KLOS nets record charity haul for ailing kids
KLOS (95.5 FM) broke a fundraising record — its own — by raising more than $1.27 million in just 26 broadcast hours last month during the sixth annual KLOS St. Jude Rocks radiothon. That beat the station's previous record of $1.24 million.
During the event, listeners making donations became eligible to go on adventures with station personalities in addition to receiving specially designed attire, mainly T-shirts, commemorating the drive that said: The T-Shirt That Saves Lives.
KLOS programmer Keith Cunningham was ecstatic over the results of the drive, telling me how proud he is of both his staff and loyal listeners and humbly stating, “It is very rewarding to be able to help.
“For many of us, it is the most rewarding two days of the year,” he said.
The money raised benefited
St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and will help kids there fight cancer. Also supporting the drive were station sponsors and artists. In a news release, KLOS owner Meruelo Media's Otto Padron said this “is a fierce reminder that live and local radio compels, and deeply connects with the community to make a positive difference.”
Emmis podcast
My podcast partner Michael Stark and I recently sat down with Emmis Chairman/CEO Jeff Smulyan and President of Radio Programming Rick Cummings for an open discussion of Emmis, radio in general, marketing and more. It was supposed to last about a half hour but ended up going almost 60 minutes … and in reality, there is so much more to talk about, we hope to have them back at a future date.
Emmis is the former owner of Power 106 (KPWR 105.9 FM), which was known as Magic 106 at the time the company bought it. It later created Power, which for a time dominated local radio. The company is what I consider one of the “good ones” in radio, running stations like they actually like radio. In fact, the love of radio oozes out from both Smulyan and Cummings as they speak.
I realized in speaking with them that my own ideas on how to save radio — especially AM — evolved from my time interning at Magic and Power. Apparently, their corporate structure stuck in my head without me realizing it.
Hear the interview and subscribe to the podcast at apple. co/3T8g1ny.
New morning show
Speaking of Power 106 — now owned by Meruelo Media and thus a sister to KLOS, by the way — the station has a new morning show.
Called “The Brown Bag Morning Show,” it airs from 6-10 a.m. and is a former podcast of a similar name hosted by Letty Paniche, Rosecrans Vic and DoKnow.
You may remember Paniche as “Rikki Martinez” when she worked with Big Boy on Power mornings from 2011-2014; she left to work at Real 92.3 (KRRL FM) and returned to Power in 2021.
“The Brown Bag” podcast also debuted in 2021; the show moved to the Power airwaves Feb. 16. I'll have a full review in a future column; in the meantime, if you have heard it, let me know your thoughts.
Top 10 tweaks
In the past, I covered ratings quarterly, primarily because that is when the full “books” were released. But it's been years since Nielsen (formerly
Arbitron) moved to a new system allowing monthly results to be released, so perhaps it is time to update my thinking.
I'll still do a more in-depth look quarterly but give the top 10 monthly. This way we are all current without getting too predictable. Here's the first top 10 of the year for the month of January, recognizing listeners age 6 and over tuned to a station between 6 a.m. and midnight:
1. KOST (6.8) 2. KRTH (4.9)
3. KTWV (4.7) 4. KBIG (4.6) 5. KLVE (4.3) 6. KFI (4.1) 7. KIISFM (3.6) 8. KCBS Jack-FM (2.9)
9. KLAX, KLOS, KNX, KRRL (2.8)
I'm a little late covering the January ratings, released by Nielsen at the end of February; the February ratings will be out in just a couple of weeks.