dgendvil said:
93.3 KBLE (country), now KUBE
95.7 KIXI (easy listening), now KJR-FM
96.5 KYYX (top-40), started by Pat O'Day in 1976? What was the station before that?
97.3 KNBQ (top-40?), now KBSG
101.5 KVI-FM (AC?), now KPLZ
103.7 or 103.9 KBRD-FM (easy listening?)
106.1 KXA-FM? (AC?), now KBKS
106.9 KBRO-FM (AC (until 1972), country (1972-79), then KWWA (1979-84), then KHIT, now KRWM
Give us your suggestions & let us know what you think.
I have comments to add on a handful of the stations that you listed...I've edited the list down to reflect only the ones I'll comment on.
93.3 KBLE was religious from at least the mid-seventies onward until it flipped to an adult-leaning Top 40 format early in 1981. After the flip, they ran automated for about six months until bringing in a DJ staff in the summer of 1981. By programming with a relatively low commercial load (8 minutes/hour), they were able to quickly become a major force in the market. But I know that, at least at the outset, they also played a lot of older music for a Top 40 station of the era -- I've still got a tape from late in the summer of 1981 where they segue from "Summer in the City" to "Love Hangover". I enjoyed the music, but it wasn't especially current, which probably reflected their adult lean combined with the weakness of Top 40 music in 1981.
95.7 KIXI evolved from easy listening to what we would call "adult contemporary" today. That probably happened sometime around 1978.
96.5 KYYX was KYAC-FM prior to 1976, as previously noted by another poster. It targeted the black audience in the Seattle/Tacoma area with what I vaguely remember seeing described as a "progressive soul music" format.
97.3 KNBQ was Top 40 during the latter part of the seventies, but started out as a soft adult contemporary format after flipping to those call letters (earlier in the seventies, it was KTNT-FM). It was automated, and very gradually evolved from soft adult contemporary in 1976 to what would now be considered Hot AC, then to adult Top 40, and finally to a full-blown Top 40 format in 1979. They were automated during much of this period, adding voice tracked DJs in 1978, and going with live DJs perhaps a year or two later.
101.5 KVI-FM was previously a country station (KETO-FM, I think), but switched to adult Top 40 (which they called "pop rock") in 1976 as "the FM KVI". A couple years later, they became KPLZ ("K-Plus 101") without actually changing formats. But they had also jumped hard onto the disco bandwagon, and when disco faded, so did KPLZ. Without changing either call letters or their on-air name, they dumped the disco in 1980 and became more of an adult contemporary station for several years.
103.7 or 103.9 KBRD-FM started out at 103.9 and switched to 103.7 (which allowed a big power and coverage boost) in 1981.
106.1 KXA-FM? (AC?), now KBKS -- I don't recall this station ever being KXA-FM. 106.1 was a Tacoma-based operation originally owned by a former Tacoma mayor, Clay Huntington -- hence, the call letters KLAY. Under his ownership, the station ran a rather eclectic and strange album rock format in the mid-to-late seventies. Very strange, because although they mostly played rock, I once heard them play the entire 15+ minute long album version of disco song. In 1979 or so, the station flipped to KRPM and became a "continuous country" station. Clay Huntington eventually moved the KLAY call letters to a Lakewood AM station.
106.9 KBRO-FM was the FM side of KBRO 1230 in Bremerton. During the time I was in the area (mid-seventies onward), it was always automated, badly run, with lots of dead air, and really poor, muffled audio -- regardless of the format. They started as country, then AC, and finally went to an automated Top 40 format. In all of the incarnations, I never heard a commercial on this station. But I do remember thinking that if someone boosted the power of the station, it could successfully serve the entire Puget Sound area. Being a high school student, I didn't exactly have the resources to follow through on that idea, but in 1984 someone who did have the resources came up with the same idea and implemented. And thus, KHTT was born as the fourth FM CHR in the market.
Anyway, that's some of my memories from the era.
