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engineer1
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NO WAY!!! Krth finally got decent ratings
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K-earth and those 90's. When are they coming more regularly?
- Thread starter 34james
- Start date
TR, based on the success of Fantasy Fair, saw an opportunity to be his own boss and to use what he (and Mel... who had been promotion director at KPOI, too) knew and he departed to do the Miami event, which was another landmark concert.
After Jacobs had tired of the corporate game, he rejoined TR to do AT40.
Beyond that, it's amazing what KYA did with a horrible signal... lousy location on rock next to Candlestick Park... and low power by day and lower power at night. Of course, the survey area was much smaller.
KYA wasn't that bad. It came in fine in Vallejo, in '64 or was it Napa in '70? I usually switched between that and KDIA, occasionally making it down the dial to KFRC. Those are the only examples I have, sorry.
Before all the interference issues we live with now, KYA's signal wasn't so bad---listenable throughout the South Bay, almost good in Monterey, solid to the east out to the hill that divides Fairfield from Vacaville and north up to Petaluma, and as Semoochie said, Napa.
KFRC's signal advantage was in places that weren't in the SF book back then. The only place they probably had it all over KYA was San Jose at night.
For what it's worth, here's the KHJ Boss 30 from April 19, 1967....Humble Harve looking cool on the cover; showing Somebody to Love at #6, up from #18 the previous week. I could hear Casey Kasem's voice in my head as I typed that.
Other "hippie" songs that week - The Flower Children by Marcia Strassman (God - I bet that's the origin of RWM's "strassman" jokes...I never got that before since Welcome Back Kotter was so much later), and Something Stupid by Nancy & Frank Sinatra. Kidding about that last one.
https://93khj.blogspot.com/2008/06/khj-boss-30-april-19-1967.html
I know DXing is irrelevant for ratings, but when I'd explore the AM dial from the San Fernando Valley at night in the late 60s, KFRC often came in like a local, but I don't think I ever heard KYA. That's why I didn't get the reason KFRC didn't use the "Boss" terminology until years later when I learned that KYA's slogan had been "The Boss of the Bay." In fact, I've wondered if "B of the B" originated with Drake when he was PD at KYA in the early 60s.
Oh it started long before that. I cringed the very first time I heard the opening a capella echoed "we built this city, buuuiiilllt this city on Rock 'n' Roll". Ugh. As far as I can remember, local rockers KMET and KLOS stayed far away from it, but it was all over CHR KIIS and similar stations.
My reactions at the time were the same as they are now:
(1) Really? You, "Starship", minus Paul Kantner, Marty Balin, Jack Cassady and many others that were part of the 60's Jefferson Airplane and 70's Jefferson Starship "built the city"? Lead singer Micky Thomas didn't even join the band until '79, well after the glory days were over. Well, *snicker, snicker*, uhhhh, ok. Whatever. I guess other great SF bands like The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, Journey, Santana, The Steve Miller Band, Sly and the Family Stone, and even Huey Lewis and the News had nothing to do with it.
(2) I had always heard my whole life how Rock 'n' Roll was over. It was too corporate and record execs and mindless radio PDs just looking for the next mass market hits had taken all of the soul out of it and it was just a matter of time before the whole format fell apart. This was the first moment I believed it was true (not an easy admission for a teenager who was a rocker right out of the cradle!). The song was bad then, it is worse now.
I am glad those of you who manned up and admitted that you liked it (much respect to you!) enjoy it when you hear it. I actually enjoy "Sara" and "Nothing is Gonna Stop Us Now", which are both similar corporate schlock too, but are much better that WBTC.
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At least "We Built this City" rocks a little. My personal Starship song hatred goes to, "If Only You Believe..." Monotonous and repetitive. Grace used to come into my video store in the 80s to rent movies, and I wanted to beat her up (verbally) for that song, but she was a very nice lady...so I didn't.
4.8, the same since December '17, 4th place. Stagnant.
"Sara", a true gem of a song! From references I've read, Grace Slick actually sang in those old Sesame Street number song skits, such as this jazzy series from 1969... Interesting!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GksEo8EDXiE
Your issue was with Marty Balin, anyway.
My favorite Starship single actually is "Runaway," which also features Balin on lead vocals, and a heavenly guitar run from Craig Chaquico.
And KYA's signal back then was so much better than KOBY's output up on 1550. So when KOBY sort of fell apart, KYA became the heir apparent.
Llew: Actually, KYA was "The Boss of the Bay" in 1961, the year before Drake arrived. And "Boss" wasn't his idea at KHJ. That goes to Promotions Director Clancy Ismuslund, who tagged it "Boss Radio". PD Ron Jacobs was none too pleased, blurting out "Aw, that s***'s 19-SIXTY, man." But stuff had already been printed and Drake decided to roll with it.
Anything that keeps you in the top 5 is "steady", not "stagnant".
Ah, but that was the spring of '67, and Somebody To Love was a smash---peaked at #5 in Billboard.
Marcia Strassman, on the other hand, didn't make the Hot 100, but got to #6 at KHJ. Timing was right, though, the spring leading to the Summer of Love.
KFRC, on the other hand, was fairly deep into the weeds of psychedelia a year before that.
And it was a smash way outside the US, too. I saw it moving in Gavin and played it, nights only, on my Top 40 in Quito, Ecuador.
The song was Miracles, bigger than any Jefferson Airplane single, peaking at #3, getting the band back into the Top 10 both in terms of albums and singles for the first time in seven years, and putting the LP "Red Octopus" into double-platinum status.
Living in Northern California at the time, though, I can commiserate, Llew. KFRC played it like it was the only record they had for a good three years. I like it, but I can only imagine what it would have been like if I didn't.
True, but KEWB was there at the time, too...KYA fought them off and kept KFRC busy until the fall of '71.
And "White Rabbit" another gem by Grace Slick and company, reached #2 on the Boss 30 during that early summer.
I met Clancy Imislund (not to be didactic, but note spelling) last year. He's run the Midnight Mission in downtown LA since the latter Boss Radio days. He's 86, appears to be healthy as a horse, and has an incredible life story.
What I never understood was why Drake let the "Boss" sloganeering go on as long as it did. '65 thru '67 maybe..already outdated sounding...but IIRC, "boss" continued until about 1970, way past it's sell by date. "Groovy" had already been used and discarded by that time. Hella lame, dude.
I suspect KYA meant "Boss of the Bay," more like we're the best, we're number one- which I guess they were until KFRC came along. In the early 70s, KYA was 'the Rock of the Bay"....rhymed with "Dock of the Bay."
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