A while back I noted that I listened to KMET, a Los Angeles rock music radio station, during my coming-of-age years. KMET's chief competition at the time was KLOS, a rock station slightly to the right of KMET on the radio dial. Unlike KMET, KLOS is still around, so given that I am back in California I thought I would check in with KLOS to see what it was playing these days.
A week ago Monday (10 November) I tuned in to http://www.955klos.com/ and did some live listening for a little over an hour. Here's a list of the songs that I heard, in chronological order:
The Tubes: "She's a Beauty"
Robert Plant: "Rainbow"
ZZ Top: "La Grange"
Warren Zevon: "Werewolves of London"
Dire Straits: "Sultans of Swing"
Mötley Crüe: "Girls, Girls, Girls"
Van Halen: "Jump"
The Cars: "Let's Go"
Creedence Clearwater Revival: "Lookin' Out My Back Door"
AC/DC: "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
Collective Soul: "Shine"
Toto: "Hold the Line"
Foghat: "Slow Ride"
The Beatles: "Revolution"
Alice in Chains: "Man in the Box"
Pink Floyd: "Run like Hell"
KLOS doesn't call itself a classic rock station - its slogan is "Southern California's Best Rock" - but it clearly qualifies thereas, I think you would agree.
Random notes
(1) Oh my goodness, there's actually a new song here, that being Robert Plant's "Rainbow", the second cut on 2014's Lullaby and... The Ceaseless Roar. "Rainbow" has a bit of a world music feel and was a good choice for that reason. FYI, the legendary Bob Coburn, of Rockline fame, was DJ-ing at the time. (Bob was sitting in for Melissa Maxx, who was under the weather that day.)
(2) The oldest song of the lot is the Beatles' "Revolution", which goes back to 1968. DJ Gary Moore played the harder-rocking (45 rpm) single version of "Revolution" as opposed to the mellower "Revolution 1" version that begins Side 4 of the White Album.
(3) There are two nods to 1990s alternative rock: Collective Soul's "Shine" and Alice in Chains' "Man in the Box". I don't believe New Orleans' WKBU plays these songs but I could be wrong about that.
(4) The songs by The Tubes that got radio airplay back in the day were "White Punks on Dope", "What Do You Want from Life?", "Don't Touch Me There", and "Prime Time". The Tubes mainstreamed with 1981's The Completion Backward Principle, and I don't fault them for that, I really don't, although I do fault Bob, who was on the air back in the day and cannot claim to be unfamiliar with the aforementioned songs, for not playing an edgier track than "She's a Beauty".
(5) Singer-songwriter-wise we've got one entry, that being Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London", which appears on 1978's Excitable Boy. (Something I didn't know: the "Werewolves of London" rhythm section comprised Mick Fleetwood and John McVie from you-know-who.) After Excitable Boy Zevon released nine studio albums prior to his untimely death from cancer in 2003. Have you heard anything at all from those records on the radio? I haven't.
(6) Man, it's been eons since I've heard any of Pink Floyd's pre-Dark Side of the Moon material on the radio. The KMET playlist included "Free Four", "One of These Days", "Fearless", and even "Careful with That Axe, Eugene", songs that are at least as good as if not better than "Run like Hell" (or anything else on The Wall, for that matter). Moreover, The Endless River, Pink Floyd's new and presumably final album, is out: man up and play something from that, guys.
OK, I think I've picked on classic rock radio enough at this point - we'll look at a different radio format next time.
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