Ah, so it worked like it did for magazines at a smoke and magazine shop my dad used to drag me to as a kid. He would buy copies of the previous month's mystery and science fiction pulp magazines, all of which either had half-covers or covers completely torn off. I assume these were unsold copies that the shop's operators weren't returning to the distributor but damaging so they could be sold for pennies.
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Ah, so it worked like it did for magazines at a smoke and magazine shop my dad used to drag me to as a kid. He would buy copies of the previous month's mystery and science fiction pulp magazines, all of which either had half-covers or covers completely torn off. I assume these were unsold copies that the shop's operators weren't returning to the distributor but damaging so they could be sold for pennies.
They had to be sent back to the distributor for the shop to get credit. If they did it your way, then the shop had to eat the loss.
Several decades ago a friend of mine worked at a chain bookstore in the mall where I worked. They had a magazine rep that would pull old issues when stocking the new issues of the magazines. They simply tore the front cover (either off or in half) and the store employees told to toss them in the dumpster. I'm assuming the rep could inventory that and offer the appropriate number returned. She'd get a couple of folks (I was one) to look through and grab anything we wanted before she chunked them in the dumpster.
Yes, the cover is what they need to return in order to get credit. As in, at a liquor store, if a bottle breaks in the stockroom, you take the neck of the bottle and the sealed cap to get credit for breakage. The employees can pour the liquor out of the broken bottle, but in order to get credit, they return the neck and sealed cap.
Were they free and clear, after that, to make a small profit on the coverless copies, or could they have gotten in trouble for not discarding or giving away those copies?
Are you asking if it was allowed or if it happened? Two different questions. I imagine it was greatly frowned upon, but happened.
I was tuning in to 1260 when it was classical, and then I was pleasantly surprised to hear Sinatra, etc. for a while. I'm 53, so I'm obviously at the upper end of demographic desirability for any advertisers, but I love this new format. It reminds me of what I used to hear on KRTH back in the 70s, only with more variety. 
I agree that this format can't possibly last, but for now I'm going to enjoy it. I discovered that "I Want Candy" wasn't originally performed by Bow Wow Wow, so this is obviously educational as well as entertaining. (I also enjoy seeing everyone talk about how they used to buy 45s and albums. I grew up in La Crescenta, and there was one record store I always used to go to on Foothill.)
I agree that this format can't possibly last, but for now I'm going to enjoy it. I discovered that "I Want Candy" wasn't originally performed by Bow Wow Wow, so this is obviously educational as well as entertaining. (I also enjoy seeing everyone talk about how they used to buy 45s and albums. I grew up in La Crescenta, and there was one record store I always used to go to on Foothill.)I've never worked in a bookstore, but I was told by a friend that did - that this was the procedure for paperbacks way back when...just rip off, and return the cover for credit. He told me the practice was stopped because bookstores would often then sell the coverless books at a discount and pocket all the money.
At some point--maybe in the '80s--publishers started printing a paragraph on the copyright page saying something like "If you have purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that it is stolen property and neither the publisher nor the author has received payment for this 'stripped book'."
According to LAradio.com, "over the next 30 days, K-SURF will evolve into ‘Classic Hits and Oldies’ featuring the hit songs of the 60s, 70s and 80s, with some 50s. More 70s and 80s music and less 50s songs."
With all the teens who got into music during the British Invasion years now over 65, it's probably necessary to the station to finally re-center its music mix, as the fans of '50s and early '60s pop styles are now dying off fairly rapidly. I'm surprised that any '50s titles at all will be retained, as they are sure to be button-punchers for most listeners whose teen years were spent with the music of the '70s and '80s. There's a huge musical gulf separating doo-wop from new wave.
It's an AM station with a translator. A minor change to the playlist won't matter much. The demographics will still be 55 plus. Maybe he thinks "rebranding" will work on potential clients. If he's rich, he doesn't need clients anyway...
I'm not in LA but if I was I would listen. A great mix of Oldies including tunes almost never heard on the radio these days (talking about Doo Wop). I didn't see anything that would have me hitting the pre-set but then I am 16 years your senior.
Uh, no we're not!
People 65 and up AREN'T dying off fairly rapidly? Then who are? I thought dying is what older people do a lot sooner than younger people do. Has basic human biology changed recently? Or are you implying that there are huge numbers of younger people who enjoy '50s-style music, despite their characterization as outliers by people whose job it is to monitor that sort of thing?
I love the station and would listen more if it wasn't for the terrible (really terrible!) sound quality. Someone over on Don's site recently talked about how they are playing stereo recordings through only one channel, thus in a lot of cases, missing entire instrument parts and vocals. That should be unacceptable to Saul, who I know reads the site, so I am hoping that part is addressed soon. What I find objectionable is the tremendous compression - makes it unlistenable to me.
As for the demos, I am still in the saleable demos and I like that kind of music, therefore I am what is known as an "outlier" whose opinions don't count whenever opinions are solicited. Right David?
There's the choice when you play old records from the 60s: You can just pull one channel and sometimes miss entire instrument or vocal parts (pre-pan pot stereo), or you can mix the two channels and have phase cancelation from the mis-matched fake stereo of the era. The only real solution is fix each individual issue one at a time when you load the song into your hard drive.
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In ratings, every listener with a meter counts. The fact is that stations like this LA oldies operation have so few listeners in the under-55 age groups that they barely show, if at all, in the ratings in the ages that advertisers look at.
As to station research, radio operators don't research groups of people where very poor performance will be expected. My exaggerated comparison would be the case of a Regional Mexican station inviting Asian immigrants to their research projects.
The performance of 60's and early 70's oldies is going to, mostly, determined by people with a median age of about 60 to 65. If they research 45 year olds who are younger than the music itself, they will find few partisans and the research will be invalid.
While formats may have outliers at the fringe of their target, stations don't address those people. They want to know how to get the most listening out of the core target group. Any outliers are a bonus.
Clients who don't use ratings are the likely advertisers of this oldies station. They are business that actually want to appeal to seniors and are looking for the few voices in local media who actually deliver seniors efficiently.
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