KNX New Sounders

[david]

Just caught the new KNX sounders this AM (Friday 11/19/10), which I liked. They have a CBS network sounding qualilty to them. Nice hybrid of the traffic tones with the new underlying music bed for "Traffic on the 5s". The bottom of the hour cycle start sounds more punchy and gets to the anchors quicker than the previous jingle. IMO, the business music intro still needs tweaking as it does not "sound" financial oriented.
Thoughts?

 

[travisl5678]

They didn't get rid of the traffic tone did they?

 

[david]

They didn't get rid of the traffic tone did they?

Travis...as I wrote...."Nice hybrid of the traffic tones with the new underlying music bed for "Traffic on the 5s"." - which clearly states that the tones are there but are now laid on top of a musical bed".

 

[Uncle Rob]

Thoughts?

I prefer the old KNX when they had the full 5 minutes CBS Network News at the top of the hour, when they came on after that they'd give you a summary of all the news stories they would report on. That was great if you didn't have a lot of time to listen, you'd still be up to date. Sports at :15 and :45 after the hour, and they had some good sports guys too. They have one guy now who will put you to sleep and is inaccurate with a lot of his sports reporting. They used to do the Drama Hour at 9 p.m. every night (and repeat it at 2 a.m. the following morning) The 2 football games on Sunday and the Monday night game as well. They had more sports and sports coverage than the sports stations in town. It used to be the only AM station I listened to. Now it is unlistenable (to me at least). I listen to KFI for my news, they have a much better and much more in depth news coverage than KNX and KNX does it 24 hours a day. Not sure, but if memory serves me correctly they had much better numbers with all that than they do now.

 

[musicman3355]

I'm just glad they did not get rid of the traffic sounder. ;D

 

[davideduardo]

[I prefer the old KNX when they had the full 5 minutes CBS Network News at the top of the hour, when they came on after that they'd give you a summary of all the news stories they would report on.

The possible explanation for that is that in diary measurement benchmarks such as the CBS news created memorability and thus a tendency to enhance the writing down of listening in the diary. The PPM system is not as dependent on benchmarks that jog the memory, and it may well be that analysis of PPM data has shown that 5 minutes of national and international news was too much...

That was great if you didn't have a lot of time to listen, you'd still be up to date. Sports at :15 and :45 after the hour, and they had some good sports guys too.

And they had the horse racing report, which was likely an instant tune-out for many. They may have discovered at KNX that too much sports was overkill... perhaps discovering that the heavy sports fan has many other sources for sports news and came to KNX for news.

They used to do the Drama Hour at 9 p.m. every night (and repeat it at 2 a.m. the following morning)

And that was guaranteed to drive off pretty much anyone under 60. Again, "not what I came for." Same with play by play... muddies the waters and confuses listeners.

It used to be the only AM station I listened to.

If you are over 55, as I would be tempted to conclude by your mention of network news and the drama hour, your favorites were a sea anchor that kept KNX from improving its sales demo performance.

Not sure, but if memory serves me correctly they had much better numbers with all that than they do now.

They actually have much better numbers now, but we have to keep in mind that "before" was diary measurement and "now" is PPM, and there is no way to compare those side by side. In addition, they had KFWB as a competitor, and now they don't. Finally, LA has become increasingly more ethnic and the appeal of all-news is not uniform across different groups...

 

[goriajk]

I'm just glad they did not get rid of the traffic sounder. ;D

I Agree, to a point. The overlay sounder is weird, but it's going to take some time to get used to the change. Otherwise, it's OK. However, I prefer KCBS 74 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more than KNX, and I live here. KCBS is awesome, KNX is different from what it was just a few years ago (when I worked there - I miss Ed Pyle). As Mr. Gleason pointed out, L.A. is a different animal (than SF) and that truly scares me. Even ethnic buddies of mine up north are more tuned in to News like KQED and KCBS than KNX OR KPCC down here - but my friends do have college degrees and work for the Big 'T' (NYSE) like yours truly... ;D JG

 

[weeinewsradio59]

I'll retro back to the 80's when I lived in Torrance. The jingle package was most memorable. I believe elements of it were still in use until just recently.

The Drama Hour was a nice break from the news of the day. I wonder if the target demo would have been listening at 9pm, anyway.

Jackie Olden, then Mellinda Lee's Food News Hour was a snoozer around noon.

The horse race results probably mattered back then, as Del Mar and other tracks advertised on KNX. Del Mar had a great Bing Crosby voicer in song.

Sports in PM drive was done by Keith Olberman, and say what you will of him, he had a great deadpan/ironic deliver that was pretty funny.

Bill Keane and Dona Dower (sp) on traffic - Keane's "cattywampus" and other taglines amused.

Don't know what numbers they pulled back then, but it was a great, tight-sounding style.

Just a fan, who still listens - I do miss the 5-min CBS TOH news..

 

[radiocph]

Sports in PM drive was done by Keith Olberman, and say what you will of him, he had a great deadpan/ironic deliver that was pretty funny.

The late Jim Healy (over at KMPC) used to call him the "K.O. Kid."

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Sports in PM drive was done by Keith Olberman, and say what you will of him, he had a great deadpan/ironic deliver that was pretty funny.

The late Jim Healy (over at KMPC) used to call him the "K.O. Kid."

And if Healy was around now, the "K.O. Kid" would have been mercilessly savaged many times over by now. And when Healy dresses you down, it IS true.

 

[BeachBum]

The traffic sounder is terrible. It sounds like the computer is accidentally firing two elements simultaneously. There is no musicality or flow to it. They would be better off putting the new stinger in front of the old sounder, which the traffic jock would talk over, if they felt the need to update the old one without getting rid of it.

And David--do you really have to explain to a fan why all of their preferences are horrible choices for the station? You come off as dismissive of a listener's tastes rather than educational. You also come off as insulting, and I don't think listeners deserve that.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

They used to do the Drama Hour at 9 p.m. every night (and repeat it at 2 a.m. the following morning)

And that was guaranteed to drive off pretty much anyone under 60. Again, "not what I came for." Same with play by play... muddies the waters and confuses listeners.

I'm 29 and a half now, and I used to enjoy listening to the Drama Hour when KNX aired it. I wonder if there are any terrestrial-based stations that carry similar programming now? I remember 580 KMJ had When Radio Was at one time, as did 1160 KSL, but I'm not sure if they have it anymore. I know 760 KFMB has the one by Jim French Productions, but it's only once a week.

 

[Joey1986]

They used to do the Drama Hour at 9 p.m. every night (and repeat it at 2 a.m. the following morning)

And that was guaranteed to drive off pretty much anyone under 60. Again, "not what I came for." Same with play by play... muddies the waters and confuses listeners.

I'm 29 and a half now, and I used to enjoy listening to the Drama Hour when KNX aired it. I wonder if there are any terrestrial-based stations that carry similar programming now? I remember 580 KMJ had When Radio Was at one time, as did 1160 KSL, but I'm not sure if they have it anymore. I know 760 KFMB has the one by Jim French Productions, but it's only once a week.

Do you live in the L.A. area? I ask because weeknights at 9:00, KGIL-AM "Retro 1260" airs When Radio Was.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

They used to do the Drama Hour at 9 p.m. every night (and repeat it at 2 a.m. the following morning)

And that was guaranteed to drive off pretty much anyone under 60. Again, "not what I came for." Same with play by play... muddies the waters and confuses listeners.

I'm 29 and a half now, and I used to enjoy listening to the Drama Hour when KNX aired it. I wonder if there are any terrestrial-based stations that carry similar programming now? I remember 580 KMJ had When Radio Was at one time, as did 1160 KSL, but I'm not sure if they have it anymore. I know 760 KFMB has the one by Jim French Productions, but it's only once a week.

Do you live in the L.A. area? I ask because weeknights at 9:00, KGIL-AM "Retro 1260" airs When Radio Was.

No, I'm about a mile or so south of El Cajon & east of La Mesa, about 12-15 miles east of San Diego. I can sometimes hear 1260 here but the signal isn't anywhere close to as strong as it would be if I was climbing the tower.

 

[Joe Rouse]

I'm from Sacramento and was just in SoCal for a couple of days. I heard the new traffic sounder and I liked the change..a mix of old and new. But like Uncle Rob, I miss the old KNX, with the full 5 minutes of network news and all the regular features. When I was working graveyard shifts monitoring road construction, I was able to pick up KNX on the skip. My shifts usually started at 9 so I missed the drama hour but I always knew I could catch it at 2 AM. And in the meantime I could catch "When Radio Was" on KSL from Salt Lake City at 10 PM.

For those who may be interested in the 1990s KNX jingles and bumper music, this link is sure to bring back memories. I know it did for me. http://donswaim.com/knxnewspackage.mp3

By the way, is the KNX ID legal? They say "KNX 1070 Los Angeles", and then the KTWV calls, which I think were also not legal. I'm really surprised that a 50k watt CBS O&O is able to get away with what appears to be an improper TOH ID.

 

[fybush]

A station's frequency is always a permissible insertion between calls and city of license, so "KNX 1070 Los Angeles" is perfectly acceptable. And they're simulcast on 94.7-HD2 (or is it 94.7-HD3?), so there had better be a "KTWV Los Angeles" in there somewhere, probably in the form "KTWV HD2 Los Angeles."

 

[oldiesfan6479]

The last time I heard the KNX legal--probably a few weeks ago--it aired something like:

"KNX 1070 and HD, KTWV HD3 Los Angeles..."

IIRC, after the COL they added Orange County and maybe a SoCal reference.

While the verbiage is not in its strictest legal format, Professor Fybush has mentioned here
on R-I that the FCC, in effect, considers this as a reasonable attempt for a TOH ID, or as I
like to say, "close enough for government work."

The other oddity--but still within the FCC's current laissez-faire line of thinking--is that KNX
has been doing its legal ID at about :56-:57, rather than just before the TOH and the bong.
A bit better, I suppose, than buried between spots six and seven in the :50 stopset on one
of those FM music stations. ;D

 

[Joe Rouse]

Thanks everyone for the responses. I figured there was just no way a big station like that could get away with an illegal ID.

As for not using the ID right at the top of the hour, that is fairly new. When I was last down in SoCal back at the end of July, they were ID'ing at the top of the hour. Perhaps it coincides with the new sounders?

 

[travisl5678]

Does anyone know what song it is that KFI plays going into the Top of The hour news

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Does anyone know what song it is that KFI plays going into the Top of The hour news

"Round and Round" By Ratt.