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Kevin & Sluggo Cut At KLOS

Loverofradio said:
But he’s got a point. People also want quality. I’m not implying you’re saying this. But, the notion that people don’t care about anything other that music just isn’t true. Listeners demand talent don’t talk “as much”.
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But then they love morning shows that are mostly all talk. There is no rule other than: People want what they want. If they want to hear music, then that's what they want. They know where to get it. If they want to hear a morning show, or someone talking, then that's what they want, and they know where to get it. Radio isn't all things to all people. It's just part of the mix. It's wrong to say that if radio hired better DJs, then people wouldn't need Spotify. They are two different things, and people use them for different reasons.
 
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Emerson12 said:
The company found that people want to hear music in the afternoon and not two old guys chatting. I think it’s as simple as that.
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I agree with that. The reason they're gone is because of the show, not strictly to save money. They hired a new PD, and he made a change.

It's very likely that the next hosts will make less, but I don't think they were fired just because of money.
 
Emerson12 said:
The company found that people want to hear music in the afternoon and not two old guys chatting. I think it’s as simple as that.
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This is a good point that Meruelo shouldn't have to say in public statements.

Classic Rock stations, in particular, appeal to listeners because of the music. They will put up with a talk-intensive morning show because these days, what else is there? But every four minutes that Kevin and Sluggo were talking was perceived by the audience as taking up the time that one more song could fill.

After a while, they give up and look elsewhere for the music.
 
michael hagerty said:
John's a friend of mine, as well. And you're right---the KSLX library was cut, in terms of number of tracks, but expanded in terms of tempo and texture. It became a lot more accessible to more listeners (this was following KSLX's attempt to super-serve a male audience---"The FM means "For Men......Dammit!").

John has walked around for 45 years with the tag "the guy who killed KHJ." The fact is that his first full book at KHJ was an improvement from the one before it and a number the station hadn't seen in a year.

And set KHJ aside and John has improved the ratings of every station he's ever programmed.

My only criticism of John, and I've told him this to his face, is that he doesn't have a second act. At some point, the audience needs content folded back into the mix or the TSL grows shorter.
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30 years ago was also when I was across the street at KYOT trying to keep that station going despite the owner programming it as a personal jukebox. He bought the station with a 1.9, we played what he wanted, and took it down to a 0.9 in one book.

So the powers that be acquired a defunct smooth jazz station's library and hired a PD. While working on the technical aspects of getting that on the air, I still had to keep the Coyote running. I was pulled into the OM's office and was informed that John Sebastian had just started at KSLX and that my OM hated the man. "I want you to torment him." I was given some other colorful instructions that decorum prevents me from repeating, but you get the idea of the task I was handed. If John Sebastian cut the library at KSLX to 400 titles, I took 200 of the songs he was playing, set the artist separation to an hour fifteen, and let Selector rip to jam his own format down his throat for a month, jockless. Our numbers picked up in that last month, as we were finally playing songs people wanted to hear up until the moment we pulled the plug.

We made more money back then playing Kenny G than we did as the second classic rock station in town, so our owner did make the right choice, but it just goes to prove that a well programmed jukebox (which is his current Wow Factor format) can get ears, and people don't mind repetition if they really like the songs.
 
TheBigA said:
That's the thing a lot of boomers don't understand. They see this all as a radio problem, that if DJs were just better, people would listen to the radio. But it ignores that the main attraction for music radio was the MUSIC. So when the way people get music changes, it changes the way they use radio and what they expect from radio. The fans know everything they need to know about their favorite stars. They usually know more than the DJs. So once that happens, what could a DJ possibly add to the equation? Other than a show that has nothing to do with music, which is what most DJs do now.
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So there's the validation that: over the last 20 years, Radio has in fact cannibalized itself. They tried "more music, less talk," and technology was created so that people could download and stream music to their liking, without 20 minutes of commercials on a "free" radio station, so people decided they liked that better. "Changed the way people use radio," indeed. Not sure how Radio digs itself out of this. The worst part is, the same guys who grew up loving Radio--music AND DJ's AND imaging, etc--grew up to be managers and VP's and corporate lackeys all answering to bigger corporate lackeys who wanted to save a few bucks to make many more bucks for themselves, ruining what they once loved. And now, not that many of any Radio people are making that many bucks. The ones who did will retire soon, and they keep firing rather than hiring, so who will inherit this business to make it thrive again? Or will it go the way of the dodo...
 
RayydioLA said:
They tried "more music, less talk," and technology was created so that people could download and stream music to their liking,
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Keep in mind that radio did "more music, less talk" in the 1960s. This isn't something new.

And if you want more talk, and less music, that's also available on the radio.

As I often say: Radio is not just one thing. And the top-rated stations in LA play more music, less talk.

RayydioLA said:
Not sure how Radio digs itself out of this.
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Focus on the content that radio creates, which isn't music. And then place that content on multiple platforms, in multiple packages, to reach people where they are. Music is not the future. Because there is no consensus mass appeal music anymore.
 
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TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that radio did "more music, less talk" in the 1960s. This isn't something new.

And if you want more talk, and less music, that's also available on the radio.

As I often say: Radio is not just one thing. And the top-rated stations in LA play more music, less talk.



Focus on the content that radio creates, which isn't music. And then place that content on multiple platforms, in multiple packages, to reach people where they are. Music is not the future. Because there is no consensus mass appeal music anymore.
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"As I often say: Radio is not just one thing. And the top-rated stations in LA play more music, less talk."

Sure. But that means fewer jocks and fewer jobs, countering which is what I meant when I said "not sure how Radio digs out of this." Restoring jobs and careers and people making a living. Who gives a f about corporations surviving on being jockless jukeboxes. Even news and traffic voices and shifts have been cut since the pandemic. We kinda need that in major emergencies...which means all the time, so that they're paid and there and working and providing that service regularly. Hardly any stations were live to give info during the North Carolina hurricane last week.
 
RayydioLA said:
But that means fewer jocks and fewer jobs, countering which is what I meant when I said "not sure how Radio digs out of this." Restoring jobs and careers and people making a living.
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Radio stations are all private businesses. They're not a government jobs program. If the job is obsolete, then it goes away. DJs are disc jockeys, and there are no longer discs to jockey. There are files to manage. If you want to be a "personality," that's a different classification. You want a private business to "restore jobs?" You first have to restore the money to hire people. That won't happen with :30 spots. People want fewer commercials and more staff. That can't happen.

KLOS isn't owned by a big corporation. It's owned by Alex Meruelo. One guy with a private company. He owns four radio stations, not hundreds. We're talking about a small business competing against bigger corporations.

RayydioLA said:
We kinda need that in major emergencies...which means all the time, so that they're paid and there and working and providing that service regularly. Hardly any stations were live to give info during the North Carolina hurricane last week.
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Once again, radio is not supposed to replace emergency services. State & local governments are the ones responsible. The people you elect. You elect them to provide those services, not to be guests on Fox News. We have forgotten what government is. We need to do a better job electing leaders. Just because it's licensed by the government doesn't mean radio is part of the government. It isn't.
 
TheBigA said:
KLOS isn't owned by a big corporation. It's owned by Alex Meruelo. One guy with a private company. He owns four radio stations, not hundreds. We're talking about a small business competing against bigger corporations.
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Bingo.

And that gets lost easily, because KLOS is a heritage-bordering-on-legendary full-power FM signal in Market #2, that, when it was sold from a big corporation to a small business, kept its call letters, format, branding and (for a while) air staff.

In the 90s, big corporations swapped stations and swallowed each other. That phase is over. Big corporations don't want more (or in some cases, any) radio stations.

There's an assumption that a station like KLOS is a perpetual motion machine and it elevates the new owner. It's not the case.

We've talked here for decades about the importance of scale. Even with a couple of once-huge stations like Power106 and KLOS, Muerelo doesn't have the resources of an iHeart or Audacy.
 
michael hagerty said:
The most efficient means for elected representatives to communicate with the people they represent still includes interviews in the mass media. That includes local TV and radio, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX News, CNN, MSNBC and anyplace their constituents may be watching or listening.

It IS part of the job.
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Sure, but what I think Flipper is saying is that elected officials need to take care of the matter at hand first, and handle the media appearances afterwards. Too often these days we see that timeline reversed.

The best "sound bite" I ever got was when I did some of the remote coverage of a major brush fire in my home market of Oxnard-Ventura CA back in the 1970s. I was driving around areas that had been burned out -- including a few sparsely-spaced homes -- when I saw our Congressman inspecting the ruins of one house. (I recognized him instantly because I happened to have had gone to high school with his son.)

I got out of the mobile unit and asked him what he thought, and he said "while I do not know precisely what we need to do for these people who were forced from their homes and then lost them ... but I'm not going back to DC until I know that the wheels are in motion with the local authorities". What made that memorable is that he was tearing up while he said it and even choked a couple of times.

This is what I mean ... he hadn't held a press conference beforehand. He first went out to see for himself and his contact with the media was spur of the moment. He might well have said "no comment at this time" if it wasn't me -- someone he knew -- asking.
 
MassMusicMan said:
Nik Carter's heading west, reports RI:
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Funny: When the station posted a job listing, the general view here was the pay scale ($70-90K) was inadequate for the LA area. Yet they were able to get a nationally-known talent to take the job. My view then, as it is now, is that if you're on the radio in LA, there are many ways to augment your local radio money.

My question is will he actually move to LA, or stay in NYC?
 
TheBigA said:
Funny: When the station posted a job listing, the general view here was the pay scale ($70-90K) was inadequate for the LA area. Yet they were able to get a nationally-known talent to take the job. My view then, as it is now, is that if you're on the radio in LA, there are many ways to augment your local radio money.
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Don't know about you, but I'm not entirely convinced his regular salary is going to be in that range. Maybe this has changed, but having a track record of success and a reputation for talent used to be able to command a premium price. I can't imagine he's making what the two previous afternoon talents there made, but Nik Carter isn't just some classic rock jock who sent a package to KLOS. Joe Rockinroller from some station nobody's ever heard of in Casper, WY was never going to walk into KLOS for six figures, if even a candidate like that ever had a realistic possibility of getting the job.
 
Kent said:
Don't know about you, but I'm not entirely convinced his regular salary is going to be in that range.
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Me neither. I said earlier in this thread that the salary range was just for this job listing, and they're not bound by that range. Salaries are subject to negotiation. We also don't know how Meruelo will be merchandising his new hire. Will he do more with him besides hosting a daily local radio show. I would, if I was involved. One other thing I'll note is that Nik is about ten years younger than the guys he replaces.
 
Here is my question...Was this part of Meruelo plan all along?

To fire Kevin and sluggo and replace them with one name talent like they are about to do or did they never have any intention of replacing Kevin and sluggo to begin with but are forced to?

I find myself barely listening to Klos anymore since they fired marci for I really enjoyed her boot camp at noon. And I enjoyed Kevin and sluggo.
 
hotpatrick2004 said:
Here is my question...Was this part of Meruelo plan all along?
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Let's put it this way: They published the job listing within a week after the two left. See post #106 in this thread. So I would say that it was obvious he planned to fill the job rather than leave it unhosted.
 
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