Some of what they played was something you would hear on light or soft rock stations back in the day when they dropped easy listening and became soft rock. I still never got my air supply 🥲🥲🥲
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Did Klos the rock of southern California just flip to yacht rock???
- Thread starter hotpatrick2004
- Start date
As much as we lament about about the lack of choices on the AM/FM radio, it's good to remind ourselves that we have more access to the music we like than people our age did 35 years ago. Yacht Rock is available for free on iHeart radio with far fewer and shorter commercial breaks than what is being offered OTA. During yesterday's KLOS stunt, I was noticing looong stop sets. This was on top of the sloppy execution.
April Fools jokes are fun... for a little while. I'm surprised a major market station would do an April Fools joke all day. And as the OP did, I'm sure some KLOS listeners didn't look at the calendar or realize what was going on.
We've noted that KLOS actually rocks harder than most big market Classic Rock stations. In the station's regular playlist, I'm sure KLOS is only playing a few harder Eagles and Fleetwood Mac titles. Most of their Top 40 hits are likely missing. And do they ever play Billy Joel, Hall & Oates, Elton John or the Doobie Brothers as might be heard on WAXQ New York and WDRV Chicago? I'm sure the smooth sailing of Yacht Rock didn't go over too well with some KLOS listeners, even those who got the joke.
We've noted that KLOS actually rocks harder than most big market Classic Rock stations. In the station's regular playlist, I'm sure KLOS is only playing a few harder Eagles and Fleetwood Mac titles. Most of their Top 40 hits are likely missing. And do they ever play Billy Joel, Hall & Oates, Elton John or the Doobie Brothers as might be heard on WAXQ New York and WDRV Chicago? I'm sure the smooth sailing of Yacht Rock didn't go over too well with some KLOS listeners, even those who got the joke.
I would believe this depends on the history of the album rock format in the market. In 1978 when I moved from NY to LA WPLJ would play Carol King, Paul Simon and James Taylor. Sister ABC-FM KLOS wouldn't touch those artists. Instead they played groups like Triumph, Rainbow and Judas Priest. Therefore, WAXQ could get by playing the lighter stuff that may not work in LA.
Enjoy TuneGenie! On Air Playlist from Apr 01, 2025
The latest Playlists for Enjoy TuneGenie!
klos.tunegenie.com
Scroll to the bottom of the web page to open the individual hours.
Playlist link above will expire on (or about) May 1, 2025.
The "fake format" ran from 10 AM PT to 6 PM PT with a couple of straggler songs in the 6 PM PT hour.
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Click on the calendar icon on the bottom of the KLOS playlist web page to view playlists for other days.
Really? Sure about that?
Here are four playlists from R&R---February, June, October and December of 1978.
This is February.
A little blurry, so I'll write it out. They added the Wet Willie album, their hottest that week were Styx, Queen, Rod Stewart, Steely Dan, Jackson Browne, Billy Joel, the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack, Eric Clapton, Ted Nugent and Kansas. Hottest tracks: Jackson Browne's "Love Needs a Heart" and Billy Joel's "Movin' Out".
From June:
Added: Joe Walsh, Heart, Gerry Rafferty and Bob Seger. The hottest: Atlanta Rhythm Section, Jefferson Starship, Billy Joel, Kansas, Eddie Money, Chuck Mangione, Carly Simon, Bonnie Tyler and Wings. Hottest track: Joe Walsh "Life's Been Good To Me", Heart's "Heartless", Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street", Bob Seger's "Hollywood Nights" and they were on the Rolling Stones single "Miss You".
From October:
Added: Yes, Al Stewart. Hottest: Heart, Styx, The Who, Foreigner, Linda Ronstadt, Nick Gilder and Steely Dan. No hottest tracks noted They were playing Firefall's single "Strange Way".
From December:
Added: The Blues Brothers, Dire Straits, Poco, Cat Stevens, Talking Heads. In medium rotation: Aerosmith, Eric Clapton, Grateful Dead, Van Morrison, Ted Nugent, Santana and Neil Young. Hot rotation: Billy Joel, Queen, Toto, George Thorogood, Rod Stewart and The Cars. Hottest tracks: The Blues Brothers' "Soul Man" and "Hey Bartender", Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing", Poco's "Legend" and "Boomerang", Cat Stevens' "Bad Brakes", Talking Heads' "Take Me To The River", Aerosmith's "Chip Away the Stone" and the Eagles' "Please Come Home For Christmas."
No, I didn't mention Carole King, Paul Simon or James Taylor there, but Carole's album that year was a stiff (peaking at #104) and neither Paul nor James had albums that year.
I doubted his memory as well, but did not have time to do the research you did. Now if he said he moved to the Inland Empire in the early 80s and tuned into KCAL-FM, that would be a bit more believable. They always rocked harder.
As a general rule of thumb, so not always entirely accurate, in the 70s and early 80s KMET and KLOS had very similar playlists, but KMET had a deeper one that included more artists and deeper album cuts. KLOS was the more tightly-formatted of the two.
I agreed that KLOS probably had a more varied rock format in the 70s and perhaps even early 80s. I grew up in Monterey and was exposed to quite a few Bay Area AOR stations that all had varying degrees of what constituted "Rock." You had KRQR, KMEL, KFOG, KOME and KSJO as the heavier hitters in the AOR format. When I went to Southern California to visit my grandparents and other family members, there was equal differences among the rock stations there as well - KMET, KLOS, KROQ, KNAC and KNX-FM generally catered to the AOR audience back then and each one was a bit different than the competitors. I guess you could say each station really had its own identity within the genre, plus I'm sure I am leaving out or forgetting one or two lesser known stations in each market that also served the audience. The only real surprises I saw in the KLOS playlists that Michael picked were Chuck Mangione, Carly Simon, and Bonnie Tyler. Even Al Stewart was fair game for AOR airplay. Otherwise, I would have guessed all of these bands would get some AOR airplay in this time period.
Want a good laugh (and maybe a headache)? Check out this thread from almost three years ago (the detective work starts on page 2 and peaks on page 14):
The only airplay Al Stewart got prior to "Year of the Cat" was AOR airplay.
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