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KEWB Observationss

D

DavidKaye

All references in this post are about KEWB, the historic Top 40 station (which by my reckoning was closer to a rocker than the Drake KFRC was). The materials I'm referring to are on the Bay Area Radio Museum website:
http://www.bayarearadio.org/audio/kewb/index.shtml

It was fascinating to listen to the KEWB airchecks, especially the one of the changeover from KLX from 1959. I have a few observations that other people might not have noticed about KEWB:

(1) KEWB seems to be aimed toward stay-at-home mothers! Witness these jingle excerpts from their early days:

Who keeps you company by the hour....
in the car or in the shower
Or leaving the car,
or washing your hose
or kissing your darlin's cute little nose?

And then there's

Who goes with you from place to place
Who puts smiles on your adorable face?

Jingles about washing out hose (stockings), kissing noses, and adorable faces are not the kind of content aimed toward teenaged males, nor teenaged girls for that matter. They seem to be clearly aiming toward mothers!

(2) KEWB had some interesting language that nobody else used:

(a) Fantabulous prizes for all
(b) KEWB climatological survey
(c) Channel 91 Scorts Scoreboard (no, not Sports!)
(d) The KEWB Disca-covery (Yes, I know that it's written as "DisCovery")
(e) Big Bay Bannerlines
(f) KEWB You'll hear hit first (not "it" but "hit")

(3) While Bill Drake complained about "Boss Radio" being stolen by KFWB in the days before the debut of Drake KHJ, I seem to remember the moniker being used on KEWB prior to the debut of KHJ. One of the jingle sets seems to confirm this.

(4) Whether the jingle sets are called "PAMS", "Chuck Blore", "Sande & Greene", or "Johnny Mann", they appear to be identical, except for differences in audio quality. I don't remember there being more than one set of the early KEWB jingles with a small replacement set about late 1965.

(5) The "KEWB climatological survey" jingle is on the Johnny G aircheck, meaning that it lasted for 7 years on the station. This is a record for a Top 40 or for a rock station. (Drake had at least 3 distinct jingle sets during its prime). This may account for the fresh sound of 1959 KEWB sounding a bit dated by 1966, though Johnny G's judicious choice of jingles otherwise doesn't make it sound too bad....

(6) Does anybody have what I call the "KEWB Anthem"? It's the instrumental jazz backdrop that went "bomp bomp bompa-bom-bomp deedle deedle; deedle deedle" (instrumentally, that is). It was used a lot on the overnights and at times when they had a board op and no announcer (such as early Monday mornings). My life would be complete if I could get a copy of that.
 
I haven't listened to the KEWB exhibit yet, but I grew up with KFWB, and I can tell you that the formatting (jingles, etc.) remained very stable over the decade that the station was on the air. They'd throw in a few new ones from time to time, but they never changed the tune or the "Channel 98" signature. In fact, when Westinghouse bought the station, and flipped it to all-news, they used the same tune, but called it "News 98." Call me a nerd, but as a kid, I loved that "Sports Scoreboard" jingle, and it was around forever.

I think a lot of radio in those days was geared toward stay at home mothers. It makes sense since the majority of women were home-makers then, and were probably the biggest demographic between drive times. I remember a DJ named Ed Heider in LA would run a pre-recorded bit every day with a chorus of angry women chanting "I hate washing dishes, I hate washing dishes..." accompanied by the rhythmic sound of breaking china. A lot of the old KEWB and KFWB Fabulous 40 Surveys had a cartoon of a little girl with the slogan "My mommy listens to Channel 98 (91)"

Along the lines of the "Climatological Survey", on LA's K-Day in the early 70s, it was always the "Environment" never the "weather"...in keeping with their hip image, I guess.

Some call letter trivia - KFWB had those call letters because the station was originally owned by the Warner Brothers (not just the company - the actual Warner boys). When Crowell-Collier bought KLX, I guess they changed the calls to KEWB so they'd match the mother-ship. Don't know if KDWB was every a Warner property or not.
 
KFWB = K + Four Warner Brothers. KFWB has vacated their former long-time studios at Yucca and Argyle in Hollywood, in the shadow of the Capitol Records building.

I've always felt TV20 should have picked up the KEWB call sign, as it is legacy in S.F. and is pronounceable.
 
"I've always felt TV20 should have picked up the KEWB call sign, as it is legacy in S.F. and is pronounceable."

...except that KEWB are the legal call letters for Power 94 FM - "Redding's #1 Hit Music Station". That station probably carried those call letters before TV20 switched calls from KOFY-TV to KBWB.
 
Lkeller said:
Some call letter trivia - KFWB had those call letters because the station was originally owned by the Warner Brothers (not just the company - the actual Warner boys).
Click to expand...

Coincidence. The callsign KFWB was issued the same day as the callsign KFWC to a station in Upland CA, Feb. 10, 1925. It's also a coincidence that KFWB stands for later owner Westinghouse Broadcasting. KFRC doesn't stand for "Frisco", either.

In the early 1920s callsigns were issued sequentially. The KF's were one of the biggest blocks issued. Rumor has it that callsigns beginning KF and KG were easier to hear via the poor audio circuits of the day than those starting with KE, KB, KC, etc., and thus there is a huge batch of KF's out there and few of the others.

Now there are some reassignments of callsigns from the early days. KGO was originally sequentially issued to a short-lived station in Altadena CA, alongside KGW, KGU, KGA, etc. But Altadena went off the air soon thereafter and General Electric asked for KGO for its Oakland station.
 
"Coincidence. The callsign KFWB was issued the same day as the callsign KFWC to a station in Upland CA, Feb. 10, 1925. It's also a coincidence that KFWB stands for later owner Westinghouse Broadcasting. KFRC doesn't stand for "Frisco", either.

In the early 1920s callsigns were issued sequentially. The KF's were one of the biggest blocks issued. Rumor has it that callsigns beginning KF and KG were easier to hear via the poor audio circuits of the day than those starting with KE, KB, KC, etc., and thus there is a huge batch of KF's out there and few of the others."

I've heard about that early sequential issuance of call letters, but always figured those two (KFRC and KFWB) were too coincidental, and were possibly issued after the government stopped doing that. Thanks for the correction, David...but if I can be picky about a possible inconsistency: you say that GE asked for, and received the KGO call letters for Oakland after they were abandoned in Altadena - is it possible the Warner Brothers and/or the original owners of KFRC realized the opportunity at the right time, and requested the exact call letters they received?
 
Lkeller said:
is it possible the Warner Brothers and/or the original owners of KFRC realized the opportunity at the right time, and requested the exact call letters they received?
Click to expand...

I'd say it's possible but not probable because companies were jumping on the radio bandwagon (as later companies did on the Internet bandwagon) as soon as they had the financial and technical knowhow to do so. Just as dot-coms didn't wait around to buy out the squatters with the good domain names, I don't think the new station applicants waited around for the good callsigns to become available.
 
David - I did a few minutes of googling, and came up with this: http://nelson.oldradio.com/origins.html

I obviously can't vouch for this article's historical accuracy, and it doesn't address KFWB, or KFRC specifically. It states in the early years of radio, call letters were often or usually assigned, but could also be requested. For example, a Des Moines banker requested WHO for his fledgling station in 1925, and got them.

That would explain these supposed coincidences, and a couple of others - like the original owner of KGB being George Barnes. Or how Earle C. Anthony (original owner of KFI) was able to change the call letters of his second station from the original KVFV to KECA when he purchased it from the original owner in 1929.
 
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