KOY's glory days

[johndavis]

Gary Edens posted the station's entry for Billboard's Station of the Year in 1977. Check it out.

https://soundcloud.com/garolina/koy-station-of-the-year-1977

 

[MC]

sounds like kfyi without the cymbals and canned applause...worked then, does not work now, Âthat kind of content, tone, mindset went going down the drain. Â

Nostalgia is only good for a few days a month for me. ÂI can watch one old movie a week, listen to one old radio show, watch one Perry Mason TV rerun, an hour of lumberyard oldies, Âetc. Âsome people are stuck in the past and can not move on and adapt to the future, like the guy doing that soundbite, truly sad in a way.. Â

 

[DrAkbar]

Gary Edens posted the station's entry for Billboard's Station of the Year in 1977. Check it out.

Theater of the mind is dead meat in a PPM world. But all the icing put on the KOY cake sure hits a sweet spot for those who remember the days when personality radio ruled the airwaves. No one did it better than Fifty Five Phoenix, K-Ohhh-Y!

 

[multiplex]

Not sure where MC is coming from with the critical post. This is excellent radio. Unfortunately, KOY was automated by the time I moved to Phoenix. I'd have been a steady listener to this format.

 

[michael hagerty]

KOY and stations like it (WBT, KFMB, KNBR, KHOW) were tremendous in the 70s. A big part of what made them work was that they appealed to both genders fairly equally. Some actually skewed a bit male.

But long before PPM, they were doomed. FM in general, female-skewing FM ACs in particular and a generational shift that seemingly overnight morphed from 40 year old men listening to KOY to 40 year old men listening to KDKB and KUPD. And that was 30 years ago.

"These things are gone forever...over a long time ago." ---Steely Dan, Pretzel Logic.

 

[KeithE4]

Not sure where MC is coming from with the critical post. This is was excellent radio for those older than 40.

Fixed. ;D

Sorry, but those days are gone, and were starting to go even then. But (at least from my college-age perspective in the mid '70s), KOY sounded much livelier than their direct competition, KOOL 960 and KXIV 1400. Both of them - especially KOOL - sounded old and tired compared to KOY.

 

[landtuna]

Heywood in the morning was appointment radio for me in the 70's and our receptionist had 550 on all day long as well.

When I moved back to Phoenix in '79 it was KOY in the AM and KOOL-FM in the evenings. Great radio!

I still listen to KOY frequently. I hate the overabundance of Sinatra and loathe the iHeart currents but otherwise it sounds amazingly like the radio I grew up with and I really enjoy hearing artists like John Denver and Cat Stevens that don't get radio airplay otherwise. Even the soft sounds of Connie Francis and Brenda Lee sound great after 30 years off the air.

 

[johndavis]

Sorry, but those days are gone, and were starting to go even then.

Oh, I agree, you're not going to get a modern audience with MOR pablum and an afternoon jock who sings the weather even without PPM.

But the one thing that KOY did well back then was be all about Phoenix. You couldn't pipe that station into another city and have any of it make sense.

If there's one bit from the past to steal today, that's it. Be your city on the air in all that you do.

Another example was an aircheck that Tanim posted at FM Airchecks last week of Supersnake in the 90's on Power when both were at their peak. It was a Suns playoff game day - and he wasn't reading Perez Hilton and USA Today for his show prep. Be your city. Own your town.

 

[MC]

I do not know what happened to my post with those weird characters. (pushed the wrong button?) M. Hagerty said what I was trying to say better than I said it. Even older people can only take so much oldies and nostalgia, not to say there wasn't talent there back then.

The movie Sunset Boulevard seems to epitomize a movie person, (played by Gloria Swanson) stuck in the past and not moving on. The same holds true with some radio people too. Paul Harvey and George Putnam lasted a lot longer doing radio than I think people will now.

 

[KeithE4]

I do not know what happened to my post with those weird characters. (pushed the wrong button?) M. Hagerty said what I was trying to say better than I said it. Even older people can only take so much oldies and nostalgia, not to say there wasn't talent there back then.

The past is a nice place to visit and study, but I don't want to live there. That's why aircheck sites and YouTube exist. If I want to hear '60s-era disk jockeys, I can hear them when they were at their best, not as wheezing 70-somethings (or 80-somethings, in the case of Dick Biondi in Chicago) trying to hang on one last time and making sad fools of themselves doing it. That era is over, and it can't be duplicated today any more than the era of Jack Benny and Fibber McGee can be.

That's also the reason why I don't want to see my favorite bands from the '60s and '70s play again at their advanced ages and diminishing abilities (OK, the Rolling Stones are an exception). A Led Zeppelin reunion in 2013? No way, no matter what Bill Clinton tried to do recently.

The movie Sunset Boulevard seems to epitomize a movie person, (played by Gloria Swanson) stuck in the past and not moving on. The same holds true with some radio people too. Paul Harvey and George Putnam lasted a lot longer doing radio than I think people will now.

As did Don McNeill & Arthur Godfrey, who's shows hung on 10-15 years longer than they should have (1968 and 1972, respectively).

 

[michael hagerty]

It's worth remembering that the clip at the top of this thread is now 36 years old. That's as far back as 1941 was then.

 

[DrAkbar]

It's worth remembering that the clip at the top of this thread is now 36 years old. That's as far back as 1941 was then.

And in 2049 Nurse Jeff and I'll still be writing about Lumberyard 14~Forty from a Buckeye rest home; the Old Gringo will have surpassed 10 million posts; and this topic will be 36 years old

 

[radiobum]

I remember Dan Armstrong and when I heard him on satellite decades later he still sounded great. For some reason I remember his playing "Kay" by John Wesley Ryles. Also used to listen to Dodgers games on KOY.

 

[Jay Walker]

But the one thing that KOY did well back then was be all about Phoenix. You couldn't pipe that station into another city and have any of it make sense.
If there's one bit from the past to steal today, that's it. Be your city on the air in all that you do.

These are the same reasons KVIL in Dallas was the legendary success it was during that time period. Ron Chapman's crew had their fingers on the pulse of Dallas/Fort Worth and as was mentioned about KOY, KVIL could not be dropped in any other market and succeed.

 

[landtuna]

The past is a nice place to visit and study, but I don't want to live there. That's why aircheck sites and YouTube exist. If I want to hear '60s-era disk jockeys, I can hear them when they were at their best, not as wheezing 70-somethings (or 80-somethings, in the case of Dick Biondi in Chicago) trying to hang on one last time and making sad fools of themselves doing it. That era is over, and it can't be duplicated today any more than the era of Jack Benny and Fibber McGee can be.

I don't think what you are saying applies to KOY today. The DJ's don't sound like they are trying to replicate the Top-40 of old but are pointed much more to the MOR sounds of way back then. No "wheezing" that I can tell. ;D

That's also the reason why I don't want to see my favorite bands from the '60s and '70s play again at their advanced ages and diminishing abilities (OK, the Rolling Stones are an exception).

I was never a big concert-goer but I agree. It seems weird when I see the Beach Boys or The Association in concert these days and they all look like me. YIKES!

 

[DrAkbar]

The Nurse and I've often wondered how things would have turned out if Gary Edens took on KT'R with talk the way the Beer Baron did with KFWhyEye 9~Ten. Would he have countered Toaster Talk with Hot Talk & Burning Issues, or be more of the same just at a different dial position? Hmmmmm....NewsTalk 5~Fifty, KayOhWhy :

 

[desertv]

Heywood in the morning was appointment radio for me in the 70's and our receptionist had 550 on all day long as well.

When I moved back to Phoenix in '79 it was KOY in the AM and KOOL-FM in the evenings. Great radio!

I still listen to KOY frequently. I hate the overabundance of Sinatra and loathe the iHeart currents but otherwise it sounds amazingly like the radio I grew up with and I really enjoy hearing artists like John Denver and Cat Stevens that don't get radio airplay otherwise. Even the soft sounds of Connie Francis and Brenda Lee sound great after 30 years off the air.

Heywood in the morning, Chilcoat in the afternoon, HG Listiak and Joe Adams with the news, and Ed Phillips weather.

 

[DaveK]

Where is Alan Chilcoat now?

 

[landtuna]

Heywood in the morning, Chilcoat in the afternoon, HG Listiak and Joe Adams with the news, and Ed Phillips weather.

Ah yes, the complete line up. HG was the father of one of my son's baseball buddies so I got lots of his humor while watching the kids play. He was just as entertaining off-air as on. Can't believe he is gone.

 

[michael hagerty]

Well, let's not forget Al Vanik, Michael Dixon and Michael Grant...