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Canadian Sunset (Signoff Instrumental)

A final note (I promise) on Fjords---the one in Guam was in the city of Sinajana. A "remember when" post says it became an Ace Hardware, and since has been expanded and is now the local Public Defender's office. On Google Street View, you can see the peaked roof that was part of the original building:

Screenshot 2025-06-22 at 10.30.37 AM.jpeg
 
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Some mighty good listening on KUKI in 1954! The City Council discusses fluoridation (and, most likely, the Communist influence behind it) on Wednesday night, then, on Thursday night, KUKI listeners were treated to some down home "western country" music followed by some local high schoolers playing radio!
 
CTListener said:
Some mighty good listening on KUKI in 1954! The City Council discusses fluoridation (and, most likely, the Communist influence behind it) on Wednesday night, then, on Thursday night, KUKI listeners were treated to some down home "western country" music followed by some local high schoolers playing radio!
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The first part of that, probably---but the second...

The thing that impressed me in reading about KUKI's early days was just how professional it was. And KIBS in Bishop (which launched in 1953) was, too, under its original set of owners (where the High School DJ thing only got started once one of their sons was old enough, and then he convinced them to let him train new ones).

It seems like these stations' standards and ambitions lowered with each successive owner...someone with more debt, a reason to want or need lower overhead, and frequently with fewer ties to the community (John Young, KIBS' third owner, was the exception to that rule---he moved to Bishop, and invested in equipment and relationships to repair the neglect of the second owner).

By the time I got to KUKI in 1976, it was on owner #4, who lived 120 miles away), and about the only remnant of its 1950 beginnings was its location and an hour of country music from 7-8 a.m. (then sponsored by the local Ford dealer).

My first thought when reading that article was that I wish I'd known a lot of that history and background when I arrived at KUKI, but the truth is that, 26 years in, it had long ago stopped being that beacon of the community---it was a small-town radio station struggling against easily receivable big-city signals with universal appeal. What we did was what was necessary for the time---and it worked.
 
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davideduardo said:
About a year and a half later, they upgraded the FM and absolutely smashed WEAM, a very directional station on 1390.
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I remember WEAM, use to hear them with an occasional decent skywave signal at night in Northern NJ, in the late 60's / early 70's.

You are correct on me not hearing southern daytimers, sign off . . . I never heard DIXIE played in a sign off.
 
Mark Roberts said:
At KFRU in Columbia, Mo., we were 24/7 (since 1961!) but just before the 6 am ABC-I news, there was The Lord’s Prayer, as sung by Jane Froman (Smith), an actress and singer originally from St. Louis who survived a plane crash in 1943 and who, after retiring, lived in Columbia. In 1984, the longtime co-owner of KFRU retired and there was a changing of the guard along with multiple programming changes. One of those changes was to move The Lord’s Prayer from 6 am to 5 am. We were inundated with complaints about that change. There was a compromise. The Lord’s Prayer thenceforth was played at 5:30 am.
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WGTL outside Charlotte NC, which played a variety of music including big band, classic country, religious, beautiful music and what might be called standards, would sign off with a version of that song. For some reason when the station signed off for good the local paper got it wrong, saying it was Perry Como, but this man sang it opera style.
 
vchimpanzee said:
WGTL outside Charlotte NC, which played a variety of music including big band, classic country, religious, beautiful music and what might be called standards, would sign off with a version of that song. For some reason when the station signed off for good the local paper got it wrong, saying it was Perry Como, but this man sang it opera style.
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Well, if we're going to play that game...here's Miss Froman herself.


(the font for the words "Songs at Sunset" and "Faith" on the first album cover is called "Cartoon", which is a little disconcerting considering the subject matter.)
 
vchimpanzee said:
That wasn't it.
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Who cares who did it? The fact is that it was a unique situation, which you summarized very well. It really doesn't matter if the newspaper got it wrong, and it's lost to history.

People often accuse me of not easily letting go of trivial sidebars in threads, but you take the trophy, Chimp.
 
K.M. Richards said:
Who cares who did it? The fact is that it was a unique situation, which you summarized very well. It really doesn't matter if the newspaper got it wrong, and it's lost to history.

People often accuse me of not easily letting go of trivial sidebars in threads, but you take the trophy, Chimp.
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I didn't search for it. Others did. But I'd be interested in finding it.
 
I like the Hugo Winterhalter version. I used to hear it many times on radio stations using satellite formats. It was a disappointment to hear the Andy Williams version instead. I know, how can Andy Williams ever be a disappointment.
 
"... and now, a medley of Canadian Sunset and The Lord's Prayer, performed by Hugo Winterhalter, with Mario Lanza on vocals."
 


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