KOMY/1340 Drops Air America For Oldies

[BossRadioDJ]

KOMY/1340, licensed to the town of La Selva Beach but broadcasting from nearby Santa Cruz, dropped its Air America programming schedule abruptly at 10 a.m. this morning, replacing it with a 1960s Oldies music format.

KOMY is running 1000 watts ND from a diplexed tower (shared with KSCO/1080), but I was able to hear the station with good reception on the road in Pleasanton and Livermore between 11 a.m. and noon; it should come in pretty good in San Jose and parts of the Southbay. The station is running jockless right now with regular "Original Sound of Monterey Bay" IDs.

The format is a "return to the roots" for KOMY, which was a Top 40 station back in the 1960s -- and was even the home of radio legend Robert W. Morgan early in his Hall of Fame career.

DJ

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

FYI, their website still has the old format info, but if you click the "listen live" link, you get the current stream...

http://www.1340komy.com/

 

[BossRadioDJ]

The new website is at http://www.komyradio.com/

 

[Radio55]

Is KOMY the original calls from the 60s?.... Station sounds great.... I've bookmarked it.

Listening in Tulsa, Oklahoma

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

It's interesting that the website says "hits of the '50s & '60s" but in the past hour a good 60-to-75% of the songs I've heard have been from the '70s.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Is KOMY the original calls from the 60s?.... Station sounds great.... I've bookmarked it.

I know that the KOMY call letters date back at least to the late 1950s.

The change was made rather quickly, so the new PAMS jingles haven't even arrived yet. It should sound even better once all of the format elements are in place, jocks are hired and the transmitter system is tuned up a bit.

The idea is to make the station sound like it's still the 1960s -- not simply a 2007 station that plays 1967 music. It's radio for people who still know how to use a radio, as they said on the air yesterday.

DISCLOSURE: I was visiting KSCO (sister station of KOMY) last Friday and was in the office when the discussions were held about changing KOMY's format to Oldies. I said nothing to discourage the switch...

DJ

 

[BossRadioDJ]

It's interesting that the website says "hits of the '50s & '60s" but in the past hour a good 60-to-75% of the songs I've heard have been from the '70s.

Mike,

I'm looking at the "Recently Played" list from 8 to 9:45 a.m. (your post was made at about 9:30 a.m.), and I see only one song that I recognize as being from 1970. Everything else on the list -- out of about 45 songs (estimated) -- was pure 1960s, with only a few 1950s.

What songs did you identify as being from the 1970s, if you recall?

DJ

 

[Radio55]

Hello BossRadio,

I'm glad to see they have saved their call letters all these years. To many stations have thrown away their heritage by junking some prime call letters. Three cheers to KOMY for having good sense. I've been out of the radio business for a little over a year now after 35 years, and we don't have ANYTHING that sounds this good (even without jocks and jingles!). Our "oldies" station here has been dipping heavier into the 70's (and the most dopey songs of the 70's) while playing the same 60's songs over and over. Just now I heard "Where Were You When I Needed You" - great stuff! The Grass Roots (if my memory is correct). Variety is the key to the oldies format, in my opinion. I'll be checking KOMY out over the next few weeks to hear the jingles and jocks. Can't wait! Good luck to them. Wish them well for me all the way from Oklahoma.

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

It's interesting that the website says "hits of the '50s & '60s" but in the past hour a good 60-to-75% of the songs I've heard have been from the '70s.

Mike,

I'm looking at the "Recently Played" list from 8 to 9:45 a.m. (your post was made at about 9:30 a.m.), and I see only one song that I recognize as being from 1970. Everything else on the list -- out of about 45 songs (estimated) -- was pure 1960s, with only a few 1950s.

What songs did you identify as being from the 1970s, if you recall?

DJ

OOPS! My bad... I was listening to the new oldies station in Sac'to, K-Hits 92.1, which I switched to when KOMY's player wouldn't work for me. So they're the ones playing Timmy Thomas, the Spinners, BW Stevenson etc. But (although their website barely exists) K-Hits' on-air promos are rather '60s-centric too.

 

[RadioStarOne]

This is cool, go to the air america site and click on the listen live link and you get the on air stream Sharks game is on. Go to the oldies site and get the oldies stream. The winamp stream drops out every three minutes or so, the Windows
Media Player stays on all the time.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

This is cool, go to the air america site and click on the listen live link and you get the on air stream Sharks game is on. Go to the oldies site and get the oldies stream. The winamp stream drops out every three minutes or so, the Windows
Media Player stays on all the time.

The Winamp problem is common to many Internet audio feeds. I've had that happen many times, so I just click the "Toggle Playlist/Song Repeating" button as a workaround to keep Winamp chasing the stream. Although many people complain about RealPlayer, I actually prefer that stream (http://www.komyradio.com/audio/listen.ram) because it sounds cleaner and more "hi fi."

On the Air America Sharks feed, was Al Franken doing the play-by-play or Dan Rusanowsky?

It looks like there are still a few bugs to be worked out...

DJ


P.S. -- And don't forget to download your copy of the KOMY Solid Gold Hits Survey at http://www.komyradio.com/surveys/KOMY_Survey_Feb-2007.pdf before they run out of them... (snicker)

 

[8638]

Damn, this sounds good! Talk about a win/win: Airhead America loses an outlet, and real oldies gains one!

Listening from the East Coast, where oldies radio is, for the most part, dead.

 

[LKellerIII]

"Listening from the East Coast, where oldies radio is, for the most part, dead."

It's dead on the West Coast, too for the most part - LA still has a "Classic Hits" station (K-Earth 101), though the focus is now 70s- 80s. The SF Bay Area doesn't even have that. It's nice that KOMY switched to Oldies, but a low power AM from Monterey doesn't do us much good in San Francisco, unless we're near a computer, and there's always the ComCast Music Choice Oldies Channel, and Satellite...

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

Now that I've finally gotten the stream to work, I've gotta say that KOMY is mighty impressive, musically speaking. Quite a range of songs, not the usual burnt-out 300 consultant-approved oldies. Box Tops, "Sweet Cream Ladies", Grass Roots, "Lovin' Things"... it's music-geek heaven. Long may they wave.

 

[djj]

Even with only computer access where I live in the North Bay Area, it is SO good to hear '50s-'70s pop/rock
on the air again! KOMY is the perfect place for it, too, since this music was popular back then on KOMY!
I don't miss KFRC now!
;D

 

[Mike Sheridan]

I love this station!!! Wish we had one where I live. Go KOMY!

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

Well, it was fun for a couple of days, but KOMY seems to have about 12 hours worth of songs that they keep repeating endlessly... I just heard the Box Tops' "Soul Deep" (one of my favorite little-played oldies, as it happens) for the 6th time since Monday afternoon. Here's hoping they freshen things up -- soon.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Well, it was fun for a couple of days, but KOMY seems to have about 12 hours worth of songs that they keep repeating endlessly... I just heard the Box Tops' "Soul Deep" (one of my favorite little-played oldies, as it happens) for the 6th time since Monday afternoon. Here's hoping they freshen things up -- soon.

Mike,

Please keep in mind that the music mix right now is very manual, and some songs (okay, quite a few songs) are getting rotated in waaaaaaay too often. There are only about 850 songs in the library at this time, but more are being added each day. (Suggestions are welcome -- you can email them through the website at www.KOMYradio.com)

Please know that changes are in the works (live DJs! contests! promotions! 20/20 News!) and your patience will be rewarded. This was all done very hastily and from scratch, but the KOMY team -- from the owner on down through the ranks -- is very dedicated to making this a fun, entertaining and successful station.

There are still glitches -- last night, listeners were treated to the first period of the Anaheim Ducks hockey broadcast before the error was caught!

It's very much a work in progress...

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

Well, it was fun for a couple of days, but KOMY seems to have about 12 hours worth of songs that they keep repeating endlessly... I just heard the Box Tops' "Soul Deep" (one of my favorite little-played oldies, as it happens) for the 6th time since Monday afternoon. Here's hoping they freshen things up -- soon.

Mike,

Please keep in mind that the music mix right now is very manual, and some songs (okay, quite a few songs) are getting rotated in waaaaaaay too often. There are only about 850 songs in the library at this time, but more are being added each day... Please know that changes are in the works ... It's very much a work in progress...

Thanks, BRDJ -- I'm not abandoning it, but I've spent much of each day listening to them this week, after my personal 10@10 marathon (there's a version of that feature, invented by KFOG's Dave Morey, in every time zone, and that's my morning listening). So the repetition was noticeable. They remind me a bit of what 1510AM was doing before KPIG took over. Any time an oldies station gives me a song I literally have never heard before (and I'm 51 and a music geek) that's a *good* thing. So KOMY gets major kudos for some of the "forgotten" oldies they've unearthed. Maybe they'd condiser picking up Dick Bartley's Saturday nite show?

 

[RadioJunkieMike]

KOMY seems to have freshened things up since last week, they've been very entertaining (with very little repetition) today. And I just heard an old Drake/Chenault "Ladies and Gentlemen... the beat goes on!" sounder -- first time I've heard them play it since they signed on (it almost sounds like they stole it from one of Dave Morey's 10@10's on KFOG).