Stations switch formats at first sign of trouble.

Los Angeles-area stations are changing formats quicker than ever before, sometimes leaving listeners scratching their heads.

"Marketing research in Los Angeles says people don't know what to expect when they turn on the radio," said Dave Beasing, a radio consultant with Los Angeles-based Jacobs Media. "The last two years have seen a complete restructuring of the radio industry."

Major broadcast companies have been aggressively buying local radio stations ever since the federal government lifted the cap on station ownership in February 1996. And because these companies must answer to shareholders, they generally have less tolerance for bad ratings.

In addition, ratings are now being released monthly, whereas for decades they had been coming out only quarterly. So format decisions are being based on more-incremental information.

"Corporations have a bigger trigger finger for canceling a format," said Tommy Hadges, president of the Pollack Media Group, a Los Angeles-based radio consulting firm. "Plus, they have the capital to cushion changeovers more so than did the smaller private owners."

A recent casualty was KTZN-AM 710, a talk station aimed at female listeners,

whose format was killed in August after six months on the air. When owner Wait Disney Co. pulled the plug, citing low ratings, some industry observers suggested the format had not been given enough time to develop and become successful.

"A company like Disney makes format decisions for reasons other than a station's ability to attract listeners," said Lawrence Grossman, a former president of both NBC News and PBS and author of a recent book called "The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in the Information Age."

As a major maker of children's products, he said, Disney is more likely to use the station as a sort of selling platform rather than to focus exclusively on maximizing ratings. Indeed, KTZN's format was changed to children's programming.

One relatively new tactic is using the same or similar formats on several stations, thereby delivering advertisers a bigger audience that fits a particular demographic profile.

One example of this is Heftel Broadcasting Corp., which signed an agreement to buy album alternative station KSCA-FM 101.9 this year and switched the station to a Spanish-language format. Heftel already owned Spanish stations KLVE-FM 107.5 and KTNQ-AM 1020.

"Now Heftel can offer advertisers a range of Spanish listeners," said Allen Klein, president of the radio consulting firm Media Research Graphics Inc. "KLVE plays love songs, KSCA has a Spanish Howard Stern, and KTNQ is for Spanish talk-radio listeners."

He said this strategy is also the reason behind CBS Corp.'s decision to keep its two competing news stations - KNX-AM 1070 and KFWBAM 980.

But some observers suggest that what's lost is innovative formats.

"What you get (with the 1996 act) is formulaic formats set at central corporate levels with far less regard than before for local needs," [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] Grossman said.

Prior to the federal government's easing of restrictions in February 1996, no entity could own more than four radio stations in a given market. Today, an entity can own as many as four AM and four FM stations in any major metro market.

One thing that hasn't changed is that format changes generally are based on changing public tastes in music.

At the moment, one particularly hot taste is for "rhythmic adult contemporary," which is essentially dance-oriented pop music. Two of the five top-rated stations in Los Angeles KPWR-FM 105.9 and KKBT-FM 92.3 - are dedicated to the format. And in August 1996, KIBB-FM 100.3 and KACD-FM 103.1 both switched over to it.

Sometimes, Klein said, these switches are short-lived when the music's popularity turns out to be more fad than trend. When bands like Nirvana and Soundgarden became top sellers in 1992, KLOS-FM 95.5 jumped from classic rock to embrace the grunge rock sound, only to return to its original format again last year as the draw of grunge bands waned.

A format switch can sometimes be a matter of tweaking rather than overhauling. Such was the case with L.A.'s only full-time country station, KZLA-FM 93.9.

When John Sebastian was brought in as operations manager in April of last year, the station played recently released country songs and ratings were at a historic low. To boost ratings, he added songs from "country roots" singers like Patsy Cline and songs from country/classic rock artists like the Eagles and Bob Seger.

"Listener familiarity with groups like the Eagles helps ease them into the rest of the music," said Sebastian.

He also told disc jockeys to cut back on their jabbering and lopped off a couple minutes of commercials each hour. This tweaking of the basic country format has been a winner, as weekly listenership has gone from 470,000 to 750,000 and people listen for longer periods.