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All Beatles Format?

Huff said:
Many stations stunted with all-Beatles (along with Beatles' solo works) as an attention-getting temporary format. Some did it as a more-or-less permanent format, including:

KYST AM 920 in Houston was all-Beatles from May to October of 1983. It never actually changed its call letters, but branded as "KBTL, K-Beatle"

KTCY 104.9, which rimshotted Dallas, went all-Beatles during the first few months of 1997 as "Fab 105"
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Was the DFW Beatle rimshot station *this* 104.9, licensed to Pilot Point, TX, up above Denton?

en.wikipedia.org

KZMP-FM - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

And did any of those all-Beatle stations play cuts from

- John and Yoko's early experimental albums

- Yoko's 1973 LP Approximately Infinite Universe, which IIRC guest starred John

- Yoko's cuts on Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey

- Linda's cuts "Cook of the House" (from Wings at the Speed of Sound) and "Seaside Woman" (her single as Suzy and the Red Stripes)
 
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Huff said:
Many stations stunted with all-Beatles (along with Beatles' solo works) as an attention-getting temporary format. Some did it as a more-or-less permanent format, including:

KYST AM 920 in Houston was all-Beatles from May to October of 1983. It never actually changed its call letters, but branded as "KBTL, K-Beatle"

KTCY 104.9, which rimshotted Dallas, went all-Beatles during the first few months of 1997 as "Fab 105"
Click to expand...
I have tape of KYST from a later period, 1986, when it was doing a bilingual Spanish-English format that was more Spanish-language than English-language. The music was all over the place. It was in stereo, interestingly enough. It had a surprisingly decent daytime signal in the Montrose.
 
kwthom said:
When the SXM was active in the car, I drove for the better part of two hours, enjoying that channel. When the car stopped, I was asked by my wife "Don't do that again..."

For the rest of that trip, I complied. :LOL:
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My wife would have said the same thing. That example again illustrates how not everyone's tastes are the same.
 
ixnay said:
Was the DFW Beatle rimshot station *this* 104.9, licensed to Pilot Point, TX, up above Denton?

en.wikipedia.org

KZMP-FM - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

And did any of those all-Beatle stations play cuts from

- John and Yoko's early experimental albums

- Yoko's 1973 LP Approximately Infinite Universe, which IIRC guest starred John

- Yoko's cuts on Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey

- Linda's cuts "Cook of the House" (from Wings at the Speed of Sound) and "Seaside Woman" (her single as Suzy and the Red Stripes)
Click to expand...

If the point of an "all Beatles" format is to draw the largest possible audience attracted by hearing songs from the biggest band of the 1960s, then, no.
 
kwthom said:
When the SXM was active in the car, I drove for the better part of two hours, enjoying that channel. When the car stopped, I was asked by my wife "Don't do that again..."

For the rest of that trip, I complied. :LOL:
Click to expand...

I mean, I like the Beatles, but----one album of anyone is usually enough for me in a single sitting. And to be honest, when CDs allowed artists to stretch out to 80 minutes, effectively making every album a double, it became hard for me to get all the way through a lot of those.
 
Thanks for the info, these gentlemen looked in their late 60s so it likely was radio. The concept of a single group format seemed so bizarre to me, I just didn't think it possible. I guess I was wrong. Thanks again.
 
ixnay said:
Was the DFW Beatle rimshot station *this* 104.9, licensed to Pilot Point, TX, up above Denton?
Click to expand...
Yes, it was. The owner programmed and operated the station as "Fab 105" from a computer in his house for several months before eventually selling the station.
 
TexasTom said:
Yes, it was. The owner programmed and operated the station as "Fab 105" from a computer in his house for several months before eventually selling the station.
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Did this thing have much in the way of a diverse spot load? Or was it the same three or four advertisers likely paying 'dollar-a-hollar'?
 
Kelly A said:
Did this thing have much in the way of a diverse spot load? Or was it the same three or four advertisers likely paying 'dollar-a-hollar'?
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No paid advertising at all -- just an occasional public service announcement. "Fab 105" was never intended as a revenue generator but was instead a way for the owner of the station to offer something he perceived as being of value to the community (the music and public service announcements) while showing off the station's new facilities (it had just upgraded to being a C2 serving the north suburbs of Dallas after having previously been a class A in the Sherman/Denison market) to prospective buyers.

The format ran until he found a buyer for the station.
 
TexasTom said:
No paid advertising at all -- just an occasional public service announcement. "Fab 105" was never intended as a revenue generator but was instead a way for the owner of the station to offer something he perceived as being of value to the community (the music and public service announcements) while showing off the station's new facilities (it had just upgraded to being a C2 serving the north suburbs of Dallas after having previously been a class A in the Sherman/Denison market) to prospective buyers.

The format ran until he found a buyer for the station.
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But the thing with bothering to do some useless format; is you end up selling your station/business for 'stick value'.
Businesses that make the most in any sale, have some sort of documented cash flow. It would be like trying to sell your ice cream shop after giving away ice cream for the past year. Wait, what am I buying??
 
Kelly A said:
But the thing with bothering to do some useless format; is you end up selling your station/business for 'stick value'.
Businesses that make the most in any sale, have some sort of documented cash flow. It would be like trying to sell your ice cream shop after giving away ice cream for the past year. Wait, what am I buying??
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In this particular case, "stick value" was all the owner had to sell. The station had originally been a Sherman/Denison station, had been off the air for several years, had been moved to a new city of license and transmitter site, and was essentially a brand new station. So his goal was simply to get the station back on the air from its new site and provide a demonstration of what it would cover to prospective buyers.

So in this particular context, the "Fab 105" format served the purpose needed.
 
TexasTom said:
In this particular case, "stick value" was all the owner had to sell. The station had originally been a Sherman/Denison station, had been off the air for several years, had been moved to a new city of license and transmitter site, and was essentially a brand new station. So his goal was simply to get the station back on the air from its new site and provide a demonstration of what it would cover to prospective buyers.

So in this particular context, the "Fab 105" format served the purpose needed.
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Still, he likely left potential money on the table.
 
Kelly A said:
Still, he likely left potential money on the table.
Click to expand...

He may well have, though it was a pump-and-dump operation. Given what station values were then versus what they are now, I don't feel sorry for him.

KTCY, which stood for "Katy Country" when it was a Sherman/Denison station (and which is still in use by another station in the market), launched as Fab 105 in mid-August 1996. Like a lot of people in Texas, you grow up hating Arkansas, but 2/3 of your friends end up going to college there. I was one of the 2/3. I first heard the station on my way back to Arkansas for college.

I believe it lasted until January or February 1997, and, while it only played Beatles music, it also played Beatles songs by other artists. I seem to remember it had a longer playlist than KLUV had, though anyone who has been in programming for any length of time knows long playlists don't generally get numbers. I don't remember if it ever showed up in the ratings during its time as Fab 105.
 
KJME Fountain CO, AM 890 was 'Yesterday Radio', All-Beatles all the Time from 2016-2018. Probably the last time you'll ever see this novelty move on a terrestrial radio station! KJME served Colorado Springs.
 
Markxxx said:
I overheard a conversation on the bus today and one of the gentleman said, when he was a teen they had a radio station that played an "All Beatles Format." I assume by this he meant only Beatle's songs. My question is has there ever really been a radio station which had that as a format.

Even though the Beatles had a lot of product, I find it hard to believe that they'd have enough to have a radio station play it as a format.

Has anyone else heard of something like this? Also perhaps I am not understanding and an "all Beatle's format" does not mean only songs by the Beatles rock group.
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I love the Beatles but they only had 13 Studio albums even if you included the solo work from the four wouldn't be enough songs to populate a playlist. I know Sirius XM does it but they don't rely on it to pay the rent.
 
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