LA Radio Waves

Radio: May 22, 2020     While Nielsen now releases ratings for our local radio stations every four weeks, I normally only report on them every quarter, or roughly three months. It’s not because I find the ratings boring, but if I reported them every month, it would be as if I was constantly reporting them and you’d assume I was lazy. Which I am, but I try to keep that a secret.     These are not normal times, however. We are in the middle of a pandemic-driven economic shutdown, encouraged/persuaded to stay home as much as possible, and that’s made huge changes to the ratings in a very short time. These are the COVID-19 days after all. The April book is the first book that was fully part of the shutdown; March was only partially affected. But the trends that began in March held in April.     For the first time in years, though not the first time since I’ve been writing this column, an AM station rules the Los Angeles airwaves. KFI (640 AM) did it, with a huge  jump to a 5.5 rating, up from 4.2 last month and 2.9 back in December of last year. At the same time, usual (at least in the past year) leader KOST (103.5 FM) dropped to third at 4.5, from March’s 2nd place 5.1. KRTH stayed steady at 5.2, but dropped one place into second. Tied with KOST was KTWV The Wave (94.7 FM) which was down from March’s 4.9 and the 4.6 and 4.7 the station earned in February and March, respectively.     KFI was not the only AM station to benefit from these weird times. KNX (1070 AM) was down to 3.4 from last month’s 3.8, but that’s still higher that the 3.0 share the station earned in both January and February. Conservative talker KRLA (870 AM) came in the highest rating for the frequency in decades, 1.8 compared with 1.4 in March and its usual 1.1 or so prior. Even KABC (790 AM) got some love for a change, earning a solid 1.4 — the first time it has been above 1.0 in recent memory.     Two surprises? KAMP (97.1 FM) and KROQ (106.7 FM) … Amp was down to its lowest share ever (1.3 from March’s 1.9 and February’s 2.0) and KROQ was down to its lowest rating ever (1.4 from 2.0 in March and 2.5 in February). Seems that Entercom selling The Sound wasn’t  such a bright idea after all. Actually it never was.     So what’s going on? Is everyone tuning into news and information stations to get COVID-19 information rather than listening to their favorite music? In a word, no, and that is because listenership is down. Way down. Some stations ended up in April with fewer than half the number of listeners than they had in February.     Ratings company Nielsen calls it “cume,” for the cumulative number of distinct listeners tuning into a station for at least five minutes in a rated quarter hour. Just to give a few examples, KRTH had a cume of 1,605,700 listeners in April, down from 2,889,100 in February. KOST was hit even worse, with a cume of 1,475,400; less than half the 3,025,000 listeners they had in February. KIIS-FM? 1,227,800 in April, 2,534,500 back in February.     That’s because they all went to the news and talk stations, right? Nope. KFI while at the top of the ratings was actually 18th in town when comparing cume, 671,900 compared with 841,000 back in February. KNX, one of the few stations with an increase in March was still down in April … with the three month trend of February through April being 1,018,400, 1,177,900, 770,400.     What gives? Driving. We’re not doing it, so a major time for radio listening is gone for many. Listening at work or in stores? Almost totally eliminated, meaning that stations that usually get an artificial boost in the ratings due to work/store background listening lost that advantage. And while every other station with one exception — KFWB (980 AM)  — was down in cume, those that have more listeners who listen by choice, say at home, tended to fare better. The “forced” liste

While Nielsen now releases ratings for our local radio stations every four weeks, I normally only report on them every quarter, or roughly three months. It’s not because I find the ratings boring, but if I reported them every month, it would be as if I was constantly reporting them and you’d assume I was lazy. Which I am, but I try to keep that a secret.     These are not normal times, however. We are in the middle of a pandemic-driven economic shutdown, encouraged/persuaded to stay home as much as possible, and that’s made huge changes to the ratings in a very short time. These are the COVID-19 days after all. The April book is the first book that was fully part of the shutdown; March was only partially affected. But the trends that began in March held in April.     For the first time in years, though not the first time since I’ve been writing this column, an AM station rules the Los Angeles airwaves. KFI (640 AM) did it, with a huge  jump to a 5.5 rating, up from 4.2 last month and 2.9 back in December of last year. At the same time, usual (at least in the past year) leader KOST (103.5 FM) dropped to third at 4.5, from March’s 2nd place 5.1. KRTH stayed steady at 5.2, but dropped one place into second. Tied with KOST was KTWV The Wave (94.7 FM) which was down from March’s 4.9 and the 4.6 and 4.7 the station earned in February and March, respectively.     KFI was not the only AM station to benefit from these weird times. KNX (1070 AM) was down to 3.4 from last month’s 3.8, but that’s still higher that the 3.0 share the station earned in both January and February. Conservative talker KRLA (870 AM) came in the highest rating for the frequency in decades, 1.8 compared with 1.4 in March and its usual 1.1 or so prior. Even KABC (790 AM) got some love for a change, earning a solid 1.4 — the first time it has been above 1.0 in recent memory.     So what’s going on? Is everyone tuning into news and information stations to get COVID-19 information rather than listening to their favorite music? In a word, no, and that is because listenership is down. Way down. Some stations ended up in April with fewer than half the number of listeners than they had in February.     Ratings company Nielsen calls it “cume,” for the cumulative number of distinct listeners tuning into a station for at least five minutes in a rated quarter hour. Just to give a few examples, KRTH had a cume of 1,605,700 listeners in April, down from 2,889,100 in February. KOST was hit even worse, with a cume of 1,475,400; less than half the 3,025,000 listeners they had in February. KIIS-FM? 1,227,800 in April, 2,534,500 back in February.     That’s because they all went to the news and talk stations, right? Nope. KFI while at the top of the ratings was actually 18th in town when comparing cume, 671,900 compared with 841,000 back in February. KNX, one of the few stations with an increase in March was still down in April … with the three month trend of February through April being 1,018,400, 1,177,900, 770,400.     What gives? Driving. We’re not doing it, so a major time for radio listening is gone for many. Listening at work or in stores? Almost totally eliminated, meaning that stations that usually get an artificial boost in the ratings due to work/store background listening lost that advantage. And while every other station with one exception — KFWB (980 AM)  — was down in cume, those that have more listeners who listen by choice, say at home, tended to fare better. The “forced” listening stations — stations with listeners who “hear” a station only because it’s background music while working or shopping — are the ones that lost the most.     This could be an important selling point if we ever get the economy rolling again. Stations that lost fewer listeners as a percentage might be worth more to advertisers, as they would tend to be the stations

So you’re stuck at home. You don’t want to get COVID-19, nor do you want to be a carrier and give it to grandpa. But the weather is so darn nice … what to do, what to do? … How about trying to DX radio stations? DX? Distance. The idea is to see how far away you can pick up a radio station, and the perfect weather we have right now happens to be the perfect weather for DXing both AM and FM stations. You don’t need a special radio to do this, but there are various models that work better than others. For AM radio, signals travel quite far at night. Without getting too technical, the signal bounces off the atmosphere at night, travels back to earth, bounces up again, and so forth until it lands in your radio. This doesn’t happen during the day because the energy of the sun tends to absorb the signals (program note: technical people – correct me if I’m wrong), so night time is the best time for AM DXing. An interesting aspect of this is what is called “critical time,” a time in which the sun has gone down but it is still light enough that a station has not had to switch to its night-time power; often stations need to power down somewhat — or a lot, depending on the situation — to avoid interfering with other stations. During this critical period, you can often hear stations from quite far away because they are still at full power. As I said, any radio can work. For AM you need to get it away from things that might interfere with the signal: dimmers, some LED lights, computers, cable boxes, cheap “wall wart” power supplies. If it runs on batteries, try taking it outside. Turn the radio different directions and tune up and down the dial. Most of the better AM radios have large ferrite antennas — something that looks like a long bar with wires wrapped around it, — something that is often lacking in modern radios. Sometimes they are inside the case as they are in the old GE SuperRadio line.If your radio has a terminal to connect an external antenna, generally speaking, the longer the better. Super long runs of wire can aid reception. Unfortunately, that is often impractical. So a compromise can be made: a large run or wire wrapped around a large spool. See one such design on my web page, at socalradiowaves.com/columns/am_antenna.html. This design gives a combination of length and direction, which can aid in the reception of distant signals. FM is a bit different. It is a signal that travels in a straight line and can be blocked by hills. For FM, height is paramount, both from a transmission standpoint and a reception standpoint. That’s why so many of the Los Angeles radio and television stations use Mount Wilson as their transmitter sites and why your roof antenna — if you still have one — works so much better than an indoor antenna. Weather also plays a part: generally speaking, the better and clearer the weather the better the reception. However, that clear weather can also be a curse … sometimes distant stations can come in so clearly they interfere with local stations and both have reception issues. Sometimes multiple signals from different cities can hit at the same time and spoil reception as well. So the best way to do FM, if you are able, is to have a roof-mounted antenna that you can turn, or a really good indoor antenna that is directional and movable. Some of the better FM tuners (and AM for that matter) have selectable sensitivity. Some recent tuners, including those from Sangean designed for HD radio reception, have FM sections that are quite good. But any radio can be tried. I have to admit it has been years since I actively DXd … the dates on my list are 1980 and ’81. But the AM stations I was able to tune from my home near San Pedro back then include KBOI/Boise, Idaho, KTAR/Phoenix, KOA/Denver, the late-great KFRC/San Francisco, and KSL from somewhere in Utah. My prizes, though, were WLS/Chicago and WCCO/Minneapolis-St. Paul. I never did much FM DXing, but in regular listening was often able to pick up stations from Sa

Radio May 1, 2020  Rick Dees was the guest on “Magic” Matt Alan’s Outlaw Radio last weekend, telling stories of their past lives working together and apart, the COVID-19 lockdown, jokes and humor (of course), Dees’ famous hit Disco Duck, politics, magic and more.  Best line of the morning … outside of the fun stories and banter, of course … came from Dees himself when he cautioned, and I am paraphrasing: If you have something positive to say, write it down. If you have something bad to say, say it in person. Words to live by.  The two worked together at KIIS-FM (102.7) ; Dees in the morning had been there since the early days of the station’s meteoric rise to dominance that began in 1981; Alan came aboard in 1989 and worked afternoon drive twice, two years starting in 1989 and another stint two years later … the break in tenure described at the time as “philosophical differences” with management . Alan most recently has been doing morning drive on SiriusXM’s ‘70s on 7 in addition to hosting Outlaw Radio from his backyard smoking lounge. Hear the program at www.outlawradiolive.com.  Passings  Sad news of multiple passings recently.  Ian Whitcomb passed away on April 19 of natural causes. He was 78. Whitcomb had a hit record in 1965 called “You Turn Me On,” and was heard playing music on the old KIEV (now KRLA, 870 AM), KROQ (106.7 FM), KCRW (89.9 FM) and KPCC (89.3 FM). You can hear a sample of his KROQ show at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpOgRMjdedc.  Most recently, Jerry Bishop was the announcer for television’s Judge Judy, but I remember him on the radio at such stations as KLAC (570 AM), KFI (640 AM), KKDJ (now KIIS-FM), KIIS-AM/FM (I actually remember listening to the AM side of the simulcast of 1150 AM), and KGIL (now KSUR, 1260 AM). He died April 21st at the age of 84 after several weeks in the hospital due to heart complications and kidney failure.  Longtime producer, host and fundraiser at KCRW, Matt Holzman passed away April 12  after a battle with cancer at the age of 56. He had received a kidney transplant in 2006 which he documented on the air. I am told that Holzman left his mark in so many ways at the station that he will never be forgotten.  Bob Howard is most remembered at KFWB (980 AM) where he worked the all-night shift from 1981-2009. He was heard prior on the late-great KGFJ (now KYPA, 1230 AM) and KDAY (now KBLA, 1580 AM). Little information is known about his death; he was said to be 76 years old and one of the nicest guys ever to work in radio.  MailBag  Apparently you think that Old Time Radio and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater is a good idea to air during these COVID-19 lockdown days, if only to temporarily take your mind off of what is going on around you.  “I enjoy your column each week and have a suggested supplement to today’s idea of the week from reader Jimmy Noonan: I am obviously older than both of you and grew up listening in bed to The Shadow Knows and Green Hornet. They were great and should be added to your list. Thanks” — John Whitaker  “I think his suggestion is spot on. I have a client who has Old Radio programs on hold (over the phone) to listen to. I sometimes want to call just to be put on hold! Having the CBS Radio Mystery Theater or the CBS/KNX Drama Hour on radio during these crazy times would bring people back to happier times. I know I would listen… My favorite programs were with Lucille Ball-mysteries.”  — Karin Buchak  “I wholeheartedly concur with Jimmy Noonan’s suggestion to bring back the Drama Hour! We were faithful listeners, and my now grown up kids have the “Old Time Radio” app and still listen, as do my wife and I. Bring it back!” — Dan Ryan  “Excellent idea!  The Lone Ranger rides again!  Hi O Silver, away!” — Randi Miller  “This is an 88 year old bred and born Montebello boy now living in Chino Hills … I just finished reading your article in the Orange County Registe

Radio: April 24, 2020 Can radio survive the downturn in ad revenues brought on by COVID-19? Of course it can. Radio itself will survive no matter what. It is free, easily received on an instrument in more homes and cars than any other, and when it successfully serves the local community, cannot be duplicated. The better question is, can radio in its current form survive the downturn in revenues brought on by COVID-19? I’d say no. And InsideMusicRadio’s Jerry Del Colliano agrees. The problem is that the promised efficiencies of large companies owning many radio stations never offset the massive debt that these companies took on in the name of becoming large. Note the goal was not to become better, just large. They wanted to dominate. To control the market. It was a “sure thing” gamble … that they lost. Instead, they undermined their own successful business model that relied on serving the local audience with top-notch programming. Indeed, when the “stuff” hit the fan, they responded by cutting talent. Many formerly top-rated DJs and successful programmers are now successfully working for the advertisers they used to promote: selling real estate, selling cars, or retired. The companies then undercut their own advertising rates in an attempt to attract more advertisers, cheapening their own worth. This required more ads to make up the shortfall, cheapening that worth even more. Del Colliano says in his April 20 column that “the coronavirus and ensuing economic recession has ripped into the fundamentals of the radio industry,” that radio advertising may be down as much as 65% for the second quarter of this year, and that the drop “is expected to continue through 2020.” Maybe 2021. “There will be some casualties,” he says bluntly. Which ones? He says that Entercom (which owns KRTH 101.1 FM, KROQ 106.7 FM, The Wave 94.7 and KNX 1070 AM, among others) and Cumulus (KABC 790 AM) are especially vulnerable. He expects iHeart to make it, though in a vastly different form as he predicts that SiriusXM owner Liberty Media is waiting for the right time to pounce and will take it over. If that is done, though, I expect massive changes to the iHeart, including the sale of stations. Is that bad? Temporarily yes, but as stations are sold off to independent owners and small groups, I predict once more that true local radio will return, and that will bring the medium back to the glory it once had. Hey, I can dream, right? Good Day Longtime listeners to KABC may remember listening to Paul Harvey’s newscasts and commentaries that aired daily. His segments that gave “the rest … of the story” often included fascinating historical stories that ended with a twist … and were required listening for many. He retired from radio in 2008 and passed away in 2009, but many recordings of Harvey still exist. WGN/Chicago will begin daily airing of “The Rest of the Story” on April 27th for a limited time to gauge interest; if the trial works, the station will continue and explore the possibility of syndicating the segments around the country. I hope it works - I would love to hear them again. I am not sure which station would carry it, but I could see them back on KABC, KFI (640 AM) or KNX. Speaking of KNX Reader Jimmy Noonan of Anaheim has the idea of the week. “I relish your radio-related ramblings and suspect you may like my proposal. “Wouldn’t this be the perfect time for a resurrection of the CBS/KNX Drama Hour? It ran for decades at 9:00 p.m. with an amazing array of classic radio shows: Night Beat, Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, the Lone Ranger, the Third Man, Jack Benny, Bob Hope etc. “Not only is it great entertainment for the entire family to enjoy together, but it also allows you to create your own visuals to accompany the spoken word – theater of the mind! “Please use your immense influence to make it happen. And, no, not on the internet. We need it on AM or FM radio so it can be a community-wide event experienced by all simultaneously.” I think it is an ama

Adult album alternative Independent 88.5 FM is making changes to The Nic Harcourt Show, which is heard weekday mornings on the station from 6 to 11 a.m. Effective immediately, 88.5 personality Jet will join Harcourt on the newly-named Nic Harcourt Morning Show with Jet. Jet  — who has previously been heard on the air nights and weekends — will offer a “supporting voice” to Harcourt; Harcourt has been Jet’s mentor during her four years at the station. “I feel lucky to be able to do what I love every day and continue to grow within the current climate of the entertainment industry. I’m looking forward to where this takes 88.5 FM,” said Jet in a message. ”I think we all consider ourselves fortunate to truly be a part of our community at this time,” Harcourt said in a message. The move comes at an interesting time in local morning radio, with the recent losses of Frosty Stilwell (who was furloughed) and Lisa May (who retired last year) from the “Frosty Heidi and Frank” show on KLOS (95.5 FM), and KROQ (106.7 FM) lost Gene “Bean” Baxter to retirement and then letting go Kevin Ryder and the rest of the morning crew, replacing by former afternoon drive-time’s Stryker and Klein. No doubt 88.5 management hopes to pick up on disgruntled listeners from those two, along with anyone else who is tiring of predictable and often pre-recorded radio. 88.5 General Manager Patrick Osburn said in a statement, “Harcourt is regarded as the ‘ultimate tastemaker’ in music, with many artists — including Adele, Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, KT Tunstall, Interpol, Lana Del Rey, The Record Company and Florence + The Machine — crediting him with putting them on the map and helping them achieve success. “Jet,” he concluded, “is active in the local and national music scene, while still handling promotions and social media for the station.” The focus of the show? Music, information, and fun. “We’re living in challenging times, and it’s more important than ever to spin great music and deliver information the audience can use and, yes, have some fun! “ Harcourt commented. “Adding Jet to the mix brings a fabulous new perspective for both myself and the audience.” Held Back It’s too early to truly evaluate their morning show fairly, but KROQ’s Stryker and Klein have been together for a long time doing afternoons. Afternoons are a different animal than mornings with different pressures. It takes a while to find a groove sometimes. That being said, I can’t help but feel that something is going wrong with the morning show. The ones I’ve heard sound far too rehearsed, lacking the fun, open banter the team had when they were the station’s afternoon stars. Of course, part of it could be the distance broadcasting I assume the station is using; it is doubtful that the two are in the same room and are broadcasting from independent home studios due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But I have to say that to me they also sound coached and lacking the kind of spontaneity I’ve come to enjoy about their show. Is this part of them becoming the new morning show hosts? I hope not. Stryker and Klein are talented and funny. They already have a tough time due to resentment on how station management handled the firing of the old show, so if someone is trying to hamstring them I worry they are being set up for failure. Survival COVID-19 is the big issue of the day across most of the world, but one thing you can do to make things better is play more Al Green. At least that’s what I heard a former local general manager said to make the station more successful. Perhaps he was right. Play K-Mozart With smart speakers, the cool thing is you can say “Play Go Country 105,” and your speaker does. Say “Play Alt 98.7,” and it does. But say “Play K-Mozart” and it doesn’t. Why is that? Turns out to be a technical issue that is being worked on as we speak. The voice tags work when those tags are registered with one of the radio streaming services recognized by Siri, Hey Google and Alexa, such as Tun

Craig Reynolds of Pasadena writes, “Enjoy your weekly articles. Might be interesting to do a paragraph on Leon Kaplan, KABC (790 AM)  Sunday mornings 8-10 a.m. He takes calls on all kinds of motorized products, and celebrated his 40th anniversary in January. He was let go with all the other local talent but brought back to work for nothing.” Good idea. Kaplan has been at KABC as long as I can remember. And he keeps hanging on in spite of changes at the station through the years. Back in 2014, Kaplan was going to leave the station on his own terms because management wanted to shrink the show down to one hour to make room for Los Angeles Kings-related programming,  but an agreement was reached for him to stay, and stay for his full shift. December 2019 brought the announcement that all paid weekend hosts would be shown the door in order for the station to make up for years of neglect by cutting unnecessary costs … and owner Cumulus believes that on-air talent is such. But Kaplan decided he could make a go of it by being his own syndicator. I don’t have the exact details, but my understanding is that he now offers the show to the station for free in exchange for the ability to sell a certain number of advertisements. Probably a better deal for Kaplan: If he owns the show, he can take it anywhere if needed, and since it still works for KABC, the station earns some points for keeping a long-running show on the air. I am sure he doesn’t remember me, but the time I met Kaplan, he was a genuinely nice guy. His program is the longest-running continuous show on KABC, and Kaplan’s down-home style makes his show entertaining and fun to listen to. Nooooooooooo! Tom Burfield writes, “something you wrote Friday scares me. You encouraged FM DJs to ‘bond with listeners’ and talk about the coronavirus.Please don’t! “Until recently, I listened to KFI (640 AM) and KABC almost exclusively. Since they switched to wall-to-wall coronavirus coverage, I’ve been spending most of my listening time with the FM music stations. AM news and talk stations, TV stations, newspapers and websites continuously drone on and on about COVID-19. The LAST thing we need is for FM music stations to do the same. FM radio is about the only place we can go for a well-needed respite from coronavirus talk. Please don’t encourage them to change that!” Sorry about that! But that wasn’t my intention. I was thinking of ways to bond by talking with people (off air as well as on) regarding how they are surviving … fun ways to deal with being stuck at home … how to avoid others on walks … humor … basically ways to avoid exactly what you are talking about.The idea being that we need to be reassured we can all get through this, and while we are basically stuck at home, we can at least try to have some fun. Birthday wishes The “Real” Don Steele would have been 84 on April 1; the popular DJ, movie and television star passed away in 1997. Stories of Steele are legendary, even aside from his tremendous professionalism on and off the air. Apparently while at KTNQ (1020 AM), known at the time as Ten-Q, he would play the studio monitors so loudly that other tenants in the building complained, forcing engineering to move the studio and install sound-proofing. Steele often recorded himself on the air in order to listen back later and critique himself in order to improve; fortunately many of the tapes still exist and can be heard on various Aircheck sites including airchexx.com and reelradio.com. Even YouTube. When I met him on a boat to Catalina Island sponsored by his home station at the time, the original KRLA (1110 AM), I found him to be extremely cordial, charming, and far more subdued than I expected. He was very reflective on his career, and made a longtime fan very happy that he was willing to speak with me. Ken Levine worked with him and considers Steele not only a friend, but his idol. “For thirty years The Real Don Steele ruled the Los Angeles airwaves, most notably on 93/K

Radio: April 3, 2020 Did you know that the town of Castaic has its own radio station? Indeed it does. KHUG is a low-power commercial-free FM community station broadcasting at 97.5 FM. You can hear it online (www.khug.rocks … I never knew there was such a domain) or via your smart speaker. According to the website, KHUG is curated as art … “every song played on the air is chosen by a music lover, not an algorithm.” There’s a special show highlighting bands from the area, a roots of rock show, and more. The format I suppose is primarily blues rock, something I found quite nice. The station began broadcasting in January, 2017  from a ridge overlooking the Santa Clarita Valley, and according to the website, they “proudly play more music than any station in Southern California … We’re having fun, and hope that you enjoy listening!” Frosty Out Another cut at KLOS (95.5 FM) with the news that Frosty Stillwell has been let go from the morning show. Stillwell had been part of the show since August of 2016 when he reunited with the rest of the “Triplets,” as they were known when the show was heard on KLSX (now KAMP, 97.1 FM) and later KABC (790 AM). Heidi and Frank had joined KLOS in 2012, replacing the long-running Mark and Brian morning show. Decreased advertising revenue is the given reason in this case specifically, but this is just a continuing trend at the station. A few months ago almost all of the weekend/fill-in staff was let go, replaced with computer-recorded voice tracking, where a DJ records his or her announcements and a computer inserts the recordings at the appropriate time. This makes you wonder if Lisa May, previously part of the morning show, decided to retire a short time ago because she saw what was coming down the pipe. What’s Next? It’s a tough time in radio due right now to the COVID-19 shut down. But the virus could go a long way to making radio relevant again. Instead of more music, less talk, computer-delivered re-recordings, how about talking to your listeners, actively engaging them on the air? Doing what some shows already do — I’m thinking Stryker and Klein on KROQ (106.7 FM), Heidi and Frank, some of the local talk shows — and doing it all day? Some stations are doing this, but when you only have live personalities from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m it’s a bit difficult.  Keep your format in tact, but let your DJs get more personal on the air. Open up to letting music radio be a foreground listening experience again, rather than background. This is an opportunity to bond with listeners show are craving new entertainment sources while they are safe at home … give it to them. Now. Harsh Cuts Jerry Del Colliano reports on his Inside Music Media that the major radio ownership groups are in the process of speeding up “dislocations” (aka layoffs and firings) … using COVID-19 as an excuse to do what they were going to do anyway. But the CEOs? Their pay is intact. According to Del Colliano, iHeart has suspended matching 401k match, and no one really expects it to return. Entercom has already fired an entire staff or part-timers. And more is to come, including the possibility of having no actual studios at all: talent using their own studios at home as they become independent contractors.  And Then COVID-19 slowed down the plan, but Saul Levine announced last week that once the crisis is over, live personalities will return to K-Mozart, found on line and via HD digital radio (special tuner needed) at 105.1 HD4. If you have an HD Tuner, online access or a smart speaker — Alexa, Google and Siri can all play K-Mozart — you can hear the commercial-free classical music right now. It’s been available for many years but Levine wants to make it a viable, compelling alternative to KUSC (91.5 FM).

KOST (103.5 FM) continued settling down back to normal after its traditional holiday boost, but it still managed to dominate the Los Angeles ratings released last week. For the month of February, the adult top-40 station earned a 5.7 rating, down from 6.5 in January and 13.7 during the holiday season, but a half-point above second-place KRTH (101.1 FM)’s 5.2. KFI (640 AM was the top-rated talk station as usual, and the top-rated AM station in town, earning a 3.8 share at tied for 7th place overall … and proving that AM radio is still, indeed, viable. News radio KNX (1070 AM) was not far behind, with a 3.0 share at 10th place. Unfortunately, the next highest-rated AM station was way down and tied for 29th place at 1.1, that station being KRLA (870 AM). Alt 98.7 FM beat out KROQ (106.7 FM) but just barely: Alt at 2.6 vs. KROQ at 2.5;  Alt tied for 12th and KROQ tied for 14th. Keep this in mind when you hear about the ousting of KROQ’s entire morning show. For a change, the news was good for KABC (790 AM), which while still low at 0.9 and tied for 35th, was the station’s highest rating in recent memory. And just because I love the call letters, it is nice to still be able to mention KHJ (930 AM) in spite of the fact that they don’t let me program music on the station. For the month, KHJ was 47th place with a 0.1 share. Yes, it’s low, but the call-letters are still around after almost 100 years. Each Nielsen rating is an estimate of the percentage of listeners aged 6 and over (also called “six plus”) tuned to a station between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 midnight. 1. KOST (5.7) 2. KRTH (5.2) 3. KTWV (4.7) 4. KBIG/My-FM (4.5) 5. KIIS (4.4) 6. KLAX (4.1) 7. KLVE, KFI (3.8) 9. KCBS-FM/Jack (3.5) 10. KNX (3.0) 11. KLOS (2.9) 12. KYSR/Alt, KRRL/Real (2.6) 14. KROQ, KRCD (2.5) 16. KKGO/Go Country (2.4) 17. KPWR/Power, KLYY (2.3) 19. KXOL (2.2) 20. KSCA, KPPC (2.1) 22. KAMP/Amp Radio (2.0) 23. KUSC, KKLQ/K-Love, KBUE (1.6) 26. KLLI (1.4) 27. KDAY (1.3) 28. KFSH/The Fish (1.2) 29. KRLA, KJLH, KCRW (1.1) 32. KLAC, KKJZ, KEIB (1.0) 35. KWIZ, KSPN, KABC (0.9) 38. KKLA, KDLD (0.7) 40. KFWB (0.6)41. KCSN/88.5 FM (0.5) 42. KTNQ (0.4) 43. KWKW, KSUR/K-Surf (0.3) 45. KYLA, KPFK (0.2) 47. KHJ (0.1) Cutbacks You probably read in this very newspaper that Kevin Ryder and the entire morning team of Kevin in the. Morning (formerly known as Kevin and Bean until a month after Gene “Bean” Baxter left the show) was, according to Ryder, “fired,” laying to rest the remnants of a program with a 30-year history in Los Angeles. Now, 30 years is an amazing number, one of the longest ever. For comparison, most shows historically — I am thinking Robert W. Morgan on KHJ, Charlie Tuna on KHJ, Ten-Q and a few others — tend to last five or so years, the better deals occasionally lasting longer. The point being that longterm associations with any station are rare.But to suggest that it was ratings is wrong. Had it been ratings, they never would have offered Kevin the chance to continue the show in the first place … Kevin and Bean had long passed their ratings prime. But it was a heritage show and brought a lot of street cred to a station that desperately needed it against relative newcomer Alt 98.7. In my opinion, it was the economic conditions the radio industry finds itself in after years of neglect. Station ad rates are at an all-time low, and the companies that own the stations are desperately trying to remain afloat. So it all comes down to money. KROQ, now being owned by Entercom, is just like the others, cutting talent that makes “too much” … that decision being decided by executives who rake in big salaries while the companies they run slowly die. Correction Last week I mentioned that a competing digital radio broadcasting system called DRM is used in numerous other countries. I received an email correcting me, and while the writer prefers to remain unnamed, their information is correct. “You mentioned the digital radio system DRM (for Digital Radio Mondial

Radio is responding to the novel Coronavirus pandemic, though unlike, say, toilet paper, radio stations are on the hunt for in-demand items like microphone windscreens and remote codecs. They need windscreens so that each personality can have their own to prevent the spread of viruses, and codecs so that stations can have personalities broadcast from remote locations — including their own homes — via computers. Like other businesses, many station owners are having as many employees telework, including people in sales, programming, and engineering. Personalities are next, as home and remote studios are connected. It may make for an odd sound for a while, but it is one way stations are coping. On the Air I was talking to my wife about how cool it would be to program an AM music station — you may have heard me say that before — when I realized, there actually are a small handful in our area already. Not what I would do exactly, but it at least gives a fighting chance for those who own a fully stock classic car from the 1960s or prior to listen to the radio without adding an FM converter. In case you missed it we have: KSUR (1260 AM), playing oldies from the 1950s through the ‘80s. The signal is limited, unfortunately, as the transmitter was originally designed to serve the San Fernando Valley area, but it does reach most of the metro LA area and parts of surrounding cities. KRDC (1110 AM) playing country via a Disney — yes Disney — programming service. The signal is still a bit weak — the original KRLA used the same frequency and broadcast site, and it was never stellar in the fringe areas. But it does hit metro LA strongly. XEPRS (1090 AM) plays a version of top-40 from studios and a transmitter based in Rosarita, Mexico. Interestingly, the format is a simulcast of KJAV/Brownsville Texas, which is an FM station at 104.9. It is primarily an English-language station but some cool Spanish-language songs are in the mix as well. More AM Over the years there have been a few attempts to “revive” AM radio, as FM stations grabbed the available audience away from the once-dominant band. The most known is AM stereo, which was approved for use in the 1980s even though it dates back to the 1950s (stereo was developed for AM at roughly the same time as FM but the FCC refused to allow its use on-air in order to help give struggling FM stations an audio boost). While the various systems worked well, it was a bust for a variety of reasons. Other initiatives included a system in which the audio was actually harmed in an attempt to boost perceived audio quality on bad AM radios. It worked by boosting the highs on the station’s end, so that cheap/bad radios would pass through more treble and help the sound. Good radios ended up sounding distorted and harsh unless they had the appropriate circuit to counteract … that system is still in place. FM actually uses something similar. To cut interference between stations, stations were eventually ordered to limit fidelity. The idea being that humans (especially older humans) don’t hear much above 10 KHz, so just roll them off. So while it worked to reduce interference, temporarily as it turns out, stations sounded worse once again. The latest improvement is digital in nature, called HD radio (AM and FM) in the US and a competing system DRM (AM only) in most of the rest of the world. Currently, the systems operate in hybrid mode, in which a digital stream “sandwiches” the analog signal, to be decoded by special radios. The system works reasonably well, especially on FM. But while the AM is almost eerie when the digital signal kicks in, there is a problem when it comes to HD AM in that the analog signal is compromised. Analog audio is cut even more — to 5 KHz, the same as an old telephone, to allow the digital signal to “fit” within a station’s frequency space — and the digital signal actually causes more interference to adjacent stations than the old high fidelity version of AM before all of this started. I