And as said before, many new cars lack an AM radio. Good luck tuning into 640, 1070, or (in this case) 1260 on your Tesla Model 3 or your Porsche Taycan. Oh wait, you can't.
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Any format flips on the horizon for LA?
- Thread starter 30james
- Start date
If EVERY car sold stopped having an AM receiver today it would take 16.5 years to replace all the cars on the road that have them now (assuming an unbroken string of record new vehicle sales years). And we're nowhere near that.
A lack of AM radios isn't the issue. A lack of HD radios is a far bigger factor.
And even if every car in Los Angeles today had an HD radio, Saul would have an uphill battle getting a significant percentage of them to tune to 1260. Signal strength in some parts of the metro, a small audience for Classical and decades worth of an understanding that AM is inferior in terms of fidelity.
Saul's chosen a format that he loves and that will show off the better-than-most-think fidelity of AM HD. Classical is better-suited to using 1260 as a technical showcase than the other formats he's had there.
If nothing's going to make 1260 a ratings and revenue success, he may as well go for the nothing he likes best.
Which is why it's also on the HD2 of 105.1 KKGO-FM.
It's an uphill battle for Classical 1260/105.1 HD2 period. No match for well established KUSC, which has a great signal, that is easily picked up in stereo on my in-home FM receiver here in San Diego.
As mentioned, it's more about Saul indulging his love of Classical music, and not about making money.
As mentioned, it's more about Saul indulging his love of Classical music, and not about making money.
I'm convinced that KMZT is simply Saul's hobby...he operates it for fun...he simply wants his own Classical station and that's it!.
It could be sooner here in California, with the initiative to ban the sales of new gas powered vehicles by 2035. That's just 13 years from now. California has been ahead of the curve as far EV's. The high cost of gas really propels the high number of EV's that are sold here. The point being, is that we'll see AM at death's door happen sooner here, than elsewhere in the country.
iHeart would be smart to figure out now, than later, where to put KFI, KOGO and KLAC, before it's too late.
No mention of KEIB. Ah well, not like anybody will miss that station, anyway. Except for perhaps the conservatives down in Orange County. Well, their Corvettes, Suburbans, and Ferraris still have AM.
That said, some aren't convinced that the Elon Musk-worshipping bros would tune to KFI en masse.
But there will be a large inventory of gas vehicles on the road at that point. At the speed that new cars are selling now, let's estimate that more than half of all cars will still be gas fueled in 13 years.
And remember, it is just a few car marks that have no AM. American built ones all seem to, and it appears that most Asian manufacturers of electrical have them. I'd like to see data on the new Japanese and Korean EVs as to AM radio capability.
Again, there are EVs that have AM, and there may be market pressure over the next few years on that subject.
They have plenty of time. I suspect that the "back door" for them is not FM, but the constant improvement of streaming apps and signal strength in vehicles.
KOGO is not even a top 10 biller in San Diego, and the loss of 25-54 for KFI is already pronounced so I suspect that the decline in listening to "AM formats" will take care of those stations before the lack of AM in cars will kill them off.
And KEIB has a rather wretched signal, particularly at night, down there.
While the early adopters of EVs may tend to be more progressive in their attitudes, the real restriction still is the price differential. What we have seen is a huge increase in the demand for used cars of late since new ones are so costly.,
Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq5, Nissan Leaf, and Toyota BZ4X are all including AM/FM radios as standard.
I don't think these manufacturers have other pure EVs on the market today in the US.
KilowattKat:
Here’s what you’re missing. My formula would be exactly the same if you substituted “gasoline-powered cars” for “AM radios” and stopped selling them today.
At the all-time record new car sales rate, it would take 16.5 years to completely convert the fleet. That’s if we NEVER sold another new ICE car starting right now—-instead of 13 years from now—-and if we had 16 and a half consecutive years of selling 18 million cars, which we’re nowhere near with supply chain issues and which we’ve never done twice in a row, much less 16 times in a row.
Even in California, EVs make up only 16.2% of new car sales this year—-a number that has risen with gas prices and is likely to decline as they do, to some extent.
There will be a tipping point before 2035, but we’re not even close to it.
And—-as noted before: The ONLY EVs without AM are Teslas, Audi E-Tron, Porsche Taycan, all Volvos and VW ID.4—and the ONLY automaker to say the reason is interference is Tesla. The others have done it because the EVs are low-volume cars and they can’t justify the cost of two radio specs—-one in the USA with AM radio and one in Europe without.
ALL Asian EVs and ALL American EVs apart from Tesla have AM radios.
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You left out Subaru Solterra. Kia, Hyundai and Nissan have additional EV models on the way within the next year. Nissan is probably discontinuing the Leaf.
California unveils proposal to ban new gas-fueled cars by 2035
The proposal, if enacted by the California Air Resources Board, would require 35% of new passenger vehicle sales to be powered by batteries or hydrogen by 2026.
If this is the case then car manufacturers would have to have end of life for gas cars around the 2030 time frame for cars made before 2010 to make way for more "Clean Cars" or "Alternative Fuel" cars. I know Biodiesel was brought up at some point for alternative fuels from gasoline but that went kaput as soon as research revealed the methods was not viable or interfered with food production.
The key here is “new passenger vehicles”.California unveils proposal to ban new gas-fueled cars by 2035
The proposal, if enacted by the California Air Resources Board, would require 35% of new passenger vehicle sales to be powered by batteries or hydrogen by 2026.www.cnbc.com
If this is the case then car manufacturers would have to have end of life for gas cars around the 2030 time frame for cars made before 2010 to make way for more "Clean Cars" or "Alternative Fuel" cars. I know Biodiesel was brought up at some point for alternative fuels from gasoline but that went kaput as soon as research revealed the methods was not viable or interfered with food production.
Nothing in the California plan does anything about existing used gasoline or diesel vehicles. There is no “end of life” goal.
Also, biodiesel needs a tailpipe and has emissions. The entire point of the 2035 cutoff is to stop introducing vehicles with tailpipe emissions into the world.
I believe KRKD 1150 had a religion format.
Wretched is an understatement for 1150s nighttime signal!
"The KRKD 1150AM transmitter atop the Spring Arcade Building in downtown Los Angeles began broadcasting in 1932 and continued until 1937 when the transmitter was moved. For years the frequency was shared with KFSG. In the 1960's the station was bought by Aimee Semple McPherson's International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Since then it has changed call signs several times and is now known as KTLK, with a transmitter located in the City of Industry."
The frequency was shared with KFSG, and the church of Aimee Semple McPherson bought it to expand KFSG.
"McPherson published the weekly Foursquare Crusader. She began broadcasting on radio in the early 1920s. In April 1922, she became the first woman to preach a sermon wirelessly.[70] With the opening of Foursquare Gospel-owned KFSG in 1924, she became the second woman granted a broadcast license by the Department of Commerce, which supervised broadcasting at the time." (Wikipedia)
The calls stood for The Arcade Building on Hollywood Blvd., but many of us pronounced it as "crooked".
In regards to KKGO, I have to admit that station appears to do better than I’d expect considering the format and market. It’s far from the bottom of 6+, and it seems like the station is run pretty well to be an independently owned station in market #2. It likely has low overhead, I don’t believe they have a big air staff. The Christmas switch seems to be a positive option for them as well.
Arcade Building---didn't know that!
Before they went 50kw and moved to the City of Industry (diplexed with 1020 KTNQ), 1150's towers were pushing 5kw from a hilltop NE of downtown L.A. And they shared the hilltop with the stick for... wait for it... KFSG *FM*.
Let the comments begin about ironies, and hilltops being bad places for AM towers...
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