KJR 950 AM Fabulous 50 weekly surveys

[controlvoice]

I grew up in Seattle in the 1960's, and anybody who was there and listened to top 40 radio back then will remember that KJR, with legendary DJ-program director Pat O 'Day, ruled the airwaves. KJR published a weekly survey every Friday in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, the KJR Fabulous 50. It was quite different than similar surveys in other U.S. markets, for several reasons. KJR was one of a handful of stations that "broke" records, weeks and sometimes months before they charted in other cities. The Pacific Northwest had a plethora of local bands, some which eventually achieved national success, and others which didn't, but all those NW records were huge in Seattle and held their own in Seattle against the nationally charting acts. Seattle was not a racially integrated city in those days, and neither KJR, nor KOL, the other top 40 station, played very much in the way of "black" records, called "soul" and "rhythm and blues" back then. Pat O' Day was frequently criticized for not playing anything that sounded "too black", to which he responded that he "was in the top 40 business". He said that even playing records by the Supremes was like "pulling nails". Artists like Wilson Pickett and even Marvin Gaye got very little airplay, until 1968 when Gaye broke through with "I Heard It Through The Grapevine". O' Day seemed to prefer R&B records that had more of a "pop" sound, like the Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love" and the Four Tops' "Reach Out, I'll Be There". The huge, number one smashes by black artists always got played in Seattle, but the lesser charting R&B records were usually overlooked, in favor of Northwest artist records and lesser followup records by white pop groups. Also, white artist's records that only modestly charted nationally often did much better in Seattle. This is not to say anything negative about black music artists, it's just a reflection of the way it was in Seattle in the 1960's, from someone who lived there and listened. By the early seventies all that had changed, and Seattle's record scene was pretty much like everywhere else. O' Day claimed that he was only playing what his listeners requested, but some challenged that assertion. I would like to collect, if possible, all those Fabulous 50 surveys. Does anybody have them, or know where they might have possibly been archived? To my knowledge, they were never published except by the Seattle PI.

 

[David1960]

Do you live anywhere near the downtown Seattle Public Library? I've spent many hours there going through their microfilm library, specifically perusing those Fabulous Top 50 lists from the 206 sections of the P-I. If you bring a thumb drive with you, you can save as a PDF. I've tried to collect at least one from every couple of months between 1965 and 1972. It's fun to see all the songs that were big here even though not so much nationally (when compared to the Joel Whitburn books).

If I had a bit more free time, I'd love to collect every single available chart and consolidate them ala Top Pop Singles.

 

[pjc1961]

Link below to the ARSA - Las-Solanas.com search page using the call letters KJR pulls up a lot (433) of that station's surveys:

http://www.las-solanas.com/arsa/sur...x1=KJR&qon2=AND&qry2=city&qeq2=1&qtx2=Seattle

 

[controlvoice]

Actually, I did some library research on that back around 1980 or so, but now I live in San Diego, and was hoping that someone else might have done the whole job, or maybe from 1964 to 1970 or so.

 

[controlvoice]

This is just what I was looking for, thanks much.