Radio Waves Podcast #223

Radio: June 1, 2018

As I was driving today, unable to hear parts of songs or worse, large portions of stand-up comedy from John Mulaney as I tooled around town listening to SiriusXM Satellite Radio, I figured I better do a followup to the reception-problem column I wrote a few months ago.

Here’s what has transpired since that previous column: absolutely nothing. Unfortunately I put the issue on the back burner for a few reasons ... primarily that reception in my area seemed to improve for a time ... but now it seems it is as bad as ever. Perhaps worse. Time to follow up.

Here are the zones in which I personally experience consistent reception troubles with both the original XM satellites and repeaters, as well as the newer SiriusXM system:

• The 29000 block of South Western Avenue in San Pedro/RPV

• Westmont Drive in San Pedro

• The 405 Freeway South of the 605

• The 405 near LAX

Readers of this column have offered other areas of problem as well:

• Artesia Blvd and Aviation, Redondo Beach

• Artesia and Inglewood, Redondo Beach

• 110 Harbor Freeway near the LA Convention Center

• Gaffey Street between the 110 offramp and 1st Street, San Pedro

• The 405 between Manhattan Beach and Wilshire Blvd.

• Santa Monica Blvd. West of the 405 traveling to and from Beverly Hills

• The 55 Freeway between Dyer and Edinger

• The Ventura freeway between Reseda and Balboa Blvd

• Harbor Blvd. in Fullerton

• The 91 Freeway in Fullerton

• Magnolia and Garfield in Huntington Beach

• The 210 Freeway near Azusa Avenue

• The open plains of both Texas and Oklahoma

There are more, but you get the idea. One reader wrote that there are too many to list and that the problem makes the service unusable.

Interestingly, I never had the reception problems I have now when I was using a radio that picked up the old, original Sirius system. That may be a clue. Astute readers also noticed that in areas of bad reception, they notice cell towers. Certified Communications Engineer Bob Burchett of Enterprise Electronics brought up the cell-tower connection as well, pointing out that this has actually been an issue for a number of years.

“I recall the fight Sirius and XM had with the FCC over use of frequencies in the service for terrestrial coverage to augment the satellite service,” Burchett explained. “They wanted more; the FCC wanted them to use less of it and reduce power. That was some years ago.”

So while I will be forwarding this column to Sirius/XM engineers for comment, I believe the issue is this:

The original XM and newer SiriusXM systems use satellites, of course, but rely (more than perhaps they should) on terrestrial repeaters to help provide consistent reception both in cars and indoors. The problem is that some cell towers operate on the same frequency, and  a phenomenon called “intermodulation” creates a third signal out of the two already there that wreaks havoc on the radio service.

My hunch: The original Sirius system relied more on direct satellite reception, and was less prone to interference of this type.

Basically, the signal is there ... the radios just cant see it. SiriusXM, AT&T and T-Mobile are all supposedly working to fix the issue. But as cell towers proliferate, satellite radio reception deteriorates. And all of the companies want the others to pay for the fix.

As I said, I am contacting SiriusXM engineers for their take on the issue; if/when I hear something I will let you know.

Radio Waves Podcast #222

Radio: May 25, 2018

The Los Angeles radio scene lost two good friends recently.

Bill Watson, who helped make RKO top-40 radio stations into regional format leaders as national program director under consultants Bill Drake and Gene Chenault, died May 15th at the age of 88. 

Watson was Drake’s right-hand man and worked with RKO’s KHJ (930 AM) here in Los Angeles in the mid to late 1960s, along with KFRC/San Francisco, WRKO/Boston, WOR/New York, and some stations outside of the RKO chain that Drake and Chenault consulted such as KGB/San Diego, KYNO/Fresno and CKLW/Windsor, Ontario that sent its massive signal into the Detroit area.

At KHJ he was technically above local program director Ron Jacobs, though Jacobs was given the power to do what he wanted. Interestingly, it was Jacobs who gave Watson his first local job out in the Inland Empire when he hired Watson as afternoon drive DJ and programmer of KMEN (now KKDD, 1290 AM) in the early 1960s. Under Watson, KMEN jumped from worst to first, earning ratings as high as 70 ... meaning 70 percent of listeners were tuned to KMEN.

After Jacobs resigned from his position at KHJ in 1969, the station went through a few programmers before Drake brought in Watson to program KHJ directly. I am told -- though I have not confirmed -- that under Watson, KHJ earned its highest rating ever. 

Eventually, Drake, Chenault and Watson left KHJ to take over programming of K-100 (KIQQ, now KKLQ, 100.3 FM), later moving on to the original KMPC (now KSPN, 710 AM) where he programmed from 1975-78 and again from 1982-87 when he retired from broadcasting.

Mark Morris, one of the nicest guys in radio, passed away May 2nd. He was 54.

Morris was both in front of and behind the microphone of numerous local stations including Loyola Marymount’s KXLU (88.9 FM), KNAC (now KBUE, 105.5 FM), the original KMPC and KRLA (1110 AM), among others. Most recently he could be heard hosting a show on Hot92.3TheBeat.Com. 

Always with a smile on his face and a humorous story or jke at the ready, Morris rarely missed a chance to get together with friends and colleagues at the radio reunions held periodically at Fuddruckers in Burbank. Unfortunately, his health had been declining the last few years and he died of a ruptured fistula.

Mo’ Nominations

Morris O’Kelly, known to his fans as Mo’Kelly, has been nominated for six Southern California Journalism awards, including Radio Journalist of the Year.

O’Kelly’s show can be heard on KFI (640 AM) Saturdays and Sundays from 6 to 8 p.m. The awards, which are presented by the Los Angeles Press Club, will be announced at a banquet on June 24th.

Others nominated for Radio Journalist of the Year are freelance Deepa Fernandes and KCRW’s (89.3 FM) Susan Valot.

Bad Ratings

Nielsen announced last week that it has removed four homes from the ratings panel for Los Angeles, and will be releasing revised ratings for the metro area going back to October, 2017.

The four households were removed for “non-compliant behavior, which is a generic term for “they did something we don’t like.”

Being that a household can have more than one meter, a device that “listens” to audio to determine what station is being heard, and the effect multiplies. One observer said that a top station with a share of 5.0 (five percent of the listening audience) may have only 12-14 meters detecting it ... so four households with as many as 20 meters or so could have a huge effect. We will find out as the revised ratings are released over the next few weeks.

Radio Waves Podcast #221

Radio: May 18, 2018

When I was young, my father used to ask questions about Sam Hill. “Who the Sam Hill is that?” Or “What the Sam Hill is going on?” My brothers and sisters always wondered who Sam Hill was ... asking Who the Sam Hill is Sam Hill?

I thought I found the answer one time while visiting downtown Prescott, Arizona, when I saw a store called Sam Hill’s. But I think the definitive answer comes from the All Access Music Group, AllAccess.Com, a website dedicated to the music and radio industry.

“Sam Hill Ends Midday Duties at KALC (Alice 105.9)/Denver” reads the headline posted last week. The story reads: “ENTERCOM Hot AC KALC (ALICE 105.9)/DENVER, CO MD/midday host SAM HILL is coming off the air to focus on programming Classic Hits sister KQMT. She'll continue handling music duties for ALICE.

“That leaves an opening for middays on ALICE.” Interested persons are asked to click a link “if you'd like to fill it.”

The mystery is solved.

New Knee

Saul Levine, the amazing independent radio station operator who owns KKGO (105.1 FM) and KSUR (1260 AM) is recovering from knee replacement surgery. I send wishes for a full and fast recovery.

Rumors are running wild that some tweaks will be made to the formats on the secondary HD channels available through KKGO as well as KKJZ (88.1 FM), which Levine operates under contract from the CSULB Foundation. No details yet but I am told that the tweaks should be well-received.

Bonus!

As two of the three largest radio ownership groups, iHeart and Cumulus, make their way through bankruptcy and continue cutting costs, positions and their future viability, the top executives of both companies continue to receive huge amounts of money in regular salary compensation and bonuses.

Bonuses? Yes, bonuses. They can’t run a company to save their lives, but the top executives of both companies received huge bonuses as the companies they run go down the proverbial toilet.

iHeart’s compensation board authorized billions in bonuses for CEO Bob Pittman, COO Richard Bressler, and General Counsel Robert Walls for each quarter of 2018; the CEO of Cumulus, Mary Berner, netted $3.8 million in bonuses last year. All of this made me realize that they really do have the wrong people running those companies ... I could run each company into the ground much cheaper.

Bustany Passes

The last living co-creator of American Top-40, Don Bustany, passed away in late April at the age of 90. 

Bustany, along with Tom Rounds, Casey Kasem, and Ron Jacobs, launched American Top-40 on July 4, 1970. Originally airing on just a handful of stations, AT40’s affiliate list eventually grew to hundreds of stations nationwide and around the world. Kasem hosted until 1988 when Shadoe Stevens took over; Stevens hosted until the program was cancelled by its distributor in 1995.

Kasem re-launched the countdown show in 1998; Ryan Seacrest has been hosting the program since 2004.

You can hear recordings of the ‘70s version of AT40 on SiriusXM Satellite Radio Saturdays at 9 a.m., Sundays at 6 a.m. and Sundays at 9 p.m. on Channel 7.

Radio Waves Podcast #220

Radio: May 11, 2018

Dave Beasing isn’t your normal radio guy. He spent ten years designing and programming The Sound (now KQLZ, 100.3 FM) and developing it into a ratings leader. Previous experience had him working with radio stations nationwide as a consultant with Jacobs Media, and he programmed KYSR (and its predecessor KXEZ) before the current alternative format.

He’s always been an innovator, looking for ways to push the medium forward while recognizing its history. At The Sound he knew the importance of social media and websites as extensions of stations, and he made TheSoundLA.com into one of the most visited station websites in town. The Sound was more than a station, he explained to me long ago, it was a full brand of entertainment designed especially for Los Angeles.

So with a long history of success with radio programming, consulting and innovating, what’s he doing now?

Podcasts.

Podcasts? Yes, podcasts. The anti-radio.

 

Borrowing on his experience putting content on his own station website as well as on Facebook and more, Beasing has produced all types of podcasts. More recently he moved into a new field: branded podcasting, designed to be a part of a brand’s marketing. Think infomercial, but better - designed to be interesting enough to compel people to download and subscribe.

He recently had one of his podcasts -- nameless, due to the wishes of the company behind it -- debut toward the top of the podcast chart with thousands of subscribers. But Beasing is very happy with the success. Marketing, after all, is in his blood and is one of the reasons The Sound was such a success. Beasing knew that the most successful stations throughout history were not only well-programmed, they were well marketed.

Check out SoundThatBrands.Com.

Withdrawal

I am having withdrawal symptoms ... dry mouth, can’t sleep ... due to the sudden shutdown of ReelRadio.Com, the virtual museum of classic top-40 radio stations. Here you once found recordings of stations dating back to the 1920s.

The founder of the site, Richard Irwin shut-down the site, hopefully temporarily, due to health issues. Posted on his Twitter page and reposted on the Fans of ReelRadio Facebook page, Irwin wrote, “REELRADIO will be taking a break until my body is healed. My hands may be broken but my heart is thankful for all the support over 22 years. Thank You!”

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Big Birthday

I missed this one - KNX (1070 AM) just celebrated 50 years as an all news station, having launched the format way back on April 15, 1968.

But that’s not all. May 4th marked the 96th birthday of KNX itself, or at least since the station adopted the KNX call letters.

The station had its genesis as Fred Christian’s amateur station 6ADZ, which went on the air on September 20, 1920 at 1500 AM. It moved to 833 AM and shared time as KCG with other stations by government decree that made all local stations use the same frequency and broadcast different hors of the day.

Power increased to 50 watts on May 4, 1922 when it became KNX, a far cry from the 50,000 watts it broadcasts with today from a transmitter site off of 190th Street in Torrance. It became a CBS-owned station in 1938 and stayed with CBS until it was sold to Entercom last year.

Radio Waves Podcast #219

Radio: May 4, 2018

Perhaps it is statistically insignificant, but it must be a nice feeling for the staff of KOST (103.5 FM) that the station finally led the Los Angeles ratings outside of the holiday music season. It happened in the March Nielsen ratings released in late April when KOST jumped more than a half point from February (to 5.9 from 5.3) and former leader and sister station KBIG (104.3 FM)dropped almost a half point (to 5.7 from 6.1).

Rounding the top five were KRTH at 5.0 and a fourth-place tie between KIIS-FM (102.7) and KTWV at 4.7; each rating is an estimate of the average percentage of radio listeners aged 6 and over tuned to a station between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 midnight.

KFI (640 AM) was the top-rated AM station, coming in 6th place with a 4.2 share. The next closest AM was KNX (1070), which was 10th at 3.2. After that you have to look pretty far for another station from the oldest broadcast band: KRLA (870 AM) was 29th with a 1.1, just ahead of KSPN (710 AM) which tied KLYY (97.5 FM) for 30th with a share of 1.0.

As already listed, KIIS-FM was the top-rated hit music station, competitor Amp Radio KAMP (97.1 FM) was almost two full points behind at 2.9. Power 106 KPWR (105.9 FM) was slightly below that at 2.6 but did manage to stay above its direct competition Real 92.3, which earned a 2.4.

The top-rated alternative station in town was Alt 98.7 KYSR but just by a hair: Alt’s 2.4 tie with Real was enough to stay above KROQ’s (106.7 FM) 2.2.

It was not a good month for country music ... Go Country KKGO (105.1 FM) was down a half point to 2.0 compared with February. This actually makes me think that the March ratings month has a few problems, as the station has been averaging much higher for the past year. I do know that a few changes in the way Nielsen’s Portable People Meters are distributed can have a huge effect on ratings, showing more than anything that the system is inherently flawed. Unfortunately its the best we have right now.

KPCC (89.3 FM) was down slightly from from the 3.0 share it had in February, but the April 2.7 gave it a full 1 point lead above KCRW (89.9 FM) and bragging rights to being the most popular noncommercial station in town.

The full story:

1. KOST (5.9) 2. KBIG (5.7) 3. KRTH (5.0) 4. KIIS-FM, KTWV (4.7) 6. KFI (4.2) 7. KCBS-FM (3.8) 8. KLVE (3.6) 9. KLAX (3.4) 10. KNX (3.2)

11 KAMP (2.9) 12 KLOS, KRCD (2.8) 14. KPCC (2.7) 15. KPWR (2.6) 16. KRRL, KYSR (2.4) 18. KSCA, KXOL (2.3) 20 KROQ, KXOS (2.2)

22. KKGO (2.0) 23. KBUE (1.9) 24. KCRW (1.7) 25. KJLH, KUSC (1.6) 27. KDAY (1.4) 28. KSSE (1.2) 29. KRLA (1.1) 30. KLYY, KSPN (1.0)

32. KEIB, KWIZ (0.9) 34. KKJZ, KKLQ (0.8) 36. KFWB (0.7) 37. KABC, KFSH, KLAC, KYLA (0.5) 41. KSUR (0.4) 42. KWKW (0.3) 43. KKLA, KTNQ (0.2)

Frightening fact: The top-two radio companies, iHeart Media and Entercom, command 48.5 percent of the radio audience. 

Bean Back

Gene Ryder, aka Bean on KROQ’s Kevin and Bean Show, was back on the air as of last Monday. While he was off the air, rumors were circulating that he was taking a leave of absence in part to protest pay cuts and related issues. Personally I hope that is true. Regardless, it’s nice to have him back.