Which Defunct LA radio stations deserve a second chance?

[michael hagerty]

The trouble with all this is that there are reasons every one of those stations isn't around today. Changing demographics and ethnicity, the virtual abandonment of the AM dial, and the death of key players are the big ones.
The fact is that the stations that survive today have far more impressive track records than the legends we miss.
Consider:
KIIS-FM has been the CHR leader for 30 years.
KOST has been the dominant AC for 30 years.
KRTH is coming up on 20 years as a strong Classic Hits station.
KFI is 23 years in as a monster talk station.
Power 106 has been the dominant rhythmic CHR for 25 years.
KROQ's still strong after 32 years doing what's now called alternative.
The Wave is 24 years old.
KNX has been all-news for 43 years.

Compare that with the legends:
KFWB: 10 years in Top 40, dominant for 5 of those.
KHJ: 15 years in Top 40, dominant for 14 of those.
KMET: 19 years as an album rocker, dominant for only a handful (1977-1980).
KMPC: 20 years as a full service personality MOR, followed by 8 years of declining ratings as a full service Adult Contemporary.

They were all great stations. But the stations on the air right now deserve a lot more credit for their position and longevity than they get.

Yes - it's occurred to me that there's actually much more stability in radio formats since de-regulation than before. Since Clear Channel and CBS hoovered up all those stations in the 90s, I can think of only three stations among those two corporations in the Bay Area that have changed formats from their prior owners: Clear Channel's KKSF which dropped Smooth Jazz for classic rock last year; and for CBS, the two versions of KFRC - one became MOViN, and then the briefly resurrected KFRC which followed the doomed Free FM format, then changed to the KCBS-AM simulcast. But the second one doesn't really count, in my mind, because CBS had just acquired the frequency from a former religious broadcaster and it had been a non-comm for almost 40 years.

Other than that, all of the corporately owned stations retain their pre 97 formats, with some tweaking here and there.

In San Francisco, and to a lesser extent in L.A., yes. There has been chaos elsewhere.

My point wasn't that de-reg and colossal corporate ownership was good, just that there are some stations that should be given their due (all of which have their roots in the years before de-reg).

 

[davideduardo]

Look at the ratings that KHJ had, no station has those kind of ratings now since the format is fragmented into several pieces.

Actually, the last time KHJ had a number as good as KIIS-FM's current one was Fall, 1974. And KIIS-FM has competition from Power and AMP...whose numbers are as good as KHJ's were in the Fall of 1977 (actually better, because it's a 3.5 share of a much larger market).

And add in KXOL, KSSE and KXOS as CHR variants, too. In 1974, there was Zero Hispanic listening (trick statement... ;D ) while today there are 8 or so shares going to Spanish language CHR options.

 

[briancraig]

In 1974, wouldn't KALI and KWKW each have about a 2 share?

 

[BJordan]

The trouble with all this is that there are reasons every one of those stations isn't around today. Changing demographics and ethnicity, the virtual abandonment of the AM dial, and the death of key players are the big ones.

The fact is that the stations that survive today have far more impressive track records than the legends we miss.

Consider:

KIIS-FM has been the CHR leader for 30 years.

KOST has been the dominant AC for 30 years.

KRTH is coming up on 20 years as a strong Classic Hits station.

KFI is 23 years in as a monster talk station.

Power 106 has been the dominant rhythmic CHR for 25 years.

KROQ's still strong after 32 years doing what's now called alternative.

The Wave is 24 years old.

KNX has been all-news for 43 years.


Compare that with the legends:

KFWB: 10 years in Top 40, dominant for 5 of those.

KHJ: 15 years in Top 40, dominant for 14 of those.

KMET: 19 years as an album rocker, dominant for only a handful (1977-1980).

KMPC: 20 years as a full service personality MOR, followed by 8 years of declining ratings as a full service Adult Contemporary.


They were all great stations. But the stations on the air right now deserve a lot more credit for their position and longevity than they get.[/b


I agree too. KJLH has been around for 30 years as long they play urban music ill still contiune to listen. Who cares about the direction they are still on the air. Im from KC radio sucks there big time. Country and Rock are your only choices only a handful of CHR, Urban and AC stations. Our LA stations are owned by major corperations so the playlist are tight and the dj's have little play compared to the 80's and 90's. San Dieago radio sucks too so we I say we are better off. Just because what you hear in other markets doesnt mean it will work in LA. How many times Rythnmic AC was tried here in this town and it never took off. They wouldnt give it time to grow. But back to what I was saying radio here is fine. There are other sources of music now to choose from.

Who would've thought KJLH would still be on the air. They had a whole bunch of Phases such as Rhythm 102.3 KJLH in the early to mid 90's, Mid 90's to Late 90's The Artist You Know Songs You Love, Early 2000 to Mid 2000's Today's R&B & Classic Soul. 2005 to 2006 LA's Original Heart & Soul. 2006-Present Radio Free.

 

[wdb2003]

Well there is no doubt that Stevie is pumping his own money into the station but who cares. Its still on the air serving its purpose as a urban station for Los Angeles

 

[davideduardo]

In 1974, wouldn't KALI and KWKW each have about a 2 share?

That or a little less... and small shares for XEGM, too.

 

[michael hagerty]

In 1974, wouldn't KALI and KWKW each have about a 2 share?

That or a little less... and small shares for XEGM, too.

KALI was #10 with a 3.3...KWKW had a 1.7...so there's a combined 5 share.

KALI's performance was pretty typical for the period from 1967 to 1974. In fall 1972 they were actually #6 with a 4.0. They fell off a cliff after '74.

The numbers I have are for stations with a 1.0 or better. XEGM must have been in the fractions.

 

[BJordan]

Well there is no doubt that Stevie is pumping his own money into the station but who cares. Its still on the air serving its purpose as a urban station for Los Angeles

KJLH does play his old records regulary.

 

[wdb2003]

Of course hes the owner and Stevie music is a staple at Urban AC and Urban Oldies radio

 

[davideduardo]

In 1974, wouldn't KALI and KWKW each have about a 2 share?

That or a little less... and small shares for XEGM, too.

KALI was #10 with a 3.3...KWKW had a 1.7...so there's a combined 5 share.

KALI's performance was pretty typical for the period from 1967 to 1974. In fall 1972 they were actually #6 with a 4.0. They fell off a cliff after '74.

The numbers I have are for stations with a 1.0 or better. XEGM must have been in the fractions.

Those were Arbitron numbers, I presume. We have to keep in mind that there was more than one service doing ratings, and many stations and buyers also used Pulse even beyond 1974; Pulse issued its last report in 1978, IIRC (I got a bill for it, too). Spanish language stations tended to like the Pulse in-home technique, since Arbitron had not developed Personal Placement and Retrieval for high latino areas as there were no statistics to identify them accurately.

XEGM was generally a 0.8 type station, and was joined by XEPRS in that era, another one with that sort of shares. 1500 was Spanish for several years as Radio Recuerdo, too. Generally, the stations in Spanish had around 5 shares in the 1973-1975 period. There was no DST at the time, and of course, there were no Hispanic numbers and no weighting for Latinos.

There were, of course, no shares for Hispanics, as the term "Hispanc" was not invented until the late 70's to create a non-race based way of identifying Latinos in the Census for 1980. The whole Hispanic thing was to allow the government to know how to enforce EEO and discrimination legislation. Through 1970, well over 90% of Latinos were counted as "white" and there were no real breakouts.

 

[michael hagerty]

In 1974, wouldn't KALI and KWKW each have about a 2 share?

That or a little less... and small shares for XEGM, too.

KALI was #10 with a 3.3...KWKW had a 1.7...so there's a combined 5 share.

KALI's performance was pretty typical for the period from 1967 to 1974. In fall 1972 they were actually #6 with a 4.0. They fell off a cliff after '74.

The numbers I have are for stations with a 1.0 or better. XEGM must have been in the fractions.

Those were Arbitron numbers, I presume. We have to keep in mind that there was more than one service doing ratings, and many stations and buyers also used Pulse even beyond 1974; Pulse issued its last report in 1978, IIRC (I got a bill for it, too). Spanish language stations tended to like the Pulse in-home technique, since Arbitron had not developed Personal Placement and Retrieval for high latino areas as there were no statistics to identify them accurately.

XEGM was generally a 0.8 type station, and was joined by XEPRS in that era, another one with that sort of shares. 1500 was Spanish for several years as Radio Recuerdo, too. Generally, the stations in Spanish had around 5 shares in the 1973-1975 period. There was no DST at the time, and of course, there were no Hispanic numbers and no weighting for Latinos.

There were, of course, no shares for Hispanics, as the term "Hispanc" was not invented until the late 70's to create a non-race based way of identifying Latinos in the Census for 1980. The whole Hispanic thing was to allow the government to know how to enforce EEO and discrimination legislation. Through 1970, well over 90% of Latinos were counted as "white" and there were no real breakouts.

Actually, David...up to and including Fall '74, it was Pulse. After that, the L.A. numbers I have are Arbitron.

 

[BJordan]

I'm putting in another vote for KACE & KKBT their not coming back. I never got a chance to listen to KACE but I read articles about it though. I'm sure that It was the best Urban in town.

 

[Dusty Dale Brooks]

Many of these responses are purely nostalgic, and were those stations to actually come back they wouldn't last because most would skew 55-to-death.

One I didn't see was KKGO--The Jazz Station. They were great at what they did. Moreover, they were true to the jazz idiom and had the respect of both the straight ahead and progressive jazz communities.

They might have a chance today, as long as they kept the word "smooth" out of their positioning statement.

 

[calguy]

It would be fun if there were a station able to play nothing but old, unscoped airchecks of classic Southern California radio station.

Then we would always have a place to go on the dial to those times that will never come back.

Fortunately there are several "aircheck' sites like Reel Radio and Airchexx.com that you can hear these stations on. Some are even un-scoped. It's a fun way to catch a memory or two...

Lots of talk about stations and their longevity. There is a lack of competition in the LA market for most stations now, but it wasn't always that way. When KHJ was still doing well it had plenty of competition. In 1977 numbers were being fragmented by KFI and KTNQ, plus a number of stations on FM that were playing the hits as well. At one time there were 5 rockers KMET, KLOS, KWST, KNAC and KROQ all going after a segment of the rock audience. KOST may not have a direct competitor now, but in the 80's & 90's it went up against KHTZ, KBIG, several K-Lite's and Touch 98.7. Forgive me for not recalling all of those in the arena, but of those, none ever beat KOST. Go back further in radio history and you'll find multiple stations for most formats. By contrast, KIIS hasn't had as many competitors over it's dominant years from the 80's on. KKHR comes to mind as does AMP and to a degree Power 106. KIQQ was there too, but not for long as it died as a Top 40 in the 80's. Even oldies had it's multiples like KRLA, KRTH and KODJ/KCBS FM. There are now very few head to head competitors in the LA market, instead we have many formats that sound different yet go after the same demos rather that many of the same format going after those numbers.

There are many stations that I would like to see return. KHJ is a no brainer as it's place in history is etched into the brains of most of those old enough to remember. KMPC in it's prime was pretty great too as was KMET. But most have had their time in the sun and will never return. Thanks goodness people recorded some of these for posterity, or we might forget what they sounded like.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

A letter writer to Don Barret's LA Radio site a few weeks back mentioned the Mighty 690 (early 80's version, when they returned to Top 40), noting it is the only station she could positively identify just by looking at its playlist. So True!!

They played everything across the pop spectrum. Imagine hearing all of the following on the same station:

Air Supply
AC/DC
Oak Ridge Boys ("Elvira")
Devo
Lionel Richie
Tommy Tutone
Toni Basil
Donna Summer
Novelty songs like Joe Dolce's "Shaddap You Face"
Pink Floyd
The Charlie Daniels Band
George Benson
Taco ("Puttin' on the Ritz")
Styx
Christopher Cross

And that's just off the top of my head. They always had a tight rotation, but the variety of genres amongst the song titles made it much more listenable than most Top 40 stations at the time.

It was odd in a few other ways too. The jocks were somewhat personality-less, almost exclusively reading liner cards - but it was total UPTEMPO top-40 line reading. The only one I remember by name is Michael Boss, who handled afternoons. This station was built entirely on overall uptempo presentation and contests, some of which were quite clever (no dropping turkeys though).

The station, due to Mexican gov't ownership and broadcast restrictions, did not broadcast live. The studios were in San Diego, but of course the 77,000 watt towers were south of the border, I believe in Ensenada. So each day was recorded one day in advance on tape in San Diego, and driven down to the Mexican studios for playback the following day. The station sounded very live, but in fact never was! And it was a blowtorch. When they said up and down the coast and to the Rockies, they weren't kidding. I lived at Lake Tahoe for much of '82 and '83 and received the station quite clearly, especially at night. They claimed to be for "the Southland" or "all of Southern California" and the signal certainly covered all of the LA Metro quite clearly, but almost all of the local advertising was from San Diego. Of course the signal now is a shadow of its former glory, due to all the interference we have these days. They never identified the call letters except the TOH legal ID, which was read in Spanish, giving one the slight feeling you were listing to a rebel "X" south of the border station.

But what made the station a fun listen was its attitude (they just seemed to do things differently than other stations) and the variety. They simply don't make stations like that any more.

 

[only1moore]

Consider:

KIIS-FM has been the CHR leader for 30 years.

KOST has been the dominant AC for 30 years.

KRTH is coming up on 20 years as a strong Classic Hits station.

KFI is 23 years in as a monster talk station.

Power 106 has been the dominant rhythmic CHR for 25 years.

KROQ's still strong after 32 years doing what's now called alternative.

The Wave is 24 years old.

KNX has been all-news for 43 years.

You forget KLVE and KLAX.

 

[wdb2003]

Your right KLVE is one of the oldest spanish stations in Los Angeles.

 

[davideduardo]

Your right KLVE is one of the oldest spanish stations in Los Angeles.

KWKW is many, many years older.

 

[davideduardo]

You forget KLVE and KLAX.

KLAX only goes back to August 1, 1992 (although as KSKQ-FM it goes back to the 80s').

KLAX has had 3 names and formats (or variants) since 1992: La X, La Ley and now La Raza.

KLVE's current format dates to 1995.

 

[jonbruce]

The Mighty 690 was live. I visited the studios in Rosarito Beach many times. Michael Boss was a friend of mine. He was a great jock and a wonderfull person.