Komo-TV's John Larson Leaving For `Dateline NBC'

Mar 11, 1994

Chuck Taylor

One of the better TV reporters in town is going to The Big Time.

John Larson, who has done a little of everything over the years and won a slew of awards for it, is leaving ABC affiliate KOMO-TV (Channel 4) to join "Dateline NBC" as a Los Angeles-based correspondent.

The timing of his departure is a little uncertain because of his contract with KOMO, so you might see him on Channel 4 a while longer. Larson came to Seattle in 1986 from KTUU-TV in Anchorage.

Mountain of music: A couple of weeks ago, KMTT-FM-AM (103.7, 850) played an important role in a New York Times story about the radio format that has come to be known as "adult album alternative," or AAA, which the story's headline called "rock for prosperous adults."

"The Mountain," as KMTT calls itself, was cited as one of the most successful AAA stations in the country, and an hour of its music was listed to help define the format.

So what exactly is adult-alternative? Since The New York Times also targets prosperous adults, let's give prosperous adult reporter Joshua Mills a chance to explain it:

"The format's basic tenet is that plenty of adults, even middle-aged ones, want to keep up with current rock-and-roll - but not all current rock-and-roll. The format gathers together lesser-known but critically acclaimed performers . . . and blends in performances from the audience's teenage years. . . . Left out entirely are heavy metal, syrupy ballads, piercing blues rock and rap. . . .

"One striking element of AAA radio is how much it shares the goals of classical-music stations. In both formats, the listeners have relatively high education and income levels. The challenge for either kind of station is to convince advertisers, through market research or qualitative ratings rather than raw numbers, that whatever the size of the audience, it is loaded with listeners who have money to spend."

Indeed, interpreting the ratings for stations like The Mountain can be a real pain. When The Seattle Times recently ran numbers based on all listeners 12 and older, The Mountain ranked 15th with a 2.9 share. And KMTT, said program director Chris Mays, got calls from listeners concerned that low ratings might portend its demise.

KMTT is doing fine, thanks, but it is indeed a challenge to sell the numbers, said station general manager G. Michael Donovan. More than most people, he said, The Mountain's target audience tends to guard its privacy and has better things to do than fill out silly Arbitron diaries, which means they probably are under-represented in ratings.

Incidentally, the NYT notion that adult-alternative is something new will seem odd to Seattleites who recall that KEZX-FM (98.9), now playing contemporary jazz, in the 1980s sounded similar to The Mountain. And KZAM-FM-AM, which is now adult-contemporary KLSY-FM (92.5), sort of pioneered the adult-alternative format in the 1970s. Mays has worked at all three stations. --

Hearing it on The X: The death watch continues at KXRX-FM (96.5). The feisty, 7-year-old album-oriented rock station is being sold by Shamrock Broadcasting Inc. of Burbank, Calif., to Alliance Broadcasting of Walnut Creek, Calif., for $11.9 million. FCC approval is expected in June.

Meantime, hardly an hour goes by when a KXRX jock doesn't make a crack about not being around in a few weeks. "Airchecks" - DJ demo tapes - are in the mail, and the staff fully expects the worst.

Alliance has had success in Dallas and Detroit with a format called "Young Country."

But Alliance president John Hayes said yesterday that results from research into the Seattle rock-radio market are being compiled and Alliance would prefer to stick with that format. With sagging ratings in a crowded field, though, something is likely to happen at KXRX.

Some places would try to control the rumors, but as listeners might expect, KXRX is more a cheerful asylum than a radio station, so rumor-mongering is actually being encouraged. Employees are checking and adding to an official rumor sign.

"We're having a lot of fun," said general manager Steve West, whose future is as uncertain as his staff's. "There's just no other way to do it."

Radio gone to seed: After last week's examination of news-talk radio "liner" wars, Ross Reynolds, program director of KUOW-FM (94.9), reports, with tongue in cheek, a new one for his station's gardening segments hosted by Washington State University extension agent George Pinyuh: "The more you listen, the more you grow."