To 100.3 FM LA..Don't Break Our Hearts

Mike Doughty and his song 27 Jennifers is in the rotation On Los Angeles's New Album Alternative Station 100.3 The Sound

By Allen Bacon
Editor
Bosco

I have to admit if I'm flipping through the radio dial and I hear Royal Scam from Steely Dan...you got my attention. That's a song you don't hear on FM radio very often.

Yes, AAA radio is back again in Los Angeles as of last week and it has taken over long time R&B station V100's spot on the dial. For the uninformed AAA stands for Adult Album Alternative and what it is basically is you take established and well-liked artists like John Mayer, Sheryl Crowe, Elton John, Smashing Pumpkins, Rolling Stones, etc. and you play their stuff that doesn't get a lot of air play. Mix that in with new songs like 27 Jennifers and some classic and woo-lah you got yourself a radio format.

Everything was going well for the AAA station in LA back in the 90's. KSCA was holding it's own in the ratings but the most important hidden number of all is how it did among people with disposable income. Even though the ratings overall were not the best...KCSA was never in the top 20...it led among people that have lots of money to spend. Advertisers like that. What killed KSCA was the fact that a Spanish-speaking radio conglomerate was gobbling up a lot of radio stations because Spanish-speaking radio is big business in Los Angeles. And KSCA became a Latin music station.

I'm not sure how 100.3 FM The Sound is going to do. I'm definitely rooting for them. But it's sort of like not having a NFL team in Los Angeles. You make due by watching a a lot of out of market stuff. In this case, when I was listening to radio, and not CD's or my I-pod...I got real good about creating my own Adult Alternative station. A Little Jack FM...mixed in with some KCRW....a dash of KLOS and just a hint of 98.7 FM and KROQ. Well you get the point.

The other thing I'm afraid of in this market is that the AAA format and similar formats may be reaching critical mass. We already had the heady music of public station KCRW. Recently 98.7 FM became more alternative. Then we have Indie 103.1 which sounds like KROQ was in the early 80's. And KROQ is still there along with College Radio's KUCI. Mix in some great internet stations like Killradio.org and the great satellite stations as well. So one more alternative station may not be good for a format that doesn't get a lot of listeners to begin with.

For the rest of the county The Sound streams at www.thesoundla.com and let me throw in one more in the mix. Bosco Radio: The Music Channel has links to the best music shows. Be sure to find Bosco Radio: The Music Channel in the sidebar.