For KACD and KBCD, Time Is on Their Side

A cardinal rule for radio personalities is to think twice before buying a house. You just never know when the station you’re working for is going to change management or formats. Buying a house when starting to work for a new, unproven station would seem to be especially ill-advised.

Nicole Sandler, who just started as music director and afternoon deejay on the brand-new adult alternative-oriented Channel 103.1 (broadcasting on KACD-FM and KBCD-FM, both at 103.1 on the dial), is buying a house. And this comes after she earlier this year had to unload the L.A. residence she bought while music director at adult alternative KSCA-FM (101.9). Having lost that job nearly two years ago when the station was sold out from under her and switched to regional Mexican music, she eventually moved to work at alternative rock station XTRA-FM (91.1) in San Diego, where she rented.

Message to her mortgage company: Don’t sweat it. She expects to be staying put for a while now. She may be playing many of the same songs she did at KSCA at the new station, but she says she’s hearing a different tune from Jacor, the national broadcasting corporation that recently took over operating KACD/KBCD, than she did from the management at KSCA, then owned by the late Gene Autry and his wife, Jackie.

“The old company was not in it for the long run,� she says of the long-stated desire the Autrys had to divest their holdings. “The game plan was just to keep the station going until its value went up and sell it, which is just what they did. But Jacor is radio people who love radio and have always done creative, fun radio and have been successful at it.�

Dave Benson, who is program director at Jacor’s KBCO-FM in Boulder, Colo.--one of the most successful and respected adult alternative stations in the nation--is serving temporarily in the same role for Channel 103.1 and offers nothing but support for Sandler’s optimism.

“We’re having a 10th anniversary concert at KBCO,� he says. “And my most sincere hope is that we’ll be having 10th and 20th anniversary concerts for Channel 103.1.�

That, Benson says, will be achieved not through trying to create an instant sensation, but via steady, organic evolution. He’s not even in any hurry to get an on-air staff in place. Sandler has just this week taken to the air in her afternoon shift, and other deejays may not start appearing before next month.

“It’s our job to do the best musical presentation we can and the best business presentation so we can survive,� he says. “It’s not to re-create KSCA, or compete [directly] with other stations, but to establish something and give it enough of a financial base to have a long life.�

A natural response for L.A. listeners, though, is skepticism. KSCA’s adult alternative run may have ended prematurely due to business reasons rather than ratings, but the station was not exactly setting the ratings books on fire. And previous attempts at similar formats in the commercial market, such as KEDG-FM (the Edge) a few years back, have been complete failures.

What’s Channel 103.1 got that the others didn’t? Well, a more suitable signal, for one thing. Where KSCA’s strongest reception was in areas largely populated by Latinos, KACD and counterpart KBCD can be best picked up in areas heavy in white adults whom the format targets--L.A.’s Westside and Orange County, respectively.

The new outlet also benefits from being part of an ownership team. Jacor already owns L.A. Top 40 leader KIIS-FM (102.7) and all-sports KXTA-AM (1150), allowing its sales staff to package deals for advertisers to use the three stations to reach an audience that now adds the adult alternative audience to its existing base of youthful pop fans and male sports nuts.

That, Benson says, takes off a lot of the pressure for the station to score huge ratings itself. In that mix, he notes, the numbers seen for KSCA’s previous format--generally rating at about a 2 share, good for somewhere around 25th in the market--would be terrific. And, he adds, even if it’s a small audience, it’s a good audience--the kind of people many advertisers cherish.

Indeed, recent figures from the Scarborough media research firm published by music trade magazine Radio & Records shows the adult alternative audience almost the definition of quality, if--at just 1.2% of the national total radio listenership--not quantity. Of all formats’ listeners, adult alternative fans lead the pack in education, income, computer and fax ownership, home offices, Internet usage and patronage of art galleries, live theater and symphonies.

Consequently, plans are to tailor the broadcasts to those sensibilities.

“It’s a music-driven format,� Benson says. “The fact that we’re playing music in the mornings in L.A. seems to be radical. We’ll continue to do that. We can’t out-blab what’s already going on in the mornings in L.A., and we don’t want to try.�

Sandler goes so far as to suggest that the station will not be seeking the lowest common denominator, but rather that any news and community elements the station may develop will probably be closer in tone to National Public Radio fare than what most music station’s morning shows offer.

“This will be a little boutique station targeted toward its audience,� she says. “We’re not looking for KIIS numbers. Expectations are very reasonable. That’s one big reason I have such good feelings.�

If that’s all true, then Sandler may well be home free.

The Naked Truth: Thank you, Bill Ballance--not for putting the nude photos of Laura Schlessinger on the Internet, per se, but for a by-product of that enterprise. Ever since losing the battle to have the photos banned, Dr. Laura has seemed a bit more sympathetic and understanding of the foibles and misjudgments of her troubled callers--and therefore much more listenable.

It’s a pleasant contrast to the fallout of her last big media battle, when widely published reports of alleged unpleasant behavior displayed by her at a speaking engagement in Dallas seemed to bring out her mean streak. In the wake of those stories, and concurrent discussions that her own life history ran counter to how she advised others to live, she became quick to snap at callers, intolerant of the very weaknesses and errors in choices that led them to call in the first place and pretty much all-around no fun.

She may have just published a book about the Ten Commandments, but it seems the lesson she’s learned herself has more to do with the Golden Rule. Hallelujah.

Ready to Rumble: You’d have expected the victory of ex-pro wrestler Jesse “The Body� Ventura to leave political pundits puzzled and sports commentators crowing, but that wasn’t the case with Rush Limbaugh and Jim Rome. On the morning after last week’s election, Limbaugh--perhaps needing something positive in the Republican debacle--was elated, exalting Ventura’s politics-as-unusual win and glorying in the ascension of a “real man� in politics.

You’d think Rome would agree at least on the latter, but instead, at the same moment Limbaugh was heard here on KFI-AM (640), Romey was talking serious smack about the Body, dismissing him as a chemically enhanced freak who’s spent too much time under the tanning lamp. But wait. If that’s true, then Ventura is not a real man at all, but an artificial man. Maybe Rush and Romey should settle this in the ring.