TALK IS HOT : Underdog talk station KFI joins the fray

The subject was betrayal.

“Your life has gone to shambles,” said Mother Love in her sultriest, silkiest tones. “Your trust has been replaced. What do you do? . . . If you’ve got a good betrayal story, give me a call.”

It was midnight and the first night on the job for one of L.A.’s newest talk-show hosts, and callers lit up the KFI switchboard.

Calls came from young men who had been burned by women they misjudged, women who had been two-timed by philandering married men, a baffled man who found his “perfect woman” was, in fact, a man.

Then came the call that really set off Mother Love, former Cleveland comedian Jo Anne Hart. “I’ve been betrayed by the management at KFI,” the male voice said. “I’m really sorry that they replaced the intelligent interviews of Larry King. . . . I just think the station has gone so far overboard into being a radio tabloid show with these kind of topics. KFI panders to voyeurism. It’s nothing against you, I assure you.”

Despite her moniker, Mother Love was not dispensing good vibes: “What can I say? You get bent out of shape. You’ll live. Get a life. I am an employee here. I do as I am told, at the time I am told. They told me ‘Mother Love 10 till 1.’ Hey, that’s it. That’s the way it goes. Larry King is still alive and well on KFI from 1 a.m. till 4 a.m. We will have stimulating talk radio all night long.”

We see ourselves as the Arsenio Hall of talk radio and KABC is Johnny Carson.

--KFI General Manager Howard Neal

Although the comparison to late-night TV talk-show hosts may seem like so much mixed media, underdog talk station KFI-AM (640) is using a strategy they hope may duplicate the success of Arsenio Hall. By bringing in younger, hipper, on-air personalities, KFI’s management believes they might capture a similar audience to the one that Hall has attracted to his late-night alternative to the long-reigning Johnny Carson.

With this strategy and other moves, the station that’s only been in talk radio for 13 months is taking on the one that pioneered talk radio in Los Angeles, KABC-AM (790). The programming and personality changes at KFI were quickly followed by countermeasures and upheaval at KABC.

This jockeying to grab more listeners has resulted in nearly a month and a half of tumultuous change that is unusual, even in the volatile and highly competitive L.A radio market. And this may just be the preliminary--the fight figures to get even more intense in the next few months.

The two stations have also been feuding in the courtroom. KABC filed suit in U.S. District Court on April 3 charging KFI with trademark infringement. KABC claims that the term Talkradio is a trademark that it “invented and adopted” and has been using for 17 years. The station has said that it’s spent millions of dollars in advertising and promotion using the term as its slogan. KFI maintains that talk radio is a generic term that describes a programming format. In May, KFI was temporarily enjoined from using the moniker in conjunction with its call letters and dial position. A ruling is expected Sept. 23.

But it’s over the airwaves that the battle takes on its highest profile.

The move that KFI made that brought the call from the betrayed listener was made Aug. 7. The 35-year-old Mother Love was brought in to appeal to a younger target audience with her offbeat blend of street-wise advice and earthy humor. She moved into the 10 p.m.-to-1 a.m. slot that was formally occupied by Larry King, longtime syndicated talk-show host. His more serious issues-oriented show was shoved into the 1 a.m.-to-4 a.m. slot. KFI managers explained the change by saying they wanted the appeal of a local personality rather than a syndicated program from Washington.

“This is what happens when you have a real war,” said Tom Leykis, host of an increasingly successful “verbal combat” show at KFI. “This is what happens when you have real competition. The stations start making moves like this.”

“It seems like a full-fledged battle all the way around,” said veteran broadcaster Gary Owens, a former KFI morning-show host who himself was dumped early last month.

How has the war gone so far?

Though KFI’s ratings aren’t startling, compared to the No. 3-rated KABC, it has managed to crack the Top 20 during the most recent Arbitron ratings period, less than a year after changing to the talk format. The station went from No. 25 to the 20th spot. KABC, which has been in the Top Five of all L.A. stations for the last eight years, also jumped in the latest ratings period, which seems to reflect an increasing audience for talk radio.

The stakes are high in the market. Los Angeles has 9 million potential radio listeners, and the market is No. 1 in terms of advertising sales. Talk-radio station KABC in the latest Arbitron survey netted a 7.2 share (or about 144,000 people older than 18) during morning drive time--when most people listen to radio. The car is also the reason that makes Southern California such a prime battleground for a talk-radio war. In fact, listeners dialing in from car phones now make up a good percentage of callers.

“In-car listening has a lot to do with it,” said John Dobel of Birch Scarborough Research Corp.’s radio ratings group. “This is a better market than some for talk radio.”

“The numbers really help generate revenues,” said J. Ray Padden, vice president of West Coast Radio Advertising Bureau. And, Padden said, talk radio is a popular and financially lucrative format. High ratings can mean tens of millions of advertising dollars for the station.

And this shapes up as a record year for radio advertising revenues. Ad sales for the first six months of 1989 have been the highest in history--$235 million so far, compared to $353 million for all of last year, to be divided among Southern California’s 80 or so radio stations. A single rating point--equivalent to between 13,000 and 20,000 listeners--can mean at least a million dollars in advertising to a radio station.

Talk radio, as a genre, has long been popular. And in big cities it may even be growing in popularity, radio analysts say. In the first six months of 1989, the number of new stations with the talk format increased by 8%, Padden said. Talk radio is the ninth most popular radio format, with 433 stations nationwide. (The most popular format is country, followed by adult contemporary.)

“It’s the little last vestige of the town meeting,” said physician Dean Edell, whose syndicated talk radio program is heard in 200 markets. “The little guy can have his thoughts heard by thousands. He can talk to the biggest of the big.

“Talk radio stations in the top 50 markets throughout the country historically are always in the top 10,” Padden said. “They’re usually tied in with a sports franchise which are very marketable and lend a lot of additional visibility. It’s a nice combination.”

KABC has exclusive rights to broadcast Dodger games and KFI has the rights to the Raiders.

However, with baseball season drawing to a close at the end of September, KABC will not have its trump card to fend off the onslaught of upstart KFI. To hold on to its lofty ratings in the fall quarter, the station must assemble a mighty lineup, and that is one of the major forces driving the current war.

There’s an old saying that if it ain’t broke you don’t fix it, and KABC was never broke. I don’t know what they’re up to.

--Dean Edell, whose syndicated medical show moves from KABC to KFI next month.

KABC, in existence for 29 years, has long been the dominant player on the local talk-radio scene. KFI is a relative newcom er, having changed to the format in July, 1988. Its ratings had been dismal, until this spring. In the last quarterly Arbitron survey, KFI hit No. 20, eclipsing two other talk stations, KIEV and KGIL, with weaker signals and lower ratings.

In response to the marshaling of forces by KFI, KABC has begun to tamper with its winning formula, creating a crisis in management in the process. For example, to answer KFI’s emphasis on local programming, as of next month all of KABC’s shows will originate from their Los Angeles studio and will no longer provide programming to the ABC national network. But KFI isn’t standing still either.

* KABC last month dropped popular Dr. David Viscott, at KABC for eight years, and replaced him with a call-in psychology/issues show hosted by Detroit personality Sonya Friedman, generating lots of angry letters from loyal listeners.

* Tom Snyder’s evening syndicated program was dropped last month and Superfan, Ed Bieler (currently on the air at KCMO, Kansas City), will return to KABC sometime after baseball season, most likely in Snyder’s old time slot.

* The time slot of KABC top-rated morning personalities Ken Minyard and Bob Arthur (“The Ken and Bob Co.”) switched from 5-10 a.m. to 5-9 a.m., and talk-show host Michael Jackson picked up the extra hour and is now heard 9 a.m-1 p.m. instead of 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

* As of mid-September Michael Jackson and Ray Briem, late-night conservative talk-show host, will no longer be heard on the ABC national network. Each will refocus his issues-oriented call-in show on local topics.

* In the past month KFI brought in Terry Rae Elmer and Dave Grosby from KFBK-AM, the Sacramento station where program director George Oliva had worked, replacing Gary Owens and Al Lohman from 5 to 9 a.m.

* Mother Love and Australian Christopher Bartlett, seen by some as the station’s answer to KABC’s South African Michael Jackson, started two weeks ago in the evening lineup. Bartlett replaced a sports talk show hosted by Chris Roberts, who is on 7 to 10 p.m., and Mother Love from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

* KABC lured away Dick Whittington from KIEV last week. His show will likely be heard on weekends starting later this month.

* KABC last week lost Edell and his syndicated medical show to KFI. Edell will have an hour afternoon slot starting next month.

* Rumors indicate that veteran broadcaster Wink Martindale may quit amid speculation about the impending demise of his and Bill Smith’s show. (“The Wink and Bill Show” is the only one that KFI was able to beat in the 25-64 age category in the recent Arbitrends survey, though Wink and Bill’s overall audience is still substantially larger than Leykis’.)

* Psychologist Toni Grant, one of KFI’s top ratings-getter and one of the best-known personalities on talk radio, will soon be retiring from the station, program director Oliva said, to write a book.

* About two weeks ago KABC program director John Rook abruptly quit after eight months at the station, and no replacement has been named.

Rook said in a telephone interview from his Idaho ranch last week that he left because he and KABC general manager George Green did not agree on programming matters. Rook said Green did not heed his input and insisted on making most programming decisions, he said.

“He likes to control and I’m not very easily controlled,” Rook said. “It just got to the point where I have to have more control over my own destiny.”

Also, Rook said he believed Green was trying to undermine the afternoon “The Wink and Bill Show.” Rook said he did not believe Green was standing behind it. Green was quoted in several newspaper stories, referring to the show as the weak link in the station’s daily lineup, saying the show was being carefully watched to determine if it would be dropped.

Many in the industry are puzzled as to why KABC is bothering to change a formula that has kept them consistently among the top five stations for the last eight years. Before that, it was in the Top 10.

“I think it’s strange,” said KFI programming director George Oliva. “Here’s a station that has really been very dominant, very strong for 20 years and all of a sudden they start changing their programming.”

Green denies that the changes are being propelled by KFI’s improvement.

“We are not making changes because of KFI,” Green said. “How can our radio station be affected by a radio station that’s not doing anything?”

However, a former staff member who asked that his name not be used, said: “He’s scared to death of KFI and that itself is ridiculous. He listens to more of them than he does us.”

Green maintains that the new-found competition has improved KABC.

“Their existence makes us review what we do and makes you sharper. I’m pleased at the fact that they are there because if anything (the competition) makes us a better facility. . . . I think it’s all very healthy up to a point. . . . And if they’re able to attract a younger audience, great. Once they find them, they’ll find us.”

But, “we’ve still got to get better at what we do,” Green said.

KABC is not No. 1 in the overall AM market--like sister talk station KGO-AM in San Francisco--and wants to be. They have lost listeners, particularly in afternoon drive time--to KFI as well as to other stations.

He acknowledged that KFI’s top ratings-getter, the verbally combative Tom Leykis whose show airs from 3 to 7 p.m., opposite Martindale and Smith, “is doing very slightly better than the rest of the radio station.”

“KFI had been having a very difficult time in the ratings for many years. Now they have come in with some brand-new talk personalities that are making hits for them,” Padden said. “I think the talk format on KFI has gotten good, the ratings have started to move. I think it’s going to be a battle now. KFI has put in some very strong personalities in morning, afternoon drive, and mid-morning and most of the day. It will give KABC a fight and KABC has reacted.”

When KFI jumped to the Top 20 this last ratings period, from a 1.3 to a 1.8, it made a 25% jump, Padden said.

“That’s a nice little move that kind of ties with their new programming and that will generate new dollars for them,” Padden said.

As people move past the 40-45 mark in their life cycles, they become less interested in music programming and they tend to use radio more for news and information and certainly a popular aspect of that is talk.

--Tom Birch, chairman of Birch Scarborough Research Corp.

Both stations acknowledge that they are working on attracting younger listeners. However, their methods to accomplish this differ. KFI is actively courting more youthful listeners and minorities (talk radio has long been a bastion for older, white listeners), by bringing in younger on-air personalities who discuss more youth-oriented topics, such as “bitchy women” or “what is tacky,” two recent subjects tackled by Mother Love. Leykis has a regular program in which he matches up singles who call in for a date.

The philosophy at KABC, on the other hand, is that good programming will draw listeners of all ages and ethnic groups.

“We don’t make a concerted effort to reach any specific group,” Green said. “I don’t think a radio station should make a concerted effort.”

At the helm of the clear front-runner, Green’s is a less aggressive approach. He also expects some of the new younger listeners drawn to KFI to sample KABC as well.

“There are some people who would like them who would also like us,” Green said. “Once they find them, they’ll find us.”

Both are focusing on local origination, cutting back on network programming and re-dedicating themselves to local issues. However, KFI is gaining a reputation for more exploitative programming and more controversial, flamboyant on-air personalities, while KABC is viewed as a more established, mainstream operation.

“If they want to win, then they have to find a niche and I think they have chosen that tabloid niche, that rock ‘em, sock ‘em and intimidate ‘em on the air,” Green said. “We would never take that approach. We have a very classy, traditional all-talk format that’s been around for ages. . . . Class comes first.”

KFI personalities such as Leykis and ultra-conservative mid-morning syndicated host Rush Limbaugh are seen by some as sensationalist attention-getters.

But KFI is also touting its renewed focus on local issues, ironically delivered by out-of-towners --on-air personalities from such places as Sacramento, Cleveland and Australia.

Even KFI’s morning weatherman is based in Sacramento.

“Isn’t that dumb?” said Michael Jackson, who has been at KABC for 23 years. “To talk about issues that pertain to this country you have to earn your spurs. You have to know the issues.”

Elmer and Grosby--whose morning news show interspersed with conversational patter is pitted against one of Los Angeles’ most highly rated morning teams, KABC’s Ken Minyard and Bob Arthur--admit that they are somewhat at a disadvantage while still learning the area.

“The best thing about being here is there’s so much going on all the time,” Grosby said. “There are a lot more things to talk about.”

The pair replaced veteran broadcasters Gary Owens and Al Lohman, because the station wanted less joking and conversation and more news, program director Oliva said.

“The guys who we replaced here were legends,” Grosby said. “You don’t replace them, you just try to do your own thing and try and be interesting and hopefully people will take you on your own merits. . . . We’re not really trying to follow their act. We’re trying to do something different.”

Oliva thinks the force of their folksy personalities will eventually draw listeners.

“I wanted people that had worked together as a team and were comfortable and easy with this sort of presentation, not straight news anchors,” Oliva said. “These are people that are news professionals that are also people. Their personalities are very important to the program. A lot of news anchors are not necessarily as facile in that area.”

The morning team is a departure from the more controversial personalities heard during the day. In mid-morning the archconservative Rush Limbaugh has incited the ire of listeners with his “caller abortions” (a vacuum cleaner sound used to wipe the caller off the air), his “feminist updates” and “condom updates” as well as his scoffing at the plight of the homeless and denunciations of the causes of such liberal activist celebrities as Martin Sheen.

Psychologist Toni Grant espouses a traditional non-feminist platform on her 11 a.m.-to-2 p.m. show, which has drawn criticism from many women. From 3 to 7 p.m. the strident voice of Tom Leykis can be heard discussing topics ranging from “the most disgusting place you’ve ever put your mouth” to a religious cult that worships sex to non-racist skinheads. Leykis drew national attention in March when he destroyed Cat Stevens records as a protest against the singer’s endorsement of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s death threat against Salman Rushdie.

Though they just started a couple weeks ago, the evening newcomers, Mother Love and Christopher Bartlett seem to be following in the tradition of Leykis and Limbaugh. Mother Love’s topics during her first week on the air included betrayal, the lighter side of death and “good women, bad marriages.” Bartlett’s topics ranged from sex in the workplace to gang warfare to “how to tell if your child is on drugs.”

KFI general manager Howard Neal said that before establishing the current “issues-oriented” programming format, the station had been plagued by directionlessness and a lack of listeners.

“For a number of years the station has groped for a direction,” Neal said. “In the past couple years, the station has evolved. You could call it changes, but I like to call it evolution. It has become what a lot of people have wished for.”

But KABC personalities point to their established position in the ratings and claim that is what listeners are wishing for.

Still, Michael Jackson, who at 55 is perhaps one of the best-known local personalities, said he is enjoying the heated competition.

“I am genuinely very pleased that there is an alternative,” Jackson said. “Without sounding arrogant, it stops you from being complacent and it gives people a chance to make a comparison. “

“I believe competition is good for everybody,” said Hart (Mother Love). “There are enough listeners out there for everybody. . . . I’m not here to try to offend anybody. Shake up a few things, yeah, maybe. Get them a little angry, at least get them thinking. If they love me, I think that’s splendid, if they hate me, that also splendid. It sounds strange, but I figure either way I’ve aroused a strong emotion from my listeners. As long as I can arouse some emotion, I’m a happy camper.”

HOW THE TWO STATIONS STACK UP

KFI KABC Arbitron Ratings Spring of 1989 1.8 5.2 Fall of 1988 1.3 4.9 Morning Drive (6-10 a.m.) 1.4 7.2 Afternoon Drive (3-7 p.m.) 2.3 3.2

A single rating point is equivalent to between 13,000 and 20,000 listeners and can mean at least a million dollars in advertising.

KFI KABC Overall Ranking (of radio stations in Southern 20th 3rd California market) Age of listeners (Birch Scarborough Survey) Under 35 18.1% 9.2% 35 to 64 74.3% 57.7% Over 65 7.6% 33.1%

Number of listeners in any given quarter hour (Birch Scarborough Survey)

KFI KABC Morning Drive At Home 10,300 107,000 Car 12,500 27,200 Other 2,300 7,500 Afternoon Drive At Home 9,200 18,500 Car 15,200 26,000 Other (Includes workplaces) 1,900 7,000 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Home 15,600 26,500 Car 7,900 24,900 Other (includes workplaces) 3,000 13,200

Cross Listening

KFI shares 45% of its listeners with KABC

KABC shares 22% of its audience with KFI

KABC at No. 3 averages about 72,800 listeners at any given time, while KFI, at No. 20, averages about 19,800 listeners, according to Birch Scarborough ratings survey figures.