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Entercom has renamed Live 105 to Alt 105
- Thread starter Y2kTheNewOldies
- Start date
I really like the mix of music that I have heard on ALT 923, I'd assume that with all of Entercom's alternative stations, they abide by a very similar playlist and mix. We radio geeks vomit when we hear those over played 90s "grunge era" songs but they are a very important part of making this format mass appeal. That was the golden age of the format and thus those songs are very well known, along with all the pop crossovers. I don't think that this format has the capability of going gang busters in this market but I'd bet that Entercom is just hoping for a little improvement and that expectations are kept to a minimum. Iheart seems to have the ace up their sleeves with the alt format with an excellent morning show with Woody. If Entercom could develop a strong morning show to syndicate on all their ALT stations it could make a considerable difference. Such a show is hard to find, hard to develop, and needs time to really resonate as well. I do personally hope that the ALT format does well. As a fan of pop, edm, and hip hop I find that these formats sound stale and the songs to be far too similar, along with the tempo being far too slow and dragging. The ALT format sounds much more fresh to me with different sounds and the complimenting gold library providing a far more variety of sounds and textures.
From RadioInk:
"Entercom announces that Aaron Axelsen will remain APD and Music Director for ALT 105.3 (KITS-FM) in San Francisco after signing a multi-year contract extension. Axelsen began as an intern at KITS-FM in 1995 and was later promoted to Music Director in 1998 and APD in 2008."
"Entercom announces that Aaron Axelsen will remain APD and Music Director for ALT 105.3 (KITS-FM) in San Francisco after signing a multi-year contract extension. Axelsen began as an intern at KITS-FM in 1995 and was later promoted to Music Director in 1998 and APD in 2008."
Grunge ruined this station (as well as KROQ)- I loved The Quake and how this station was at first with synth-pop and new wave, which peacefully co-existed with the harder stuff for a while until grunge pushed it out completely. Always thought Live 105 was a stupid name too, never knew what it meant. It's not like they played only live concert recordings. I sometimes wonder if The Quake would have taken the same direction had it lasted longer. (And funny how often that station is still talked about over 30 years after it died, while the higher-rated stations of that era are pretty much forgotten now!)
"Live" usually means the programing is "live", as opposed to recorded or coming from a syndicator.
Maybe to inside radio geeks. At the time it was launched in 86, everything WAS live, regardless of the station. But the alternative lifestyle is built around attending live concert events, so I think they wanted to identify more with that.
Plus the rhyme was good marketing. And they played a lot of live recordings and did a lot to promote the live music scene.
Radio and TV have been promoting the concept of live programing for generations. The general public must certainly know what it means when they hear, "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!".
I'm not sure if it was an overall change in taste or not, but I do know that when KOME changed from their active rock to the grunge-driven alternative format that's where I and most of my friends went (from Live 105) at the time. The complaint was that Live 105 was "too dancy". I think it was about that time that Alex Bennett's morning show ended, so that was certainly a factor.
Interesting what you say about stations that are still talked about. KQAK was on for 2 years. KFAT for seven. KSAN (the jive 95 version) for 12. KKCY for 3. Yet I hear about them all the time. KOIT, KYLD, & KMEL? Not so much. Yet they've all been around for way longer.
Dave B.
I think people remember the short-lived formats more, and forget about the stations that have been around forever, because they've become so ubiquitous. How about KFOG? They flipped from "Beautiful Music" to rock in 1982. That's 35 years of virtually the same format. For Top 40 or CHR, people of my era idolize the Drake era (KFRC, KHJ), but KHJ's "Boss Radio" format lasted approximately 20 years - KIIS-FM has lasted more than 40 years.. K-Earth in LA has been playing "Oldies" since before the songs on their current play list were written and performed.
KIOI aka K101 back in the 1990's and now Star 101.3 has been around for decades with the same format even through various ownership/management changes prior to Iheart getting the station two decades ago.
I remember when iHeart, then Clear Channel - sucked up K-101, and IIRC, would have been the third owner. The first owner was independent broadcaster James Gabbert. It was lowly 101.3 KPEN, down on the PENinsula, when he bought it in the mid or late 1950s. Gabbert is credited as being one of the first to bring stereo sound to FM, and one of the first to market and popularize FM on its own - not just as an AM simulcast, or an automated elevator music station. From what I've heard, he was not just a programmer, but also very involved in the technical aspects of broadcasting FM radio. Gabbert is also credited as the one of the first broadcasters to use dial position in the branding of a station, i.e.: KIOI = K-101...back in 1968.
You may also remember Gabbert from KOFY TV 20 in the 80s and 90s. He bought broken down and off-the-air KEMO Channel 20 with the profits he made from the sale of K-101. Keeping with his call-letter branding gimmick, his original call letters for TV 20 were KTZO, until he got back into radio by buying KOFY AM and FM. There was a rumor around in the 80s that when 610/KFRC flipped their format from Top 40 to standards, and re-branded as "Magic 61," that Gabbert tried to buy the KFRC call letters from RKO General, but no sale.
http://bayarearadio.org/audio/kioi/
Yes - 101.3 has a lot of history.
Interestingly enough 20 years later we see that as soon as Entercom takes over 105.3fm the format is the same but the branding is different. Note in KITS place it was part of Entercom franchising the Alt brand right after New York and Dallas had branding changes.
I have an enormous respect Jim Gabbert and his accomplishments. My understanding he founded KPEN in Atherton. My memory is sketchy but I seem to recall he owned two stations in Hawaii as well as KIOI AM/FM. When he sold all four stations to purchase KEMO, he brought those same fun common sense audience building branding sensibilities to television and making TV20 quite the force and brand that still resonates today.
I can confirm James Gabbert definitely had a great grasp of the technical aspects of radio. When I was in high school back in the early 70's I called the station asking if I could get a tour and they said sure, just drop on by when you're in town and we'll get "someone" to show you around. That someone was Gabbert himself and he treated me like he had known me for years. He was experimenting with a quad-stereo format at the time and demonstrated it for me telling me all about the science around it.
I was very impressed and never forgot the kindness he showed me, just a high school kid from Campbell.
I was very impressed and never forgot the kindness he showed me, just a high school kid from Campbell.
I believe Gabbert's Honolulu radio station was KIKI. I spent some time there in the early 70s. Stations there always sounded like Hawaiian words - the big top 40 station was KKUA, "The Big Six-Nine" (note: not "The Big Sixty-Nine"...obvious reasons). Also KPOI ("poi" is a traditional Hawaiian food). IIRC, K-Poi was operated for a time by Ron Jacobs, the programming genius credited with the earlier success of "Boss Radio" KHJ in Los Angeles...along with Bill Drake, of course. So Hawaii has a fair amount of radio history.
From what I read, Gabbert made a (second) fortune selling KOFY-TV when it was riding high as a WB affiliate. Very deserving, as far as I'm concerned.
Llew: KHJ had 15 years from the birth of Boss Radio to the flip to Country, but only six using the term "Boss" and only eight under creator Bill Drake. After he left in 1973 and Paul Drew became KHJ's national PD, KHJ was just another big city Top 40. With the exception of the years Charlie Van Dyke was PD (early 1975-May of 1977), very few people regard 1973-80 as being particularly great years for KHJ. Ironically, those are the years in which sister KFRC really bloomed and prospered.
Michael: Yes - IIRC, KFRC was voted "America's Best Radio Station" a few years in a row, though I don't remember by who. I became a Bay Area resident in '73, and KFRC was certainly my go-to station. I have many memories, such as the first morning I heard Dr. Don Rose, and was actually POed that a ridiculous goofball had replaced Beau Weaver. Within a few days, I was a fan. And Bill Lee, John Mack Flanagan, etc. Definitely the best.
When I think of the longevity of radio formats, I try to allow for natural evolution. So when I say KIIS-FM has about 40 years, I do realize that their format evolved from CHR to dance, to kind of urban, etc., but I still think of it as appealing to the same audience, which of course, has also evolved in their musical tastes. On the other hand, I don't include KMEL - even though they flipped from album rock to a hit format about 34 years ago now - because their evolution from CHR into rap and hip-hop was a bit more extreme. In that case, I think of "Wild" and "Now" in the Bay Area as being the evolution of what KMEL was in 1978.
Your thoughts, Professor?
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