KKCY "The City"

[RadioJunkieMike]

The City was absolutely amazing. It must have ended in 1987 and I mentioned it just last week to a radio personality up in Reno. When I think of free form, KKCY really did have a huge impact.

I remember listening to it all the way up in Nevada City, so it had to have some signal strength. They played Jefferson Airplane's Amniotic Fluid the morning I went into labor with daughter November 22, 1986- It was a surreal memory.

I think the song you're thinking of (an instrumental) is "Embryonic Journey"

 

[sfbev]

Yeah KKCY was something else too. But different. Probably too eclectic for most tastes, but there were some real gems. They had Norman Davis in the evenings, and Alan Burton - who did a Saturday morning "must hear" show called "Old North Beach". He later went to overnights, and I remember waking up in the morning the day Kate Wolf died to hear Alan and Wavy Gravy talking about Kate's life. Great radio, but probably not something that would pass muster in a listening room.
Dave B.
[/quote


I remember "Old North Beach". Somewhere I have an ONB T-shirt the design of which was kind of a mash-up of San Francisco stuff with a nice big pot leaf on it. I loved that station. I heard Leonard Cohen for the first time on KKCY. I was definitely too eclectic for a bottom-line based business. How do you sell a station that plays several different sub-genres of rock, and has intelligent discussions about various related subjects? Answer: you don't.

 

[Unregistered]

What spoken-word bit did KKCY play every weekday at sunrise?

Just found this thread; hoping someone will see it (all these years later).

What spoken-word (male) bit did KKCY play every weekday at sunrise or about 5:45 am?

It was some trippy 'greeting of the day' thing. I remember hearing it when my alarm went off every morning. Have never forgotten it. Would love to find it now.

Best,

Paul
in Seattle
PaulDeMars AT gmail

 

[part-timer]

Anyone remember when KKCY had a "beautiful music" format?

I pulled some old cassettes out of the garage today and on a few of them were airchecks from this station.

Zero commercials, just wall-to-wall beautiful muzak with a pre-recorded female DJ chiming in about every 15 minutes with
"You're listening to Super Standards on KKCY Ninety-Eight-Nine FM"

Can anybody pin down specific dates when this format lived and died on KKCY?

I'm guessing early 1990s but I could be off by several years.

 

[michael hagerty]

Anyone remember when KKCY had a "beautiful music" format?

I pulled some old cassettes out of the garage today and on a few of them were airchecks from this station.

Zero commercials, just wall-to-wall beautiful muzak with a pre-recorded female DJ chiming in about every 15 minutes with
"You're listening to Super Standards on KKCY Ninety-Eight-Nine FM"

Can anybody pin down specific dates when this format lived and died on KKCY?

I'm guessing early 1990s but I could be off by several years.

You're off by several years.

KKCY launched on June 22, 1985. It was an eclectic rock format. In late '87, they dumped it and went standards until February 1, 1988, when the station became KHIT.

There is a difference between Standards and Beautiful Music. If your cassettes actually have them playing largely instrumental "Muzak", that'd be a sliver of time. They were full standards on the last day before the flip, January 31, 1988.

 

[part-timer]

Thank you for the response, Michael.

My KKCY tapes - likely from December 1987 or January 1988 - featured a format more eclectic than just standards.

There is definitely muzak/elevator music on them.

For example, there is an instrumental version of “A Day In The Life” with schmaltzy flutes and strings.

And likewise an instrumental muzak arrangement of the 1987 Genesis hit “In Too Deep” which sounds pretty funny with a drum machine.

 

[LKellerIII]

Thank you for the response, Michael.

My KKCY tapes - likely from December 1987 or January 1988 - featured a format more eclectic than just standards.

There is definitely muzak/elevator music on them.

For example, there is an instrumental version of “A Day In The Life” with schmaltzy flutes and strings.

And likewise an instrumental muzak arrangement of the 1987 Genesis hit “In Too Deep” which sounds pretty funny with a drum machine.

I don't think I listened when 98.9 was doing "Standards," but there was some variation in that format. I recall that in the early 90s, KABL-AM 960 went to a Standards format but it quickly morphed into something that was more early 1960s MOR radio - Sinatra, Dean Martin, Steve and Edie, etc. You would not have been likely to hear any Big Band 40s era music. Note that KABL had been a "Beautiful Music" station some years prior to that.

It reminded me more of the old KSFO or KMPC (LA) before they added more Top 40 style hits in the late 60s or early 70s. I don't recall what KABL called that format - nothing, I think.

 

[michael hagerty]

Thank you for the response, Michael.

My KKCY tapes - likely from December 1987 or January 1988 - featured a format more eclectic than just standards.

There is definitely muzak/elevator music on them.

For example, there is an instrumental version of “A Day In The Life” with schmaltzy flutes and strings.

And likewise an instrumental muzak arrangement of the 1987 Genesis hit “In Too Deep” which sounds pretty funny with a drum machine.

Wow! That's pretty unusual. If you end up posting that anywhere, please share the link. I'd be interested in hearing it.

Given what they were doing right up to the minute they changed format on February 1, 1988, I'd guess that this may have been the very beginning of their post-rock format in late '87 and they were improvising until they got their library together.

 

[michael hagerty]

I don't think I listened when 98.9 was doing "Standards," but there was some variation in that format. I recall that in the early 90s, KABL-AM 960 went to a Standards format but it quickly morphed into something that was more early 1960s MOR radio - Sinatra, Dean Martin, Steve and Edie, etc. You would not have been likely to hear any Big Band 40s era music. Note that KABL had been a "Beautiful Music" station some years prior to that.

It reminded me more of the old KSFO or KMPC (LA) before they added more Top 40 style hits in the late 60s or early 70s. I don't recall what KABL called that format - nothing, I think.

Llew: "Standards" as a format description evolved during that period to cover what KABL was doing with post-war MOR ("Middle of the Road" meant nothing by that point since the road had changed so much). It was around that time that "Nostalgia" began being used for the stations that were doing Big Band stuff.

 

[LKellerIII]

Reminds me that when I was in France in 2012, there was an Oldies FM station called "Nostalgie," though it played 60's and 70's pop and rock - especially heavy on the Beach Boys, for some reason. About every fifth song, they would play an old French language pop hit, but 80% were English language Top 40 hits from that era.

 

[MarioMania]

KHIT

I remember listening to Hazy Shade of Winter on KHIT

Short Lived

 

[part-timer]

As suggested a while back, I uploaded a KKCY aircheck from the Super Standards days.
Post-The City and pre-KHIT.
Not too exciting, but if you're into beautiful instrumentals, here's the link:
https://archive.org/details/kkcy1988-01superstandards1
Limited playback options, but I was able to hear it by clicking on FLAC.

 

[landtuna]

For those of you who don't understand the significance of "The City"....that's what the locals from all around the Bay Area called San Francisco from the 50's.