Radio Stations

The topic that day dealt as always with the Bible, but this time, Christian talk radio host Rich Agozino veered into a controversy. During his regular afternoon show, "Crosstalk," on KBRT-AM (740) in Costa Mesa, he had wondered aloud, citing biblical law, whether homosexuality should be a crime punishable by death. To Agozino, who has been on the air for five months, the backlash from gay- and civil-rights advocates must have come as a surprise. (He declined to comment for this story.

Riding wave after wave of pop hits that carried the station into more radios than any other in the market, Top 40 outlet KIIS-FM (102.7) dominated Los Angeles-Orange County ratings for most of the last three years. Now another station has finally started its own winning streak. After already claiming January and February, talk station KFI-AM (640) - home of commentators such as Bill Handel, John Kobylt, Ken Chiampou and Tim Conway Jr. - placed first in the March ratings, released Monday.

Four black Los Angeles radio stations' monthlong protest against Warner Bros. recording artists ended Thursday, when the Burbank-based record company promised to increase advertising and promotions on black stations across the country. Officials of the four stations and Warners announced at a press conference that the company will "redouble its efforts" to curtail any discrimination against radio stations that primarily program for a black audience.

Public radio and television stations may no longer be a safe haven from political advertising. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco threw out a federal statute that prohibited public radio and television stations from accepting political advertisements. In its 2-1 decision Thursday, the court kept intact rules banning advertising for for-profit entities on public stations. Some media advocacy groups blasted the ruling, concerned that public radio and television stations will become just another platform for political attack ads. "Polluting public broadcasting with misleading and negative political ads is not in keeping with the original vision of noncommercial broadcasting," said Craig Aaron, president and chief executive of Free Press.

When Juan Antonio Sigala was arrested in Puerto Rico by U.S. immigration agents in 1998 and faced deportation, he knew whom to call for help: South Pasadena attorney Enrique Arevalo. Sigala, who had gone to San Juan for an AIDS conference, knew of Arevalo from listening to the lawyer's Spanish-language radio show in Los Angeles that focuses on immigration law.

No. 2 is actually No. 1, and No. 1 is really No. 3. Move No. 3 to No. 4, take No. 4 off the Top 12, and bring up No. 5 to the No. 2 spot. Confused? Those are part of the maneuvers radio executives and advertisers go through every three months to determine the real meaning behind the Arbitron ratings.

The Times' Sept. 13 editorial on the lack of diversity in radio was accurate in calling for the FCC to open up the airwaves to smaller, community-specific stations. In mass-market L.A. radio, the lack of diversity is particularly distressing. FM radio has been hijacked by corporations owning more than one station, which insist on "branding" their outlets to appeal to demographics based on purchasing power. No matter where you flip on the dial these days it seems you can get nothing but static in the form of entertainment.

Radio host Rob Meyer — homeless and haggard since a tornado destroyed his house Sunday — had another shift coming up soon. He had slept for only five of the previous 48 hours, filling the rest with coffee and soda. And talk. Hours and hours of talk, in fact, many with the confused and enterprising residents of Joplin. Callers' voices broke as they asked if anyone had heard news about their daughters, friends and nephews who had disappeared during the storm or its aftermath. Others asked seemingly unanswerable self-help questions, such as: If the bank is destroyed, how can I get my safe-deposit box?

Pop purveyor KIIS-FM spent 2010 at the top of the charts, leading all Los Angeles-Orange County radio stations in the ratings since January. But at year's end, adult-contemporary station KOST-FM treated it like grandma with the reindeer, according to figures released Tuesday by the Arbitron ratings service. In the period from Nov. 11 to Dec. 8, KIIS-FM (102.7) barely lost ground from its No. 1 showing the previous month, either in its share of the radio audience ages 6 and older, or in its total of weekly listeners.

Disney-owned ABC Radio announced two major moves Monday that will give one of its stations, KSPN, a big boost in the battle for supremacy among Los Angeles sports-talk radio stations. KSPN next season will replace KLAC (570) as flagship station of the Angels as part of a five-year deal worth an estimated $25 million. Also, effective Jan. 1, KSPN will switch signals with sister station KDIS, Radio Disney, going from 1110 on the dial to 710. Radio Disney will go to from 710 to 1110.

Rush Limbaugh will be leaving a prominent conservative radio station in Philadelphia in exchange for Michael Smerconish, a man seen by many as a more moderate conservative. The station, WPHT, is in one of the largest radio markets in the country, and is the third station to lose or drop the conservative radio personality since the firestorm of controversy regarding comments made by Limbaugh toward Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke. CBS Radio, which owns WPHT, released a brief statement on the lineup change.

The federal government has tried just about everything to stop the flow of migrants crossing the border illegally. It boosted the number of Border Patrol agents, made punishment harsher, deployed drones and motion sensors, built and rebuilt fences. For years it has even quietly funded the dissemination in Mexico of songs and mini-documentaries about dangers at the border. Now it is using a more proactive tactic: Since last year, agents in Arizona have called Mexican and Central American television and radio stations and newspapers, asking for the opportunity to tell of the dangers of crossing illegally, particularly through the Sonoran Desert . The outreach, which was initially greeted with skepticism, is being embraced.

As the Russian presidential race enters its final weeks, a radio station considered one of the country's few stalwarts of free speech is facing orders from its government-owned parent company to reshuffle management, officials said Tuesday. The Echo of Moscow station, which is often critical of the government, is expected to lose editor in chief Alexei Venediktov, his first deputy, Vladimir Varfolomeyev, and at least two other key members of its board of directors in late March, leaving a pro-Kremlin majority on the board, station officials and media experts said.

Public radio station KPCC hired former Los Angeles Times Editor Russ Stanton as vice president of content, responsible for the station's broadcasts, website and live events. Southern California Public Radio President Bill Davis announced the move Tuesday, saying he hired Stanton as part of a push by the station to improve its quality and extend its reach in Southern California. Whereas the other top public radio stations in the Los Angeles area focus on music or a combination of music and news, KPCC-FM (89.3)

Christmas came, the gifts got delivered, and KOST-FM got exactly what it wanted: another ratings win for the station in its 10th season of nonstop holiday music. KOST, at 103.5 on the dial, is normally home to adult-contemporary hits such as Elton John, Kelly Clarkson, Madonna and others. But every year from mid-November on, the station flips to "White Christmas," "Silver Bells," "Deck the Halls" and the like. According to figures released Tuesday by Arbitron, KOST decisively won the year-end ratings battle, grabbing the top spot with an 8.5% share of Los Angeles-Orange County listeners 6 and older.

Looking to expand its foothold beyond the AM-FM dial, radio giant Clear Channel has tapped entertainment industry veteran John Sykes to lead a push into television, digital and live events. Clear Channel, the nation's biggest owner of stations with 850 outlets across the country including KIIS-FM, KOST-FM and KBIG-FM in Los Angeles, wants to leverage its strength in radio across a wide range of platforms. "We can use that horsepower to create new products," said Bob Pittman, chief executive of Clear Channel parent company CC Media Holdings Inc. The hiring of Sykes is the first major move by Pittman since becoming chief executive of CC Media last November.

Covering " Carmageddon " is driving some local television and radio stations a bit crazy. One news director bluntly told the traffic reporter not to expect much sleep for the next two days. A news crew from another station will be living in a recreational vehicle near the 405 freeway. Still another station is avoiding using the "C" word in its coverage, hoping that the dire predictions for gridlock will not materialize. Although varied in their approaches, local news stations uniformly are increasing staff, planning live cut-ins and using real-time driving reports and social networking to keep viewers abreast of the impact of the weekend closure.

Migration has always been crucial to the success of the Phelps family of Venezuela. The study of bird migration led William Henry Phelps, a Harvard student, to South America in 1896. The ornithologist would go on to become one of Venezuela's most prominent businessmen, launching Radio Caracas, one of the country's first radio stations, in 1930 and Radio Caracas Television, its first privately owned television station, 23 years later. But four years ago, the Venezuelan government knocked the family-owned broadcast TV station off the air, accusing it of plotting against President Hugo Chavez and participating in a coup attempt.

More than 70 years after Orson Welles panicked thousands with radio reports of a Martian invasion in Grover's Mill, N.J., another spoken-word broadcaster shook up the status quo Monday, at least regarding radio ratings in Los Angeles and Orange County. Talk station KFI-AM (640) finished first in October, according to Arbitron figures released Monday, knocking pop station KIIS-FM (102.7) out of the top spot for the first time all year. KFI last won the local ratings race in September 2009.