The call letter switch was April 1. ABC tried a Freeform approach at first, then, in October, just in time for the fall book, launched “Rock ‘n Stereo”.
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Drake Vs. Sklar
- Thread starter MasterDJ
- Start date
My favorite AM top 40 from the late 60s/early 70s is John Rook’s WLS. I think that is the era where WLS sounded the best and to me was a better station in this time than WABC or KHJ. Having a very good competitor in WCFL probably contributed to WLS sounding so good.
WLS was so much tighter, contemporary sounding and more interesting musically than sister station WABC.
I would also put it ahead of KHJ. KHJ could sound a little too formulaic. At times KHJ had an odd music mix. I know the West Coast had a very different “vibe” in this era than the Midwest, South or East but the first quarter of 1968, KHJ‘s music is almost MOR. Also Drake over reacted to FM in late 1971-72. Hearing the Real Don Steele play album cuts just doesn’t work.
WLS was so much tighter, contemporary sounding and more interesting musically than sister station WABC.
I would also put it ahead of KHJ. KHJ could sound a little too formulaic. At times KHJ had an odd music mix. I know the West Coast had a very different “vibe” in this era than the Midwest, South or East but the first quarter of 1968, KHJ‘s music is almost MOR. Also Drake over reacted to FM in late 1971-72. Hearing the Real Don Steele play album cuts just doesn’t work.
I listened to an aircheck of KSFX from summer 1973. I thought they sounded older and more "adult" than WABC. One of the gold played was Sinatra's Strangers in the Night. WABC would never have played that in 1973.
I was one of those 60 kids growing up in Tampa Bay area that never strayed too far from the stations I liked [WLCY, WSUN]. Once I moved north and hit my teens, I wasn't really impressed with the stations I was listening to at the time [Mostly WGAR, WHLO] so started dialing around late at night. The ones I found fascinating and fun to listen to were WLS, WABC, WNBC, WHAS, WOWO, CKLW and a number of others that I can't recall off hand. Be interesting to know what stations were running Drake formats and what stations were running other formatted stuff in the early 70s.
Oh, and I can thank Frank Sinatra for getting me on the radio for the first time in 1966. "Strangers In The Night" was the first record I ever requested a DJ [on WLCY] to play as a request. You could pick up CKLW in the daytime and with only one stereo in the house my sister and I got into huge fights over what station was going to be listened to.
Oh, and I can thank Frank Sinatra for getting me on the radio for the first time in 1966. "Strangers In The Night" was the first record I ever requested a DJ [on WLCY] to play as a request. You could pick up CKLW in the daytime and with only one stereo in the house my sister and I got into huge fights over what station was going to be listened to.
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The actual "Drake Stations" were all the RKO General AMs except NYC and DC. The non-RKO ones I remember were KGB-San Diego, KAKC in Tulsa, WCPO/WUBE in Cincinnati. Prior to KGB in San Diego, Bill Drake himself did WAKE in Atlanta, KYNO in Fresno (against Jacobs across the street).
Bill Drake - Wikipedia (I had to edit this article as it had such huge errors as saying that "Top 40 radio developed in the late 1950s'" when, in fact, the first Top 40 station was KOWH in Omaha in 1952!
It's funny how tastes affected us as individuals. Any station that played that Sinatra tune... or any other... with regularity was one I would not listen to at all. This shows how critical the play of one song can be!
KHJ was know for playing "turntable hits" which were songs listeners liked but which did nothing on the sales front.
John Rook was a tremendous programmer and WLS was an amazing radio station.
This was KHJ trying to absorb as many of the KFWB listeners abandoned by the switch to news as possible.
As I mentioned earlier, thanks to Hoff, I have a pretty complete overview of the L.A. ratings from 1965-74. What I found surprising is just how instantaneously KLOS' numbers jumped when they began the "Rock 'n Stereo" thing in October(ish) of 1971.
That's the same month that Shadoe Stevens became PD at KRLA and took them album. I'd written off that as a failed experiment, but I was wrong.
April/May 1972 (total audience 12+, contemporary music stations only:
KHJ-AM (Top 40): 5.0
KRLA-AM (Rock): 4.0
KGFJ-AM (R&B): 3.2
KLOS-FM (Rock): 2.6
KDAY-AM (Rock): 1.5
KEZY-AM (Top 40): 1.7
KMET-FM (Rock): 1.4
KKDJ-FM (Top 40): 1.4
KPPC-FM (Rock): 0.8
Sticking strictly with that group of stations playing Top 40 or rock, here are the demographics…the share of listening within each group:
Teens 12-17:
KHJ-AM (Top 40): 17.0
KGFJ-AM (R&B): 9.7
KEZY-AM (Top 40): 9.0
KLOS-FM (Rock): 8.6
KKDJ-FM (Top 40): 7.8
KRLA-AM (Rock): 7.2
KDAY-AM (Rock): 4.7
KMET-FM (Rock): 2.5
KPPC-FM (Rock): 1.2
A decent showing, given that Shadoe was not aiming for teens.
Men 18-24:
KRLA-AM (Rock): 12.3
KLOS-FM (Rock): 9.7
KHJ-AM (Top 40): 6.6
KDAY-AM (Rock): 6.2
KMET-FM (Rock): 3.5
KPPC-FM (Rock): 3.4
KGFJ-AM (R&B): 2.6
KEZY-AM (Top 40): 2.4
KKDJ-FM (Top 40): 1.6
Men 25-34:
KGFJ-AM (R&B): 7.6
KHJ-AM (Top 40): 6.3
KRLA-AM (Rock): 5.5
KMET-FM (Rock): 4.0
KLOS-FM (Rock): 1.9
KKDJ-FM (Top 40): 0.7
KDAY-AM (Rock): 0.6
KPPC-FM (Rock) 0.2
KEZY-AM (Top 40): 0.2
So, Shadoe eats everyone’s lunch in Men 18-24—is just 4/10ths of a point away from tying KLOS and KMET combined ---and beats everyone but KGFJ and KHJ in Men 25-34 (among stations playing rock or Top 40 music—KFI, which was MOR, got a 6.7, but that’s Dodger baseball).
Women 18-24:
KHJ-AM (Top 40): 10.9
KRLA-AM (Rock): 8.3
KLOS-FM (Rock): 5.9
KEZY-AM (Top 40): 4.3
KMET-FM (Rock): 4.0
KPPC-FM (Rock): 3.9
KGFJ-AM (R&B): 3.9
KDAY-AM (Rock): 2.8
KKDJ-FM (Top 40): 2.0
Women 25-34:
KRLA-AM (Rock): 5.1
KHJ-AM (Top 40): 4.9
KGFJ-AM (R&B): 2.9
KDAY-AM (Rock): 1.1
KKDJ-FM (Top 40): 1.1
KLOS-FM (Rock): 1.0
KEZY-AM (Top 40): 0.9
KMET-FM (Rock): 0.7
KPPC-FM (Rock) **
And in Women 18-24 and 25-34, Shadoe’s just crushing it.
The summer book was down for KRLA, and about the time it came out, Shadoe relinquished the PD reins and KRLA went back to playing hits (and a few album cuts).
The big takeaway, though---in the year that Shadoe was PD at KRLA, KHJ lost 40% of its 12+ share. Ted Atkins resigned as PD of KHJ and went to KIIS-AM as Operations Manager while he put together the deal that would make him GM at WTAE in Pittsburgh.
These numbers (thanks, Hoff!) and a recent listen to L.A. airchecks from 1972 indicate that Drake was working to protect the 18-24 adults that gave KHJ significant overall shares. He didn't want it to be a strictly teen radio station. But 1971 was a watershed year for big albums selling in big numbers. Drake and Ted didn't seem to know what cuts from what albums to play. That's where KLOS ultimately had them cold. As I've said before, KLOS out-Draked Drake.
KHJ trying to make sure they got KFWB's listeners in early 1968 makes perfect sense. I've seen KHJ's early 1968 playlist discussed more than once on different discussion boards and no one had an explanation for why it was so light compared to 1967.
My impression has always been that the KRLA AOR experiment was a complete failure. Obviously the numbers don't lie and Shadoe did WAY better than I thought. I may be wrong but I think it was Bill Earl's KRLA book that made me think the 1971 KRLA was a flop.
My impression has always been that the KRLA AOR experiment was a complete failure. Obviously the numbers don't lie and Shadoe did WAY better than I thought. I may be wrong but I think it was Bill Earl's KRLA book that made me think the 1971 KRLA was a flop.
Way back in the day, I happened to be listening to KABC-FM shortly after they changed the calls to KLOS. I don't remember who it was but I thought it was pretty funny when one of the personalities said something to the effect of: "Why did ABC pick "KLOS" as the new call letters...it sounds like "Kay-Loss"...oh well, you can't figure out the thinking of the "suits"".
BTW aren't those numbers amazing for KGFJ! The tiniest signal in the nation's 2nd largest market, wow!
WLCY [or "Elsie Radio" as I remember it being called sometimes], They were a sorta hybrid radio station, mostly Top 40 but with some rock & roll thrown in to boot. I could see them playing "Something Stupid" since it was a #1 Top 40 song around the time I requested it in 1966....even remember the time frame, around 7-8 PM, when I called. Sorta strange that what was considered rock & roll back then being played on "soft hits" stations nowadays......on the few that still play any 60s songs.
KGFJ was huge—-a big reason why KHJ tended to play more R&B than some other Top 40s. And for a few years after its flip to R&B in 1974, KDAY was a big player as well.
On weekends I used to go to Hollywood to shop in one of the better record stores, and it usually was on a Sunday. Well, I looked forward to listening to KGFJ, but I couldn't really hear it until I was almost through the Cahuenga Pass! On Sundays KGFJ ran only 100 Watts(!), but still had a big audience with great DJs such as Lucky Pierre, Joe Terry and others.
Talking about KDAY in those days, they were incredibly good sounding on wide band radios...I once asked the PD of KRLA (my favorite station), how come KRLA doesn't sound quite that good? I think it was Chris Hayes who told me I wish we could too, but management says we can't afford to modulate at only 75%. (Among other things KDAY at that time limited positive peaks to create very clear, smooth sounding audio). And as I understand it, back in the day certain stations such as XERB and others allowed positive peaks well in excess of 120% which along with heavy duty compression made thier audio as loud as possible. (Talk about listener fatigue!)
Those call letters were on an Albuquerque station from 1956 to 1967. It appeared to have had constant financial troubles. It tried to be the #2 Top 40 station to #1 KQEO, and we all know how that usually went. In 1964, to bring in some cash, it swapped its fulltime 1450 dial position with KRZY's 1580 daytime-only frequency. That move staved off problems only for a little while. KLOS went off the air and into bankruptcy in 1967. The station resurfaced in 1968 as KZIA, owned by the former owner of Carlsbad's KAVE radio and TV. At first, it also tried to be the #2 Top 40 station but eventually evolved into a talk format.
Robert Douglas
Banned
I remember all this so well. KDAY 1580 sounded just like FM on AM. You literally could not tell the difference. KGFJ 1230 was doing it all with 1000 watts (except Sunday) using a clothes line on top of the odd fellows building at the corner of what we called Santa Monica Fwy and Harbor Fwy. I don't know what those freeways are called now, but I know y'all put the stupid "the" word in front of the number!
The SM FWY is "The 10", the Harbor FWY is "The 110", though in ancient times it was known as "The 11". The 11 FWY was originally built to connect downtown LA with Pasadena, and I think it was officially SoCal's first FWY, built back in the 40's (someone might want to check that).
Back to radio, I think KGFJ was the one of the last stations in the country, and I think the last station in the LA area to use a top loaded wire antenna. But for many years now 1230 (now KYPA) has been di-plexing off of the 6 tower 1580 facility on Alvarado Blvd in Echo Park right along with 930 KHJ.
I've talked about this previously on another thread but it's fun to recall. Back in the day when 1580 KDAY was a daytimer, their 50 kW transmitter was in Santa Monica, SW of the intersection of the 405 and the 10. The stations directional facility had an enormous ERP with a strong signal that went north well beyond the SFV, and there being an almost entirely sea water path to the South was easily heard in San Diego on most any radio (KDAY actually promoted that). However around 1969 the station was moved inland at the present location for full time operation. Ground conductivity around the facility is not very good, the mostly sea water path to SD was lost, and the null to the west which used to run to the NW parallel to the PCH, now goes right through the West SFV. Yes, during the day, you can still hear the station in Oceanside, but you can't hear it in Sherman Oaks! The late George Carlin once joked about 1580 as having the strangest signal of any AM station he ever worked at, he said: This station's signal was "over 70 miles long but only about a mile wide!"
Maybe "we'all in L.A. didn't. mess with the freeway names or start to mess with them at first. But that certainly caught on here. Mostly gone today are the freeway names and the old "Southland" term.
As an aside, Southland may have been coined by the Los Angeles Times newspaper 90 years ago to describe the emerging massive metro and beyond that it covered/covers.
Back to the freeways ... I duno but I suspect that out-of-market radio traffic reporting services and systems developed a national style guide of terms , or maybe just the addition of computer software and cameras to the job of traffic reporting started the change. Other parts of the country called freeways The Interstate or just "Route" and Sr's "route". Southern California marched to its own drum with freeway and highway names. Still I don't know why SoCal took to the word 'the' and other areas of country did not ... or did they? Could it be that we in California are more of the abrevahead type? In other parts of U.S. they now call freeways such things as "I-77" or I-Whatever. See here though- if they describe the highway number with the letter 'I', you don't need the word 'The". The word 'the' is just a definite article that prefixes any noun that is commonly known or understood. So using "the" makes sense even if one is to drop formal or informal names for numbers. We always said the Hollywood Freeway, or at the Four-Level Interchange, we just didn't use numbers. The name changes were completed by the news media in mid-nineties. Old colloquialism gave way to digihead-abrevahead colloquialism everywhere.
Hey but like we are still uniquely so SoCal; Tha-Four-ooh-Five, theee OC! I do miss the old names too but mostly miss being younger.
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There's no easy answer to how Californians refer to freeways and why.
The most common answer for the L.A. area is that residents referred to them by their names as they were built---beginning with the Pasadena Freeway, which opened in 1940---16 years before the Interstate Highway System was established. So folks in L.A. had a history of referring to the freeways by the names, which usually were about where the highway went---the Harbor, the Santa Ana, the Ventura, the Hollywood, the San Diego, the Pomona, the San Bernardino, the Riverside and so on.
By the time numbers became the more common way to refer to them, the habit was ingrained.
I say "the L.A. area" because in San Diego, they say "Interstate 8", "Interstate 5" and so on.
And in the Bay Area and Sacramento, it's just the number and direction----"101 Northbound", "280 Southbound", etc.
BUT---San Francisco started out referring to freeways by names, too---the Bayshore, the Nimitz, the Embarcadero---they just chose to break the habit that the L.A. area has held onto.
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In the first issue of R&R in 1973, KDAY's Chief Engineer, Andy Laird wrote a column that probably explains a lot o what they were doing. It's on page 18:
Thanks for the article Michael...Andy's tips were very informative!
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