Re: Seattle FM Dial - 1981...and the AM side of the story
Shark said:
Very cool, thanks for sharing this. What's interesting is that the list underscores the fact that AM was still king at the time, although KISW was in it's glory days around then even popping a #1 12+ book around '82. FOUR beautiful music stations??? KSEA, KBRD, KBIQ and KEZX which flipped to soft rock right around that time. Also several signals that were pretty much non-factors in the Seattle radio market back then (93.3, 106.9, 107.7) that are now major players.
KWWA at the time was also running B/EZ (they briefly switched to AOR in 1982, probably the most heavy metal of the Puget Sound AORs at the time, then automated CHR until the KHIT transformation.) Ironically, KWWA was running 30,000 watts at a pretty good HAAT, but you could barely get the signal in Lynnwood. It went Gold Mountain by the end of 1983.
KBIQ could have qualified as a B/EZ, but it was primarily religious. You just could not escape the overtones of The Maranatha Singers (they weren't exactly Ray Conniff.)
93.3 was KBLE-FM and at the time, a sort of white Southern Gospel format that really sucked. I remember hearing stories of the sort of, umm, tensions between staffers of it's now seperate AM religious station (KBLE-AM 1050) and it's very secular "New 93" former FM sister during 1981 (when they were still located in the same building at 114 Lakeside Ave.)
KRAB 107.7 was a 6am - Midnight operation which had the unusual habit of letting a volunteer run a show, then when that volunteer left (the mike was always left on, you could hear them packing up their stuff and leaving the studio or going into the studio and setting up. And you heard everything-expletives included.) then dead air until the next volunteer came in. But there's a big electric bill that comes with a 63,000 watt FM station - especially one that was perpetually bankrupt with strange Lorenzo Milam broadcasting philosophies. It's non-com status usually saved it but by this time, new rules that cut most of the Federal grants this station recieved were in effect and something had to give. So the station went off the air during the dead hours. Not that anybody was really listening......
KZOK at this time was heavy metal leaning AOR (not to the extent of KWWA), KISW was slightly more traditional, but it had already made it's mark as the market leader AOR. KZOK would later perform a disasterous experiment in 1985 called "Quality Rock", which eliminated all the heavy metal and focused on the softer end of AOR and well...beyond (James Taylor, Carly Simon -even Sade got airplay on KZOK circa 1985-86.) By the end of 1986, KZOK went classic rock and began to recover (it's intial TV ads didn't even mention the call letters, but asked listeners to "try 102.5 FM.")
KZOK had a billboard located near the KISW studios on Aurora that said "Quality Rock KZOK" and at the bottom it read "Not Too Hard, Not Too Soft." At the bottom of "Not Too Hard, Not Too Soft.", somebody spray painted "Not Too Good."
Rick Shannon and Craig McClure were the morning jocks at KZOK circa 1981, Connie Cole was there (having survived all the changes before defecting briefly to KISW in the early '90s, then back to KZOK.) Larry Sharp, Larry Snider and I can't remember who else....
KUOW and KPLU were still classical. KYYX was CHR (actually most of the music that was called CHR at the time would be Lite AC today. I guess it was the Top 40 delivery that gave it some legitimacy.) KPLZ was AC "The Music Magazine", KMPS was "Stereo Country 94" and began to shift away from it's "Outlaw Country" sound (KMPS never used the slogan "Outlaw Country", but it was a type of country-rock crossover sub-genre that specialized in stuff from Willie Nelson, Eagles, Waylon Jennings, The Charlie Daniels Band, Gram Parsons, etc.)
KRPM was there ("Tune your radio to 106 RPM"), not mentioned on this list was 90.1 KMIH and KZAM had gravitated towards an AOR/AC hybrid that might be called a AAA today. But removed most of the folk, jazz and classical cuts in the daily playlist that made KZAM an institution (male jocks were also added by this time) were deleted, KEZX would pick up the AAA format for the rest of the '80s until passing the torch to KMTT in 1991.
AM? It was going through menopause, FM having taken over the younger audience. KJR-AM had flipped to a full blown AC (of course like I said, most of the CHR music of 1981 was AC. The difference being the jock delivery.) Neil Diamond, Barbara Streisand, Little River Band and Air Supply were KJR-AM core artists. However, two elements of it's CHR heyday remained, Gary Lockwood and American Top 40 w/ Casey Kasem. AT40 remained weekly on the KJR format until 1986 and Gary Lockwood until 1991 before being dropped. He resurfaced at KZOK where he remained until 1994.
KSPL 1150 dropped it's nostalgia format for CHR from 1983-85.
KQIN (In 1986 on 820 and 50,000 watts) began a sort of "Quiet Storm" Urban AC format (a popular Urban sub-genre of the '80s, usually on FM) although they never referred themselves as "Quiet Storm" although the call letters were good enough for it (Hey, if KRWM could be translated as "Warm"...) Very albumy for a typical Quiet Storm station, it had a very unusual FM quality for an AM station at it's time.
Park Broadcasting owned KEZX-FM had bought the original KGNW-AM 1150 (which moved to KQIN's 820 frequency in December 1986) and intitally began a simulcast of KEZX-FM, later in daytime hours as "The Oasis", focusing on New Age cuts, which were all the rage amongst "professionals" of the time...
Northwest AM CHRs were disappearing through the '80s, CFUN 1410 Vancouver had flipped to AC in 1982, KKZU 1510 Mountlake Terrace went silent in 1985, KRKO 1380 Everett pulled the plug on live and local CHR for satellite-fed oldies in 1987, CKXY 1040 Vancouver in 1989 which went AOR, then Modern Rock in 1992 before going Nostalgia and later sports talk and CKLG 730, which held on clear until February 2001 and was still breaking in new hits until the end (It's last?: "I'm Like A Bird" Nelly Furtado, which didn't chart stateside until later that year.) AM began it's transition from radio force to radio graveyard though there were signs of life. KZAM-AM and KJET had brought Modern Rock to the masses via 1540 and 1590, respectively.
KZAM-AM had dropped it's "Rock of The '80s" format in March 1981, becoming jazz formatted KJZZ until 1985 when it became KLSY-AM and began an automated, slightly hotter musically secondary format of KLSY-FM for a year before becoming a full blown simulcast of KLSY-FM which lasted until 1992 when it had new owners (due to Sandusky's accquisition of KIXI, pre-1996) and became an affililiate of the upstart Country Gold network as KBLV. KJET held out until September 1988 before becoming oldies KQUL. 1590 began to rock again on February 2, 1990 as KZOK-AM "Z-Rock 1590" until October 1993 when it simulcasted KZOK-FM until being sold to Salem in 1995 when it became "Positive Country" KPOZ (Unbeknownst to them maybe, POZ was a gay term for being HIV/AIDS positive, which may have led them to their more correct KLFE name, despite their 0.0000 ratings...which they still have now...) At least KJET scored a 3.7 rating at it's peak in 1987. Normal for today, but PHENOMENAL for an AM rock station in 1987.
We also had KKFX ("K-Fox 1250") playing rhythmic CHR (though later going satellite R&B oldies in 1987 before dropping it in a year to return to it's live/local currents format.) KKFX lasted until March 1993. It was silent until May 16 of that year when it was reborn as KKDZ, "KidStar 1250" the flagship station of a locally based chidren's radio network that went under in 1997 and became an affiliate of Radio Disney, where it's been ever since.
Signs of life were also booming in nightly out of Portland via KFXX 1520 Portland (AOR) from 1989 until 1990, Calgary (CJAM/CKMX 1060) which was a CHR during the '80s that flipped to Alternative in 1992 before flipping to MOR in 1996 and KBBT Portland 970 (Alternative, '90s)
Various Canadian local AMs had current content in the new millennium, but no Northwest AM station featured current hits until 2007 (save KKDZ 1250, if you call anything by Hannah Montana "hits") until KWLE 1340 Anacortes two weeks ago. Hoping more AMs will take a hint and bring desperately needed LIFE back on AM radio.
