Competition forces KSUR to abandon standards format.

After a yearlong battle with radio's "800-pound gorilla," Saul Levine has packed up his standards and gone golden.

With no fanfare, his KSUR-AM (1260) ended its adult standards format and switched to golden oldies on the afternoon of Aug. 13. The change marked the end, perhaps, of a spat between Levine and Clear Channel Communications Corp. over an audience that consistently ranked among the smallest in the L.A. market.

When he launched the standards format in 2002, Levine, owner of Mount Wilson FM Broadcasters Inc., vowed that after a series of format changes, the renamed KSUR would play standards "forever." Less than six months later, Clear Channel, which owns nine stations in the market, switched its KLACAM (570) to adult standards from an all-talk format.

After spending $500,000 to boost KSUR's signal to 20,000 watts from 5,000 and absorbing the costs of the ensuing fight for share and advertisers with Clear Channel, Levine said last week he had lost "enough money to buy two Rolls Royces."

KLAC had earlier abandoned a standards format in favor of all talk. When it switched back, Levine told the Business Journal the move was "dirty pool," saying that the nation's largest radio station owner "kind of suckered us into it."

He said the success of Mount Wilson's classical music station, KMTZ-FM (105.1), known as K-Mozart, enabled him to sustain the money-losing KSUR for two years. Now, he said, he believes a golden oldies station that favors '50s and early '60s doo-wop music will reach a larger demographic than the over-55 audience it had reached in the past. "We're getting 17-year-olds to tune in," he said.

Charlie Rahilly, senior vice president of Clear Channel's West Coast division, rejected Levine's suggestion that the company had targeted him as part of an overall business strategy. Rahilly said KLAC's switch to adult standards was a return to a format that had worked in the past and said the foray into all-talk had been a "disaster."

"We lost a hell of a lot more than two Rolls Royces," said Rahilly. "I have enormous respect for Saul, but I know that he would like to characterize this as a David and Goliath situation. It is hysterical to talk about stealing a format as large as adult standards. Even the gorilla has to compete."

Nominal market

The brouhaha involves a limited audience share.

Levine said the all-jazz format of KSUR's predecessor, KJAZ, usually didn't even generate a large enough listenership to earn a 0.1 share. The move to adult standards bumped up its share, the percentage of a market's listeners tuned in, to between a 0.3 and 1.0. The Top 10 stations in the market generally earn a 3.0 share or better.

Rahilly said KLAC had an audience share of about 2.0 before it moved to an all-talk format. It then saw its numbers dip to about a 0.8 before it retreated to adult standards. Ever since, the share has fluctuated between 0.6 to just over a 1.0.

In the Spring 2004 ratings complied by Arbitron Inc., KSUR ranked 40th out of 44 stations in the L.A. market with a 0.9 share, among the largest it had seen in two years. KLAC ranked 30th with a 1.2 share during the same three-month period.

Levine has maintained that Clear Channel was aiming to siphon off the relatively small universe of listeners and advertisers drawn Change: Levine forced to an AM station playing the likes of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald. He said Clear Channel was able to lure advertisers by offering packages that included spots on its other stations.

Rahilly said Clear Channel's 100 radio salespeople in Los Angeles routinely bundle ad packages using the company's various stations "when it makes sense for the customer."

Mary Beth Garber, president of the Southern California Broadcasters Association and a former Levine employee, would not address the KSUR/KLAC situation, but did offer that Clear Channel has embraced a business model designed to limit competition in a given format.

"Clear Channel doesn't want to go head-to-head with anyone," she said. "You don't want to compete head-to-head, especially in a niche market where there is such a limited audience. Clear Channel probably looked at this as a way to get the 45 and up audience."

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