Here is a rare aircheck of KFRC-FM when they were at 106.1 FM in 1974. This was when the AM side at 610 KFRC was the main Top 40 station around this timeframe.
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106.1 KFRC-FM aircheck 1974
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
Here is a rare aircheck of KFRC-FM when they were at 106.1 FM in 1974. This was when the AM side at 610 KFRC was the main Top 40 station around this timeframe.
I'm confused....read slowly and carefully: In 1974 KFRC-AM played Top 40 (new music) on the AM band, while KFRC-FM played oldies (old music) on the FM band. Shouldn't it have been reversed (new music on FM, oldies on AM)?
Not that rare. This is part of a three-hour aircheck recorded by the late broadcast engineer Mike Schweizer. It's been available at Archive.org for at least 20 years---though the upload date shows 2017 (my guess is that it was re-encoded). Here's the whole thing:
KFRC-FM San Francisco (January 01, 1974) : Mike Schweizer : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Aircheck recording of KFRC-FM San Francisco (January 01, 1974). Recorded off the air by Mike Schweizer, these airchecks include commercials, songs, and DJ...
archive.org
It appears "Airchecks by RadioMania" on YouTube is finally running out of original material---he/they uploaded an aircheck I recorded of The Slim One at KKHR in Los Angeles in 1985 a year ago.
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Mike, that would have been premature in most markets. In 1974, Top 40 was still viable---in fact, dominant in a lot of places---on AM. WABC, New York, KHJ, Los Angeles, WLS, Chicago, WFIL, Philadelphia---all were still beating any FM competition.
Specific to San Francisco, KFRC-AM was a powerhouse and continued to have tremendous ratings until about 1983-84.
Part of the problem was FM multipath issues due to SF's hilly terrain and (close to downtown) tall buildings. Until mulitpath-rejection and phase loop locking were introduced in FM receivers in the late 70s/early 80s, FM listening in cars in San Francisco was a less than terrific experience. So, the viable formats on FM in the 60s and 70s were ones that people would listen to for long periods in their homes and perhaps offices or stores---beautiful music, classical, jazz and freeform.
The earliest ratings I can access for San Francisco are from Spring, 1976, but you'll get the idea:
1. KFRC-AM (Top 40) 8.1
2. KGO-AM (Talk) 8.0
3. KCBS-AM (News) 6.8
4. KSFO-AM (Adult Contemporary) 6.3
5. KFOG-FM (Beautiful Music) 5.4
6. KNBR-AM (Adult Contemporary) 4.6
7. KABL-AM (Beautiful Music) 4.3
8. KNEW-AM (Country) 3.6
9. KBAY-FM (Beautiful Music) 3.3
10. KIOI-FM (Adult Contemporary) 3.2
11. KDIA-AM (R&B) 3.1
As to KFRC-FM, it had, until 1973, been KKEE-FM, a beautiful music station that didn't do well. It switched to the automated oldies format heard on the aircheck. What's significant about the date of the aircheck is that KFRC decided to simulcast AM and FM 50% of the time (allowable under FCC rules)---and chose to do that beginning January 1, 1974 from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.---believing the oldies audience would likely be watching TV during the evening and simulcasting the AM might keep the ratings afloat with teens and younger adults.
After only a few weeks, they adjusted the simulcast to run from 9:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m., which then put the wildly popular Dr. Don Rose morning show on FM as well as AM.
The simulcast had no impact on AM programming---there were just 12 hours a day where the top-of-the-hour ID (voiced live by the jock in those days) was "KFRC AM and FM, San Francisco" rather than "KFRC, San Francisco".
It also had no impact on the ratings, and two years after this aircheck, RKO General (KFRC's owner) sold the FM (106.1) to Century Broadcasting, which changed the call letters to KMEL and went album rock.
In 1984, Century flipped KMEL to CHR, but by that point KFRC's ratings had already taken a hit from other FM competition.
I guess they had to come up with some way of explaining why the station would sound completely different every evening and overnight. Imagine if KRTH had done that---just cut to KHJ from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. every day.
They tried a bunch of stuff with KFRC-FM. Don Sainte-Johnn was hired originally to be P.D. of KFRC-FM, which he was for a while before gravitating to a late evening slot on the AM. They re-branded it as K106 in 1974 or 1975. Didn't move the needle.
Drake left RKO in May of 1973. The RKO FMs developed their own automated oldies formats when he left.
Drake left in 1973 but his formats lasted for a few more years. I remember hearing the same liners from the same announcers on WROR, WFYR, WAXY, and KRTH up until around 1977. I think 1977 is the year the stations began to show individuality. KRTH hired Brian Beirne and Brother John to voicetrack a unique AC/Oldies hybrid which retained the old jingle but with an AOR approach. Three songs were segued without jingles. Then the songs were back announced. There would be a cluster of commercials, a jingle and then three more songs,
I phrased that poorly. What I meant by “developed” was that any change to RKO FM stations after Drake walked out had nothing to do with Bill or with Drake-Chenault. A better way to say it is that they developed from that point without him.
Drake created those formats at RKO, and under his agreement with RKO, could syndicate them to outside stations. When he quit, that deal ended and he had no involvement in the RKO FM stations. RKO was not a syndication client of Drake-Chenault.
The RKO FM announcers were RKO employees, not Drake-Chenault employees. They stayed (with the exception of Robert W. Morgan, The Real Don Steele and Jerry Butler, who left KHJ and Jim Carson, who left KFRC shortly after Drake left RKO and went with him to KIQQ) and continued to voice the stations.
In fact, Drake-Chenault’s approach to the format it supplied syndicated stations changed, with voice talent coming from KYNO, KIQQ and elsewhere (without the RKO stations talent pool to draw from, D/C hired people who worked purely for the syndication) and a much tighter, higher-energy approach.
Here’s a 1974 demo of the Drake-Chenault oldies format. Compare it to the KFRC-FM aircheck in this thread and you’ll hear the difference.
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Which "Brother John" are we referring to? Rivers, host of Powerline, or John Rydgren, host of "Silhouette" and the ABC FM "Love" format?
I can't speak to the other stations, but the changes at KRTH began sooner. Jim Pewter was hired as PD in 1973, and made significant changes, blending the more anonymous automation with voice tracked personalities including himself and Roger Christian. He also added specialty shows from Art Laboe and began carrying Wolfman Jack's syndicated show. Brian Bierne came aboard in 1975.
Here's a composite from May of 1974:
And here's a promo reel from summer of '74:
Pewter resigned in October of 1974 and was replaced by Dick Bozzi from WCBS-FM.
Dick Bozzi quit in December of 1976 and went to CKLW, Windsor/Detroit as PD.
In February of 1977, Bob Hamilton was hired as PD. It was Bob who crafted the Gold-heavy A/C format that R&R (much to RKO's dismay) said was really Top 40---and began listing KRTH's current playlist alongside KHJ's.
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Rydgren. He came over from KMET.
By the way, the reason for the changes at KRTH was that the oldies format debuted spectacularly---and then the novelty factor wore off.
Fall 1971: (still running Drake's "Solid Gold" format as KHJ-FM): 2.5 (15th place)
Fall 1972: (the debut of KRTH): 4.3 (tied for 4th place)
Fall 1973: 2.7 (13th place)
Fall 1974: 3.1 (11th place)
Fall 1975: 2.4 (15th place)
Fall 1976: 1.8 (19th place)
Hamilton's re-tooling of the station as a gold-heavy AC/Top 40 paid off big:
Fall 1977: 3.4 (10th place and 1/10th of a point behind KHJ's 3.5)
Fall 1978: 3.0 (11th place--the book where KRTH passed KHJ, which was 12th with a 2.7)
Fall 1979: 3.8 (8th place---KHJ was tied for 16th with a 2.4)
Fall 1971: (still running Drake's "Solid Gold" format as KHJ-FM): 2.5 (15th place)
Fall 1972: (the debut of KRTH): 4.3 (tied for 4th place)
Fall 1973: 2.7 (13th place)
Fall 1974: 3.1 (11th place)
Fall 1975: 2.4 (15th place)
Fall 1976: 1.8 (19th place)
Hamilton's re-tooling of the station as a gold-heavy AC/Top 40 paid off big:
Fall 1977: 3.4 (10th place and 1/10th of a point behind KHJ's 3.5)
Fall 1978: 3.0 (11th place--the book where KRTH passed KHJ, which was 12th with a 2.7)
Fall 1979: 3.8 (8th place---KHJ was tied for 16th with a 2.4)
As a follow-up to that, I found a Radio World interview from 2019 with Drake-Chenault engineer Hank Landsberg. In 1974, D/C had two announcers handling all their formats---Billy Moore voicing XT40, HitParade, Solid Gold and Classic Gold and Bob Kingsley voicing Great American Country. It's a worthwhile read, with a couple of cool pictures, too:
And one final note---Dave Jeffreys, who'd worked for Drake at KYNO in Fresno, came down to Los Angeles in 1970 as PD of KHJ-FM. He left when or soon after Drake did, but I can't find anything on where he went after that---just that he died of lung cancer (no date given).
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That’s been running, largely untouched, on a server at 855 Battery for 14 years, ever since CBS killed the re-incarnation of KFRC at 106.9 to simulcast KCBS. In addition to the app, it runs on 106.9 HD-2.
The music is based on the 1973-78 sound of KFRC and most of the jingles are from the 1975 TM Productions “You” series.
It's very small. Could be 100-150 songs. I doubt it's more than that. The idea is for someone who grew up with the station to hear a song they remember every time they tune in.
What happened was that in 2007, CBS replaced its San Francisco version of "Free FM", and brought back KFRC as a Classic Hits station, targeting, as I said, the 1973-78 glory days.
Dave Sholin (who had been KFRC's music director during that era) was teamed with former KYA jock Celeste Perry for morning drive. Sue Hall (who actually was at KFRC later---'82-'84, but is very popular) and former KRTH PD Jay Coffey were also full-time and John Mack Flanagan (who was KFRC's afternoon drive personality in the 70s) was brought back for a weekend show. The cuts from the TM Productions "You" jingle package were put back on the air.
The station was programmed with one thought...that when anyone who'd grown up with the original in that very narrow time frame tuned in, it would sound like KFRC, from the presentation to the jingles to (some of) the jocks to the music---KFRC's specific blend of rock and R&B from '73-'78.
It had a year and four months on the air before CBS decided it needed an FM simulcast for all-news KCBS (740), and flipped it on zero notice, cutting everyone loose.
It kept the call letters KFRC on 106.1 to avoid having them picked up by a competitor and moved the music and jingles (and maybe two commercials an hour) to KFRC HD-2 and put it online. Other than freshening those commercials, which I'm guessing are just bonus spots for someone else in the cluster (it's usually an agency spot like GEICO---never anything local), it's been running unchanged since October of 2008. The legal ID mentions "at KFRC-dot-com"---that's been dead for years, replaced by streaming on the Audacy app.
Jim Carson at some point, I believe, went to KGB (1360) and later to KRTH where he worked forever until he retired a few years ago.
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