I polled students about their favorite way to hear music. Can you guess how well radio did?
What do you do when you have critical acclaim, devoted listeners, a lousy signal and little marketing? You change your name from a rather forgettable “Independent 88.5 FM” to the even more forgettable “88.5 FM, The SoCal Sound.”
OK, I am teasing … a bit. But I am old school. I like call letters or variations of call letters. KHJ? KEZY? Ten-Q? KIIS-FM? K-WEST? KMET? KFI? KRLA? KOST 103? K-Earth? KROQ? Love them all. The Sound? Alt 98.7? Tolerated because the formats were/are great. Very listenable. And The Sound at least tried to match the name to the calls, though KSWD would hardly make someone think of “the sound,” so maybe they could have tried just a little bit harder.
My FM? Hate it. The format just can’t make up for such a lousy name, which has nothing to do with the KBIG call letters. I have a similar issue with Jack-FM. And of course, now there is the recent “88.5 FM, The SoCal Sound.” It just doesn’t work for me. What’s my problem with it? No passion. Sounds weird. Too long. And yet, they actually have great call letters, though it is complicated with a two-station simulcast that tries to increase signal coverage. Personally, I’d just use KCSN format that, like much of commercial LA radio, skews too much into the oldies, but is immensely satisfying and can’t be found locally anywhere else on the dial.