KLOS Los Angeles

[Realist]

Was out in the LA area for 6 days, 5 nights in late September following the Tigers. I figured I’d check out the rock stations out there so I pre-set KCBS, K-Earth, KLOS, Alt 98.7 and KROQ on the rental car (Durango but that’s a whole other story). After a day, I found myself listening to KLOS more and more. Not owned by the big boys anymore, as it’s owned by Merlin Media after being sold by Cumulus.

What a great and different station! Yes, they play SOME of the classic rock you hear on other stations but they go deeper with other classic rock songs. They further play some new rock. I heard the new Rolling Stones single while out there. I downloaded their app and now listen to them at work. Their lunchtime show plays incredibly diverse rock, including stuff I don’t hear on SXM. Sluggo and Kevin in afternoons are hilarious.

Suggesting that people try them and tune in. There’s a reason they’re the top rated rock station out there…

[TC Talks]

KLOS and KROQ have always managed to avoid the corporate nit wits. They are too plugged into the music industry to put up with mandatory playlists etc.

They break like 40% of all rock acts.

You also live in the Midwest which is like the Wonder Bread of just about everything culture including programming a radio station.

[Realist]

You also live in the Midwest which is like the Wonder Bread of just about everything culture including programming a radio station.

That’s part of the reason why I started listening to KLOS. I like Saginaw’s Z93 but, while sitting in the office, the predictable 4 hour rotation on new songs plus the somewhat predictable recurrents and classics just gets old for me after their morning show. Plus my wife has been listening to SXM online at her work so I can’t at the same time.

[TC Talks]

Radiogarden.com

[CurlyHoward]

....uh, KROQ sucks. They play Billie Eilish and Machine Gun Kelly heavily. Not rock.

[Realist]

....uh, KROQ sucks. They play Billie Eilish and Machine Gun Kelly heavily. Not rock.

Found that out quickly. Really had no interest in listening to that

[TC Talks]

....uh, KROQ sucks. They play Billie Eilish and Machine Gun Kelly heavily. Not rock.

I would challenge you that those acts are part of the Rock genre these days. Kid Rock shouldn't be considered rock either, yet here we are.

[MWmetalhead]

There is nothing special at all about KROQ anymore, and that has been the case for most of the past 15 years. As lame as KROQ is musically during regular programming (they do have very good theme weekends once in a while), I personally find KYSR to be even worse.

John Allers is a more talented alternative programmer than Kevin Weatherly. Allers ought to be programming KROQ. What he's accomplished with KVIL and especially the rebirth of Live 105 is impressive.

Frankly, I think Weatherly has long been overrated as an alternative or rock programmer. When he was rock/alternative format captain for CBS Radio years ago, the wheels came off at a number of heritage stations owned by the company, and new upstarts were duds across the board. During the final decade of his first run at KROQ, ratings were nothing special and most of the time he lost to 98.7 in key demos.

KLOS is wonderfully eclectic for a major market heritage rock station. I completely agree with Realist. I pointed this fact out to some folks on the RadioDiscussions Los Angeles message board earlier this year, and some folks surprisingly accused me of being mistaken on that point. I don't think those folks realize some of the songs KLOS plays can be heard almost nowhere else on a commercial FM station in a top 100 market. They think because those songs received some radio airplay 30 or 40 years ago, the fact KLOS plays those songs in 2023 is somehow unworthy of praise.

It is important to note that from the late 90s until the ownership change to Meruelo Media, KLOS was a far less interesting station. When I visited Southern California on business in 2003, I found both KLOS and KCBS-FM (which was still classic rock at the time) to be incredibly generic sounding and boring. KROQ still sounded great back then.

I enjoyed Sluggo's on-air work at Sirius XM on Lithium and he is now part of KLOS's afternoon show. Many years ago, he worked at KROQ.

To be fair - there are many places where KLOS's approach to the rock format would not work well. The exit of 100.3 The Sound several years back coupled with KROQ's programming miscues in the Kaplan era left the door wide open for KLOS to build a decent sized coalition of listeners.

Another station I enjoy from Los Angeles, coincidentally, is KROQ's sister station - 93.1 Jack FM.

I do think late 80's to 1990-ish KIIS might be one of the best sounding radio stations of any format of any time in U.S. radio history. That's just my personal opinion, of course. (Mark Driscoll of KIIS fame used to do the voiceover imaging for 98.5 WUPS, and the jingle package WUPS used for a good portion of the 1990s came from that era of KIIS. I remember being highly disappointed when WUPS dropped what I thought was a very well executed Adult CHR format for all-70's circa 1993 or 1994. To add insult to injury, WWLZ in Cadillac dumped CHR around the same time, leaving listeners to settle for scratchy signaled stations to get their contemporary music fix.)

[CurlyHoward]

....uh, KROQ sucks. They play Billie Eilish and Machine Gun Kelly heavily. Not rock.

I would challenge you that those acts are part of the Rock genre these days. Kid Rock shouldn't be considered rock either, yet here we are.

I hate Kid Rock, but at least there are guitars in his music. Billie Eilish just mumbles over electro-pop. No actual instruments.