Question about WKEZ Florida Keys

[Gregg]

Radio-Locator.com lists this station (and it's call
letters also indicate) this is an Easy Listening
station.

Is this true? A mix of instrumentals and soft AC
vocals? I notice WKEZ is owned by Clear Channel.
It's licensed to Tavernier with a signal that stretches
from Key Largo to Marathon, but not all the way to
Key West.

I know Ft. Myers still has an Easy station (WWAV 101.1)
that's always #1 by a wide margin, but I wasn't aware
that Easy Listening also can be found in the Florida
Keys at 96.9.



Gregg
[email protected]

 

[bossmsx]

> Is this true? A mix of instrumentals and soft AC
> vocals?

Not quite....It's probably best described as "Chicken Beautiful Music".....Less than a Soft AC, but only scratching the surface with very contemporary instrumentals that are jazz-like. I'd probably say it's more viscious than WDUV in Tampa.....I heard "Band Of Gold" one Sunday on KEZ. Their voice guy is the same as the Dove's in Tampa.

The only 3 stations in Florida that my mind can recollect that are real BM's in this state are WAVV in Marco (Ft. Myers), WCVU/104.9 in Port Charlotte, another CC property that plays a few instrumentals, and the venerable noncomm WKTZ in Jacksonville, very conservative in its' sound and true to BM tradition, but even it of late has started sliding in more vocals than usual (relative term and not much), now that Jack Jones, Jones College founder (WKTZ owner) and its' ultimate overseer, has passed on.

 

[954]

> > Is this true? A mix of instrumentals and soft AC
> > vocals?
>
> Not quite....It's probably best described as "Chicken
> Beautiful Music".....Less than a Soft AC, but only
> scratching the surface with very contemporary instrumentals
> that are jazz-like. I'd probably say it's more viscious
> than WDUV in Tampa.....I heard "Band Of Gold" one Sunday on
> KEZ. Their voice guy is the same as the Dove's in Tampa.

I just checked out the WKEZ web site.

Does BM stand for Bette Midler? That's what They're playing.

73s from 954<P ID="signature">______________
<center>South Florida Radio Pages</center></P>

 

[Ai4i]

How did the Jacksonville station wind up on a noncomm frequency?
When I attended UF back in the early-mid seventies, they were on 96.1 and I remember they had about the strongest signal of any Jax FM station receivable in Gainesville?

BTW...The Fort Myers station has a stronger signal in Southeast Florida than any other Southwest Florida FM station.<P ID="signature">______________
Proud 2 B a pioneering satellite radio subs¢riber
Ai4i is always on the trailing edge of technology
______________</P>

 

[bossmsx]

First off, "BM" stands for "Beautiful Music"...You should be versed enough in radio to know this.

> How did the Jacksonville station wind up on a noncomm
> frequency?
> When I attended UF back in the early-mid seventies, they
> were on 96.1 and I remember they had about the strongest
> signal of any Jax FM station receivable in Gainesville?

WKTZ/96.1 had been sold from Jones College to Beck-Ross, and they, in turn had sold it to a group called the Kravis Corp around 85, or 86, and they killed the, um, BM (Beautiful Music, Mr. 954) format in favor of one of those "Classy" AC formats and the WLCS calls (no relation to the "Classy" format on in West Palm, this one was probably of the same 'family' as KLZZ in San Diego and some others). Jones College still had their noncomm, WFAM, at 90.9, and saved the format there, taking the WKTZ calls, the PAMS jingles (just editing out the "96", I'm not kidding because when I was in Gainesville it seemed there were abrupt fades on the old jingles where they would appear to sing "96").

Sorry for OT'ing what was a North Florida subject, the topic arose here.

 

[954]

> First off, "BM" stands for "Beautiful Music"...You should be
> versed enough in radio to know this.

That was a pun that I thought would be obvious to
everyone. Sorry.

Is Bette Midler now considered Beautiful
Music? That's what they were playing.

I like some of her stuff, but that's still
evidence radio has gone to hell!

73s from 954<P ID="signature">______________
<center>South Florida Radio Pages</center></P>

 

[davideduardo]

> Is Bette Midler now considered Beautiful
> Music? That's what they were playing.

Bette Midler ballads were definitely part of Beautiful Music... as were many "more contemporary" soft ballads. "Wind Between my Wings" is as much a contemporary Beautiful Music ballad as "Last Farewell" is.
>
> I like some of her stuff, but that's still
> evidence radio has gone to hell!
>

The hundreds and hundreds of Bearutiful stations in the heyday were all playing her.. this is not a sign of any change. The only difference is that the format itself expired in most places.

Soft jazz was considered by many to be the replacement for the format, being more hip and modern. But Soft Jazz is now entering the same difficulties, with the average age moving into the mid 50-s and advertiser interest waning.

Formats evolve, like CHR which is always a 12-24 base, no matter how different th emusic, or they mature, like oldies, Beautiful, standards, etc. Those that mature with the listenrs eventually die when the listener base is too old for advertiser appeal.

 

[Ai4i]

The whole BM question is pressing outward from my lower digestive region!<P ID="signature">______________
Proud 2 B a pioneering satellite radio subs¢riber
Ai4i is always on the trailing edge of technology
______________</P>

 

[954]

> The whole BM question is pressing outward from my lower
> digestive region!

No Sh... ?<P ID="signature">______________
<center>South Florida Radio Pages</center></P>

 

[Groove1670]

Ah.. Those wonderful days of the Scully reels whizzing ever so slow. With the Carosels jamming up..okay who forgot to change the reel ? As I look up at the Dusty GE clock on the wall..and the yellow light on the rotary phone flashes on.
Those were the dayZZZZ... Beautiful music at stereo 92.5 relax..By the way is there a site with pictures of old studios,,,Thanks


P.S. Why did the AM disc jockey always ignore the beautiful music Fm, or worse didn't change the tape, but just rewound it....YOU KNOW WHO YOU WERE

> > The whole BM question is pressing outward from my lower
> > digestive region!
>
> No Sh... ?
>
<P ID="signature">______________
Singer Songwriter radio... musiconradio.com</P>

 

[bossmsx]

EZ vocals.

> > Is Bette Midler now considered Beautiful
> > Music? That's what they were playing.
>
> Bette Midler ballads were definitely part of Beautiful
> Music... as were many "more contemporary" soft ballads.
> "Wind Between my Wings" is as much a contemporary Beautiful
> Music ballad as "Last Farewell" is.

Not sure where to draw the line....Newer stations, like WCVU in Port Charlotte (the 104.9 one, or, WAVV/Marco, or the newer Doves, thinking the 103.5 version, or 92.1, NOT 105.5, since it's almost all vocal) would've played a Midler, but if you go more traditional, say, a WKTZ in the older days, or even WCVU (94.5 in the early 80s, of which I have airchecks), *any* vocal was crossing the line, and you would only typically hear, say, Humperdink or Diamond, or Streisand, in limited quantities per hour.....Most vocals then were say Ray Conniff/Hillside Singers "custom" covers of hits, and I'd probably say in that context (early 80s-70s) a song like "The Rose" would even be 'pushing the envelope'.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: EZ vocals.

> Not sure where to draw the line....Newer stations, like WCVU
> in Port Charlotte (the 104.9 one, or, WAVV/Marco, or the
> newer Doves, thinking the 103.5 version, or 92.1, NOT 105.5,
> since it's almost all vocal) would've played a Midler, but
> if you go more traditional, say, a WKTZ in the older days,
> or even WCVU (94.5 in the early 80s, of which I have
> airchecks), *any* vocal was crossing the line, and you would
> only typically hear, say, Humperdink or Diamond, or
> Streisand, in limited quantities per hour.....Most vocals
> then were say Ray Conniff/Hillside Singers "custom" covers
> of hits, and I'd probably say in that context (early
> 80s-70s) a song like "The Rose" would even be 'pushing the
> envelope'.

From the mid-70's through its death in aobut 1986-1987, beautiful did not play the kind of vocals you describe. The Conniff stuff was the essence of the earliest Beautiful stations in the 60-s, not the 70's. Shulke, Bonneville and near a dozen other syndicators dependend on things like The Rose or Wind Between My Wings and similarly styled songs. The diamond and Humperndinck stuff was, generally, to "styled" for the format... but you could easily hear Lionel Ritchie and things like that.

The normal thing was to have one vocal in the middle of each quarter hour, 4 per hour. A few stations played up to 6 vocals.

Sea Vue was syndicated, and I believe it was Shulke. It played 4 vocals an hour.

The custom music was not by Conniff or anyone well known. It was generally done in Europe, employing the orchestras and artists associated at the time with the BBC.
>

 

[bossmsx]

Sample from 1983

Following is a 45 minute sample from WVNJ-FM Newark, its' last day on the air, August 1, 1983..The following day it became New York's legendary WHTZ, Z-100.

As you will see, no evidence of what you said (Midler-esque ness, contemporary vocals from original artists, or the like):



Traffic-VERY loud cue tone-Liner.

*Instrumental cover of Olivia Newton-John's "If You Love Me". med-fast tempo.

*Vocal COVER of Kenny Rogers' "You Decorated My Life" When I had XM, I believe I saw this on "Sunny" 24 as the "Hillside Singers".

*Instrumental remake, title unknown but it's of a ballad hit from a song that I believe was recent at the time. OK, this one goes 'out there' by throwing in a 'wheez!' lazerlike effect in the song but otherwise it's traditional.

*Mull of Kintyre, instrumental.

"Stereo 100, Pleasure Radio, WVNJ-FM Newark" ID, and news.

*Instrumental remake of Patsy Cline's "You Belong To Me".....Again, a *REMAKE* for this classic, and INSTRUMENTAL, too...This one isn't even one I'd consider anywhere near 'loud' and they didn't bother with the original here.

*"The Shadow Of Your Smile", here again, another Instrumental remake.

*"Sunshine On My Shoulders"...John Denver cover...Vocal, but not the original....Male chorus in typical unobtrusive BM fashion of the time. Female backup/accompanying vocals, again, in style common from that era.

*"Wave".....instrumental remake of Jobim's song, well, vocals are very backgroundish and mere 'dew dew, ooh ooh, aah ahh, la la', and not the actual lyrics.....

*Instrumental of Nilsson's "Everybody's Talking".......another remake of a vocal where they removed the lyrics, save for some 'doo bah de bap baps' 'doo dawws' , 'baaaahs' here and there. Actually, they sing "Everybody's Talking At Me" once at the end, 'dee bap' their way out, and that's it.

"Pleasure Radio, Stereo 100 WVNJ-FM Newark" liner/ID, and stopset.


*"Up On The Roof", instrumental remake. Sounds more current than the original.

*Instrumental remake, title unknown.

*Johnny Mathis cover of Leo Sayre's "When I Need You"...At least it sounds like Mathis....After about 35 minutes, this is the most 'foreground' it's gotten, and will get, on this tape.

*Instrumental remake of the Association's "Cherish".

"W-V, Enjoy Liner", and Weather.

*Medium/Uptempo remake of Stardust, with lofty arrangements.

*can't get the last one because the tape ends, but it starts off with singing in typical choral BM fashion. So I'm probably good in saying that, again, it's a cover.

I see no evidence of what you are saying....Yes, the Bonneville format did employ vocals, its' instrumentals even were very much up tempo compared to other services....but Bonneville was more foreground than most....I remember WEAT-FM, "Easy 104" in West Palm Beach, towards the very end went as far as including Janet Jackson's "Come Back To Me" in its' playlist amidst its' instrumentals. So much so was their experimentation, that when they switched to Sunny 104.3 around early 92, I don't even remember them having "CBTM" in their rotation....Most of "Sunny's" original playlist was along the lines of Streisand's "We're Not Making Love Anymore", and a hotly rotated song that comes to mind that was most uptempo at the time was "How Long" by Ace....Times change, rotfl.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Sample from 1983

> Following is a 45 minute sample from WVNJ-FM Newark, its'
> last day on the air, August 1, 1983..The following day it
> became New York's legendary WHTZ, Z-100.

WVNJ was one of a very few stations that messed with the format, rather unsuccessfully. That, in part, is why it changed format.
>
> As you will see, no evidence of what you said (Midler-esque
> ness, contemporary vocals from original artists, or the
> like):

As I said, an exception. Any station on Shulke, FM100, Bonneville, TM, Churchill, RPM, Peters, BPI, KalaMusic, Musica en Flor and a few others had 4 vocals an hour as the basis for the fomrat. In those that were matched flow (all SRP and Churchill, one of the two Bonneville offerenings, etc) there was no way to remove the vocals.

> I see no evidence of what you are saying....Yes, the
> Bonneville format did employ vocals, its' instrumentals even
> were very much up tempo compared to other services....

No, that is not so etiher. Bonneville, Shulke and FM100 were very similar in tempo. Together, they made up about 90% of the usage in the top 50 or so markets. Very rare to see a TM or a Peters or BPI in a big market. In markets with over 3 stations in the format, it was usually Churchill who got the last one.

The very few home grown Beautiful formats were on Jerry Lee's station in Philly and the Art Kellar / EZ Communications stations. In both cases, they were members of at least one of the grops who produced the custom music the bigger syndicators used.