Frank Zappa on KROQ

[DIZ Guy]

Does anybody here realize that halloween marked the 30th Anniversary that Frank Zappa played the "Lather" album in its entirety on KROQ???????

 

[XL1000]

Another reason KROQ has such cultural currency. It made KMET & KLOS look like a cold hamburger back in its free form everything goes days, it was total anarchy. Of course later Rick Carroll made it a hit, but The Roq was way cool before Rock of the 80's.

 

[DIZ Guy]

I am a huge Zappa fan, and I work in radio. Being fairly young to have knowledge of Zappa at KROQ (most people that are my age have absolutely no idea who Zappa was, there are guys at my station that think that Metallica have more talent than the Police did..), I have always been fascinated with the history of KROQ. Somebody tell me some stories, how did it sound like 30 years ago???? I am thinking that you heard early Blondie, Talking Heads, Ramones, mixed in with the more traditional rock of the time (Eagles, Skynrd, Zeppelin..etc)...Another thing, I would've loved to chill out on a Sunday night and listen to 4 hours of Dr. Demento on KMET....

 

[hamNcheese]

uho! its dr.demento!

 

[XL1000]

Diz Guy: KROQ circa 76-79 played everything: Zappa, The Tubes, Flo & Eddie, Roxy Music, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, The Runaways, Bob Seger, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Television, New York Dolls, etc, By the Summer of 1978 they were playing quite a bit of Punk Rock. They were located in a small hotel suite at the Hilton in Pasadena. Frazier Smith was just breaking out around this time. It was like no other station I've heard or will ever hear again. Rodney on The Roq, and Flo & Eddie (from the Mothers & Turtles) had various shows in the 70's.
When the jock cracked the mic there was always a crowd in the studio. Also it was 100 percent simulcast on 1500 AM. What fun.

 

[robnokshus06]

KROQ in '77 is why I got into radio! Yes, you could hear someone like John Clark go from Zep's Custard Pie into The Normal's "Warm Leatherette" and you didn't blink an eye!

Flashbacks I get when I think of that time; Chuck Randall and the "Skylab Catcher's mitt," Larry Woodside extolling you to "wake up and sit on a cold toilet seat" (still think of that everytime I do) Driving to the top of a local hill in OC to hear Rodney's show (KROQ had the WORST signal in those days) Shadoe Stevens and his crazed brand of free-form radio (totally insane!) Sunday nights with the "Hollywood Nightshift" and of course, the music...

There's been nothing like it since, but goddamn was it ever magical back then!

 

[DIZ Guy]

WOW....all of this stuff sounds absolutely incredible....All right guys, when did KROQ start adding the awesome DEVO to the mix....I have seen a picture online of Darryl Wayne with Devo in the studio with him..good stuff....

 

[radiowoodside]

Yes, I remember those great early day at the ROQ.I'm now doing internet radio at errorfm.com.Internet radio is the future and I'm allowed to play whatever I want.I was blessed to be a part of KROQ back in the day.Check out my show at errorfm.com. may bring back some old ROQ memories.........Larry Woodside

 

[calguy]

Funny thing about KROQ 30 years ago. Along with all the cool artists like Zappa, The Tubes, Flo & Eddie, Roxy Music, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, The Runaways, Bob Seger, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Television, New York Dolls, etc you could also hear a tune out of nowhere like "Mack The Knife" by Bobby Darin. They were all over the map and played cool from other era's too.

 

[nmoore6676]

Funny thing about KROQ 30 years ago. Along with all the cool artists like Zappa, The Tubes, Flo & Eddie, Roxy Music, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, The Runaways, Bob Seger, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Television, New York Dolls, etc you could also hear a tune out of nowhere like "Mack The Knife" by Bobby Darin. They were all over the map and played cool from other era's too.

I was not privileged to be in the LA area during the beginning of KROQ but I did hear it some in the later 70s and 80s when it was still pretty good. A similar situation was WNCI in Columbus, while I was at Ohio State and it was like what I assume KROQ was early on but at some point Nation Wide Insurance which owned it back then must have found that it among their assets (WRFD the AM sister was the big deal back then) and it began the descent into corporate conformity. All in all KROQ has been more resistant than WNCI or even any of the stations over time that were once on the cutting edge of music formats.

 

[radiocph]

I think the first time I ran across KROQ was in August 1979. I was tuning around the FM dial, looking for music and I heard Kraftwerk's "Trans Europ Express." Neat song, I thought (I was about 12 at the time), but didn't explore much further.

I got into KROQ much more in August 1982, again just tuning around the top of the dial, looking for something different....They played mostly the usual English synth bands, but late at night, they'd play uncensored punk rock, like the Dead Kennedys...They also had quite a bit of LA-based stuff too. Anyone here remember the band "X" (Exene Cervenka(sp))?

In my opinion, KROQ was at its best during the mid-to-late 80's. When grunge came on the scene,everything started to sound the same to me.

 

[JimmyJames]

The thing I wonder is with terrestrial losing young audience left and right, why don't some of these underperforming autopilot stations truly take a chance again like KROQ did?

Hire some young, enthusiastic talent and within the boundaries of FCC regs, let them go crazy. You might just stumble on something viable in the process. I'd like to hear a modern version of truly outside the box, break the playlist rules radio. At least give it a shot on HD.

 

[nmoore6676]

The thing I wonder is with terrestrial losing young audience left and right, why don't some of these underperforming autopilot stations truly take a chance again like KROQ did?

Hire some young, enthusiastic talent and within the boundaries of FCC regs, let them go crazy. You might just stumble on something viable in the process. I'd like to hear a modern version of truly outside the box, break the playlist rules radio. At least give it a shot on HD.

Not going to happen so long as the economy is bad and for radio in particular. Also the ownership would have to be a creative and risk taking type of individual not a giant corporation with a mega-debt to service. It is not just young people who are tuning out. Older people, I am in my mid-60s, are being estranged as well. I-Pods are great but in the end it is loaded with music that you have purchased and it is therefor familiar and predictable.

I like to be surprised once in a while and that is where a well programmed station that would throw in something risky once in a while would serve so well. I now like oldies,the top 40 of the 50s and 60s with a little classic country with some of the big band swing era. I don't expect that all on one station but if there were any outlets playing deep into any one or two of them I would be happy. The local oldies station here played "I'm A Mummy" the other day, that is what I call a surprise.

 

[EasyBakeOven]

The next radio revolution will come from a format that scews younger than the retread 80s/90s leaning music stations. A station that targets 18-44 will never set the world on fire. It has to come from the youth, or at least a focused 18-24 outlet with the new music, heavy rotation, and personality. Basically, what KRQO did in the early 80s.

 

[bobgowa]

Funny thing about KROQ 30 years ago. Along with all the cool artists like Zappa, The Tubes, Flo & Eddie, Roxy Music, Sex Pistols, Patti Smith, The Runaways, Bob Seger, Bo Diddley, The Rolling Stones, Television, New York Dolls, etc you could also hear a tune out of nowhere like "Mack The Knife" by Bobby Darin. They were all over the map and played cool from other era's too.

I did middays at KROQ in '76 and '77. It sounded that way because it was that way. Complete anarchy encouraged by management (such as it was). Every show was different, reflecting the DJ's personality. With guys like Shadoe Stevens, Steven Clean and Jimmy Rabbitt, it was a pretty eclectic station, and we had the time of our lives!

Bob Gowa

 

[Unregistered]

I will never forget the day I turned on KROQ and heard Frank Zappa guest D-jay and play the Leather album. It was the song broken hearts are for assholes. I had never heard anything so hilarious yet so guitar oriented. I grabbed the first cassette I could find which was a compilation of my favorites songs (Beatles rubber soul and Oh Mandy by Barry Manilow) and recorded over it. Frank Zappa and KROQ changed my musical taste that moment and there was never any looking back. I remember one day I heard a set of music and there was a song I loved which I thought was Judas Priest and they said tickets were on sale for a concert at the Roxy. I bought the tickets for a band called Gentle Giant thinking I was going to hear Judas Priest. I ended up at one of the last performances of one of the greatest progressive rock bands that ever existed. Looking back it was mind blowing that a station would play Judas Priest and Gentle Giant in the same set. What a testament to the station, you cant hear that on even satellite radio.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

I did middays at KROQ in '76 and '77. It sounded that way because it was that way. Complete anarchy encouraged by management (such as it was). Every show was different, reflecting the DJ's personality. With guys like Shadoe Stevens, Steven Clean and Jimmy Rabbitt, it was a pretty eclectic station, and we had the time of our lives!

Bob Gowa

Can you imagine? Management actually encouraging DJs to have fun, choose cool records, both new and old, and actually change musical tastes and lives (like our unregistered guest) while producing must listen-to radio. Can you just imagine? I wonder what ever became of that KROQ?

Special Note to David E.: "Mack the Knife" is one of the coolest records ever. True then, true now.

 

[TheBigA]

I wonder what ever became of that KROQ?

The music splintered into a bunch of micro formats, the audience got pickier about what they wanted to hear, and then they aged out of the demo.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I wonder what ever became of that KROQ?

The music splintered into a bunch of micro formats, the audience got pickier about what they wanted to hear, and then they aged out of the demo.

Not to mention Rick Carroll's arrival in 1979, solidifying the Punk/New Wave/Modern Rock influence on the music played and his instituting an actual format which became "Rock of the 80s" over a three-year period.

 

[TheBigA]

Hire some young, enthusiastic talent and within the boundaries of FCC regs, let them go crazy. You might just stumble on something viable in the process. I'd like to hear a modern version of truly outside the box, break the playlist rules radio. At least give it a shot on HD.

The assumption is that young enthusiastic talent is all you need to get listeners to enjoy songs they don't like. The reality is people today like what they like. The DJ isn't going to change their minds about what they like. So you can have a DJ playing what HE likes (sort of a variation on the Jack format, playing what we like), or you can have a young, enthusiastic talent playing what the audience likes, and that's pretty much what you have on CHR radio now. But the bad news about the rock audience is it became a lot less tolerant of new music, and a lot more focused on certain artists and songs. That's why rock ground to a halt in the 90s. Has nothing to do with radio. If all it took to attract an audience was hiring enthusiastic talent and let them play crazy music, we'd all be glad to do it every day of the week. No problem.