Connection between K-Earth 101 and Earth Day

[emailfailed]

While certain PDs made some rather questionable calls, I would suggest another reason why KHJ was sliding in the ratings is the L.A. basin was expanding by way of rapidly building new suburban communities, particularly in central and south Orange County, but KHJ's legendary 5kw was not.

Or, in the late 1970s was the signal not yet considered a factor?

 

[michael hagerty]

While certain PDs made some rather questionable calls, I would suggest another reason why KHJ was sliding in the ratings is the L.A. basin was expanding by way of rapidly building new suburban communities, particularly in central and south Orange County, but KHJ's legendary 5kw was not.

Or, in the late 1970s was the signal not yet considered a factor?

emailfailed:

The signal was okay into the 80s. KHJ's decline was attributable to the fragmentation of the audience, most of which was leaving for the FM band and couldn't be brought back no matter what.

It was hard for some people to grasp at the time because KHJ didn't lose to a direct Top 40 competitor but to AC and AOR...leaving them with teens, preteens and adults who were behind the curve on moving to FM.

Spears had the right idea...and probably could have slowed the migration of adults who were less subject to peer pressure. But that meant no effort in keeping the teen base.

Sebastian was right that Top 40 needed teens to be Top 40 and that the threat there was KMET...but there was no way you could win that war. AM simply wasn't cool anymore. By taking the approach he took less than a year after Spears' course, he accelerated the exodus of adults to AC (though his first book showed an increase in numbers due to longer listening by those who stayed).

And as much as we all like Chuck Martin and his version of KHJ, there was no point of commonality with Sebastian's KHJ, which meant most of that audience would leave, the ratings would go down and Chuck would have to win over KFI and KTNQ listeners (the only ones left on AM).

Mathematically, by that point, both TenQ (which did) and KFI (which didn't) would have had to abandon Top 40 and have their audiences go to KHJ for KHJ to be a solid Top 10 station in the ratings. And that wasn't ever gonna happen.

 

[LKellerIII]

While certain PDs made some rather questionable calls, I would suggest another reason why KHJ was sliding in the ratings is the L.A. basin was expanding by way of rapidly building new suburban communities, particularly in central and south Orange County, but KHJ's legendary 5kw was not.

Or, in the late 1970s was the signal not yet considered a factor?

emailfailed:

The signal was okay into the 80s. KHJ's decline was attributable to the fragmentation of the audience, most of which was leaving for the FM band and couldn't be brought back no matter what.

Sebastian was right that Top 40 needed teens to be Top 40 and that the threat there was KMET...but there was no way you could win that war. AM simply wasn't cool anymore. By taking the approach he took less than a year after Spears' course, he accelerated the exodus of adults to AC (though his first book

True. By 1973, among my way-too-hip crowd of 20 something friends, the term "AM Radio" was a pejorative, and somewhat synonymous with "there's dog s**t stuck to my shoe."

Being a fan of both FM AOR stations and Top 40 AM stations, but afraid of being 'uncool,' I mostly kept my mouth shut.