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K.M. Richards New Gig
- Thread starter semoochie
- Start date
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I only have 23 songs of theirs in the library ... 
Congratulations anyway, I hope it all works out for you! Here's the song for anyone who doesn't know it:I only have 23 songs of theirs in the library ...
Got it pulled up on the stream now... am I listening to the mono mix of "The Way You Do the Things You Do?" @K.M. Richards
Looking forward to hearing what you've got programmed tunes-wise on here, K.M.
The 80s aren't really my thing, so I haven't listened to your 80s format much... but golden oldies? Absolutely!
Edit: I'm guessing the stream might just be mono, or I've got something mono'd out on my end, as I'm hearing "Some Kind of Wonderful" from Grand Funk now, also in mono.
Looking forward to hearing what you've got programmed tunes-wise on here, K.M.
The 80s aren't really my thing, so I haven't listened to your 80s format much... but golden oldies? Absolutely!
Edit: I'm guessing the stream might just be mono, or I've got something mono'd out on my end, as I'm hearing "Some Kind of Wonderful" from Grand Funk now, also in mono.
Actually... I'm curious... why golden oldies? I hear time and time again on this board that it's pretty much D.O.A. but I can't imagine you getting involved with it unless you believed in it. For it to be on a 10kw AM (granted, at the upper end of the dial) is interesting! Anything you can share as to the reasoning behind the format switch? @K.M. Richards
It does seem that there have been quite a few AM stations that have dropped talk formats in favor of oldies/classic hits in the post-covid era, presumably partially because they've got FM translators with 'em.
It does seem that there have been quite a few AM stations that have dropped talk formats in favor of oldies/classic hits in the post-covid era, presumably partially because they've got FM translators with 'em.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
First, we changed the calls to KOSL several weeks ago. Second, I am not playing anything newer than 1978 on this station. "Kokomo" came too late to be included.
Before I go any further ... unless you are accessing the stream via the station domain name, please do not bookmark it. We are temporarily feeding the output of the modulation monitor to a locally generated stream with a (gasp) numeric IP address. We will switch the domain to the real stream once we have it in place. The feed to the transmitter is L+R stereo summed mono; I did not have the time or the energy to conduct a scavenger hunt of original mono mixes.
Yes, the modulation monitor output is mono since we are an AM and not trying to resurrect AM stereo. It's officially for internal purposes; since we are originating the program feed from the Radio New Mexico facilities in Albuquerque, streaming the mod monitor is how we know the transmitter is still on the air.
Condensed version of the backstory: KOSL was acquired out of bankruptcy by longtime FCC attorney Barry D. Wood and was originally running the Sports Byline network with a local show in afternoons. Then the host of the afternoon show became unavailable, and Barry asked his client Don Davis at RNM to manage the facility for him. They decided on Oldies and since Don has me on retainer and loves what I am doing with KRKE he asked me to program it.
I think there is a misconception about my personal tastes and my professional work. The main reason that I have concentrated on the 80's is that the music from that decade resonates not only with those who grew up with it but also with younger demographics. It has become a mass appeal format, and while it happens to be the music I know best from my active on-air years, I have been in the business since 1973 and so I am also very knowledgeable on Oldies. It's not a case of like/dislike, it's a question of attracting a saleable audience. We have a standalone AM (no translator, no sister stations) so we had to do something that has a chance against the clusters in SLC.
To their credit, Barry and Don left me to my own devices in designing and executing the format. It is focused 1966 to 1978, but I also have a twice-hourly "Super Classic" which includes lesser songs from the core years and also goes back all the way to Bill Haley and The Comets. Don has been calling it "today's Oldies format".
We're running it cost-effectively, I am not out of my comfort zone programming it, and to be honest it's kind of fun to be able to do this again. (But I still think The Eighties Channel™ should be running in more markets than just ABQ.)
Obviously, that wasn't part of the decision process here. Barry simply didn't want to keep his station running a sports network 24/7. Believe it or not, I put this whole thing together in less than two months.
I just tuned into 1550 via the West Jordan KiwiSDR, and I'm really liking it!
The processing is also very clean and clear, which I like. My only other point of comparison, KYNO, uses processing that, while I guess is a good emulation of classic, overdriven Top 40, can be a bit fatiguing to listen to after awhile.
I also like that the pacing and the selection are slower and softer than KYNO (again, KYNO's fast pace, while again probably more true to its classic Boss Radio roots, can be tiring after awhile).
The SF market could really use something like this (it'd never be saleable there, however, so it probably won't happen). However, up here in the rural far north bay, a solid 22% of the population is 65+ and the median age is around 45, so something like oldies (as you're doing it) or even your Eighties Channel could work here possibly.
c
The processing is also very clean and clear, which I like. My only other point of comparison, KYNO, uses processing that, while I guess is a good emulation of classic, overdriven Top 40, can be a bit fatiguing to listen to after awhile.
I also like that the pacing and the selection are slower and softer than KYNO (again, KYNO's fast pace, while again probably more true to its classic Boss Radio roots, can be tiring after awhile).
The SF market could really use something like this (it'd never be saleable there, however, so it probably won't happen). However, up here in the rural far north bay, a solid 22% of the population is 65+ and the median age is around 45, so something like oldies (as you're doing it) or even your Eighties Channel could work here possibly.
c
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I could!Find a station, call them and express your opinion, give them my number.
Anyway, I just checked out the "website" as linked on the Wikipedia page, and I'm not sure if you're aware, but "oldies1550.com" seems to be forwarding to your temporary stream?
c
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Didn't I say that back in post #9?
I have a question, if I may:
Why the hard cutoff at 1978? Is it to prevent overlap with The Eighties Channel? I ask because there were a number of records that charted in '79, but are commonly thought of as 80s songs in overall feel, so your cutoff does make sense to me. Just wondering if I'm reasoning it correctly.
c
Why the hard cutoff at 1978? Is it to prevent overlap with The Eighties Channel? I ask because there were a number of records that charted in '79, but are commonly thought of as 80s songs in overall feel, so your cutoff does make sense to me. Just wondering if I'm reasoning it correctly.
c
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
That's pretty much the reasoning. I was doing AC in 1978-79-80 and saw the way the overall feel of the music had been changing. It's even more pronounced of a difference since we had the renaissance of CHR in the 80's.
In fact, a lot of the music from those few years don't fall easily anywhere in the Classic Hits universe.
Of course, we had the mid to late 70’s distraction of disco.
We did indeed!
Part of why 78-79-80 might not fit with anything before or after so well could be because it was a sort of reactionary period against Disco?
You all would know the answer to that better; you were there, I wasn't (sometimes I feel like I was born 30-40 years too late!)
c
You would have voluntarily wanted to be in the Vietnam War draft? Or lived through Watergate, the Arab Oil Embargo or ... [shudder] ... disco? Why not go all the way back to the Depression, WWII and the Red Scare?
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Regardless of your age, cc, you know enough of the history to, what the late John McLaughlin used to say, "stumble onto the truth".
It is generally accepted wisdom in the programming world that the so-called "A/C years" were indeed a whipsaw effect after Disco came in and quickly burned itself out. And then came MTV, which was nothing even remotely like either Disco or A/C, which sparked the resurgence of CHR starting around the middle of 1982.
That said, I do include the big Bee Gees songs from "Saturday Night Fever" and "Heart Of Glass", but I also have the Cars' early hits from 1978 in there, as well as "Sultans Of Swing" and "Two Tickets To Paradise".