KRTH has no real identity anymore. It's a combination of KLOS, KSWD, KCBS-FM, the old KCMG and the old KIBB.
The question of "identity" is not yours to determine and it cannot be properly answered by anyone who misses the old KRTH, because that invites comparison rather than a fresh look.
What KRTH's identity is belongs to the listeners to decide -- the local ones, not the ones listening via the stream in Colorado. It all goes back to the basic programming "rules" that have been debated here
ad nauseum: You get a group of radio listeners in the target demographic, put them in an auditorium, play them the hooks from songs that potentially appeal to that demo, and then take the songs that tested the highest on the air. If that process creates a New Wave/Classic Rock/Rhythmic Gold format, then so be it. (Now you know why the term "Classic Hits" was coined and why that format sounds different in every market.)
The station has the identity its listeners have created for it. That's why the ratings are up.
And am I the only one who thinks "Freddy Snakeskin" and "Jed the Fish" sound like villains from the 1961-62 animated Dick Tracy tv series?
Yes, Steve, I believe you are the only one. (With apologies to Melissa Etheridge.)
Someday, they will regret it.
Not as long as the numbers keep going up ... and as long as they keep updating the format to keep pace with the passing of time, the numbers will remain viable for a very long time.
They can turn on the old Cart based Automation System?
Dismantled long ago, Scott. It's the 21st Century now.
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As long as I have a posting window open:
I have been advised off-line that I misspoke earlier. Edwin "Jed the Fish" Gould parted company with Westwood One a while back and no longer hosts the syndicated program I referenced in post #9. He does still host a one hour show, "Fresh Catch", Saturday afternoons at 3:00 on KCSN.
It has also been tactfully suggested to me that Freddy Snakeskin is not Jed's official spokesperson. However, absent any word from Jed himself, I report what I hear and wait to be proven wrong later.