Jerry Del Colliano recently featured an interesting report on InsideMusicMedia.com. It seems that there’s a new type of consolidation in the radio industry, involving the formation of regional clusters due to financial problems.
“Highly leveraged national operators are shedding or rationalizing properties,” he writes, referring to the large broadcast groups such as iHeart, Audacy and a handful of others, “while smaller operators can acquire entire clusters for a few million dollars — or sometimes a few hundred thousand.” Some examples:
• A company in South Dakota purchased six stations — four FM and two AM — for $350,000, an average of just $58,000 per station.
• Another in Arkansas purchased 11 stations for $6.7 million, averaging about $600,000 per station.
These are prices, as Del Colliano says, “that would have been unimaginable during radio’s consolidation boom.”
Is this a good thing? Well, perhaps it’s not perfect. But regional ownership would at least bring some semblance of competition back to the industry, even if it is just region to region, breaking up the monopolies.
This is a trend to watch, and I think it shows that radio still has some tricks left.
Movin’ On Up
Long Beach low-power community station KLBP (99.1 FM within a few miles of the downtown transmitter or online at KLBP.org) has opened some new digs at the aptly named Studio One Eleven — an urban design studio that now has its own radio studio — at 245 East 3rd Street.
The new production center opened Sept. 8 and is used for recording news and public affairs programs that are then sent over to the main broadcast studio at Broadway and Pine.
In other station news, Cal State Long Beach journalism professor Barbara Kingsley-Wilson, a long-time moderator to the campus newspaper, has accepted the position of News Director for KLBP. According to the station website, Kingsley-Wilson “brings a wealth of experience in student journalism and will also be assisting in our (new) Journalism Internship program.”
Reader’s Respond
Reader David Schwartz was the first one to respond regarding the lack of special weekend programming on the radio, stating, “Special weekend programming was a reason to listen to a station on the weekends. Now there is nothing special.”
But he has memories of a program from the past — Monitor.
“For some 20 years starting in 1955, NBC radio has a weekend program called Monitor, with name personalities, music and features. I have one sample on my YouTube page with Gene Rayburn as host, and there is a dedicated page to Monitor. There is also a book on Monitor, which was created by Pat Weaver, the same man who created the Today Show and the Tonight Show. The Monitor ‘beacon’ became a very famous tone.”
You can find the Monitor sample, and a lot of other historical broadcasting recordings, at youtube.com/@davidschwartz8394/videos.
Clive Soden of Corona Del Mar is a fan of news and talk shows, and wanted to share his favorites. “During the week, I listen to KFI (640 AM) for Gary & Shannon and news,” he wrote. “On Saturdays, I listen to Rich on Tech.” Soden says he likes the news reports on KNX as well. But he professes to be a fan of Ol’ Blue Eyes: “On KKJZ (88.1 FM), I listen to Jerry Sharell either on Saturday night or Sunday morning … Jerry features Frank Sinatra.”
Dennis Bell sent a note to ask about Inland Empire’s oldies leader. “Lately KOLA has had four different men and two different women on the air doing the Saturday 7 p.m. to midnight shift. Are they auditioning people?
“Also, the station changed the local phone number for requests and contests to an Area Code 949 number, which is in southern Orange County.”
I sent a note to KOLA programmer Gary Springfield, who sent a response immediately. Turns out to be, as Springfield put it, pretty mundane.
“Our regular weekend Saturday night guy — Trevor — wanted to not work on the weekend anymore so he can enjoy fishing and camping with his wife and kids,” he explained.
“We’ve tried out numerous folks for the shift, but as it turned out, some of them could not do it.
“I’m hoping Justin will continue as the Saturday night host,” he concluded.
As to the change in area code, “we had a major technical error that had us looking for a new phone number with a different company. That’s about as deep as it gets,” he said.
Listening Habits
As I write this, 60 brave souls have ventured over to socalradiowaves.com, letting me know how they listen to the radio … over the air using a radio, or via streaming, smart speakers and apps. If you have not taken it yet, please do so. I’ll have the results soon.
Richard Wagoner is a San Pedro freelance columnist covering radio in Southern California. Email rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com.