SETTING NEW STANDARDS KLAC TAKES CLASSIC TUNES, ADDS A DASH OF YOUTH.

Byline: Fred Shuster Staff Writer

The questioning refrain is heard wherever you go these days: Why aren't there any good songs on the radio? What happened to the tunes that actually meant something?

One solution might be to take a spin across the AM dial and drop in on Cocktail Nation.

If what is meant by good songs are the bewitching standards originally crooned by Frank, Ella, Nat and Dinah, they're back - if they ever went away - gaining new fans and wide exposure in hit movies like ``Finding Nemo'' and ``Catch Me If You Can.'' The voices may be different, but the songs remain the same.

Everything old is eventually reinvented for new generations, and two local contemporary standards stations - KLAC-AM (570) and KSUR-AM (1260 and 540) - are reaching for a little musical alchemy. Latching onto the current wave of interest in evergreens reinterpreted by young singers, the Los Angeles outlets are taking a Las Vegas-style gamble that what was once dubbed a nostalgia format can draw a growing number of discerning listeners who are many decades away from their first Social Security checks.

``KLAC has certainly taken a more aggressive stance,'' observes Don Barrett, editor of L.A. Radio, a widely read Web site that covers the Los Angeles radio industry (laradio.com). ``It'll be interesting to see if the music performed by contemporary artists will bring in a younger age group. Both KLAC and KSUR have the same goal - to expand beyond the older demographic that traditionally embraces this kind of music. We have two stations vying for the same comparatively small share of the potential audience for adult standards.''

For KLAC, it's a matter of a broad music mix that takes in everything from Dino and Mathis to Robbie Williams and Diana Krall, as well as an image makeover that suggests a Golden Nugget of the mind. (Independently owned KSUR - known as K-SURF - was profiled in a cover story last August.)

This happens to be a fortuitous time for standards radio. KLAC and K- SURF now have a seemingly endless supply of new music to spin alongside the classics. With sparks generated by movies, TV and concert tours, newer artists such as Norah Jones, Peter Cincotti, Michael Buble and Diana Krall join established names like Rod Stewart, Aaron Neville, Boz Scaggs and B.B. King in a pop standards universe that gives a kitschy twist to pop's ancients.

KLAC, owned by radio giant Clear Channel, manages this with an approach and glitzy logo that suggests the Rat Pack image of old Las Vegas, the romance of Sinatra belting out ``In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning'' and the sense of a life best enjoyed in a swank dive with Dean Martin on the jukebox and a martini glass within reach. The station also broadcasts Los Angeles Lakers games.

``A few years ago, a lot of great music was vanishing,'' recalls Brad Chambers, KLAC's easygoing program director and morning host. ``It got to the point where the only place to hear standards was for a few hours on a noncommercial station or in the Smithsonian. A lot of today's pop music is designed to be disposable, and when I'd talk to people about the current stuff compared to these timeless sounds, they'd say, 'Now that's real music.' ''

Quite an overhaul

In the quarterly Arbitron ratings, it's too early to tell if KLAC is catching on in a radio market dominated by hip-hop, bubble-punk, Top 40 and conservative talk. The station hatched its new look just seven months ago after the much-publicized eviction of a talk format that saw Michael Jackson get the boot. To further complicate matters, KLAC actually played standards for a few years to a small but receptive audience of people generally in their 60s before taking on talk.

``There was a steep plunge after the station went from talk to standards (last December),'' Chambers, a Woodland Hills resident, said at KLAC's cramped studio in the Wilshire District. ``We completely flushed the talk audience - and that was after disenfranchising the people who liked us before. Right now, all we have to go on is what happens when we throw a party and people show up in droves. It looks like a broad audience, but only time will tell. When you put on a new station aimed at kids, you see results right away. But with adults, it takes time to turn it around.''

Along with the aforementioned pop and newer artists, the KLAC playlist includes enduring tracks sung by Mel Torme, Steve Tyrell, Natalie Cole, Tony Bennett, Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Harry Belafonte, Bobby Darin and Neil Diamond. A song is often added to the lineup once it gains notice in a high-profile film - for example, Robbie Williams' cover of Darin's ``Beyond the Sea,'' heard during the closing credits of ``Finding Nemo.'' More KLAC fodder is anticipated when forthcoming projects based on the lives of Cole Porter and Darin are issued with newly minted soundtracks.

Growing format

Some standards stations simply broadcast satellite-delivered syndicated programming, such as the locally based Music of Your Life format. When Chambers gets off the air at 9 a.m. weekdays after a morning show that includes listener calls, news, weather and the occasional famous visitor, hosts Jim Duncan, Gary Owens and, at 4 p.m., Daisy Torme, actress/voice-over artist and daughter of late jazz crooner Mel Torme, take over the microphone. (Weekends at KLAC consist of music and a few hours of infomercials and talk.)

``This music stays around because it's great, which is the same reason the music of Mozart and Bach stays around,'' said Torme, who, like veteran broadcaster Owens, works for Music of Your Life. ``For me, it's not only what I grew up with, but it's a big part of my adulthood. I'm discovering songs my dad did that I never heard before. The blend we have here at the station combines the Tom Jones lounge stuff with the great American songbook standards. This format really does take you to the Strip.''

Judging by early reports, the age of the average KLAC listener ranges between 38 and 42, but when the station hosts one of its frequent promotional events at such popular spots as CityWalk's Howl at the Moon or Los Feliz's Derby, the audience can be a decade younger. During the recent Howl at the Moon event, for example, a handful of KLAC listeners, chosen by the radio audience and station staff, performed their versions of standards to piano accompaniment. Next month, KLAC is hosting a three-day trip to its spiritual home, Vegas.

``The promotional events are essential,'' Chambers said. ``When we go out there and shake hands and meet somebody, it's an opportunity to bring a new listener to the station. And when you don't have a lot of promotional money, you have to do it one listener at a time.''

Clear Channel, the nation's most powerful radio corporation, without promotional money for KLAC? Well, as Duke Ellington once said about something entirely different, ``Things Ain't What They Used to Be.''

What you'll hear

Here is a sample of the KLAC-AM (570) playlist.

--``Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World,'' Israel ``Iz'' Kamakawiwo'ole

--``Georgia on My Mind,'' Willie Nelson

--``Don't Know Why,'' Norah Jones

--``Fever,'' Michael Buble

--``Luck Be a Lady,'' Frank Sinatra

--``At Last,'' Etta James

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) A NEW MIX

KLAC blends voices young and old

Jennifer Blatz/Staff Designer

(2) KLAC-AM hosts Gary Owens, left, Daisy Torme and Jim Duncan try out Owens' signature move at the station's Los Angeles studios.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(3) Brad Chambers

program director and morning host, posing with a likeness of Dean Martin

David Sprague/Staff Photographer

(4) Listener Jordan Preston belts out a standard during his winning performance at KLAC's ``Fabulous Finds'' contest.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer