If you compare KOST to other softer AC's around the country you find a lot of the same thing going on. It isn't really their fault, that's the format. Listen to top rated KOIT in San Francisco and you'll hear an even more laid back style almost like a beautiful music station. What most of these stations have is little head to head competition. In the 80's and even for a time in the 90's KOST had direct competition and vanquished all comers. Magic 106, K-Hits 97.1(KHTZ), KBIG, the various Lite FM's, KJOY and later EZ and Touch 98.7, they all came in behind KOST and over the years it's gone through different sounds, more real when it started, then more up in the mid 80's and then more laid back in the early 90's etc... But it always seemed to rise to the occasion to beat the competition and the listener was better off for it. Competition seems to breed better programming and KOST hasn't had any head to head competitors for many years. Well now that KIIS has a new rival perhaps someone will go up against KOST and raise the stakes again. You may think that KOST sucks, but it's always done what it was supposed to do and has been recognized as Station of the Year several times and has had it's share of highs as one of the few stations to be rated number one in the city in the 90's and into this decade. What if CBS or someone else like Emmis decided to go mainstream AC? Would the sound of AC get better in LA? I think it might.