KOST (103.5 FM) added the syndicated Delilah show to its schedule, weeknights 7 p.m. to midnight, replacing longtime “Love Songs” host Karen Sharp, who was “retired” as part of last month’s nationwide cutbacks by station owner iHeart Media.
To me, the move appears to be an obvious cost-cutting strategy, as syndicated programs are far cheaper than paying a live and local DJ … live and local being what radio executives keep telling us sets them apart from other entertainment sources as they move toward everything but.
I can assume AI DJs are next.
To paraphrase what my column mentor, Ray Richmond, used to say about syndicated and satellite-delivered programming back in the days of the Herald Examiner, it has many benefits: It’s cheap. It also costs less. And did I mention that it’s cheaper?
In this case, we already know what to expect. If Delilah’s name sounds familiar, she was heard doing her show on KBIG (104.3 FM) back in 2007, in the days when KOST and KBIG were competing. In a few words: I think her show is awful. While Sharp connected, Delilah just doesn’t, unless generic advice to distant others is helpful to you.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t popular, of course. iHeart is a master of finding programming “just good enough,” and now that they distribute the program through Premiere Networks, they get to advertise it being cleared in the nation’s second-largest radio market, perhaps leading to more affiliates carrying it.
I question if it will help KOST, however. Local listeners will most likely rarely, if ever, get their dedications and stories on the air as they compete against listeners from roughly 160 other stations nationwide. That one-on-one that Sharp provided is no more.
Considering that many morning listeners tune in to the same station that they had on when they went to bed, I wonder if KOST’s days as a market leader are numbered.
More Holiday Tunes
Over the years, radio app TuneIn has become much more than just a way to find local and national stations. It now carries podcasts and its own curated programming, and it announced last week that its 2025 holiday channels are now online.
Rock, jazz, country, and more are available on TuneIn’s new holiday lineup. There are channels dedicated to classical, children’s music and Sinatra as well. You can find them all on the app or at TuneIn.com; search for the “Hear the Holidays” links if they don’t show up on your home page.
Mailbag
I received more email regarding our ever-expanding set of fun topics. Our first one covers two of them – shortened songs and custom songs.
“I’ve been enjoying your articles on shortened songs or custom edited songs,” writes Frank Canin. “One song that just absolutely bugged me was the edited version of ‘Listen To The Music’ by The Doobie Brothers. The edited version cut out about a minute of the closing guitar solo.
“I worked for KFRG (95.1 FM) in Riverside,” he continued. “I know we had a few songs where the call letters were inserted into the songs … the one I remember most was when ‘K-Frog’ was inserted just after Gary Allan sang ‘Nothin’ On But The Radio.’”
I like that … it just makes things different and fun!
“I do remember KHJ (930 AM) would shorten the ending of the Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude,’ writes Russell Cinque. I actually liked the short version better because the repeating chorus was just too much. Interestingly, they did play the entire Don McLean ‘American Pie’ and the full version of Richard Harris’ ‘MacArthur Park.’
“But if you wanted to hear the full versions of ‘Ride My See-Saw’ by the Moody Blues or ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’ by the Iron Butterfly, you had to listen to stations like KMET and KLOS.”
I agree about ‘Hey Jude’ … described once as a four-minute song with a five-minute fade. Russ also has my inclination when it comes to which version of remade songs he likes best. “In my case, it just depends on which version of the song I heard played on the radio first,” he says. “It could be the original version, the cover version or the remake version.”
That — with few exceptions — is my exact feeling.
Steve from Chino remembers KFI (640 AM) and custom songs. “I can recall KFI playing special versions of ‘Fire’ by the Pointer Sisters and ‘Living it Up’ by Bell and James … both mentioning tuning the radio to KFI in 1979,” he says.
And finally, Ellis Lai wrote in again regarding a song change I never heard before: “Radio stations in Kansas City would play a sanitized version of George Michael’s ‘I Want Your Sex,’” Lai remembers. “They would edit it to say ‘I want your love’ instead, completely removing sex from the lyrics!”
That reminds me of whatever station here in Los Angeles — I thought it was KHJ, but I can find no confirmation — that bleeped over the word “crap” from Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome.”
“When I think back on all the (bleep) I learned in high school,” Simon sang as we kids rode in the car on the way to the Abalone Shore Club in Palos Verdes for a church group outing. I still remember it like yesterday.
Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com