It's just a shame the owners didn't see fit to spend money fixing their signal. As far as programming was concerned, Mel and his gang couldn't have done a better job. That's the problem with today's radio though. Even Mel is being forced-feed a playlist from HQ. He's so much more talented than that...
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"14K For A Day"
- Thread starter GeneSavage
- Start date
I don't think the owners knew they COULD fix the signal... it's even possible the rules have been relaxed since then.
Signal Media (out of Dallas, I think) dumped buckets of money into that station: new building, all new equipment, the best cart decks, the highest quality carts, the best turntables, cartridges, microphones, processing... they poured tons of money into the promotions, too, as witnessed by all the cash they gave away (even AFTER the papers to sell the stations had been signed).
I've heard unsubstantiated rumors from unnameable sources (vague enough?) that the guy who brokered the deal for the guy who owned it in Dallas was feeding the owner a line of bull about what he had here: that nobody listened, that only kids were listening, that the best thing h could do was get rid of this albatross from around his financial neck.
...And he had JUST the guy to sell them to...
These unsubstantiated rumors from unnameable sources claim the broker for the deal was planning to go to work for the new owners, & that's why he ran down the station in the eyes of the current owner. It was easy to show bad numbers by showing the 6-county survey area... if he'd looked at Tulsa county only, he'd have seen he was beating K-107 here.
Allegedly there was a visit from the owner in Dallas to Tulsa after the letter of intent to sell was signed... reportedly the owner was SHOCKED, both at how loved the station was in-town and the sense of family felt by the staff... he was claimed to have been overheard saying, "I didn't know... I really didn't know... I never would have signed the papers if I had known..."
If true, the letter of intent to sell (as I understand it) could only be broken by the buyer, not the seller.... the buyer wasn't ABOUT to do that, as he was getting a STEAL of a deal.
The Dallas owner kept the staff completely in the loop throughout, the staff told if they got job offers to take them, & while some did leave, a few hung in there. New staffers were told upfront this was temporary until the sale went through.
Then, in July, the sale was approved, & 92.1 became KQZZ (an automated traditional top-40 with the same voicetracker 24/7!) and 1430 went news/talk.
I can fault the Dallas owner for being stupid for not coming to town BEFORE he agreed to sell the stations, but compared to how most corporations treat their stations & their staff, he ends up looking like a saint.
I was stunned when 1430 went to 25K and 92.1 went to 50K... oh, what a difference it might have made if that had happened sometime before 1985!
Mel & Dave, as far as I am concerned, are BRILLIANT programmers. Any station which employs them and doesn't take advantage of their considerable experience and talent to turn that station into a cash cow is squandering an incredible opportunity. I think they could program circles around any cluster's consultants in town.
Signal Media (out of Dallas, I think) dumped buckets of money into that station: new building, all new equipment, the best cart decks, the highest quality carts, the best turntables, cartridges, microphones, processing... they poured tons of money into the promotions, too, as witnessed by all the cash they gave away (even AFTER the papers to sell the stations had been signed).
I've heard unsubstantiated rumors from unnameable sources (vague enough?) that the guy who brokered the deal for the guy who owned it in Dallas was feeding the owner a line of bull about what he had here: that nobody listened, that only kids were listening, that the best thing h could do was get rid of this albatross from around his financial neck.
...And he had JUST the guy to sell them to...
These unsubstantiated rumors from unnameable sources claim the broker for the deal was planning to go to work for the new owners, & that's why he ran down the station in the eyes of the current owner. It was easy to show bad numbers by showing the 6-county survey area... if he'd looked at Tulsa county only, he'd have seen he was beating K-107 here.
Allegedly there was a visit from the owner in Dallas to Tulsa after the letter of intent to sell was signed... reportedly the owner was SHOCKED, both at how loved the station was in-town and the sense of family felt by the staff... he was claimed to have been overheard saying, "I didn't know... I really didn't know... I never would have signed the papers if I had known..."
If true, the letter of intent to sell (as I understand it) could only be broken by the buyer, not the seller.... the buyer wasn't ABOUT to do that, as he was getting a STEAL of a deal.
The Dallas owner kept the staff completely in the loop throughout, the staff told if they got job offers to take them, & while some did leave, a few hung in there. New staffers were told upfront this was temporary until the sale went through.
Then, in July, the sale was approved, & 92.1 became KQZZ (an automated traditional top-40 with the same voicetracker 24/7!) and 1430 went news/talk.
I can fault the Dallas owner for being stupid for not coming to town BEFORE he agreed to sell the stations, but compared to how most corporations treat their stations & their staff, he ends up looking like a saint.
I was stunned when 1430 went to 25K and 92.1 went to 50K... oh, what a difference it might have made if that had happened sometime before 1985!
Mel & Dave, as far as I am concerned, are BRILLIANT programmers. Any station which employs them and doesn't take advantage of their considerable experience and talent to turn that station into a cash cow is squandering an incredible opportunity. I think they could program circles around any cluster's consultants in town.
GET OUTTA HERE!
That's GREAT!!!
(I'm VERY jealous... I know you'll enjoy it!)
That's GREAT!!!
(I'm VERY jealous... I know you'll enjoy it!)
NightAire said:
I felt the same way, lucked out.. it cost me around 18 bucks with postage, but shoot, I pay that much for import CD's. I hope its in clean shape. I've bought 45's listed VG but were well played and worn.. some sellers just don't know how to grade records.
I'll email you a Mp3 of it for your station when I get it..
Yeah, as high as that price is... where the heck else are you going to get a copy?
Thank you SO MUCH for the copy! For promotional purposes only, of course.
(If Jim Sweeney reads this & has a source for the single, I'll happily point listeners to it!)
I've got that saxophone stuck it my head... what a great little tune! Wonder what the flip-side is?
Thank you SO MUCH for the copy! For promotional purposes only, of course.
(If Jim Sweeney reads this & has a source for the single, I'll happily point listeners to it!)
I've got that saxophone stuck it my head... what a great little tune! Wonder what the flip-side is?
I transferred both sides of Jim Sweney & The Jumpshotz (thats the way it's spelled on the 45) last night (320-44 Mp3).
The 45 looks like it was barely played, but unfortunately Pilgrim Records pressed it on not so great vinyl. I did just a little declicking and digital editing with Sound Forge here and there to remove the big pops but a few crackles remain.
Just click on the "download original" button to get them. And be my guest if you want to share the links. It's the sound of 1984!
Enjoy!
Billy
It Aint Right:
http://www.divshare.com/download/8507215-87a
She's So Dangerous:
http://www.divshare.com/download/8507256-cc2
The 45 looks like it was barely played, but unfortunately Pilgrim Records pressed it on not so great vinyl. I did just a little declicking and digital editing with Sound Forge here and there to remove the big pops but a few crackles remain.
Just click on the "download original" button to get them. And be my guest if you want to share the links. It's the sound of 1984!
Enjoy!
Billy
It Aint Right:
http://www.divshare.com/download/8507215-87a
She's So Dangerous:
http://www.divshare.com/download/8507256-cc2
Dude, this is COMPLETELY amazing... and it sounds GREAT!
Thanks for preserving this piece of Tulsa history!
Thanks for preserving this piece of Tulsa history!
Kent said:
The KQQF move was because of the 92.1 KCMA Broken Arrow upgrade application. The cost of the KQQF move was paid for by the owner of KCMA.
Awsome!!!
OKCRadioGuy said:
There is much more to this story. The owner had been told the upgrade of 92.1 was a possibility, however, when he ran it by his consulting engineering firm in Ohio they said it was not possible. I lost what little respect I had for the firm that day.
The owner told me the news, I argued with him and one of his final statements to me was "if 92.1 can be upgraded I will cut off my right arm". In 1990 the upgrade was completed and as far as I know he still has his right arm.
The road to upgrade was not smooth and took four years because of the legal fight with KQQF to move to another frequency. In the end the FCC ruled in favor of KCMA but the cost had been very high. Every cost for KQQF had to be paid by KCMA including advertising for rebranding of the frequency. One item from the list that sticks in my mind were the fifty satin jackets with the station logo embroidered on the front and the back. The list of items that had to be replaced was very much padded but unless we wanted to wait another year while an appeal made its way through the FCC, the man had to be paid. The cost of equipment was very low compared to everything back at the office. The 3 bay antenna had to be replaced with a new one and an engineer had to be paid to retune the transmitter. That was the technical cost of the KQQF switch. In the end the switch was good for them too as they could apply for an upgrade to a C3 on the new frequency.
I don't know if 92K could have sustained the four year battle on the road to upgrade, no one will ever know.
Tower Lights said:
I don't think it was just that, though that was certainly a substantial part of it. I remember it being '89 or '90 before stations other than class A's could locate on 92.1. There was going to be plenty of waiting just on that account alone. By the way, didn't the former 92K get upgraded far sooner in a frequency swap with KCMA 106.1? I'm thinking Lite 106 replaced KCMA directly at 106.1, though I didn't listen to much radio back then. KCMA, of course, went straight to 92.1 until it was finally sold to, ironically, the owners of Kool 106.1 in '95.
Of course, the irony there is that "KQQF 98.9 The Edge" would only last another year or two before switching to country as KUSN.
That sounds like a Mahaffey operation to me!
Kent said:
Now I am working from memory and one of these days when I have time I may go dig the records out of storage but this is pretty much how things went.
It was in late 83 or early 84 when the docket was complete and there may have been a stay involved for a period of time but 80-90 stations were being contructed in 1985. While it may have been 89 or 90 before some facilities were actually being upgraded, applications were being accepted for filing in 1984 and stations were being upgraded in 1985. I was having the discussion with the Signal Media owner in late 1984 and the application for upgrade could have been filed then. KCMA started the application process in 1987 and the CP was finally awarded in 1989 then we had to make a transmitter location change that was approved in 1990. The FCC approvals would have happened around two years sooner if KQQF had not put up a roadblock. Starting in 1989 Class A stations could apply to increase ERP from 3 KW to 6 KW but that action had no connection to the KCMA application.
In 1985 only one AM and one FM could be owned in a market. When Signal decided to sell there was for a time a deal working where the new owners of 1430 and 92.1 would spin off 92.1 to the owner of KCMA at 106.1 and they would acquire 106.1. That deal fell through so the new owners had 1430 and 92.1 in August 1985. In late 1985 Pathfinder purchased 106.1 from the KCMA owner and changed the call sign to KVLT in January 1986.
It took about six months for the owners of 1430 and 92.1 to run it into the ground. Pathfinder wanted an AM in the market so they purchased 1430 and 92.1 in March 1986 and then immediately had to spin off 92.1 to the former owner of 106.1. The KELi call sign on 1430 was changed to KVLT which required the 106.1 call sign to be modified to KVLT-FM. The 92.1 call sign was changed to KCMA and classical music was back on the air in Tulsa. By 1995 the owner of KCMA was ready to retire, the rules had been changed to allow ownership of more stations in the market so he sold it to the owners of 1430 and 106.1.
Tower Lights said:
Correct. It was that way until August 1, 1992, though the LMA had been deemed acceptable a couple of years earlier.
I remember 1430 as KSKS starting in the mid-80's. I know it had the KSKS calls starting in either '86 or '87. I believe it was country for a brief time and soft AC after that before adopting news/talk courtesy of the "Winners News Network." I remember one of my classmates had a t-shirt for an event sponsored by the two stations. It prominently displayed a pair of sunglasses that had a logo for "Kiss Country 1430" over the right eye and "Lite 106 FM" over the left. I remember noticing it and thinking KISS wasn't country. I remember because I went to junior high at Carver at the time, and I rode the bus home. The bus driver used to bring her boombox on the bus and would listen to "All Music, All Memories KISS 1430" every afternoon. That would have had to have been '87 because I didn't start riding the bus home until around the spring of that year.
I remember when that one happened because Mom liked the classical station and was very upset when she turned it on and heard all 70's. She called me to ask if I knew what was going on with it!
Kent said:
3/7/1986 KVLT
7/14/1986 KSKS
8/5/1990 KQLL
6/5/2001 KTBZ
Last year I was griped at by a few fans for not letting you know in advance, so here it it:
The 25th anniversary celebration of 14K & 92K (KELI-AM 1430, Tulsa & KELI-FM 92.1, Broken Arrow) will air starting at midnight east coast time August 17th, 2010 & will end at midnight West coast time August 18th.
It was August 17th, 1985 at noon that Mel Meyers & The K-Krew signed off "The Home Of Tulsa's Hottest Hits" for the last time. It would be the last time top-40 music, or "CHR" as it became known, would play on an AM radio station in Tulsa.
My life's been in such turmoil that I haven't been preparing as I should, but Mel has lit the spark back underneath me tonight. He wrote to tell me he found an original reel of the first 14K sweepers & IDs! He & Wavy Davy are digitizing & cleaning up the reel, & hope to have them ready to air during the broadcast.
He's also looking at selling CDs of the reel to recoup repair / restoration costs... which seems completely reasonable to me. I don't yet have any details on how or if this will happen for certain, so stay tuned.
Additionally, this is the year I AM going to interview several of the K-Krew for playback during that day. I'm friends with a number of them on Facebook, so I just need to get those recorded & loaded.
Finally, restoration work was started on the original airchecks but came to a halt when I became more involved with saving my house than getting the tapes mailed off... as it looks like the house is now a lost cause anyway I'm hoping to begin mailing tapes for restoration within the next day or two.
http://www.BlackLightRadio.com celebrates the 25th anniversary of The Music You See On MTV as we become "14K For A Day" this August 17th, 2010.
Please spread the word!
The 25th anniversary celebration of 14K & 92K (KELI-AM 1430, Tulsa & KELI-FM 92.1, Broken Arrow) will air starting at midnight east coast time August 17th, 2010 & will end at midnight West coast time August 18th.
It was August 17th, 1985 at noon that Mel Meyers & The K-Krew signed off "The Home Of Tulsa's Hottest Hits" for the last time. It would be the last time top-40 music, or "CHR" as it became known, would play on an AM radio station in Tulsa.
My life's been in such turmoil that I haven't been preparing as I should, but Mel has lit the spark back underneath me tonight. He wrote to tell me he found an original reel of the first 14K sweepers & IDs! He & Wavy Davy are digitizing & cleaning up the reel, & hope to have them ready to air during the broadcast.
He's also looking at selling CDs of the reel to recoup repair / restoration costs... which seems completely reasonable to me. I don't yet have any details on how or if this will happen for certain, so stay tuned.
Additionally, this is the year I AM going to interview several of the K-Krew for playback during that day. I'm friends with a number of them on Facebook, so I just need to get those recorded & loaded.
Finally, restoration work was started on the original airchecks but came to a halt when I became more involved with saving my house than getting the tapes mailed off... as it looks like the house is now a lost cause anyway
I'm hoping to begin mailing tapes for restoration within the next day or two.http://www.BlackLightRadio.com celebrates the 25th anniversary of The Music You See On MTV as we become "14K For A Day" this August 17th, 2010.
Please spread the word!
***DATE CHANGE*** Re: "14K For A Day"
It's embarrassing, for years, to swear something happened on one day, and then find out your memory is completely wrong.
I swore 14K & 92K signed off on Saturday, August 17th, 1985 at noon. This year, as we get ready for the 25th anniversary of the sign-off, Mel challenged me on the Saturday sign-off theory.
I spoke with several other members of the K-Crew (& even a member of the staff that took over) and while nobody was quite sure WHICH day the end came, they were all pretty confident it was a weekday.
This started me on a quest to verify my memory, which led me to an aircheck from the night before the sign-off, which contained a forecast, which listed "...tonight..." "...tomorrow.." and "...SATURDAY..."
A quick bit of math told me if the day after "tomorrow" was Saturday, and the sign-off is "tomorrow," then "tomorrow" has to be...
*sigh*
FRIDAY.
Therefore, with a heavy heart, I re-write my (incorrect) history of 14K & 92K to show they signed off at noon on FRIDAY, August 16TH, 1985.
I hope this won't mess too many people up too much... I felt the truth had to be revealed.
On a lighter note, I'm moving the celebration to the LAUNCH date of 14K, August 24th. (This I can confirm with a copy of a Tulsa Tribune article about the format launch on KELI.) Moving the tribute to the 24th associates it with a happier anniversary, can be confirmed in black & white, & will give me an extra week to wrap up interviews, etc.
Listen all day Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 for airchecks, music & memories from 14K & 92K on http://www.BlackLightRadio.com!
It's embarrassing, for years, to swear something happened on one day, and then find out your memory is completely wrong.
I swore 14K & 92K signed off on Saturday, August 17th, 1985 at noon. This year, as we get ready for the 25th anniversary of the sign-off, Mel challenged me on the Saturday sign-off theory.
I spoke with several other members of the K-Crew (& even a member of the staff that took over) and while nobody was quite sure WHICH day the end came, they were all pretty confident it was a weekday.
This started me on a quest to verify my memory, which led me to an aircheck from the night before the sign-off, which contained a forecast, which listed "...tonight..." "...tomorrow.." and "...SATURDAY..."
A quick bit of math told me if the day after "tomorrow" was Saturday, and the sign-off is "tomorrow," then "tomorrow" has to be...
*sigh*
FRIDAY.
Therefore, with a heavy heart, I re-write my (incorrect) history of 14K & 92K to show they signed off at noon on FRIDAY, August 16TH, 1985.
I hope this won't mess too many people up too much... I felt the truth had to be revealed.
On a lighter note, I'm moving the celebration to the LAUNCH date of 14K, August 24th. (This I can confirm with a copy of a Tulsa Tribune article about the format launch on KELI.) Moving the tribute to the 24th associates it with a happier anniversary, can be confirmed in black & white, & will give me an extra week to wrap up interviews, etc.
Listen all day Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 for airchecks, music & memories from 14K & 92K on http://www.BlackLightRadio.com!
It was Friday at Noon that Mel, Davey and crew signed off. The new owner did not get control at Noon because the final payment had not arrived by wire transfer into the Signal Media bank account. Mel played fill music until the payment was confirmed about 30 minutes or so later then the switch was flipped to transfer control to the studios at 71st & Sheridan.
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