Show tune station KGIL plays Broadway hits and movie soundtracks around the clock

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- In a city whose millions of people depend on their car stereos to get them through hours of drive-time daily, there is clearly room for a multitude of radio station formats: Like many cities, Los Angeles has all-rock, all-news, even all-easy listening stations. To the delight of toe-tapping Broadway fans, it now boasts something no other city in the nation has: all show tunes, all the time.

Five months ago, AM station KGIL switched from its all-Beatles format to all-showbiz, playing Broadway show tunes and movie soundtracks around the clock.

"I had to quickly learn Broadway shows -- very quickly," said KGIL operations manager Jim Roope. "I found out on Wednesday we were changing on Friday."

The new format is too new to tell whether it will be a ratings hit, and experts say that, as with its previous formats, being on the AM dial is not in KGIL's favor. Before its stint as an all-Beatles station, it was all-news, a format that failed to pull in enough viewers to satisfy the station's owners.

Stephanie Edwards steps up to the mike to host a show tune program

To its advantage, however, for this format KGIL has roped in on-air personalities like Florence Henderson from TV's "The Brady Bunch," Gary Ownes of "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In" fame and actress Stephanie Edwards.

"They've got a talent roster that really puts them in the major leagues in a major-league city," said Mike Kinosian of Radio and Records.

Now KGIL is helping teach a whole new generation about a rich musical heritage that other radio stations long ago forgot.

Correspondent Charles Feldman contributed to this report.