KYXY and K-JOY---- What Formats Did They Have?

[Hoxie]

Can any historians of San Diego radio tell me what sort of music was on KYXY and K-JOY, back about 40 years ago?

I know KOGO was doing an adult-contemporary format at the time, and I'm guessing KYXY and K-JOY were targeting a demographic that was older and more feminine, but were these stations all playing the same A/C material?

 

[johndavis]

Can any historians of San Diego radio tell me what sort of music was on KYXY and K-JOY, back about 40 years ago?

I know KOGO was doing an adult-contemporary format at the time, and I'm guessing KYXY and K-JOY were targeting a demographic that was older and more feminine, but were these stations all playing the same A/C material?

The 1980 Broadcasting Yearbook shows KJQY as "beautiful music" and KYXY as "popular adult music" which would be either a euphemism for B/EZ or soft AC.
Same for 1985 (okay, they called KJQY Easy Listening, but same deal).
In 1988, KJQY was "Light & Easy" (this was Group W morphing all their B/EZ stations into AC.)
By 1990 both were AC.

 

[DaveMasonsd]

Can any historians of San Diego radio tell me what sort of music was on KYXY and K-JOY, back about 40 years ago?

I know KOGO was doing an adult-contemporary format at the time, and I'm guessing KYXY and K-JOY were targeting a demographic that was older and more feminine, but were these stations all playing the same A/C material?

KYXY (96.5) was known for years as "Soft Rock" and has been a variation of that format for many years. Today it's "The 80's through Today", battling with KMYI (Hot AC), Sister "Sunny 98.1".

KJOY in the 80s was KJQY at 103.7, owned by Westinghouse. It became what was called "Adult Spectrum" music (or AC) in the mid 80's. It became KPLN after CBS bought it-and did varying attempts at Classic Rock - against market leader KGB-FM. 94.1 in 1996 was owned by Nationwide and tried Classic Rock as "The Eagle".

100 kw KFSD-FM at 94.1 was sold by Lotus Communications to Nationwide Communications in 1996. The new owners decided classical music would not have enough listeners and revenue, so the format was switched to classic hits as "94.1 The Eagle" on January 16, 1997, with the call letters KXGL.[3] KXGL was acquired in 1998 by Jacor Communications, which was later acquired by Clear Channel Communications.

Jacor did research on how to battle then lucrative KYXY and discovered that the K-JOY name was still highly recognized in the community so those calls were returned- this time on 94.1.

On August 10, 1998, KXGL dropped the classic hits music format and call letters, switching to soft adult contemporary music as KJQY, known as K-Joy 94.1 to compete with leading AC station KYXY.[4] (The K-Joy call sign was on a previous KYXY competitor, KJQY, which is now the current incarnation of KSON.) In 2000, KJQY changed to a new format called Soft Oldies. When Oldies station KBZT left the format in November of that year, KJQY became a mainstream oldies station. The KJQY calls were retired in 2001 when 94.1 became Hot AC "My 94.1" and Classic Hits replaced KMXX on 95.7 as "KOOL 95.7". Jacor (then Clear Channel) was not enamored with the format so the format was then relocated to a Mexican signal at 99.3 until the station was sold (per FCC rules) in 2005. I was mornings at PD at KJOY, KOOL 95.7 and KOOL 99.3 from 1999-2007.

 

[michael hagerty]

The 1980 Broadcasting Yearbook shows KJQY as "beautiful music" and KYXY as "popular adult music" which would be either a euphemism for B/EZ or soft AC.
Same for 1985 (okay, they called KJQY Easy Listening, but same deal).
In 1988, KJQY was "Light & Easy" (this was Group W morphing all their B/EZ stations into AC.)
By 1990 both were AC.

John, KYXY morphed from MOR to AC in the late 70s. KFMB-AM and KOGO were the AC leaders, but it was 40 years ago---the October/November 1980 book---that KYXY turned it into a horse race. KFMB took a bath, falling from a 6.4 in July/August to a 4.0---even with Padres baseball. KOGO and KYXY were tied with a 2.9. KOGO fell apart first (and eventually changed format), but as KFMB went more and more toward full service, the AC audience that wanted music gravitated toward KYXY.

KJQY was beautiful music until the late 80s/early 90s.

 

[johndavis]

KJOY in the 80s was KJQY at 103.7, owned by Westinghouse. It became what was called "Adult Spectrum" music (or AC) in the mid 80's. It became KPLN after CBS bought it-and did varying attempts at Classic Rock - against market leader KGB-FM.

I remember the Adult Spectrum Radio format from when Group W put it on KMEO in Phoenix as they evolved out of B/EZ into AC. It was a mix of AC and new age instrumentals.

I don't think it worked that well, but you know the drill. You either try to slowly evolve a format so you don't take a revenue hit or you rip the bandaid off and hope that the new format starts making money right away.

 

[michael hagerty]

I remember the Adult Spectrum Radio format from when Group W put it on KMEO in Phoenix as they evolved out of B/EZ into AC. It was a mix of AC and new age instrumentals.

I don't think it worked that well, but you know the drill. You either try to slowly evolve a format so you don't take a revenue hit or you rip the bandaid off and hope that the new format starts making money right away.

My favorite, just before or maybe at the very beginning of that phase, was when they took Don Henley's "End of the Innocence" and edited out the vocals---ending up with about a minute-twenty Bruce Hornsby instrumental. Seriously?

Though the best I ever heard from Bonneville was just before I left Phoenix in 2013---whatever 96.9 was called then----they played Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"---the single edit, naturally---but edited that as well, to remove the line "and the colored girls go" so the song just goes from Lou singing to "doo doo doo do do do do do do....."

Still, minor stuff. I worked (part-time) for Bonneville in '93-'97 and they were a solid company.

 

[Hoxie]

KFMB-AM and KOGO were the AC leaders, but it was 40 years ago---the October/November 1980 book---that KYXY turned it into a horse race. KOGO fell apart first (and eventually changed format), but as KFMB went more and more toward full service, the AC audience that wanted music gravitated toward KYXY.

KJQY was beautiful music until the late 80s/early 90s.

Terrific information, Michael, thanks very much.

I know what AC music, circa 1980, sounded like (Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand, Steely Dan, Pure Prairie League)... but what did KJQY fans hear when they tuned in? "Beautiful music" is a format I'm not acquainted with at all. Are we talking about the softer side of AC, or are we talking about all-instrumental "elevator music"?

 

[michael hagerty]

Terrific information, Michael, thanks very much.

I know what AC music, circa 1980, sounded like (Dionne Warwick, Barbra Streisand, Steely Dan, Pure Prairie League)... but what did KJQY fans hear when they tuned in? "Beautiful music" is a format I'm not acquainted with at all. Are we talking about the softer side of AC, or are we talking about all-instrumental "elevator music"?

Hoxie, you're welcome.

AC started in the late 60s with stations like WBZ, Boston, KFWB, Los Angeles and K-101 in San Francisco. It really was just Top 40 with the five to seven hardest songs of the week gone and oldies that went back 10-15 years instead of 3-5. When young-to-middle-aged adult listening shifted to FM in the early 80s, Jhani Kaye at KOST revolutionized the format with "Continuous Soft Hits". That's the AC you're recalling.

As for "Beautiful Music", it's a term the industry settled on for a format that, generally, featured a two-to-one instrumental/vocal mix and played music in 12-to-15 minute uninterrupted segments. Most, but not all, were automated.

Since you're familiar with San Diego, here's a local example---KFMB-FM in 1970---with a format they called "Music Only for a Woman":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUpoXHx2GZA&list=PLO8oks9AaQdzcWFEOIz_AOciyRzvlcEbl&index=12&t=0s

 

[powers]

Was that Shotgun Tom at the very beginning doing the sign-on?

 

[michael hagerty]

Was that Shotgun Tom at the very beginning doing the sign-on?

No. At this point, Shotgun would either have been at KACY, Oxnard or KAFY, Bakersfield. He wouldn't arrive at KFMB-FM until 1976. KFMB didn't go live with hit music until March of 1975.

My guess is the voice is Ed Peters, KFMB's General Manager at the time. He syndicated the "Music Only For A Woman" format, which was the beginning of what became Peters Productions, a fairly successful production and jingle house in the 70s and 80s.

 

[Hoxie]

As for "Beautiful Music", it's a term the industry settled on for a format that, generally, featured a two-to-one instrumental/vocal mix and played music in 12-to-15 minute uninterrupted segments. Most, but not all, were automated.

I've been reading through 1963 issues of the San Diego Union, noting how differently radio was done way back then (for example, DJs routinely working six-day weeks rather than a straight Monday-Friday).

I'm guessing KPRI-FM was doing the Beautiful Music format at the time, judging from the program titles in the newspaper: "Morning Moods," "Music for Mothers" and "KPRI by the Sea." As an old radio junkie, I wish I could hear some of that, though I doubt I'd have tuned in very often.

 

[michael hagerty]

I've been reading through 1963 issues of the San Diego Union, noting how differently radio was done way back then (for example, DJs routinely working six-day weeks rather than a straight Monday-Friday).

I'm guessing KPRI-FM was doing the Beautiful Music format at the time, judging from the program titles in the newspaper: "Morning Moods," "Music for Mothers" and "KPRI by the Sea." As an old radio junkie, I wish I could hear some of that, though I doubt I'd have tuned in very often.

Hoxie:

Yep. KPRI was "Capri by the Sea" until it started playing album rock in the late 60s. If you heard the KFMB-FM aircheck I linked, you've pretty much heard the Beautiful Music format. There really wasn't much innovation in how it was done from station to station, market to market or even decade to decade, apart from the slight modernization of the music.

Radio was a six-day gig even for big-time personalities in major markets. It really wasn't until the 80s or later that it changed. Usually, weekend shifts were longer than weekdays, so you could make it work with a sixth day from your weekday people, plus one or two weekend/utility jocks. Example:

Saturday:
12:00 am-6:00 am: Weekday overnight talent
6:00 am-11:00 am: Weekday morning talent
11:00 am-4:00 pm: Weekday afternoon talent
4:00 pm-9:00 pm: Weekend/utility jock 1
9:00 pm-2:00 am: Weekend/utility jock 2

Sunday:
2:00 am-5:00 am: Off air for transmitter maintenance
5:00 am-9:00 am: Religious programming (often board-opped by the maintenance engineer)
9:00 am-2:00 pm: Weekday midday talent
2:00 pm-7:00 pm: Weekday evening talent
7:00 pm-12:00 am: Weekend/utility jock 1 (usually board-opping 2 or 3 hours of public affairs programming at 9:00 or 10:00 pm)

 

[davideduardo]

My guess is the voice is Ed Peters, KFMB's General Manager at the time. He syndicated the "Music Only For A Woman" format, which was the beginning of what became Peters Productions, a fairly successful production and jingle house in the 70s and 80s.

At one point, he had about 6 or 7 different taped formats, all aimed at smaller markets.

For a time I had Music for the Two of Us (Música para Nosotros Dos) on WSRA, Sonorama 93, in San Juan. We did some customization but eventually went with FM 100 Plan out of Chicago. One of the odd things of the Peters format was that they put an artificial fade on the end of each song, which annoyed me considerably. The idea was to do the opposite of Shulke and Bonneville which left tiny pauses and, instead, segue the music with overlaps.

 

[johndavis]

Radio was a six-day gig even for big-time personalities in major markets. It really wasn't until the 80s or later that it changed. Usually, weekend shifts were longer than weekdays, so you could make it work with a sixth day from your weekday people, plus one or two weekend/utility jocks. Example:

Even 10 years ago we used to have the midday and afternoon weekday jocks doing a live weekend shift every other weekend where I'm working now.

Now we use weekend jocks & a couple of tracked shifts.

But in the 80s, a lot of stations would run 4 hour shifts during the week (6a-10a, 10a-2p, 2p-6p, 6p-10p, 10p-2a, 2a-6a) and then have some of those full timers pulling weekend shifts to get to 40 hours in a week if they didn't have other off-air duties.

Of course, the genius was the sales manager somewhere who figured out they could get an extra 4 to 8 minutes of spots at prime rates if they started the morning show at 5:30. Half the time the morning hosts weren't in the building before 6, but those rates went up when they played the morning show jingles at 5:30 sharp!

 

[michael hagerty]

Even 10 years ago we used to have the midday and afternoon weekday jocks doing a live weekend shift every other weekend where I'm working now.

Now we use weekend jocks & a couple of tracked shifts.

But in the 80s, a lot of stations would run 4 hour shifts during the week (6a-10a, 10a-2p, 2p-6p, 6p-10p, 10p-2a, 2a-6a) and then have some of those full timers pulling weekend shifts to get to 40 hours in a week if they didn't have other off-air duties.

Of course, the genius was the sales manager somewhere who figured out they could get an extra 4 to 8 minutes of spots at prime rates if they started the morning show at 5:30. Half the time the morning hosts weren't in the building before 6, but those rates went up when they played the morning show jingles at 5:30 sharp!

People are stunned to find that jocks worked six-day weeks. It's just how it was done. Every big-name jock in L.A. when I grew up pulled a sixth-day shift. Some (Dick Whittinghill at KMPC, Lohman and Barkley at KFI) pre-taped it, but others (Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele at KHJ; Gary Owens at KMPC) did 'em live.

After I went to TV news in Reno, a jock on KOZZ, Bruce Van Dyke, was becoming a big local star. He'd destroyed me at KOLO and a kid on KCBN who's now known as Hollywood Hamilton in the ratings in the evening, and they gave him morning drive, where he was doing very well. In fact, he became the first radio personality in Reno to be put under contract.

Bruce demanded a five-day work week, but KOZZ wouldn't budge. Bruce then said if he had to work the shift, could he make it appear that it was someone else to the audience? Management said fine---they weren't looking for Monday-Friday ratings on Saturday---they just didn't want to pay an extra body to fill the shift.

So Bruce went on the air from 6 to 11 every Saturday morning with a horrible stereotypical accent as "Ricardo Cabeza---you can call me Dick."

I'm sure he thought a week or so of that would get him his five-day week. Instead, Ricardo became a fan favorite and KOZZ was getting two big stars for the price of one.

 

[Hoxie]

People are stunned to find that jocks worked six-day weeks. It's just how it was done.

How about this oddity? The old Union radio listings for KCBQ show Jerry Walker DJing weekdays from 6 to 9am, and then again from noon to 2. Don Howard's shifts were 9am to noon, and then 2 to 4.

Was this sort of thing common, or just an experiment?

 

[michael hagerty]

How about this oddity? The old Union radio listings for KCBQ show Jerry Walker DJing weekdays from 6 to 9am, and then again from noon to 2. Don Howard's shifts were 9am to noon, and then 2 to 4.

Was this sort of thing common, or just an experiment?

Curious to know what year that was.

I don't know how common it was, but it was done. Roger Carroll did 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. five days a week PLUS a weekend shift at KMPC from 1959-1971 (not a typo---12 years he did that split shift).

And sometimes, depending on staffing, a split shift or two was the only way to cover when two or more jocks got sick at the same time.

 

[davideduardo]

Curious to know what year that was.

I don't know how common it was, but it was done. Roger Carroll did 1:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. five days a week PLUS a weekend shift at KMPC from 1959-1971 (not a typo---12 years he did that split shift).

And sometimes, depending on staffing, a split shift or two was the only way to cover when two or more jocks got sick at the same time.

Yes, other than covering when it's too late to get a part timer, a split was the alternative. But I never ran into a station having the same jock do two separate shifts regularly. In fact, this is the first time I heard about it.

 

[michael hagerty]

Yes, other than covering when it's too late to get a part timer, a split was the alternative. But I never ran into a station having the same jock do two separate shifts regularly. In fact, this is the first time I heard about it.

Roger and I had an e-mail and phone correspondence the last 20 years of his life. He said it started as a temporary thing at KMPC because Gene Autry was making changes. Prior to Roger's arrival, the shifts were four hours during the day and six at night---Dick Whittinghill 6-10 am, Ira Cook 10 am-2 pm, Johnny Grant 2pm-6pm, Bill Stewart 6 pm-12 midnight and John McShane from 12 midnight-6 am.

Gene wanted Whittinghill from 6-9, Ira from 9-Noon, Roger Noon-3, Johnny 3-6 and then wanted to split the evening shift to 6-9 for Bill Stewart, add a jock 9pm-1am and then have McShane do 1-6 am.

Apparently Stewart was ticked that he wasn't getting middays and walked out. Roger was then asked to do the split. But it was five years before KMPC got a 9pm jock they liked enough to keep for any period of time (Johnny Magnus), and about that time, McShane quit to go into PR and an unsuccessful run for public office. Roger, meantime, found that it worked for him. He was 30, had outside interests (commercial voice-overs, TV show off-camera announcing) and being free for three and a half hours in the afternoon made money for him. Plus, when he agreed to do it long-term, he said, he convinced Autry that he really should be paid for two shifts. So, at least according to Roger, he made more money than Whittinghill or Gary Owens (who took over afternoons in 1964).

 

[michael hagerty]

By the way, Roger's split shift at KMPC ended when Autry squeezed Ira Cook out. That took some time and began with bringing Geoff Edwards over from KFI to do 9-Noon in 1968 (Ira had been doing 9 am-1 pm since Roger's arrival in 1959). That took Ira down to an hour a day. Then in 1970---not '71---Autry brought Jim Lange down to L.A. from KSFO for noon-3 and that was it for Ira (they offered him weekends and he went to KVFM in the San Fernando Valley instead).

Again, according to Roger, Autry didn't touch his salary when he went from four and a half hours a day to two and a half and when the next contract negotiation rolled around, he got a raise on top of that. And, when KMPC went talk in '80, Geoff Edwards and Wink Martindale (who replaced Lange after a year) were out---but Roger and Gary were given Vice Presidencies of Golden West Broadcasters. Gary only stayed in the executive suite for a year before going to KPRZ. Roger was there a bit longer (it may have simply been a device to run out their contracts).