1981 93 KHJ TV Ad

[radiorob2.0]

Willie Nelson endorses KHJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEERXj2bhm8

 

[Thomps2525]

I had never seen that commercial. Thanks for sharing it...even if Willie did look like a middle Eastern terrorist. In 1980, KHJ announced plans to switch to a country format but they took so long to finally make the switch, KZLA beat them to it, dropping soft-rock for country in October. A month later, when KHJ finally did install a country format, the playlist included Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Jim Croce, Buddy Holly, Bob Seger, Charlie Dore, Eagles, Crosby Stills & Nash, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other pop artists. The country/pop hybrid was doomed to failure. As it turned out, we didn't all grow up to be cowboys.

 

[Hot Hits]

Willie Nelson endorses KHJ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEERXj2bhm8

When I think of RKO's KHJ TV this comes to mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHOiDOF442Y

 

[Dave Andrews]

I had never seen that commercial. Thanks for sharing it...even if Willie did look like a middle Eastern terrorist. In 1980, KHJ announced plans to switch to a country format but they took so long to finally make the switch, KZLA beat them to it, dropping soft-rock for country in October. A month later, when KHJ finally did install a country format, the playlist included Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Jim Croce, Buddy Holly, Bob Seger, Charlie Dore, Eagles, Crosby Stills & Nash, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other pop artists. The country/pop hybrid was doomed to failure. As it turned out, we didn't all grow up to be cowboys.

Charlie Dore? As in "Pilot Of The Airwaves"? Not even REMOTELY country!

 

[radio777]

Brings back memories, as a child I remember seeing a different 93 KHJ AM ad and began listening to the station back then on my mini-transistor radio. Before long, I got hooked on country music and listened to it for a while. Really enjoyed Alabama, Barbara Mandrell, George Jones, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins, Ronnie Milsap, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Crystal Gayle, Oak Ridge Boys, and others. I stopped listening to country after KHJ abandoned it, I didn't like the FM stations as much.

Think it was Lee Sherwood in the mornings and they had Rhonda Kramer with traffic. There was weekend countdown show with Bob Kingsley. At one point Sherwood had to do the show from home because he broke his leg (or something).

Up until today I had no idea how Lee Sherwood or Rhonda Kramer looked in person, after more than thirty years good to finally put a face to the voice.

 

[michael hagerty]

I had never seen that commercial. Thanks for sharing it...even if Willie did look like a middle Eastern terrorist. In 1980, KHJ announced plans to switch to a country format but they took so long to finally make the switch, KZLA beat them to it, dropping soft-rock for country in October. A month later, when KHJ finally did install a country format, the playlist included Rick Nelson, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Jim Croce, Buddy Holly, Bob Seger, Charlie Dore, Eagles, Crosby Stills & Nash, Creedence Clearwater Revival and other pop artists. The country/pop hybrid was doomed to failure. As it turned out, we didn't all grow up to be cowboys.

Gotta look at it from KHJ's point of view...they thought they were going up against KLAC in a two-way battle. KZLA caught them by surprise, and made it FOUR stations (KZLA-AM, KZLA-FM, KLAC and KHJ).

KHJ had to go in a different direction or else they're the fourth station in. The flip was motivated as much by the success of "Urban Cowboy" as anything. And if you look at the soundtrack for that movie, it was heavily country-rock...most of it by California artists.

While KHJ didn't win, the numbers weren't any worse than the last couple of years as a Top 40. And, in the early-mid 90s, KZLA did very well with a country-rock lean under John Sebastian.

It would have been interesting to see how KHJ would have done against KLAC without KZLA in the picture. But it was awfully late for music on AM, regardless.

 

[Thomps2525]

John Sebastian tried to adapt KHJ's tight rotation to KZLA's playlist. I remember when Paul Brandt's I Do was their number-one song (September 1996); it was played 102 times in a single week! That's once every 100 minutes. Yikes! That's even more often than KRTH plays Brown Eyed Girl!

 

[michael hagerty]

John Sebastian tried to adapt KHJ's tight rotation to KZLA's playlist. I remember when Paul Brandt's I Do was their number-one song (September 1996); it was played 102 times in a single week! That's once every 100 minutes. Yikes! That's even more often than KRTH plays Brown Eyed Girl!

In the Top 40 days, some stations played the #1 song once an hour. Others went an hour-ten or an hour-twenty.

An hour-forty (100 minutes) was pretty much the standard for power rotation on a current in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Sebastian was right on the mark.

 

[Thomps2525]

From 1965 through 1969---the Ron Jacobs era---didn't KHJ play one of the top three songs every 90 minutes and always at the top or bottom of the hour? Every top-three hit rotated every 90 minutes. That's what I recall...but I know better than to state my recollections as fact.

 

[michael hagerty]

From 1965 through 1969---the Ron Jacobs era---didn't KHJ play one of the top three songs every 90 minutes and always at the top or bottom of the hour? Every top-three hit rotated every 90 minutes. That's what I recall...but I know better than to state my recollections as fact.

I don't recall that, Steve, and it doesn't square with what's on unscoped airchecks of the time.

Jocks who were at KHJ in the Jacobs era say it wasn't as structured as it would become under future PDs. The big rule was that Jacobs expected every song on the Boss 30 to get at least one spin per three-hour shift.

Until Gerry Cagle's arrival in 1974, powers were playing every 2 hours and 10 minutes. Cagle cut it to one-forty.

 

[Hotseat]

Any country KHJ airchecks out there?

 

[michael hagerty]

Any country KHJ airchecks out there?

Not that I've ever run across, but Country airchecks are relatively rare, period. I've heard Sammy Jackson on KLAC from the early-mid 80s and Humble Harve (!) on KZLA in the Sebastian era.

 

[Thomps2525]

I made two airchecks: 60 minutes of Jim Duncan from KHJ's first day as country, 11-8-1980, and 60 minutes of Danny Martinez, 12-19-1980. I wish I had a tape of the 4-1-1983 format change; The Last Country Song by Ed Bruce---get it?---segued into an ID that proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Boss is back!" and then came Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock. A lot of listeners thought it was an April Fools Day stunt. It wasn't.

Michael, I have a lot of airchecks of KLAC, KZLA, KHAY and KIKF.

 

[michael hagerty]

I made two airchecks: 60 minutes of Jim Duncan from KHJ's first day as country, 11-8-1980, and 60 minutes of Danny Martinez, 12-19-1980. I wish I had a tape of the 4-1-1983 format change; The Last Country Song by Ed Bruce---get it?---segued into an ID that proclaimed, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Boss is back!" and then came Bill Haley's Rock Around The Clock. A lot of listeners thought it was an April Fools Day stunt. It wasn't.

Michael, I have a lot of airchecks of KLAC, KZLA, KHAY and KIKF.

You have rare stuff, Steve.

As for "The Boss Is Back", every time I tuned in and heard that phrase, it was delivered in such an unenthusiastic tone I thought they were telling me Alan Chlowitz had returned from lunch.

 

[Thomps2525]

After "The Boss" came back, Dick Whittington did mornings. He had worked at KNOB, KLAC, KGIL, KABC and KFI. On KHJ, he played only three or four songs an hour. He didn't last long...and then came "Car Radio" and "Smokin' Oldies." :-\

 

[michael hagerty]

After "The Boss" came back, Dick Whittington did mornings. He had worked at KNOB, KLAC, KGIL, KABC and KFI. On KHJ, he played only three or four songs an hour. He didn't last long...and then came "Car Radio" and "Smokin' Oldies." :-\

It wouldn't have mattered who they put on KHJ in the morning (Dave Hull replaced Sweet Dick). By that point, it was over. KFI was getting mid-1s.

 

[Thomps2525]

Danny Martinez was on KHJ from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1980 to 1985. I think Hull stayed until the 2-1-1986 format/call-letter change The other DJs I remember from the mid-'80s are Mark Denis, Ron Young, Jeff Hillery, Kim Amidon and Peter Jonathan---a far cry from the days of Steele and Morgan!

 

[michael hagerty]

Danny Martinez was on KHJ from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1980 to 1985. I think Hull stayed until the 2-1-1986 format/call-letter change The other DJs I remember from the mid-'80s are Mark Denis, Ron Young, Jeff Hillery, Kim Amidon and Peter Jonathan---a far cry from the days of Steele and Morgan!

Stuff changes in 20 years. If Drake had gotten his hands on KFI in '73 (or if KGBS had gotten its 24/7 authorization in '72 or '73 and done an all-out Q Format, KHJ would have been toast sooner. The ratings peaked in '68, Jacobs left in '69 and it was a revolving door of PDs and jocks from '70 on (with the exception of the Van Dyke era).

 

[Hot Hits]

Danny Martinez was on KHJ from 1973 to 1975 and again from 1980 to 1985. I think Hull stayed until the 2-1-1986 format/call-letter change

Dave Hull never left. He was the only live announcer on AM 930, Smokin' Oldies. Of course the signature voice of KRTH AM was Brother John!

 

[Thomps2525]

A few weeks after the poorly-named Smokin' Oldies format debuted, I wrote Brother John and pointed out that the slogan "Music from rock'n'roll's first ten years" was inaccurate because KHJ was playing 1955-65, an eleven-year span. I also pointed out that the music is going to get awfully stale as time goes by and I suggested that KHJ play more recent songs but only the ones that had an "early rock'n'roll" sound. He wrote a nice reply thanking me for my comments and ended with "Incidentally, our numbers are going up."

As Michael might point out, the debut of "Noventa-tres KKHJ" proved that the numbers didn't go up enough.