Saul Levine back to classical music

[radiocph]

As long as he is going to do the format of the month, why doesn't he actually do the format of the month:

January - All Elvis
February - All Motown
March - All Big Bands
April - Music of Your Life
May - All Beatles
June - Jazz
July - Country
August - 50's and 60's oldies (the kind KRTH won't play)
September - AAA/Americana
October - Talk (Election Season)
November - "Billboard" - Any song off the Billboard Top 40 charts from 1950-2000, random rotation without regard to format
December - Christmas

Most of these formats have already been on the wheel and none would be out of place on a Saul station. Then I would have at least one reason to tune in every month.

You forgot all-traffic ...

 

[recto101]

Look at the other thing why would Mount Wilson say KMZT 1260am is marketing to San Fran? I live here in Solano county if I don't like whats on KDFC 89.9 I can just switch to KXPR 88.9 FM the classical station in Sacramento.

 

[ercjncpr]

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You forgot all-traffic ...
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all traffic was tried and failed miserably because the audience average listening time was no longer than five mins...too difficult to sell.

 

[travisl5678]

They really tried All-Traffic?

 

[Joey1986]

I think radioguy39nj meant 1650 AM under the call letters KKTR and the branding "K-Traffic" (back when it was owned by Saul Levine). That station has since become KFOX ("Radio Seoul"), a Korean-language station, owned by HK Media, Inc.

 

[K6JHU]

Sure it wasn't the Hesperia station on 540 before he moved it to TJ?

 

[davideduardo]

Sure it wasn't the Hesperia station on 540 before he moved it to TJ?

540 did not move to Tijuana; it was not licensed to Hesperia, either

The Tijuana operation existed before and the Costa Mesa station protected it by transmitting from near Hesperia in a narrow lobe towards the Community of License in Orange County. 540 is a Mexican clear channel, so the Costa Mesa station had to protect the Mexican border, not just individual stations there.

540 served the purpose of making Levine eligable for an X-Band license as Costa Mesa was a city of over 100,000 with no local service. They surrendered the 540 license when they got 1650... which he sold later for $35 million.

 

[davideduardo]

all traffic was tried and failed miserably because the audience average listening time was no longer than five mins...too difficult to sell.

More than that, it failed because it was an X Band station with very minimal coverage of the MSA and even less when parts of drive time were night hours.

 

[davideduardo]

Don't forget smartphone apps! The market K-Mozart would be seeking is upscale, has lots of disposable income and likely owns a smartphone and probably a car that has an auxiliary jack for such purposes.

The demo for classical now is more into Jitterbug phones and not iPhones.

 

[ocer]

Maybe they'd get more listeners/revenue (and maybe stick with a format longer!) if they could get FM translators to fill in coverage gaps for the benefit of those who don't have HD radios (that's about 99.999% of us!) or are not near a computer (such as when driving).

Don't forget smartphone apps! The market K-Mozart would be seeking is upscale, has lots of disposable income and likely owns a smartphone and probably a car that has an auxiliary jack for such purposes.

What incentive is there for them to tune into K-Mozart? Anyone who is doing this is probably already streaming some other classical station.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Don't forget smartphone apps! The market K-Mozart would be seeking is upscale, has lots of disposable income and likely owns a smartphone and probably a car that has an auxiliary jack for such purposes.

The demo for classical now is more into Jitterbug phones and not iPhones.

The great ego has spoken again. You are so out of it. You are really not an expert on everything in radio or music but you want us to think you are.

 

[Carmine5]

Isn't 1260 still running HD? Maybe Levine thinks classical on AM will be acceptable because it's HD Radio. I'm sure HD Radio owners in L.A. County are grateful--all two dozen of them.

I'm not sure what's worse; hearing Brahms with buzzes, whistles and hiss mixed into the audio or hearing Brahms in synthetic parametric stereo.

It was announced that David Benoit is joining KMZT/1260 as air talent. Reminded me of a mini-trend that seems to be happening in which smooth jazz is making its way to AM. Maybe when Levine spins the wheel of formats again with 1260 he'll try smooth jazz next.

 

[davideduardo]

The great ego has spoken again. You are so out of it. You are really not an expert on everything in radio or music but you want us to think you are.

Excuse me, but the facts are fairly clear that the audience for classical is overwhelmingly 55+.

Taking San Francisco and KDFC, a non-Holiday book from last year showed 75% of the listening cume to be by persons over 55, and in AQH the figure approached 85%. Nearly half the cume is, in fact, over 65.

If the usage of smart phones by demographic cell is examined, the lower incidences are in the higher demos... of course, this could be said of nearly any new, high technology device.

I may not be an expert on classical music stations, having owned only one of them and having managed only one other, but I can make statements based on verifiable facts.

In this case, the fact is that spreading the usage of a classical music stream appreciably via smart phone apps or access is not likely to create much momentum for the operation given the age and limited smart phone use of the target listener.

 

[ronkaram]

I think Saul is a guy who has a passion for classical music and jazz and he would like to have a station with either of those formats whether they make money or not as long as he can afford it. I think he's getting up in years and probably would like to sign off with a station format that he really enjoys.

 

[Carmine5]

I think Saul is a guy who has a passion for classical music and jazz and he would like to have a station with either of those formats whether they make money or not as long as he can afford it. I think he's getting up in years and probably would like to sign off with a station format that he really enjoys.

How about a format he can stick with and make it pay off? OC Register's Gary Lycan devoted most of his Sunday column to 1260's format change. All I could think of is "why?" The station will only be classical for a couple of months or so. A far more interesting column is why Levine can't seem to come up with a winning format for 1260.

 

[travisl5678]

The great ego has spoken again. You are so out of it. You are really not an expert on everything in radio or music but you want us to think you are.

Excuse me, but the facts are fairly clear that the audience for classical is overwhelmingly 55+.

Taking San Francisco and KDFC, a non-Holiday book from last year showed 75% of the listening cume to be by persons over 55, and in AQH the figure approached 85%. Nearly half the cume is, in fact, over 65.

If the usage of smart phones by demographic cell is examined, the lower incidences are in the higher demos... of course, this could be said of nearly any new, high technology device.

I may not be an expert on classical music stations, having owned only one of them and having managed only one other, but I can make statements based on verifiable facts.

In this case, the fact is that spreading the usage of a classical music stream appreciably via smart phone apps or access is not likely to create much momentum for the operation given the age and limited smart phone use of the target listener.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that most Classical listeners are old, and most older people don't have smartphones (or know how to use them)

 

[LKellerIII]

Isn't 1260 still running HD? Maybe Levine thinks classical on AM will be acceptable because it's HD Radio. I'm sure HD Radio owners in L.A. County are grateful--all two dozen of them.

I'm not sure what's worse; hearing Brahms with buzzes, whistles and hiss mixed into the audio or hearing Brahms in synthetic parametric stereo.

I was one of the "two-dozen" Bay Area listeners with an HD radio in one of my cars- until my son parked it in a bad neighborhood and the stereo was stolen.

But I did get a chance to compare AM HD with FM stereo - with All News KCBS. KCBS here simulcasts on FM, and also runs on AM HD. To my ears, the AM HD signal sounded superior in sound quality to the regular 740 AM, but the HD2 was still significantly inferior to the FM stereo. The word "artificial" describes the AM HD sound well - it seemed to have an odd re-verb that you couldn't hear on either the regular AM or the FM simulcast. The FM sound was much cleaner. And that's for news - I assume music would be worse.

 

[recto101]

Look David Benoit does afternoon drive on KMZT. I thought his albums were released on Smooth Jazz station in the 1990's

 

[davideduardo]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that most Classical listeners are old, and most older people don't have smartphones (or know how to use them)

That's what I thought when I made the Jitterbug remark, but I guess I was wrong.

 

[davideduardo]

All I could think of is "why?"

Like the gorilla, because he can. Levine has owned 105.1 since around 1961, so he can likely afford to try things on a station most oweners would have given up on long ago.