Trading With Frequency
In radio, 1999 was the year of the Big Deal. The consolidations, acquisitions and swaps--planned and completed--were so frenzied, it was as if stations were so many Pokemon cards. At times it was hard to tell which national team a local outlet belonged to--or soon would belong to.
And there was just a trickle of format changes this year; there’s bound to be a millennial downspout, including moving on-air personalities, as deals await completion.
On Dec. 13, KLYY-FM (107.1), formerly an English-language rock station, switched to contemporary Spanish hits after New York-based Big City Radio acquired Hispanic Internet Holdings. Longtime black-oriented R&B; oldies outlet KACE-FM (103.9) and simulcast partner KRTO-FM (98.3) in West Covina also will go Spanish, once Atlanta-based Cox Radio Inc. closes a sale to Dallas-based Hispanic Broadcasting. That’s likely to happen in February, says Richard Heftel, vice president of Hispanic Broadcasting, the largest owner of Spanish stations in the U.S.
Yet listeners for the most part stayed tuned, and thus nothing much changed on the ratings front. Of the 10 top stations in the Los Angeles and Orange counties market, ranked by Arbitron in October 1998, nine remain. Only rock oldies station KRTH-FM (101.1) dropped (to 13th), while Spanish-language music station KBUE-FM (105.5) soared two full percentage points to a 3.3% share, and moved from 26th place to a seventh-place tie.
In a market where the radio audience (ages 12 and older) is more than 38% Latino, it is no wonder that Mexican regional music station KSCA-FM (101.9) and adult contemporary music station KLVE-FM (107.5) continue to hold the top slots. “We just haven’t seen too many changes,” affirms Heftel, who is general manager of both stations. “Mega 100 [KCMG-FM 100.3] came in [as an urban and rhythmic oldies station in late 1997] and took some of KRTH’s numbers away. But with two new competitors in Spanish [KLYY and KACE-KRTO], it will change things around.”
Could KSCA and KLVE be displaced? “Not at all,” Heftel says. “They’re strong stations.”
However, Roy Laughlin, president and general manager of KIIS-FM (102.7), the Top 40 station that leads the English-language field, thinks--or, at least, hopes--otherwise. “There hasn’t been a lot of movement so far, but with the addition of more Spanish stations, with fragmentation, this may be the chance for KIIS to surpass one of them. And maybe,” he adds, “we’ll be back on top of the whole market.”
With 17 of the 80-plus area stations already broadcasting in Spanish, he figures the market is saturated. In the past year, KIIS has jumped from a 3.5% to 4.8% audience share, and is nearly a full percentage point ahead of fourth-place rock station KROQ-FM (106.7). Million-dollar birthday promotions on Rick Dees’ morning-drive show and sponsorship of concerts involving crossover artists such as Ricky Martin have helped.
KIIS, which used to be owned by Jacor, is now under the banner of Clear Channel Communications Inc., following a merger earlier this year. Upon completion of yet another deal with AMFM Inc., Clear Channel, based in San Antonio, Texas, will own a dozen radio stations here, including talk station KFI-AM (640), KCMG (Mega 100) and rock station KYSR-FM (98.7). Federal Communications Commission rules allow ownership of no more than eight stations in a major market, however, so Clear Channel likely will have to sell four stations. An oft-mentioned big-ticket spinoff could be AMFM’s KKBT-FM (92.3). “It’s very likely that the Beat format will be sold,” notes Tom Taylor, editor of the Nashville-based M Street Daily, “and wind up on a different frequency.”
Despite criticisms that consolidation tends to homogenize programming, Laughlin insists that listeners benefit. “It enables radio stations to invest deeper in what comes out of the speakers as opposed to competing with each other for advertising.”
So stay tuned. The next Arbitron report arrives Jan. 12.
Up for Grabs? September’s announced $37-billion merger of CBS and Viacom means that CBS-owned Infinity Broadcasting might have to divest itself of at least one, and perhaps two, Los Angeles radio stations. Currently Infinity owns eight stations, including five FMs--KROQ, KRTH, KTWV (94.7), classic-rock KCBS (93.1) and talk station KLSX (98.7). Infinity also owns three AMs--news competitors KNX (1070) and KFWB (980), and year-old talk station KRLA (1110), featuring Don Imus and Michael Jackson.
According to recent FCC broadcast ownership rules, companies with one TV station in a major market (such as KCBS-TV) can own seven radio stations, or if they own two TV stations they can have no more than six radio outlets. In a tangled web, KCOP-TV is owned by Chris-Craft Industries Inc./United Television--which co-owns UPN with Viacom. It all depends on the flexibility of the FCC.
So which station would be sold? “I’m pretty sure it would be an AM station,” says George Nicholaw, vice president and general manager of CBS news station KNX. “Everybody has said KRLA,” Nicholaw says, noting that its audience share of 0.9% is lower than KNX’s 2.4% and KFWB’s 1.7%.
But Bob Moore, vice president and general manager of KRLA and KLSX, offers: “I would not be surprised if it wasn’t KRLA. Right now KRLA and KLSX are sitting in the No. 1 revenue position for CBS Radio in Los Angeles.”
Morning Watch: It’s hard to say which was worse in Mark & Brian’s infamous “black hoe” promotional stunt--the racial insensitivity of the gag involving giving away dark-hued gardening tools or the KLOS-FM (95.5) morning team’s stupidity. It was the former that got Disney bosses out to deliver a scolding in person this year, and if anyone doubted it was a serious situation, KLOS’ courting of KROQ rivals Kevin and Bean last month sent a clear message.
Kevin and Bean flirted with leaving KROQ and moving to afternoons at KLOS to be ready to take over if and when Mark and Brian leave. But they stayed put.
Content aside, the terror of the mornings may be figuring out who is on, and where:
* KKBT finally got a morning show in New York transplants Ed Lover and Dr. Dre that reflected its urban, hip-hop demographic (unlike 50-something Caucasian John London, who’d held the job for a decade).
* KPWR-FM (105.9) morning anchor Big Boy isn’t going anywhere. Hey, you saw those billboards with his pictures. You try to move him.
* A team went to work at Y107 but they weren’t on long enough before the switch to Spanish for anyone to learn their names.
* Former Dodger publicist Derrick Hall blossomed at sports-talker KXTA-AM (1050) and was declared by management the star of the future, but with the Dodgers restructuring their front office, he was lured back to Chavez Ravine as director of communications.
* Taking Hall’s slot will be a team known as Bob and Tom, syndicated out of Indianapolis.
* Jonathon Brandmeier, currently following Howard Stern on KLSX-FM (97.1), has been rumored to be headed either to KCBS or oldies KRTH-FM (101.1). But general manager Moore insists that at the end of 2000, Brandmeier will be right where he is today.
* Charlie Tuna, currently of KLAC-AM (570) but a veteran of a host of L.A. stations, may be going to a soft-pop outlet--KOST-FM (103.5) or KBIG-FM (104.3).
She’s ‘Dr.’ Laura, Not Lawyer Laura: Laura Schlessinger changed her sign-off from “Go take on the day” to “Go do the right thing.” Right is right--considering that her moralizing is taking on an increasingly conservative political tone.
Schlessinger, heard at noon on KFI, had another losing run-in with the justice system after a war of words with Costa Mesa surf-and-skate-shop owner Tom Moore. Schlessinger and her young teenage son were shopping at the store this summer when she noticed Big Brother Skateboarding magazine on the stands--a publication containing photos of more or less unclad females, with no age restrictions on its sale. It’s published by Larry Flynt, who also publishes Hustler.
Next day she went on her syndicated show charging the owner, by name, of selling pornography to minors. The owner, Tom Moore, publicly stated that the charges were not true, to which Schlessinger responded with a $1-million slander suit claiming that Moore had called her a liar.
One would hope it’s not the kind of move Schlessinger would advise a caller to make. Earlier this month, Orange County Superior Court Judge John Watson dismissed her claim. A countersuit that had been brought by Moore charging defamation is pending. That’s the second straight year Schlessinger has lost a big court battle. Last year it was to try to stop nude photos taken of her 20 years ago from being published on the Internet and in Hustler.
Judith Michaelson is a Times staff writer. Steve Hochman is a frequent contributor to Calendar.
