Does anyone know the name of the KJR deejay who broke Gordon Lightfoot's song "If You Could Read My Mind"? KJR was the first station to give the song airplay (in Dec. 1970) and it snowballed from there. Thanks.
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KJR history question
- Thread starter Nicocanuck
- Start date
To my best recollection, Pat was not on the air in 1970. However, believe he was still in management there. Could have been Lan, as this was a period where the daytime programming was lighter than at night. Red Robinson was a Vancouver radio guy, right? Jocks in late '70 would have been Emporer Smith, Lan Roberts, Gary Shannon, Bob Shannon, and a few others I can't remember without a cheat sheet.
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I forgot Norm Gregory, not sure of his start date, though.
I contacted Pat O'Day and he confirms that he was selecting music for KJR at the time (fall of 1970) and that he would've added "If You Could Read My Mind" to the station's playlist. He adds that he has no way of knowing which of his DJs put it on the air first as all would be playing it once installed on the playlist. KJR, he says was always ahead of the pack.
So there you go. Thanks for your help everyone.
I remember visiting Seattle in 1969 and noticing that the music was about two weeks behind Portland. I thought it was strange and decided it was because Portland was closer to Los Angeles, so we got new music before Seattle.
What can I say? It was all I could come up with. Here's a thought: It seems like I was listening mainly to KOL. Is it possible that KJR had a temporary lock on new music at that time?
In the interest of not digging up some irrelevant conspiracy discussion; when I was at KING in the 70's, there was a certain amount of grumbling on behalf of the PD and MD as to whether KJR received some sort of preferential treatment from the "Record Pigs", when it came to getting new music first. Personally, I saw it as more of a competitive mindset, not that there was necessarily anything to it.
@ Semoochie, Smaller towns always have broke new music first generally speaking. Of course there were exceptions like the Lightfoot song and Led Zeppelin Whole Lotta Love (at KJR) where the station would find a song nobody was aware of and go with it.
The standard way to break a record was to get it on air in smaller markets first then the big guys would notice the buzz if any and the record guys would have a story to tell the big stations who were very selective when adding new music, generally.
The standard way to break a record was to get it on air in smaller markets first then the big guys would notice the buzz if any and the record guys would have a story to tell the big stations who were very selective when adding new music, generally.
It's been said that the major New York, Chicago, San Francisco and L.A. Top 40 stations paid special attention to KJR's playlists and in fact, used them to determine the new music that would be played on THOSE stations. So airplay on KJR was THAT important for any new artist and record....
In the 60's and 70's when stations used trades called "tip sheets" like Gavin, FMQB, Hamilton and others to track what other stations were playing, each of us had some particular stations that we watched to spot songs that were breaking or, sometimes, ones we missed.
We'd follow the ones that most seemed to reflect our own market situation and programming philosophy. When I was programming the first FM CHR in Birmingham in the early 70's, the Music Director and I would look at stations in the region that generally "got it right" such as WMAK, WQXI, WHHY and WABB. Then we'd look for the tabulations of biggest moves and breakers and see who was moving the songs up and whether they were added. Finally, we'd watch the drops, particularly with stations we knew did a good job of tracking local sales.
There certainly were some stations that had a reputation for having a better than average batting average and which had great music directors... Betty and Rosalie going back to the Drake era and people like Coleen in the 70's.
The strategy of small to medium market radio stations using bigger markets for music research is nothing new, and is still alive today. If a station, or group can match the psychographics of a larger market to their own then this is much more cost-effective than a full-blown local research project. It is true that major markets are the true story of what constitutes a hit. However, 25-35 years ago it was the smaller markets that tended to "break" records. All bets are off in today's radio world.
About 25 years ago when I supervised a country FM in Tallahassee, we rotated music tests with stations in two other nearby markets in AL and GA. So we paid for one test every 18 months and got three! Each station had a different owner, but we had the same consultant-
Today, with consolidation, there is even more such sharing.
It wasn't just that there were songs in Portland that weren't played yet in Seattle. It was as if the last two or three weeks never occurred! I was hearing songs that were no longer being played in Portland and none of the newer releases. If there was such a thing as a recurrent then, I wasn't aware of it. Songs would drop off after their initial run and reemerge later as oldies.
I think it is impossible to compare the two markets from this era. KJR was still strong, and they had tremendous influence on the Seattle market at that time (1970). Things began to change in the early 70's as KING came on with a strong attack, which didn't pay off for many years. KOL, while strong in '70, lost ground in subsequent years, eventually going country KMPS in '75.
As for new music and breaking records, the bottom line is both markets probably broke records, but KJR was the most influential. KJR was notorious for being a rock-leaning top40 and hedged at about anything that sounded too R&B. This was a deliberate programming action based on their active audience. Maybe Portland stations were more open in this regard, I do not know.
KJR continued to slug along into the 70's, and actually did well compared to many AM's around the country. But even KJR was not immune from the audience migrating to FM. The station became a personality-driven music/talk station in the late 70's, and eventually died as a music station. This death was predicted for many years, but they put up a good fight.
Today, the station still exists with the same calls, but have been beaten by KIRO-AM handily. I hope they can regain their former glory.
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On a lighter note, we broke a song titled "Evel Knievel" at KALE in the late 60's. It was basically a promo on a 45. I've been unable to even find it on the web. No surprise. Our manager Sparky Dix got a big buy from Evel for a jump over Suburu busses in Richland. Sparky came to me and said "put the song on the top forty, and make it number 1". The event was postponed due to weather, and the following week we got another buy, but Evel was pissed because we didn't make it number one. I had specific demand from Sparky to put it on the list again and make it number one.
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