TIO: My Lost Hits Stations

[michael hagerty]

Except that the Bob Hamilton/Phil Hall KRTH didn't work in the long term. Just like with the first go-round of Oldies (1972-76), it was hot out of the gate, then cooled down quickly.

It took Bill Drake, Mike Philips, The Real Don Steele and Robert W. Morgan to make KRTH a consistent winner with a format and playlist so tight you could only barely breathe. Demos and Jay Coffey's even-tighter approach killed it.

Didn't Beasley Broadcasting take over KRTH in 1988 or 1989, essentially cutting off the specials and restricting them to only a few hundred songs?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KRTH

Supposedly there was a music licensing issue too that also took away the specials and the larger playlists. And this is even before Jay Coffey's approach.

The ratings fell before the sale to Beasley.

As long as you pay your ASCAP and BMI bill (and as long as the publishers pay theirs), there's no restriction on airplay of records.

My guess is Beasley simply was trying to fix what by then wasn't working.

CBS flipped 93.1 to oldies, not because there was a big enough share to split, but because they thought they could chase KRTH out of the format. But three years later, when Drake came aboard with Phillips (who was hired in 1991 as PD), it wound up the other way around. CBS bailed in less than two years.

Jay Coffey didn't get the keys until Phillips retired in '01 or '02. Jhani replaced him in '05.

[DavidEduardo]

Supposedly there was a music licensing issue too that also took away the specials and the larger playlists. And this is even before Jay Coffey's approach.

ASCAP and BMI licenses are not based on number of different titles. You can play 40 songs 500 times a month or 400 songs 50 times a month or 4000 songs twice a month and you still would have paid the same amount.

Stations, in those years, paid a percentage of revenues to blanket license all music played. So the payments varied depending on the station revenues, but not on the titles played. The performing rights organizations would use airplay (based then on station music logs submitted, generally, once a year) to allocate the collected amounts in proportion to the amount each song was played in the US and Puerto Rico and other territories.

[DavidEduardo]

Didn't Beasley Broadcasting take over KRTH in 1988 or 1989...

Yes, and if you look at the ratings for LA...

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Duncan-1975-1992/Los%20Angeles.pdf

... you will see that KRTH increased about two years after Beasley bought the station. It had been slowly declining, and did so for the first two Beasley years. There was a change in management, and by 1991 and 1992 it had two of the best years it ever had. In '93 it was sold to Infinity for a magnificent price (and a nice bonus for Simon T) and proceeded to dip again. 

[oldies76]

Yes, and if you look at the ratings for LA...

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Duncan-1975-1992/Los%20Angeles.pdf

... you will see that KRTH increased about two years after Beasley bought the station. It had been slowly declining, and did so for the first two Beasley years. There was a change in management, and by 1991 and 1992 it had two of the best years it ever had. In '93 it was sold to Infinity for a magnificent price (and a nice bonus for Simon T) and proceeded to dip again. 

Thanks...You always provide a wealth of information and to see these 12+ ratings over the years explains a lot.

I believe currents were eliminated in 1985, and the changeover to all oldies in 1986 boosted the ratings then. But then the super tight playlists by 1989 (I remember this, because this was the first year all the large specialties were eliminated) and KRTH took a beating by 1990 (1.9 vs. 2.9 seems very significant).

The upswing in 1991 and 1992 is shown as well, due to a management change you mentioned.
But musically, what could cause such as significant swing upwards? From a 1.9, to eventually a 4.0 by 1992. The playlists were already tight by then, so maybe it was legendary on-air talent?

A significant dip by 1999 and a bit stagnant through 2003. (Jay Coffey)

Are there any ratings from 2004 to 2012 time period available similar to the chart shown for 12+? Wanted to see the effect of the Jhani Kaye takeover in 2005.

Hopefully the moderator can move this information on the L.A. board or the KRTH topic under classic hits, since this isn't TIO material. 

[DavidEduardo]

Are there any ratings from 2004 to 2012 time period available similar to the chart shown for 12+? Wanted to see the effect of the Jhani Kaye takeover in 2005.

Through 2009 you can look at the R&R ratings summaries at

http://www.americanradiohistory.com/R&R_directories.htm

The PPM came as currency at in the second half of 2008. The 12+ averages for PPM in 2009 was 4.6, 2010 was 4.8, 2011 was 4.2, 2012 was 3.9.