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KRTH playing 2004 music!

When Nielsen issues their public rankings, it's a free sample. Okay?

It gets people talking. Some people enjoy lists. It's a competition, and you can see how stations rank in a very simple field. It serves the purpose, and it's perfect for listeners and other non-professionals. It builds the brand, gets the company name in the papers, and it might even get some more advanced people interested in the rest of the story, which is available for a price.

But it's not what professionals use for ad buys and hard analysis.
 
When Nielsen issues their public rankings, it's a free sample. Okay?

And just like the conversations here, there are newspaper and blog articles and all manner of other Internet postings about the ratings. Even when musical trends are discussed in the media, there is generally a comment about airplay and ratings for stations playing different kinds of music.

It all enhances the Nielsen brand. That awareness and consequent credibility make a pretty good moat around Nielsen's radio products.
 
oldies76 asked about the KHJ Top 30 lists. Ray Randolph has posted all the surveys from 1965 through 1973 on his KHJ blog:

Thank you Steve!! I've seen oldiesloon and ARSA, but the 93KHJ site looks nice, I'll check it out.
 
Ray Randolph's 93/KHJ Boss Radio tribute site includes a list of all the Hitbound songs which never made it to the Top 30. You'll be amazed at some of the non-charting songs, especially Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys, Let's Spend The Night Together by the Rolling Stones and Our House by Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Golly gee!

http://home.earthlink.net/~thebig93/khj_hitbounds.html
 
Ray Randolph's 93/KHJ Boss Radio tribute site includes a list of all the Hitbound songs which never made it to the Top 30. You'll be amazed at some of the non-charting songs, especially Barbara Ann by the Beach Boys, Let's Spend The Night Together by the Rolling Stones and Our House by Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Golly gee!

http://home.earthlink.net/~thebig93/khj_hitbounds.html

You can add "The Pied Piper" to the "Golly gee" list!
 
Another oddity: The original version of Gloria by Van Morrison & Them---yes, he did record something besides Brown Eyed Girl---was on the Billboard Hot 100 for only a single week in 1965, at #93. In 1966, after the Shadows Of Knight recorded the song, Morrison's original was re-released and reached #71. The Shadows Of Knight version got to #10. The original version reached number one on the KFWB Fabulous Forty in April 1965 and I'm guessing it was also number one on KHJ's Boss 30. I can't say for certain because the first nine weeks of Boss 30s were not published. (The first printed Boss 30 came out on July 9, 1965. *Ba-boooommmmmm*---Fifty years ago today!) I don't think KHJ ever played the Shadows Of Knight version in 1966. I know it never appeared on the Boss 30. So why did Them's Gloria do so well in Los Angeles and so poorly nationally?
 
Thank you, Mister A. Remember the Standells' 1967 song Try It? Gordon McLendon, who owned KLIF, KILT, KOST, KABL and many other stations, refused to play it because of its "suggestive lyrics." Because McLendon was so influential, owners of other stations also banned the song and it never made the Hot 100. It didn't even make the Bubbling Under chart. The Ohio Express recorded a "cleaner" version which peaked at #83. I don't think KHJ played either version.
 
You never get hurt by what you don't play.

Personally I liked the SOK's guitar solo more than Them. But the best version is Patty Smith.
 
Thank you, Mister A. Remember the Standells' 1967 song Try It? Gordon McLendon, who owned KLIF, KILT, KOST, KABL and many other stations, refused to play it because of its "suggestive lyrics." Because McLendon was so influential, owners of other stations also banned the song and it never made the Hot 100. It didn't even make the Bubbling Under chart. The Ohio Express recorded a "cleaner" version which peaked at #83. I don't think KHJ played either version.

The Old Scotsman was very careful about lyrics in Bible Belt Texas when he made a run for public office. Songs that nobody in radio found suggestive were kicked off the air...
 
I have heard that Gordon McLendon banned Paul Revere & the Raiders' Kicks, even though it was an anti-drug song. McLendon never even listened to it. He just assumed by the title that Kicks was a pro-drug song.
 
Some of the songs I remember being edited or censored (or not) back in the day in LA:

MacArthur Park (Richard Harris) and Those Were the Days (Mary Hopkin) - both clumsily edited for length on KHJ. I don't believe either one was an official shorter version supplied by the record labels.

Ballad of John & Yoko - Not played by KHJ at all - presumably due to the line [/I]"Christ, you know it ain't easy...". I recall that KGBS played an edited version with the "Christ" removed. I'm sure that it wasn't an official version. It sounded like whoever did the cutting did it after having a few cocktails.

A couple of censored versions I've actually occasionally heard on Classic Hits radio in recent years - presumably because the Music Director is too clueless to notice that they're still playing those versions:

Play That Funky Music - all mention of "white boy" removed.

The Joker - all mention of "Midnight toker" removed - apparently it's OK to say "I'm A Smoker..." because you can assume it means coffin nails.






[/I]Oddly enough - not censored: Itchycoo Park (Small Faces) played on KHJ- with the lines "We can miss out school" and "What will we do there - we'll get high..."
 
There are still MANY Bible Belt ACs that censor "Break Even" by The Script. "Pray to a god that I don't believe in" is a huge no-no in the Bible Belt.

-crainbebo
 
KRTH is also now playing Scandal's Goodbye To You, which peaked at #65 in 1982, and---is everyone sitting down?---the Ramones' I Wanna Be Sedated. The Ramones! On KRTH!

I can't imagine KRTH ever playing rap and hip-hop from the 2000s but there are a lot of uptempo pop songs which would probably fit well. How about Absolutely by Nine Days, Whenever Wherever by Shakira, A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton, Follow Me by Uncle Kracker, Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani, Sk8er Boi by Avril Lavigne, Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake, Everything You Want by Vertical Horizon and Game Of Love by Santana & Michelle Branch?

They have to be careful with uptempo Pop songs, lest they reduce their differentiation with stations like KOST. It's easy to add uptempo Pop songs into almost any "modern" playlist, but it is also easy to transform into background music (Muzak) as a consequence. I would think in their position they wouldn't want to become the "9-5 Listen At Work" station; this is the station with music which people subconsciously tune out in their minds because they are "forced" to listen at work.

I think "It's My Life" is appropriate as a "Talk Talk" cover, since the original track does qualify in their longstanding mix of music. In fact, I think that modern covers of "Classic Hits" is a great way to transition into adding modern tracks to their playlist. Add cover versions of music which your older demographic is familiar with. Then, slowly mix in some "new" stuff.
 
There are still MANY Bible Belt ACs that censor "Break Even" by The Script. "Pray to a god that I don't believe in" is a huge no-no in the Bible Belt.

-crainbebo

Isn't that the truth. I laugh every time I hear that version. I was in Tennessee driving through a couple of weeks ago, and I heard that version.

No thanks, I'll take hearing god d*mn it every morning about 100 times on The Woody Show. I despise censorship.
 
KGBS was not the only station that edited the word "Christ" out of the Beatles' Ballad Of John & Yoko. KABC-FM did the same. By the way, that song was recorded in April of 1969 and featured only John and Paul. George and his wife were vacationing in Sardinia and Ringo was filming The Magic Christian with Peter Sellers.

Does anyone remember which version of The Devil Went Down To Georgia was played on KHJ? Very few stations played the one with Charlie Daniels calling the devil a name which the RD software will probably not allow me to write here. There was a second version where the four-word phrase was bleeped and a third version where Daniels changed the phrase to "son-of-a-gun."
 
Here is a copy of the text from a post I made a coupla' years ago (remembering that "radio years" are somewhat like "dog years"). The "typos" are from OCR'ing a very bad and aged copy.

In 1967, Gordon McLendon was was running for Governor of Texas in 1967, one of his key campaign platforms to curry favor with the conservative voters in the state was to "clean up the dirty song lyrics in this country", and as a result, he pulled a bunch of stuff from his top 40 stations KILT, KLIF, KTSA, and KELP. The reasons are what would be almost humorous by today's standards were it not for the use of some rather unacceptable terms contained in it... so I thought I would run OCR on an internal KLIF memo and post it for all to see...

To Bill Stewart
co Al Lurie, Ken Dowe
From Hal Martin

July 7, 1967
Following is a list of the songs KLIF has rejected with reasons for same, since the clean-up music policy was Instituted.

1. 'When I was Young - Eric Burdon - A line Implies sexual relations between the races.
2. Respect - Aretha Franklin - Has the line "Sock It to me" In the context.
3. "Whiter Shade of Pale - Procol Harum - Contains a line mentioning "Vestal Virgins"
4. Society's Child - Janis Ian (This weeks #14 song ln the nation), ls the story of a white girl's love for a negro boy and how It could never be, because society frowns upon lt.
5. Sock It To Me - Mitch Ryder - Includes the phrase "Sock It to me", which has been interpreted as suggestive to sexual relations.
6. Harry Rag - Kings - Rejected on the title for obvious reasons
7. Heaven & Hell - The Easy Beats - Rejected because of title.
8. Lets Live for Today. - Grass Roots - First recording rejected because lt Implied a desire for sexual relations.
NOTE: The company wanted. air play In this market and the dlsk was recut and ls being redistributed with cleaned up lyrics.
9. White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane - Rejected because lt implies the use of drugs.
10 Lets Spend the Night Together - Rolling Stones - Rejected because implies premarital sex relations. - · .
11. Step Out of Your Mind - American Breed - Rejected because lt implies the use of mind expanding drugs.
12. Omaha - Moby Grape - Instructs young people to try sexual intercourse.
13. Euphoria Euphoria - Rejected because mention of mind expanding drugs
14.. Doctor Do Good - Electric Prunes. Mentions pills.
15. Black Sheep - Sam the Sham - Could be Interpreted to have racial undertones.
16. Like You Do - Back Seat - Implies premarital sex relations.
17. Morning Glory Days - Artist Unknown (Record never received)
Rejected on the basis of the title because "Morning Glory" seeds can be used as a mind expanding drug. '
18. She's Rather Be with Me - Turtles - Rejected, accepted and then rejected again because of the line "Some girls like to handle everything they see".
19. A Thousand Shadows - Seeds '- Rejected because of connotation of the use of mind expanding drugs '
The above lyrics have been received by KLIF Radio Station as of July, 7, 1967 and rejected on the aforementioned reasons.

Hal Martin
 
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