Anyone listening to the yacht rock weekend on klos

[Loverofradio]

This yacht rock thing is cool and probably needed. But, I really wish the next stunt KLOS could do is airing a Dodger game on Sundays like they tried a few years ago 🥹

 

[michael hagerty]

This yacht rock thing is cool and probably needed.

I know I'm gonna hate myself for asking, but..."probably needed" by whom and for what?

But, I really wish the next stunt KLOS could do is airing a Dodger game on Sundays like they tried a few years ago 🥹

I'm sorry. When was that?

 

[MarkW]

Hey, if you're going to do "Yacht Rock" then Looking Glass and EWF are part of the format. Once KLOS made the commitment to do this, why quibble with which artists get chosen? 95% of Yacht Rock is music that KLOS would never play.

I always wonder why KLOS is so "classic rock that really rocks" as compared to WAXQ NYC, WDRV Chicago and WSRV Atlanta, stations that do great in the ratings with a more balanced playlist. You'd think that So. Cal. vibe would play against the hard edge KLOS has embraced for decades.

I know at one time KLOS had other Classic Rock competition. The Arrow format on KCBS-FM and KSWD 100.3 The Sound, both pop-leaning that might make KLOS choose the harder approach. And I'm sure KLOS once thought it should try to get some of the KNAC buzz saw rock listeners when that station switched formats. But that was a LONG time ago.

.

I remember how KLOS and KCBS-FM sounded in the early 00s. Playlist wise, both avoided nearly all harder edged classic rock and stationality was milquetoast as could be. I was tremendously underwhelmed.

The KLOS of the past few years is much better (to me anyway) than the KLOS of that era.

 

[MarkW]

Oddly, that's also considered to be the peak era for AOR---tons of platinum albums from big acts and just before the "do we play modern rock or not?" dilemma.

The death of the vintage AOR sound and the rise of Active Rock, Classic Rock and Alternative Rock as separate formats are all wonderful things, in my opinion.

(Mostly) fake baritone voices with slow paced talking is what immediately comes to mind when I see the term "AOR."

 

[michael hagerty]

I remember how KLOS and KCBS-FM sounded in the early 00s. Playlist wise, both avoided nearly all harder edged classic rock

We must have been in parallel universes that decade:

Arrow 93 was always intended to be more commercial, hit-oriented and mainstream. Arrow was an acronym for "All Rock (and) Roll Oldies" with a "w" at the end:

 

[michael hagerty]

(Mostly) fake baritone voices with slow paced talking is what immediately comes to mind when I see the term "AOR."

I was very lucky, then, to get Jeff Gonzer, Frazer Smith, B. Mitchel Reed, Bob Coburn, Mary Turner, Jimmy Rabbitt, Linda McInnes, Shana and Jim Ladd.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Does anyone else think this thread started off very interesting but veered off to tediousness very quickly?

 

[ted chittenden]

1977 to about 1982.

Rock product was so bad that even 101 WRIF was sneaking in disco tunes on occasion for a couple of those years.

Your post reminded me of what KDKB, Phoenix's only AOR station at the time, considered to be the #1 album of 1978:

Billy Joel, The Stranger

I guess they figured it was the best they could do, given that the #1 album for the entire year nationally was Saturday night Fever...

But there were other good choices to choose from: The Cars' debut album; both The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight by Styx; and Eddie Money's debut album, to name a few. and 1979 and 1980 were also very good for hard rock acts. Only 1981, which did have some hard rock actss at the top of the album charts (think REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity) seems to have not been as great a year for hard rock acts, at least on the singles charts.

 

[michael hagerty]

Does anyone else think this thread started off very interesting but veered of to tediousness very quickly?

Thank God you’re here to save us. Be brilliant. No pressure.

 

[MarkW]

Your post reminded me of what KDKB, Phoenix's only AOR station at the time, considered to be the #1 album of 1978:

Billy Joel, The Stranger

I guess they figured it was the best they could do, given that the #1 album for the entire year nationally was Saturday night Fever...

But there were other good choices to choose from: The Cars' debut album; both The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight by Styx; and Eddie Money's debut album, to name a few. and 1979 and 1980 were also very good for hard rock acts. Only 1981, which did have some hard rock actss at the top of the album charts (think REO Speedwagon's Hi Infidelity) seems to have not been as great a year for hard rock acts, at least on the singles charts.

REO Speedwagon, hard rock?

That made me laugh (no disrespect intended). Yes, they are a rock band certainly, but "hard rock" is about the last descriptor I would use.

I also happen to have a strong dislike of their music.

 

[MarkW]

We must have been in parallel universes that decade:

Arrow 93 was always intended to be more commercial, hit-oriented and mainstream. Arrow was an acronym for "All Rock (and) Roll Oldies" with a "w" at the end:

Those are both great air checks (thanks for posting them), but when I heard KLOS in June 2003, I know for a fact they weren't positioned as "classic rock that really rocks" nor were they using that ballsy sounding imaging voice. They were using the same smooth, mild imaging voice that I had heard on other ABC radio properties (such as WPLT Detroit when it was Alternative Classics). Sounds like the station rocked a lot harder 18 months earlier!

I would love to know how long they positioned as "classic rock that really rocks."

With my luck, I probably barely missed out on that era of the station.

That positioner seemed to be most widely used across the country from 1998 to 2002 maybe? I remember 102.7 The Bear in Detroit using it right before its demise, and 97.1 The Rock in St. Louis also used it.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Thank God you’re here to save us. Be brilliant. No pressure.

As Clint Eastwood said, a man's got to know his limitations. The thread is safe from any of my efforts at this point. Everyone carry on, please.

 

[MarkW]

I was very lucky, then, to get Jeff Gonzer, Frazer Smith, B. Mitchel Reed, Bob Coburn, Mary Turner, Jimmy Rabbitt, Linda McInnes, Shana and Jim Ladd.

Count me in as a Bob Coburn fan.

Jeff Gonzer's name is certainly familiar. Quite sure I've heard him on one of the syndicated classic rock services at some point.

 

[TheBigA]

Hey, if you're going to do "Yacht Rock" then Looking Glass and EWF are part of the format.

I prefaced my comments by saying "If it was me." That means it's my personal preference. I'm not telling KLOS what to do.

Regarding EWF, they played "September" and the yacht song is After The Love Has Gone.

 

[TheBigA]

Rock radio was unbearably awful in that era.

It was incredibly diverse. You had hard rock bands like Zepplin, The Who, and Jethro Tull along with mush rock by Steely Dan. Yacht Rock takes one group of songs completely out of context from the decade and redefines it to fit a mood.

 

[TheBigA]

When Mandy first came out, Barry Manilow got regular airplay on AOR stations, which thought he was a singer-songwriter type. Then when he was embraced by AC and even MOR, he lost his AOR airplay.

The reason WNEW played Manilow was because of his connection to Bette Midler, and they played Bette. He was Bette's bandleader when she played the NYC clubs. But yes, once Mandy became a pop standard, they stopped playing him. WNEW played Billy Joel from Cold Spring Harbor, his first album that had no hits. They continued to play him because he was local. For the same reason, they played Bruce Springsteen from his first album forward.

This happened at a lot of AOR stations. WMMS Cleveland played the Raspberries, even though they were a pop band. They were a local Cleveland band, and Kid Leo was friends with Eric Carmen. He even appeared in one of Eric's videos.

 

[TheBigA]

I would have narrowed the focus of the weekend to artists and songs that KLOS and other rock stations were playing at the time that are now considered to be "yacht rock."

I agree. Make it unique to the station and the market. You can do that without playing a lot of the terrible Top 40 music that KLOS sought to avoid during the 70s. They seem to be using the SiriusXM music list for this special weekend. All of these songs get played there. They don't have to do that. KLOS has its own unique heritage that they're ignoring. But that's what happens when you lose "institutional knowledge."

Yacht Rock Radio - xmplaylist

Recently played songs from Yacht Rock Radio on SiriusXM. 70s/80s smooth-sailing soft rock. Listen on Spotify, Apple Music, and more.

xmplaylist.com

 

[michael hagerty]

Count me in as a Bob Coburn fan.

Jeff Gonzer's name is certainly familiar. Quite sure I've heard him on one of the syndicated classic rock services at some point.

Coburn was tremendous.

Gonzer was mornings at all three—-KPPC, KMET and KLOS—-in the 70s.

 

[Mark Roberts]

I can't keep up with you people. Have you nothing else to do? Anyway....

Rock radio was unbearably awful in that era.

I'm curious. Can you give me a date span for "that era"?

1977 to about 1982.

Rock product was so bad that even 101 WRIF was sneaking in disco tunes on occasion for a couple of those years.

Oddly, that's also considered to be the peak era for AOR---tons of platinum albums from big acts and just before the "do we play modern rock or not?" dilemma.

I cast my vote with Mike on that one. I'll drag out yet another St. Louis example. Many of the beloved KSHE "Klassics", the seasoning that KSHE applies today to an otherwise meat-laden pizza, come from that time period. No Barry Manilow there. Top-40 KSLQ was crossing into KSHE's lane so much that Doubleday thought they saw an opening with the newly relaunched KWK/WWWK. By 1980, Doubleday decided instead to go head-on against KSHE.

Yes, there was more diversity of styles on KSHE then. Nowadays, it seems to be appealing to South County hoosiers. Such is the fragmentation of formats...which it feels like newer generations are getting away from. That should be a cautionary tale of its own.

Another example...in 1980, Kansas City had no Top-40 FM station. KBEQ went to album rock, competing with Abrams-consulted KYYS and with KSAS. Rimshot KLZR from Lawrence, Kansas did its own variation of AOR. Yes, KBEQ did go back to Top-40 the next year. But for an entire year, there was no true Top-40 on the Kansas City FM dial. On FM, it was either album rock or one adult-contemporary station.

I think the L.A. people picture is 70s L.A. That's 50 years ago. If you want to feel that vibe today, you probably go to Santa Barbara. Even San Diego is too big and too busy to really sustain the whole laid-back thing.

In my opinion, this is even more pronounced in the Bay Area. The San Francisco I moved to in 1999 wasn't the same San Francisco that I left in 2023. Too many tech bros now.

I would love to know how long they positioned as "classic rock that really rocks."

{...}

That positioner seemed to be most widely used across the country from 1998 to 2002 maybe? I remember 102.7 The Bear in Detroit using it right before its demise, and 97.1 The Rock in St. Louis also used it.

Knowing the entire history of 97.1 in St. Louis, I would not consider that to be a recommendation. Just about anything on 97.1 was doomed to fail.

 

[MarkW]

I can't keep up with you people. Have you nothing else to do? Anyway....








I cast my vote with Mike on that one. I'll drag out yet another St. Louis example. Many of the beloved KSHE "Klassics", the seasoning that KSHE applies today to an otherwise meat-laden pizza, come from that time period. No Barry Manilow there. Top-40 KSLQ was crossing into KSHE's lane so much that Doubleday thought they saw an opening with the newly relaunched KWK/WWWK. By 1980, Doubleday decided instead to go head-on against KSHE.

Yes, there was more diversity of styles on KSHE then. Nowadays, it seems to be appealing to South County hoosiers. Such is the fragmentation of formats...which it feels like newer generations are getting away from. That should be a cautionary tale of its own.

Another example...in 1980, Kansas City had no Top-40 FM station. KBEQ went to album rock, competing with Abrams-consulted KYYS and with KSAS. Rimshot KLZR from Lawrence, Kansas did its own variation of AOR. Yes, KBEQ did go back to Top-40 the next year. But for an entire year, there was no true Top-40 on the Kansas City FM dial. On FM, it was either album rock or one adult-contemporary station.

In my opinion, this is even more pronounced in the Bay Area. The San Francisco I moved to in 1999 wasn't the same San Francisco that I left in 2023. Too many tech bros now.


Knowing the entire history of 97.1 in St. Louis, I would not consider that to be a recommendation. Just about anything on 97.1 was doomed to fail.

The only reason the hard edged classic rock format on 97.1 in St. Louis was dropped is because Emmis, who already had KSHE in its stable, acquired KXOK from Sinclair Communications. They kept KSHE intact and flipped 97.1 to talk.

It was often a good performer in demo and a station whose webstream I enjoyed online (remember RealPlayer? LOL) regularly.