The Pitch

Here are some choice opinions of two radio business insiders about the sports station KXTA-AM (1150) as it winds down its second season carrying the Dodgers.

* “It’s not a mass-appeal position in L.A.”

* “It’s going after less than a third of the population in Southern California.”

* “[Sports radio in Los Angeles] will never do as well as WFAN does in New York.”

That’s not all. It doesn’t help that the Dodgers haven’t been contenders in those two years, that L.A.’s the kind of place where people leave in the seventh inning even if the Dodgers are winning, that the area by and large seems indifferent to the lack of a pro football team, that neither of the region’s pro basketball or hockey teams was a world-beater last year, or that KXTA’s best-known personality, Jim Rome, is also available on another station heard in this area--San Diego’s XTRA-AM (690).

That makes the station sound about as successful as the baseball team in Chavez Ravine this year.

And those are the opinions of the guys who run KXTA.

Roy Laughlin, general manager of the station--and of its Jacor Media siblings, pop giant KIIS-FM (102.7) and adult alternative KACD/KBCD-FM (103.1)--and KXTA operations manager Mike Thompson know that L.A. has never been a great town for sports-talk radio. Station after station has withered trying it.

On the surface, KXTA hasn’t done much better. Its overall ratings are tepid, and it hasn’t cracked the Top 30 in the market since signing on in early 1997. In the last ratings book, covering the spring quarter, KXTA was a lowly 35 with a puny 0.6% share of audience, tied with two religious programming beams and still unable to top the San Diego sports signal in this market.

But Laughlin and Thompson will eagerly tell you something else about the station:

“The station is having a lot of success,” says Laughlin.

Oh? And how do they figure?

Well, they simply say it’s a matter of looking at the right numbers. KXTA may be low in the overall ratings, but it’s moving up dramatically in the key target demographic of male listeners between ages 25 and 54, with a respectable 1.4% share of the audience.

And in what’s arguably the most important realm, advertising revenues, it’s doing even better. In figures from June, it ranked a solid No. 17, just shy of the revenues of hip-hop leader KPWR-FM (105.9), news stations KFWB-AM (980) and KNX-AM (1070), modern rocker KYSR-FM (98.7), classic rocker KLOS-FM (95.5) and “jammin’ oldies” KCMG-FM (100.1), all of which score much higher on the general ratings.

What KXTA offers advertisers, Laughlin explains, is a clearly defined audience of adult men. It may not be as large as some other stations, but the demographics are focused and consistent.

“And when you can deliver an audience that’s exclusive and niched,” Thompson says, “people will pay for it.”

KXTA also benefits from being part of a group, sharing management, facilities and staff with KIIS and KACD to cut costs and to complement the demographics in a wider-appealing package offered to advertisers. And KXTA also offers a targeted audience at a price that many businesses can afford.

“Say you own a local business with three locations,” Laughlinposits. “You’ve got KIIS with 2 million listeners, where [ad] spots cost $3,000. A spot on KXTA costs $250. And how many of those 2 million KIIS listeners could actually fit in your store? So for the smaller guy, KIIS is not an option. But KXTA with its passionate audience is.”

George Green, who introduced sports talk to the L.A. market as a part of the general talk programming he oversaw as longtime general manager of KABC-AM (790), says the rosy picture painted by Laughlin and Thompson is not a matter of mere spin.

“I’ve never been able to figure out why the fans aren’t as crazy here as in other markets,” Green says. “But there is a place here for the format. And they’ve done an enormously successful job of selling it. It will take a little time to completely catch on, but it’s gaining pop among the young people that they want to sell it to.”

The only complaints Laughlin and Thompson will acknowledge, in fact, are the absence of pro football and having to share Rome with XTRA--another Jacor station whose signal reaches well into KXTA territory.

And on the former, the KXTA team has taken steps to turn the absence of the NFL to its advantage, taking a visible role in the campaign to land an expansion team by offering $10 million for potential radio rights and spearheading a lobbying campaign to get a team here.

*

Meanwhile, KXTA is taking steps to establish its own talent in the market. Vic “The Brick” Jacobs, the court jester of local sports, has become in some ways the de facto voice of the station, especially in his role on the Dodgers pregame shows, prodding even stoic Ross Porter to loosen up a bit.

The Ben Maller and Dave Smith duo and the afternoon “Dog Pound” team of KCOP-TV Channel 13 sportscaster Newy Scruggs and Dave Denholm are also establishing themselves with charged banter. And a recent addition, picking up after Rome signs off on weekdays, is Terry Bradshaw’s syndicated hour at noon.

The rising star, though, is clearly morning host and Dodger game day anchor Derrick Hall, the former Dodgers public relations executive with a quick wit, flair for impersonations and a winningly gimmick-free presentation.

“We think Derrick has a chance to be a break-out guy,” says Laughlin. “He’s only been with us six months, and I think he’ll be a fixture here.”

And the other coming star:

“The Staples Center addition will be a big freebie for us,” Laughlin says. “That’s one reason we got the Clippers.”

So, they say, it’s mostly a matter of perception, which is starting to match reality.

“The worst-case scenario for sports-talk in L.A. is to pull the ratings [for listeners 12 and older] and go, ‘Gee, that’s not doing so well,’ ” Laughlin says. “But you have to sit people down and explain. It’s never going to be gigantic. But it can be strong as a niche. And then they say, ‘I get it. It’s improving.’ ”

Power Moves and Beat Check: The Hootie and the Blowfish concert last week at Universal Amphitheatre wasn’t exactly where hip-hop lives, but that was indeed where KPWR-FM (105.9) morning man Big Boy was found. And he wasn’t just there--he was singing along on many songs at the top of his lungs. (Fortunately, he can carry a tune very well.)

He’s a huge Hootie fan, something he knows that maybe not all his listeners appreciate, but he’s doing his best to explain it. Not only was he talking about it the morning after, he spent much of his show the day of the show doing what he said at the concert was “a university” class on Hootie.

But if he was staying up at night, shouldn’t he have been working on how he’s going to meet the challenge of the new team of Ed Lover and Dr. Dre that just set up shop at cross-town rival KKBT-FM (92.3)?

Nah, he shrugged, when asked between songs if he was worried about the new kids in town.

“I think about them,” he said. “But I’m not worried.”

Good. That’s exactly how it should be. If both the Lover-Dre team and Big Boy concentrate on doing what they each do best, their audiences will benefit. But the competition is already seeming healthy. With Dre and Lover at the Beat, the focus is squarely back on the music. No knock on predecessor John London; he’s the first to admit that the Beat’s sound was not his, and he’s much more suited to his new home with the soul and funk oldies of Mega KCMG-FM (100.1).

Dre and Lover so far have seemed sharp and quick, if perhaps a bit juvenile in their humor. But then they’re catering to a young audience (and hey, Mark and Brian at KLOS are juvenile in their humor, and their audience is supposedly adults). But the music, clearly, comes first.

Where the Beat gains most and Power is most vulnerable, though, is in the afternoons with the addition of the Baka Boyz, until last month the most popular attraction over at the competition. Their Power replacements, the Goodfellas, are going to have a tough time keeping up and have a lot of work to do to match the easygoing, music-intensive camaraderie that flows off the Bakas so readily.