Bottom Line Sinks Concertos

I don’t have a vengeful bone in my body--except, of course, for the Baseball Owners of America and the people who converted KFAC from a classical to a rock radio station.

Even though the strike is over, the baseball owners haven’t gotten their comeuppance and probably won’t, since by the time their ballparks open, we’ll all come pouring in, overcome with relief if not gratitude.

But KFAC is a different story. I’ll have to admit that when I read in The Times the other day that KKBT--which replaced KFAC--had fallen flat on its face with its rock format, I felt nothing but glee. And from the amount of mail I’ve received on this subject, I suspect a lot of other Orange Countians felt the same way.

You know the background. This high-powered outfit called Evergreen Media Corp. bought KFAC for $55 million, then said it couldn’t support its debt service with a classical music format and would have to change it to rock. And while classical music lovers bled copiously, KFAC became KKBT, the zillionth rock station in Southern California.

At the time, station manager Jim de Castro was quoted as saying: “The minute we switch, we will be delivering at least five times the audience and delivering much, much more of the type of sound that the L.A. market requests.”

Well, by golly, it didn’t turn out that way. While classical music lovers inundated newspapers with vitriolic letters, KKBT was born, tried to walk, and fell on its keister. According to the February Arbitron ratings, KKBT came in 36th, 14 places below KFAC’s last rating before it was put up against the wall and executed.

In the face of this disaster, de Castro said the station was going to “stick to its guns,” which didn’t seem very smart. But shortly afterward, it turned to a new format it calls “urban contemporary.” Presumably, this will be better for its debt service.

Meanwhile, KUSC-FM (91.5) has increased its classical programming, and KKGO-FM (105.1) with a strong signal and creative programming is offering classical music around the clock. They have even--God bless them--brought back the Gas Co. evening concert.

All this has pleased the classical music lovers who have written to me, but one question keeps coming up: Why can’t we have a classical music station in Orange County?

So I called Allan Klein in Encino. He’s one of the leading consultants in the radio field in Southern California and once worked out of Orange County.

“How about it?” I asked him. “Do you think a classical music station could make it in Orange County?”

“My instincts tell me ‘No,’ ” he said. “A classical music station would have to move into an ongoing facility that fully covers the market, and there are very few such stations in Orange County. And the owners would have to be able to buy at a reasonable price commensurate with the income a classical music station would deliver.

“Classical is not a mainstream format, you know. Most Orange County stations exist off local retail sales, and classical music is not appropriate to a retail driven media, partly because it has primarily an upper age appeal. Also, most Orange County radio signals are marginal. About 90% of Orange County listening is to Los Angeles radio.”

Yeah, that’s all well and good, but wasn’t KFAC making it pretty well before the Philistines took over?

“KFAC was around for a long time, and the old owners really knew how to sell the station. It never got more than a 1.5 share of the market, but that was enough to be profitable because it didn’t have a $50-million note to pay off. The new owners do. They were willing to pay that kind of money because they knew they were getting a facility that offers the potential of a lot of both bucks and power.”

Bucks and power. A poetic letter writer named John Goetz caught this in verse:

No more KFAC and Bach,

Instead KKBT schlockrock.

Thus with Philistine conniving

Music matches advertising.

I asked Klein if he considered the possibility of a classical music station in Orange County hopeless.

He thought that over for a moment and said: “The only way I could see it working is by subscription, if it went on the air and said: ‘Look, we need $3 million a year to survive and we’re not going to sell any advertising so we’ll have to get it from our listeners.’ I wonder how many of the classical music lovers who have been writing you letters would be willing to put up $100 a year for a station in Orange County? That’s the only way I can see it happening.”

I wonder, too. I also wonder if some of the people who have become very rich in Orange County would be willing to underwrite a piece of a classical music station. Or if one of Orange County’s colleges or universities would broadcast classical music as KUSC does?

Maybe the world we live in isn’t all bucks and power. It’s easy and tempting to write it off that way--and there is surely plenty of evidence. But I asked Klein if Orange Countians found some way to underwrite such a station, could we come back to him?

He laughed and said, “Sure,” but it was clear he doesn’t expect it to happen. I guess I don’t either.

Bucks and power seem to have taken over.