Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters will flip Oldies “K-Surf” 1260 KSUR Beverly Hills/Los Angeles to Classical “K-Mozart” on December 1 under the KMZT call letters.
This will be the third stint for the brand on 1260 as it previously aired for a few months in 2007 and again from 2011 until 2016. Mount Wilson relaunched the brand on 105.1 KKGO-HD4 Los Angeles and digitally in June. KSUR is currently running Christmas music until the flip takes place.
Station owner Saul Levine told the Los Angeles Daily News, that he “hopes that upgrades in the audio chain and more radios in the market capable of receiving the station’s HD signal will help build an audience for classical music on the AM band.” The station will compete against University of Southern California’s 91.5 KUSC Los Angeles.
The now former “K-Surf” Oldies brand will remain on 105.1 KKGO-HD2.
This is a shame, because K-Surf is very well programmed and enjoyable to listen to. The HD signal via 105.1 is still unavailable to most people and can be erratic to those who can decode it (in the car). I know this, because I tried and the LA basin is not kind to HD signals as you drive around the various hills and mountains that are a part of LA. The AM signal, OTOH, was more reliable.
How is K-Mozart going to compete with KUSC, a class B FM with 39Kw and plenty of height? Can’t see Classical music doing well in revenue or ratings on an AM station. Saul Levine tried it before, and it didn’t come close to the numbers that Go-Country is pulling.
And if you look at the ratings in most of the top markets, there aren’t many AM stations in the Top 20. And of the ones that are, how many have music formats? I think it’s Zero.