The Infinite Dial

If Washington, D.C., can have a station devoted to news of the Federal Government, it only makes sense that Los Angeles should have a radio station focusing on entertainment industry news. It got that this week when CBS steered KFWB away from its straight All-News path of the last 41 years, which will now be the exclusive franchise of KNX.

KFWB is still reporting the big non-entertainment stories and providing the typical All-News station services (traffic, weather, financial). Like a Mainstream CHR that evolves to Rhythmic, it's the secondaries, not the powers, which have changed. Positioning too: Stagers now include, "From the back lot to the boardroom, this is Hollywood's KFWB" and, "From the Show-Biz capital of the world." The station's trademark, "Give us 22 minutes and we'll give you the world," remains.

KFWB's move makes sense when Hollywood's longstanding Town Hall, the Los Angeles Times, is facing every newspaper's challenges and doing so even more publicly than most. KFWB's own hurdle will be competing with the TImes, Daily Variety, the Hollywood Reporter and the blogs for news. In the hour heard yesterday, the industry stories were the kind of stats-driven stories that you might hear as the "media" story in an All-News station's business segment. That's understandable in Week No. 1. But in a market where even Ryan Seacrest interviews movie producers on KIIS, KFWB is going to have to make listeners a fly on the wall in "Entourage" agent Ari Gold's office. And as WNEW (Blink 102.7) New York showed with its more consumer-driven entertainment news five years ago, it's hard to both generate scoop and get credit for scoop when entertainment news has become ubiquitous.

Here's a 40-minute segment of KFWB yesterday:

2:11 Traffic;
2:12 Author of a Marketwatch.com article is interviewed on the inroads of Politico.com and similar political Websites against the Washington Post;
2:15 Sports;
2:17 Stopset;
2:19 Tyra Banks stalker trial begins;
2:20 Headlines roundup -- mix of general and media stories, weather, etc.;
2:21 Traffic;
2:22 Swine flu: WHO alert goes to level five;
2:24 Stopset
2:25 General business headlines;
2:27 Stopset;
2:29 "Show biz capital" stager;
2:30 "Top 5 at 30" headlines roundup: Swine flu; Obama's first 100 days; Michelle Obama's charity work; California tour bus crash; actor Lane Garrison released from prison;
2:31 Traffic;
2:32 A cluster of entertainment stories: Screen Actors Guild votes on contract offer; Nielsen reports declines in network TV viewership; online video market up 32%; Google changes its formula for news searches;
2:36 Stopset
2:37 Report on the iPhone's "Tap Tap" application;
2:39 Stopset;
2:40 Headlines, mix of general and media stories;
2:41 Traffic;
2:43 General news stories: ballot budget propositions polling badly; Orange County schools facing budget cuts;
2:44 Stopset;
2:45 Sports;
2:48 Teaser for KCAL-TV news including its swine flu report
2:49 The Lane Garrison story repeats; People's list of the 100 most beautiful people;
2:50 Stopset;
2:51 Traffic;
2:52 Hollywood Notes: Jeffrey Katzenberg renews with Dreamworks; Ricky Gervais' "Flanimals" books to become 3D movie; Reporter Anthony Dias Blue's "Blue Lifestyle Minute" on L.A. architecture;
2:53 Stopset
2:54 Weather
2:55 Another cluster of stories that included a settlement between MGM and Dubai World