kabl

[howardm]

Don't listeners miss the standards format on KABL? I know it's been gone for some time. Did KCEA 89.1 pickup that format?

 

[jprg]

KCEA plays a Big Band/Swing format. Not quite what KABL played but close.

 

[mikecroaro]

Folks:

The best part of KABL was the DJ's. Jim Lange, Carter B. Smith & Mike Cleary. They were the reason to litsen. DJ's with TRUE personality.

The music selection was okay, but not great.

These two stations have a much better music selcection:

KCEE, Tuscon AZ www.690kcee.com
"Swing 1270" www.swing1270.com

Mike

 

[DavidKaye]

Don't listeners miss the standards format on KABL? I know it's been gone for some time. Did KCEA 89.1 pickup that format?

WHICH KABL? There were two. There was the original McLendon KABL which consisted of easy listening instrumentals, easy listening vocals, and the occasional specialty (often Latin) instrumental. This format lasted from 1959 to 1990. The DJs were folks like Bill Moen, Joe Weaver, Bill Rogers, etc.

Then there was the "next generation" KABL which lasted just 10 years from 1995 to 2005. That was the big bands/pop standards format and featured Bill Lange, Carter B Smith, etc.

While I'm all for the big bands, I happened to like the earlier format a lot better, especially with its clever production -- the harp bumpers, the short mood pieces ("The blind man taps his cane as he walks down the street past the St. Francis as the tobacco shop closes its door for the evening..."). And the old KABL had some FABULOUS promotions -- the St. Patrick's Day snake races, and the tradition that continues today, the KABL car bell ringing contest!

 

[LKellerIII]

Don't listeners miss the standards format on KABL? I know it's been gone for some time. Did KCEA 89.1 pickup that format?

WHICH KABL? There were two. There was the original McLendon KABL which consisted of easy listening instrumentals, easy listening vocals, and the occasional specialty (often Latin) instrumental. This format lasted from 1959 to 1990. The DJs were folks like Bill Moen, Joe Weaver, Bill Rogers, etc.

Then there was the "next generation" KABL which lasted just 10 years from 1995 to 2005. That was the big bands/pop standards format and featured Bill Lange, Carter B Smith, etc.

While I'm all for the big bands, I happened to like the earlier format a lot better, especially with its clever production -- the harp bumpers, the short mood pieces ("The blind man taps his cane as he walks down the street past the St. Francis as the tobacco shop closes its door for the evening..."). And the old KABL had some FABULOUS promotions -- the St. Patrick's Day snake races, and the tradition that continues today, the KABL car bell ringing contest!

Technically, you could say there were 4 KABLs, if you count the FM. The third KABL was a short period starting about 1990 (lasted probably less than 2 years) when KABL-FM (98.1) tried to compete head-to-head in Lite Rock with KOIT. I'm not sure if 960 AM repeated the format or not. I don't have to tell you which station won the KOIT-KABL competition. For me, it was notable only because I was introduced to Bill Moen, who kept doing the morning show in the new format. Not being a fan of "beautiful music" like David, I had never heard him on the original KABL. Moen was low-key, but possessed a very amusing dry wit.

The "4th" KABL was the "Big 98.1" 70's format, which kept the KABL calls for a couple of years until they were switched to KBGG.

 

[jprg]

Don't forget about KMPX back in the early 80's. They had a Big Band format for a bit before it switched to "The Quake."

 

[howardm]

Don't forget about KMPX back in the early 80's. They had a Big Band format for a bit before it switched to "The Quake."

Thank you, the KABL station I knew was adult standards only and was on AM. I thought, how cool, station call matched with cable cars, and real classic adult standards music. Could have been 90's or early 2000.

 

[DavidKaye]

I thought, how cool, station call matched with cable cars, and real classic adult standards music. Could have been 90's or early 2000.

The FCC didn't think it was cool for KABL to identify with cable cars or anything San Francisco. KABL 960 was (and still is) an Oakland radio station. McLendon was fined by the FCC for station IDs saying such things as, "KABL (oakland) on you SAN FRANCISCO radio dial in SAN FRANCISCO", followed by a cable car bell ring.

Here's a link to the original KABL sound. Listen to it for awhile to get a feel for why this station was so revolutionary in its time. Within one or two Arbitron books it went up to #1 and stayed there for a long time.

KABL is at the top of the airchecks list: http://www.bayarearadio.org/pages/stations.shtml

 

[K6JHU]

I remember "Here is the KABL 6:09 news. The ONLY news at 6:09."

 

[DavidKaye]

I remember "Here is the KABL 6:09 news. The ONLY news at 6:09."

I was just a tot when the original KABL was first going, but I loved it because it sounded so pompous but it was clear that the DJs were having a good time, and the production was funny as hell. When they raised their power from 1kw to 5kw I was quite little but I remember them going on and on about how their new power was FIVE TIMES their old power. And yet in at least one of the promos there was an almost under-breath mention that now KABL "now gives you more power than your toaster". There were other such comments, but they buzzed by so quickly you had to have a good ear to catch them, and they were seldom if ever repeated.

As time went on, KABL dropped the title announcing and they got rid of the symphonic stuff for the most part, but they still kept a tongue in cheek elegance that I loved to hear, even though I was thoroughly into rock.

On the link I posted there is the incredibly funny stunting segment leading up the the premiere of KABL, with the DJs stealing everyone else's slogans, and a DJ commenting that the news will be right up, as soon as they find the echo chamber, etc.

 

[Madmansam]

The "KABL" radio station I fondly remember is the Beautiful Music of KABL-98.1!

 

[TomJF]

I listened to it in the '60s and '70s because that's what my parents always had on the car radio and kitchen radio, unless there was a Giants game on KSFO.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

After the last iteration of KABL went off the air a few years ago, the Bay Area Radio Museum signed a licensing agreement with Clear Channel that allows us to use the imaging and other assets of the station.

Our version of KABL, which incorporates the voicework of original KABL announcer Bill Moen, is actually an amalgam of the original 1959 Beautiful Music KABL, plus 1960s middle-of-the-road KSFO, 1970s Big Band KMPX, a touch of Magic 61, and a smidgen of latter-day swingin' KABL.

It's actually proved to be very popular. It can be heard at http://www.KABL960.com/ or on your iPhone or smartphone using the TuneIn app:

http://tunein.com/radio/KABL-s21104/

D.J.

 

[JEREMIAH]

Hey BossRadioDJ:


I got on the website today.....someday I hope to listen long enough to hear Bill.


Maybe a little known fact.....Bill told me that for his first 14 years ay KABL, he wasn't allowed to use his name.

Keep up the great work.


Jerry Gordon

 

[TomJF]

It's actually proved to be very popular. It can be heard at http://www.KABL960.com/ or on your iPhone or smartphone using the TuneIn app:

http://tunein.com/radio/KABL-s21104/

D.J.

I did a search on my Grace Digital internet radio and it is available there too. I would imagine it is also available on Logitech's Squeezebox, internet radios.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

I did a search on my Grace Digital internet radio and it is available there too. I would imagine it is also available on Logitech's Squeezebox, internet radios.

Since TuneIn is the "engine" feeding most digital/internet radios, I'm guessing it's available on many others.

 

[SCV_Ears]

I listened to it in the '60s and '70s because that's what my parents always had on the car radio and kitchen radio, unless there was a Giants game on KSFO.

That KABL was one of my granparents' station too. I remember the cable car bell ringing and the little vignettes they'd do with the weather. My other grandparents were KSFO fans from Sherwood to the Giants. So naturally I grew up listening to KNBR and KFRC!

 

[DavidKaye]

That KABL was one of my granparents' station too. I remember the cable car bell ringing and the little vignettes they'd do with the weather. My other grandparents were KSFO fans from Sherwood to the Giants. So naturally I grew up listening to KNBR and KFRC!

When I was a kid people listened to Don Sherwood (father of Greg Sherwood of KQED by the way). Don Sherwood was the talk of the schoolyard in the same way that Johnny Carson was to that era and Jon Stewart would be today. People repeated Sherwood's stories or speculated on why he wasn't at KSFO that morning (Drunk? Lost on a boat somewhere? Kidnapped?)

What's strange in listening to Sherwood airchecks today is that it seemed like he was doing a midnight show at 7am. His music was slow for the most part and his delivery very homey. He did get into sketches, though, and that livened things up.

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

What's strange in listening to Sherwood airchecks today is that it seemed like he was doing a midnight show at 7am. His music was slow for the most part and his delivery very homey. He did get into sketches, though, and that livened things up.

indeed, very indicative of radio back then. I grew up in NYC and there was a morning guy on WCBS named Jack Sterling -- very popular, for years and years. My parents listened to him and damn he was low-key.

 

[LKellerIII]

What's strange in listening to Sherwood airchecks today is that it seemed like he was doing a midnight show at 7am. His music was slow for the most part and his delivery very homey. He did get into sketches, though, and that livened things up.

indeed, very indicative of radio back then. I grew up in NYC and there was a morning guy on WCBS named Jack Sterling -- very popular, for years and years. My parents listened to him and damn he was low-key.

Most MOR jocks were low key. BARM also has an air check of Van Amburg on the pre-Top 40 KFRC. 'Van" was, of course, famous primarily for being the high-rated and sensationalistic news anchor in the 70s and 80s at KGO-TV. But he was a jock in the mid 60s at Radio "61" - mid-days, IIRC. Between his low key delivery, the soft pop music and slow meandering jingles, I was practically lulled to sleep. And MOR DJs of that era didn't do those things we're used to jocks doing. They usually IDed the song and artist, but promoting the station was not priority. They rarely mentioned the call letters or frequency.

There were exceptions - Gary Owens was wildly popular at KMPC (Los Angeles -sister station of KSFO) at the time, and his show was fairly high energy, in keeping with his personality, and status on TV's Laugh-In. But KMPC's morning man - Dick Whittinghill - was more in the Sherwood tradition - though not nearly as funny.