Remember that KIIS always paid attention, on the air and in research, to Hispanics. It was more than Rick Dees calling himself "Ricardo Díaz" and was based on the knowledge that a slightly rhythmic lean worked a lot better in LA than a rock or alternative lean world and that too much rock-based CHR would blow away the Hispanics.
103.1 was Santa Monica and 103.9 was Inglewood, so they probably overwhelmed that hotel room radio. Even in upscale hotels , the radio, when there is one, is usually crap.
Yep!
That was generally the thought process behind the station I worked for in the 80s, KDON-FM. We more-or-less patterned ourselves after KIIS and Q-106/San Diego, with jingles from Z-100s Warp Factor. We were mainstream Top 40, with a bit more rhythmic lean. The station was based in Salinas, which percentage-wise has a higher concentration of Hispanic listeners than many markets. Watsonville, Castroville and the towns down the Salinas Valley, plus Hollister and Gilroy made it a high concentration of Hispanic listeners as well. But then you had Monterey (upscale, mixed race), Seaside (more Black/Filipino/Asian listeners but not a high percentage) and Santa Cruz (college town, bohemian, alternative). By 1989 our consultant (from LA) and the PD decided to drop all of the pop, rock and most of the non-dancy alternative pop tracks and go Churban. The station continues today as a "Rhythmic" Top 40, playing a lot of hip hop and R&B and for the most part ignores the more mainstream tracks unless they make a super dent on the charts, at which point they reluctantly play them a little bit. I'm glad that KIIS at least stayed truer to the format when a lot of others did not.
It's probably still the Holiday Inn at 9901 S. La Cienega. The subdivision was between Arbor Vitae on the north and Century on the south. The streets were 93rd through 99th place. Google Street view now has the ability to toggle between capture dates---it looks like they took most of the houses out prior to 2008, with the few remaining taken down between then and 2015.
At one point before Bill Drake and Co started programming KFRC, they couldn't use "Boss Radio" like the other Drake/Chenault stations because upon hearing about LA's KHJ's success, KEWB dropped "Color Radio" and started calling themselves "Boss Radio" effectively ruining it for BD. (KEWB would run themselves into the ground). KFRC then had call to themselves "The Big 610". Fortunately, KFRC got to use the Johnny Mann Singers like the rest of the "Boss Radio" stations, and of course they were a huge success.
Before Santa Monica's KSRF 103.1 xmitter was moved to the Baldwin Hills, they were literally right above the hillside near the so-called California Incline. It was interesting that as you drove up the PCH it seemed like you would drive right under the antenna. (Almost but not quite) In this general location you could tune to 103.3 and hear KRUZ from SB without any interference, because you were about 200 feet below the center of radiation. (Of course only a radio idiot like myself would even remember something like this!)
Michael,
Thanks, ChannelFlipper. As I tell people, it's not so much that I know stuff as that I know where to look it up.
Thanks for the info...I guess I always mistakenly though that KFRC was the only Drake station that did not use "Boss Radio"!
Drake worked out the format basics at KGB before getting KHJ (on the recommendation of KGB's owner, Willet Brown, who was on the Board of Directors at RKO). KGB didn't start using "Boss" until it worked for KHJ.
RKO didn't give WHBQ to Drake until '67. Same with WRKO, which was also "Now". I'm thinking Drake made the change in Memphis. He liked "Now" and "Big" (The Big 610, KFRC, The Big 8, CKLW, The Big Town Sound OR-FM).
Care to tell us your "secret source" recipe?
Of course, David. It's a nifty little site run by an Old Gringo in the desert...
That reminds me of the antenna system we developed and built in Ecuador around 1965/66 for the first FMs in that country. We had a hilltop location about 800 feet above the center of Quito, and we put up towers with masts at the top. On the mast, we had four vertical elongated "loops", one every 90° and separated by a full wavelength square "shield" that looked like jail cell bars.
