AM Radio: Music's There, Just Not Much of It (August 18, 2004)

Back then, there was music all over the AM dial, while FM radio was still struggling in a sea of traffic with mostly AM radios, plus a few with FM converters to AM installed.

The 90's saw most of the music to FM while AM had mostly talk shows, and the few that played music played nostalgia or golden oldies, programming that catered to elder listeners. KCBQ ran a "KOOL Gold" oldies format from Phoenix's AM 960 through 1995. Along the way, Radio Aahs and Kidstar came and went, while Radio Disney made an anchor on the AM band playing music for the kids and teenagers. In the 80s until the 90s, three different stations simulcasted the "Q106" pop music format (KKLQ 1987-94, then AM 1320, then KCBQ briefly 1995-96).

Enter the hundreds (00's, I hate the term oughts) and music for all ages is slowly but surely coming back to the AM band, though in San Diego, you can't tune in Radio Disney on it anymore because Disney blew their opportunity to buy a station here, and 1240 flipped to an Asian language programming format.

Oldies from the 50s and 60s are heard on XSUR 540 today, and now on its L.A. station, KSUR 1260. Standards can be heard on KLAC 570, though a rumor of a format change to Air America continues to float around. North County listeners can tune in Radio Disney on AM 1110, which used to be on 710 from 1996-2002. KPOP 1360, a longtime standards station, will cut the music and go talk possibly by Monday.

Some new ones recently popped up. KURS (1040) recently switched from Spanish talk to standards for a couple of months, then the format shifted over to XESDD 1030 in early August. KURS is now playing a soul and gospel mix, a programming format that fills a niche and could cause ratings harm on XHRM "Magic" 92.5.

XESDD to closer to Middle of the Road than standards featuring some artists of the 70's.

KCEO 1000 Vista comes in fair on most radios during the day, but when the sun sets, most people here can't get the 250 watt nightime signal to hear The Owl 1000, a blend of ballads, standards, and big bands from 6pm-6am. Before that, the nighttime half of the daypart featured the displaced Premium alternative format when Art Astor sold 92.1 FM to Jefferson-Pilot, owner of KSON-FM.

Though there's not as many AM stations playing music as there once were, with many stations in the Southland playing a talk programming format of some sort (News, Sports, etc.), if all you have in your 1964 1/2 Ford Mustang is the original AM radio that came with the car and it still works, at least you can enjoy the music of the period whence the song came on it.