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RARE KJET TV Commercial - 1982

Bongwater

Bongwater

http://www.youtube.com/v/oO6ywKTBJQU

A lot of people don't remember this one, but KJET made a TV commercial shortly after it's sign on (on Memorial Day 1982.) It was the only one they ever made. After MANY years of searching, I finally found it on YouTube!.....
 
Good find, BW. What's funny is that the commercial really does a poor job of showcasing what KJET sounded like. While I guess all of those songs were on their playlist, those were by far more mainstream than the typical Jet fare.
 
KJET appeared to be more mainstream in their early days, but they were probably playing these songs MONTHS before KUBE or KPLZ had them. As the decade went on, they definitely went more underground. Around 1987 I would have considered them a goth rock station. When I listened in 1986-88 they featured a lot of the great goth bands as well as jangly college rock. Not a day goes by when I don't long for KJET.
 
I was listening to KJET the very day they went on the air (Memorial Day 1982, I remember it well.) It was just after 1:00 in the morning and the Dr. Demento show was over on KZOK-FM and the female overnight jock mentioned "Now, you know our sister station over on AM, KZOK-AM? Well, it isn't KZOK-AM anymore...it's now 1600 KJET and it's playing something called "Modern Rock"...so you might wanna go over there and check that out...."

And boy I did! I zapped it to 1590 and they were playing "In The Name Of Love" Thompson Twins. Then "I Love Rock N' Roll" Joan Jett, "Radio Silence" Thomas Dolby and I drifted off to happy sleep.

The playlist was pretty short that first day. Wouldya believe "Jack And Diane" John Cougar (Mellencamp) and "Do You Believe In Love" Huey Lewis was also on that first day's playlist? I guess they were some crossover filler from the old KZOK-AM format...

"Only The Lonely" The Motels and "Tainted Love" Soft Cell were in heavy rotation that day. And this was at least a month before both songs appeared on the big FM CHRs of the time.

KJET was pretty much all new wave until about late 1983 when local and indie music started being added (probably to difference itself from KYYX) It's weird, but while KYYX could have slaughtered KJET EASILY, somehow KJET had a hard core audience that would NEVER listen to KYYX (and vice-versa), but most people enjoyed both.

After KYYX collapsed (they were gravitating back to CHR by 1984, playing Pat Benetar and other pop KJET would NEVER touch) KJET got even more experimental, playing REM and other "college rock" as it was at the time.

I think it was Marty Reimer who mentioned KJET was like "the bratty stepchild" of KZOK, the one who was always asking for money that KZOK really didn't want around, but tolerated anyway until 1988. By that time, alternative rock was just starting to emerge in force from the ashes of new wave. If KJET had stuck around a few more years, it could have been a force to be reckoned with....or at least until KNDD or something like it came on. The radio biz never took alternative music seriously until "Smells Like Teen Spirit" nuked everything off the radio.

But the internet is filled with fan tribute sites and tribute stations to KJET. Which as far as defunct radio stations go is pretty amazing for a station most people in the radio biz thought was worthless.......
 
BTW, I watched this commercial again and I can only just imagine it in real life....

(DREAM SEQUENCE BEGINS)

A stewardress walks into the cockpit and sees what's going on. She gets very nervous and radios Sea-Tac traffic control:

"Ummm.....Sea-Tac Tower? This is Flight 738. We seem be having unidentified aircraft up here....No, that's the problem....the pilots can't see anything through these giant sunglasses they're wearing and you're not going to believe this, but a giant Flying-V electric guitar just missed us and....oh my god.....now there's new wave album covers the size of city blocks flying past us. I need to know how you land this....NO!...YOU GOTTA HELP US! LOOK, WE'RE 10,000 FEET IN THE AIR AND WE JUST MISSED A COLLISION WITH A SYNTHESIZER THE SIZE OF A FERRY......NO! I HAVEN'T BEEN DRINKING!....IS ANY OF THIS SHOWING UP ON RADAR??!! One of the passengers just told me it looked like they were all coming from over on Bainbridge Island....YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOOK AT THAT.....I just told you the pilots can't see anything and they're not responding!....They're just gazing out the cockpit window with a thousand yard stare and not doing anything EVASIVE about this....NOW SHUT UP AND TELL ME HOW TO GET THIS THING DOWN.....LET'S SAY THE PASSENGERS KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON AND ALREADY ASSUMED CRASH POSITIONS, like I HAVE!!......."

(DREAM SEQUENCE ENDS)
 
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