You mean "major market AM Top 40"?
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
610 KFRC/KEAR
- Thread starter K108 Sacramento
- Start date
KFRC went Standards in August of 1986. WLS went Adult Contemporary in late 1987.
It seemed like it, but probably not really. What happened at KFRC was that ratings erosion happened almost immediately after their last peak book---#1 with an 8.5 in April/May 1978. By the July/August 1980 book, KFRC was in fifth place with a 4.0---losing more than half its share.
KFRC hired Gerry Cagle as PD and he took the station very up and very rhythmic:
It worked in that KFRC got back up to a 5.4 in the summer and fall '81 books (by that time anything higher than #3 was unreachable because KGO and KCBS were doing so well).
The numbers began a gradual decline from there and in March of '84, after dropping to a 3.0 in fall '83 and a 3.1 in winter '83, Cagle was replaced by Mike Phillips.
Phillips broomed the heavy rhythmic approach and played straightforward mainstream AC as well as more and deeper (by age) Gold.
By comparison, that sounded like AC. Especially against a supposed actual AC (KYUU) that sounded very much like a CHR:
KYUU San Francisco / Bobby Ocean / 07-13-1984
Listen to KYUU San Francisco / Bobby Ocean / 07-13-1984 by Retro Radio Joe
Harry Nelson did 9am-12noon on Magic 61, following Carter B. Smith. He had a great publicity photo during that time of him wearing a tuxedo and top hat.
The 610 signal comes in as strong as a local in Sacramento. And KFRC had decent ratings there during the Top 40 years.
I believe CBS had to get rid of it when it acquired KOVR because, under the contour overlap method, KFRC put it over the limit. I suppose it could’ve gotten rid of one of its Sacto stations instead, but Family Radio was willing to swap.
That is correct. Family took over KFRC(AM) in April 2005; CBS took over 106.9 around that time, which led to 3½ years, first as "Free FM", then as classic hits KFRC-FM, before the simulcast with KCBS(AM) began in October 2008. (By that time, 99.7 had become KMVQ, "Movin'", which first seemed to be a placeholder format but which actually got some traction, so CBS stuck with it.) The classic-hits format continued in an entirely automated form on KFRC-FM-HD2 until Audacy stopped most HD-2 broadcasting in February 2023.
The KFRC call letters also made a stop on 1550 AM, when it was the True Oldies Channel.
The forced sale of KFRC was the result of a very weird quirk in the cross-ownership rules at the time.
Radio cluster ownership limits were based on Arbitron market definitions. TV ownership limits were based on Nielsen DMAs. So the SF and Sacramento clusters didn't affect each other based on the radio-only or TV-only rules.
But to evaluate radio-TV cross-ownership, the FCC used a contour methodology based on the city limits of the TV station's COL. And that's where the problem came in. That big 610 signal put 5 mV/m over Stockton city limits (the first time in decades it's mattered that KOVR is a "Stockton" station) and so CBS had to slim down that "Stockton market" by one signal.
I think the cross-ownership rules have changed again since then, but since there's so little radio-TV common ownership these days, it hasn't crossed my radar much.
Radio cluster ownership limits were based on Arbitron market definitions. TV ownership limits were based on Nielsen DMAs. So the SF and Sacramento clusters didn't affect each other based on the radio-only or TV-only rules.
But to evaluate radio-TV cross-ownership, the FCC used a contour methodology based on the city limits of the TV station's COL. And that's where the problem came in. That big 610 signal put 5 mV/m over Stockton city limits (the first time in decades it's mattered that KOVR is a "Stockton" station) and so CBS had to slim down that "Stockton market" by one signal.
I think the cross-ownership rules have changed again since then, but since there's so little radio-TV common ownership these days, it hasn't crossed my radar much.
You out one important thing: The Oakland Athletics were on KFRC at the start of the 2005 season.
In the way the deal was structured the trade would be completed once the A's season ended, forcing Family Stations to honor the A's deal with Infinity (not yet CBS Radio again) and continue to air the games on KFRC. Infinity took control of 106.9 FM on Oct. 17, 2005 (about two weeks after the A's season ended) as KIFR. At the same time Family moved the KEAR calls to 610 and Infinity parked KFRC somewhere for the next few years.
Yes. Major market AM.
I wouldn't normally put "important" and "Oakland Athletics" in the same sentence.
Infinity still had KFRC-FM at 99.7. KMVQ (Movin') came along later.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
To add to the correction you gave, Mark: When KFRC (AM) was sold (2005), the KFRC-FM call letters were still on 99.7 (where they had been since 1991, replacing the KXXX calls under NBC) and did not move to 106.9 until 2007 (about six months after the "Movin'" format was installed on 99.7). The calls were never parked anywhere, as the OP seems to believe.
And another (small) correction: KXXX wasn't under NBC's ownership, that was after NBC got out of the radio biz in 1988. Under NBC, 99.7 was KYUU.
Correct. NBC sold KYUU to Emmis (along with WNBC and WYNY, New York, WKQK in Boston and WJIB, Boston) in 1988. X-100 was Emmis' idea. They sold to Bedford three years later (he'd bought KFRC---then Magic 61 in 1990), and that's when the KFRC calls landed on 99.7, with an oldies format.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
I stand corrected about my enhancement to Mark's correction for Rollo.
I also think I just made myself dizzy saying that.
I also think I just made myself dizzy saying that.
Also dizzying were the TV commercials for Movin' when it first came on: basically a series of shots of people's butts (fully clothed) dancing to music.
I don't remember exactly when the motto became "99.7 Now" but those butts are still shakin' seventeen years later.
When 99.7 began "Movin'", I moved on, too; I preferred it as KFRC (naturally), and wasn't particularly happy with the then-new format (of course).
c
The Big 610 was top 40 until 1986. The Game Zone was in there around '85, but not for more than about a year (and an unsuccessful year at that).
In about August of '86, they switched to Magic 61, which was, as you called it, the Big Band era, though it was more like a traditional MOR's music library. Sinatra, Perry Como, etc. Dr. Don stayed around for about half a year until his contract ran out, which was a weird marriage.
Then in the early '90s they were acquired by the same owner that already had KFRC-FM/99.7 (Bedford?) and began simulcasting 99.7's KFRC-FM oldies. That ran until the CBS deal to acquire KOVR in Sacramento necessitated spinning off one signal, and since 610 was a presence in the Sacramento market, CBS traded it to Family Radio (how it became KEAR) in exchange for Family's 106.9, and since 2008 has been the KFRC side of the KCBS All News 740 simulcast.