I came accross this station the other day and can’t bring myself to change the dial. I’ve heard Public Enemy, The Sex Pistols, The Pixies, Polyphonic Spree, Bob Marley, The Smiths, The Velvet Underground, XTC, The Ramones, and more. The commercial breaks have been very short, and there have been no dj interruptions. These past four days I’ve been in radio nirvana, my faith was being restored.
Now I find out that it is owned by Clear Channel.
The cynic in me is skeptical, but I’m enjoying it while it lasts.
Weird…
It’s called baiting the trap.
Good news! Entravision owns Indie103.
Whenever I’m in L.A. on business, I set the first preset in my rental car to KDL (103.1). Last time I was there for a week, and it was two days before I felt the need to change it. Once I got an NPR station on the dial with it, I was set.
Are my tastes that simple, or is that radio station just absolutely awesome?
In 1984, the evil fascist government had a softcore porn publishing division to lull the plebians. Same here, except it’s music.
There might be a connection but I’ve yet to find any evidence other than on blogs and message boards. One thing is certain: the station is owned by Entravision, not Clear Channel.
Can the airwaves be leased out to another company?
Yeah, I feel your pain. Chicago has a new Oldies station that plays stuff besides the same Beach Boys/Motown/Beatles/Motown/Beach Boys rotation every other Oldies station plays. They have hired a bunch of classic Chicago AM DJs from the 60s, letting them play what they like (but maybe too much Sinatra) and have stuck the station WAAAAAAAY on the north end of the dial, where many AM radios can’t go (1690 AM? WTF?). And it’s Clearchannel.
Could Clearchannel have finally made enough money and conquered enough of the dial that the execs can have personal stations that play what they like to listen to? Or has it been taken over by a cadre of radio people?
Great station. Owned by Entravision (which owns a ton of spanish language stations). Entravision is paying Clear Channel to sell the ad time, because the format doesn’t mesh well with their spanish language stations. So, Clear Channel is responsible for the commercials, not the programming.
I thought I had read that Clear Channel was leasing the entire station (stations, actually, it’s simulcast over some other call letters on the same frequency), but I can’t find the cite.
Inside scuttlebutt: employees and managers at KROQ (long-standing SoCal alternative radio station, constantly jostling Power 106 for #1) are terrified that this is Evil Corporate Behemoth’s gambit to do some serious damage to them. The rumour goes “Clear Channel will run this station at a loss to steal our listeners, and can afford to do so for years with its deep pockets.” Indie 103.1 did recently hire a semi-retired, long-time KROQ DJ (Richard Blade).
Fabulous playlist it sure is, but I can’t get decent reception for it anywhere in the Valley. Where are you guys listening to it?
KDLD was ‘the Party’ station until a format change. Entravision has a Joint Sales Agreement(JSA) with CC. This is from Radio and Records Dec. 15th:
“Although no official announcement from either CC or Entravision had been issued at press time, sources tell R&R that Clear Channel will soon be selling advertising for Entravision’s Los Angeles-area Dance simulcast, KDLD/Santa Monica, CA and KDLE/Newport Beach, CA, via a joint sales agreement. KDLD & KDLE, known on-air as “103.1 KDL,” on Friday dismissed their entire airstaff and are now running via automation. That will last until Dec. 21, when the stations will begin airing continuous Christmas music. On Dec. 26, KDLD & KDLE will flip to Active Rock in an attempt to lure listeners and revenue from Infinity’s crosstown Alternative KROQ. Look for a new PD for KDLD & KDLE to be announced tomorrow. With the arrangement, Clear Channel will be handling sales for 11 radio stations serving the L.A. market…”
As stated above, they’ve hired a PD. Look for them to also present an airstaff soon. It’s common for stations changing format to go w/out DJ’s & commercials during the early days of a format change.
From their coverage map (on the website linked above) it seems that their signal does not extend beyond the LA basin. Valley listeners (or potential listeners) are out of luck.
Thanks, shelbo. I can get it, but with generous static. It’s damn good enough that I (DVD, HDTV, quality-is-everything kind of guy) will listen to it anyway. Got a sublime feeling of bliss in the car this morning when Radiohead’s “Idioteque” came on.
There’s a great article here that has a bit more info on the station and Clear Channel’s designs for it. It also points out that I was wrong about Richard Blade - he’s gone to another Clear Channel station, not Indie 103.
I just wanted to add that KDLD now has arguably the coolest dj in the history of radio. His show absolutely rocks harder than anything, plus he’s got great stories to tell. Today, for instance, he intimated that when he first met Mick Jones, he was glammed out, complete with long hair, spandex, and platform shoes; and Joe Strummer was fronting a rockabilly band called the 101’s.