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.