Rivalry Signs Off

For years, the television ad campaigns for the Southland’s top two adult contemporary music stations, KOST-FM (103.5) and KBIG-FM (104.3)--the former featuring Dick Clark, the latter often sporting Teri Garr--have at times indulged in subtle and not-so-subtle volleys at each other.

One had supposed KBIG listeners disparaging the unnamed “other” outlet as the station that played Barry Manilow--as if its music were much edgier. The stations’ sounds may have been soft-pop, but the rivalry sometimes got hard as they tugged at the same mostly female audience.

Not anymore. Both stations’ ads will be directed by the same person. For that matter, the stations are directed by the same person: Jhani Kaye, who in 17 years as program director at KOST brought the station to ratings glory while also directing the Dick Clark TV ads. Kaye moved to KBIG, his lower-rated former rival, last year, and in November, after KOST was taken over by KBIG-owner AMFM Radio Inc., he was appointed the company’s director of adult contemporary programming for Los Angeles, meaning he oversees both stations.

Isn’t that a little like Fox buying the San Francisco Giants and putting Dodgers General Manager Kevin Malone in charge of both teams?

Not in the new world of “cluster” ownership in broadcasting.

*

“When you really think about it, what was the ultimate challenge for me after programming KOST for 17 years?” muses Kaye, at 49 a 33-year veteran of professional radio.

“It was programming KBIG. And this is better than the fantasy--I still get to be involved with the wonderful people at KOST while directing this great young staff at KBIG. It’s like being asked to direct ‘Titanic’ and ‘The Green Mile’ at the same time. It’s a terrific assignment.”

KOST, with former assistant programming director Johnny Chang promoted to the programming director’s seat, was clearly Kaye’s baby. The Southern California native grew up in Hemet and had his first on-air job at a commercial station while in high school. He beat his stated goal of being an L.A. Top 40 deejay by age 30 by eight years, signing on first at KUTE-FM when he was 22. He then worked at other area stations before taking his first program director job in El Paso, then moved to the adult contemporary world at Chicago’s WCFL-FM in 1980.

Just 18 months later, he was back in his beloved L.A. at KOST, where he shaped the station’s relaxing musical blend, co-created the signature “Love Songs on the KOST” nightly show that’s run since 1983 and led the station to a consistent success, often dominating the adult demographic. Its 3.5 rating last spring ranked it sixth overall in the Los Angeles-Orange County market, and it was the No. 1 English-language outlet in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age group.

For much of Kaye’s tenure, KBIG was in KOST’s shadow, though still hardly a flop, ranking 20th overall and 11th among English stations.

The irony is that Kaye’s assignment at KBIG is not to do what he did at KOST. Rather, it’s to make his new home distinct from his old.

“KBIG and KOST always targeted the same audience in all those years we were head-to-head competitors,” he says. “So my assignment with AMFM is to pull the stations apart and have them coexist in the marketplace.”

It’s not too different from what we’ve heard recently with the market’s two leading news stations, KFWB-AM (980) and KNX-AM (1070), striking slightly different poses under common CBS ownership.

“The difference now is KOST is a great radio station for at-work listening, and the usage we stress for it is when you want to unwind or relax,” he says. “KBIG’s differentiation is we’re an upbeat, listen-at-work station, so people who prefer a little rhythm throughout their day can find it here.

“Where KOST is famous for softer hits from Phil Collins, Whitney Houston, Gloria Estefan and Mariah Carey, KBIG is becoming known for more up-tempo fare like Sixpence None the Richer’s ‘Kiss Me,’ the Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams’ and all the Backstreet Boys’ singles--a lot more bouncy.

“And where KOST is known for ‘Love Songs on the KOST’ every night, KBIG is known now for ‘Disco Saturday Night’ and the ‘Friday Night Disco Party’ as well as the ‘Noontime Disco Workout’ on weekdays.”

The targeted demographics for the stations used to be nearly identical: roughly women in their 30s and early 40s. Now KOST is skewing slightly older and KBIG slightly younger.

Besides spreading out the listener base between the two stations, Kaye has instituted a very simple way to share the audience better: The stations no longer play ads at the same time.

“When I first got here and had to put on the cluster hat, it suddenly occurred to me, ‘Why is it that if you’re a typical Los Angeleno in your car, you’d hear both of those stations play ads at the same time?’ ” he says. “So we staggered the commercial times, and now every time KOST is in commercial, KBIG plays music, and vice versa. Now both win, and the company wins. These are things you can do today you couldn’t do before co-ownership. Your competitor was never going to cooperate to that extent.”

The New Guys: A reference to Dante? A news announcement about the Israeli-Syrian peace talks?

Boy, regular listeners to sports-talk station KXTA-AM (1150) must have thought they’d accidentally tuned in National Public Radio last week, when they first heard Bob and Tom, the Indianapolis-based team whose syndicated show has taken up residence on the outlet weekday mornings.

Well, the Dante mention was in an extended flatulence gag. And the peace-talks news did come after reports on the Lakers and college football. And a day later they and their in-studio crew were discussing what kind of underwear they had on.

It may not be all sports, but it’s still perfect for couch potatoes.

In fact, KXTA management must be hoping that its listeners are such sofa tubers that they can’t bother to change the station, because frankly, there doesn’t seem to be much reason to listen to this, not in a market already jammed with more interesting (or at least entertaining) fare, from Howard Stern to John and Ken. Even Don Imus is more exciting.

And it’s not a matter of giving them a chance to get up to speed. This show’s been going for years. It’s as far up to speed as it’s ever going to get, with a full complement of prerecorded bits and musical satires courtesy of their cohort cast members. Few of those really click, but they sure beat the non-canned banter.

The truth is, this show is probably fine for small-market stations where there isn’t a lot of local competition or local topical material. But in these parts, it seems pointless.

Unplugging the Wayback Machine: Now that it’s the ‘00s, KROQ-FM (106.7) is giving the ‘80s a rest. Deejay Richard Blade’s “Flashback Lunch,” a daily noon hour of Depeche Mode, Oingo Boingo, the B-52’s and others from that bygone era, was put “on hiatus” recently, with Tami Heidi now filling what had been a gap in her 10 a.m.-3 p.m. shift with regular music programming. Blade remains at the station..

Program director Kevin Weatherly says the hiatus designation is not necessarily a euphemism for “gone for good.” If listener response deems, “Flashback” could well be brought back. But, he says, there was a strong sense around the station that the feature’s tunes had grown a bit stale--and there was some question about the role ‘90s favorites might take in the show. On that latter matter, he notes, fans have thus far indicated that they are not ready or willing to toss Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden et al into the oldies bin.