High Desert Tunes In to Faraway Radio : Airwaves: One poll shows a Los Angeles radio station as : No. 1 in the Lancaster-Palmdale market. New residents with more urban tastes are credited.

Larry Thornhill, manager of two rock radio stations in Lancaster, got an unpleasant surprise last February when he tried to find out what residents were listening to.

Arbitron, the major radio ratings service, lumps the Antelope Valley in with the vast Los Angeles market. So Thornhill hired a research firm to survey the Lancaster-Palmdale region. In previous polls, he said, the top spot was always held by one of the Antelope Valley’s eight stations, but the results last February were startling.

“For the first time, a Los Angeles radio station came in No. 1,” Thornhill said. “It was KLOS.”

For years, the Antelope Valley’s low-powered radio stations (1,000 to 5,000 watts compared with KLOS’ 68,000 or KPWR’s 72,000 watts) have had a lock on the isolated high desert market north of Los Angeles. The San Gabriel Mountains block the signals from many L.A. stations, and those powerhouse operations that do reach the area have high advertising rates that would break the budgets of small Antelope Valley merchants.

But the market is changing. In recent years, affordable housing has lured thousands of new residents to Palmdale and Lancaster.

“Los Angeles radio is now recognizing the potential out here,” said Thornhill, who manages sister stations KAVL-AM and KAVS-FM. “You’re seeing more billboards out here. You’re seeing more of a concentrated effort to get bumper stickers out here. KIIS-FM, for example, now has bumper stickers in all the Taco Bells out here. Los Angeles radio’s recognizing the big audience out here.”

Some Antelope Valley broadcasters are concerned because the Los Angeles stations can afford big promotional pushes, including splashy television ads. In addition, many of the people moving to Palmdale and Lancaster have brought their Los Angeles listening habits with them--and refuse to even sample local radio.

“That’s our biggest problem by far,” Thornhill said. “When we look at next year, we have to build into our budget billboard expenses. That’s going to be our biggest frontal attack next year--to try to re-educate new residents.”

In the February survey, Thornhill’s KAVS, which has a contemporary-hits format, placed second to Los Angeles rocker KLOS. To fight back, Thornhill added on-air personalities during prime broadcast hours. Previously, KAVS had been automated all day. The new hires included a two-man morning team that offers the type of banter popularized by KLOS’ Mark and Brian.

Other local broadcasters try to compete with Los Angeles by offering Antelope Valley news, weather and sports reports. They also do remote broadcasts from local shopping centers.

They boast that their advertising rates are a bargain. A drive-time spot on an Antelope Valley station may cost about $20. The same ad on a highly rated Los Angeles radio show sometimes sells for more than $1,000.

Several Los Angeles radio executives denied that the Antelope Valley has been singled out for heavy promotion. They said local billboard and bumper-sticker giveaways are part of a regionwide campaign to attract listeners.

“We try to get to every area that we cover in Southern California,” said Duncan Payton, promotions director for Burbank-based KPWR. “We realize our listeners are all over the Southland.”

Added Steven Smith, director of advertising and promotion at KLOS: “We haven’t taken a more aggressive approach” in the Antelope Valley.

But Smith said his station was involved this year in auto racing events in Palmdale and Rosemond. Earlier, it did a remote broadcast from a Wrightwood ski resort, on the edge of the Antelope Valley.

“We’ve thought about going to the Antelope Valley Fair because we’re involved in the Los Angeles and Orange County fairs. But with the timing and the distance from Los Angeles, we just haven’t gotten around to it,” Smith said. “We think we would do very well out there. There seem to be a lot of fans in that area.”

The Antelope Valley’s value as a radio market became evident a few months ago when Encino-based entertainment firm Eric/Chandler Ltd. announced that it was buying Lancaster sister stations KKZZ-FM and KHJJ-AM for $3.6 million. Eric/Chandler owns Avalon Attractions and is already a Los Angeles concert promotion heavyweight. It also has business ties to a popular Orange County concert venue, Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre.

Tom Miserendino, president of Eric/Chandler, said his firm has been awaiting final Federal Communications Commission approval of the sale. Meanwhile, it is researching Antelope Valley audiences to determine whether format changes are needed. KKZZ now plays light adult contemporary music, while KHJJ spins hits from the 1960s and 1970s.

“The Antelope Valley is growing by leaps and bounds,” Miserendino said. “The market is growing at a great pace, and radio is a part of everyone’s life. And advertisers need a place to advertise. While the signals from the Los Angeles station do come in, most of the retailers can’t afford to pay those rates.”

The Lancaster stations’ new affiliation with Eric/Chandler has already enabled them to launch a major giveaway. Because Avalon presented the recent sold-out Rolling Stones concerts in Los Angeles, KHJJ was able to get about 120 tickets to distribute to its listeners.

“These guys are experts at promotions,” said J.R. Engel, co-manager of KKZZ and KHJJ.

Engel said the new owners are expected to beef up equipment and personnel to make the stations more competitive. Engel has already hired a news director to begin covering the area.

Some Antelope Valley broadcasters are worried that format changes at KKZZ or KHJJ could alter the way the local audience is now divided.

“It scares us to death,” said KAVS’ Thornhill. “We don’t have any competition other than Los Angeles now. Any new contemporary-hits station that comes in here is going to give us a tough time.”

But Dale P. Ware, general manager of KOTY-AM in Palmdale, is less concerned about the Eric/Chandler purchase. “I’m pleased in a lot of ways because it makes all of us pull our socks up,” he said. “On the positive side, they will come in, and the ad rates will go up to where they should be.”

Antelope Valley broadcasters say the rates are low partly because their stations operate in the shadow of the Los Angeles giants. And because the region is not surveyed independently by Arbitron, it is difficult to document listening habits and attract national advertisers. Finally, they say, in the scramble for local ad dollars, many sales people further discount their rates.

“It’s going to take somebody from out of town coming in here to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute. This is dumb. This is stupid,’ ” Ware said. “They’ll set higher rates because they know they can get those kind of rates.”

Other Antelope Valley broadcasters say Ware faces a particularly tough challenge because he operates an AM country station with no FM affiliate at a time when most young music lovers keep their radios tuned to FM.

Ware said he has been trying to broaden the station’s appeal by positioning it as a key source of information. It presents local news reports and recently launched a two-hour morning talk show. Guests have included local leaders and country music stars. The station also operates an interactive phone service that allows listeners to call in for recorded updates of sports, weather or winning lottery numbers.

In addition, Ware boasts that, unlike many of the local stations, his signal reaches as far as Santa Clarita--a key advantage in reaching up to 30,000 Antelope Valley residents who commute daily to Los Angeles.

KUTY is criticized by some rivals for its failure to use local disc jockeys. Its country music comes from a national satellite service based in Illinois. Antelope Valley listeners must dial a toll-free number to talk to the disc jockey.

Ware said he prefers not to hire the inexperienced young disc jockeys who traditionally hone their skills in small markets such as the Antelope Valley. “We feel our listeners deserve more than that,” he said. “The other reason is because when you’re in a small market, you’ve only got so many dollars to put into your personnel. We opted to put our money into news.”

At least one Antelope Valley broadcaster remains undisturbed by the Los Angeles rock giants’ promotional push and the sale of KKZZ and KHJJ. Barbara Halley, manager of sister stations KTPI-FM and KVOY-AM, believes that she has the local country music audience securely in hand. Although Los Angeles has country stations, their signals don’t reach the Antelope Valley clearly, she says.

“If you’re listening to FM country in the Antelope Valley, you’re listening to us because we’re the only one,” Halley said. “I can see where a rock station would be threatened.”

KTPI and KVOY don’t offer local news coverage, but, unlike KUTY, they use local disc jockeys.

Halley said her stations get new residents to tune in with a busy remote broadcast schedule. The stations broadcast and gave away prizes last summer at about 50 locations, ranging from a recreational vehicle show to a new housing tract to a meat market. For $1,400, an advertiser gets the remote broadcast, assorted prizes given away to listeners and 50 radio commercials.

Although Halley believes country is the key market in Antelope Valley, rock station manager Thornhill argues that the region’s new residents are bringing their urban musical tastes with them. “We have nothing to prove that country music is No. 1 out here anymore,” he said. “Times have changed. We’re not a country, rural area anymore.”

All the local broadcasters believe the Antelope Valley’s radio market is changing. Advertisers and listeners have become more sophisticated, and local stations are looking for new ways to keep the L.A. giants at bay.

Thornhill said rising ad rates may cause local stations to lose their small mom-and-pop store accounts in favor of more lucrative chain-store contracts. Broadcasts of Antelope Valley high school and college football games may be dropped because they don’t attract enough listeners, he said.

The challenge is to connect with a large segment of the local audience, while working with limited resources. Thornhill boasted that his stations recently coaxed their listeners into donating $54,000 for San Francisco earthquake relief in less than 24 hours.

“You can’t fight with Los Angeles,” he said. “You can’t fight with Rick Dees. You’ve just got to do the best that you can.”