101.1 Klol No Longer Exists

[N8TIV]

As of today, 101.1 is no longer KLOL the rock station. It has turned into a Latino station.

This is a disgrace. We need to protest!!!

www.klol.com

Apparently Walton & Johnson want to stay in the Houston area and are currently looking at options to get back on the air.

It is a sad day for Houston radio.

[HeightsGuy]

Protest who? Clear Channel for doing it or the FCC for easing media ownership rules that allow mega-conglomerates like Clear Channel to operate.

If you were truly a fan of KLOL and want to protest, make today the day you will no longer bow to the mighty Clear Channel and get yourself a satellite radio.

[MidtownCoog]

Another Mexicanization.

K-ARTS, KLOL, What's next?

Ch 11?

[MidtownCoog]

satellite radio

are you for real?

[HeightsGuy]

Uh, yes, I am. Subscription-based satellite radio is the future, FM/AM radio is not.

[MidtownCoog]

Hopefully AM/FM will wake up, becuase the thought of paying to listen to the radio is ludicrous.

[Montrose1100]

I love XM...

[N8TIV]

I dont care about the transmission method...I'm just pissed that a long-time Houston rock station was uprooted without warning.

[citykid09]

Well we will do anything to please our new illegals, that means even getting rid of stuff that english speaking BORN REAL AMERICANS listen too. Just to please them.

[HeightsGuy]

IMO, KLOL died a long time ago, well, pretty much since the day both 101 and 93.7 came under the ownership of Clear Channel. AM/FM is dead, and it has everything to do with deregulating rules of ownership without deregulating the airwaves themselves. What this has produced are conglomerates like CC.

CC owns both 93.7 and 101, which, for the most part, have a high crossover of listeners. Both have been wallowing at the bottom of the Arbitron ratings for the city. If they had separate owners, they would be tinkering with the format to try to bring up ratings. But since they have the same owner, they can flip one knowing that people will just spend more time listening to the other.

It's a recipe for mediocrity.

And to satellite radio, I have as much use for commercials as I do for hour long commutes. I pay a premium to live 15 minutes from my job. In the same vein, the collective 20 bucks I give to XM and DVR to zap commercials is well worth it.

[Astro]

I don't listen to the radio much but one of the only stations I like, KMBE 790 AM, which plays old standards, is going off the air too this weekend to make way for another sports station. Another Clear Channel casualty

[20sGirl]

I agree- the radio in Houston sucks with a capital "S". I'm probably showing my archaic tendencies but, thank God for CDs.

[Talbot]

Too bad, I liked KLOL.

[HeightsGuy]

Nevermind, was about to say something rude about a few of the more "colorful" posts here but decided to back off.

[jmancuso]

WTF!!!! my favorite station! indefense of citylikds comments, english programming is being crowded off the dial for spanish.

[Sunstar]

I don't listen to the radio much but one of the only stations I like, KMBE 790 AM, which plays old standards, is going off the air too this weekend to make way for another sports station.  Another Clear Channel casualty

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nooooo! That's horrible. 790 was the one decent CC station in town. They even played local faves like the El Orbits. What's going on around here?

[N8TIV]

here, send Clear Channel a piece of your mind.

www.clearchannel.com/Corporate/Email.aspx

btw, so nice of them to post their NYSE stock value above the email form.

[midtown_resident]

Well we will do anything to please our new illegals, that means even getting rid of stuff that english speaking BORN REAL AMERICANS listen too. Just to please them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

So you're saying that this was a move to please the illegal alien population? A BORN REAL AMERICAN (as you say) ought to understand that this is strictly a capitalist move, where a corporation is making FREE decision which it has every right to do. How you could possibly twist this into an anti-illegal-alien issue is beyond me...

[Guest danax]

I don't listen to the radio much but one of the only stations I like, KMBE 790 AM, which plays old standards, is going off the air too this weekend to make way for another sports station.  Another Clear Channel casualty

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sports and Mexican thumpa thumpa music........that should satisfy about 80% of Houston. Perhaps a lot of the KLOL classic rockers have gotten too old for that stuff anymore. Smooth jazz probably took some of em.

[77017]

Well as a latino who WAS born in America and DOES speak english (those exist?) I think its a happy day in Houston. Especially after walton and johnson, whom I used to listen to loyally every morning, spent the last 4 months before bush won promoting their repupulican agenda EVERY SECOND OF THE SHOW, and the next 10 days after he won gloating about it and rubbing it in the face of every kerry voter EVERY SECOND OF THE SHOW (probably causing a 40% dip in their ratings since houston was about a 40/60 split in the presidential vote). The stations format is not aiming at mexican wetbacks (the illegals you speak of), its aimed at the roughly 18-27 year old english speaking american born latinos who go to the clubs that play this music (my friend is djing at the station) which is mostly reggaeton (puerto-rican dancehall/rap) spanish hip-hop and spanish mainstream. The illegals you speak of (standing under the 59 and westpark overpass waiting to take your high-paying tech jobs away from you) don't listen to this kind of music. They prefer ranchera or conjunto or tejano. Anyway the stations call sign is spoken in english "my music, mecca 101, latino and proud!"

[jmancuso]

Sports and Mexican thumpa thumpa music........that should satisfy about 80% of Houston. Perhaps a lot of the KLOL classic rockers have gotten too old for that stuff anymore. Smooth jazz probably took some of em.

not me. i'm 31 and am an avid classic rock fan and there are many younger folks around my age who liked KLOL. i think it sucks becuase 90 percent of what's on the dial leaves much to be desired and anything that had any appeal to it (for me at least) is being dismantled and switched to a different genre; 102.9 (used to be the planet). KRTS, the buzz (although protesters forced CC to keep it on the air) and now KLOL. what next 93.7?

i'm not happy about this at all. it may be unPC but a certain demographic was squeezed out today

[BayouCityGirl]

not me. i'm 31 and am an avid classic rock fan and there are many younger folks around my age who liked KLOL. i think it sucks becuase 90 percent of what's on the dial leaves much to be desired and anything that had any appeal to it (for me at least) is being dismantled and switched to a different genre; 102.9 (used to be the planet). KRTS, the buzz (although protesters forced CC to keep it on the air) and now KLOL. what next 93.7?

i'm not happy about this at all. it may be unPC but a certain demographic was squeezed out today

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Do we EVEN have an english speaking stations LEFT in this city???

KRBE used to be awesome before it was all hip hop and rap (90% of the time), I started listening to Radio Disney (I know but they play some awesome music on there) and Mix 96.5 (which is like KRBE w/o all the hip hop and rap)

I remember when UPN was lost in El Paso due to Telemundo taking over on TV. The week that happened "Star Trek Voyager" had an Great episode and the people of El Paso lost it, complained SO MUCH that UPN and WB had to end up sharing a station but could NOT promote any UPN commericals on the WB station.

I am American born and I know a little spanish. I just wish sometimes we'd keep our stations in English and let those like hispanic music get 2-3 stations of latino music, spanish music or whatever they listen to. NOT take up the entire Houston dial!

I'm mad at about this too and there is nothing I can do either

[ricco67]

I'd have to agree with SOME of the comments on here, but this is my view:

KLOL, overall has sucked since Stevens and pruett left. They needed to boot Walter and Johnson out as well as half of the DJ's there.

I mean, it TRULY sucked.

Now as far as changing KLOL completely, that is just plain wrong. My kid (used to) listens to that station and she's put off as well as alot of other teenagers.

93.7 is a good station, but they didn't play enough of the newer stuff.

Clear Channel could have just as easily requested another frequency (Don't know how crowded the radio dial is) instead of displacing the current station. They did this out of sheer laziness.

I listen to spanish music OCCASIONLLY and from what I understand this is targeted to the 2nd-3rd generation hispanic population and will play modern spanish music and contemporary english music with a latin beat. I think it would probably do well.

But they should NOT have sacrified a bunch of rockers to do it.

Go fig. This is just another attempt by Clear Channel going for the quick buck and not paying attention to their current customers.

Protest time? Go to XM or SIRIUS. You pay for Cable TV, why not Pay radio?

Ricco

[HoustonMidtown]

Rock Station Changes To Latino Format

Latino Station Promises 10,101 Songs Without Commercials

POSTED: 5:21 pm CST November 12, 2004

UPDATED: 5:32 pm CST November 12, 2004

HOUSTON -- A Houston-area rock music radio station changed to a Latino format Friday.

KLOL 101.1 FM switched at 10 a.m. Friday to Latino music branded as Mega 101.

"We found that there was a definite void in the market for this type of format reaching the Latino youth," said Alfredo Alonso, senior vice president of Hispanic Radio.

Station officials said the 2000 census helped them make the decision.

"Latinos have tons of disposable income and it's a viable advertising market and it's a viable consumer market. And it's actually the only, probably can't see the only, but (it's) one of the markets that is demonstrating the fastest growth and biggest growth in sheer numbers," said Alex Lopez Negrete, a marketing consultant.

"If you look at the United States population, 20 percent of the population comes from 18- to 24-year-old Latinos, so it's a booming industry that nobody was catering to," Alonso said.

Advertisers will have to wait before they can cash in on Mega 101's market, since the station has promised to play 10,101 songs without commercials. That's expected to last through the end of the year.

The station's Web site states only that it is "under construction."

[N8TIV]

Clear Channel could have just as easily requested another frequency (Don't know how crowded the radio dial is) instead of displacing the current station.  They did this out of sheer laziness.

Ricco

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Seriously, why not use another frequency?

[A Man Who Knows Too Much]

Another Mexicanization.

K-ARTS, KLOL, What's next?

Ch 11?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

11's halfway there. Remember their "Mexico City-based reporter Angela Kocherga?" They had to stop calling her "Bureau Chief" because the Mexicans thought that meant she worked for the government.

At one point the managers at 11 put together a list of local Hispanic experts for their reporters to talk to. When an expert was needed to balance a story or to provide some insight, the reporters were ordered to go to the "Hispanic List" first, then to look for a black person, and only pick a white person as a last resort. Fortunately, the edict was pretty much ignored, but it goes to show the mindset that runs that news department.

[editor]

are you for real?

I agree with the parent. I have Sirius, and it rocks. It's able to deliver a variety of programming with the only minor inconvenience being the subscription fee. Since the megacorps have pretty much abandoned local radio by filling the airwaves with satellite-fed or voice-tracked stations, it's not like terrestrial radio has any great advantage over satellite.

That's where Earth-bound radio can succeed -- localism. The FCC prohibits the satellite providers from doing local radio (I'm not sure under what clause they're allowed to provide Houston traffic, though). If some of our local stations would start playing stuff of local interest, they might have a chance. There's a very successful station (#9 out of 23) in Minneapolis called Cities 97. It's a regular station similar to the Mix in Houston. But they are intensely involed in the local community. Not just slapping thier brand on existing events, but creating and holdiing events of their own. And more importantly -- they play local bands frequently as if they were a natural extension of their playlist. When was the last time you heard a local group on Houston radio that wasn't Beyonce, ZZ Top or some other artist that had already made it big?

[editor]

Here's the article from Radio And Record, which is one of the industry's Bibles.

-----------

Friday, Nov. 12, 2004

KLOL/Houston Flips To 'Spanglish Top 40'

This morning at 10am CT, as was rumored, heritage Rocker KLOL-FM disappeared; in its place is Mega 101 FM, "Latino and Proud", playing 10,101 songs in a row. Jesse Rios has been named Program Director for the station. Two weeks ago KSJO-FM/San Jose left the Rock format after 36 years in favor of Oldies-based Regional Mexican "La Preciosa," kicking off a Spanish-language frenzy in the Bay Area; SBS will be entering that market shortly as it takes control of Infinity's KBAA-FM, which has changed its call letters to KRZZ. The San Jose and Houston moves are part of Clear Channel's new initiative to increase its Spanish-language station count by at least 20 signals in the coming months under SVP/Hispanic Radio Alfredo Alonso's guidance. Alonso has confirmed for R&R that Mega 101 FM will be formatted differently from "La Preciosa." Station insiders are describing the format as Spanglish Top 40.

[editor]

Seriously, why not use another frequency?

A radio station cannot simply move to another frequency. There are two choices -- go to an already-allocated frequency, or try to shoehorn one in.

In the first case, the FCC has a certain numbers of pre-allocated FM signals for each major city. Those are auctioned off to the higest bidder. In Houston, however, all of those allocations have been filled.

The other option is to find another frequency on one's own. When a company decides to go that route, they have to prove that using that frequency at their desired power from their desired location at a particular antenna height won't interfere with any other radio station in the United States, Canada, or Mexico. Even though it's all worked out on computer, it takes months and sometimes years to find a suitable channel. This is very complex math, and must be backed up by field studies (people actually walking around and checking signal strength). It's a tremendously complicated process, and there are a number of companies dedicated to providing this kind of service.

To cover a market the size of Houston with an FM signal takes a very large signal. The problem is that in radio terms, Austin, San Antonio, Beaumont, Huntsville, College Station, and Corpus Christi are very close. That's why some Houston stations have their transmitters way down in the swamps of Brazos or Galveston County, so they don't bump into other signals.

If you name a frequency KLOL should move to, I can name a technical reason why it won't work.

[jm1fd]

Hopefully AM/FM will wake up, becuase the thought of paying to listen to the radio is ludicrous.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I couldn't agree more. I'm not going to pay to listen to the radio. I'll drop the money on an MP3 jukebox for the car before I pay for a radio subscription.