Radio Waves Podcast #349

 Radio: July 29, 2022

            With very few exceptions, the order of popularity for our local radio stations remains pretty much unchanged since I reported on the March ratings released in April. That lack of change is why I still report on them — usually — quarterly, rather than monthly as they are released by Nielsen. If I did it monthly, you’d think you were reading the same column every month. Now you only have that feeling every three months. But I digress.

            Adult contemporary music station KOST (103.5 FM) led the pack again in the June Nielsens released this month, with a solid 6.0 share of the audience. Oldies KRTH (101.1 FM) was the runner-up with a 5.5. KBIG (104.3 FM) — basically KOST but farther up the dial — was third at 4.2, followed by Spanish contemporary music station KLVE (107.5 FM) at 4.4, and “old school” KTWV (The Wave, 94.7 FM) which tied KFI for 5th at 4.3.

            KLOS (95.5 FM) saw its best ratings since at least January - a 10th place finish with a 3.3 share of the audience. That’s up almost a full point compared with May’s 2.5, and a full point above January. This puts KLOS within striking distance of arguably its closest competitor —  Jack-FM (KCBS-FM, 93.1) — which was 8th at 3.6.

            Call me underwhelmed, but I am not impressed with KNX’s (1070 AM, 93.1 FM) 3.1 finish. With great fanfare, owner Audacy decided to simulcast the longtime popular AM station’s programming on FM (and stop mentioning the AM station at all) last November. Tons of publicity brought a temporary jump in listenership, though still lower than the total the two signals formerly earned separately. Now, over six months later, the combined rating is 3.1 … just 0.1 above what it earned as a standalone AM last September (the last full report I ran before the simulcast began) and 1.4 under the old total for the two frequencies.

            I’d call that a failure, especially since the old format on 97.1 — KNOU — was underperforming as it was. But it does bring up a good point - since KNX did as well when it was AM only, if you put good programming on AM, people will listen. Someday, perhaps, owners will figure that out. I stand by my convictions: AM is dead because owners killed it. Resurrect it by improving the content. I digress again.

            Alt 98.7’s (KYSR) 2.5 share beat KROQ’s (106.7 FM) 1.8. BUT, and this is a big but, this is the best rating KROQ has seen in at least the past six months, and it came with an increase in the popularity of both stations, 0.2 and 0.4 for the stations, respectively. 

            An oddity - KCRW (89.9 FM) dropping, a lot. I can’t figure out why, as the station has made no major changes. I can;’t even think of any minor changes made in fact. So why the decline to a 1.0 share after earning a 2.1 just three months ago? Any thoughts?

            Surprise of the month? Stevie Wonder’s KJLH (102.3 FM) is on a roll with its best rating in my memory: 2.7. This puts the station is a tie with Go Country 105.1 FM for 12th, and represents a half point increase in a month, and a full point since February’s 1.7. This may be the best rating KJLH has earned since I’ve been writing this column … and is worthy of a huge “congratulations” to all involved.

            Several online streams and secondary HD stations made the list: KROQ HD2, which plays ‘80s KROQ hits, earned a 0.1 share … as did LA Oldies on KKGO HD2 and the online simulcast of Jack-FM. KRTH’s online simulcast of it’s main signal earned a 0.2. None of these huge, and it definitely shows that over the air reception of AM and FM still dominates listening.

            Each rating is an estimate of listeners, aged 6 and over, tuned to a station between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 midnight. The full story:

            1. KOST (6.0) 2. KRTH (5.5) 3. KBIG “My FM” (5.2) 4. KLVE (4.4) 5. KTWV “The Wave,” KFI (4.3) 7. KIIS-FM (3.9) 8. KCBS-FM “Jack” (3.6) 9. KRRL “Real” (3.4) 10. KLOS (3.3)

            11. KNX (3.1) 12. KKGO “Go Country,” KJLH (2.7) 14. KRCD, KPCC (2.6) 16. KYSR “Alt,” KXOL (2.5) 18. KLAX (2.4) 19. KSCA, KLLI (2.2)

            21. KLYY (2.1) 22. KROQ, KPWR “Power,” KBUE (1.8) 25. KUSC, KLAC (1.5) 27. KDAY, KABC (1.1) 29. KFWB, KCRW (1.0)

            31. KEIB, KDLD (0.9) 33. KRLA “The Answer,” KKJZ (0.8) 35. KCSN (0.7) 36. KFSH “The Fish” (0.6) 37. KSPN (0.5) 38. KWIZ, KKLA (0.4) 40. KWKW, KTNQ, KHJ, KRTH Stream (0.2)

            44. KTWV Stream, KROQ HD2, KPFK, KMZT, KKGO HD2, KIRN, KCBS-FM Stream (0.1)

            © 2021 Nielsen. May not be quoted or reproduced without prior written permission from Nielsen.

Radio Waves Podcast #348

Radio: July 22, 2022 

            I didn’t get one, but perhaps you did: SiriusXM sent a mass promotional email extolling the virtues of  its subscription satellite radio service, with the basic point being the headline: why waste your time with AM/FM radio?

            Obviously directed toward listeners, the ad caused quite a reaction … on the part of radio observers. Radio Ink (radioink.com) featured a column on July 13th asking the question - “Are you just going to take this?” And Fred Jacobs penned a column the same day in a blog at Jacobs Media’s website (jacobsmedia.com) with the headline “Memo to Radio: The Gloves Are Off.”

            But while the gloves are indeed off, they are off only at SiriusXM. The huge major players in radio today — iHeart, Cumulus, and Audacy — are definitely going to do nothing but take it. Which is precisely the problem: radio, in and of itself a marketing device if there ever was one, sucks at marketing. Sorry for the bad language.

            It wasn’t always this way. At one time, stations would place station music charts in retail and record stores, publish newsletters and mini-magazines of interest to listeners, place ads in newspapers, on billboards and on buses and bus benches, host free or low-cost concerts, run live broadcasts at local venues, and even give station swag away as prizes. I still have my KIIS-FM (102.7) travel brush from at least 20 years ago. The idea was that station promotions would hopefully get you to sample the station. For the most part, it worked.

            When was the last time you saw an ad — or anything else — for any station in town? Considering the prevalence of pushbuttons on the radios working against the idea of just tuning around, how does any station expect listeners to find them?

            Which is a shame, as many stations, as much as even I can complain, do indeed put out a good product. KIIS-FM, as but one example, sounds better today than it has in years. Much of it has to do with an abundance of good new music, but the station itself does sound good even in the important part: between the records. Likewise, content on Alt 98.7 is superb, with the best morning show in town (The Woody Show) and a great afternoon show (Booker and Stryker). 

            KROQ (106.7 FM) finally seems to be getting on the right track and sounds great right now as well, as does My FM (KBIG, 104.3 FM) and KOST (103.5 FM). Go Country (KKGO, 105.1 FM) always sounds good, and these are just a few.

            Not that everything is perfect. The commercial loads are still too large and commercial breaks too long. Some stations still make the mistake of running commercial-free hours, which just adds even more commercials to the load in other hours. That needs to be fixed, and owners need to realize that an ad would be more effective as one of a short break than one of many. As KHJ (930 AM) management understood in the early days of Boss Radio top-40, it is better to run fewer ads and charge more, than to run more ads and discount too much. 

            But getting back to the point: if you didn’t already listen to the stations you listen to, would you even know about them? What they play? The personalities? The hosts on talk stations? Of course not. Radio has done a terrible job of promoting itself, and it has only gotten worse under the large corporate ownership model that began years ago.

            Ironically, it is the small stations across the country that still do it right. The large corporate owners seem to have forgotten what marketing is all about. And having a nationwide contest with a key word of the day to enter on a website is not going to change things. It’s dull, and it doesn’t bring in new listeners. For me, competing against listeners from 700 stations around the country is a turn-off.

            So will radio fix this? I doubt it. At least not until the big corporate clusters are broken up. It doesn’t matter what content you have if no one knows it’s there. 

            Reality Radio

            If you’ve ever watched “reality TV” you know that the word “reality” is more of a joke than anything else. The same goes “Ryan’s Roses” that still runs on the KIIS-FM morning Ryan Seacrest program in spite of it being exposed as a fraud right here at least twice. Perhaps like the television reality programs, it’s “just entertainment,” so no one really cares. But I think on the radio, many people actually believe it's happening.

            I’ve covered this before: it is absolutely, totally, 100% illegal to record or air a telephone conversation without the permission of all involved. So when you hear people caught in a love triangle fighting on the air, you’re hearing a script read by actors. There is nothing real about Ryan’s Roses; if there was, the station would lose its license and the owner would have to pay a huge fine.

            There are services that provide the scripts and actors for stations across the country, if you want to run something similar on your own station. Which makes it even more surprising that Seacrest thought it a good idea to air a recent edition, in which a man supposedly cheated on his wife … after the couple was divorced. “I knew you wouldn’t call him if I told the truth” the actress playing the ex-wife said to Seacrest. 

            So not only was my time wasted with a fake “problem,” it wasn’t even a good one. I want my five minutes back.

Radio Waves Podcast #347

Link to full "Radio Waves" interview with Dr. Demento:  https://bit.ly/3NTWfba

Radio July 15

            If you grew up in Southern California in the 1970s, you likely listened to the legendary KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM). And if you listened to KMET, you likely listened to one of the most famous programs to ever originate from album-rock radio, Dr. Demento.

            Born Barret Eugene “Barry” Hansen, Dr. Demento wasn’t heard only on KMET. In fact, his show launched on KPPC (now KROQ, 106.7 FM) after a time in 1970 playing some of his personal record recollection as a guest on Steven Segal, known on the air as The Obscene Steven Clean, on KMET and later KPPC (now KROQ, 106.7 FM).  Those personal records included unusual recordings, novelty songs and just strange and unusual songs dating back to the earliest 78 RPM records.

            It was Segal who gave Hansen the name "Dr. Demento.”

            “I had no warning of this,” Hansen says, explaining that it came about roughly the third time he was a guest in hour-long expanded segments that began in October. “He just decided he’d start calling me Dr. Demento.” And the rest, as they say, is history.

            He got his own two-hour shift on KPPC at the end on 1970; He moved to KMET in 1971, where for four hours he’d play his version of hits … from artists such as Spike Jones, Jimmy Durante, Ray Stevens, Stan Freberg, Tom Lehrer, Nervous Norvus, and of course “Weird Al” Yankovic.

            He remained at KMET until the station changed formats in early 1987. After that he could be heard on KLSX (now KNX-FM, 97.1 FM) and later KSCA (101.9 FM), where it remained until 1997. The show was also syndicated nationally in a two-hour format from 1974 to about 2010, when it became available only on the internet.

            But it was at KMET where he truly shined. The first three hours of the program included various records, not always funny but always interesting, the last hour devoted to the “top-10” where you’d hear such classic recordings as “Star Drek,” “Pencil-Neck Geek,” “Dead Puppies,” “Shaving Cream,” “Fish Heads,” and many more. 

            Hansen was instrumental in bringing teen-ager Yankovic to a national audience when he played “Belvedere Crusin” on his show in 1976.

            As mentioned, Hansen still makes his show available on the internet with new programs weekly at https://www.drdemento.com. He participates in the official Facebook fan page for the show at https://www.facebook.com/groups/drdemento. It is on Facebook where I asked his legions of fans for their memories of the show and the good Doctor himself.

            “Found the good Dr. late at night by accident when I was about 12/13 years old. Right around the time Weird All came out with My Bologna. Was hooked on both of them immediately (my local radio station played Ray Stevens, so I was big into the comedy stuff with nothing on other than that)” — Ginger Boyles

            “When I was 7 or 8 years old, I had an uncle that sent my family a few cassette tapes of the Dr. Demento Show that he had taped for us (it wasn't on any of the stations in our area at the time). No one else in my family was interested, so they quickly became mine. The first tape I listened to was the show that first aired Weird Al's 'Another Rides the Bus'. I was instantly hooked. Those tapes quickly became what I listened to whenever I could. 

            “Looking back, I've realized that I had been listening to a radio show that showed me that I wasn't the only weird person around. It was okay to not fit into the normal mold of society. Shortly after, a local station started airing the show. Not only did his show entertain with it's rich history of parody and novelty music, but I know it influenced my sense of humor in my formative years. A large amount of credit (or blame) is due to Dr. Demento and his efforts in shaping me into who I am today, someone who is comfortable with being a little off kilter.” — Joshua Hesselgrave

            “Sunday nights at midnight….difficult for a jr high girl sometimes…but the desire to possibly hear ‘Fish Heads’ or ‘Dead Puppies!’”  — Holly Hammond

            “I helped run a coffee house in Allendale, NJ called The Grotto in the mid to late 1970s. We had live music, but when the Doctor came on the radio, that stopped and it was time to get demented!” — Seth Bogdanove

            “Before Dr. Dememto would get to the Top Ten Countdown, he would play records and songs that had a theme running thru them.  I remember once he played several versions of  ‘Hot Rod Lincoln’ … he pointed out words and lines were changed in the different versions. And even played a song that could have been the genesis of the song.” — Robert Stone II

            “I did a fake stupid hillbilly voice to request a song because I thought it would improve my chances - it did and I got a t-shirt” — Beaux Peterson

            “I have a hand written letter from Dr. D. I'm sure a lot of other fans on here still have theirs as well.” — Cindy Lee

            “A few of my San Pedro High friends recorded a song to the tune of ‘Rocket Cathedrals’ by Be Bop Deluxe. Their group name was ITZ… The song was called "Vinnie the Hippo" and it was about portly SPHS language teacher. They circulated a petition, and it ended up being played on the air!” — Jeff Steybe

            “I remember seeing him at the Capital Records swap meet. Dr Demento would be going through bins and bins of records looking for cool stuff for his show.” — Dean Case

            “Sunday night was a thing. My older brother and I would listen; we had this really old FM tube receiver that kinda glowed in the dark from the tubes and a couple of speakers hooked up to it. Sometimes with friends over, sometimes not. It was appointment radio in those days.” — Bob Orabona

            “I remember listening to him on the radio, I enjoyed his Christmas shows the most, I really miss those! I joined the fan club, and I have all of his CDs.” — Russell Cinque, Jr.

            I, too, have many memories, including the jingle used for the top song of the night: “It’s time for number o-n-e! This is it, here it comes NUMBER ONE!” 

            If you’d like to get up-close and personal with the good doctor, head over to https://bit.ly/3NTWfba where you’ll find a long-form career-spanning interview Mike Stark and I did for LA Radio Sessions. You can get a lot of inside information on his record collection, his radio career, and much more.

Radio Waves Podcast #346

 Radio Waves: July 8. 2022

Will electric cars kill terrestrial radio?

That’s the question posed in a article posted at consumer guide.com (read it at https://bit.ly/3nuTrGK), which talks about a very real problem affecting radio in general, AM in particular. 

The problem is that the motors and electronics in electric cars create interference that is very close in frequency to that of stations in the AM band. And in some cases, most notably more expensive models from high-end manufacturers, the “fix” is to leave AM out of the radio altogether.

And as electric cars get more popular — or mandated as in California — it could lead to the demise of America’s oldest broadcasting band, at least while traveling. In most of the country, in-car listening is a huge portion of overall  listening to radio. 

As explained in the story, “Electromagnetic frequencies generated by EV motors happen to be comparable in wavelength to AM radio signals. The competing signals clash, effectively cancelling each other, as if they were opposing forces. As EV motors grow more powerful, AM static tends to increase.”

It’s not a new problem. Indeed, many cars and trucks have fought radio interference for decades, even in cars with gasoline engines.. Ignition systems, electric motors driving cooling fans, windows and even the heating system can cause interference. But in the past, manufacturers were able to add shielding, ground systems, or even noise suppressors.

In reality, this can be done today, and perhaps might be a legal requirement: FCC rules require that no consumer component cause interference to radio reception, and must accept interference from broadcast radio transmission. But to my knowledge, the rule has not been enforced with any regularity in years. Indeed, LED lights, cable boxes, fluorescent lights, and computers and more all cause interference, and I haven’t heard of any product being pulled off the market for doing so.

Manufacturers have tried to find solutions, but those solutions add cost and weight to the cars …. Something the manufacturers are loathe to do. In the end, it’s easier just to leave it out.

FM is not totally immune either, as it too has challenges being received in a moving car. For now it’s primarily AM, though, and the manufacturers removing it from the dashboards of at least some of their all-electric cars include BMW, Tesla, Porsche, Volvo, and Audi. Interestingly, models from more common brands such as those from Toyota, Ford, and General Motors have kept AM in their electric models. This may change when Cadillac releases new models in the future.

One solution is to put everything on the web, but that creates its own issues: not every station streams their signals on the internet, it costs stations to do so, and it costs consumers when they have to subscribe to either an in-car internet service or use their cell phones to provide a signal. Once internet access is universal, however, some say this may be the future and put AM and FM stations on par for sound quality and distance reception. (I’ll have a story on this in the future).

But in the meantime, I can’t help but think that much of this has to do with programming. If AM listening was more popular, consumers would demand that AM not only be included, but would sound good. Like the early days of automobiles and broadcasting, solutions would be found. That they are not, and people are still buying Teslas proves there is a problem.

In other words, and to repeat what I have been saying for years, if AM stations gave a reason to listen, people would, and demand that their station could be heard while driving.

Related: if AM can be removed from the dash, is FM at risk as well? Absolutely. As the mobile dashboard becomes more of  an all-encompassing entertainment system with access to various online music and podcast services, some observers do indeed see a day when cars don’t have a radio at all.

I don’t see it that way, and in fact, I think solutions will be found to allow both AM and FM to continue to be found in the dash, especially as more manufacturers market electric cars. I may be wrong, but I think there are some simple solutions — or at least solutions that, once found, can be spread as a common design feature.

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