KDL to change music format again

Dance music fans will have a sense of deja vu -- and a sense of loss -- next week when the Southland’s “New Party Station” drops its format of Moby, Madonna and Kylie Minogue after less than a year on the air.

KDLD in Santa Monica and KDLE in Newport Beach, simulcasting as KDL at 103.1 FM, are scheduled to abandon the dance club cuts for Christmas music on Monday, then sometime after Christmas begin a new format of alternative tunes, the fourth format change in five years.

Until 1998, 103.1 had been home to the dance tunes of “Groove Radio.” Then -- to the dismay of its small but passionate audience of techno and electronica fans -- the station changed to “Channel 103.1,” playing adult album alternative stars such as Dave Matthews and Lucinda Williams. Some form of alternative music is expected to succeed the dance tracks this time around, as well.

Officials at the station’s parent company, Entravision Communications, a Santa Monica-based Spanish-language broadcaster, wouldn’t discuss the format change. But Entravision Radio President Jeff Liberman said in a statement, “We are very pleased with the overall performance of our Los Angeles properties as they continue to exceed our expectations.”

Nevertheless, Entravision is pulling the plug on English-language KDL after launching it Jan. 17 with 10,000 uninterrupted songs. At the time, company officials said the station was targeting dance fans of any ethnicity, but particularly young Latinos who, the broadcaster believed, were being lost to English-language music stations.

Entravision is also turning over advertising sales for KDL to rival radio chain Clear Channel Communications.

“We sell the advertising and they do the programming,” said Roy Laughlin, co-market manager for Clear Channel, which owns eight stations in the Los Angeles area.

“It’s just a business plan. It presented a unique opportunity” for both Entravision and Clear Channel to help themselves, he said.

Clear Channel used to own Channel 103.1 but had to divest it in 2000 because the company was over the Federal Communications Commission’s ownership limit. Entravision bought it and began playing the company’s “Super Estrella” Spanish-language pop format before switching to KDL’s dance tunes.

Laughlin said KDL was a poor fit with an Entravision sales staff more adept at selling time to Spanish-language advertisers. Meanwhile, Clear Channel will target many of the same advertisers it dealt with on the old Channel 103.1, he said, as the new station will be somewhat similar.

“It’s in the spirit of that,” Laughlin said, noting that the new format will have a slightly harder sound, “with an independent vibe.” He wouldn’t specify the date of the change, but said “we’re ready to sell the time starting Jan. 5.”

Observers see the new station as a rival to Infinity Broadcasting’s alternative outlet KROQ-FM (106.7), with some even claiming that the arrangement is a way for Clear Channel to lure enough listeners from KROQ so that its pop station, KIIS-FM (102.7), can move past it in the ratings.

“Everybody can have their opinion,” Laughlin said. “Fact is, it was a good business opportunity for Entravision and for us. Nobody is going to do something because it hurts somebody else. They’re going to do it because it helps them.”

Infinity took a hit from such a tactic before, though. Last year, its country station KFRG-FM (95.1), “K-Frog,” led the Inland Empire ratings until Clear Channel turned a low-rated talk and sports station into a classic country outlet called “The Toad,” KTDD-AM (1350). After that, Clear Channel’s contemporary hits station KGGI-FM slipped past KFRG to top the Riverside-area ratings.