KLOS

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KLOS
Broadcast area	Los Angeles, California
Branding	95.5 KLOS
Slogan	Southern California's Only Classic Rock Station
First air date	1947 (as KECA), 1969 (as KLOS)
Frequency	95.5 (MHz) 95.5 HD-2 for Hispanic Fusion & Anglo Rock
Format	Classic Rock
ERP	61000 watts
Callsign meaning	LOS Angeles
Owner	Disney/ABC
Website	http://955klos.com

95.5 KLOS is an FM classic rock radio station based in Los Angeles, California that debuted in 1969. KLOS is owned by ABC Radio, an arm of The Walt Disney Company, which has announced that it would merge its ABC Radio holdings including KLOS with Citadel Broadcasting by the first quarter of 2007. It is home to the nationally broadcast Mark & Brian radio show and long-time rock radio vet Jim Ladd.

[edit] History

On December 30, 1947, KECA-FM began broadcasting on 95.5 MHz, simulcasting the programming of AM station KECA 790. The FM station was owned by ABC since the beginning, and the call letters of the AM and FM stations were accordingly changed to KABC and KABC-FM in the 1950s. In 1960, KABC adopted an all-talk format.

On January 1, 1968, due to new FCC rules requiring FM stations to have separate programming from their AM counterparts, KABC-FM experimented with an all-news format, the first station in Los Angeles to have such a format. This experiment did not last long, as the format was dropped on March 11, 1968, the day that KFWB started its own all-news format.

Adopting a progressive rock format, the station acquired its new call letters KLOS in 1969. By 1972, along with sister stations like WPLJ New York, KLOS had evolved into an album-oriented rock format.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s "KLOS 95½" was a broad-based album rock station. Their primary competition during this period was KMET, the legendary station at 94.7, which had been one of the original progressive rock stations in the U.S. KMET was considered by most Angelenos to be the more authentic and "cool" of the two stations, while KLOS was more formatted and corporate in style. In the late 70s and early 80s, KMET began leaning toward a harder rocking sound, and became a ratings powerhouse. By the mid-80s, however, KMET had become unfocused and stale, and KLOS took a big lead in the ratings.

In 1986, a new arrival appeared: KLSX. KLSX was part of a wave of "classic rock" stations sweeping the nation. The term "classic rock," which was coined around this time, referred to rock songs from the late 60's to mid 70's. Ironically, these songs had once been played by KMET and KLOS! Especially at first, these classic rock stations reintroduced (or introduced) people to artists that had been forgotten, such as Traffic, Grateful Dead, and early Chicago. KLOS, for the most part, stuck with their harder rocking format.

With KNAC in Long Beach switching to heavy metal, and KROQ drawing the new wave crowd, there was keen competition on the rock radio dial. KMET began to falter even more in the ratings, and finally switched to a soft rock / light jazz format called "The Wave." The fall of the "Mighty Met" was greeted with enormous press coverage, and sadness from longtime fans. KLOS, of course, could not have been happier to have a competitor out of the way.

KLOS and KLSX duked it out for a number of years, sometimes challenged by upstarts like Pirate Radio, KMPC-FM, "The Edge," and KSCA 103.1. The only significant challenge for KLOS was Arrow 93 (KCBS-FM.) Arrow began as "all rock and roll oldies," featuring lighter, more Top 40 classic rock like Billy Joel and Huey Lewis. During this period, KLOS consistently had a broader and more varied playlist than both KLSX and Arrow, though increasingly they played less new rock. KLSX switched to all-talk in the mid-90's, with a schedule centered around syndicated Howard Stern in the mornings.

In In the early 90's, with the popularity of KROQ's grunge and "alternative" rock, KLOS altered their format, dropping the old jocks, and most of the classic rock. This did not last long, nor was it a ratings success. Within a year, the new music was mostly jettisoned, and the classic rock brought back. The station ran a billboard campaign with lines such as, "We lost our heads for a bit, but now we're better."

In 2005, KLOS became the last rock station standing when Arrow 93 switched formats to become Jack FM. Jack FM was a format out of Vancouver, Canada which mixed alternative, classic rock, and Top 40 songs from the 70s to the present. It is noted for having no disc jockeys, a huge playlist, and a pseudo-renegade attitude. For their first two years, they were a runaway ratings success, rocketing to the top of many key demographic areas. As usual, KLOS stuck with the tried and true.

KLOS is now home to many prominent progressive and AOR rock DJs from Los Angeles radio history. "Uncle Joe" Benson, a former Arrow 93 DJ, has joined KLOS since the introduction of Jack FM, and is on weekday afternoons from 3 pm to 8 pm. Another former Arrow DJ, Bob Coburn was already at KLOS prior to the Arrow/Jack FM flip, and is heard Saturday mid-days from 10 am to 2 pm, as well as on "Rockline Replay" (a live call-in show with Bob Coburn, taped Wednesday nights, and broadcast Saturday nights, 10 pm to midnight). Both Benson & Coburn had enjoyed previous, lengthy runs as KLOS jocks, since the 80s. Coburn was also at KMET in the 70s. Cynthia Fox holds down the daytime shift. She was a long-time jock on KMET. Ex-KMET jock Denise Westwood does fill-in and weekend slots. Program director Rita Wilde has been choosing the music on KLOS for decades, and can now be considered a rock radio vet herself. She occasionally pulls an on air shift here and there.

Especially noteworthy was the return of Jim Ladd, former DJ on KNAC (in its progressive days,) KMET during its glory days, KLOS, KLSX, and "The Edge." Ladd is allowed unusual latitude in selecting the music for his show, one of the few jocks in the country still enjoying this coveted privilege. Ladd's show is routinely the #1 music-based show in its timeslot, if not #1 overall. Since Ladd programs his entire 5 hour shift himself, he relies heavily on listener requests, which is one of the reasons his show is so popular. Ladd plays many Deep cuts both from mainstream artists, as well as artists from forgotten eras that no one else plays, such as Tommy Bolin, Quicksilver Messenger Service & Fairport Convention. He also plays artists such as Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis & Emmylou Harris, who are generally considered other genres than rock & roll, yet clearly inspired classic rock artists. Ladd bills himself as "the last free-form radio DJ" left. The closest example outside of Ladd to a freeform jock would likely be DJ Steve Jones (ex-Sex Pistols), who hosts a free-form program of his own, daily from noon to 2pm on Indie 103.1, although he does not stray too far from the station's format.

Joe Reiling has also recently returned to KLOS after an even longer absence. He was last heard in the mid-to-late 70's. He can now be heard on Saturday evenings from 7 am to midnight, playing syndicated shows "The Front Row" (live archived concerts, hosted by Cynthia Fox, 9 pm to 10 pm) & "Rockline Replay", as well as the occasional fill-in.

Dion is another part-time jock at KLOS that has been on overnights for several years. He is currently the only part-timer that has more than one airshift per week, working Saturdays 1 am to 6 am (following Jim Ladd), and Sundays from midnight to 5 am. He runs the syndicated show, "The Deep End with Nick Michaels", which just recently moved from Sundays 8-10 am to midnight-2 am. Dion was also at KLSX when they played classic rock.

Sunday nights/Monday mornings KLOS airs a public affairs call-in talk show hosted by long time KLOS personality, Frank Sontag. Frank also is part of the Mark & Brian morning team. He runs the control board, and is a frequent contributor on the show.

KLOS also airs a midday show hosted by veteran KMET/KLSX DJ Cynthia Fox called "In Tune at Noon" where she features a daily celebration of events in Rock n Roll History and events in the News.

Recently (October, 2006), KLOS restructured its daily lineup of radio hosts, following Mark & Brian's show. Cynthia Fox is now on from 10 am to 3 pm, "Uncle Joe" Benson from 3 pm to 8 pm, and Jim Ladd from 8 pm to 1 am. All three of their airshifts have increased by one hour. However, this has resulted in the dismissal of former evening DJ Gary Moore. Former overnight jock (ex-KQLZ) Mark Miller is now only heard hosting Saturday morning's "The Best of Mark & Brian Saturday Special" shows, from 6 am to 10 am. Miller's daily shift was replaced with automated programming, billed as "KLOS, After Hours", which runs from 1 am to 5 am, Tuesday through Friday mornings.

The long-revered Sunday morning show, "Breakfast With The Beatles", hosted by Chris Carter, and until recently, heard on KLSX, has moved to KLOS, and is heard on Sunday mornings from 9 am to noon. Prior to hosting Breakfast With the Beatles, Carter was heard on Channel 103.1/KACD in 2000, when they played Adult Alternative music. He is also the former bass player & producer for Dramarama, and produced and supervised the music for the film Mayor of the Sunset Strip, a rock documentary about influential LA DJ Rodney Bingenheimer of Modern Rock KROQ-FM, which in 2003 was nominated for Best Documentary by the Independent Spirit Awards.

Although KLOS bills itself as "Southern California's only classic rock station", that is not entirely true as there exists KGB in San Diego, which can sometimes even be heard in Los Angeles due to tropospheric ducting. This might be considered by most listeners to be nitpicking, since although KGB can occasionally be received in the Los Angeles area, it is out of range most of the time. The only other station in the area that can be considered to carry classic rock is KRTH, which broadened its "goodtime oldies" format to include more album rock and material from the mid to late 1970s after Jack FM took over KCBS. However, the majority of KRTH's format would not be considered classic rock. Jack-FM plays considerably more classic rock than any other station outside of KLOS.

[edit] Logos

KLOS logo from 1972 to early 1980s	KLOS logo from early to mid 1980s	KLOS logo from late 1980s to early 1990s	KLOS logo from early to mid 1990s
KLOS logo from mid to late 1990s	KLOS logo from late 1990s to the present

[edit] External links

• 95.5 KLOS Online
• Query the FCC's FM station database for KLOS