Send me a love song: How LA became hopelessly devoted to radio dedication shows
LOS ANGELES -- A few weeks after moving to Los Angeles last August, my partner and I were driving home from the movies when we came across the voice of Art Laboe on the radio, chatting with KDAY 93.5 FM callers late on a Sunday night.
"Why have you never dedicated a song to me?" I asked them as we rolled up to a stop sign.
"Because it's corny," they replied. "But I'll do it if you really want."
The streets were quiet when we turned onto my block a few minutes later. We lingered in the car for a minute to hear a stranger pour her heart out to Laboe — and thousands of listeners.
Laboe died last October, but his impact on the radio industry can be heard in the dozens of dedication shows that cropped up after he first went on air in the 1940s. The trend peaked in the 1980s, when quite a few popular shows started broadcasting, but dedications can still be heard across the country every night.
Delilah, the mononymous "queen of sappy love songs," broadcasts a five-hour-long request show each night from her home near Seattle that has made her the most listened-to woman on the radio. She is nationally syndicated on about 150 stations, reaching about 8.3 million listeners each week.
On L.A.'s KOST 103.5 FM, reaches nearly half a million listeners weekly.
