Bubblegum jumbo pack

No one chews bubblegum louder than KIIS-FM, and on Saturday, the Top 40 goliath of L.A. radio popped its biggest bubble ever in Wango Tango 2004. Curiously, the all-day, sold-out concert at the Rose Bowl turned out to be a massive reminder that TV, not radio, is the hit maker that now matters most.

Most of the 16 acts should have performed with a small logo in the bottom right corner of the stage to identify their channel and show affiliation. “American Idol” for Clay Aiken, Kimberly Locke and (gulp) William Hung, the Disney Channel for Hilary Duff, “Newlyweds” for Jessica Simpson, VH1 for Maroon 5, the Super Bowl halftime show for Janet Jackson ...

None of this is to suggest that KIIS, or radio in general, is completely impotent. The radio station’s executives proudly point out that their Southern California audience is so vast that, literally, a song cannot hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart unless it appears on the playlist at KIIS (102.7). “You can reach No. 2 in the nation without us,” general manager Roy Laughlin says, “but that’s as far as you can get.”

Wango Tango is No. 1 now too, claiming the longish title of “America’s largest one-day, multiartist concert.” This year, the show was titled “Wango Tango On-Air,” an acknowledgment of the television synergy. Most stations have a signature voice, but KIIS has a brand-name face because its top star is Ryan Seacrest, the morning DJ who has become an ubiquitous television personality through “American Idol” and his own talk show. It was telling that on the posters for this year’s concert, Seacrest’s beaming mug was the largest and highest. He doesn’t have a hit, but he has TV.

“Entertainment Tonight” not only paid to have a studio set up backstage for artist interviews, but it also produced updates that played on jumbo screens. The constant barrage of commercials on the screens, the laser lights and confetti explosions, made for a din that tried to distract the audience from the 10- to 15-minute set changes that separated the 20- to 25-minute performances. The sampler style didn’t bother the youngest fans, and it made the show like Miami weather -- if you don’t like it, just wait 15 minutes and it’ll change.

The one act that clearly left the crowd disappointed was Jackson. The singer performed two quick songs and was off with a fleeting “I love you” and “goodnight” that left fans blinking and checking their watches. For the record: Jackson wore two shirts and a jacket. We definitely saw more of her at the Super Bowl.

The show put together some seemingly incongruous sounds that all fit beneath the Top 40 tent. N.E.R.D. and Black Eyed Peas presented hip-hop with rock or funk infusions that got the crowd, young and old, in the groove. Duff and Simpson presented their versions of the now familiar genre of fingernails-tapping-on-microphone-during-wrenching-ballad. Duff also performed a de-stuttered version of the Who’s “My Generation,” but her band’s instruments, it should be noted, were intact at the finish.

Duff’s merchandise sold best at the concession stands, and she was (literally) a poster child for one of the show’s target demographics, the female teens and tweens. (Laughlin, the station executive, often notes that the station must at all times evince the voice and passions of a 19-year-old girl to stay true to its core.)

There can be some problems, though, when PG-13 invades the PG world. Marissa Esparza, a 9-year-old from Long Beach, jumped, giggled and swayed her arms with rapper Nick Cannon, but when he told the crowd to yell, “Hell, yeah!” she pressed her fingertips to her lips. “Oh, I can’t say that,” she said.

Backstage, John Ivey, vice president of programming for Clear Channel Los Angeles, said all the artists were asked to hold back on raw language. “We know who our audience is. Our audience out there is moms and kids.... And the dads love us today. They’re back home and the Lakers are on. They’re thrilled that we had this show today.”

The youth of the crowd was apparent in the parking lot after the show -- the line of traffic went both directions, defying the usual physics of concerts, because of the number of youngsters waiting at the stadium steps for their parental pickup.

A channel-surfing world is one with fleeting loyalty, which explains why the Backstreet Boys looked so nervous as they filed onstage to introduce Enrique Iglesias. They were atop the pop world way back in the old days, like, you know, the year 2000, before “American Idol” was even on television. They built their audience with touring (how quaint!) and music videos, and they haven’t had a studio album since 2000.

Onstage, they asked the concert-goers if they wanted a new album and then held their breath. “They cheered, man, and I was relieved,” member Nick Carter said later. “I was really worried that they might boo us, and I’m not joking. We didn’t know what to expect. Things change.” The group is expecting to release its fifth album by the end of the year.

Iglesias, delivering a high-energy set that was among the most popular of the night, stayed in touch with his fans, or at least one of them. Veronica Loera of Rosemead was pulled onstage to be serenaded by Iglesias and, as his eyes went wide, she clamped both hands on his posterior for most of the song. The crowd went berserk as the image on the screen lingered on the clutch.

Lenny Kravitz defied the show’s conventions by stretching out his set with guitar solos. The youngest members of the crowd looked drowsy and confused, but they perked up immediately when Simpson came onstage. “Wow, there’s so many people,” she rightly observed. She thanked everyone for buying her albums. “My life right now is awesome.” The girls cheered intensely, a giddy chorus that rose up from their bare midriffs and out past their braces.

Next was an exuberant set by Big Boi, of OutKast. Then, like a boozy night that ends with an ill-advised visit to a karaoke bar, the show closed with the feckless Hung, the civil engineering student at UC Berkeley whose stiff, tone-deaf and relentlessly optimistic performance on “American Idol” has made him the Ed Wood of pop music.

His “Plan 9 From Outer Space” is “She Bangs,” the Ricky Martin hit, and when he performed it Saturday night he was wide-eyed and surrounded by sultry dancers. The surreal moment played out like a lost episode of “Fantasy Island.” During the song, Hung, in white slacks and a floral-print shirt, repeatedly glanced up at his image on the screens, and the crowd watched him watching himself.

It’s a television world. We just live in it.