I listen to it all the time.
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K-Mozart is back on 1260
- Thread starter HighStandards
- Start date
How much longer until the FCC interprets Saul's endless callsign changes as a DDoS attack against their filing system?
So……when will the next flip happen and what format will it be? Any betting odds in Vegas?🤪
The whole "digital stereo" thing is a load of hooey. According to a friend in L.A., 1260 is just transmitting a plain analog mono signal, with no trace of either C-Quam or HD Radio.
Maybe Saul still has the HD exciter in the rack, but it hasn't been switched on in years.
Maybe Saul still has the HD exciter in the rack, but it hasn't been switched on in years.
Your friends' statement is incorrect. 1260 has been operating in HD Digital for many years now.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
A little over four, actually. Saul installed digital near the end of 2020:
L.A.’s ‘K-Mozart’ To Broadcast On AM With Hybrid Analog/Digital Signal.
Saul Levine’s Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters is bringing classical music back to the AM band in Los Angeles, announcing plans to move programming from the company’s “K-Mozart” digital stream to
(Apologies to Lance, as I could not find an article on RadioInsight that reported the digital addition to the 1260 signal. If I missed it, I certainly would be happy if he replaced my link and this note.)
No trace of HD Radio digital sidebands when they launched the Classic Country format in October 2024:
Should’ve given it more time
Maybe Saul should do seasonal formats: Country in the winter, Classical in the spring, Oldies in the summer, and Standards in the fall.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Come on, guys. Enough Saul-bashing. I personally find the "wheel of formats" crack an insult to him.
As I tried to point out earlier, 1260 is not your usual radio station by the usual definition. It's more like the Jack format, except instead of "playing what we want" it's "playing what Saul wants".
You all act like his format changes have something to do with being competitive. As I said before, that is the biggest misconception anyone can have about 1260. Isn't the man entitled to have his own personal station, free of criticism?
As I tried to point out earlier, 1260 is not your usual radio station by the usual definition. It's more like the Jack format, except instead of "playing what we want" it's "playing what Saul wants".
You all act like his format changes have something to do with being competitive. As I said before, that is the biggest misconception anyone can have about 1260. Isn't the man entitled to have his own personal station, free of criticism?
I feel like disagreeing with and/or having an opinion on a programming decision is well within the realm of… everything this website is about. I absolutely do not think he’s entitled to have his own “personal station, free of criticism”, when the “classic” purpose of a station is to serve a community, not be your own personal legal transmitter. That being said, I’ve posted before that I’m absolutely jealous of Saul. It’d be a dream to have an AM station to do as I wish with. I loved and appreciated him wanting to launch a new format in the market with it. I’m disappointed it’s been reverted back to the previous format. But I’ll move on, and he’ll be… completely unaffected by my opinion, and good on him for it. And as “old-hat” as the “wheel-of-formats” comment is, that doesn’t make it invalid. It’s his right to do it (I wish I could!). Frankly I agree that the “seasonal format” concept would be interesting- at least there’d be consistency in the inconsistency. And I’m sure there are people who missed K-Mozart who are happy to have it back on 1260.
I live in the local coverage area of 1260. Classic Country was absolutely in stereo, as was K-Mozart classical before it and is now K-MZT Classical again. I actually have 2 HD radios to demonstrate.
You will find no bigger supporter of Saul than me. But he is in the business of broadcasting to the public. He is not above public criticism.
He is entitled to his station. he is not entitled to be free from criticism. Is he the only person in the radio community you believe to be above criticism or are there others?
I have HD in my car and 1260 was always hard to get a lock on its HD signal. The HD light would flash from about 50-75 miles away. Once you got within 20-25 miles of the transmitter the readout would finally say "KMZT" but the HD signal still would not lock. Once I got within 5-15 miles of the transmitter is when WHOA! It would suddenly open up with a loud and full stereo sound, which really sounded good, but would only last about 10 or 15 minutes before we were too far away again. I frequently drive from San Diego to visit family in Monterey or Fresno and always try 1260 just to hear the unique quality of the AM Stereo HD signal. Usually I start tuning in north of the major interchange (5/10/101/60) and it kicks in near the Getty Center/Galleria area and stays pretty strong until you start hitting the 5/14 split as the Grapevine starts.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
There are others, but at the moment the vitriol appeared to be directed at Saul, so I posted a personal rebuttal to that apparent attitude.
Now, given that there have been posts clarifying the original intentions (which I honestly wish had been part of the original posts) I feel vindicated. Thanks for asking.
Oh, and whether or not one agrees about Saul doing whatever he wants on 1260, consider this rhetorical question: Doesn't any station owner have that right?
I believe any station owner has the right to do whatever they wants, but don’t believe they should be immune to criticism. No decision made by anyone is going to please everyone. I do think that what might make it seem “targeted” is that in this increasingly rare case (a singular owner as opposed to a c-suite of suits at some radio conglomerate), we’re using a first name as the focus of comments & criticism. I don’t think he should be the target of any slanderous attacks, but while he’s well within his right to make changes, I think anyone here is within theirs (within reason) to say “I don’t like that change Saul made”. Do I have any better ideas? No! And classical, oldies, and classic country are a perfectly fine rotation of formats, I just happen to have no interest in classical.
All in all, we should be coming from the knowledge base that KKGO pays the bills, and 1260 is the rec room. I could only dream of being in Saul’s position and have such discussion taking place about changes I made to an AM station in the year 2025. If I could be so lucky!
All in all, we should be coming from the knowledge base that KKGO pays the bills, and 1260 is the rec room. I could only dream of being in Saul’s position and have such discussion taking place about changes I made to an AM station in the year 2025. If I could be so lucky!
I have sort of been there. I began in radio as a go-fer at WCUY, a revenue-less FM in Clevaland. After launching three very successful AM stations in Quito, Ecuador, in 1964-1965, I thought about FM. Since there were none in northern South America, I asked my "friend" at the telecommunications office about getting a license.
I was told that nobody wanted an FM, so for a little "fee" he'd run an application through for me. The big question was "how many do you want" so I asked for 10 in all the major cities. I got 2 licenses for independent FMs in Quito and 3 as simulcast / STLs for my AMs.
I put the first independent FM on with a Latin Beautiful Music format that included vocals that were mostly signature styles from Latin America: Pasillos from Ecuador, Valses from Perú, Cuecas from Chile, Bambucos from Colombia, Tangos from Argentina and the like. The instrumentals were mostly either European or versions of Latin American music.
I did not even issue a rate card. I ran with no spots for about a year, and then a friend insisted on having his coffee brand on the station.
But during that year of no commercials, I had enormous fun programming the music sets, bringing music from trips to the different countries and having the only FM for about 1000 miles around. No ads, no need to worry about clients. I was about 20 at the time, so it was my "Nintendo" in 1967!
I'll bet Saul has more fun with that one than with the FM.
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