Radio Waves Podcast #234

Radio: August 31, 2018

My oldest son committed to attend Lake Forest College in Illinois, about 30 miles North of Chicago, so I spent part of last week with him in the city of Lake Forest as well as a couple quick tours of Chicagoland itself. I discovered two interesting things in particular:

1. The stations I heard in the educational portion of the FM band are lightyears ahead of Southern California in terms of using their licenses as originally intended by the FCC. Stations  heard were (gasp!) actually run by students and volunteers, including one located on the campus of a local high school and Lake Forest’s own WMXM.

2. The software that controls iPhones in our Dodge rental car, and presumably all Dodge, Chrysler, Ram and Fiat vehicles, is the worst I have ever encountered and must be a secret way for radio to maintain dominance. In plain English, it just doesn’t work, and the people responsible for the design of the radios should be fired, tarred and feathered. Yes, it is that bad.

Getting back to the local educational stations I was able to hear, WGBK stuck out as an amazing example of student radio. Located at the campus of Glenbrook South High School in the town of Glenview, the station uses advisors and students from both Glenbrook South and Glenbrook North. The format is an alternative format that my younger son says puts Los Angeles radio to shame, along with news and high school sports.

 

I am told that Fall Out Boy lead singer Patrick Stump is an alumnus of WGBK, having worked there as a student until he graduated in 2002. Called Chicago’s North Shore alternative, you can hear it on the net at GBSradio.com.

I didn’t get a chance to hear too  much of WMXM, as the station was operating on auto mode as students moved into their dorms to start the semester. But it too is a prime example of what real educational radio is supposed to be. 

Te station has a freeform  format of indie rock, hip-hop, and more, along with news updates for the local community. On the air since 1975, the station is run by volunteers and can be heard at WMXM.org.

Here in Los Angeles, the vast majority of educational-band licensed stations are run by paid adults. My personal belief is that operators of stations without students as the primary “employees” should give up their licenses, especially if the stations are physically located on or licensed to a college or other educational institution.

Now for the Dodge radio: If you want to hear your iPhone songs alphabetical, it might work. or it might not, depending on its mood. Want to select a song or play it in random order ... you’re out of luck. It may play for a while, then it just stops. You can use Bluetooth, but if you need to charge it, you’re out of luck - you can’t use Bluetooth when the lightening cable. With the cable it might play for a while, skip songs, play a small segment of songs randomly, then lock up. It is by far the worst interface I have ever used and must have been developed by an engineer of a radio station hoping to keep listeners off of alternatives to radio.

Saving AM (Continued)

Your comments regarding AM radio are fascinating; most of them so far state that you already listen to AM radio, and (while I promised comments this week) I will present them next week just to give more time for others to respond.

I do want to ask one more time though ... as most of the responses so far mentioned AM stations that you already listen to. What I would really like to know is -- especially if you never listen to AM -- would you tune to an AM station if it played the format you liked? If so, or if not, please state your age as well.

I’ll also be presenting technical challenges and potential solutions in the coming weeks.

They delayed it AGAIN … Labor Day, September 3rd is supposedly the new date for the launch date of Shotgun Tom on Sirius. I have a call into SiriusXM’s Lou Simon, who seems to be playing games because he’s ticked off that info got out before he did an official press release. I changed the paragraph as follows (first is the only change):

Radio: August 24, 2018

He was supposed to start August 20, but it got delayed ... listen for “Shotgun” Tom Kelly starting “sometime soon,” perhaps around Labor Day if the word on the street is correct. Kelly says he doesn’t know; I have a call into the executive offices of SiriusXM for an official date.

No explanation was given for the delay but it may have been related to a week of multiple tribute channels dedicated to Aretha Franklin, who passed away last week from pancreatic cancer. The tributes included music, interviews, and remembrances on as many as eight channels at various times per day.

Supporting Local Music

Terrestrial radio may have essentially abandoned the local music scene, but online “radio” stations - in quotes because it isn’t radio in the traditional sense, even though apps can make it seem that way on your transistor radio, er, smart phone - has taken up the challenge.

One example is C4OC Radio, available at www.C4OCRadio.Com. That’s an O (oh), not a zero, by the way. C4OC was netcasting live from Malone’s Bar and Grill in Santa Ana last Saturday night. On hand for their second annual Independence Bash were American Animal, Betrayed By Faith, Resurrection (all the way from the U.K.), Da Vang, White Hot Red, and Divine Intervention.

Online radio and podcasting has the potential to majorly disrupt traditional AM and FM radio, as people get used to on-demand entertainment. How traditional radio responds to the challenge will determine if the current owners and managers stay in power in the coming years. So far the outlook is not promising...

The Future of AM

Last week I teased you a little, stating: “Is AM radio dead? Absolutely. The problem is with the owners and programmers, though, not listeners. Before I expand on this, however I am curious what you think … can an AM station attract you as a listener if it played the right format? What would that format be?”

This topic came up, ironically, through a discussion on a Facebook page called “I Love AM Radio” in which any call for change to bring in new listeners was met with responses that can best be described as depressing. Basically, don’t bother trying to program anything of interest on an AM station, listeners left for FM years ago. Makes you wonder what the “I hate AM Radio” page would have.

One post in particular caught my eye. Among multiple reasons to run tired talk or sports programming that has, in my opinion, driven listeners to FM, satellite or online listening was the comment, “younger-leaning formats will obviously not work, since few under the age of 30 even know AM exists.”

My position: the reason few under the age of 30 - more accurately few under the age of 50 - know AM exists is because the last time AM stations programmed to them was in the 1970s. Back when AM music giants like KFI (640 AM), KHJ (930 AM) Ten-Q (KTNQ, 1020 AM) and The Mighty 690 could still be found in the top half of the ratings.

Yes, I know FM has a technical advantage. Though AM can sound excellent, it is generally easier to get good sound from an FM station than AM. Yet in the three decades I have been writing this column, I have never once received an email or letter stating that someone refused to listen to AM due to sound quality. I have received hundreds of letters and emails over the years stating that no/few AM stations offer the type of programming that appeals to them.

So I asked my 16-year old radio-shunning son, Sean, the essential question: If an AM station played music he liked, especially music you can’t find elsewhere (such as his favorite artist Plini), would he listen? “Yes,” he said without hesitation, “especially if they had things like interviews.”

Remember, he’s 16 ... the age that “doesn’t know about AM.” The truth is he knows all about AM ... he knows it’s awful.

As I see it, there are two pathways AM owners and managers can take: first is the path of least resistance taken since 1979, in which they run syndicated talk, sports, or brokered programming. They can use excuses that AM doesn’t sound as good, that AM stereo died due to the FCC, that HD on AM won’t work, or any other excuse to hide their utter failures as programmers ... therefore why bother trying. This is what has led to the lowest level of AM listenership in the history of the band.

Or they can think outside the box and find formats that appeal to those disenfranchised from FM. Appeal to younger listeners who have no station to call their own, and would love to be different than their parents who all listen to FM or satellite.

 

AM radio needs someone to take the reigns and program without the tired excuses of today’s programmers. If no one will step up, then the future of the oldest broadcast band is dismal indeed. Your comments - next week.

Radio Waves Podcast #233

Radio: August 17, 2018

This coming Monday, August 20, is Shotgun Day ... the day that “Shotgun” Tom Kelly finally makes his debut on SiriusXM’s Channel 6 - Sixties on Six. He’ll be on what has become his usual shift as of late, afternoon drive or 4-8 p.m. locally, though he has worked almost every shift throughout his long career.

I grew up listening to Shotgun, as San Diego stations where he worked - primarily KCBQ (1170 AM), KGB (now KLSD, 1360 AM) and B-100 (KFMB-FM 100.7) - came in as strong as locals where I lived in San Pedro.

I even aimed my house antenna toward San Diego in the 1990s when he was part of “Modern Oldies” KCBQ-FM (now KIOZ, 105.3 FM), a format that played hits of the 1980s ... a decade or two ahead of its time.

He is an amazing talent: always upbeat and high-energy. He was the perfect choice to take over the afternoon shift for “The Real” Don Steele on KRTH (101.1 FM) after Steele passed away far too young in 1997.

 

Why it took so long for SiriusXM to get him on board is a mystery. We’ve all known he was going there since early June; rumor is that negotiations actually ran about two years.

But all that is history. The exciting part is that one of my favorite DJs is back on the air. 

“You know, when I got hired at K-Earth, I thought that would be the last radio station I would ever work at,” Kelly told me. “I mean - how do you get better than that? But that was 20 years ago ... at the time, there was no satellite radio. Now I will be heard throughout the United States and Canada! I cannot even begin to explain how exciting this is to me!”

Kelly will be recording the show -- almost every shift at SiriusXM is “voice-tracked,” where the DJ records the intros and bits ahead of time rather than in real time -- from studios in San Diego.

Avoiding Fresno

Kelly’s first station in San Diego was at Boss Radio 136/KGB. Then-KCBQ programmer Buzz Bennett got wind that consultant Bill Drake might be planning to send him up to Fresno for some extra on-air development, and ended up hiring him ... and ultimately almost the entire KGB air staff ... for KCBQ.

 

The KGB-KCBQ battle went on for a few years with KCBQ eventually winning; San Diego was one of the few, if not the only city where a Drake station was beaten. KGB adopted an album-rock format in 1972. But I am told that the battle made for some of the most exciting top-40 radio ever. And Kelly didn’t have to move to Fresno.

Short Takes

• The latest Nielsens released this month had KKLQ (100.3 FM) at a 0.0 share of the ratings ... a far cry from the sub-3 shares the station had when it played classic rock as The Sound.

• The National Association of Broadcasters is busy trying to convince its own members that the plan they are pushing to more deregulation in the industry is a good thing. Having to convince your own membership that more of what destroyed them must make for an interesting campaign. Additional deregulation will no doubt cause even more stations and companies to go under; perhaps the NAB is secretly a spy organization for Apple Music, Spotify, and all the other music services that could not have thrived without radio’s decline directly attributable to decisions made under the deregulation model.

• The story last week on KPRO (1570 AM) going off the air brought in a few letters asking about the frequency or history being “wrong” ... No, it isn’t wrong but your memory is OK ... there was a station at 1440 AM in the IE that used the KPRO call letters until a format change in 1987.

• Is AM radio dead? Absolutely. The problem is with the owners and programmers, though, not listeners. Before I expand on this, however I am curious what you think ... can an AM station attract you as a listener if it played the right format? What would that format be?

• The LA Radio Studio at Ports O’ Call is gone, a victim of  - is it ok to call them corrupt, evil bastards? - officials from the Port of Los Angeles as construction continues on a new development planned for the area. But out of the ashes it looks like a new location will arise. Details when they are confirmed.

Radio Waves Podcast #232

Radio: August 10, 2018

The Inland Empire lost a radio station last Friday, as KPRO (1570 AM) left the air, a victim of declining listenership to AM radio and the vastly increasing value of property in Southern California, which makes the land many stations sit on with more than the stations themselves.

But it’s a station with a local presence dating back to 1957 when it was put on the air by husband and wife Ray and Helen Lapica and Helen’s sister, Ollie Shervan. After the three original owners passed away ownership transferred to Ray and Helen’s children, Ronnie Olenick and Larry Lapica.

According to Olenick, her father originally ran the station much like he thought a newspaper should run. “He’d go out to the City Council meetings and interview local politicians. He liked to editorialize,” she told me this week. “In many ways it was the beginning of local talk radio!”

“He thought he would be able to use the station to make an impact on the community,” Olenick explained. “What he didn’t realize is that you can’t make an impact unless you sell ads, and ads can be hard to sell.” Eventually Ray went to law school and left the running of the station to Helen and Ollie.

To show how much has changed in the years since the station went on the air, Ray Lapica once held a license for an FM station as well, which simulcast the AM programming. But it was sold to another company as there were so few listeners to FM radio at the time. The new owners eventually let the FM station go “dark,” or off the air. 

Over the years the call letters changed a few times. Originally they were KACE; 1976 brought KHNY; KMAY came in 1978, and the KPRO calls have been in sue since 1986. The station has broadcast at 1570 AM since the beginning.

Formats have changed over the years as well. Talk, country music, “you name it,” Olenick told me. For the past 30 years or so the broadcasts have been religious, the most recent years as block programming sold to ministers and preachers. That hasn’t paid the bills, though - Olenick explained that she and her brother have been putting their own money into the station for quite some time, though “we did it because we knew the land was worth something.”

In the end it was a tough decision to let the station go, due to the longtime family and local community connections. That longevity includes the staff: station general manager, Valorie Stitely has been with KPRO since she was a teenager, over 40 years.

“We tried to sell the station, but could not find a buyer for it and that’s why it is now dark. But the land the transmitter and studios are on was sold; the developer will be building new houses on the property,” Olenick said.

I personally hate to lose a local radio presence, but I can understand why it happens. Perhaps some day someone else can pick up the license for 1570 and share transmitter space with another station as has been done by numerous stations in populous cities throughout the country. In the meantime, I hold my glass high as a toast to a station that was run by the same family for 61 years. Ronnie and Larry: enjoy your retirement from radio!

Radio: August 3, 2018

The notice at the late-Richard Irwin’s reelradio.com was promising: “Please stand by. Reelradio will return. Thank you for your patience and continuing support.” 

Then for a day it came back, as a teaser to let fans know they were indeed working on a re-launch. “They” being the ReelRadio board of directors along with friends and family of Irwin, who are working behind the scenes to update files, get some site housekeeping done and eventually bring in new content and allow new registrations.

The radio recording museum -- featuring recordings, or “airchecks” of top-40 stations from across the country -- had been down since just before Irwin’s death, and many subscribers and donors had hope that his legacy will live on through others. It appears that will indeed be the case, and I for one am ecstatic.

As I write this, it the site is up once again, but it is unknown if this is another teaser ... or if it will be permanent.

 

The Return of Rock en Español

Entravision has brought back La Super Estrella, a Spanish rock and pop format that was last found locally on the 107.1 FM simulcast stations KSSE/Arcadia, KSSD/Fallbrook and KSSC/Ventura until a format change in December of 2016.

This time it’s on KDLD/Santa Monica and KDLE/Newport Beach, a simulcast at 103.1 FM which actually takes the format almost back to it’s roots ... the format originally began on KVAR/Riverside (now KLYY, 97.5 FM) in 1997 but was simulcast on then-KACD at 103.1 in 2001 before moving up the dial to 107.1 in 2003.

Whew! That’s a lot of moving!

The return of the format to the local airwaves -- it had been available online --  happened July 26, replacing a regional Mexican format called “La Tricolor.” The last ratings found KDLD in 38th place with a 0.6 share of the listening audience.

"Super Estrella has a strong legacy in Los Angeles that spans over 20 years, and it's coming back to where it all started,” said Nestor Rocha, VP of Programming for Entravision in a press release. “This distinct, iconic format has been loved by so many fans over the years that it was able to keep its large, devout following, and we're excited to bring this station back to listeners.”

Tamo’s Great

Alt 98.7 FM’s Tamo Sein new midday jock may have a shift that is way too long: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. But she sure is a good match for the station and one of the better-sounding personalities in town, with an on-air presentation nothing short of superb and an enthusiasm for the music she plays that comes through nicely.

I would not be surprised to see Alt’s ratings increase over the next few months.

Readers Talk Back

Quite a few of you responded after last week’s column on "things radio stations do that sound like good ideas, but are not." What struck me were the number of emails stating that you don’t listen to radio as much or at all. Yet you read this column, so there is still hope. After all, you are still interested in radio!

One email in particular caught my eye, from reader Clyde Boyd: “So you think 6 minutes of content and 9 minutes of ads every 15 minutes on KFI (640 AM) is reasonable?

“KFI is one of the worst offenders for ads. Your pimping them is particularly egregious. Time it yourself if you don’t believe me: there is exactly 6 minutes of content every 15 minutes. No more.”

In replies to each other we realized we were on the same page. Obviously too many commercials are bad. But commercials themselves can be good. The problem, of course, is that few actually listen to ads any more ... running so many is making air time far less valuable than it otherwise would be as listeners tune out totally.

That needs to change.