KLOS goes all ’80s for the weekend
Just in time for Independence Day, KLOS (95.5 FM), it’s the “Declaration of 80pendence Weekend” — all 80s all the time, for the weekend at least, starting after Heidi & Frank at 10 a.m. Thursday, July 2nd. My hunch is that the staff has Friday and the weekend off.
At press time, no other station indicated special programming for the weekend, though I am betting it will happen, especially with this being the 250th birthday of our country. K-Earth (101.1 FM) tends to have special programming … as of the past few years focussing on the 1980s as well, and I bet KROQ (106.7 FM) and Alt 98.7 FM will do something too. … they apparently just don’t like to tell anyone.
More Cuts
Just in time to book the flight to Chicago for iHeart CEO Bob Pittman to be indoctrinated into the Radio Hall of Fame, the massive company is once again making cuts to its operations, essentially taking almost all of the local talent out of small markets and increasing the amount of centralized programming.
Pittman, who according to salary.com receives an estimated yearly compensation of about $13 million, hopes to save $50 million during the second half of 2026 by making cuts across the country as iHeart struggles to remain relevant. This is on top of $100 million in cuts made this year already, according to RadioInsight.com. The move has left many stations with no talent at all, every on-air voice being pre-recorded and sent in from larger markets. As one insider told me, “iHeart has actually been moving toward this moment for 20 years; they stopped being truly local on most of their stations long ago.”
Lance Venta of Radio Insight wrote, “Many smaller markets including Atlantic City NJ, Cedar Rapids IA, Erie PA, Fort Collins CO, Springfield MO, and Spokane WA have lost all of their remaining local on-air talents. Even larger markets such as Indianapolis and St. Louis are now down to just a couple local hosts.”
Radio works when it has local content, and a connection to the local community. That’s why it exists, and it is why companies are issued licenses to broadcast.
And that’s the rub: iHeart long ago lost any claim to be operating in the public interest, a requirement to hold a broadcast license. My take: the FCC and Congress should take immediate steps to strip iHeart of all licenses immediately, force the sale of stations to independent operators, and thus insure (or at least allow) a future for the medium.
Of course the FCC wasn’t impotent — as it is now — back in the 1970s and ‘80s when it was investigating RKO for alleged fraud and misrepresentation. The Commission forced RKO to give up licenses for far less egregious operations; not having stations with any local on air personnel throughout much of the country is proof that iHeart is unfit to hold a broadcast license. In an emergency where do you turn? Certainly not to an iHeart station, at least outside of the top markets.
Time to kill the beast. Make iHeart a memory and allow people who know radio to actually run the stations.
More Station Albums
Speaking of local radio, Steve Mittman wrote to share his radio station album collection, and included in it is a special one from KGIL (now KMZT, 1260 AM) that is a collection of on-air reports as heard on the station after the San Fernando/Sylmar earthquake. KGIL served the San Fernando Valley with a full news staff, and they — along with the air staff — hit the streets and the airwaves with special reports right after the quake. Called The San Fernando Valley’s Longest Day, you can hear it online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Mp6Sm2zoE.
Aftershocks were coming as the reports were airing live. KGIL did an amazing job covering the event, showing exactly what local radio is supposed to do. I doubt even KNX (1070 AM) would be able to provide the coverage that KGIL did in 1971.
This is not Mittman’s only station-related album, but I wanted to highlight it due to its special nature. I’ll have some more station records in the coming weeks.