I had the correct day, but the wrong time: KOST (103.5 FM) did indeed make the annual switch to holiday music on November 14. But instead of waiting until the end of Ellen K’s popular morning show as I’d expected, they switched at 8 a.m.

This is the 25th year the station has dropped its regular format in favor of holiday tunes, and it has been a hit since day one. Every single year, KOST jumps in the ratings with the annual switch, making it one of the most successful programming moves in the history of radio. Indeed, KOST earns at least double and often triple the ratings of the second-place station each year during this time.

Those who study such things say that people tend to have fond memories of the songs they heard during the season while growing up, so listening makes them feel good. KOST is essentially using psychology to attract listeners by eliciting these positive memories among listeners.

They are not the only show in town – if you have an HD Radio, you can tune in KKGO’s (105.1 FM) digital HD3 stream and hear a slightly different selection of tunes. As well, SiriusXM is running numerous channels focusing on different genres.

I grew up with Christmas songs from Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians on reel-to-reel… those songs tend not to be played other than on the station in my mind. Someday …

Cunningham Leaves KLOS

Longtime KLOS (95.5 FM) programmer Keith Cunningham has left the station to focus on consulting. Unveiling what he calls “a boutique strategic consultancy,” his new Black Box Group promises to deliver creative strategies to clients both inside and outside of radio.

“While it starts with content,” he wrote in a press release announcing the endeavor, “traditional ratings and revenue playbooks have been torched. Everyone is a creator … the landscape is faster, deeper and more complex, but complexity becomes simple if you know how to decode it, and that’s what I do.”

I asked Cunningham if that meant he’d be solely connected with media — radio, podcasts, streaming — or if one could hire him for marketing anything. In other words, could a company hire him even if it is not a type of media?

“That’s a big part of my goal. I want to help and work with companies outside of radio as well,” he told me. “Certainly, I have radio clients, but being inside radio, which is like an ad agency and content factory itself, I’ve worked with all kinds of brands from McDonald’s to personal injury attorneys to bars and restaurants to tax specialists. I know how to grow audiences, and it doesn’t always require a big media budget.

“Whether you’re running a media brand or a pizzeria in Irvine, the key principles for growth don’t change, but many get them wrong,” he said, noting his experience helps create customized strategies “to help businesses cut through all of today’s noise.

What will this mean for KLOS? I spoke with Pio Ferro, senior vice president of programming for the Meruelo Los Angeles stations —  KLOS, KPWR (105.9 FM), KLLI (93.9 FM), and KDAY (93.5 FM).

No plans are being made for any changes, Ferro said. “We are happy with the direction of KLOS,” he told me, adding that the station has been very successful in updating its on-air presentation. “I’m not changing anything; we are very happy with what we’ve accomplished.”

Songs and More

Your emails are what keep me going. Our first for the week comes from Ellis Lai, regarding custom songs by stations or artists. Lai writes, “When I was growing up in Kansas City, the radio stations played a local custom version of Huey Lewis and the News’s ‘Heart of Rock and Roll.’ Among the list of cities the song mentions, Huey would belt out ‘Kansas City!’ at the end.”

I had forgotten about that … I am sure other cities did the same. What a great way to market the song!

Marcus Michelson of Glendale found one I had never heard before. “I remember when I was a kid in the Seattle area in 1990, KPLZ, a top-40 station at the time, had its own edit of ‘Vogue’ by Madonna,” he writes. “The lyric ‘Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers float on air’ was replaced with ‘Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, KPLZ on the air.’ I can only imagine that the song was similarly changed for stations in larger markets than Seattle.”

I’m honestly not sure; I never heard it before, but it’s a great one. Anyone want to confirm?

A few of you caught my error on the record store … Dave Morris put it right in the subject line: “It was the Wherehouse!” And here I was trying my best to get that right – I knew it and still blew it!

Longtime San Diego DJ Jeff Prescott caught my mention of stations that purposely played songs faster than normal, writing, “KCBQ (1170 AM) definitely sped-up songs for a brief time in the ’70s, and it was very noticeable!”

Did listeners to the station complain about the sped-up music?

“The songs sounded ‘different’ when sped up, and there were some minor complaints,” he said. “I’ll ask around to some former KCBQers and see if they remember. I was on competing KSEA at the time and we thought it was stupid … they kicked our butt in the ratings, though, so what do I know?”

His mention of KSEA is interesting. I never heard of it before, yet it was San Diego’s first top-40 FM station, now sports-formatted KFWN (97.3 FM). I am putting this on my list of stations I will write about in the future.