EPISODE 89: A GUIDE TO THE 10 ESSENTIAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MUSIC STATIONS

In this week's episode of Living in the Sprawl: Southern California's Most Adventurous Podcast, host Jon Steinberg shares his list of 10 essential Southern California music stations. His list includes: KXOL Mega 96.3, KYSR Alt 98.7, KBIG 104.3, KLOS 95.5, KYWV The Wave 94.7, KDAY 93.5, KROQ 106.7, KOST 103.5, POWER 106 and KIIS 102.7.

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Transcript

0:09

Hello, and welcome to another installment of living in the sprawl. Southern California's most adventurous podcast. I am as always your humble host and correspondent. My name is John Steinberg joined in tandem by my lovely and immensely talented producer slash my wife. Her name is Lisa Steinberg. We are the team here at sprawl enterprises. Ready to bring you yet? Another exciting foray into the vast expansive terrain that we have lovingly dubbed the sprawl. Oh, the show today. We take the action to the airwaves specifically. Terrestrial radio. Now Southern California has a long and indeed a rather illustrious history with. The. Music found on all of its. Radio stations. Whether the genre and question B oldies. Rock. Hip hop. Adult contemporary. Jazz, whatever. Your passion may happen to be. Southern California's terrestrial radio. Has you covered. We've. Long past. The days where payola was a big deal. And artists were. Pining. To be included. As part. Of a top 40 countdown. And yet. Terrestrial radio. The music, radio stations that Southern California. Just basically has in its back pocket. Still have an outsized impact on the overall musical. Landscape in the United States. There was this photograph. Which adorned the hallways in the house where my father grew up. In it, dad is about 13 years old and his two brothers are roughly 10 and probably seven. They are clutching. Microphones. Wearing wraparound, the ears headphones. And each of them. Is holding on. To a crisp.$20 bill. The photograph was taken in the 1960s. And it served as an early. Christmas card. Uh, practice that my grandfather. Really loved. Selecting themes for. Tying in current events. With his family. And for this occasion, he had turned his attention to the payola scandals, which plagued Southern California radio in the 1960s. See, back then it was a pay to play thing. The more times your record got spinned on the radio. The better life would become. You'd experienced an increase. In your fan base better. Venues to, to were. In short. Having a song played on terrestrial radio was your entry point into. The wonderful world of contemporary musical stardom. I think about that picture. Hanging at my grandparent's house. The payola scandal of the 1960s. And where things are as. We look. Into the future a bit. Though no longer. Prisoner. Of the record companies. An artist. Rise or fall still has. Or relationship with conventional radio. XM Sirius. Of course free podcasts. Like the one you may happen to be listening to at the moment. Streaming radio. Apple music. Amazon radio Spotify. SoundCloud. The options. R. In no thing. Close to short supply. And yet the voice of Ryan C crest. Or a quick segment. Featuring. Hip hops. Grand. Ambassador big boy. And you might reasonably believe. That things haven't evolved as much as they actually have. In the past, in the future, in the present. California's relationship with thruster radio. Is strong, serious. And seriously worth discussing. And that's why we are recounting our selections for the 10 indispensable. Radio stations that you've got to check out in Southern California. And there were 10 mega 96.3. With the ascent of artists like bad bunny. Latin based. Music is without question on the rise. For fans of the increasingly popular genre. Look no further. Four. Top-notch reggaeton. Party smashing. Body thumping tracks that you'll find on mega. There are a plethora. Of. Latin themed stations ranging in. Style from those that play artists like Jenny Rivera. To the ones that specialize in more dance hall oriented. Tunes. That might reasonably be. Emanating. From the speakers inside Dominic tornadoes vehicle during. Uh, car chase in one of the fast and furious movies. Catering to all those that love to get down. Get busy. And get the most. Out of their reggaeton experience. Look no further. Then. Mega 96.3. At number nine, K Y S R 98.7. Also known as alt 98.7. So here we get into. A bit of what will become a reoccurring theme. Radio station begins its life cycle. Roughly 50 years ago. With one type of format. And then as the decades. Pass by. Programming. Shifts a bit. The music starts to change. The mission statement of the business. Is altered. And before, you know, it. You've got a station. That technically has been around for quite some time, which has virtually nothing to do with. The format. That once. Held favor in the company. This is very much the case with 98.7. Now I remember. Star 98.7 growing up as a child of Southern California in the 1990s, they would always play your Sheryl crows. Your Sean Kovens. Sarah McLaughlin's I guess I'm just saying a lot of artists that happen to appear at Lilith fair. But they would also play. Counting crows. Live. Somewhere in between Metallica and John Tesh was where star 98.7. Seem to operate. But as of this recording, They've. Rested control. Over the alternative rock market away. From forever stalwart. K R O Q 1 0 6 0.7. They put on an annual. Alter ego. Concert. That rivals anything. K rock. Has produced in the last 20 years. This is where Ryan Seacrest. Got his start. The station. Has technically as indicated, been around for multiple decades. But even now, 60 years into its life cycle. 98.7 is still very much figuring things out. But it's entertaining all of us while doing so. And that's why. It had to appear right here at number nine on our list of the quintessential southern california radio stations And there were eight K big 1 0 4 0.3. Another example of that. Institutional. Trend. Where. 1 0, 4 0.3 used to be one thing. And then it became another, and then all of a sudden it even became another after that. And now we are where we are. One of 4.3 caters. In large measure. To those. Looking to take themselves out of the grind. With a drive time commute crowd firmly in mind. The station. Plays a bit of easy listening type stuff. Some adult contemporary. Some smooth music, which that's another thing, words like smooth get tossed around in this conversation. And it's a little bit unclear what they actually mean. Smooth jazz, smooth rock. Everything seems to be smooth. And who in what world decided that smooth had any merit? On how we can categorize music. I don't know, that's another conversation for another day, but what I do know is that those yearning to at least temporarily, mentally escape. From the pitfalls of the sprawl commute. That. Is why the programming. Has been selected as it appears on 1 0 4 0.3 big. And number seven K L O S 95.5. One of the classic quintessential stations that you got to know about, this is where we get a lot of the old school classic rock type stuff. If you want black Sabbath. Bob Seger. Bob Dylan. If your uncle father, or for our younger listeners, grandfather was into it in the 1960s, chances are, you will be able to hear it. On K L O S 95.5. When we think about. Bay and such as Jefferson airplane artists like Janis Joplin and the doors. The monumental impact. That they're relatively brief moment in the sun. Was to create. Seems to have no expiration date. As time continues marching forward, and those songs get older and older. They seem to avoid being lumped in with quote-unquote oldies. There's still a subversive. Veneer. To artists like the kinks. Jimi Hendrix. And of course the Beatles. And K L O S is the best place. Too. Visit some old friends. Familiar songs. You're probably going to know most of the words. There to get you through your challenging afternoons. And sluggish mornings, Kayla iOS. 95.5 is a godsend. To millions of men over the age of 45. All right. Number 6 94 0.7. The wave. As my wife just put it, her kind of music. The type of stuff that prevents road rage incidents from taking place somewhere on the two, 10 freeway. They play. Oh, one might reasonably state happy music. Stuff that puts people in a decidedly better mood. We're not Jimena. To Panthera drum solos here nor. Are we groove in. To the sounds. Of Dr. Drai's immortal. Album the chronic. No, we are. Rolling. Out the. Easy listening. Smooth. As silk. Stuff that makes people. Yearn to spend. Uh, brilliant Saturday over at the beach. Competing. With a host of other stations. The wave. Has maintained. A large share of public interest. As they consistently. Play songs from artists like Toni Braxton. Baby face. And Vogue and T L C. Helping you get through your lousy Wednesday. I'm just kidding, although they really will. It's. The wave. At number five. K day 93.5, one of the original classic. It's so funny to think of any version of hip hop is now. Quote, unquote classic. But this is where we get to hear quote unquote old school classic hip hop. This one's been referenced by the likes of Dr. Dre and his ilk. On a multitude of occasions. So cow's first hip hop station. Now, this is another one of those that's been around since the 1960s. But when the station morphed into a hip hop outlet, They really came into their own. Katie veered away from that. Tried and true. Old school, hip hop format. For a good 15 years only. To mercifully, bring things back into the hip-hop fold. In the early aughts. Bumping out Curtis blow. And KRS one. It's hip hop. That will probably make even fans of Migos. Begin head bobbin. At number 4, 1 0 6 0.78 K R O Q K. Rock. The station with which your humble hosted correspondent is easily the most familiar. They have been around for decades now. But really hit their stride in the 1980s. Rodney. Bingenheimer's. Dalliance with new wave and early versions of punk rock mainstays bands, such as X, bad religion. Social distortion. Those propelled K rock to the forefront. Of main stream. Music. All the way up until, oh, about eight or nine years ago. The 1990s. Sorry. K rock. Assume the mantle of. Most important. Music station in Los Angeles, grunge was king bands, like the chili peppers, smashing pumpkins, Nirvana, and Pearl jam were all selling. Millions and millions of copies. K rocks, iconic. Summer festival the weenie roast. And they're winter Wonderland. The acoustic Christmas. We're both mainstays. On. Any rock fans. Concert calender for many, many years. Personalities like Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Corolla. Dr. Drew. Kevin and bean. Ralph Garman. They all got. A ton of exposure in their duties on K rock. Jimmy Kimmel began as the sports guy. Adam Corolla. Got his start. By actually becoming. Jimmy Kimmel's boxing trainer. Through a relationship with people at K rock. And then that sent him on to Loveline where he worked with Dr. Drew. There's a long. Loaded history. Uh, important. Personalities that still dominate the entertainment industry. K Rock's run at the top. May have come to an end. With the ascent. Uh, electronic dubstep. Hip hop and. Further. Permutations of pop music. But if one wanted to write one of those crazy 1300 page oral histories. Of its history. K rock has one hell of a story to tell. On a personal level. It kind of makes me sad that I couldn't put K rock any higher on this list. But as I said, the alt rock. Movement seems to have round to a halt in the United States. So alas 1 0 6 0.7 cannot be in the top three. But it has a remarkable history. It is more than worthy of being included on a list like this And number three coast 1 0 3 0.5. Now, this is the epitome of smooth, easy listening. Think. Mom's had a stressful day. She has just picked up your brother or sister. From school, they're throwing a fit. Dad's on a five day work trip. And all mom wants. Is five minutes of veritable peace and tranquility. Enter coast one or 3.5. Therefore all your Peter Sitara related desires. Kenny G and Michael Bolton loom large. If it's mellow. And your aunt that loves to crochet would probably enjoy it. Then chances are, you'll find it somewhere. On a coast 1 0 3 0.5 playlist. Now Ellen Kay. Who used to be. On the morning show over at kiss with Rick Dees. Is kind of the face. At least from a personality standpoint. Of the station. As streaming. Creeps further and further. Into the footprint. Made by trust your radio. Older listeners have still clearly. Dedicated time to check out all the new stuff on coast 1 0 3 0.5. You have to think. With all that streaming that I mentioned. There. R a, a lot of people out there, not on. The streaming train. And for many of them outlets such as coast, one to 3.5, supply the goods. At number two, power 1 0 6, although it's technically 1 0 5 0.9. Where hip hop lives. Other than. Hot 97 from New York city. This is the preeminent hip hop station in the United States. If you think about the relationship between Southern California, rap music, R and B. And the rest of the United States, it would stand to reason that Los Angeles would probably have one of the more important. Stations. To its name and it does. And it's this one. For many years, big boy's neighborhood reigned, Supreme. In the morning. Wall. The latest and greatest. From Jay Z. Ice cube Tupac. And 21 Savage all pervaded the network airways. This is the station. That played rough riders Anthem. On what felt like a loop? During the 7:00 AM. Our. On my commute to middle school. This is the station. That pumps. California love. That immortal. Two hander from the mid nineties on consistent rotation to this day. They helped give rise to Drake and little Wayne. While also remaining true. To the deep, extensive. California hip hop roots, promoting artists like Kendrick Lamar and the game. They also put on two wildly popular annual concerts as we profiled on a prior episode of living in the sprawl, those being Cali Christmas. And. They're summer. Concert spectacular powerhouse. Still. Incredibly important, a vital cog. In the musical hip hop. Chain power 1 0 6. Is easily, still one of the most vital radio stations in the United States of America. And that means we have arrived at our number one spot on our list of the 10 quick to central indispensable. So Cal radio stations that you've got to check out for yourself. And of course it had to be kiss. K I S 1 0 2 0.7. Long time home of Rick Dees. And now, and even longer home of. Dick Clark. Surrogate. Ryan Seacrest. This is where artists such as Katy Perry, lady Gaga. In the nineties, Alana's Morissette. And the spice girls. Ricky Martin in sync, the Backstreet boys, Miley Cyrus. New kids on the block. This is the place for pop. Interviews featuring. Most of the biggest names in contemporary music kiss one or 2.7 sets the standard for the rest of the nation. Operating out of permanently. In the zeitgeists Los Angeles. The music industry. Is in kisses back yard. People from around the world, not just the United States, but around the world. Of course. Flock. To Southern California, setting up shop in Los Angeles, hoping. To swing a record deal and find one of their singles on rotation. At a place like kiss FM. Since the station. Was owned by clear channel. Which then rebranded as iHeart radio. The annual jingle ball. Has served as a beacon. Of the winter concert season. Every year. The folks at kiss. Compile a veritable who's who. Of big time pop acts. To come out and strut their stuff at the jingle ball. Additionally. Wango tango is also one of the real standout events on every. Passing concert calendar. The most influential. Music station in the country. Kiss one or 2.7 has no equal and as such. It's more than worthy. Of its spot as our number one. Quintessential. Music station in Southern California. And that's going to do it for another episode of the show. We'd like to thank everyone for their continued support of the podcast. Leave us a five star rating and a kind review on any platform where you happen to be listening to us. That stuff really helps us out a great deal. Write us an email. The address is living in the sprawl podcast@gmail.com. The Instagram handle is living in the sprawl podcast. Check out our terrific and extraordinarily helpful. And it's Saiful website. It's all behalf. Uh, myself, I am as always your humble host and correspondent. My name is John Steinberg joined by my lovely and immensely talented producer slash my wife. Her name is Lisa Steinberg. Thanking you again for listening to another episode of living in the sprawl. Southern California's most adventurous podcast. We'll talk again or real soon.