or re-released in the past two-three years is, frankly, surprising even to me. But there it is. There’s hope, though, right? LA’s New Alternative (using that slogan for the past decade at least) Alt 98.7 must be playing new music, right? Think again. Another recent afternoon: 3-4 p.m.: Fat Lip (Sum 41), 2001; Dissolve (Absofacto), 2017; Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day), 2004; Lovefool (The Cardigans), 1996; Just Like Heaven (The Cure), 1987; The Kill (Thirty Seconds to Mars), 2005 4-5 p.m. Lost (Linkin Park), re-released but originally from 2003; Doin’ Time (Lana Del Rey), 2019; Dreams (The Cranberries), 1993; I write Sins Not Tragedies (Panic! At the Disco), 2005; Friday I’m in Love (The Cure), 1992; Bad Dreams (Cannons), 2021; Come as You Are (Nirvana), 1991. That’s two songs from the past three years or so. Any wonder why young people use Spotify for “radio” and in fact call it “radio?” That’s where they find new music. Now keep in mind that I am most definitely not commenting on the music itself, most of which I personally like. That’s not my point. My point is that if you can’t rely on KROQ or Alt to play new music, what station can you count on? KRTH (101.1 FM)? I didn’t check, but I’d bet they aren’t that much different year-wise … and at least they admit it! What to do? Legend has it that FM progressive rock radio got its start when Tom Donahue made telephone calls to local stations. Those that had disconnected phones due to non-payment — remember that everyone listened to AM at the time, and few people...

A VERY SPECIAL "Radio Waves": Join Richard and Mike for an interview with two of Emmis Communications' top execs - CEO and founder Jeff Smulyan and President of Programming Rick Cummings. In the full podcast, we discuss a variety of "radio" topics, Jeff's new book titled "Never Ride A Roller Coaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur" and they give us their thoughts on the future of the radio business. Radio Waves: March 10, 2023 Austin’s SXSW Radio Day Concert on The SoCal Sound There is a huge music, film and television festival happening March 10 through the 19th in Austin, Texas: SXSW 2023. Festival organizers describe it as “an essential destination for global professionals,” featuring “conference sessions, film and TV festival screenings, music festival showcases … and much more.” Music festivals are held with various themes Monday through Saturday; Thursday March 16th is dedicated as Radio Day, and our own “So Cal Sound” (88.5 FM) will carry that day’s concerts live beginning at 10 a.m. Each artist will perform for an hour, beginning with Bailen at 10:00, followed by Blondshell, Sunny War, Ron Gallo, Girl Scout, and Katie Toupin. Can’t get the station clearly on your radio? It’s on smart speakers, all the smartphone apps as well as online, at thesocalsound.org. Fighting Back Radio in the dashboard of cars has become a battle ground between auto manufacturers and radio station owners. Not just for AM, which is being pushed out due supposedly to interference from electric car internal electronics, but potentially FM as well as carmakers look to push subscription services that allow radio apps receiving stations over the internet rather than the traditional airwaves. The thinking is that if AM can easily be pushed out and replaced by apps, then by extension FM can be removed easily as the same apps can receive FM station streams as easily as they receive AM streams. The problem for radio stations is two-fold: people may not bother getting the apps, especially if they are difficult to use or the access to use them costs extra, and there are extra costs to stations running streams, including music licensing fees. So some station owners are beginning to fight back. A recent article in industry engineering newspaper Radio World highlighted the perspectives of Tom King, of Kintronics Labs — an expert on AM transmission and noise interference, Saul Levine, owner of K-Mozart (1260 AM) and Go Country (105.1 FM), Don Elliot, owner of Schwab Multimedia. Essentially the consensus among the three is that interference concerns are overblown, that there are easy fixes including special antenna setups, and that many electric cars do indeed have reliable AM radio reception without issue. Who benefits from the removal of AM from cars, Elliot asks? Certainly not listeners. In a related move, broadcaster Neal Ardman has announced an initiative to force electric vehicle manufacturers to stop causing interference to the AM band, a problem I eluded to in a previous column. In a nutshell, if EVs cause enough interference to cause in-car reception problems, they are potentially creating interference outside the car as well … which is illegal. Broadcasting stations, including radio and television, is a protected medium in part because of its use in emergency situations. And AM stations in particular are often the hub of the emergency alert system. And that brings up an important issue, as Ardman stated in a press release announcing his initiative: “EVs don’t just cause noise to the radios built into the EV they also cause harmful interference to the cars that are nearby.” Adrian told Radio World that he hopes to work out an agreement without going to court, but that if a lawsuit is needed to protect the AM band from this interference, “we will do just that.” Mail Bag “I liked your article today where you mention ‘The Woody Show.’ “Another fun morning show is on KRTH 101 with Gary Bryan, Lisa Stanley...

Radio: February 17, 2023 Last October, Adult Album rocker 88-5 … aka The SoCal Sound (KCSN/KSBR, 88.5 FM) … ruffled a few feathers by moving specialty programming out of “prime” hours, described as Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 7p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. General Manager Patrick Osburn stated emphatically at the time that all hosts were offered new slots and no shows were outright canceled, but that not everyone wanted to make the move and some hosts decoded to hang it up. This prompted numerous emails and letters at the time, and some observers wondered if it made a difference in support and donations to the stations, with the thinking being that listeners of specialty programming are more likely financially support a public radio station. So I reached out to Osburn and asked directly … was there any fallout? His response is that it was basically a wash: “For several weeks I got a lot of hate mail and resentful notes that missed the Beatles show, and others,” he explained. “I made a big effort to explain, placate them, and even compromise. In the end, I generally stuck to the plan for the good of the future of the station. “Over a few weeks, the number of letters decreased. Nothing for a few weeks, then back to notes and donations” Osburn insists that the move was needed to help ensure the longterm visibility of the station, explaining, “our goal to evolve for the next 10 years is working, and the previous donations are being replaced by the new. In short, it’s a push, but we are well set up for the future.” The Real Threat Radio engineering newspaper Radio World recently ran a story on what the writer feels is the real threat to radio longterm: subscriptions. Not to the stations or content providers, but to auto manufacturers who want to expand monthly payments to include in-dash entertainment services. A couple throwaway lines in the story written by InsideMusicMedia.Com’s Jerry Del Colianno, namely that electromagnetic fields in electric cars make AM radio virtually unlistenable and that manufacturers claim that AM radio drains batteries in electric vehicles prompted letter reply from a Radio World reader that succinctly states what I have been saying for years: Those companies using interference as an excuse for removing AM are basically lazy … or worse, just bad. Writes Broadcast Engineer Jeremy Burnham (bit.ly/3HSHkgu), “The article states, 'Fact: electromagnetic fields generated in non-gasoline engines make AM virtually unlistenable.’ Apparently Chrysler found a way around this issue because my 2021 Pacifica EV has a radio that receives AM just fine. I can even do some DXing (long distance listening) with it at night. If Chrysler can build a necessary filter, so could other automakers. “The article goes on saying that manufacturers claim: ‘AM radio drains the batteries of their electric vehicles.’ Really? Quick, get me an ammeter; I need to see for myself that the radio draws excessive current while tuned to 570 AM but not for 102.7 FM or Willy’s Roadhouse on satellite radio.” Could they both be right? Yes, absolutely. It would not surprise me one bit if automakers wanted to expand a subscription base launched with in-car internet services, or going back further, services like On-Star. And if the companies can use the excuse that it is “too hard” for regular radio reception as a way to remove AM and/or FM from the dash of future models, then subscriptions will — perhaps — increase. But it is true that with correct shielding and a good antenna, reception of both AM and FM in electric vehicles is absolutely possible. GM, Toyota, Chrysler and others have proven it. And if the electronics and motors produced so much interference that it negatively affected reception in the car, it is likely that the cars themselves are interfering with others on the road, or even at homes and businesses nearby. Which means, basically, the cars themselves are operating illegally. It is up to the...

Radio: February 10, 2023 The holiday ratings period - representing roughly the last four weeks of the year - were kind once again to KOST (103.5 FM), which dominated the local ratings by playing holiday music. Earning a 13.1 share of the audience , KOST earned almost three times the rating (2.79 times actually, rounded off) held by second place KRTH’s (101.1 FM) 4.7 share. Interestingly, though, the rating was a little lower than last year at the same time, when KOST earned a 13.4 share, and down even more from 2020’s 13.9. I wouldn’t read anything into that … many things are at work, not the least of which is the fact that people were allowed to leave their homes more freely, unlike the past two years. Still - interesting. Also interesting: Go Country’s switch to holiday music didn’t seem to make a dent one way or another, with the station earning a 2.5 … about what it earns normally. KFI (640 AM) was 3rd with a 4.4, followed by KLVE (107.5 FM) at 4.2 and My FM KBIG (104.3) at 3.9. Moving down the list a bit, the competition of Alt 98.7 and KROQ (106.7 FM) found the stations closer together than they have been in a while, which Alt earning a 15th place 2.3 share and KROQ tied with KPCC (89.3 FM) for 19th at 2.0 KLOS (95.5 FM) fell a little, to 2.5 from December’s 2.9 and the 3.0 share it held in September, October and November. This gave Jack-FM KCBS (93.1) a chance to take back the classic rock lead even though it was flat from December’s 2.8. The problem for Jack is that back in August, it had a 3.9 share, and other than in November, the trend has been down. It should be interesting to see what happens the first half of this year. KLOS sister station Power 106 (KPWR, 105.9 FM) is still struggling. In spite of an excellent signal, it continues to languish far below closest competitor KIIS-FM (102.7), with a 23rd place 1.6 share against KIIS’s 7th place 3.0. There was a time when Power beat KIIS, and it wasn’t that long after KIIS set records for FM ratings — as high as 10.0 — in the mid 1980s. Kind of makes you wonder why either station doesn’t try harder. And from the files of “I Told You So,” KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM) earned a 2.5 share of the ratings, tying KLOS and Go Country at 11th place. For historical comparison, KNX earned a combined AM-FM 2.8 share in Holiday 2021, and an AM-only 3.2 share in Holiday 2020. Clearly the simulcast on FM has not helped, and owner Audacy lost the approximately 1.5 share it had with the old KNOU format it ran on 97.1 before the simulcast, even as bad as that format was. In the meantime, KFI has increased its ratings over the same period. Weird. Honestly, Audacy should drop the simulcast, move the call letters back to 93.1 FM and play mellow rock on the FM. But they won’t. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Holiday ratings? KRTH’s online stream earned a 0.7 share … higher than 15 rated stations on the list and just below KABC’s (790 AM) 0.8 share of the audience. Each rating is an estimate of the percentage of listeners, age 6 and over, tuned to a station between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 midnight, as determined by Nielsen. 1. KOST (13.1) 2. KRTH (4.7) 3. KFI (4.4) 4. KLVE (4.2) 5. KBIG (3.9) 6. KTWV The Wave (3.4) 7. KIIS-FM (3.0) 8. KCBS-FM (2.8) 9. KRRL (2.7) 10. KLAX, KXOL (2.6) 12. KKGO, KLOS, KNX (2.5) 15. KYSR Alt (2.3) 16. KBUE, KLYY, KRCD (2.1) 19. KPCC, KROQ (2.0) 21. KUSC (1.9) 22. KSCA (1.7) 23. KPWR (1.6) 24. KLLI (1.5) 25. KJLH (1.4) 26. KKJZ (1.3) 27. KDAY, KFWB (1.2) 29. KCRW, KLAC (0.9) 31. KABC (0.8) 32. KDLD, KRTH Stream (0.7) 34. KCSN, KEIB, KRLA (0.5) 37. KFSH, KWIZ (0.4) 39. KKLA, KPFK (0.2) 40. KCBS-FM Stream, KHJ, KIRN, KNX-FM Stream, KROQ Stream, KTNQ, KTWV Stream, KWKW (0.1) ///

Radio: February 3 I got into a minor disagreement with my podcast partner and friend Michael Stark over a recent column in which I was trying to clarify something and perhaps ended up making things murkier. It all had to do with the the word “stale” and radio station KABC (790 AM). Going back a couple weeks, I had mentioned that KFI’s (640 AM) recent changes had a lot to do with not becoming stale, as KABC had become. What I meant to reference was the mid 1980s, when KFI was moving to the talk format, and was able to overtake KABC relatively quickly due to sounding young, hip, and modern … while KABC was holding on to the old guard and had become somewhat stale in comparison. It was not a direct judgement of KABC’s programming then or now, and often sounding fresh isn’t so much the talk programs themselves, but how they present themselves. What music they use coming out of breaks, and more. A station that doesn’t evolve is likely to die due to a lack of new listeners. Done right, and a station thrives. A perfect example of that is KRTH (101.1 FM) … diehard oldies fans lament that they no longer play songs from the 1950s and ‘60s, but as KRTH has moved into the ‘80s and even the 1990s — still a longer period back than when it launched in 1972 and played music from 1955 and up — it has gained new listeners and remained one of the areas top-rated stations. My partner Stark believes I was too easy on the current KABC program lineup. It is stale, he says. I’m not sure that is the correct word, but I understand where he is coming from. Indeed, if KABC was playing something people wanted to hear, they would not be among the lowest-rated full-power stations in town. My choice of word to describe KABC: irrelevant. I think that the real problem with KABC is that it isn’t offering much to attract listeners, and they aren’t really even trying. The station is mostly repetitive conservative programming, basically preaching to the choir, with no promotion at all. Two of the shows are essentially replays of podcasts, and outside of midday host John Phillips and (another disagreement with my friend Stark) Ben Shapiro, the shows are not even really fun nor all that informative. Just kind of a rehash of negative political news. So what to do? The way I see it there are two choices. Either build around Philips and go live/local all day with people who can relate to local audiences and get out of the political gutter, or drop talk altogether and play music. Find a format for an audience that isn’t served by existing stations … such as oldies (new or old) that KRTH or KOLA (99.9 FM) doesn’t play, metal, or progressive rock. I guarantee any of those moves would do better than now, and may even bring a few younger listeners back to the band. You Know That … It’s funny how certain stories get told, and I suppose when they get told often enough they become “fact.” But many “facts” about radio are more legend than reality. Here are but a few examples: You always heard that KHJ (930 AM) used a cappella jingles when they launched the Boss Radio format in 1965 because there was a musicians strike. Sound reasonable, except that it’s not true. Oh, there may have been a strike — I didn’t check — but station consultant Bill Drake had already been using similar jingles at previous stations he consulted or programmed, including KGB in San Diego (now KLSD, 1360 AM) among others. Speaking of KHJ and KGB, it was actually KGB that launched “the Drake format” roughly one year before KHJ. They didn’t call it Boss Radio, but the elements were all there - quick jungles, fast moving format elements, and the top-30 records. The success of KGB helped pave the way for its implementation on KHJ. You know that Rick Dees came to Los Angeles to work at KIIS-FM (102.7), right? It must be true, as I even read it in an LA Times retrospective of Dees’ career and how his arrival at KIIS led immediately to the rise of the station to the top of the ratings. Except it...

Radio: January 27, 2023 I have always had a pipe dream of buying a radio station or two … primarily AM — because I want to prove you can get listeners when you program and promote a station correctly — or maybe an AM-FM combo in a major market. I’d probably run top-40 or progressive rock on the AM and something to complement it on the FM … such as Big Band. But as I write this, something dramatic is happening in radio: mega-owner Audacy — owner of six stations in Los Angeles, a handful more in the Inland Empire, and a total of 235 nationwide — has seen its stock decline by almost 90 percent over the past year, closing January 19th at just over 26 cents per share. With about 141 million shares outstanding, that puts its total market value at about $37 million. I think it’s time to buy the whole company. Anyone want to invest? Here’s my plan: offer a premium to buy the entire company at, say, $50 million. Then sell off most of the stations to others. You truly don’t have to get much for them … the selling price would only need to average a little under $213,000 to break even, and even stations in smaller markets would be worth more than that. Considering that KBLA (1580 AM) sold for $7 million in 2020, KLOS for $43 million in 2019 and KFWB fetched over $11 million in 2012, as but three examples, I figure I could sell just four of the six LA properties (KROQ 106.7 FM, KNX-FM 97.1, KTWV 94.7 FM, KRTH 101.1 FM, KCBS-FM 93.1, and KNX 1070 AM) and pay off the debt; the rest of the stations nationwide would give me a lot of operating income. Keep about 10 stations total and I’m set. Why ten? That’s about as many as any one company should be allowed to own. More than that and you have what you have today — failing companies creating a declining industry. Of course in purchasing the company you’d have to deal with staggering debt, for which there may be no way out short of bankruptcy . Something that some observers say is inevitable. A search revealed that as of last September, Audacy had over $2 billion in total debt, with liabilities totaling $2.73 billion. That would bring the average station selling price quite a bit higher to break even: almost $12 million. But … and this is a big but - it seems do-able, given the right management. The trick is, the company cannot remain in its current form: it must sell assets in order to get down to the handful of successful stations and remain debt-free. Any financial wizards reading this want to tell me why the plan doesn’t work? Seems a no brainer … I haven’t seen a bargain like this since Cumulus stock was selling for under $1 a few years ago. Stale? I received a few letters regarding my recent column on KFI’s (640 AM) programming changes, one particularly good one from reader Alan Wolfe. “I disagree that KABC (790 AM) programing is stale. “Armstrong and Getty: I give this show a thumbs down. I don't know what the show is about the constant laughing of one of the hosts is totally annoying. New hosts. “Dan Bongino: Two thumps up for this excellent show. Great show “John Phillips: One of the best interviewers on either the radio or TV. Great show “Ben Shapiro: Also a good show if Ben did not talk so fast. Ben, slow down “Leo 2.0: During the 60 minutes Leo covers more information than some of the other stations cover in four hours. Great show “Frank Motek: One of the best financial shows on the air and he is not selling anything. “Susan Shelley with John Coupal: In one hour you know so much about what the city, county and the state are doing to rip you off.” That is an excellent analysis. Which made me realize I was unclear. I didn’t mean that KABC was stale; what I meant was that KFI changed this month because it didn’t want to become what KABC HAD become back in 1984. KABC being old and stale is what KFI — with a young, popular Rush Limbaugh and a few others such as Tom Leykis — used to surpass them in the ratings. What KABC has now is an image problem that they refuse to...

Radio: January 13, 2023 To borrow a slogan from ABC-television in the 1970s - unfortunately when they cancelled my favorite game show, Split Second - It’s a brand new day on KFI (640 AM), and it all started January 3rd. Tim Conway made the announcement of the change on the last day of his told time slot, January 2nd at 7:00. Some of the shows remain the same: Wake Up Call with Jennifer Jones Lee still starts the day at 5 a.m.; Coast to Coast with George Noory still ends the day at 10 p.m. But between the two some shows were shortened and times adjusted in order to launch the all new Later with Mo’ Kelly. More on that, um, later. It could be said that the changes reflect a reality: in talk radio, longer shifts can be tough. I think even in music radio, four hours can be too long, especially if the show is entertainment-based. Perhaps that explains why so many morning shows repeat segments or even full hours rather than having new content throughout the morning. Three hours in my opinion is a much better program length, but I digress. Bill Handel loses an hour and will be heard from 6-9 a.m. Gary and Shannon keep the same length but move up an hour, taking on 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Next is John and Ken 1-4 p.m., followed by Tim Conway 4-7 p.m; both also sans one hour each shift. And then … Later, 4-7 p.m. I had a chance to talk with Mo’Kelly, and he explains his new show this way: “Think the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, but on the radio rather than television.” Rather than being issues-oriented like his old weekend show, he says this one will be entertaining. “Sure, a guest may want to talk about something political, and I’ll let them. But it’s not going to be a political show. It will be fun, joyous … hopefully magical.” It’s definitely a gamble for the station, which just saw it’s ratings high enough to be tied for the number two station in the city. But it’s also been a while since any real changes have been made … by my count, no major changes have been made since 2013, the year Rush Limbaugh moved over to then-new KEIB (1150 AM), also in early January. I have yet to reach KFI programmer Robin Bertolucci, but I can surmise a major reason for the changes was making sure the station didn’t get stale, along with trying to make sure that its audience didn’t get “too old.” Just as KRTH (101.1 FM) has remained at the top of the ratings by constantly evolving to continually attract new listeners, KFI wants to make sure it doesn’t become what KABC (790 AM) had become: old and stale. But to do it at the almost top of the ratings? There has to be information Bertolucci has that I am not privy too. Yet I can guess: Most of the shows have not changed in years. John and Ken have been doing essentially the same show for about 30 years, for example, and moving earlier in the day may actually expose them to a newer audience. Conway seems an odd fit at his new time, but again: new audience, new potential. And Kelly? He’s been a wasted talent on the station for years; his new show gives him the chance to shine … and bring a whole new crop of listeners to talk radio. So why didn’t KFI promote the heck out of these changes? They never do. KFI has always been run as a top-40 station that plays talk instead of music. It’s the station experience rather than any one host that has always gotten top-billing. As it continues to evolve away from issues and politics and toward general entertainment — ironically the format that KABC ran when KFI did it it — I can see it helping to keep talk radio viable. Certainly KABC — and KFI sister station KEIB — constantly prove one simple fact: that political talk as a full format is dead … both stations are consistently toward the bottom of the ratings lists. The Greatest Ninths K-Mozart (1260 AM, 105.1 HD2) will present what station owner Saul Levine calls the greatest Ninth Symphonies — the Schubert, the Mahler, and the Beethoven — beginning at 12 noon on January 22nd. Listeners have a chance to voice...

Special Guest: KFI's Mo Kelly who discusses his new weekday show. Radio: January 6, 2022 Wasn’t that you who told me you always wanted to own your own radio-related internet domain, so that you could direct your friends and family to your chain of online radio stations that you program out of your spare bedroom? You’re in luck. Audacy, owner of stations nationwide including eight here in Los Angeles (seven if you count the failure of the KNX Newsradio simulcast (1070 AM, 97.1 FM) that earns roughly the same combined ratings as it did as a standalone AM signal, but I digress) is auctioning off the radio.com domain it once used for its online presence. The company dropped radio.com in favor of audacy.com when it changed its corporate name from Entercom to Audacy a couple years ago. Available through GoDaddy.Com, the auction ends March 28, 2023. Starting bid: $2.5 million. That’s right - $2.5 million. Minimum. On a serious note and just for reference, Audacy couldn’t really do anything major with either radio.com or audacy.com. It is a decent little domain name, though … I just can’t see anyone or any company finding it worth that much. Generally speaking, online radio doesn’t make a lot (read: none) of money, so paying off that $2.5 million may take a while. So if that’s too rich for your blood, I’ll sell you socalradiowaves.com for much less. Maybe half a million. Send me your offer … Also on a serious note: I’m kidding about selling socalradiowaves.. The Radio.Com domain itself goes back to at least 1996. It was once owned by CNET networks — which paid $30,000 for both Radio.Com and TV.Com — and became part of CBS Radio when CBS bought CNET. In 2010, CBS launched Radio.Com as a clearinghouse of all CBS radio station streams. When Entercom bought CBS, the domain became its own. AllAccess.Com, which broke the news of the auction, reports that similar domains such as Radio.Cloud, Radio.Co, and Radio.IM recently sold for anywhere from $2500 - just over $25,000. American’s Samoa’s Best Music Ever wonder what the legendary KHJ (930 AM) might sound like, musically at least, if the station still played top-40? Wonder no more … South Seas Broadcasting has you covered. Using the call-letters KKHJ and broadcasting at 93.1 FM out of Pago Pago in American Samoa, the station brands itself as 93/KHJ in a tribute to the original. The music is considered an adult top-40, which is probably what I would program on the station if I were running it here in Los Angeles. According to the station website at southseasbroadcasting.com/93khj, “the idea for KHJ Radio came about in 1994 when Larry Fuss (now President of South Seas Broadcasting, Inc., the parent company of 93KHJ) was looking out the window of his radio station in Mississippi following a big ice storm. The streets were littered with fallen trees, broken branches and tons of ice, and the electricity had been out for over a week. Fuss thought to himself, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to have a radio station on a tropical island in the South Pacific?’ “On somewhat of a whim, Fuss immediately began researching the possibility and ran across an available frequency for a new FM Radio Station in Pago Pago, American Samoa. The FCC application was filed on November 20, 1995, and finally granted on February 13, 1998.” Regular programming began in May of 2000 — almost exactly 35 years after the late April, 1965 “sneak preview” of the “Boss Radio” top-40 launch that helped change radio forever. Like the original, the format was an instant hit. The station features a two-man morning team, a three-person news department, and runs public affairs programming benefiting the local community. And modern “93/KHJ” jingles … so cool. Hear it yourself on the various smartphone apps or online at the website. Ratings The December ratings (which due to the four-week cycles actually includes more of November than December) had KOST (103.5 FM) at the top, as usual, with their Christmas music format earning a...

Radio Waves: December 23, 2022 Holiday Treats More Christmas/holiday programming is on tap for you, if you’re willing to listen via apps or online … one of which has not been heard locally in years, if ever. In the early 1980s, Drake-Chenault produced a show called Christmas At Our House. It was very well received, since it was quite different from the usual repetition of 50 common Christmas songs. The syndicated show hasn’t been aired anywhere for over 20 years, and I don’t recall it ever airing in Los Angeles. The program was hosted by Sonny Melendrez, who I met while he was at Magic 106 (now KPWR, 105.9 FM) circa 1984. It features lots of holiday music, along with interesting vignettes about how Christmas is celebrated in various countries around the world. There are also celebrity interviews, holiday stories, and some very unique music. It will air commercial-free on Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24, from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. and repeat on Christmas Day December 25, from 7 a.m. to 10pm How do you listen? The stream URL is https://la2.indexcom.com/player/6. Just copy and paste the link into your web browser and a player will launch. If you have the technical know-how you can add it to your favorite phone app, but it will also play using the online player on your phone, so you can listen on the go or in your car. The second program is a holiday tradition. Sounds of the Season will air as usual beginning at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve and running through 12 midnight on Christmas Day. The 36-hour show includes some excellent jazz instrumental and vocal interpretations of holiday music favorites from Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Marcus Roberts, Ramsey Lewis, Wynton Marsalis, Vince Guaraldi and many more. LA Jazz DJ legend, Chuck Niles, provides a dramatic reading of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas at noon, and 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve and midnight, 6 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. on Christmas Day. “I have plenty of newer tracks this year, exclaims show producer David Grudt. “About 27 percent of the music comes from albums released in the last three years. Roughly 60 percent of the playlist this year is comprised of music in our 1,300 plus track library that are new songs, tracks that I haven’t used ever before or tracks that weren’t played in 2021.” In the San Diego you can hear it over the air on KSDS (88.3 FM); in Longview, Texas you can tune to KFRO (1370 AM) — Longview’s oldest radio station owned by Scott Rice, former Chief Engineer of KSDS. But you’ll probably find it easier to “tune in” online at https://jazzknob.com or https://www.jazz88.org Music Comparison Sean Ross confirmed my own observations: KOST (103.5 FM) and Go Country (105.1 FM) do have a lot of overlap, but there are enough differences that might make your choice easier. In a sample hour, Ross reported on RadioInsight.com that KOST played holiday music from The Eagles, Michael Bublé, Bing Cosby, Lindsey Stirling, Johnny Mathis, Dean Martin, Amy Grant, Meghan Trainor, Frank Sinatra & Cyndi Lauper, Daryl Hall & John Oates, Dolly Parton & Michael Bublé, and Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme. Meanwhile, Go Country’s sample hour included songs from Bing Crosby, Darlene Love, Taylor Swift, Elvis Presley, Faith Hill, Johnny Mathis, Kelly Clarkson, Nat “King’ Cole, Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Dolly Parton, Frank Sinatra, Idina Menzel, Lady Antebellum (Lady A), and Kenny Loggins. I note that neither station had any songs from Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, among my favorite Christmas songs due most likely to my listening constantly to the reel to reel tape every season on my parent’s Akai M8 when I was growing up. But I digress. What the Ross sample hours did show is that there is indeed a difference. KOST is marginally more contemporary in the pop arena; Go Country is marginally more traditional but includes a lot of more recent songs from country artists, including a superb version of Baby It’s Cold Outside from Lady A. But again, no Fred Waring. Such a...

Radio Waves: December 9, 2022 Country Christmas In keeping with my desire to discuss holiday music in every column every week of the year I bring you more holiday music news: as expected, Go Country 105 has temporarily become Your Christmas Destination once more. A rundown of the music played just prior to my writing this includes music from The Ronettes, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Andy Williams, and Elvis Presley, so its definitely not a country-oriented Christmas format. That being said, it did also include Blake Shelton, Thomas Rhett, Jake Owen, and Lady A … so there is a nice mix there. Generally speaking, while I hate to “lose” the country format, I tend to like the variety of holiday music that Go Country plays this time of year. I used quotes around the word “lose” because the country music is not totally gone; it is still available on the digital radio HD stream (105.1 HD3), as well as online, through various apps, and via smart speakers. The HD stream temporarily replaces the “unforgettable” Sinatra and standards format normally found there. And don’t worry … I have more holiday music information in the wait … Feeding Kids The 12th Annual KFI (640 AM) Pastathon has raised over $450,000 and almost 10,000 pounds of pasta and sauce through press time, though the numbers are most certainly higher once the final tallies are in. The PastaThon benefits Caterina’s Club, a charity named after Chef Bruno Serato’s mother. In 2005, the charity began serving hot meals to children living in low-income motels; since that time the project has expanded to 100 locations in 30 cities across Southern California, serving more than 25,000 meals per week. Since inception, that makes for over eight million meals served In addition, help is given to get families into stable homes and job training in the hospitality industry is provided, all in an attempt to break the cycle of poverty, directly benefiting 260 families and 600 teens who have graduated from the Hospitality Academy. This year, KFI partnered with Smart and Final, Wendy’s, and Barilla — yes the pasta company, of course — to help with the 2022 drive. Water heater manufacturer Bradford White donated $5000 as well. Since KFI got involved in 2010, listeners and partners of the station have raised over $4.6 million and 700,000 pounds of pasta and sauce. That’s a lotta pasta! Streaming Along The vast majority of radio listening is still over the regular airwaves, of course. But streaming has picked ups over the past few years, according to Edison Research. The company recently reported that about 12 percent of listeners to AM and FM radio listen via online streams, which includes web browsers, apps, and smart speakers. Modern apps and smart speakers especially make it extremely easy to hear your favorite station, and there are some who feel that streaming radio is the real future of radio … putting stations on an even playing field with good reception and fidelity non matter your location. That, of course, will take wifi universal internet access to become a reality for all. Car Radio Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey is hopping on the “Saving AM” train. He recently sent a letter to 20 automakers asking them too make sure they continue to provide AM radio reception in their vehicles As reported by AllAccess.Com, in the letter Markey wrote, “Despite innovations such as the smartphone and social media, AM/FM broadcast radio remains the most dependable, cost-free, and accessible communication mechanism for public officials to communicate with the public during times of emergency. As a result, any phase-out of broadcast AM radio could pose a significant communication problem during emergencies. Although the auto industry’s investments in electric vehicles are critical to addressing the climate crisis and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, automakers need not sacrifice the benefits of radio in the process.” The Senator asked for replies from the companies by December...