KFWB 1970's radio Promo for Group W

[recto101]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayZ2XH_jlyY&feature=relmfu

All News Promo's for KFWB are in cartoon in the 1970's

 

[LKellerIII]

A cool bit of nostalgia - thanks, Recto. You say the ad is from the 70s, though I wonder what year it was. They had obviously started using the revised "News 98" version of the old "Channel 98" jingle from the Top 40 "Color Radio" days. During the early All News years - from 68 through the early 70s, that jingle was not used.

 

[recto101]

A cool bit of nostalgia - thanks, Recto. You say the ad is from the 70s, though I wonder what year it was. They had obviously started using the revised "News 98" version of the old "Channel 98" jingle from the Top 40 "Color Radio" days. During the early All News years - from 68 through the early 70s, that jingle was not used.

Who did all-news first in LA KFWB or KNX because they both had the 1968 start date and I heard that XTERA and KABC-FM did all news in Southern California in the early 60's before KFWB and KNX took over.

 

[LKellerIII]

It was called "Xtra News" and it was first. I don't recall that KABC ever had an all-news format. They ran long blocks of news in the morning and afternoon, but was otherwise talk shows- like KGO until recently,

KFWB switched to all news in March 1968. The only thing I could find on KNX said it went all news in the "spring" of 68 - so I'm guessing KFWB was first, but not by much. KNX wasn't truly "all news all the time" in those days - the station kept running a lot of feature shows like Mike Roy's cooking show. later the CBS Mystery Theater, and so forth.

 

[recto101]

It was called "Xtra News" and it was first. I don't recall that KABC ever had an all-news format. They ran long blocks of news in the morning and afternoon, but was otherwise talk shows- like KGO until recently,

KFWB switched to all news in March 1968. The only thing I could find on KNX said it went all news in the "spring" of 68 - so I'm guessing KFWB was first, but not by much. KNX wasn't truly "all news all the time" in those days - the station kept running a lot of feature shows like Mike Roy's cooking show. later the CBS Mystery Theater, and so forth.

I heard that WCBS in 1967 to the 1970's was only all news during the daytime hours while WINS was all-news all the time in NYC. Who were the demographics that listen to KNX and KFWB. I know in the New York City Boards I heard that WINS aimed for the 5 Boroughs and WCBS aimed for the NYC Suburbs in Northern New Jersey, Rockland, Nassau, Suffolk, and Western Connecticut. I know KNX aimed for all of Southern California since they were a 50kw station and KFWB i'm not sure since they are a 5kw station. I know in Northern California KCBS and KGO are both 50kw stations that aimed for the entire Bay Area when they do news KGO does news 17 hours a day on weekdays and 4 hours of news on Saturdays while KCBS is all news on both FM and AM 24 hours a day with exception of Sunday when they run a public affairs show on Sunday and airs 60 minutes.

 

[LKellerIII]

In the 70s and 80s, KCBS was more "all news" than KNX. For example, KCBS never ran the CBS Mystery Theater - it was aired in the Bay Area on KSFO. There were other half-hour feature shows on KNX in the 70s, IIRC, though the only one I can remember is Mike Roy.

I don't know what demographics KNX and KFWB were going for, but I do recall that KFWB was the no-nonsense all news station, while KNX in those days had feature shows, and was kind of gimmicky with jingles, and slogans ("Morning, noon, and night, get it first, get it right...stay in tune with the 70s on KNX NewsRadio 1070..."). I recall that the anchors would ID it as "KNX ten-seven-OH news radi-OH. As a young adult listener in those days, I found KNX kind of silly and annoying, and preferred KFWB.

Initially, the only formatics KFWB ever used was that teletype sound effect, which as I understand it - involved putting a microphone in the closet that held the teletype machine.

 

[recto101]

I had No idea KNX was the Merlin radio of its day.

 

[emailfailed]

In the 70s and 80s, KCBS was more "all news" than KNX. For example, KCBS never ran the CBS Mystery Theater - it was aired in the Bay Area on KSFO. There were other half-hour feature shows on KNX in the 70s, IIRC, though the only one I can remember is Mike Roy.

I don't know what demographics KNX and KFWB were going for, but I do recall that KFWB was the no-nonsense all news station, while KNX in those days had feature shows, and was kind of gimmicky with jingles, and slogans ("Morning, noon, and night, get it first, get it right...stay in tune with the 70s on KNX NewsRadio 1070..."). I recall that the anchors would ID it as "KNX ten-seven-OH news radi-OH. As a young adult listener in those days, I found KNX kind of silly and annoying, and preferred KFWB.

Initially, the only formatics KFWB ever used was that teletype sound effect, which as I understand it - involved putting a microphone in the closet that held the teletype machine.

As a writer in the "L.A. Weekly" put it, KFWB was the Joe Friday "Just the facts Ma'am" news station.

For a lot of breaking news stories and general local news I always thought it was better than KNX. Over at 1070 they had the many network obligations that prevented it from it being "all news."

For awhile there was a joke going around that KNX was "all news some of the time!"

KFWB really shined during some of L.A.'s major events, like earthquakes and the 1992 L.A. riots. In many such events 980 would be wall-to-wall with no commercials for hours while KNX often broke away for network programming and regular commercials.

In fact in the aftermath of the 1987 Whittier Earthquake all morning, if you recall the earth shook at 7:42 a.m., KFWB was wall-to-wall until the afternoon while KNX carried on with normal programming, which including a cooking show.

 

[OCradiodude]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayZ2XH_jlyY&feature=relmfu

All News Promo's for KFWB are in cartoon in the 1970's

Thanks for sharing! The KFWB cartoon commercials were especially interesting. When was the last time a radio station did a cartoon ad? I don't think I've ever seen one before this video.

 

[OCradiodude]

Initially, the only formatics KFWB ever used was that teletype sound effect, which as I understand it - involved putting a microphone in the closet that held the teletype machine.

You're right Lew. That was how they originally achieved the sound. A mic hanging over the live teletype machine. Actually, not just any mic. This mic:
http://www.coutant.org/88a/index.html

Hope no one had a hard time tearing the paper from the machine. Certain four letter phrases could have appeared on air!

 

[davideduardo]

It was called "Xtra News" and it was first. I don't recall that KABC ever had an all-news format. They ran long blocks of news in the morning and afternoon, but was otherwise talk shows- like KGO until recently,

Rumor had it that Gordon McLendon did all news because he heard the world's original all news station on a vacation to Pre-Castro Cuba in the late 50's. Radio Reloj (Radio Clock) and it's eventual Reloj Nacional network went on the air in 1948 with all news.

 

[radioman148]

McLendon also converted WYNR Chicago to WNUS all news in late 1964. At the time they advertised it as "WNEWS" and said it was the only other all news station besides "XTRA NEWS over Los Angeles".
Somewhere I still may have an audio tape of this.

 

[reelyreal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayZ2XH_jlyY&feature=relmfu

All News Promo's for KFWB are in cartoon in the 1970's

Thanks for sharing! The KFWB cartoon commercials were especially interesting. When was the last time a radio station did a cartoon ad? I don't think I've ever seen one before this video.

While these are earlier, these are more cool "cartoon" ads for another Westinghouse station, WBZ in Boston. These are 1962-1965:

http://youtu.be/AEAga5CJKk4

 

[recto101]

McLendon also converted WYNR Chicago to WNUS all news in late 1964. At the time they advertised it as "WNEWS" and said it was the only other all news station besides "XTRA NEWS over Los Angeles".
Somewhere I still may have an audio tape of this.

I thought XTRA News is based in San Diego or Tijuana I remember according to the KNX special about Columbia Square history XTRA was based in Mexico before KFWB and KNX took over all-news for LA.