On any given weekday, I drive anywhere from an hour to three hours. I cannot play my iPod in my car, I do not have XM or satellite radio, and I cannot be constantly changing cd’s on the road. So, I find myself listening to the radio most of the time. My family has been involved in radio before, my grandfather started KIIS radio back in the 60′s. We are family friends with Mark Wallengren of KOST 103.5, I am friends with the son of the founder of 100.3 The Sound, and John Tesh who owns many online syndicated radio stations. I have a big problem with radio: there’s two of every station, most of the air time is filled with commercials, stations never keep their promises, and the “new music” stations are about a year behind.
When I saw there are two of every station, I mean two different stations play such similar music that they are almost copies. In LA, for classic rock, we have 95.5 KLOS, 100.3 KSWD, and arguably 93.1 KCBS (JACK FM, which used to be Arrow, which was exactly like KLOS). For “new” 98.7 KYSR and 106.7 KROQ. For top 40, 102.7 KIIS and 97.1 KAMP. For Hip Hop, 93.5 KDAY and 105.9 KPWR. There are 13 Regional Mexican/Spanish Contemporary/Spanish Oldies Stations. You get my point.
The new music stations KROQ and KYSR, play their newest music from the french indie band, Phoenix and their album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. The album came out in may 2009, and its still one of the most played on the stations. occasionally they do a good job grabbing new material (i.e. Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend), but note that the most played band on KROQ is still Nirvana and only 4 out of 10 of the top played songs on STAR have come out in the last year.
Stations that look promising at first either give up on what they set out to do, get off the air, or both. An example of a station is 103.1 Indie, which set out to play non-mainstream music. At first, they did a fantastic job. Within two years they quickly changed their ways to a KROQ format. Within 5 years and a month, they were off the air. The Sound, 100.3 set out to play album oriented rock. They have become a classic rock hit station, exactly like KLOS. They have album sides Wednesdays, where they play an old vinyl (and used to be obscure) record. I’ve heard the same albums over and over again. Even the world famous KROQ was playing something different in the 80′s, but they have become a top 40 of rock station.
My favorite stations are 88.9 KXLU (LMU broadcast) and 89.9 KCRW (SMC broadcast). First of all because I hear music there that one, I’ve never heard before, and two, I’ll never hear anywhere else. There are no commercials on these stations. The DJ’s are insightful, giving background and inside information of bands and albums. Both stations also host many live studio sessions and interviews with bands. This is what I think radio should be like, and a symbol of how far radio’s drifted away from what it would like to do. Unfortunately, nothing will change in radio until the majority of listeners are as fed up as I am. But, considering that the ultra commercial giant KIIS is still the most popular radio station in Los Angeles, it seems most people aren’t fed up at all.
