OT: Odd LA radio format change.

Kevin M.

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Dec 8, 2021, 4:23:07 PM12/8/21

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KNX 1070 am in Los Angeles has been around for decades, and its signal is so strong that it can be heard in the Seattle-Tacoma area. On Monday, KNX began simulcasting concurrently on 97.1 fm. Reporters have always signed off “KNX NewsRadio,” but as of Monday they removed the word Radio from the tag. They are now officially “97.1 KNX News”, only speaking aloud the 1070 am frequency on legal station IDs.

97.1 was once the home of Howard Stern. It has undergone several format changes over the last couple decades… this is its third format change this year.

I applaud news and talk on FM, but we didn’t need a carbon copy of an AM station. Anyway, it’s an odd choice, so thought I’d mention it.

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Kevin M. (RPCV)

Mark Jeffries

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Dec 8, 2021, 5:43:15 PM12/8/21

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Not as unusual as you think. Now all but three of the all-news stations once owned by CBS and now owned by what is now known as Audacy have AM-FM simulcasts. The first was KCBS in San Francisco when CBS owned the station, because AM reception is notoriously spotty in that town. About 10 years ago, WBBM in Chicago started simulcasting to combat an attempt at an FM all-news station by another company. CBS won. After Audacy took over the bulk of the CBS stations, they started simulcasting KYW in Philadelphia and in Washington, Hubbard's WTOP has been on FM solely for years, with the AM where the format started devoted to governmental activities in the nation's capital called Federal News Network (WFED). In Seattle, Lotus' KOMO simulcasts. The only Audacy all-news stations that don't simulcast are WWJ in Detroit, WCBS in New York and the original bigtimes all-news station, 1010 WINS in New York. And that's pretty much it for all-news stations because it's an expensive format and there's no satellite format for the genre. Some talk stations run news blocks in morning and/or afternoon drive but devote the rest of their time to rightwing talk. And in the last 20 years NPR stations, which are almost all on FM, have become major factors on news and talk in most markets.

Mark Jeffries
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PGage

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Dec 9, 2021, 2:44:03 AM12/9/21

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It’s not exactly the same thing, but similarly sports talk radio in The City also started FM simulcasting a few years ago when KNBR started broadcasting also over the old Rock frequency (KFOG) 104.5.

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