Station Gets Into the Groove With a New Name and Music

Among his first duties as the new program director of Groove Radio--the dance and electronica outlet KACD-FM and KBCD-FM (both 103.1)--Mohamed Moretta is introducing a new moniker for the station. The name Groove Radio itself is owned by his predecessor, Egil “Swedish Eagle” Aalvik.

So as of today, it’s simply the Groove.

It may seem a minor distinction, but for fans of the station it signals a move away from Aalvik’s vision of Groove Radio as the representative for what he terms “the deejay culture”--the forward-looking rave and dance club world. Instead, a stronger presence is expected for the vocal-based, urban “house” style that Moretta has favored in his daily 9 a.m.-to-noon deejay slot.

“I worked long and hard to get Groove Radio where I’m comfortable with it, and if he’s going to change it a lot, then I would rather they change the name,” says Aalvik, who intends to continue using the name with his World Wide Web site and various other projects.

The problem is that station owner Ken Roberts was not comfortable with it, and last week dismissed Aalvik after a yearlong run that produced more industry curiosity than ratings or revenue. Mixing cutting-edge club music with beat-heavy mixes from more familiar acts, Groove Radio has been looked at as both a source of emerging sounds and as a barometer of the new music’s chances in the U.S. market.

Aalvik, who had previous stints at KROQ-FM and the Groove precursor MARS-FM, proudly points to his role in bringing such acts as the Prodigy and Chemical Brothers to the U.S. airwaves well before they became the focus of mass media attention and big record sellers.

Roberts is fine with the concept--as owner of KROQ-FM in the ‘80s, he saw that station rise to national leadership and financial success by being ahead of the cultural curve. But he says there has to be some middle ground found between the cutting edge and the mainstream.

Not only had the ratings stalled for the station (the combined KACD and KBCD cumulative audience figures ranked 30th in the market in the recent Arbitron quarterly survey), but more importantly, he says, the average listener was only tuning in for about five hours a week, a low figure for an audience supposedly made up of hard-core fans of the music.

“The music [on Groove] was too unfamiliar, too new and too progressive, which means that people aren’t going to listen for any length of time because they don’t know what they’re listening to,” Roberts says. “And whether you’re in the car or at the office or listening at home, you can’t have it sounding like you’re in a club at 2:30 in the morning all the time. That was reflected in the advertising; it was almost all club ads. I would like to have Coke or cars or something advertising too.”

Aalvik stands by the format’s strength and potential, and plans not only to continue his Internet activities (https://www.grooveradio.com) but also to explore satellite radio opportunities. He also says he’s been contacted by several record companies about possible jobs.

“What they’re moving to now is giving people more of what they can already find on other radio stations and I’m sure that’s not what they were coming to Groove Radio for,” he says. “I really believe in the club culture and deejay culture. That has huge potential to break big in America, and Groove Radio was leading that.”

In any case, the name is changing and so will the music. That would leave Jason Bentley, via his “Metropolis” evening shows on KCRW-FM (89.9) and weekend late-night slots on KROQ-FM (106.7), as the primary radio proponent in L.A. of the more adventurous end of new dance and electronic music.

Moretta, saying he wants the programming to speak for itself, says only that the Groove will be “a place to listen all day and party all night.”

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Everybody Dance Now: Though the beat has shifted some at the new Groove, many are wondering if bigger changes are on the way in L.A. dance-oriented radio. And with that in mind, all ears are turned toward New York, where WKTU-FM has taken a blend of new dance music and classic disco and funk tracks to the top of that mega-market’s ratings.

Groove owner Ken Roberts, for one, recently spent some time in New York and sent back tapes of 24 hours of WKTU for the Groove staff to hear and consider--and perhaps incorporate it into the format.

A move in that direction, though, could find company. Evergreen Media, which owns WKTU, is in the final stages of its merger with the Chancellor Broadcasting group, which owns the L.A. dance-oriented station KIBB-FM, known as B100.3. Speculation is rife that the new ownership will shift the outlet from its one-year experiment with dance music, which has shown only moderate growth, to a full-fledged disco format modeled on the New York flagship.

Ken Christianson, general manager of both KIBB and Chancellor sister-station KYSR-FM (Star 98.7), says that speculation is all that the talk is.

“Nothing has transpired as far as changes in operation or the format,” he says. “There haven’t even been any conversations about any of that.”

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Button Pushing: Brian Beirne--”Mr. Rock ‘n’ Roll” (he has the name trademarked)--is taking his regular 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. shift on KRTH-FM (101.1) on its annual pilgrimage to Graceland in Memphis next week to mark the 20th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. Beirne, who was personally acquainted with the King and remains friends with his family, will air from the grounds of the mansion from Monday through Aug. 17. . . .

Starting Sunday, KCRW-FM is replacing its Sunday 11 a.m. rebroadcast of Joe Frank’s audio art “Somewhere Out There” with “The Savvy Traveler,” an hour of travel tips from Public Radio International. Frank’s show will still be heard on Saturdays at 6 p.m. . . . KCBS-FM (Arrow 93.1) will carry the Westwood One and MTV Radio Network simulcast of the MTV special “Fleetwood Mac: The Dance,” the reunion concert telecast of the band’s most popular lineup, Tuesday at 10 p.m.