Why Is KLOS So Hard-Rocking?

I've always wondered why KLOS rocks harder than most Classic Rock stations. With KSWD about to become Contemporary Christian, Los Angeles loses one of its two Classic Rock stations. KSWD leaned less hard-edged. But most markets only have one Classic Rock outlet, so LA won't be unique.

Looking at what was played in the last hour on KLOS, it's clear the station doesn't air much Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac or Elton John, staples on most Classic Rock stations. Here's what was recently played (11/15)

AC/DC--Dirty Deeds
Judas Priest--Another Thing Coming
Jane's Addiction--Been Caught Stealing
Aerosmith--Walk This Way
Lenny Kravitz--Are You Gonna Go My Way?
The Who--Behind Blue Eyes
BonJovi--Wanted Dead or Alive
Ozzy--Flying High Again
Kansas--Carry On Wayward Son
Van Halen--Jump
Foo Fighters--My Hero

Yes, they are all frequently heard on Classic Rock stations, except maybe that Ozzy song. And you can say Behind Blue Eyes is fairly soft, although from an undeniable Classic Rock act.

You can't say KLOS's ratings are stellar. Even when it had the format to itself (and will soon again) it always rocked harder than similar stations and always seems to underperform. Tied for #14 in the most recent ratings, and it's on an upswing over the last couple of months. Sometimes it dips down to #18 or worse. Yes, LA is a heavily Latino market where a station mostly aimed at white men is not going to do all that great. But KCBS-FM is also aimed mostly at white men and always does better than KLOS.

I wonder if anyone at Cumulus ever thought of taking it down a notch on KLOS, maybe play a Chicago, Hall & Oates, Blondie or Doobie Brothers song, like most Classic Rock stations?

The few classic rock stations I've heard (one here in Seattle, and one I can hear at night out of Merced) play a lot of hard hitting 80's and later rock music. Maybe KLOS is keeping up with the demographic shift, as many other CR stations seem to be doing.

Gregg. said:

I wonder if anyone at Cumulus ever thought of taking it down a notch on KLOS, maybe play a Chicago, Hall & Oates, Blondie or Doobie Brothers song, like most Classic Rock stations?

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I don't see much of that as rock. It sounds more like classic hits or AC. You might find what you want on KRTH or KOST.

Here's the 8 p.m. hour from WDRC-FM (The Whale) Hartford:
Feel Like Makin' Love -- Bad Company
Urgent -- Foreigner
Fire -- Jimi Hendrix Experience
Sharp Dressed Man -- ZZ Top
Heartbreaker -- Pat Benatar
Cryin' -- Aerosmith
The Boys Are Back in Town -- Thin Lizzy
Should I Stay or Should I Go -- The Clash
Time -- Pink Floyd
Rock of Ages -- Def Leppard
Listen to the Music -- Doobie Brothers

That last one kind of stuck out even before I boldfaced it.

Compare with the same hour on New Haven's classic rocker, WPLR:
Smells Like Teen Spirit -- Nirvana
School's Out -- Alice Cooper
Refugee -- Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Stranglehold -- Ted Nugent
Crazy On You -- Heart
Rock You Like a Hurricane -- Scorpions
Basket Case -- Green Day
Over the Hills and Far Away -- Led Zeppelin
Right Now -- Van Halen
Hotel California -- Eagles

More in tune with what KLOS is playing in LA, isn't it? And working the '90s into the mix as well. If I were looking for a solid, kick-ass dose of classic rock, I know where I'd be tuning!

Those playlists above are similar to the more 'gold' selections I hear on KVRQ Seattle, KJRB Spokane and KBRE Merced, except the stations I listen to have a lot of nu-metal and 90's rock tracks -- and one of them has a few currents thrown in. None of them touch the Eagles, Petty, or Doobie Brothers. There is an older demo skewing CR station in the Seattle area that I don't listen to that used to play those artists, and may play them now and then -- but even it is updating its playlist to more recent classic rock.

boombox4 said:

Those playlists above are similar to the more 'gold' selections I hear on KVRQ Seattle, KJRB Spokane and KBRE Merced, except the stations I listen to have a lot of nu-metal and 90's rock tracks -- and one of them has a few currents thrown in. None of them touch the Eagles, Petty, or Doobie Brothers. There is an older demo skewing CR station in the Seattle area that I don't listen to that used to play those artists, and may play them now and then -- but even it is updating its playlist to more recent classic rock.

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Sounds like New England rock radio is more conservative and pop-friendly than West Coast rock radio. Here's another one-hour sampling, this one from WAQY Springfield, Mass. Another Petty song, plus two from Fleetwood Mac and The Cars that I'd classify as pop rather than classic rock:

Keep Your Hands to Yourself -- The Georgia Satellites
Mississippi Queen -- Mountain
Pour Some Sugar on Me -- Def Leppard
Houses of the Holy -- Led Zeppelin
She Talks to Angels -- The Black Crowes
Fly By Night -- Rush
Let's Go -- The Cars
Go Your Own Way -- Fleetwood Mac
Pinball Wizard -- The Who
The Waiting -- Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Black Betty -- Ram Jam

With KSWD history KL0S has a golden opportunity to pick up many listeners. Playing rock from 2000 onwards doesn't seem the right strategy.Jack and KROQ have that covered. There is now no true 70s 80s based Classic Rock station in LA.

benale said:

With KSWD history KL0S has a golden opportunity to pick up many listeners. Playing rock from 2000 onwards doesn't seem the right strategy.Jack and KROQ have that covered. There is now no true 70s 80s based Classic Rock station in LA.

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it's sad to lose a popular rock station, especially in the LA/SoCal market. i'm from Dallas-Fort Worth area and never been in LA/SoCal in my life and i know how sad it is to lose iconic stations that rocked with the 2004 death of KEGL 97.1 The Eagle (which Clear Channel brought it back to life 10 years ago this year), the death of Q102.1 KTXQ, the original death of 95.2 KZPS when it flipped from classic rock to a hybrid classic rock/country format in 2007 known as Lone Star 92.5 (which flipped back to just Classic Rock a year later while retaining the Lone Star 92.5 branding), and most recently, the death of 102.1 The Edge KDGE when it was flipped to AC from Alt Rock.

anyway, if you aren't happy with KLOS as your Classic Rock choice, then you have different options like SiriusXM and their Classic Rock channels of all kinds like Boneyard, The Bridge, Classic Rewind, Classic Vinyl, Deep Tracks, Hair Nation, 1st Wave, Lithium and Turbo as well the artist only channels that devote to classic rock acts like The Beatles and Bruce Springsteen and Grateful Death.

you also have iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and Radio.com and other internet streaming options that will give you classic rockers from other markets too.

sorry you guys lost a beloved classic rockers, but i'm just saying you have other options if KLOS isn't your choice for classic rock in the LA/SoCal market.

Classic Rock here in the Bay Area is about the same. The primary station 107.7 "The Bone" (KSAN) sounds very much like that KLOS list that Gregg posted. Our current classic hits station (or whatever they're called now) - "iHeart 80s @ 103.7" would be the station to go to for Hall & Oates, Blondie, or the softer Doobie's hits...that's more-or-less our K-Earth.

In a large market it seems like there's plenty of room for both.

How about WBIG 100.3 in Washington DC, owned by iHeart? Here's what it played Sunday evening...

Van Halen--Jump
U2--Desire
Pat Benatar--Shadows of The Night
Genesis--Land of Confusion
David Bowie--Fame
AC/DC--Back in Black
The Police--Fortress Around Your Heart
Guns 'n Roses--Sweet Child o' Mine
Bon Jovi--Livin' on A Prayer
The Clash--London Calling
John Mellencamp--Cherry Bomb
Allman Brothers--Midnight Rider
Mike + The Mechanics--Silent Running

Is it that listeners in some markets prefer a mix of classic rock? Or is it the program director or consultant who chooses to rock harder or not as hard, depending on his own tastes? If you're the only classic rock station in town, maybe it doesn't matter?

In Portland, Maine, WBLM, a rock station since the 1970s, decided to go "Classic Rock That Really Rocks." Then the market got a station that leaned much more to the pop side of classic rock, WFNK. It even called itself "Classic Hits" although it would never play a Madonna or Michael Jackson song, so it really wasn't classic hits. WFNK zoomed to the top of the ratings. So WBLM today plays more Crosby, Stills & Nash and Bob Segar, less AC/DC or Judas Priest than it had. It still rocks a little bit harder than WFNK, although both stations share a lot of songs. Both stations are almost always in the Top 5 now. In one recent book WFNK was #1 and WBLM was #2.

BTW Fortress was a Sting hit not The Police. Good comments though

I think the shift in demos is everything.

5 years ago, the core of Classic Rock was Fleetwood Mac.

Today, it's AC/DC.

You'll still get some Billy Joel and Doobies in there but the 70's category doesn't get as much play as it used to. Time marches on.

I think you have to consider the history of the market. Nearly forty years ago, KLOS was rocking hard all the time playing groups like Rainbow, Triumph, Sammy Hagar and Zeppelin. Sister station WPLJ didn't play as much of the harder rock, mixing in some Motown and softer rock by Rita Coolidge, Carol King, The Bee Gees, and an up and coming singer songwriter with a brand new hit called "Mandy." Also, while KMET was cranking out a steady diet of ZZ Top, Bob Seger and Pat Travers, WNEW-FM would play some James Taylor, Paul Simon or Harry Chapin.

radio128 said:

Sister station WPLJ didn't play as much of the harder rock, mixing in some Motown and softer rock by Rita Coolidge, Carol King, The Bee Gees, and an up and coming singer songwriter with a brand new hit called "Mandy."

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Hmmm. Not sure you ever heard Barry Manilow on WPLJ. You were more likely to hear his former boss Bette Midler on WNEW singing "Do You Wanna Dance." But WPLJ was a rock station in the 70s. If they played BeeGees, it was Odessa, not Saturday Night Fever. Their call letters, established in the 70s, came from a song by the Mothers of Invention. They didn't flatten out until the 80s.

I was told by one of the ABC engineers that PLJ played "Mandy" when it first came out. Manilow didn't have the reputation yet of being an upper demo AC artist. He was just a new singer-songwriter with a hit. I believe you are correct about the Bee Gees. PLJ avoided Saturday NIght Fever but did play some older material like "Lonely Days" and "Nights on Broadway." They did play r and b songs that would never be played on KLOS. There is a 1977 aircheck online where Tony Pigg plays "Strawberry Letter 23" by the Brothers Johnson and a 1975 Zacherly aircheck in which he plays "Cisco Kid" by War and a new song by The Ohio Players.

radio128 said:

There is a 1977 aircheck online where Tony Pigg plays "Strawberry Letter 23" by the Brothers Johnson and a 1975 Zacherly aircheck in which he plays "Cisco Kid" by War and a new song by The Ohio Players.

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Those songs were definitely played on WABC-AM at that time. Larry Berger was PD at WPLJ at that time, and he would never duplicate songs being played on WABC. BTW, while Berger was PD, WPLJ consistently beat rival WNEW-FM in the ratings.

radio128 said:

I was told by one of the ABC engineers that PLJ played "Mandy" when it first came out. Manilow didn't have the reputation yet of being an upper demo AC artist. He was just a new singer-songwriter with a hit. I believe you are correct about the Bee Gees. PLJ avoided Saturday NIght Fever but did play some older material like "Lonely Days" and "Nights on Broadway." They did play r and b songs that would never be played on KLOS. There is a 1977 aircheck online where Tony Pigg plays "Strawberry Letter 23" by the Brothers Johnson and a 1975 Zacherly aircheck in which he plays "Cisco Kid" by War and a new song by The Ohio Players.

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OK, I suppose you could say that "Nights on Broadway" was an older song in 1977. It was from 1975 and from the same album that brought us "Jive Talkin'" and "Fanny" but "Lonely Days" was from 1970 and truly was an older song.

Certainly WPLJ and WNEW-FM played "Mandy" by Barry Manilow. At the time, folks thought he was a singer-songwriter in the James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Gordon Lightfoot tradition, all core artists on both stations. WPLJ also played Copacabana and New York City Rhythm by Manilow. It took a couple of years for Manilow to be classified as a Soft AC artist, not a singer-songwriter. And Bette Midler also got play on both stations. Not her more MOR stuff but her covers of rock songs. I remember WNEW-FM pla.ying "Buckets of Rain" which was written by Bob Dylan.

And WNEW-FM played some of the BeeGees' Saturday Night Fever songs. They had been a British soft rock band often heard on WNEW-FM before their disco transformation. It gave WNEW-FM cover for playing SNF songs, although not too often.

And yes, WPLJ played some of the same songs as WABC. WPLJ may have been the most pop-leaning album rock station in the country. It didn't matter that it shared some titles with WABC. WPLJ always played African-American artists, even if most AOR stations steered clear. Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, War. Even Earth Wind & Fire, Hues Corporation, George McCrea. George Benson's "Breezin'" got plenty of airplay, nearly all the cuts off the album. But when their albums dropped out of the top ten, WPLJ didn't play them as recurrents.

TheBigA said:

Hmmm. Not sure you ever heard Barry Manilow on WPLJ. You were more likely to hear his former boss Bette Midler on WNEW singing "Do You Wanna Dance." But WPLJ was a rock station in the 70s. If they played BeeGees, it was Odessa, not Saturday Night Fever. Their call letters, established in the 70s, came from a song by the Mothers of Invention. They didn't flatten out until the 80s.

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I don't know where you were at that time..but it wasn't NYC.

This OTA from 8-28-75 show a lot of overlap w/sister WABC: http://www.fileconvoy.com/dfl.php?id=g6e9ca83039d5958a10000323830f28ac6338943cdb

And yes, that processing was what the station sounded like -hiss and all. The hot box at that time was Dorrough's DAP310 w/the AGC of your choice ahead of it to guarantee a racket at all times. 99X (WXLO nee WOR-f) used the same box in a slightly different chain but the resulting headache was the same.

LCG