Kevin McCarthy

[Holstead]

I had the chance to chat w/ Kevin McCarthy, the recently retired, long-time D/FW radio dude. If you have 51 minutes, it is worth the time.

~Josh

https://soundcloud.com/rowdy-yates%2Fkevin-mccarthy

 

[semoochie]

That makes three "Kevin McCarthies"!

 

[b-turner]

Kevin said there was nothing on FM before KNUS opted for a more 'hip' top 40 presentation. I actually listened to KNUS as an album rocker and KFAD in Arlington that was album rock, KNOK with R&B and KXXK with their 'music for groovy grown-ups' not for the music but presentation and what got played under the direction of Mike McChesney.

Indeed it didn't take long for the FM dial to light up after KNUS began to wipe out KLIF.

Caught the Car Show many times on KLIF on Saturday morning. It's truly quality radio.

 

[Huff]

Kevin said there was nothing on FM before KNUS opted for a more 'hip' top 40 presentation. I actually listened to KNUS as an album rocker and KFAD in Arlington that was album rock, KNOK with R&B and KXXK with their 'music for groovy grown-ups' not for the music but presentation and what got played under the direction of Mike McChesney.

Here's what the D/FW commercial FM dial looked like just before KNUS flipped the first week of May 1972:
92.5 KRLD-FM (Progressive Rock)
93.9 KCUL-FM (Spanish)
94.9 KAMC (Progressive Rock)
96.3 WBAP-FM (Easy Listening)
97.1 KWXI (Easy Listening)
97.9 WFAA-FM (Easy Listening)
98.7 KNUS (Progressive Rock)
99.5 KXOL-FM (Oldies)
100.3 KBOX-FM (Easy Listening)
101.1 WRR-FM (Classical)
102.1 KFWD (Easy Listening)
102.9 KDTX (Relgious)
103.7 KVIL-FM (Pop/Adult)
104.5 KIXL-FM (Easy Listening)
105.3 KOAX (Easy Listening) *flipped from KXXK in 1971
107.5 KNOK-FM (R&B/Soul)

The only one of those stations generating significant ratings in Spring 1972 was KOAX, which had a 6.2 share in Dallas and a 5.5 in Fort Worth (Still rated as separate markets until Fall 1973).
In the Dallas book, KNUS went from a 3.5 in Spring '72 to a 6.2 in the Fall and a 7.0 in Spring '73. In the same span, KLIF went 17.0 to 15.1 to 9.9.
Fall 1975 was the first book where KNUS beat KLIF outright in the DFW numbers, 6.0 to 5.6.
The combination of the Dallas and Fort Worth markets helped accelerate programming activity on the FMs as they could all be competitive across the entire market, while many of the AMs where saddled with signals that did not cover the entire new metro well (KLIF included.) In the two year span of 1972-74, more than half a dozen FMs changed formats, including all three of the "newspaper" FMs (KRLD, WFAA and WBAP), which all adopted new call letters, formats and identities.

 

[SquonkHunter]

I was a regular listener to KFAD/KAMC 94.9 FM back in the day. I liked it mostly because it played the same Progressive Rock music as the big stations but was without the more "commercial" aspects of same. Yes, reception could be difficult to impossible in the early days, no matter where you were. That issue was eliminated with the transmitter upgrade and new studio in Arlington. By the time the station was sold, good reception was the norm all around the DFW area.

 

[Anti-wingnut]

What was progressive rock in 1972? Is it todays classic rock?

 

[Huff]

What was progressive rock in 1972? Is it todays classic rock?

No. While there may be some artists from today's Classic Rock who might have been heard on progressive stations, the "Progressive" format was a wide-ranging format that was often free-form, or unscheduled with the DJs selecting the music, sometimes based on themes or their own mood. You could hear some progressive stations playing jazz, folk, even classical music in their mix. Progressive stations typically didn't see great ratings outside of young men, by the mid 70s most had started to tighten their playlists and become more formatted as "Album Rock" stations, and not surprisingly they saw their ratings increase. Today's Classic Rock is more borne out of the Album Rock of the late 70s and 80s than the Progressive era that preceded it.

Here's an hour and a half unscoped sample of how KNUS sounded as a progressive station in 1969:

KNUS Progressive Mighty Murphy 9 27 69 Unscoped : Tom Goodell : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Radio, Underground, Album Oriented Rock, Progressive, Psychedelic, Late 1960's, Dallas, KNUS, 97 FM, Unscoped, 9-21-69,

archive.org

 

[Huff]

I was a regular listener to KFAD/KAMC 94.9 FM back in the day. I liked it mostly because it played the same Progressive Rock music as the big stations but was without the more "commercial" aspects of same. Yes, reception could be difficult to impossible in the early days, no matter where you were. That issue was eliminated with the transmitter upgrade and new studio in Arlington. By the time the station was sold, good reception was the norm all around the DFW area.

1971 article about KFAD, which is where Jon Dillon first made a name for himself:

 

[Gopher]

No. While there may be some artists from today's Classic Rock who might have been heard on progressive stations, the "Progressive" format was a wide-ranging format that was often free-form, or unscheduled with the DJs selecting the music, sometimes based on themes or their own mood. You could hear some progressive stations playing jazz, folk, even classical music in their mix. Progressive stations typically didn't see great ratings outside of young men, by the mid 70s most had started to tighten their playlists and become more formatted as "Album Rock" stations, and not surprisingly they saw their ratings increase. Today's Classic Rock is more borne out of the Album Rock of the late 70s and 80s than the Progressive era that preceded it.

Here's an hour and a half unscoped sample of how KNUS sounded as a progressive station in 1969:

KNUS Progressive Mighty Murphy 9 27 69 Unscoped : Tom Goodell : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Radio, Underground, Album Oriented Rock, Progressive, Psychedelic, Late 1960's, Dallas, KNUS, 97 FM, Unscoped, 9-21-69,

archive.org

That was entertaining.
The teletype in the background for the news segments was a nice touch.
As far as music selection it sounds like what many of us were doing or trying to do at KETR at East Texas State Univ. in the 75-78 years. The 9-midnight/signoff shift was called freeform and we played whatever. I understand now. 😁

 

[golden eagles97]

I thought at first that this was a post about the former speaker of the house getting a job in DFW radio.

 

[Anti-wingnut]

That’s what I thought too