What Is The Future of L.A./Southern California Radio?

[henry]

The problems or the crunch will come when companies realize that their networks are being slowed because of bandwidth consumed by employees streaming their favorite station at their desks. Likewise when mobile services start more stringently metering and / or capping mobile date usage.

Exactly!  I just drove 1600+ miles over the weekend to Albuquerque and back. 

And that is how broadcast will die and Pandora-ish services will win.  I really wanted to listen to KFI but the bandwidth required for live streaming has to be constant, reliable, and plentiful.  Three attributes that don't exist between Gallup and Flagstaff. 

Pandora could download files quickly (15-30 seconds) in the background and play the file as needed.  Podcasts of KFI work in a similar manner, but Clear Channel doesn't monetize their podcasts.

If you want to see the future of Los Angeles radio, all you need to do is look at the rest of the country.  Look at Albuquerque.  Look at Salt Lake City.  Look at Oklahoma City.  All of these were once vibrant, fun, well-promoted and well-listened-to markets.  Today they're all pretty much jukeboxes with a couple of morning shows and maybe an out-sourced traffic report from Texas (pretending to be a local reporter).

The good aspects of Los Angeles radio (big market, high-billing stations, long commutes) have been a friend to LA and helped the radio dial postpone the effects of a collapsing radio market.  There will always be a KFI and a KIIS and a K-Earth.  But you'll begin to see those products erode over the next decade and become ghosts of the excellent products they are today.  The rest of us in middle America have already been there and seen it.

[K6JHU]

Cell phone service su*** on the drive from LA to ABQ. It is more that Flagstaff to Gallup. The hills from Kingman to Williams are bad as well. Difficult to make even a cell phone call much less stream. My answer to making the trip was Sirius/XM. No dropouts the entire trip.

[henry]

Well, aren't you the cheery one. 

Haha ... nah.  Just a Gen. Y radio guy who feels like he was born 30 years too late.

The flip side:  As radio collapses, some type of internet-based in-car talk entertainment will develop to fill the gap.  I have no idea what shape it will be in (some outcropping of podcasting, I assume).  I think it may even be a career-saver for some of the future's brighter talents which have been abused in radio for far too long.  Maybe Leykis is developing a new business model?  Time will tell.

[Wildstyle Kdm]

Future of LA radio? Doesn't look very bright to me. The past of L.A. Radio was much more desirable. Never imagined a day would come when I'd look forward to coming back to Phoenix Az. over LA in regard to which place has the station(s) and mixshows I find more fascinating. I'd rather listen to our Hot 97.5 KMVA here in Phoenix than any station in LA at the moment. No one in LA plays Spencer Hill & Nadia Ali, Example, Avicii, Cascada, Alex Clare, and Skrillex in regular rotation. I remember how excited I used to be when my mom announced we were going to LA all because of the stations there. 99.1 KGGI, B100.3, Power 106, 102.7 KIIS FM, Groov Radio 103.1, and I still remember some spanish station at 98.7 doing an all day mix for Christmas and they dropped "funky melody" by Stevie B while I had my tape recorder going and I INSTANTLY fell in love with the song; THOSE were the stations I loved who had all the dj's I admired. As far as names go, I can remember Dj Enrie, Dj Speedy K, and... Dj Jimmy Kim? Jimmy Kim was a CLUB KISS dj. I also remember Dj Lynwood, of course. That name has been tattooed into my brain.
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With DJ Laz on LA 96.3, I believe 96.3 MIGHT be something to be excited about. Power 96 Miami, the last really interesting rhythmic party format in the nation (that I know of), has actually "downgraded" and quickly became more "boring and traditional" ever since Dj Laz left there. Hopefully Dj Laz has some power of influence over the LA 96.3 format and can make the station more exciting and party-like. Does anybody remember how fun and exciting the rhythmic party format used to be in the mid to later 90's? Now a party format is simply just a typical rhythmic format that often sounds like any other traditional top 40 format.
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And lastly, thanks to the Power Workout at Noon on Power 106 in '96, I was introduced to Dj Laz's music and a lot of latin bass and latin house tracks, which greatly influenced my music passions and the way I sound today. Dj Laz has been a big part of my life, although he doesn't know it. Maybe not as big to me as Lina Santiago, Jocelyn Enriquez, Rockell, Lil Suzy, or Angelina, though.