AM Top 40

[MusicMaestro]

How would you guys fit the great 710 KMPC into this history, because I distinctively remember Wink Martindale(a personal favorite) on Fridays on his 12-3pm show having a little countdown thing involving current hits that KMPC were playing. I'm guessing middle to late 70's-early 80's, before the station went to an all-sports format (modeled after WFAN in N.Y.).

 

[michael hagerty]

Music Maestro: Wink's KMPC countdown (which he called "Music Scene USA") was based on the Adult Contemporary charts. At least one aircheck of Wink doing the countdown, which he spread over two days because of KMPC's commercial load, newscasts, a few sprinkled-in oldies and his talk time, exists...from February 21, 1975. The songs on that tape:

#16: Paul McCartney & Wings: Sally G
#15: Jim Weatherly: I'll Still Love You
#14: B.J. Thomas: (Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song
#13: Donny & Marie Osmond: Morning Side Of The Mountain
#12: Neil Diamond: I've Been This Way Before
#11: Al Martino: To The Door Of The Sun

Only one of those songs (B.J. Thomas) was on the KHJ Thirty that week. And it's a safe bet that the rest of Wink's countdown (those six above are the only ones in a full hour aircheck) didn't include The Ohio Players' Fire; Average White Band's Pick Up The Pieces or Labelle's Lady Marmalade...all in KHJ's Top 10.

So while Wink did a Top 30 countdown, it wasn't Top 40 music.

The closest KMPC ever came to Top 40 was probably 1952-1956, when it played hit singles by pop artists (Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como). When rock and roll hit, KMPC shifted to album cuts by "good music" artists and a handful of singles that fit.

In fact, in the 1960s and early 1970s, KMPC put out a playlist that could be found in some L.A. record stores. It listed current albums that KMPC was playing and noted that "no attempt has been made to place the albums in an order of preference or popularity". The KMPC tribute site has a shot of two of these playlists...one from 1971, and another from 1973, the year KMPC began playing more contemporary artists. The 1973 list is from a transitory period...showing Stevie Wonder and Jack Jones sharing space on the same radio station:

http://710kmpc.com/Large%20Photos/KMPC-Play-list.jpg

By 1974 or so, it was pretty much hit singles, but again, from the Adult Contemporary charts, not the Hot 100. That's how it stayed until the flip to talk in late 1980. The run at KABC failed, and KMPC returned as a nostalgia station in 1982, enjoying a 10-year run and some surprising ratings success until the flip to sports in 1992.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[calguy]

To avoid confusion, Calguy and I are not the same people. Or person. Or whatever.

And thanks, Llew. Some of it's from memory (increasingly chancy as time goes by), but the internet has also made it easy for me to ask questions of people like Bill Drake and Ron Jacobs, and to read the postings of others on this site, Reelradio.com and LAradio.com.

And I'm blessed with friendships that allow me to pick up the phone and call Charlie Van Dyke, Bobby Ocean and Bobby Rich.

I'm also fortunate in that a lot of friends have given me airchecks over the years that they knew I'd enjoy. There's nothing like a few hundred airchecks, unscoped and in chronological order, to put hazy memories back into perspective.

As to Chuck Martin and his using the Rhythm of the City package at K-West..I don't know...I never heard the Top 40 K-West live and very little tape appears to exist. Martin did press the Double A image series (which had aired for about six months in 1971) into service when he assumed the PD gig at KHJ from John Sebastian in fall 1979. But I believe it went off the air when Rhythm of the City went on.

---Michael Hagerty

But you know Michael, we're never in the same room at the same time so... LOL, just kidding!

Your post got me to thinking and I did a search on Reel Radio this morning for any airchecks from KHJ in 1980. I came up with one of Charlie Fox from that year and sure enough they were using both packages at that time. The Drake Double A was never one of my favorites, but it sounded pretty good on that aircheck as did Charlie. If you check it out you'll find an awesome top of the hour ID with Paul Frees. It's wonderful!

 

[Bob_Hudson]

Your post got me to thinking and I did a search on Reel Radio this morning for any airchecks from KHJ in 1980. I came up with one of Charlie Fox from that year and sure enough they were using both packages at that time. The Drake Double A was never one of my favorites, but it sounded pretty good on that aircheck as did Charlie. If you check it out you'll find an awesome top of the hour ID with Paul Frees. It's wonderful!

I have an aircheck or two of myself doing afternoon news on KHJ in 1980 - I'll have to see if i have any jingles on that other than the cutom sounders in and out of the news. I gotta say that even in the waning days of Top 40 KHJ, it was a real thrill to work there and the jingles really added to the feel of being part of a legend.

 

[michael hagerty]

Calguy: I stand corrected on the cross-use of The Rhythm of the City and The Double A package.

And the Paul Frees ID is probably my favorite Top-Of-The-Hour of all time. There are two versions...one where the singers sing "Los Angeles"...and the other (the one at the top of the Charlie Fox aircheck) where Paul says it. They rotated alternate hours and I always hoped I'd be listening for the Frees "Los Angeles".


---Michael Hagerty

 

[briancraig]

What about KRLA in the late 70s and early 80s. I have a run of surveys from 1979 to 1982 and while I know they were thought of as oldies, on the surveys they are called Hitradio 11.

 

[davideduardo]

The closest KMPC ever came to Top 40 was probably 1952-1956, when it played hit singles by pop artists (Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como). When rock and roll hit, KMPC shifted to album cuts by "good music" artists and a handful of singles that fit.

That's a really good point. Top 40 did not start playing rock n' roll. It played Gogi Grant and Doris Day. With the birthdate on KOWH in Omaha somewhere around August of 1952, it would be many years before Chuck Berry and Bill Haley made it on any station's charts.

This thread, with your amazing set of facts, is quite fascinating!

 

[pbf1]

With the birthdate on KOWH in Omaha somewhere around August of 1952, it would be many years before Chuck Berry and Bill Haley made it on any station's charts.

Given that Bill Haley made it into the Billboard top 20 in 1953, I'd like to think SOME station(s) were playing him!

 

[Gregg]

I remember The Mighty 690 and KIIS-AM in the last days of Top 40 radio on AM. 690 I thought was a great station or playing the most Top 40 music at the time.

Since it was licensed to Mexico (though rarely admitted this fact) it didn't have to do ANY news. While Top 40 stations in the U.S. had to fill morning drive with stop sets and at least minimal newscasts twice an hour, 690 sounded in morning drive much as it sounded any other hour of the day. And this was also before most stations did traffic reports from a central service. So while Rick Dees on KIIS-FM had to go to his newscaster or helicopter traffic guy or was doing bits and taking phone calls, 690 was all music with four breaks an hour for spots... and DJs who only did the minimal amount of personality talk required for the format.

I also liked that 690 was trying to be both an L.A. and San Diego station at the same time. It always refered to "Southern California." In fact, when you had to send in a postcard to participate in a contest, the address was "The Mighty 690, Box 690, Southern California 9-something-something-something-something." I suppose the post office got the postcard to the right postal box, if you got the zip code right.

It never refered to its call letters in English, and quickly squeezed its call letters and city of license in Spanish between two commercials when required. The only time I guess it had to give its identity away was when it was required to air "La Hora Nacional" every Sunday evening. I wasn't aware of radio ratings in those days but I heard the station playing in numerous places in San Diego and even in Tijuana. And whatever listenership it could pick up in Orange County or LA was gravy.

And let's remember when KIIS-AM 1150 for a time was a "shadow-cast" radio station. The FCC wouldn't let an AM-FM combo in a large or medium city simulcast in those days, requiring separate programming. But I suppose KIIS figured it could claim the combined ratings of its FM and AM stations in a tight race with KPWR or KOST or whatever. So it simulcast the maximum hours (AM and PM Drive Mon-Fri) and shadowcast the rest of the time.

Shadowcasting meant playing the same songs and commercials as the FM but not at precisely the same time. One of the stations was a few minutes ahead of the other, so the FCC rules were not violated. The FM got the best DJs, the AM got KIIS-FM's fill in and weekend DJs. I remember Dees and his crew would sometimes promote the AM, saying if you couldn't get the FM some places that were along the coast or in the hills, the AM would come in clearly.

Let's remember that to this day, KIIS-FM uses a weak simulcast FM station in the middle of nowhere to give it an extra .1 or .2. And that sometimes means the difference between beating KSCA or KPWR to this day.



Gregg
[email protected]

 

[Garrett]

And let's not forget XETRA The Mighty 690 in the early 80's that actually beat KFI in one book.

In 1988, XETRA had a 4-book average of 5.1 and KFI had a 5.2 for the year. Even though noise levels were lower, XETRA had a definite signal disadvantage yet it pretty much tied KFI that year.

There was no AM top 40 in 1988.

 

[Marv-L.A.]

Michael Hagerty---Thanks for your inexhaustible knowedge of LA radio over the past 40+ years.

I certainly have to agree that KFI did indeed have a 'stellar' lineup in the late seventies, including one C.K. Cooper who very badly wanted the AM drive gig @ KFI, but Lohman & Barkley had a hammerlock on that time period, and weren't going anywhere.

I don't recall if Jackson Armstrong & Cooper were at KFI simultanously, but Cooper eventually moved on to do mornings at WFYR/Chicago before returning to LA to do mornings at KZLA in 1988 (or thereabouts) after Gerry House left to go to WSIX/Nashville.

I also don't recall how long the KIIS-AM/FM simulcast lasted, but there might have been two different instances in which it was used.

When KPWR replaced KIIS @ #1 in the ratings (April 1987, give or take a month), the KIIS-AM side was repositioned into a harder, more rhythmic version (middays only, from 10AM/3PM) to go after KPWR, trying to reclaim the teens who'd defected to KPWR, costing KIIS that #1 spot in the ratings.

I definitely remembered reading somewhere that that project was aborted very qickly when they (Gannett?) discovered that KIIS-AM took listeners from KIIS-FM, but almost none from KPWR.

Insofar as how KPWR (and other CHR/Rhythmic stations, such as KMEL/SF) labeled their formats to both the trades and their advertisers, they billed themselves as R&B stations, apparently because there was a stigma of some kind regarding how &/or if advertisers would buy ad time on a CHR/Rhythmic station as opposed to a station which merely referred to itself as an R&B station.

By the very early nineties (1992), KPWR had expunged all of the late eighties CHR/Pop hits (by acts such as Roxette & Phil Collins) from its playlist and library, and was essentially totally rhythmic by then.

KYSR was launched as a Hot AC station in 1992 (as were similarly-formatted stations in other markets, primarily because KIIS and dozens of other CHR/Pop powerhouses had succeeded in blowing off millions of listeners, starting with the 'soccer moms' and other baby boomers who couldn't listen to top 40 radio anymore, due to the overabundance of rap, and the vulgarity that went along with it.

KIIS went from a 10.0 (fall 1984) to a 7.1 (fall 1987) to a 6.1 (winter 1991), and hasn't been the same since (in spite of its current #2 rank in the market and billing prowess), and neither has the format.

I'm not sure when KFI bailed out of the top 40 format, but when KIIS-FM hit 10.0 in the fall of 1984, that certainly made it much easier for KFI to change formats.

 

[calguy]

Michael Hagerty---Thanks for your inexhaustible knowedge of LA radio over the past 40+ years.

I certainly have to agree that KFI did indeed have a 'stellar' lineup in the late seventies, including one C.K. Cooper who very badly wanted the AM drive gig @ KFI, but Lohman & Barkley had a hammerlock on that time period, and weren't going anywhere.

I don't recall if Jackson Armstrong & Cooper were at KFI simultanously, but Cooper eventually moved on to do mornings at WFYR/Chicago before returning to LA to do mornings at KZLA in 1988 (or thereabouts) after Gerry House left to go to WSIX/Nashville.

C.K. Cooper was hired by Jhani Kaye in 1983. He worked for Kaye in El Paso years before, but was gone sometime in 1984 and replaced by M.G. Kelly. Jackson Armstrong was a John Rook hire and was at KFRC by 1982 if I recall correctly. The Super 64 did have some great jocks over the years and while Cooper was good, there was no way they would've replaced Lohman & Barkley with him. They were too important to the company.

 

[Gregg]

Interesting stuff, Marv. But I have one difference with your post...

>>>Insofar as how KPWR (and other CHR/Rhythmic stations, such as KMEL/SF) labeled their formats to both the trades and their advertisers, they billed themselves as R&B stations, apparently because there was a stigma of some kind regarding how &/or if advertisers would buy ad time on a CHR/Rhythmic station as opposed to a station which merely referred to itself as an R&B station.<<<

Actually I think the opposite is true. They label themselves as CHR/Rhythmic stations, not R&B or Urban stations, so they can avoid the stigma still remaining with a format that is too heavily aimed at minority listeners. There are CHR/Rhythmic stations in markets like Portland ME and Des Moines where the audience is overwhelmingly white. KUBE in Seattle is always one of the top stations in that market, with only a small minority population.

To this day WQHT NYC claims it is CHR/Rhythmic, even though it's playlist and presentation are hardly different than Urban WWPR NYC. And plenty of other stations do it as well. I'm not sure if KMEL S.F. still says it's CHR/Rhythmic, even though it's co-owned with KYLD, which really is CHR/Rhythmic. Clearly KMEL should be listed as Urban.



Gregg
[email protected]

 

[LKellerIII]

"I'm not sure if KMEL S.F. still says it's CHR/Rhythmic, even though it's co-owned with KYLD, which really is CHR/Rhythmic. Clearly KMEL should be listed as Urban."

KMEL is listed as "Urban" with Arbitron.