Posted on 08/18/2006 9:29:42 PM PDT by peggybac
LOS ANGELES -- There is a tear in the beer of country music fans here. After more than 20 years on the air, the city's only country music station, KZLA-FM, abruptly left the air Thursday and was seamlessly replaced with the rhythmic pop of "Movin' 93.9," which plays artists such as Beyonce, Janet Jackson and Jennifer Lopez.
KZLA's sudden and unannounced demise leaves America's two most populous cities, Los Angeles and New York, without country music stations.
In Los Angeles, longtime country fans and station employees wondered at the logic of ending country radio in their city, which ranks in the top two for country album sales and where concerts for big-name country artists repeatedly sell out. The station's last day coincided with opening night of Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's "Soul II Soul" concert. All three nights of their tour stop in LA were sold out.
"Country is certainly well represented in product sales there and it gets good concert stops," said Victor Sansone, chairman of the board of the Nashville-based Country Music Association. "That station's been country for a barrel of years. When you have that kind of equity, you don't think they're going to flip it. I don't get it."
The transition by Emmis Communications was swift and shocking for listeners, who heard George Strait and Keith Urban in the morning and Pink and the Black Eyed Peas by lunchtime. Even the station's veteran morning crew, including Peter Tilden, didn't know of the format change until just minutes before it happened.
The host of the midmorning show, Shawn Parr, said he was told just after he started his shift that the station would be changing styles. He queued up Keith Urban's "Tonight I Wanna Cry" at 10:18 a.m., which segued into the Black Eyed Peas' "Let's Get It Started" seven minutes later. Then he left the air.
"It's a bitter pill to swallow. The thing I have a hard time with is the listeners. They deserve more than that," said Parr, who has long been the voice of television's Academy of Country Music Awards. "I went to my e-mail 3 1/2 hours later and I had 2,100 e-mails. My phone has not stopped ringing for 24 hours."
Val Maki, vice president of Emmis Communications' radio division, said the format change was a "better business decision despite what a wonderful station KZLA was."
Maki said KZLA, located close to the ACM offices, ranked 20th among the 80 radio stations in Los Angeles and attracted about 550,000 listeners a week. The new station will target women between 25 and 54, a demographic where KZLA ranked 19th in the market, she said. Emmis has hired legendary Los Angeles disc jockey Rick Dees to run the morning show and he will begin after Labor Day, Maki said.
"This could very well be a market leader," she said of Movin' 93.9. "It looks really good, and based on our early feedback, it sounds good."
For most country fans, however, the switch didn't sit well.
Erik Olson, a 22-year-old barn manager at Circle K Horse Rentals in Glendale, got out of his truck for a few minutes Thursday morning to drop off a horse. When he hopped back in, the radio was blaring Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean."
I would have lost the bet. I was sure it was going to have been replaced by a Spanish language station.
The End Times are nigh, I tell ya!
If the money is there, they will find a way of doing it.
egad
This is why I have satellite radio. Nothing worse then having your local radio station that you have been listening to for years suddenly switch to a new format without warning. It's all about going after the 18-34 female demographic. Overall ratings do not matter anymore, just how you do with that demographic.
Something I doubt my fellow New Yorkers shed too many tears over. Of course, I'm sure there's plenty of country music Upstate.
Get satellite radio!
The guy should sue.
They can have the dozen hay bailin' country stations I get!
What's wrong with Rick Dees?
Misleading Article, KFRG (K-FROG) has three different FM bands in So-CAL. They are headquartered in the Suburbs, so yes technically they aren't an LA station, but LA country fans can definetly tune in.
I think it's hay bale.
Tonight I spent the evening listening to Willie's Place on XM. Much better than any radio station in my area, even the country ones.
Winter with the Delaware, my cousins. And in the spring, cross the Ohio and look for land to settle with my father in a new place called Can-tuck-ee.
I sometimes listened to KZLA when I lived in LA. But not too much though because it was a top 40 pop country station, and didn't play the classics that I like.
Does anyone remember when they hired the two Sparkletts Water guys to DJ?
Didn't they also broadcast Laker games a really long time ago?
Los Angeles is so blue state.
> Something I doubt my fellow New Yorkers shed too many tears over. Of course, I'm sure there's plenty of country music Upstate.
Damn straight. Believe it or not, here in Ithaca ("The City of Evil"), by far the most powerful station is the country station (WIOQ "Q-Country" at 103.7 FM).
Granted, it leans to contemporary country and I sometimes go a whole hour without hearing a Merle Haggard ballad. But it's the clearest FM radio signal in the area by far. Coincidentally or not, it's the only station that my old pickup truck's radio will get.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.