And KSUR's next move: All Classical

[Miss Tuned]

You'd be surprised how many grandmas love that song and video. It's what women want. Not just teens.

And then a lot of fathers want that for their daughters. It's a very interesting conversation.

Remember they were all raised on Disney. So YES they take it seriously and believe it.

Years ago, when Love Story was in the charts, I was working on an AC format and our predominantly 35-55 female audience went nuts for the song.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

The funny thing about your critique is that Taylor Swift is easily the most popular singer-songwriter of this century, and has won a variety of songwriting awards in both country and pop.

She's not a favorite of mine, but I'm happy to listen to some of her stuff, especially from her "country" days.

I was never a fan but I thought her "folklore" was the best album of 2020 and many others did too, including the editors at Billboard.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

I really like that song and I haven't been 17 in 50 years!


Try listening to the same songs three or four more times.

No thanks, life is too short.

Just to be clear I have nothing against her, and am happy for her success. I just don't get it.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

I don't know if that is the only answer.

I mentioned earlier that I put a classical FM on the air in Quito, Ecuador in the later 60's. It was the fifth FM license I had in Quito out of about 20 I got in the whole country. I used three of them to simulcast three of my AM stations, and did a very Latinized Beautiful Music on the fourth. I had no vision for the fifth one, so I did a format for my own satisfaction... one I could pick the music for and not worry about sales. I did not even print a rate card. My other stations were all in the top 5 in their target S/E level (upper, middle and lower) and I was building several new stations a year and needed a station that was fun, not a sales and programming challenge.

I didn't have a Land Rover or a Mercedes... I had my own personal radio station.

Who's to say that Saul is not similarly motivated. Of course, when he built his first station I was 13 and had just started my first part time job so he may have a perspective that I can't imagine. But sometimes, even in business, we do things for fun.

I've never had the pleasure of meeting you, but I always admire your intelligence and just "who you are" (as how you have always come off in all of your radio forum iterations). It is very refreshing to see someone who really lives life "like they mean it."

 

[SarahB98]

And the tolmachevy sisters fired on the switch to k-Mozart. Was Vivaldi’s spring the first song to be played????

 

[davideduardo]

I've never had the pleasure of meeting you, but I always admire your intelligence and just "who you are" (as how you have always come off in all of your radio forum iterations). It is very refreshing to see someone who really lives life "like they mean it."

Thank you. With the exception of several years on the south side of purgatory at KHJ, radio has never been a "job" to me... it has been exciting, challenging, even sometimes intimidating... but never work!

I'll mention one of the things some would consider tedious that I loved: In Quito, my principal FM was located at a shared TV site on the mountain nearly 4,000 feet above the city at just under 14,000 feet AMSL. To get there, I had to drive up a zig-zag one-lane road that did a nearly 180° turn 8 times on the way up.

To do regular maintenance, I'd leave before 5 PM to get to the top before sundown, then spending 7 hours with coffee, bread and a good book until 1 AM. I'd clean the transmitter and often change tubes even before they got near end-of-life and then watch the rig for several hours before sunrise let me drive back down.

On a couple of occasions, I had to spend a day there because it rained during the night, making the slope too slippery. I always had extra reading material and food in my Nissan Patrol 4WD; we had no phone connection to the studio from the transmitter, so I had a one-meter square board with an "X" on one side and an "O" on the other. The "X" meant "come help me" and the "O" meant "OK". From the studios, with binoculars, they would check on me if I did not come in with coffee for the morning show guys by 8 AM!

To many, that is tedious. To me, it was like a safari, but I got to do it for free!

 

[Hole in your radio]

From Inside Radio this afternoon:

L.A.’s ‘K-Mozart’ Returning To Over-The-Air Broadcast.
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 KSUR (1260). It’s the third time Levine has placed classical music on the signal, with its longest run occurring from 2011-2016

More at L.A.’s ‘K-Mozart’ To Broadcast On AM With Hybrid Analog/Digital Signal.

Saul changes calls and format as often as I change my shirt. Then again, he owns his stations outright, so...

 

[michael hagerty]

Saul changes calls and format as often as I change my shirt.

Twelve times in 28 years?

 

[Signal Geek]

Let me balance all the negative comments here by playing devil's advocate for a moment. There are some glimmers of sense in the move to classical. 1: The 20kw signal, while directional, is strong in Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Bel Air.. the high-income areas of L.A. who presumably would listen to classical. 2: this is the only option for advertisers trying to reach this demo (L.A.'s only other classical station, KUSC, is non-commercial), and 3: classical music (in theory) should sound fine on digital AM. That's assuming KSUR still has HD-1.

 

[Marcos_C]

That's assuming KSUR still has HD-1.

Actually, it's now KMZT. The call sign was changed to reflect the K-Mozart branding.

 

[ATSFGuy]

KSUR has two feeds;
HD-1: Classical Music
HD-2: The Oldies format KSUR launched back in March 2017.

 

[ATSFGuy]

Marcos_c:
I noticed that when I looked them up on Wikipedia. It does say KMZT

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

KSUR has two feeds;
HD-1: Classical Music
HD-2: The Oldies format KSUR launched back in March 2017.

So the AM is running HD with sub channels? I know WWFD 820 near DC tested that but virtually no radios were capable of picking up an AM HD Sub channel.

 

[fybush]

So the AM is running HD with sub channels? I know WWFD 820 near DC tested that but virtually no radios were capable of picking up an AM HD Sub channel.

No, the AM isn't running subchannels. It's not even in MA3 all-digital. It's in MA1 hybrid mode, so it's classical on both analog and digital. If the oldies still exists at all, it's as a subchannel on KKGO-FM.

 

[semoochie]

Years ago, when Love Story was in the charts, I was working on an AC format and our predominantly 35-55 female audience went nuts for the song.

Taylor has a new version of the song that is very close to the original. It did something that I've never seen before. It debuted fairly high, possibly the top ten or even five. The next week, it was gone completely!

 

[CTListener]

Taylor has a new version of the song that is very close to the original. It did something that I've never seen before. It debuted fairly high, possibly the top ten or even five. The next week, it was gone completely!

That's weird. I wonder what could have caused that to take place. I could see it if she had released some holiday- or event-specific song, but you say this was just a re-recording of "Love Story."

 

[michael hagerty]

That's weird. I wonder what could have caused that to take place. I could see it if she had released some holiday- or event-specific song, but you say this was just a re-recording of "Love Story."

Charts today are so dependent on streaming. If something has enormous curiosity value , and the fanbase decides it's not wild about it after having heard it, it can be over that fast.

 

[semoochie]

That's weird. I wonder what could have caused that to take place. I could see it if she had released some holiday- or event-specific song, but you say this was just a re-recording of "Love Story."

I must have had a senior(or as I like to call them, a sophomore)moment. It just occurred to me that I could look up that information. Here's what I got from Wikipedia:

Commercial performance​

In the United States, "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" sold 10,000 digital downloads and garnered 5.8 million on-demand streams in its first day of release. While not actively promoted to radio, the version drew 144 plays across 89 radio stations for a total of 777,000 audience impressions.[15][16]

With 25,000 sales and 13.7 million streams, "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" landed atop the US Hot Country Songs chart, giving Swift her eighth number-one single and first number-one debut on the chart; it marked her first chart-topper since "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (2012). She became the first artist to lead the chart in the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s, and the second artist in history to send both the original and re-recorded version of a song to the top spot, after Dolly Parton with "I Will Always Love You". Elsewhere, "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" topped Digital Song Sales (Swift's record-extending 22nd number one), Country Digital Song Sales (record-extending 15th number one), and Country Streaming Songs charts. The song debuted and peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking her 129th entry on the chart—the most entries ever amongst women.[17] It exited the chart the following week.

 

[michael hagerty]

I must have had a senior(or as I like to call them, a sophomore)moment. It just occurred to me that I could look up that information. Here's what I got from Wikipedia:

Commercial performance​

In the United States, "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" sold 10,000 digital downloads and garnered 5.8 million on-demand streams in its first day of release. While not actively promoted to radio, the version drew 144 plays across 89 radio stations for a total of 777,000 audience impressions.[15][16]

With 25,000 sales and 13.7 million streams, "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" landed atop the US Hot Country Songs chart, giving Swift her eighth number-one single and first number-one debut on the chart; it marked her first chart-topper since "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" (2012). She became the first artist to lead the chart in the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s, and the second artist in history to send both the original and re-recorded version of a song to the top spot, after Dolly Parton with "I Will Always Love You". Elsewhere, "Love Story (Taylor's Version)" topped Digital Song Sales (Swift's record-extending 22nd number one), Country Digital Song Sales (record-extending 15th number one), and Country Streaming Songs charts. The song debuted and peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking her 129th entry on the chart—the most entries ever amongst women.[17] It exited the chart the following week.

Now consider how flawed that whole methodology is. Only ten thousand people paid money for "Love Story (Taylor's Version)". 144 plays across 89 radio stations is less than two plays per station. And the record is dead a week later. But it's top ten for a week.

Yeah, 5.8 million people clicked "play", but it cost them nothing beyond the internet they already pay for if it's YouTube or the subscription they're already paying for if it's a music service.

 

[TheBigA]

Now consider how flawed that whole methodology is. Only ten thousand people paid money for "Love Story (Taylor's Version)". 144 plays across 89 radio stations is less than two plays per station.

I don't think that's saying the methodology is flawed, but rather how instantaneous and disposable music is. And that no one wants to pay, even though TS tells them "music has value."

Meanwhile airplay charts take a full week to register. By that time, the audience has moved on.