MsMusicRadio said:
As David pointed out, KYW/WKYC was not a very good rocker with all the NBC commitments.
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As David pointed out, KYW/WKYC was not a very good rocker with all the NBC commitments.
radioman148 said:
WLS outlasted WABC by seven years! A number of top 40 FM upstarts in NY, WOR-FM (which became WXLO), WPIX (now WEMP) eroded WABC but could never overtake them. When the original WKTU flipped to disco in 1978, it rocketed to #1 within three months. WABC never recovered and flipped to talk in 1982. WLS lasted until 1989.
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Fastphilly
Guest
True, but I would have to say 610 KFRC was the last great AM TOP 40 in a major market. That station still had awesome ratings in the summer of 1983 with Dr. Don, Bill Lee, Jack Armstrong, Mark McKay, etc. . With KMEL and KITS on FM it would take well into 1986 before KFRC decided to hang it up.radioman148 said:
radioguy39nj said:radioman148 said:
WLS outlasted WABC by seven years! A number of top 40 FM upstarts in NY, WOR-FM (which became WXLO), WPIX (now WEMP) eroded WABC but could never overtake them. When the original WKTU flipped to disco in 1978, it rocketed to #1 within three months. WABC never recovered and flipped to talk in 1982. WLS lasted until 1989.
If I remember correctly WABC panicked and went disco for a short time after KTU over took them in the ratings. Dan Ingram later said that he believed that WABC could have lasted longer if things had been done differently.
Fastphilly said:
It is true that WLS wasn't the same in the late 80s. Larry Lujack left the morning show in 85 and went to afternoons.
It seemed that the music became more oldies oriented than it ever had been.
F
Fastphilly
Guest
Radioman- What is ironic is that RKO owned the freq @ 106.1 and would simulcast KFRC back in the mid 70's. RKO sold 106.1 and that freq ten years as KMEL drove the nails in KFRC's coffin. I absolutely love WLS (even though I never heard the station live)..I have an unscoped aircheck from May 1976 celebrating 16 years of the station as a top 40 at the time..It was John Landecker.
Fastphilly said:
That is interesting about the 106.1 frequency. Regarding WLS, it was a great station from 1960 into the early 80s. Things began to disintegrate after that. I remember that 16th Anniversary. Steve King who was on at night played a Dick Biondi aircheck from June 7, 1960. That date is the earliest known date of WLS airchecks that exist.
M
MsMusicRadio
Guest
Not to go back, but I remember KYW/WKYC at one point with Jim Stagg, Jim Runyon, and Jerry G. Bishop nights. It may not have been WLS, but compared to KDKA in Pittsburgh, it sounded pure. KD went off format totally at 8PM with talk till 12 AM and had traditional MOR jocks until 4PM. By Group W standards, I still say 1100 was their best rocker followed by WBZ with Bruce Bradley and Dick Summer. Of course I'm wrong :-\ When I visited Cleveland in the early Sixties, WERE and WJW were not playing any TOP 40. WHK was the main station and WKYC/KYW the other TOP 40. CKLW also came in like a local. I played with the radio enough that I think I'm right :. In Boston, before WRKO, WBZ and WMEX were the two Top 40's
. In Boston, before WRKO, WBZ and WMEX were the two Top 40'sradioman148 said:radioguy39nj said:radioman148 said:
WLS outlasted WABC by seven years! A number of top 40 FM upstarts in NY, WOR-FM (which became WXLO), WPIX (now WEMP) eroded WABC but could never overtake them. When the original WKTU flipped to disco in 1978, it rocketed to #1 within three months. WABC never recovered and flipped to talk in 1982. WLS lasted until 1989.
If I remember correctly WABC panicked and went disco for a short time after KTU over took them in the ratings. Dan Ingram later said that he believed that WABC could have lasted longer if things had been done differently.
WABC did panic and started adding disco to their playlist, a move that angered many long-time listeners. By the end of 1979, Harry Harrison and George Michael were gone. WABC's run as a music station was over. When WABC picked up Yankee baseball for 1981, you knew it wouldn't be a music station much longer.
MsMusicRadio said:When I visited Cleveland in the early Sixties, WERE and WJW were not playing any TOP 40. WHK was the main station and WKYC/KYW the other TOP 40. CKLW also came in like a local. I played with the radio enough that I think I'm right :
Part of the issues with 1100 AM had to do with the NBC / Westinghouse "Bully" case. Inconsistent and uncertain status left the Cleveland property as the orphan of the outcome of this case.
WJW and WERE were 50's, and the arrival of WHK with competent Metromedia management (Jack Thayer) nudged those stations off. Color Radio Channel 14 really dominated for a while, while the arrival of WIXY and the talented Norm Wain and his partner Bob Weiss (the old WDOK) in early '66 gradually reduced the WHK reign. It wasn't till about late 71 or early 72 that we got WGCL on FM, and the switch to that band began for Top 40.
In most of Cleveland, CKLW did not come in all that well, and remember that the Big 8 did not become Top 40 until about the time WIXY also converted, preempting the possibility that CKLW get real measured listening in any place except the western suburbs on the lakeshore.
DavidEduardo said:MsMusicRadio said:When I visited Cleveland in the early Sixties, WERE and WJW were not playing any TOP 40. WHK was the main station and WKYC/KYW the other TOP 40. CKLW also came in like a local. I played with the radio enough that I think I'm right :
Part of the issues with 1100 AM had to do with the NBC / Westinghouse "Bully" case. Inconsistent and uncertain status left the Cleveland property as the orphan of the outcome of this case.
WJW and WERE were 50's, and the arrival of WHK with competent Metromedia management (Jack Thayer) nudged those stations off. Color Radio Channel 14 really dominated for a while, while the arrival of WIXY and the talented Norm Wain and his partner Bob Weiss (the old WDOK) in early '66 gradually reduced the WHK reign. It wasn't till about late 71 or early 72 that we got WGCL on FM, and the switch to that band began for Top 40.
In most of Cleveland, CKLW did not come in all that well, and remember that the Big 8 did not become Top 40 until about the time WIXY also converted, preempting the possibility that CKLW get real measured listening in any place except the western suburbs on the lakeshore.
When Westinghouse owned 1100 AM, I think KY11 was known in the music industry as a powerhouse station that made hits. From what I've heard, KY11 was where records first broke out before they got played in Chicago or New York. KY11 was an extremely influential station from the late 50s through the mid-60s.
How did KY11 do in Cleveland until the NBC takeover?
CKLW had been Top 40 since 1963 but not especially good until 1967, when Bill Drake put his format on the station.
The several times I was in Cleveland in the late 60s & 70s I heard CKLW very well on a car radio. Now I understand that's not the same as listening to a table top radio in the area, but it was always very good reception for me.
It's been said that CKLW once hit number one in Cleveland. Urban legend?
M
MsMusicRadio
Guest
I heard that too. My pet chupacabra brought in the paper one morning and there it was
radioman148 said:
The signal was certainly present in most places and, correctly, the listening on home and work radios was not good except in the NW quadrant of the market. Even on the lake, to the east of downtown from Bratenahl to Painesville, the signal was not great. I think that was in part due to the distance but more to the protection of Montréal on 800. At night, Bonaire often ripped it up inland in places as close in as Cleveland Heights and Mayfield Hts.
Car radio listening did extend the usefulness in the daytime, but at night the signal was often whacked by XELO and Bonaire.
I was an active AM DXer in the late 50's and early 60's from the Cleveland area (2300 stations verified, 50 states, 10 provinces, 87 countries), so I was quite aware of reception, and I never thought that CKLW had that good a signal on the east side of Cleveland anyway...
borderblaster said:
Total urban legend. It registered a bit at night, in teens, but in the daytime it was not a factor.
The highest 12+ ranking I have for CKLW in the Cleveland market is #5 in the Fall of 1970:
WERE 10.9
WIXY 9.6
WDOK-FM 9.0
WJW 7.9
CKLW 7.4
WERE 10.9
WIXY 9.6
WDOK-FM 9.0
WJW 7.9
CKLW 7.4
borderblaster said:
Total urban legend. It registered a bit at night, in teens, but in the daytime it did manage to get into the mid range... but not #1.
(sorry, hit post before finishing prior post)
IIRC, the Pulse showed it better than Arbitron.
briancraig said:
It's a "that was then and this is now" argument, but it's amazing the number one and two stations had and still have horrible coverage.
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