The Infinite Dial

The entertainment-industry-based All-News format at KFWB Los Angeles lasted all of four months before the station announced a pending switch to a more talk-driven lineup, hastened apparently by the availability of Dr. Laura. Even before the change was announced, however, Variety's Brian Lowry slagged the station's entertainment coverage as skin deep, at best, in a story called "Why Exactly Would Hollywood Listen To KFWB?"

Lowry's not exactly an impartial observer, of course. KFWB was, in theory, a direct competitor to Variety, which has the same issues as all print publications these days. Variety's once-massive Cannes issue is only about as thick with advertising as a regular issue used to be, while a regular issue is a lot thinner these days. Like other print publications, it has moved from reporting news to recap and analysis. Only about a week ago did it devote a front cover to radio's performance royalty issues, with content that would be mostly familiar to anybody who was already following that story. KFWB, if potent, would have been a threat.

That said, it was also our early take on the format that it wasn't yet rich in scoop, particularly in a world where entertainment news (if not industry news) is everywhere. Like the equally short-lived Blink 102.7 incarnation of WNEW New York, it was a more than valid idea that required too much heavy lifting, particularly when there's established talk content available elsewhere. And any station that doesn't already have an all-News infrastructure, as KFWB did, is really going to have a hard time doing this format.

But this format certainly seems like something that should exist on-line. If the smartphone is going to be the new car radio, it will certainly happen in the entertainment industry sooner -- assuming the heavies aren't too busy making deals on that phone. So is it time for Variety's own entertainment "radio" format?