KEXP Buys KREV

[cc333]

@michael hagerty Fair enough! Bad music is bad music, regardless of format or era! In particular, I will agree with you that this version of "Alone Again (Naturally)" is... not great. Gilbert O'Sullivan's version is far superior!

I'm not the hugest fan of Ray Conniff, but there are a few records I do like. They did an okay cover of Charlie Rich's "The Most Beautiful Girl", and then of course "Happiness Is", which had been discussed around here somewhere recently, I think.

As far as this orchestral stuff goes, I think the purely instrumental covers are best, but those with vocals in them are hit or miss.

c

 

[Kelly A]

Another station I discovered recently that has a similar music mix to KEXP without all the curation, is WNRN. They've got translators all over Virginia: Listen Live

 

[Delete My Account]

WNRN is a solid station. I think some of the older KEXP audience who likes a bit more Americana and roots in the mix might enjoy it.

 

[Mark Roberts]

If this were the unscoped verison and you had to sit through all 2:57 of the Ray Conniff Singers doing "Alone Again (Naturally)" (the first-person account of a man whose life has been so sad, he's about to commit suicide) like a toothpaste jingle, you might feel differently.

There aren't many unscoped Beautiful Music radio airchecks from back in the day, but I try to approach each one without prejudice---being very open to the possibility that I hated those stations at the time because I was an annoying teenager or a too-cool 20-something.

As a teenager, I detested St. Louis's KEZK because it had replaced KDNA; KCFM was a little less banal but that Conniff cover was more likely to have ended up on KCFM than KEZK - at least until 1978, when KCFM went with an eclectic soft-rock format, including what has become known as "yacht rock", which could easily have morphed into AAA except for the fact that Gannett bought it a year and switched it right back to beautiful music for a couple more years.

Now it's easy to forget but, in those days, people wanted this stuff. Several Missouri cable systems proudly advertised that they carried Kansas City's KCEZ, brought in by microwave. Kansas City's classical KXTR was another popular offering. In Columbia, this was the case even though nearby Jefferson City and Mexico had their own FM easy-listening stations that could be received there. There was a little problem, anyway. KCEZ also carried Muzak on a subcarrier, and that subcarrier interacted with the microwave system and KCEZ's own stereo pilot in undesirable ways. In mono, KCEZ was fine. But in stereo on the Columbia cable system, KCEZ had a persistent tone in the background at about -20 dB. It sounded kind of like SCA telemetry, except in stereo. They never did get it out.

By the way, KFOG's last beautiful-music tune was Roger Whitaker's The Last Farewell, about a man leaving his beloved to go off to war to England, and presumably onward to continental Europe. I think it's fair to say that there's an element of bad taste there, too.

 

[semoochie]

If this were the unscoped verison and you had to sit through all 2:57 of the Ray Conniff Singers doing "Alone Again (Naturally)" (the first-person account of a man whose life has been so sad, he's about to commit suicide) like a toothpaste jingle, you might feel differently.

There aren't many unscoped Beautiful Music radio airchecks from back in the day, but I try to approach each one without prejudice---being very open to the possibility that I hated those stations at the time because I was an annoying teenager or a too-cool 20-something.

It might go well for the first song or two, but there's always some egregious lapse of taste---something that tells me that whoever produced the record had NO idea what the song was about and decided to reduce it to a "tune with a lively arrangement". The Conniff "Alone Again (Naturally)" is not alone but absolutely is the worst example I've ever heard.

...and yet another entrant into the Clueless Awards but this is the winner!

 

[cc333]

By the way, KFOG's last beautiful-music tune was Roger Whitaker's The Last Farewell, about a man leaving his beloved to go off to war to England, and presumably onward to continental Europe. I think it's fair to say that there's an element of bad taste there, too.

Maybe so, but it seems to me that the song title could (and was probably intended to) be construed as the final good bye from the old format before flipping. Taste notwithstanding, of course.

Now it's easy to forget but, in those days, people wanted this stuff.

It is hard to believe. This is likely an overgeneralization, but nowadays it seems most people only want three things from radio and nothing else: hard rock, hip hop and Taylor Swift.

c

 

[michael hagerty]

By the way, KFOG's last beautiful-music tune was Roger Whitaker's The Last Farewell, about a man leaving his beloved to go off to war to England, and presumably onward to continental Europe. I think it's fair to say that there's an element of bad taste there, too.

I'm with cc333---this was KFOG's "beautiful music farewell".

People don't think stuff like this through, and people programming beautiful music 42 years ago probably thought about it even less.

Even now, I've lost count of how many wedding DJ's I've heard play "Every Breath You Take". The percentage of people who think Springsteen's "Born in the USA" is a patriotic anthem is wayyyyy too high.

 

[Weiserguy]

If this were the unscoped verison and you had to sit through all 2:57 of the Ray Conniff Singers doing "Alone Again (Naturally)" (the first-person account of a man whose life has been so sad, he's about to commit suicide) like a toothpaste jingle, you might feel differently.

There aren't many unscoped Beautiful Music radio airchecks from back in the day, but I try to approach each one without prejudice---being very open to the possibility that I hated those stations at the time because I was an annoying teenager or a too-cool 20-something.

It might go well for the first song or two, but there's always some egregious lapse of taste---something that tells me that whoever produced the record had NO idea what the song was about and decided to reduce it to a "tune with a lively arrangement". The Conniff "Alone Again (Naturally)" is not alone but absolutely is the worst example I've ever heard.

There's a short little parody vignette of what you're describing in the pilot episode of WKRP In Cincinnati. Just before the switch to rock and roll, Johnny Caravella (soon to be Dr. Johnny Fever) is on the air, Bailey's in the studio with him, and he intro's a song by a group clearly intended to be the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The song was the Paul Anka hit, You're Having My Baby, but blenderized into Ray Conniff-style musical pablum. Johnny mimes the extended chorus, "You're having my baby, what a lovely way to say how much you love me..."

 

[michael hagerty]

Now it's easy to forget but, in those days, people wanted this stuff.

Oh, ABSOLUTELY. Beautiful Music FMs took off when MOR stations morphed into AC and started playing pretty much the same music as the Top 40s. The 50+ listeners rebelled, and since the Buicks and Lincolns and Cadillacs they were buying by this point had FM stereo, it was off to the races.

Look at the progression in fall Arbitron books in L.A. from 1975 to 1979:

October/November 1975

1. KABC (talk) 6.9
2. KHJ (top 40) 5.4
3. KJOI (beautiful) 5.3
4. KBIG (beautiful) 5.1
5. KDAY (r&b) 4.6
6. KMPC (mor) 4.4
7. KFWB (news) 4.1
8. KNX (news) 3.9
9. KFI (mor) 3.8
10.KLOS (aor) 3.5


October/November 1976 M-S 6AM-12MID 12+ Shares
1. KABC (talk) 6.7
2. KBIG (beautiful) 5.9
3. KHJ (top 40) 5.3
4. KJOI (beautiful) 4.9
5. KNX (news) 4.8
6. KFWB (news) 3.9
7. KLOS (aor) 3.8
7. KNX-FM (soft rock)
9. KMPC (a/c) 3.6
10. KRLA (top 40) 3.3


October/November 1977 M-S 6AM-12MID 12+ Shares
1. KBIG (beautiful) 6.8
2. KABC (talk) 5.8
3. KJOI (beautiful) 4.4
4. KNX (news) 4.0
5. KFWB (news) 3.9
6. KLOS (aor) 3.6
6. KNX-FM (soft rock) 3.6
8. KHJ (top 40) 3.5
8. KMPC (a/c) 3.5
10. KRTH (a/c) 3.4


October/November 1978 M-S 6AM-12MID 12+ Shares
1. KABC (talk) 6.5
2. KBIG (beautiful) 6.0
3. KJOI (beautiful) 5.3
4. KMET (aor) 4.9
5. KNX (news) 4.3
6. KFWB (news) 4.2
7. KLAC (country) 3.9
8. KOST (beautiful) 3.3
9. KMPC (a/c) 3.1
9. KNX-FM (soft rock) 3.1


Arbitron October/November 1979 M-S 6AM-12MID 12+ Shares
1. KBIG (beautiful) 6.1
2. KABC (talk) 6.0
3. KMET (aor) 5.8
4. KJOI (beautiful) 4.9
5. KLAC (country) 4.3
6. KFWB (news) 4.1
7. KNX (news) 4.0
8. KRTH (a/c) 3.8
9. KRLA (oldies) 3.7
10. KFI (top 40) 3.3

 

[Kelly A]

Sorry, but how did we make such a generational shift from KEXP/KREV, to MOR music (BM) from the 60's-70's?
Oh, that's right. This is Radiodiscussions.com.

 

[michael hagerty]

Sorry, but how did we make such a generational shift from KEXP/KREV, to MOR music (BM) from the 60's-70's?
Oh, that's right. This is Radiodiscussions.com.

It was the KFOG comparison, which led to the previous format and yada yada yada....

 

[Mark Roberts]

Sorry, but how did we make such a generational shift from KEXP/KREV, to MOR music (BM) from the 60's-70's?
Oh, that's right. This is Radiodiscussions.com.

How it happened: The possibility of KREV picking up the previous KFOG audience, combined with KFOG's origins in beautiful music.

Consider yourself lucky that the discussion didn't become one about Henry Kaiser and shipbuilding in World War II.

(Ohmigawd, what have I done?)

 

[michael hagerty]

How it happened: The possibility of KREV picking up the previous KFOG audience, combined with KFOG's origins in beautiful music.

Consider yourself lucky that the discussion didn't become one about Henry Kaiser and shipbuilding in World War II.

(Ohmigawd, what have I done?)

It's okay---you told us what we did and got it right.

That doesn't always happen around here.

 

[Mark Roberts]

The percentage of people who think Springsteen's "Born in the USA" is a patriotic anthem is wayyyyy too high.

Including at least one former president.

There's probably a whole other thread about closeout songs that's waiting to bloom, but since this is the San Francisco board, despite any potential tone policing, I will at least mention that, when KSFX became KGO-FM in 1982 a few months before the KFOG changeover, the final KSFX tune was the Doors' When the Music's Over, and not The End. Both can be problematic, but the latter is really, really creepy. The KSFX format change also happened to free up Dave Morey to go to the new KFOG.

 

[michael hagerty]

Including at least one former president.

There's probably a whole other thread about closeout songs that's waiting to bloom, but since this is the San Francisco board, despite any potential tone policing, I will at least mention that, when KSFX became KGO-FM in 1982 a few months before the KFOG changeover, the final KSFX tune was the Doors' When the Music's Over, and not The End. Both can be problematic, but the latter is really, really creepy.

...which made it really weird when KHJ chose "The End" in 1986 just before going automated as KRTH-AM.

The KSFX format change also happened to free up Dave Morey to go to the new KFOG.

....aaand we're back!

 

[Weiserguy]

Including at least one former president.

There's probably a whole other thread about closeout songs that's waiting to bloom, but since this is the San Francisco board, despite any potential tone policing, I will at least mention that, when KSFX became KGO-FM in 1982 a few months before the KFOG changeover, the final KSFX tune was the Doors' When the Music's Over, and not The End. Both can be problematic, but the latter is really, really creepy. The KSFX format change also happened to free up Dave Morey to go to the new KFOG.

"When the music's over, turn out the lights, turn out the lights, turn out the lights." Seems like an appropriate transition into a format change to ABC Talkradio, where most of the programming arrived from the satellite and KABC Lost Angeles.

 

[Mark Roberts]

"When the music's over, turn out the lights, turn out the lights, turn out the lights." Seems like an appropriate transition into a format change to ABC Talkradio, where most of the programming arrived from the satellite and KABC Lost Angeles.

Oh, I think it was a pretty apt choice.

I'm listening to that aircheck right now, and, after the hourly ABC news, Jim Dunbar played off the change hilariously. "If you were listening to FM and wondered what the heck is going on, call one of your AM neighbors!"

Then he stumbled through a weather forecast and said, "I think I've got the 18th carbon here. Are the lights out?" I wonder if he knew what KSFX had played just a few minutes earlier.

 

[michael hagerty]

"When the music's over, turn out the lights, turn out the lights, turn out the lights." Seems like an appropriate transition into a format change to ABC Talkradio, where most of the programming arrived from the satellite and KABC Lost Angeles.

Aircheck here:

KSFX Becomes KGO Newstalk FM 104 (May 3, 1982) | Bay Area Radio Museum

KSFX, San Francisco Becomes KGO-FM 104 Monday, May 3, 1982 Featuring Richard Gossett of KSFX and Jim Dunbar

bayarearadio.org

If I recall correctly, KGO's schedule was the least impacted by Talkradio, and Owen Spann did his part of it from KGO, not KABC.

 

[davideduardo]

Heck, even before those GE, Kaiser Broadcasting co-owned KFOG alongside channel 44.

A locally done Beautiful Music station very well managed by Pete Taylor, who went on to run Kaiser's WJIB in Boston.

 

[davideduardo]

By the way, KFOG's last beautiful-music tune was Roger Whitaker's The Last Farewell, about a man leaving his beloved to go off to war to England, and presumably onward to continental Europe. I think it's fair to say that there's an element of bad taste there, too.

It's about a British sailor stationed in Kingston, Jamaica, where he fell in love. The insinuation is that he has been called to fight the Americans and must leave the girl behind.