As a tribute....

[King Koopa]

Make a list of all KFRCs songs from during the time before it changed it's playlist to 70's and 80's junk.

 

[Jim Beam]

Alright, I got a few minutes. Here are a few I listened to with my Parents as I grew up listening to KFRC and KMGG Magic Oldies in Santa Rosa


Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine
Dusty Springfield - Son of a Preacher Man
The Drifters - Save The Last Dance For Me
Wilson Pickett - Land of 1000 Dances
Animals - House Of The Rising Sun
Bachman Turner Overdrive - Takin' Care of Buisness
Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth
Credence Clearwater - Down On The Corner
Del Shannon - Runaway
Dion And The Belmonts - Abraham, Martin and John
Donovan - Mellow Yellow
Jay and the Americans - Come a Little Bit Closer
Leslie Gore - It's My Party
Lovin Spoonfull - Do You Believe In Magic
Paul Simon-Kodachrome
Rolling Stones - Satisfaction
Simon And Garfunkel - Mrs. Robinson
The Association - Never My Love
The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody
Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl

 

[XM RADIO]

Add about 100 songs to this list, and King of Repitition,KFRC comes to mind!! The Bay Area has KYA 1260 with 6500 songs,and the Fake Chris Edwards and XM ! Just yesterday my friend Larry at North Main Tow went out and got XM , Like others Bay area radio is currently dead! For me "The Channel Is Clear XM !! Hows your ratings KFRC with your Lady Format?? Tune into the 60 s Channel, yesterday Phlash Phelps played "Whats the matter Baby" By Timi Yuro 1961 smash hit you never could get KFRC to play!! But you can bet you would hear Brown Eyed Girl Good riddens KFRC you gotta know KYA and XM has part of your audience!! Its a BARGAIN XM about 44 cents a day, Looking forward to another 4 years of ARNOLD and Much More Music on the Much More Music Station XM !!!GOOD LUCK Infinity/ CBS Kenny in Concord

 

[calguy]

Add about 100 songs to this list, and King of Repitition,KFRC comes to mind!! The Bay Area has KYA 1260 with 6500 songs,and the Fake Chris Edwards and XM ! Just yesterday my friend Larry at North Main Tow went out and got XM , Like others Bay area radio is currently dead! For me "The Channel Is Clear XM !! Hows your ratings KFRC with your Lady Format?? Tune into the 60 s Channel, yesterday Phlash Phelps played "Whats the matter Baby" By Timi Yuro 1961 smash hit you never could get KFRC to play!! But you can bet you would hear Brown Eyed Girl Good riddens KFRC you gotta know KYA and XM has part of your audience!! Its a BARGAIN XM about 44 cents a day, Looking forward to another 4 years of ARNOLD and Much More Music on the Much More Music Station XM !!!GOOD LUCK Infinity/ CBS Kenny in Concord

Here we go again, another XM executive who can't use spell check. So we get it. You hate terrestrial radio! I'm still not buying it! My ipod is better than ANY XM channel. Oh and yes, I even worked for XM at one time. I was NOT impressed...

 

[RadioStarOne]

Re: As a tribute....Phlash Phelps, and other possiblities for radio!

One of the great things about his show is that he will play your requests. And not only that he will take time to talk to his audience and actually have something to say that relates to us! He is very entertaining and a pleasure to talk to and I am proud to call him friend as well! And Radio wonders where the audience went? Why XM Satellite radio of course, It's a no Brainer for anyone wanting great radio without all the crap!

If the wall street ad agencies and their clients don't want to support the over 55 radio audience maybe its about time the radio stations got off their collective fat A$$ES and quit resting on the free sugar they've gotten addicted to in the form of national ad buys and go out and recruit some new sources of revenue to fund their stations! The greater San Francisce market is full of companies not in bed with the ad buying agencies! But that means these account executives would have to actually go out and knock on some doors and do some actual selling rather than sit on their fat A$$E$ waiting for the phone to ring! Wasn't there a time back in the day when the airstaff of most stations were also the sales staff? Anybody remember those days?

Did KFRC 99.7 ever play Ringo Starr's Oh My My? What a waste for such a legendary set of calls...once an hour in a buried ID! WCBS-FM HD-2 just did along with the standard preprinted cookie cutter oldies playlist, kind of nice to hear all this music without all the commercials but that won't last long especially if HD Radio fails to take off! The internet web stream is in crystal clear stereo to much better now than when they first started streaming the station!

Is the day coming when we will wake up and the KFRC calls will be on 106.9 FM along with A's Baseball? Is the idea so far-fetched to even consider in the ivory towers of CBS Radio? I Wonder mmm?

But Calguy you are only one person, sorry your time with XM wasn't so great, maybe XM's time with you wasn't so swell either, did you ever stop and consider that maybe they didn't like you as well? You sound like a disgruntled former employee rather than a regular listener to XM radio! XM has something for everyone all the time, unlike most bay area radio stations and thats the difference Calguy! One easy to find receiver, one easy installation and .44 Cents a day and more choice than anything on AM/FM radio, like I said its a no brainer. I use all the choices I'm finding available, AM, FM, XM, digital music player, internet streaming from around the world, Hell I'm in heaven!!!! Hey! that reminds me of a song from Fred Astaire, I think I will go to my music stored on my computer and listen to it. Do you get the idea yet? We all have choices and its not what we can find on AM/FM radio at all! Its not going to get much better with HD radio because its to limited, and thats a no brainer too!

 

[calguy]

Re: As a tribute....Phlash Phelps, and other possiblities for radio!

But Calguy you are only one person, sorry your time with XM wasn't so great, maybe XM's time with you wasn't so swell either, did you ever stop and consider that maybe they didn't like you as well? You sound like a disgruntled former employee rather than a regular listener to XM radio! XM has something for everyone all the time, unlike most bay area radio stations and thats the difference Calguy! One easy to find receiver, one easy installation and .44 Cents a day and more choice than anything on AM/FM radio, like I said its a no brainer. I use all the choices I'm finding available, AM, FM, XM, digital music player, internet streaming from around the world, Hell I'm in heaven!!!! Hey! that reminds me of a song from Fred Astaire, I think I will go to my music stored on my computer and listen to it. Do you get the idea yet? We all have choices and its not what we can find on AM/FM radio at all! Its not going to get much better with HD radio because its to limited, and thats a no brainer too!

Yes XM may have something for everyone, and I never said I hated it. I love listening to my hero Bobby Ocean on Channel 7. I've stated many times on these boards that I have my favorite XM channels. I've also stated that while I like many of these channels, I don't hear much in the way of dynamic, exciting programming. The oldies channels may play a lot of music, but the rotations are easy to pick up. If it's supposed to be so good, why do I hear the same stuff rotating just like regular radio? The real strength of XM and Sirius is the ability to change the channel so as not to get bored. As for exciting programming around the music, XM is a hollow imitation of those great 60's & 70's radio stations we all loved. There's not a lot of "there" there...

I am not a "disgruntled former employee". I just found my time there wanting. It was merely a stop on the way to another better job. I liked my time there, and nobody there wanted me to leave, I just couldn't make the bucks necessary to feed a family of 4. My employers everywhere I've worked have always tried to keep me. Unless they're all lying, I've been considered a valued employee. Wow, didn't think I had to defend myself, just my beliefs.

As for Bay Area radio, like all markets after consolidation, it just ain't what it used to be. It could be better than XM, but most likely never will be because the same people run everything. It's all over researched and bland. However, that doesn't mean that there aren't pockets of radio all over the country that actually sound good and serve the listener, there are just fewer of them.

SF radio used to be THE BEST. Now it just sounds like the rest. Pretty sad.

I don't get up there many times a year as I live and work in market number two and have been working on air here for more than 2 decades. But I did hear Jo Jo Kincaid in August and thought he and the station sounded better than it had for years. Too bad CBS pulled the plug...

 

[XM RADIO]

Hey there "CAL GUY" Im really impressed with XM and have been for almost a year!! After being punished ,having one Oldies station in this Liberal Bay Area you bet Im happy ! Last year on Labor Day The King, Not Elvis ,But the King of Totally Repetitive radio 99.7 KFRC would not play Elvis ! I called "SUE HALL" the 13 year midday tonsil,to ask why, Reply was advertisers wont do Oldies ,So XM was wy alternitive, and what a great station ,the 60 s channel! When I 1st heard them play " INDIAN GIVER" by the 1910 Fruitgum Co. I was Shocked! Its a whole new way of radio! Phlash Phelps is great, personality A BIG HUGE YES!! KFRC was about as much fun as emptying the garbage!! XM will be the "WAVE" of the Future and I dont care if it was 20.00 a month I would still pay! I will not get into a car with out it! KYLD 94.9 NO WAY,KIOI 101.3 no thank you! KOIT 96.5 Absoulutly not. 95.7 The Max no way! and Last KFRC 99.7 Movin, You couldnt pay me to listen to that! The 7-11 store in Walnut Creek just got XM , I asked Joe how he liked it ,he loves it He was a KFRC listener , was that is! XM just got another 12.95 a month, Thank You CBS/ Infinity, you are going to make XM a big Hit in the Bay Area! Looking forward to Nov 1st and another day of XM radio! And when you turn it on its not a DIFFERENT FORMAT! Kenny in Concord Calif. Another Hour of Music Pow Pow Power,The Beatles !!! Yea

 

[1069_KIFR]

I'm confused.....is this thread a tribute to KFRC or another hostile takeover concerning satellite radio? :-\

 

[calguy]

I'm confused.....is this thread a tribute to KFRC or another hostile takeover concerning satellite radio? :-\

My fault, I dared to disagree with the XM lovers.

610 KFRC will be in my mind always known as THE SINGLE BEST radio station I've ever heard.
93 KHJ runs an intensely close second. This should've been about how great KFRC was. Perhaps
the XM'ers didn't like the latter incarnations, but you can't argue with the fact that the old AM band
KFRC was one of the greatest stations ever, EVER! I for one am sad to see the KFRC call-letters no longer
being used. For no matter what they were doing, they were still there. Even as an FM Oldies station
they had nice little flashes of brilliance. Loved hearing Bobby Ocean and Jack Friday. At times when the
right jock was on it was like stepping back in time when radio really meant something and there was a
vibrancy that I find missing from both terrestrial and satellite radio...

 

[XM RADIO]

Kifer, My support is 100% XM! KFRC is gone,and the future is up in the air, Like XM promotes!! Personally Im thrilled they are gone!! So many people are wondering where to turn for "OLDIES"? Simple answer XM! I dont work for them, but I will continue to promote the "KING OF SATELITE RADIO" they offer 24 hour a day entertainment and thats more than 99.7 KFRC did! I found the Cammie and Dean show boring, they put me to sleep with their non sense!! I will gaurantee you PHLASH PHELPS has more talent than C and D will ever have!! I hear people all the time saying I will never pay for radio, I said it too when I first heard about It!! But once you get it you never go back!! Could you Imagine driving to LA and trying to find a decent station on Int 5? Its non existent!! And for the people who want free radio I highly recommend KYA on the internet! KYA radio1.com 6500 songs !! Some lady wrote in to The San Jose Mercury News ,really upset about KFRC ,I recommend Circuit City ,Get your XM reciever , get activated, and you will never be happier!! Radio is fun again, after years of "BORING RADIO" REAL RADIO IS BACK"! And the "TOP OF THE HOUR JINGLE " onthe 60 s channel says it all!! I rest my case,Kenny in Concord "THE CHANNEL IS CLEAR XM"

 

[michaelhagerty]

I'd love to share some memories of KFRC...but I'm not sure anyone's going to scroll through the XM diatribes above to read them. Would XM radio voluntarily edit his posts (any one of them makes his point clear), or, failing that, a moderator, so we can put the thread back on-topic?

---Michael Hagerty (an XM subscriber for more than 4 years)

 

[calguy]

I'd love to share some memories of KFRC...but I'm not sure anyone's going to scroll through the XM diatribes above to read them. Would XM radio voluntarily edit his posts (any one of them makes his point clear), or, failing that, a moderator, so we can put the thread back on-topic?

---Michael Hagerty (an XM subscriber for more than 4 years)

Michael, I'd like to apologize to you. I never meant to have a running argument about XM. But I did perpetuate the XM thread, feeling that I had to defend myself. I just get tired of hearing "how great" XM is when it has NOTHING to do with whatever thread I'm reading. That's happened quite a bit on the LA board with Indie 103 lovers.

I would love to tell some stories about KFRC, like meeting John Mack Flanagan and listening to his great stories after lunch one afternoon, or the night I visited a friend while he was on the air at the Bush Street studios. Peering into DDR's studio, or the shock of seeing a deer head, or was it moose? Anyway it was in the main control room. I was told that Les Garland had bumped into it at a party and it fell. The next day or so it was delivered to KFRC. Apparently when you break it, you buy it. What a cool station the Big 610 was. I miss it and all those great jocks more and more every day...

 

[michaelhagerty]

Memories of KFRC...which ones I heard live and which ones on airchecks I can't always tell anymore...but it doesn't matter, really. It all aired on KFRC.

*Dave Diamond..."Burnin' on Bush!"
*Listening to Charlie Van Dyke on winter mornings before school in Bishop, when sunrise and the daytime pattern change was around 8AM.
*Chuck Browning's intro to "Under The Boardwalk"...KFRC, and The Drifters, musically answering the question..."Where'd you bury her?"
*The incredible audio processing, even before Bob Kanner...making songs like Diana Ross' "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" sound like they could shatter your car's windshield.
*Boz Scaggs' "We Were Always Sweethearts". The only radio station I ever heard that on other than KFRC was wherever I played it.
*Tower Of Power's "You're Still A Young Man." Heard it a ton of other places, but I always think KFRC.
*Bobby Ocean's last show before going on vacation to Maui in the spring of 1973...breaking every formatic rule on the way out the door.
*The amazing layunders the engineers performed from about 1971 until Michael Spears told them to stop in '74.
*Eric Chase.
*Dr. Don Rose.
*Father Harry, God Squad.
*Those station IDs..."Station of the YEAR."
*The "You" campaign.
*Dave Sholin's incredible edits of songs like "Life In The Fast Lane", "Isn't She Lovely", "On Broadway (the George Benson version) and "Evergreen" (bringing Kris Kristofferson back into the mix with Barbra Streisand).
*John Mack Flanagan's entire January 17, 1977 4PM hour (thankfully preserved on Reelradio).
*Les Garland's "Close Encounters" promo.
*The first mobile broadcast (November, 1982).
*Every single time Bill Lee opened the mic.
*Every single time Bobby Ocean opened the mic.
*Every single time The Slim One opened the mic.

I'll probably remember more...but that's it for now.

---Michael Hagerty
*

 

[BnRinBayArea]

Michael, after YOUR post, I can't help myself but to toss in just a few memories:

Boz Scaggs "It's Over" at the top of the hour
Rod Stewart "Tonight's the Night" on a very rainy night in 1977, lost in Oakland
Spots for "People's Pants" in San Jose and, of course, "Matthew's, top of the hill...."

Any and EVERY time DDR said "I Love You"

...and of without a doubt, John Mac!

How about a tribute station online?? I'd LOVE to take the airchecks, edit them into full hours w/music (and as many spots as I could find) and stream it. Thoughts?

I may sound over-the-top about my love for the golden days (and "Golden Weekend(s)") of KFRC, but if not for them, I'd not have a career today!

 

[michaelhagerty]

The Bay Area Radio Museum (www.bayarearadio.org) already has an impressive collection of KFRC audio. I know they'd appreciate your support.

Also, as a charter contributor, I have to mention www.reelradio.com, where there are currently 51 KFRC airchecks online.

---Michael Hagerty

PS: Charlie Van Dyke e-mailed to let me know there was no pattern change at KFRC. It was always 5,000 watts. What I meant to say (but didn't) was that after sunrise, on the east face of the Sierrra, the signal would go away.

And yes, there were some more memories in the middle of the night:

*This is Robert McCormick...610 News and Information at 12:42...city temperature 50."

*I'm Vikki Liviakis for K-F-R-C".

"I'm Jane Dornacker. Fasten your K-F-R-Seat belt."

And there will probably be more....

 

[XM RADIO]

Michaelhagerty, OK , I will Leave Xm out of this, But face it this Bay Area has not had a "Morning Show" since that Dave Bramnick got rid of J.Paul Emerson in 1995 !!KFRC was Great with Gary Bryan And J.Paul Emerson!! No one could do the news Like J.Paul Emerson Did!! "THE GOOD STUFF" They were constantly suspending these 2 guys!! KFRC had to have ratings then, people really liked their show!! So what if Tony La Russa wasnt happy what J.Paul said, get over it! Then they bring in Dean and Erin,that show was boring! In all my years listening to Bay Area radio, no midday tonsil ever lasted as long as Sue Hall,13 years, Celeste Perry @ KYA/ KSFO got 10 years, Then theres Legendary guys like John Mack Flanagan who were overlooked! John was @KFRC when Sue was in High School in 1976.!!!Its mind boggling how radio works!! John Mack Flanagan was KFRC in the 70s, KFRC should have alwasys had a SLOT for him! As for yourcomment about never hearing "WE WERE ALWAYS SWEETHEARTS" Boz Scaggs 1971, Chris Edwards always played that on KYA 1260 , springtime 1971!! I remember Cliff Saunders on KYA playing it too! Kenny in Concord

 

[michaelhagerty]

XM:
I would imagine KYA would play Boz, too. Unfortunately, I never heard KYA until 1974 (the signal didn't make it over the Sierra like KFRC's)...and by that point, I couldn't imagine that there was ever much of a contest between the two stations.
It wasn't until Reelradio that I heard tape of the glory days of 1260.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[michaelhagerty]

Another one...an absolute classic.


Bill Lee...over the intro to AC/DC's "Highway To Hell":

"Uh-oh.

Somewhere we must have taken the wrooong road.

I mean we're headed straight down the commode

with a load of sins that wins us an all-expense paid trip to hell

Well! It's AC/DC on K-F-R-C."

 

[LKellerIII]

NOW I'm enjoying this thread, and the contributions of Michael Hagerty, CalGuy, XM, and others. Michael - I know it's been said before in these forums, but your memory is truly amazing. My memory just isn't that specific for details - except those I remember from airchecks at ReelRadio and the Bay Area Radio Museum

But if I can be nostalgic - I moved to the Bay Area from LA in 1973, ostensibly to attend UC Berkeley, but really - it was because I loved San Francisco and Marin, and really wanted to live here. I remembered KFRC from the DXing I had done at night as a kid (listening to KO Bayley), and from my visit to SF at age 15 with my parents in 1967. I loved my new home, and being a radio freak, I caught up with KFRC, KYA, and KNEW, which then played Oldies. I didn't want to live in the East Bay, so I commuted to UCB from Marin, and in the afternoons, I was a delivery guy for a dental lab. So I spent a LOT of time in the car listening to AM radio (no FM car tuners). KFRC was definitely my favorite, and was always polished, professional, and entertaining.

Specific things I can remember - Beau Weaver in the morning (a little pre- Dr. Don), and thinking for the first couple days that he was "Boll Weevil." ...the first few days of Dr. Don, being in absolute disbelief that a sophisticated station in a sophisticated city could hire somebody so unbelievably lame and cornball - then realizing that I was constantly laughing my ass off, and practically driving my car off the road in hysterics...Dr. Don's weather reports complete with the latest temperatures in San Raquel, Sacratomato, and San Panty Jose...Jane Dornacker - an amazingly talented and beautiful woman - doing traffic. She also acted on stage locally in SF...Beach Blanket Babylon, if I remember correctly...before moving to New York for the bigtime, and her tragic death...The weekend stunts, like the "Million Dollar Battles" - where two songs would be pitted against one another, and people would call in to vote. The drawback was that the winning songs would be played over and over, sometimes for HOURS, until they were voted out....must have driven the DJs nuts...Some of the more notable commercials, like Gensler-Lee Diamonds, and anything voiced by the truly irritating, but somehow compelling Tom Campbell...

Also, not to copy Mr. Hagerty, but anytime Bobby Ocean, John Mack Flanagan, or Bill Lee were on the air. And McCormack and Liviakis providing excellent news reports - on a small budget, I'm sure. (Michael - you are aware that Vicky is now in TV news here locally, right?). I have to give an honorable mention to KYA's one big attempt (about 73-74) to fight the KFRC juggernaut with the truly bizarre "People Power" format. It must have been the brainchild of a twisted PD, but it was fun to listen to. Three of the notable DJs at KYA then were Beaver Cleaver (Ken Levine), Brian Roberts, and Jimmy Jet (there is a Jet aircheck on ReelRadio, with some funny notes from Levine in the Comments section).

All that on AM, plus the great KSAN and Marin's KTIM on the FM dial. It was a great time for Bay Area Radio (sigh). Nostalgic rant over...

 

[michaelhagerty]

This is probably the last, but you never know when more memories will crop up....

The custom versions of songs....

The Pointer Sisters re-cutting "Betcha Got A Chick On The Side" so that it said "Betcha got a (jock name) on the side"...seven times for seven DJs (okay, six...Dr. Don and Don Sainte-Johnn could use the same one.

The Pointers again re-cutting "Fire"...."We're driving in your car...you turn on KFRC."

And my personal favorite...War's 1982 semi-hit "Outlaw"...where the generic CHP dispatcher description of the "outlaw" was re-cut several times for each of the KFRC jocks. The two I remember:

"Be on the lookout for Bill Lee...wanted for ADW...assault with a dead weapon."

"Be on the lookout for Marvelous Mark McKay...wanted for assaulting a nacho vendor at the Oakland Coliseum. Last seen heading north to Vallejo...licking his fingers."

---Michael Hagerty