Radio Waves Podcast #276

 Radio: November 22, 2020

More changes are coming to LA Oldies K-Surf (1260 AM) … oldies will be going away to make room for, well, I guess another form of oldies: 24/7 classical. The change will happen December 1st at 6 a.m. Christmas music will air until then.

Station owner Saul Levine hopes that upgrades in the audio chain and more radios in the market capable of receiving the station’s HD signal will help build an audience for classical music on the AM band, something he tried to do about five years ago.

While I doubt that the analog AM audio will attract many listeners, it is worth noting that he does have a clean signal in areas that receive it. If you happen to be in an area where the signal is strong — not far from the transmitter site in the Valley, for example — and you happen to have an HD Radio tuner, is it even more worth noting that the HD stream from the station is superb… one of the best I have heard. It is the HD that may hook listeners, if they tune in and hear the difference.

To most observers, it may seem strange to drop an oldies format that has had a loyal audience for the past few years. I will say, however, that putting classical music on AM in the year 2020 is exactly the type of thinking that Levine is known for … certainly not the norm for the time. But in doing so he is showing a support and belief in AM radio that is sorely lacking at most stations.

While many companies have not updated equipment for years, Levine has installed a new transmitter. New processing equipment. New towers. And while other companies are gutting their engineering departments, Levine is hiring. “I never lost faith in AM,” he told me recently.

The pop oldies are not going away either: K-Surf LA Oldies will still be available on 105.1 FM’s  HD2 stream. Yes, you need an HD Radio to hear it, but the signal from Mount Wilson is strong throughout much of Los Angeles. Even better is listening on a smartphone app, perhaps the future of radio, and I will be reviewing several in an upcoming column. Once you listen on a good app, you won’t want to go back to regular radio again.

Passings

Two personalities who spent many years entertaining and informing us have passed on earlier this month: T. Michael Jordan and Mike Lundy.

Jordan’s local radio experience spans the dial from starting in 1967 at KMEN (now KKDD, 1290 AM) . In 1973, he was hired by Rick Carroll as one of the first DJs at the new FM top-40 rocker KKDJ (now KIIS-FM, 102.7); finally in 1976 he was heard playing the hits on Anaheim’s legendary KEZY (now KGBN, 1190 AM). 

If you want to hear a sample of Jordan on both KKDJ and KEZY (along with the absolutely cool “Voice of Change KKDJ top-of-the-hour ID) head over to YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/tomntmj.

According to Don Barrett’s LARadio.Com, “In the early 1980s he returned home to Chicago and decided to get out of radio. He eventually landed in Dallas, instituting software training programs for the Tandy Corporation. In 1985 he returned to the Southland for a few years, where he was the MIS Director at the Writers Guild of America. He had been living in Illinois when he died.” Jordan died of lung cancer on November 13 at the age of 77.

News was the focus of Mike Lundy’s long career. First at KFI (640 AM) in 1968, followed by KGBS (now KTNQ, 1020 AM) the same year, KDAY (now KBLA, 1580 AM) in 1972, KFWB (980 AM) in 1977, KGIL (now KSUR, 1260 AM) in 1979, back to KFI in 1982, and KGIL again in 1983, and KFWB again from 2000-2007.

That’s a lot of stations. But Lundy was also active as a station consultant and a program creator for Japanese radio stations. Quite a career; not bad for a 1968 graduate of UCLA holding a degree in Political Science.

Lundy died November 11th at the age of 79 after a long illness.

New Station

“We’ve got a lot to talk about” says the website KBLAtalk1580.com.

The teaser is related to Tavis Smiley’s purchase of KBLA from Multicultural Radio Broadcasting in order to launch a new “unapologetically progressive” talk format; KBLA has been airing a Spanish religious format.

No word on the launch date, but the sale price was just over $7 million. Once known as KDAY, the station has a proud history of playing music, and was the first full-time “hip hop” format in the United States, as I recall. Certainly the first in town. One of the great jocks of KDAY’s past is J. J. Johnson (Author of the great read Aircheck: Life in Music Radio), who is still active on Facebook.

Once an aide to former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Smiley has been a radio and television commentator and talk show host for many years, though not without controversy for allegations of actions behind the microphone, so to speak. His first radio commentaries aired on the late, great KGFJ (now KYPA, 1230 AM) - one minute segments called The Smiley Report in the early 1990s.+

Radio Waves Podcast #275

 Radio: November 20, 2020

If you were anywhere in the world during the 1980s and ‘90s — but especially if you were here in Southern California — you know Rick Dees, among the most successful radio personalities to ever grace the local airwaves.

Dees came to town in 1979 to host the morning show on KHJ (930 AM), a station that had seen better days but was about to have one last bout with success under master programmer Chuck Martin. Martin hired Dees away from WHBQ/Memphis, the same station that Wink Martindale (KFWB, KMPC) called home a decade prior.

While KHJ’s top-40 format under Martin was a huge success, the suits that ran RKO Radio — owner of KHJ at the time — thought they knew better and decided to take the station country. Dees left soon after the switch and shortly after found himself at KIIS-FM (102.7).

KIIS-FM during the Dees era was extremely similar to KHJ: tightly programmed, highly promoted, and just plain fun. DJs were all superb, management was allowed to sink tons of money into events and contests, and the general manager Wally Clark knew how to appease the corporate bosses with a can-do attitude.

Dees, however, was the cornerstone of KIIS-FM. Contests began at 7:10 every morning during his show, his face was plastered on billboards and bustards everywhere, and he was the official spokesman for the station. And it worked flawlessly: soon KIIS-FM was setting records for ratings, records that still stand today.

Changing times and changing attitudes caused Dees to leave the station after 23 years back in 2004. He continued to (and to this day still does) host the Rick Dees Weekly Top-40, and even came back to mornings on Movin’ 93.9 in 2006, but it wasn’t the same.

But modern technology knows no bounds … recently I discovered that Dees is still working mornings, or any shift for that matter, through a syndicated service called Daily Dees. He voices the segments and allows a station to create a show — morning or otherwise — using any musical format they wish. The show is produced in his home studio, which as it turns out was way ahead of its time now that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought most radio shows into the homes of various hosts.

You still can’t hear it on any local station, but in a case of going (almost) full circle, the show can be heard on stations across the country … including WHBQ in Memphis. Only this time it’s WHBQ-FM instead of the legendary AM station where he once called home.

Want to hear it? Use your favorite smartphone app, smart speaker, or head over to WHBQMemphis.com; Dees’ show can be heard from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. Central time every weekday. That’s 3 - 8 a.m. here, so you better get top early.

Early FM Rock

While AM stations dominated the radio scene until the late 1970s, many money-losing FM stations allowed those long-hair hippy-types to take over programming and play what was known at first as free-form rock. Or more accurately free-form radio, as the music was not limited exclusively to rock.

One of the early progressive stations in Los Angeles was KPPC — an AM/FM simulcast that later became KROQ (106.7 FM); the AM was at 1240. The progressive format was launched by Tom Donahue in 1967, and it lasted until the early 1970s when it basically went broke, and the staff moved over to KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM).

I didn’t realize there were recordings of those early days, but there are. One fabulous find is from LetTheUniverseAnswer.Com, and can be accessed at tinyurl.com/RWNov20. Here you will find unedited segments — including commercials even — of KPPC from September, 1971 (not long before the station dropped the format) and KMET from June, 1975. Nice specimen of early progressive rock, before FM radio ruled the airwaves.

Live Sessions on Vinyl

KCSN (88.5 FM) — better known by its station frequency of 88.5 — has released a vinyl LP of music recorded in the station’s own studios. Called The Independent 88.5 Studio Sessions Volume One, you can get it by donating to the Fall pledge drive via the website: 885fm.org.

Artists include Sting, Vintage Trouble, and Jenny Lewis, among others.

Radio Waves Podcast #274

 Radio: November 13, 2020

You knew it was coming … the artificial trees have been up at the large home centers for a month now; Costco has had their Christmas decorations out even longer. So it was just a matter of time before KOST (103.5 FM) and SiriusXM announced their holiday music programming.

You may have read it in this newspaper already: KOST made the annual switch a week ago, on Thursday, November 5th with the beginning of the Ellen K morning show. This gets the popular annual format well within the “December” ratings period as well as the “holiday” ratings period, encompassing a combined final eight weeks of the year. And KOST is not alone; stations across the US started making the switch last week as well.

As is also typical, SiriusXM is getting the holiday spirit, this year perhaps a bit earlier than usual for the company. Fully 16 channels dedicated to holiday music ranging from traditional Christmas carols to Hanukkah favorites and everything in between will eventually be on the air, most available already, and most running through at least December 25th. Then on December 29th, a special New Year’s Nation channel will help ring in the new year. See the schedule and channel lineup at SiriusXM.Com.

Speaking of SXM

A few weeks ago, reader Dave Roberts wrote about a new product developed to help the pesky dropouts caused by cell phone towers that affect the SiriusXM satellite (and terrestrial repeater) signal.

Some parts of town (and even out of town) are subject to signal losses that make listening to the satellite radio service difficult. Roberts told of a special filter designed to fix it, “but the subscriber has to pay $80 per radio to fix their problem. The $80 includes them paying an installer to hook up the filter.” He asked if he could be sent one for free and install it himself, “So far they have refused,” he said back in September.

Recently, he gave me an update: We ended up purchasing 2 filters at $80 each and installing them ourselves. No dropouts!

“The filter comes with a plastic GM adapter on one end that you need to remove (easy) if you don't have a GM car. Both ends are standard SiriusXM antenna connections. After a month in use: “Still working perfectly! That is why we were hooked on Sirius in the first place. Terrestrial here in California can get spotty with the hills, mountains and valleys,” Roberts concluded.

I know what he is talking about: the antenna connection used by GM (and I assume other automotive companies) has a special clip to connect the antenna; take off the plastic and the connector is just a regular Sirius, XM or SiriusXM antenna connector. I had to remove the clip when I changed out the factory stereo in my wife’s Enclave.

And it is easy. So why does SiriusXM charge $80 for a filter, making you pay for installation that can be done yourself? That’s highway robbery. Hopefully the company will change their ways on the issue, along with changing the tuner design in future editions making the filter unnecessary. In the meantime, if you are interested in the filter, you can get it here:

https://shop.siriusxm.com/wcs-filter-install-card.html

After you buy it, make sure you complain to customer service about the dropouts and threaten to drop the service so you can get a discounted rate on your subscription. Just sayin’.

iHeart Cuts

iHeart Media — the company no longer even pretends to care about radio — has launched its annual employee cutback program in an attempt to stave off another round of bankruptcy. So far I have not seen any positions cut locally, but they have been happening nationwide for the past two weeks.

Large radio groups like iHeart, Entercom, and Cumulus — accounting for roughly 15 stations in Los Angeles and a handful more in the Inland Empire — have been particularly hard-hit due to ad revenue declines started prior to but certainly accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. But all radio stations are feeling the pinch. This latest round of cuts at iHeart leaves very little meat left on the bone, and could leave the company extremely vulnerable in the long run.

Helping Hand

KGGI (99.1 FM) — an iHeart station, by the way — is working with the Water of Life Community Church in Fontana to collect donations of clothing, shoes, accessories, blankets, and personal hygiene products to benefit homeless in the Inland Empire.

It’s called the Fifth Annual Cover the IE Collection Drive, with station personalities broadcasting live from the church as they and volunteers collect donated items. Of course all COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed.

The station is encouraging all Inland Empire residents to drop off clean, gently used or new coats, jackets, scarves, gloves, masks, beanies, socks, blankets and/or sleeping bags plus travel sized toiletries, from 9am - 6pm on Saturday the 21st and 10am – 3pm on Sunday the 22nd at the Water of Life Church, located at 7625 East Ave. in Fontana.

While the supply lasts, donors will receive a “Be Our Guest” card for Baker’s Twin Kitchen Restaurant.

Radio Waves Podcast #273

 Radio: November 6, 2020

The FCC gave final approval last week allowing AM radio stations to transition to an all-digital broadcasting system, a variation of the currently-approved hybrid mode HD Radio standard used by most FM stations and a few AM stations nationwide.

The hybrid system was always intended as transitory in nature … it allows all AM radios to receive the same analog signal AM broadcasters have sent out for the past 100 years. But sandwiched on both sides of the analog signal is a digital component that, when received by a special HD Radio tuner, allows for increased fidelity and lower noise.

But there are problems with that hybrid mode: it causes interference to other nearby stations. The digital signal — limited in power to help reduce that interference — doesn’t travel as far as the analog signal, causing problems with reception. And the digital portion in hybrid mode is limited somewhat in fidelity. For those reasons, many AM stations just turned off the digital portion of their broadcast signals.

The all-digital MA-3 mode of the HD Radio system differs from the hybrid mode by removing the analog component completely. This gives more space for the digital signal, allowing for greater fidelity (in computer terms, it allows a higher bit rate). It also allows for the signal as a while to be more centered on a station’s broadcast frequency, reducing interference. And it allows the signal to be sent full-strength, for much better reception including long-distance reception.

In other words, all-digital AM has the potential to send high-fidelity audio at a distance as good as or even greater than current analog AM. And like FM, there is a possibility for special features including a second channel as is done with HD on FM. But this all comes at a great cost: just like analog television after the switch to HDTV, no traditional AM radios would be able to pick up the signal.

That would be a problem for a station like KFI (640 AM) or KNX (1070 AM), where analog listening allows a huge audience already. But what about a station toward the bottom of the ratings? Or one in which the signal doesn’t clearly reach an entire city? The potential here is immense.

Fortunately, every HD Radio sold since the standard was set in 2002 can receive all-digital AM (and FM, for that matter). Many people own HD Radios via their car audio systems and may not even know it; home audio tuners are less common, but still available. That gives all-digital AM a bigger head start than FM broadcasters had in the 1950s. If I owned an AM station, I would run test hours at night to prove the technology, and market the heck out of the system. 

And run a format you can’t find elsewhere that will attract attention.

Locally, no station owner except one has committed to all-digital AM. Saul Levine is ready to do it when he feels that there are enough HD Radios around to make the change feasible. No date has been set, but it can be easily assumed that KSUR (1260 AM) will be the first to do it.

Confessions

You can still get your radio questions answered … just submit them to Ask a Recovering Program Director, in care of this column…. The former program director of The Sound (now KKLQ, 100.3 FM) Dave Beasing will be a periodic guest on the Radio Waves podcast I do with Mike Stark. 

Beasing should be joining us within the next few weeks and hopefully will make a monthly appearance at facebook.com/LARadioWaves.

Morning Mess

Have you had a chance to hear the Morning Mess on Amp Radio (97.1 FM)?  I’m curious what you think. Check out the show weekdays 6 - 10 a.m. if you have not already, and send your thoughts to me at the email address below.

Letterbag

“When I listen to all the mushy & boring traffic reporters on AM radio stations, I can't help but remember the ‘traffic man’ who really told it like it was … that being Bill Keane of KNX. Nobody could match his wit and humor dealing with some of the idiots on the freeways; he could always come up with choice words to match misguided accidents or whatever.  

“On top of that how many people in his position have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame? It would be nice to hear an occasional recorded piece to fit in with contemporary traffic reports to educate current freeway flyers.

“RIP Bill Keane 1927 to 2020.” — Phil Solomon, Fountain Valley