106.5 KPRI FM memories

[SDRadio]

The Chicken's web page confirms that too: eggs were handed out, one half were AM and one half were FM.
http://famouschicken.com

 

[Garrett]

when KGB-FM started remember when the AM went back to chicken rock Top-40, the whole reason the CHICKEN started as the mascot, because it was called chicken rock.

The Chicken was the mascot for the FM, not the Top 40 AM. Ted got the job being the chicken simply because he fit in the suit (I think he was some sort of promotion assistant before that).

Not true. He was the spokesman for AM & FM. I know because I listened a lot more to Wizard Lew
than I did to the FM at that time and the Chicken was all over KGB-AM. I thought it was Chicken S***
that they chose Chicken Rock instead of Top 40 to go up against KCBQ. They had some great jocks though.

Please forgive me ignorance (once again), but I'm afraid I am not familiar with this "Chicken Rock" format you speak of. What exactly was "Chicken Rock?" How was it different from Top 40?

As for the Chicken working on both stations, I remember this: The story about the born again Chicken on "Real Peaple." Also, I knew a guy who had an old plastic drink cup that had a picture of the Chicken, a funky old looking KGB logo, and something about "Progressive Radio 13" (which I guess was a reference to KGB AM).

 

[SDRadio]

Please forgive me ignorance (once again), but I'm afraid I am not familiar with this "Chicken Rock" format you speak of. What exactly was "Chicken Rock?" How was it different from Top 40?

What the cluck G-dawg! Visit the web page for the Chicken. You'll read all about it.

 

[doublecashkgb]

Chicken Rock basically was a format which played the pop-rock, and soft-pop from Top 40 while ignoring the harder rock & R&B. Basically they were after 25+ listeners. It was a dismal failure at KGB. In fact everything they tried on AM with Jacobs & Leibert was a failure. Until John Lander arrived & put Top 40 on KGB, the station did very well for about 2 years, even reaching #1 12+ in 1980.

 

[Garrett]

Please forgive me ignorance (once again), but I'm afraid I am not familiar with this "Chicken Rock" format you speak of. What exactly was "Chicken Rock?" How was it different from Top 40?

What the cluck G-dawg! Visit the web page for the Chicken. You'll read all about it.

Oh, you're right. Sorry.
-G.

 

[alpine11]

1971

Does anybody remember Bat Johnson? He worked around 1971?

 

[michael hagerty]

Does anybody remember Bat Johnson? He worked around 1971?

Alpine11: Batt's gone on to a lengthy and varied career:

http://www.battjohnson.com/about.htm

 

[Dr. Sound]

If anyone is interested in unused KPRI bumper stickers, shoot me an e-mail at [email protected]

I've got two different stacks of stickers!

 

[GeoffR]

91X stumbled in its early days trying to compete against KPRI. They had a lame morning show "John and Mary." Mary had done news at KPRI and later became San Diego Union Tribune reporter Mary Curran Downey: she was not a rocker.

We had some good people at KPRI into the late 70's including Raymond Banister - better known for his work on KROQ. 91X didn't hit its stride until it went with a New Wave KROQ-type format that was totally unlike anything being done at KPRI. KPRI self-destructed. (trivia: Jim McInnes' wife Sandi Banister got her last name when she was married to Raymond while he was at KPRI). Ernie Gladden (Ernesto) was also at KPRI around that time. I think he had earlier been at KGB-FM. He was a great FM jock. If you ever research Bob Dylan you will come across many, many references to a Bob Dylan interview recorded in November 1980 by KPRI's "Ernesto Bladden." That's right, someone somewhere wrote down Ernesto's last name as Bladden instead of Gladden and the mistake is repeated a thousand times.

When I was at KPRI mornings were done by Harry Scarborough, who used to constantly post fliers on the bulletin board about TM, Rolfing and all these other new age self discovery gimmicks. I put a little sign above one that said, "TO FIND YOURSELF THIS WEEK, HARRY RECOMMENDS:"

I did morning news on Saturdays. The news guy and jock sat face-to-face divided by a window. One Saturday morning Harry sat there wearing sunglasses indoors at six in the morning. Knowing Harry, that did not surprise me at all, but he felt compelled to press the intercom button to let me know, "You probably noticed I'm wearing shades this morning. I'm not trying to be hip....it's just that I'll be weeping a lot."

Harry got out of radio eventually and apparently found work in the comparatively sane travel industry.

Bob Hudson, your memory of how KPRI did after 91X signed on in September 1978 is a bit fuzzy... Both KGB and KPRI dropped after 91X hit the air..

April/May 1978 - KGB 7.1, KPRI 5.9

Oct/Nov 1978 KGB 4.8 KPRI 5.2 91X 2.5 I believe that 91X just had some billboards up that said "X Marks The Rock"

April/May 1978 KGB 4.4 KPRI 4.1 91X 4.8

So it took 91X 6 months to kick KGB and KPRI's asses. By the way, John & Mary had been the morning show at KPRI and had been hired away by 91X in September 1978. What really makes this amazing was that 91X was on a tape-delay at the start - not allowed to send a live signal across the border to the transmitter in Tijuana. So John & Mary actually recorded their 6-10AM morning show from midnight-4AM.

 

[michael hagerty]

Bob Hudson, your memory of how KPRI did after 91X signed on in September 1978 is a bit fuzzy... Both KGB and KPRI dropped after 91X hit the air..

April/May 1978 - KGB 7.1, KPRI 5.9

Oct/Nov 1978 KGB 4.8 KPRI 5.2 91X 2.5 I believe that 91X just had some billboards up that said "X Marks The Rock"

April/May 1979 KGB 4.4 KPRI 4.1 91X 4.8

So it took 91X 6 months to kick KGB and KPRI's asses.

I mean, to the extent that 4/10ths of a point and 7/10ths of a point is actually kicking anyone's ass...

But it's what comes next that matters:

Oct/Nov 1979: KGB 5.7, KPRI 5.6, 91X 4.4

April/May 1980: KPRI 5.6, KGB 5.4, 91X 4.5

Oct/Nov 1980: KGB 7.0, KPRI 5.8, 91X 5.4

April/May 1981: KGB 6.7, KPRI 4.8, 91X 4.3

And even when KPRI went into decline, KGB was still way ahead:

Oct/Nov 1981: KGB 8.2, 91X 5.7, KPRI 4.7

April/May 1982: KGB 9.6, 91X 4.9, KPRI 4.4

And there was one more wobbly moment before Rick Carroll arrived:

Oct/Nov 1982: KGB 6.6, KPRI 5.1, 91X 3.5


So my takeaway from that, and Bob Hudson would probably agree, is that 91X had a good book in April/May of '79, but even staying within half a point of that number, fell to third for the next four books (more if you count Jan/Feb and Jul/Aug, but we're not) and it was four years later (April/May '83) that they finally tied KGB (5.6.-5.6, with KPRI at a 4.4).

(Oct/Nov of 1983 was KGB 7.2, 91X 5.1, but by that point they were pretty different animals.)

 

[GeoffR]

Pulling ahead of two established rock stations in 6 months after hitting the air was pretty impressive...I think that's kicking someone's ass.. The drop in Oct/Nov 1979 was most likely because the 91X format had been changed to adding in a bunch of crap pop & r&b to make the music more mainstream, but all it did was make 91X take a hit in the ratings..

 

[michael hagerty]

Pulling ahead of two established rock stations in 6 months after hitting the air was pretty impressive...I think that's kicking someone's ass.. The drop in Oct/Nov 1979 was most likely because the 91X format had been changed to adding in a bunch of crap pop & r&b to make the music more mainstream, but all it did was make 91X take a hit in the ratings..

Gotta wonder why 91X would do that after the April/May book. Other than maybe they knew they were within the margin of error with KGB and not outright winning.

As to ass-kicking, that was San Diego in the 60s and 70s---new kid on the block gets a hot book, settles back down for a while and either eventually cements its lead (KGB vs. KCBQ in '65, the revamped Q vs. KGB in '71, B-100 vs. Q in '77) or doesn't (Magic 91).

 

[GeoffR]

Gotta wonder why 91X would do that after the April/May book. Other than maybe they knew they were within the margin of error with KGB and not outright winning.

As to ass-kicking, that was San Diego in the 60s and 70s---new kid on the block gets a hot book, settles back down for a while and either eventually cements its lead (KGB vs. KCBQ in '65, the revamped Q vs. KGB in '71, B-100 vs. Q in '77) or doesn't (Magic 91).

Apparently Ed Noble had some part-owners in Noble Broadcasting and they thought that 91X should be making more of a profit so it was decided that the format needed to be broadened to make the cash register really ring. Bad idea. It didn't work and led to the Felix/Agnew programming when Gene Knight left for KHTZ in Los Angeles in 1980.

 

[davideduardo]

Apparently Ed Noble had some part-owners in Noble Broadcasting and they thought that 91X should be making more of a profit so it was decided that the format needed to be broadened to make the cash register really ring. Bad idea. It didn't work and led to the Felix/Agnew programming when Gene Knight left for KHTZ in Los Angeles in 1980.

And, if I recall correctly, Ed was the owner of Noble & Asociados, one of the leading ad agencies in Mexico City. Radio was a minor thing, and he had those partners who supposedly "knew more about radio".

 

[michael hagerty]

Apparently Ed Noble had some part-owners in Noble Broadcasting and they thought that 91X should be making more of a profit so it was decided that the format needed to be broadened to make the cash register really ring. Bad idea. It didn't work and led to the Felix/Agnew programming when Gene Knight left for KHTZ in Los Angeles in 1980.

That would have been about the time that B-100 toned it way down in terms of presentation, too. Maybe they saw a hole or thought they needed to defend against B-100.

 

[DiceMartin]

One of the DJ's was Bree Walker, under the name Bree Bushaw (Booshaw?)

Bree Bouchard was gorgeous at KPRI......later went to tv in LA and married her co anchor Jim Lampley ....of Olympics reporting fame. Jesse Summers did middays......Jeff Dean.....and Ted Tillotson News. I interned there in 1980.....graduated SDSU and went to Vegas with Jesse in January '81 to do Graveyard at KOMP FM 92!