LA Radio Waves

  Radio: September 8, 2023             Trends are funny. Funny in an interesting way, and often caused by forces not necessarily obvious.             Such an example is top-40 radio, represented locally by KIIS (102.7 FM). The station that almost single-handedly brought the format bac...

 Radio Waves: September 1, 2023 Antenna Mania I recently had a chance to try out a really cool looking — at least in the opinion of some — antenna for my truck. The brand itself doesn’t matter much as these are all similar in design: flexible rubber with some sort of spiral wire inside to, as the description says, optimize reception for both AM and FM bands. Most modern cars and trucks have s...

Radio: August 11             Hearing Taylor Swift 24/7 wasn’t enough for you? You needed more?             On the heals of Taylor 105.1 HD3, in which one of the HD radio streams tied to Go Country 105 plays nothing but Taylor Swift (you need a special HD radio to hear it; new cars often ha...

  Radio July 21, 2023             Billboard Magazine announced last week that — with her song “Karma” making it to #1 on the Pop Airplay chart — Taylor Swift has tied the record for the most number one songs by an artist in the history of the chart.             “Karma” is her 11th #1...

Radio Waves: June 30, 2023 Remembering John Felz John Felz began his radio career in 1971, working in the mail room of KMPC (now KSPN, 710 AM). In the small-world department, one of his colleagues in the mail room was future KMET (now KTWV, 94.7 FM) newscaster and personality Pat “Paraquat” Kelley, whose father Bob Kelley was the play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Rams. After a time, Felz...

  Radio: June 2, 2023             Whether it was the threat of legislative action that would require it, or just a reaction to simple lobbying by government officials, listeners and buyers alike, Ford announced that it has reversed its decision to remove AM radio capabilities from some gas-powered vehicles in 2024 and through a software u...

 Guest:  Dave Beasing  Radio Waves: May 12, 2023 Who do you love? Last week I spoke of an article from Inside Music Media’s Jerry Del Colliano in which he made a list of easily-fixed programming elements that turn listeners off. In case you missed it and want to take part, I am asking for your “things” … what would cause you to tune to another station or even turn off the radio comp...

  All Day, Every Day: American Top 40 I’ve never been a fan of the iHeart Radio app you can download to your smartphone. I always thought it too cumbersome to use compared to alternatives, and I don’t like the way iHeart restricts its own stations to its own app rather than allowing them to be available on other apps as well. If iHeart really believed in the app, why do they not let it compet...

 Radio: April 21, 2023                 InsideMusicMedia. Com’s Jerry Del Colliano posted a column on March 31 that — like many of his columns — could have been written by me. Great minds think alike, you know. Entitled The AM Station That Defies Failure, it tells the story of WABC/New York and the success it has had si...

SPECIAL Podcast:  We are re-publishing our career spanning interview with the multi-talented Ken Levine - who is featured in Richard's column this week. The Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters/Hollywood Media Professionals played host to a special “Coffee With …” interview as Master of Ceremonies and interviewer Chuck Street spent two hours talking with Ken Levine. You may not know the name Ken Levi...

  Radio: March 24, 2023             It is time to admit: executives of the major radio corporations - Audacy, iHeart, and Cumulus, primarily - have no faith in the future of the industry they control.              There is no fighting from them against automakers who are removing...

 A VERY SPECIAL "Radio Waves":  Join Richard and Mike for an interview with two of Emmis Communications' top execs - CEO and founder Jeff Smulyan and President of Programming Rick Cummings.  In the full podcast, we discuss a variety of "radio" topics, Jeff's new book titled "Never Ride A Roller Coaster Upside Down:  The Ups, Downs and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur" and they gi...

  Radio: February 17, 2023 Last October, Adult Album rocker 88-5 … aka The SoCal Sound (KCSN/KSBR, 88.5 FM) … ruffled a few feathers by moving specialty programming out of “prime” hours, described as Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 7p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.  General Manager Patrick Osburn stated emphatically at the time that all hosts were offered new slots and no sh...

  Radio: February 10, 2023             The holiday ratings period - representing roughly the last four weeks of the year - were kind once again to KOST (103.5 FM), which dominated the local ratings by playing holiday music. Earning a 13.1 share of the audience , KOST earned almost three times the rating (2.79 times actually, rounded off)...

  Radio: February 3             I got into a minor disagreement with my podcast partner and friend Michael Stark over a recent column in which I was trying to clarify something and perhaps ended up making things murkier. It all had to do with the the word “stale” and radio station KABC (790 AM).        &...

  Radio: January 27, 2023             I have always had a pipe dream of buying a radio station or two … primarily AM — because I want to prove you can get listeners when you program and promote a station correctly — or maybe an AM-FM combo in a major market. I’d probably run top-40 or progressive rock on the AM and something to complement...

  Radio: January 13, 2023             To borrow a slogan from ABC-television in the 1970s - unfortunately when they cancelled my favorite game show, Split Second - It’s a brand new day on KFI (640 AM), and it all started January 3rd. Tim Conway made the announcement of the change on the last day of his told time slot, January 2nd at 7:00....

Special Guest:  KFI's Mo Kelly who discusses his new weekday show. Radio: January 6, 2022             Wasn’t that you who told me you always wanted to own your own radio-related internet domain, so that you could direct your friends and family to your chain of online radio stations that you program out of your spare bedroom?   &...

Radio Waves: December 23, 2022 Holiday Treats More Christmas/holiday programming is on tap for you, if you’re willing to listen via apps or online … one of which has not been heard locally in years, if ever. In the early 1980s, Drake-Chenault produced a show called  Christmas At Our House .  It was very well received, since it was quite different from the usual repetition of 50 common Ch...

Radio Waves: December 9, 2022 Country Christmas In keeping with my desire to discuss holiday music in every column every week of the year I bring you more holiday music news:  as expected, Go Country 105 has temporarily become Your Christmas Destination once more. A rundown of the music played just prior to my writing this includes music from The Ronettes, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Andy...

  Radio: December 2, 2022             Leo Laporte — The Tech Guy — heard locally on KFI (640 AM) Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., announced his retirement from radio effective in December. His last live show will air December 18th.             Technically it wasn’t Laport...

  Radio: November 25, 2022             One of thew absolute greats of radio — Wally Clark — passed away November 14th at the age of 84.             Clark is one of the crew that brought KIIS-FM (102.7 FM) to prominence starting in 1982 when he was named General Manager of the station,...

  Radio: November 18, 2022             KOSTing into the holidays             I was just thinking that it is about time for KOST (103.5 FM) to start playing holiday music when I noticed: they are already playing holiday music. It began this year last Friday, November 11th at 8 a.m. &nb...

Radio Waves: November 4, 2022 SoCal Sound Changes Apparently SoCal Sound (88.5 FM) General Manager Patrick Osburn has received an email or two … or 100, maybe 1000 … due to the decision to drop many of the station’s weekend programs, move others to new time slots, and expand the regular format to more hours each week. It all happened the weekend of October 22nd-23rd, when a plan that Osburn says h...

  Radio October 28, 2022             Longtime KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM) anchor Dick Helton recently left the station to start his official retirement after 24 years at the all-news station. His last broadcast was October 14th, wrapping up a career that spanned over a half century — 53 years, to be exact — including many 29 years at sister al...