New Owner but No Changes Planned for KFI, KOST

Employees and listeners of talk station KFI-AM (640) and adult contemporary music outlet KOST-FM (103.5) can rest easy, but not those of R&B; oldies station KACE-FM (103.9).

The incoming owner of KFI and KOST has “no plans at this time for changes in the stations’ programming or personnel,” a spokesman for Dallas-based AMFM Inc. said this week.

“Those are great stations,” spokesman Joseph N. Jaffoni explained. “They have a huge heritage in the Los Angeles market, great listenership and great advertising bases.”

AMFM will be taking ownership of those outlets in an exchange of stations with Cox Radio Inc.

But Cox’s KACE and KRTO-FM (98.3), KACE’s simulcast outlet in West Covina, were not included in the deal and instead “are expected to be divested in a future transaction,” the company said.

The transfer of ownership of KFI and KOST is expected to close in the first quarter next year but, under a local marketing agreement, AMFM will begin running the stations on Oct. 1.

The contrast in reaction at the stations was audible. Sounding relaxed, Stuart Turner, a spokesman for KFI, said that under the local marketing agreement “all Cox employees will become AMFM employees as of Oct. 1.” (Except, that is, for Howard Neal, longtime vice president and general manager of KFI, KOST and KACE. It was learned that he will continue to work for Cox and that a new top executive will be brought in by AMFM to run the three stations here. Neal could not be reached for comment.)

At KACE, meanwhile, program director Kevin Fleming tried to take the news of the pending sale in stride: “We haven’t been told a lot. We just don’t know what will happen. Any time you get a change like this, you’ve got to be concerned, but that is the nature of this business. It’s just unfortunate we have to go through this.”

Gillian Harris, who hosts KACE’s 2-7 p.m. weekday show, said: “It came as a big shock. Nobody thought Cox Broadcasting would leave Los Angeles.”

She added that station employees were concerned that a new owner might want to turn KACE into a Spanish-language station. “Some of us could certainly change formats--but not languages,” she said.