I do remember that name as RKO's branding for their 1955 to 1965 era oldies, KRTH(AM), Los Angeles, in 1986 to about 1989- if that is what you meant by 'decades ago'. Imaged by Brother John Rydgren. It sounded really good too.
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1260 Going Country Gold
- Thread starter Joey1986
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Thanks for the detailed response, David.
And I remember listening to that very station, BLA. Two other instances using the phrase: KLUV HD2 was running a '50s and '60s format called "Smokin' Oldies" (this can still be Googled). And also https://www.radioseed.com/live/smokin-oldies-100169/.
And I remember listening to that very station, BLA. Two other instances using the phrase: KLUV HD2 was running a '50s and '60s format called "Smokin' Oldies" (this can still be Googled). And also https://www.radioseed.com/live/smokin-oldies-100169/.
Okay, pie on face moment. I just checked under the hood at that radioseed.com URL, which wasn't working in my browser, to find out why. Turns out it's linking to the dead playerservices.streamtheworld.com stream for KLUV HD2. Hah!
So, disregard that third one. Maybe, in the end, KLUV was just re-creating 1980s KRTH AM?
So, disregard that third one. Maybe, in the end, KLUV was just re-creating 1980s KRTH AM?
Those are good examples of station slogans that were not standard or accepted industry terms. I'm amazed you could come up with three examples!
Remember that terms used as positioning statements on the air are not always the terms that stations use when marketing to advertisers. In many cases, the industry terms are not used on the air, but have a purpose of letting time buyers in far-away cities understand the type of station they are analyzing and buying time on.
No "Regional Mexican" station nor no "Adult Contemporary" station calls themselves that on the air. Nor do stations call themselves "CHR" or "A/C" or "Tropical". But ad agency buyers know what that means, and that is a good enough description for them.
Right, gotcha. 
Oops, I just credited you with finding three instances... still, two that can be remembered is pretty good!
Oh sure- it was strictly a branding.
Wouldn't we all?
You're talking about getting people in their 40s---born in the last half of the 70s and the first half of the 80s---to tune to an AM radio station in Los Angeles.
To me, despite country having an absolute ceiling in L.A. if for no reason other than demographics and ethnic makeup, that's the biggest hurdle for what we're discussing----people tuning to AM to hear music.
1260 may as well be on the police band.
What we're talking about, to put my quote in context, is compared to classical or oldies.
And once again, we're talking about Saul Levine, who programs what he wants regardless of whether or not it sells.
Yeah, but---further context---does format matter if you're talking about getting L.A. residents in their 40s to actively tune into an AM radio station for music?
There is literally no precedent for that generation of people.
The last AM music station to even show above the decimal point was KLAC during its standards era. That was 20 years ago---and its target audience grew up on AM.
The last AM music station to do well with a salable audience was KRLA during its "HitRadio 11" era---a mix of currents and oldies with Hispanic appeal. That was 40 years ago.
Absolutely.
L.A. radio peaked when Fabulous 570 was around 😍
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
You have a strange basis for determining peaks.
Sometimes I wonder what percentage of people who see hope for music on AM are enthusiasts with wide bandwidth receivers. They should try to imagine being a completely normal person with no knowledge of how AM receiver IFs have narrowed over time, chancing across a completely random car tuner and hearing 3 kHz of a 20 kHz musical recording. Compared to that, those people would sooner listen to music with an ear infection. It takes special knowledge to find receivers that make AM sound acceptable today, and nobody other than industry insiders and enthusiasts has that know-how anymore. And even then, AM still mono, and it's still a low SNR affair. At this point, the only way you could get the average American to use AM radios for listening to music is if they thought they could eat them.
The only exceptions up to now were "very small hometown" pockets where people never stopped listening to AM, and where all the kids were still aware of it, because AM was where all the tight-knit local community goings-on got clucked about, where the coverage of the local high school league games took place, etc. But even that is on its last leg today. And there's none of that left on AM in big urban areas. The only music I still hear on AM in urban zones like Los Angeles emanates from ethnic music stations. And until about a decade ago, I believed those stations must have been keeping their lights on by catering to audiences who were extremely financially depressed. Today, with even the majority of outright homeless people having smartphones with internet service they can stream with, I can't begin to imagine who might still be listening to those signals anymore, or why.
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I read that as him saying the dial as a whole was at its peak concurrent with KLAC running it's Fab format.
Which would mean that L.A. radio was at its peak when 710 was Radio Disney and 930 was "La Ranchera."
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
This is purely anecdotal, but I am a long time friend of three sisters who fled Vietnam in the closing months of the war (50 years ago). All three have smartphones, none of them use them for streaming.
In the context of your post, I now wonder if there are cultural reasons coming into play.
Right. I was thinking that too.
Like undying habits formed under communism by the fear of being put on lists, or worse, for what you're noticed reading or listening to?
I guess that could help explain the Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean music stations on AM.
I'm still scratching my head over the Spanish music there, though. David would know this for sure, but all I can imagine is habit formed of non-political motivations -- like if there are countries south of the border where AM listening is still prolific, and from which immigrants cling to AM upon moving here. But even that idea falls flat, as unlike for the Asian community, there are ample Spanish stations on FM here.
The only country in all Latin America where AM is still significantly strong is Argentina, but that nation is really the southernmost nation in Europe. And all the high rated AMs are hugely powerful: 50 to 100 kw in Buenos Aires and 10 kw and over elsewhere. Because of the turbulent politics in that nation going back about 80 years, there are 5 or 6 talk stations with very big numbers.
Elsewhere, AM is disappearing. In Quito, Ecuador there were 40 AM stations when I put my first on one the air in 1964. Now, there are about 12 that are still on the air regularly, and half of those are cultural or religious. San Salvador had about 30 AM stations, and now there are around 10, all either government or religious.
Mexico's legislative body declared that AM was dead and proceeded to allow for lesser second adjacent channel FM separation so that about 80% of existing AMs could move to FM. In a couple of Mexican states, all the existing AMs moved to FM (some AM channels were relicensed, particularly to cultural groups or to rural locations where one of the hundred or so indigenous languages and dialects is spoken).
Even Cuba has moved most listening to FM, but they keep the nearly 200 AMs on the air to block foreign stations from being heard.
While the Hispanic Spanish dominant audience in each market is generally of one single region with a similar dialect, Asians come from many nations, each with one or more languages. That makes it hard to build a big enough audience to justify a full FM signal. Still, when one group is concentrated in a smaller area, we see Class A FMs serving them, such as the Vietnamese language station in Santa Ana, CA.
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