Radio Programming

KPLS-AM(830), the Southland's first all-talk Spanish-language radio station, today becomes the Southland's first 24-hour, all-children's radio station. KPLS vice president and co-owner Jim Villanueva said the decision to drop the Spanish-language format in favor of becoming an affiliate of the English-language Children's Satellite Network was made "mainly for economic reasons."

Re "Off the air, on the line," April 23 Granted, satirist and actor Harry Shearer's humor is an acquired taste, but it has been acquired by many since he first came on the scene in the mid-1960s. I became a fan while at UCLA, where he wrote very original and funny pieces in Satyr, UCLA's humor magazine. I have followed his work ever since. I could understand Shearer's "Le Show" being taken off KCRW's live-broadcast Sunday lineup if, after five decades, his output had begun to run stale or had become less relevant.

The first voice many Southern Californians hear on Sunday is Andrea Leonard's. The host of 89.9 FM KCRW's "Morning Glory," from 5 to 7 a.m., delights adventurous gospel music lovers with an eclectic array of spiritual music. "It's a looser interpretation of gospel, beyond the traditional," she says. "It's anything with a religious theme, from jazz to alternative rock." With contemporary gospel easy to find, Leonard, 35, plays more off-the-beaten-track selections.

KCSN-FM (88.5) announced two developments this week that continue to extend the Cal State Northridge-based non-commercial station's efforts to raise its profile in the crowded greater Los Angeles radio market, with the naming of program director Sky Daniels as interim general manager and the addition of a new show to be hosted by longtime L.A. radio deejay Nic Harcourt. Daniels succeeds General Manager Karen Kearns, who is returning to teaching in the broadcast school. She oversaw KCSN's switch three years ago from a primarily classical format to the current adult album alternative (AAA)

At 11 p.m., the Culver City outpost for Washington, D.C.-based National Public Radio is almost empty, except for a security guard and the skeleton crew accompanying "Morning Edition" co-host Renee Montagne, who has just arrived, perfectly coiffed, properly caffeinated and ready to report the news millions of listeners will wake up to the following morning. By 1:30 a.m., Montagne's in the studio, prerecording whatever bits of the show are possible. At 2 a.m., she's live.

It's nearly midnight, after curfew at Zhongshan University. The lights are out, but all through the dorms students are switching on their radios in the darkness. "Paul's Wonderland is open again," intones a deep voice over rock music. "It's Thursday, and we're still alive." Tonight's topic on the most popular radio show in town is one of special interest to the students lying still in their beds: the worthlessness of a diploma in the anything-goes economy of this southern China boom town.

KLAC-AM (570) exists in the pre-hip, pre-rock universe. And if hip is "dead," as some cultural pundits claim, then the road may be paved for the resurgence of square. KLAC may not embody square as far as its fans are concerned, but it is undeniably in a media world of its own. KLAC plays the "old" music, a format given the bland label of "Adult Standards" by an industry obsessed with crafting labels for every demographic bump, curl and contour as it applies to the money-spending population.

With a name like Sky Daniels, there's no question where the new program director at Cal State Northridge-based radio station KCSN-FM (88.5) is reaching with the ambitious and eclectic new format he's introducing this coming weekend. "We're not going to be elitist," said Daniels, a veteran of commercial rock stations, including (the now-defunct) KMET-FM in Los Angeles and KFOG-FM in San Francisco, as well as a record company executive. "Sometimes stations, especially noncommercial stations, get caught up in playing music you're supposed to like if you really knew what was going on. "That's just not who I am," said Daniels.

A man who said he was upset with a Wichita, Kan., radio station's programming crashed his 1987 silver Corvette through the front doors of the station Tuesday, one day after purchasing the $20,000 car. Roger Wilson, news director of KFH radio, said he was standing with his back to the doors, when he heard a loud crash and turned to see a shiny Corvette just a few feet away. A Sedgwick County sheriff's deputy employed by the station to do traffic reports arrested the unidentified driver.

The cult of the mysterious KCDX-FM started innocently enough. Bill Keeling, a 51-year-old respiratory therapist, found the Arizona radio station when his daughter fiddled with his car stereo. Lynn Richeson, a graphic designer, fell in love with it when she heard a song for the first time in 30 years. One man became an acolyte after he rented a car in Phoenix and all the radio buttons were set to 103.1.

Beryl Davis, a British-born singer who became a star in America performing with Frank Sinatra and Benny Goodman during the big-band era, died Friday in Los Angeles. She was 87. The cause of death was complications from Alzheimer's disease, according to family spokesman Greg Purdy. The daughter of English band leader Harry Davis, she was born in Plymouth, England, on March 16, 1924, and began performing with her father at the age of 3. At 12 she was appearing with Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt in their all-string jazz band, Quintette du Hot Club de France.

With a name like Sky Daniels, there's no question where the new program director at Cal State Northridge-based radio station KCSN-FM (88.5) is reaching with the ambitious and eclectic new format he's introducing this coming weekend. "We're not going to be elitist," said Daniels, a veteran of commercial rock stations, including (the now-defunct) KMET-FM in Los Angeles and KFOG-FM in San Francisco, as well as a record company executive. "Sometimes stations, especially noncommercial stations, get caught up in playing music you're supposed to like if you really knew what was going on. "That's just not who I am," said Daniels.

Charles McPhee, the self-proclaimed "Dream Doctor" who decoded dreams on his nationally syndicated radio show until Lou Gehrig's disease forced him off the air in 2006, has died. He was 49. McPhee died May 8 at his Woodland Hills home of the neurodegenerative disease also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, his family said. Through his radio show, McPhee "made dream interpretation more present in pop culture," said Cynthia Richmond, a behavioral therapist and dream counselor.

Gene Chenault, one half of a pioneering team that helped to revolutionize rock radio programming in the 1960s with the "Boss Radio" format, first at KHJ in Los Angeles and then coast to coast, has died. He was 90. Chenault died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma Tuesday at Providence Tarzana Medical Center, said his wife, Susan. In the 1960s, Chenault partnered with Bill Drake to launch a phenomenally successful radio format that turned poorly performing stations into ratings winners and made household names of radio personalities such as Robert W. Morgan and "the Real" Don Steele.

Annie Mai knows what it's like to be the only Vietnamese student in class. She understands what it is to have parents who work long hours and are unable to help their children with schoolwork. And she can relate when a child must translate for her parents during teacher conferences. Mai was 7 when her family arrived in Orange County in 1979 and was immediately confronted with such challenges. Now an education consultant for the Garden Grove Unified School District, she knows that Vietnamese families still face many of the same difficulties.

Talk radio station KGIL-AM (1260) unveiled a revamped lineup Monday that left out hosts Laura Ingraham, Michael Savage, Monica Crowley and John Ziegler. Added were former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and CNN veteran Larry King, plus a big dose of music from the Great American Songbook that was once a staple on the station. Ziegler, a former host at KFI-AM (640) who had joined KGIL last June, told fans in an e-mail Monday that the station would be switching to an all-music format.

Oldie Lang Syne: Charlie Seraphin, the general manager of oldies station KODJ-FM (93.1), resigned Thursday. A replacement will be named within the next few weeks, according to CBS Radio officials. Seraphin was general manager of the CBS-owned station for three years and before that was director of news and programming at KCBS, a San Francisco talk station. A CBS spokeswoman said Seraphin wanted to return to radio programming.

For the second time in less than three months, a local English-language radio station is switching to Spanish-language programming. KMVN-FM (93.9), the home of deejay Rick Dees, is handing the microphone over to Grupo Radio Centro, which owns 14 stations in Mexico, on April 15. "The station is certainly improving its ratings, but is currently not profitable," Ryan Hornaday, a spokesman for Emmis Communications Corp., said Friday.

KLSX-FM (97.1), the L.A. talk station that is home to Adam Carolla, Tom Leykis and Tim Conway Jr., will switch to a music format at 5 p.m. Friday. The station will call itself AMP Radio and, like top-rated KIIS-FM (102.7), will feature contemporary pop hits by the likes of Beyonce, Kanye West, Justin Timberlake and Kelly Clarkson. In announcing the switch Wednesday, CBS Radio said the new station will "combine the power of its on-air position with myriad online and digital applications."