Radio: September 8, 2023
Trends are funny. Funny in an
interesting way, and often caused by forces not necessarily obvious.
Such an example is top-40 radio,
represented locally by KIIS (102.7 FM). The station that almost single-handedly
brought the format back from its death in the early 1980s while hitting record
high ratings for an FM station, is on hard times now. The July Nielsens had the
station tied for 8th place with a 3.7 share of the audience … a far cry from
the 10+ shares of the 1980s.
But I am not here to bash KIIS. I
am merely using it as an example of some trends that have come together, and
perhaps help find a way out.
First and foremost, the appeal of
oldies cannot be denied. Out of the top-10 stations, fully six are either fully
oldies-based or rely heavily on them in the music mix. KRTH (101.1 FM) KTWV
(94.7 FM), My FM (KBIG, 104.3), KOST (103.5 FM) Jack (KCBS-FM, 93.1) and KLOS
(95.5 FM) all predominantly play songs not released in the last year.
KIIS is definitely not alone.
Top-40, or Contemporary Hit Radio as it is called today. has taken a hit
nationwide. As the format tends to attract younger listeners, the fact that
many younger listeners are getting their music from streaming services and apps
like TikTok, it seems to be the natural progression.
Indeed, InsideMusicMedia’s Jerry
Del Colliano has extensively covered the migration to and influence of
streaming; a recent Billboard.com story spoke of TikTok’s appeal to young
listeners; top-40 stations across the country have added more “gold” to their
playlists; and the idea of playing music that is old but “new to you” has taken
hold as an easy way to attract listeners.
But it doesn’t work to attract
younger listeners, thus top-40 as a format suffers.
Yet the answer lies in the appeal
of the very things that are supposedly killing radio. TikTok is exposing kids
to music, new and old, from multiple genres. Streaming services use curators to
find music that listeners may like, based upon the songs they play — and those
they skip.
Add in Sean Ross, who writes in
RadioInsight.com that most people fondly remember their own top-40 listening
days from “when top-40 played it all,” and you have the answer: play it all.
Top-40 has always thrived when it
played it all, and has always stagnated when it limited itself. You saw it
happen with too much “bubblegum,” too much disco, too much country, too much of
“the Miami sound,” too much grunge, and too much Hip-Hop. All of those eras had
temporarily success, but ultimately led to ratings declines as listeners left
for other stations.
Yet when “they played it all,” such
as the 1960s where you could hear The Beatles, The Bee Gees, Jefferson Airplane
and Cream all on the same station, it just worked. Same for when Prince, The
Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and Foreigner all shared space on the same
station. Today KRTH is leading the ratings doing nothing more than playing the
music that once played on KIIS … Naked Eyes, Wham, Soft Cell, Tears for Fears,
Madonna, Depeche Mode and Outfield.
That variety of music makes things
interesting, and today’s teens especially are, according to research, more
willing to listen to different genres right now than any other generation.
Inside Music Media’s Del Colliano
suggests that perhaps it is time to hire curators — locally, of course, so you
can better match the audience — to find new music and present it. “Young
audiences are more eclectic than baby boomers, Gen X or even older millennials
- they mix genres,” he explains. They are “spellbound” when they find it, open
to fresh musical styles, “and amazingly curious.”
Radio is losing young people, he
says in part because, aside from the commercial overload, “radio no longer
breaks new music and acts.” Fix it by doing so, and become the influencers you
used to be, Del Colliano advises programmers, instead of letting social media
do it.
Ross takes it a step further and
blames, in part, the record companies for not even trying to promote new
musical styles and acts to hit radio stations.
I agree fully with all of the
above, which you already know if you’ve read this column very long. Your
responses to me tell me that you agree as well. And like the dark days of hit
top-40 radio before, all it takes is a KHJ, a Ten-Q, a KIIS-FM, or the like to
take up the cause and do it right.
Top-40 is not dead, it’s just
dormant. And the time is ripe for a comeback. Hopefully sooner than later.
Rumor Mill
Is Saul Levine ready to test
all-digital AM on his K-Mozart (1260 AM)? I’ve been told “maybe.” I hope it
happens … I’d love to see how far an all-digital AM signal can carry both
during the day and night, and if it helps reduce the interference between stations.
If it happens, you’ll be the first to know.
///
Radio:
September 15, 2023
Over
the air television broadcasts are about to undergo another transition similar
to the original transition to digital transmissions over a decade ago. Digital
television broadcasts launched a few years prior, but in 2009 most analog
television broadcasts were shut down, and digital, using what is called the
ATSC 1.0 standard, was the default over-the-air standard.
More
recently a new technology called ATSC 3.0 has been developed, offering
more efficient signal use, better and easier reception, improved picture
quality, and even streaming and on-demand services. One additional benefit: the
system would allow for 50 — or more — full-fidelity radio stations to be sent
along in the space of just one channel. That is if the industry decides to
develop the concept.
According
to an article at TechRadar.com, the idea was developed by Fraunhofer, “the
company behind the original MP3 audio compression standard that ultimately led
to the development of the best MP3 players and paved the way for music and
internet radio streaming as well.
(full
article at https://www.techradar.com/news/if-atsc-30-broadcasts-pack-50-radio-stations-in-one-tv-channel-im-all-ears)
“Fraunhofer is seeking to have its highly efficient xHE-AAC audio codec, which allows for high-quality voice transmission at a mere seven kilobits per second and stereo music at bit rates from 24 kilobits per second and up, ‘brought into the ATSC for standardization.’ Doing so would let ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV stations deliver a package of local and national radio services using just a small fraction of their spectrum bandwidth.”
What
this means is that, if the standards committees agree, we could have an
additional way to send and receive radio broadcasts over the air, receivable in
cars and homes, … and if done right could be a true competitor to current AM
and FM stations dominated by a mere three owners.
I
suggest the proposal include limits to ownership, such that only a small
handful of stations could be owned and operated by any one company. This would
avoid the mess we have now with stale formats and commercial overloads that
push people away to other entertainment sources. I’d push for no more than two
stations in one market and only seven nationwide … basically the same limits
radio had back when it was a super-power listener and ad-wise.
YouTube’s
“Antenna Man” has a little video on the concept at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDUotDRS1hs
… check it out if you are interested.
Reception
Questions
We
live in San Juan Capistrano and enjoy listening to 91X. We have radios in
the master bath and garage.
“The
signal from 91X is highly variable. On some days the reception is great, on
others the station barely registers. Any insight into why that’s the case?
Thanks!” — Eric Carlson
FM
reception can be tricky for two reasons … under certain (usually bad weather)
conditions, the signal just doesn’t travel as far, and it always has trouble
with hills, since it travels in a straight line. Ironically, the other
condition is when it’s REALLY clear, and the signal gets interrupted by
neighboring stations on or near the frequency. HD signals make it worse because
they add to the sideband interference. In some cases, stations once heard just
disappear!
A
house FM/TV antenna, if you can connect one, will usually make a huge
difference. Just make sure it is designed for the FM band, which is between the
old analog television Channel 6 and 7.
Of
course the other solution is to use a smart speaker or smartphone app.
“For
the past week I have been grumbling over my poor AM reception as I have been
driving around the northern part of the San Fernando Valley in my 2006 GMC
truck with my factory installed 31-inch stick antenna projecting from my front
fender.
“It
is nearly impossible to hear clearly 710, 790, and 1020AM broadcasting. The
interference and screeching is horrendous. As a result, I thought of you and
writing you an email when your column appeared today. Thus, I look to you for a
solution. What do I do to receive reception? Do I need to replace my antenna?
If so, what do I replace it with? What is the solution? I would appreciate any
advice and recommendations.” — The Reverend Greg Frost, Granada Hills
AM
is a different animal reception-wise from FM. While FM is relatively
statice-free (reference: Steely Dan’s hit song “FM”), AM can pick up
interference from almost anything: cheap electrical transformers, ungrounded
electric supply wires, light dimmers, cable boxes, LED traffic lights and much
more. In fact, it is the response by radio manufacturers in reducing
interference that caused AM to get a reputation as a terrible-sounding
broadcast system.
AM
is actually capable of excellent fidelity. Many radios manufactured before the
1980s sounded good; many in the 1960s were excellent. The AM stereos of the
1980s and ‘90s often were superb. But too many are awful, and there is
definitely a price to be paid with so much extra interference around us today.
Add
to this the fact that too many station owners gave up their prime broadcast
towers or allowed building in and around the transmitter site, and you have
another problem - far weaker signals than ever before for many stations.
In
this specific case, in order to trace it out, it is important to know - did it
come on suddenly? Is the antenna tight? Is there ay corrosion on the mast
mount? Is the antenna grounded? Does the interference happen only when the
truck is running, or all the time?
Often
car radio interference can be traced to a bad ground wire, a loose battery
connection, or in one case of my own years ago, a car phone charger that made
AM reception almost impossible whenever it was plugged in.
I’d
look for corrosion and grounds first, then move on from there.
Radio: September 22, 2023
The
August Nielsen ratings were released last week for Los Angeles, and while I
will not be covering the entire list — I leave that for quarterly reports so as
to not bore you too much — there was definitely a station worth mentioning: KFI
(640 AM)
The
reason it’s worth mentioning has as much to do with the success the station has
enjoyed as it does the dire predictions many made when programmer Robin
Bertolucci adjusted the programming and moved a few hosts around in early
January.
“They’re
doomed,” cried some. No one will listen to John and Ken — who moved from their
longtime afternoon drive slot to take on the 1 to 3 p.m. hours — that
early. Tim Conway will not attract an audience in afternoons like he had at
night. Etcetera, etcetera …
And
‘Mo Kelly? Who’s he?
I
even had people write in talking about the steep ratings drop KFI had due to
the changes. There was only one problem: it never really happened, in a
statistical sense. I looked it up … for most of the last few years, KFI ranged
from the mid-high 3s to the low-mid 4s with a few periods even higher. So this
year, ranging from 4.1 to 4.3 was normal.
But
the ratings for August had KFI at a recent high: 4.8, good for third place over
all. Done with little promotion, no marketing (why is that, by the way?) … and
all those changes that “killed” it.
Why
is KFI so successful? Isn’t conservative talk dead? Yes, it is … and it’s been
decades since KFI was considered “conservative talk” even when it wasn’t. There
have always been a balance of viewpoints on the station; as it moved away from
politically-centered topics to more general topics, it matched the mood of
listeners who wanted to be entertained more than they wanted to be angry.
Thus,
the idea of shortening the shifts to keep shows fresh and fast-moving, keeping
all of the current hosts while allowing for afternoon exposure of the amazing
wit on the Conway Show, and the introduction, or perhaps re-introduction of
general talk in the evenings with the addition of ‘Mo Kelly every evening
at 7:00 … worked out perfectly.
And
having a stellar news department helps as well.
“I
am super-proud of the KFI team,” said programmer Bertolucci. “In addition to
being #3 overall — and the top-rated news or talk station — we are so happy to
be the most streamed station on the iHeart app.”
She
said that on-demand and podcasts are doing great as well.
“KFI
is THE live and local station for Southern California, and I think the key is
all the ways people can hear us. From streaming in your car to listening on
your smart speaker at home, we’ve got you covered.”
I
asked her what she thought was the secret to the success of the station.
Consistency? Fun? Yes, she said, to both. “Our hope is that any time you tune
in, you are not only informed, but you are also entertained,” she said adding,
“Thank you to all our wonderful listeners for their support!”
1110
AM Gets Religion
KRDC
(1110 AM) was finally transferred to its new owner on September 8th. On that
day it became KWVE, the AM simulcast of Calvary Chapel’s KWVE-FM (107.9). The
format is Christian talk, which has been running on the FM signal for many
years.
With
that strong FM signal, why did the church buy the one-time top-40 powerhouse?
Better coverage in the northern and western parts of the city, I am told, and
an extended signal reach up and down the coast. Obviously Calvary Chapel
believes in AM broadcasting …
And
just to show that some things go full circle, 1110 AM, even though the station
is not longer using the KRLA call letters it once had, is competing once more
against KHJ (930 AM), which now airs Catholic talk programming.
Resting
in Radio Peace
Don
Barrett announced his cancer diagnosis in mid August; last week the news came
that he had passed.
I
won’t write a new obituary here; the column honoring him that ran on August
25th will suffice. But I wanted to mention an interview — a rare one, since
Barrett even to the end rarely did interviews — done by my podcast partner Mike
Stark. It includes some wonderful memories of radio past and present, shows
Barrett’s philosophy of always looking to the positive, and even includes some
classic airchecks I had not heard before that Barrett critiques. It’s a great
listen and can be found at youtube.com/watch?v=SJ6BjY2cwYc.
In
an ordinary instant, Don, you will be missed. God bless you.
Richard
Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern
California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com
///
