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Remembering Seattle's KYAC 1250.

R

RF101

As it's Black History Month, numerous stories have been posted about historic KYAC.

www.kuow.org

Remembering KYAC: the Seattle Black-owned radio station that felt like home

If you wanted to hear soul music in Seattle circa 1970, there was one local station that would never disappoint: KYAC. For Black History Month, producer Lauren Williams went back in time to 1970s Seattle to ask folks about what it was like to work at and listen to KYAC during its heyday.
www.kuow.org www.kuow.org

Audio supplement (20 minutes):
Remembering Soul Radio-o-o-o-o-o-o 1250 KYAC

Older story on KJR's Robert L Scott:
blackartslegacies.cascadepbs.org

Robert L. Scott: The first DJ to play hip-hop on Seattle airwaves

For three decades, this Seattle DJ electrified the airwaves, paving the way for future Black radio personalities.
blackartslegacies.cascadepbs.org blackartslegacies.cascadepbs.org

For more details about Black radio in metro Seattle see:

Black Radio in the Community — Shelf Life Community Story Project

www.shelflifestories.com www.shelflifestories.com
 
I remember KYAC. I suspect that they struggled for many years before they finally went under and sold.

For at least several years of the seventies, they were an AM/FM combo -- first 1460 on AM and later 1250, along with 96.5 on FM. The AM was shared time with KWSU in Pullman, WA. Both were able to operate during daytime hours since the stations were on opposite ends of the state, but between sunset and sunrise, they had to share time. As I recall, KWSU got sunset to midnight, and KYAC got midnight to sunrise. Per Wikipedia, KYAC shifted the AM station to 1250 in 1975, but that isn't something I personally remember; I only remember it being on 1250.

In any event, the AM/FM combo didn't last long, as KYAC-FM was sold to O'Day Broadcasting and became Top 40 KYYX early in 1977. The AM lasted a little longer, but was sold in 1981.

The problem is that the Seattle/Tacoma area was really pretty white back then. So I think that the potential audience wasn't huge, and there was also likely a lot of resistance from potential advertisers.
 
TexasTom said:
I remember KYAC. I suspect that they struggled for many years before they finally went under and sold.

For at least several years of the seventies, they were an AM/FM combo -- first 1460 on AM and later 1250, along with 96.5 on FM. The AM was shared time with KWSU in Pullman, WA. Both were able to operate during daytime hours since the stations were on opposite ends of the state, but between sunset and sunrise, they had to share time. As I recall, KWSU got sunset to midnight, and KYAC got midnight to sunrise. Per Wikipedia, KYAC shifted the AM station to 1250 in 1975, but that isn't something I personally remember; I only remember it being on 1250.

In any event, the AM/FM combo didn't last long, as KYAC-FM was sold to O'Day Broadcasting and became Top 40 KYYX early in 1977. The AM lasted a little longer, but was sold in 1981.

The problem is that the Seattle/Tacoma area was really pretty white back then. So I think that the potential audience wasn't huge, and there was also likely a lot of resistance from potential advertisers.
Click to expand...
KYAC-FM also experimented with Quad, if I remember as well although there didn't seem to be many R&B albums in Quad (Actually, aside from big selling titles of that time, there wasn't much of anything really in Quad.)

Initially, KYYX tried to continue broadcasting in Quad. But the trouble was Quad on FM didn't work particularly well (it was especially prone to multipath issues, there weren't many receivers that could get it) and worst of all, it was the AM Stereo of the 1970s. The labels used different Quad systems, few released Quad albums in all formats of Quad (SQ, CD-4 and QS) and finally most labels didn't not play in the Quad game with most releases. It was too much fuss for questionable at best results. So KYYX gave up on Quad.

Interestingly, KYAC AM-FM was owned by Carl Haymond, who started the KMO Radio & TV mini-dynasty in Tacoma back in the 1920s.
 
Bongwater said:
Initially, KYYX tried to continue broadcasting in Quad. But the trouble was Quad on FM didn't work particularly well (it was especially prone to multipath issues, there weren't many receivers that could get it) and worst of all, it was the AM Stereo of the 1970s. The labels used different Quad systems, few released Quad albums in all formats of Quad (SQ, CD-4 and QS) and finally most labels didn't not play in the Quad game with most releases. It was too much fuss for questionable at best results. So KYYX gave up on Quad.
Click to expand...
My recollection is that when KYYX first signed on in February of 1977, they were actually transmitting in mono, but they did switch the stereo pilot on within a few months. Is my memory right on that?
 
I wasn't there at the very beginning either. There were announcements I heard on airchecks from KYYX in 1977 several years ago. But I'm not even sure with all the complications if it was really feasible to seriously take that Quad plunge full time.
 
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