So long Old School 1680 Monroe, LA

[Scholarm1111]

Another one of the few true urban oldies AMs has disappeared. KRJO-AM was in the format from at least January 2009. In mid-July, the station switched to right-wing talk. Old School 1680 was a bit quirky, it had a great classic soul playlist but would occasionally throw in a Carpenters or Doobie Brothers record. Gospel ran everyday from the morning shift to noon.

I will definitely miss the station but I do have lots of tape from the past 3 1/2 years for airchecks. Here is one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu773zwcVCw

 

[Scholarm1111]

5 years of Old School 1680 airchecks

November 8, 2008 (I believe soon after the shift from Gospel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ3djjrj4K0

January 5, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79bQT6D9-Kg

April 12, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te0ccfE_Xno

March 16, 2011 (Also Posted Above)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu773zwcVCw

July 10, 2012 (about a week before the flip to right-wing talk)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAgN2Ht_lag

At 1680 AM, KRJO-AM lit up the night in the South-central U.S. with great r an b oldies. I could sometimes pick it up when I lived in Corpus Christi, TX and I have heard from another fan who often listened from Memphis, TN. Now the station is just another signal with monotonous syndicated political chatter from the right side of the political spectrum.

 

[Scholarm1111]

And what is up with the Radio People out of Monroe, LA?

They appear to have sold Magic 97 which for years had one of the most unique gold-oriented Urban AC formats in the country(and no longer has a working stream under new ownership), and they have switched KRJO-AM to syndicated mainstream talk. The only urban still in they have retained is KRVV 100.1 The Beat, long one of the crunkest hip hop stations but less so in recent years.

 

[chriscollins]

Another one of the few true urban oldies AMs has disappeared. KRJO-AM was in the format from at least January 2009. In mid-July, the station switched to right-wing talk. Old School 1680 was a bit quirky, it had a great classic soul playlist but would occasionally throw in a Carpenters or Doobie Brothers record. Gospel ran everyday from the morning shift to noon.

I will definitely miss the station but I do have lots of tape from the past 3 1/2 years for airchecks. Here is one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu773zwcVCw

We tried to keep 1680 going. No one would advertise on that AM... Even though it had decent numbers. It had a great signal and we had tweaked the processing for it really nice. Even has a digital uncompressed STL to the TX site...

Economics is the reason... Not love for the format.

 

[chriscollins]

And what is up with the Radio People out of Monroe, LA?

They appear to have sold Magic 97 which for years had one of the most unique gold-oriented Urban AC formats in the country(and no longer has a working stream under new ownership), and they have switched KRJO-AM to syndicated mainstream talk. The only urban still in they have retained is KRVV 100.1 The Beat, long one of the crunkest hip hop stations but less so in recent years.

We acquired KNOE FM, a 100KW signal at 1500 feet. That would have put us over the market cap, so we let go of KJMG (6 KW from 20 miles away). It made the cluster better, as now all of our sticks are 100KW and 50KW. I programmed KJMG and really hated to see it go. I put years of work into developing that library and playlist. It still makes me sad to think about it. Getting that little station to #2 in this market was the greatest accomplishment in my radio career. It meant more to me than taking KRVV to #1 and getting rid of our competitor.

I will disagree that KRVV is 'less crunk'... It's really the quality of hip-hop is 'less' right now.