L.A. radio station to get new owner, new Spanish-language format.

The anticipated sate of Glendale-based radio station KSCA-FM (101.9) would not only mark the end of L.A.'s experiment with the adult album alternative format, it is likely to bring more Spanish-language programming to what is considered to be an underserved Latino population.

Las Vegas-based Heftel Broadcasting Corp. is negotiating with Gene Autry-owned Golden West Broadcasters to acquire KSCA. Although Heftel officials declined comment on the pending deal, analysts expect Heftel - soon to become one of the largest owners of Spanish-language radio stations in the United States - to switch the station's format to Spanish-language programming.

KSCA General Manager Bill Ward said Golden West expects to sign a deal with Heftel "within the next few weeks." He declined further comment.

Radio industry trade publications have listed the sale price for KSCA to be $110 million, a figure that points up the escalating values of broadcast properties in an era of consolidation.

"A few years ago, $40 million would have been considered an outrageous sale price for a station that size," said radio industry consultant Allen Klein, president of Encino-based Media Research Graphics.

"The price today has no relation to what kind of business you're buying. You're buying the (FCC broadcasting) license, and there aren't that many around," he said.

Ward launched KSCA in the summer of 1994, after switching the format of Golden West-owned KLIT-FM from adult contemporary to adult album alternative (known in the industry as "triple-A").

Radio stations in Denver, San Diego and Boston have been successful with the triple-A format, an eclectic mix of classic rock, modern alternative rock and other styles popular mainly with people born in the '60s and '70s.

Although the station has traditionally performed poorly in the Arbitron ratings - seldom climbing above the 25th-ranked station in the L.A. market in terms of audience share - it attracted a loyal following.

KSCA is believed to be fairly profitable despite its low ratings because it reaches a desirable audience demographic.

"From our perspective, it's considered an upscale audience, so you place advertisers like Mercedes Benz or BMW with them," said a radio specialist with an L.A. media buying agency. "It has a very good percentage of listeners with high incomes."

But Heftel may be simply making an offer that Autry, who is believed to want out of the radio broadcasting business, can't refuse, the media buyer said.

Heftel already owns two Spanish-language radio stations in the Los Angeles market, both based in Hollywood - KTNQ-AM (1020) and KLVE-FM (107.5). KLVE is the highest-rated radio station in the entire L.A. market.

A nearly completed merger between Heftel and Dallas-based Tichenor Media Systems Inc. will create a Spanish-language radio empire that owns 39 stations in all of the top 10 Latino markets.

In the Los Angeles market, about 37 percent of radio listeners (excluding those 12 and younger) are Latino, according to the New York-based Arbitron Co. And yet, according to Klein, only 11 of the L.A.'s approximately 75 stations (or about 15 percent) are Spanish-language.

That discrepancy between the percentage of Latino radio listeners and percentage of Spanish-language stations leads some industry analysts to conclude that the L.A. Latino market is being underserved.