107.7 early history timeline

[thebeach33445]

Hey Guys:

After all of my research here is a timeline on the early history of 107.7 FM:

1. 107.7 KACO MOR/AC Sept 28, 1968 to March 16, 1970. (Was to be Classical)
Off air on Jan 5, 1970 Due to 2 fires that destroyed the studios.

2. 107.7 KGRV MOR/AC "Music for Groovy Adults" March 16, 1970 to Jan 1, 1972.

3. 107.7 KKSS MOR/AC Jan 1, 1972 to Jan 1, 1974.

4. 107.7 KKSS Country Jan 1, 1974 to 1975 (Would anybody know the exact date?)

5. 107.7 KKSS R&B 1975 to Feb 1979.

6. 107.7 KKSS Disco "Studio 108" Feb 1979 to July 1979.

7. 107.7 KMJM Top 40 July 1979 to 1983. Would anybody know the exact date KMJM became R&B?

Well that is my timeline. Please correct me if there are any mistakes.

Thanks guys.

T.J.

 

[Shannon]

4. I don't recall KKSS ever being Country. As I was at WIL, I would have known if it was, In 1974 a freind from my days at KULF, Houston, Gary Hoffman, came to St. Louis to help program KKSS. The format was what we would call AC today.

Jim Shannon

PS. Are you writing a book?

 

[beachguy3b]

When I arrived at KSLQ in May of 1975, KKSS was black formatted...

 

[spiritof67]

T.J., while I'm glad to help you, I must echo Jim's question--are you writing a book or a term paper? If so, you'll need better annotated sources than a message board.

Besides KSLQ, KGRV was the only other FM station I remember that played contemporary hit music in the early 1970's. The first time I heard the station was in 1973.

The first time I heard the KKSS call was in 1974, playing hits, although it was probably more AC than Top-40. There was a television ad campaign that year as well.

Sometime around March or April 1975, the station abruptly flipped formats to R&B. Their slogan was "Stereo In Black," which was an adoption of WBLS New York's slogan. Their earlier ad campaign featured well-dressed African-Americans promoting the station. I suspect this was appeal to a more affluent adult audience--the jocks sounded more conversational than the usual Top-40/Soul DJ's of the time.

Around 1977, the station added some Top-40 crossover cuts, but dropped them in 1978, returning to a strict R&B format.

One small detail I recall was while KKSS called themselves "Kiss" during their AC format, they did not refer to themselves as "Kiss" in their R&B years. The call letters were always spoken as "K-K-S-S" sometimes with the letters ping-ponging from left to the right channel in their staging.

Another thing was their dial position. During their R&B era, on air they said the dial position was "107.5" rather than their actual 107.7 frequency.

There are people you can speak with about this. One is Mark Klose, who worked for KACO, another is Bernie Hayes--who helped create the "Stereo In Black" era. Hayes works for WGNU radio, and even wrote a book about his experiences in the business. Former KTRS personality Scott St. James also worked for KKSS from 1974 and 1977 (working both the AC and later R&B format).