The buffoonery at KABC continues

[Thomps2525]

So tell us what we all want to know: How much did you get for those salt and pepper shakers?

In 1988, WCVG, an AM station in Cincinnati, started an all-Elvis format. (That's Elvis Presley, not Elvis Costello or Elvis Duran.) It was so popular that another AM station, KVIX in Portland, adopted an all-Elvis format and changed call letters to KLVS. I don't think the format lasted more than a few months on either station. "Thank ya, thank ya very much."

 

[michael hagerty]

I
Does anyone here remember KADS? In 1966 Gordon McLendon bought KGLA-103.5 and installed an all-advertising format. Along with the paid advertising, listeners called in to talk about things they wanted to sell or buy. The format lasted only a few months before the station became adult contemporary KOST. I wonder how KABC would do with an all-ads format. And if Clara from North Hollywood is able to sell her refrigerator for $75, she'll tell all her friends to listen to KABC and the ratings will start climbing.

I do remember K-ADS and it was fascinating listening....for about 15 or 20 minutes. I was surprised that it lasted as long as it did.

I'm far too young to remember K-ADS (I was born in 1961) but just reading about it here, my reaction was "Could they have come up with anything dumber-sounding?" I've heard "Swap-n-Shop"-type shows driving around in rural areas which are entertaining to listen to ("Yeah, I got some Knott's Berry Farm salt and pepper shakers for sale and I would like to buy a 1976 Pacer"), and those run for a half hour or an hour, but a constant stream of that 24/7? ???

No wonder they became KOST.

Like any other radio, no one would be expected to listen 24/7. Just for a half-hour or so a day (they probably signed off between midnight and 5 or 6 AM).

And it helps to remember Los Angeles was a very different city in 1966....populated largely by people from the Midwest who'd lived through the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Thriftiness was a virtue, and while Dad was off at work, Mom was home for 8 hours a day, trying to be an efficient homemaker. Selling Tommy's outgrown bike or getting a gently used clothes dryer for $25 might be a good thing.

In other words, at the time, apart from people in the entertainment industry, Los Angelenos weren't that different from small town people. There were just more of them. And with 3.5 million in the usable signal, McLendon thought he might have something.

 

[DrAkbar]

I'm far too young to remember K-ADS (I was born in 1961) but just reading about it here, my reaction was "Could they have come up with anything dumber-sounding?" I've heard "Swap-n-Shop"-type shows driving around in rural areas which are entertaining to listen to ("Yeah, I got some Knott's Berry Farm salt and pepper shakers for sale and I would like to buy a 1976 Pacer"), and those run for a half hour or an hour, but a constant stream of that 24/7? ???

Nurse Jeff and I might be interested in that Pacer as our Gremlin is a little long of tooth

Back in the day there just weren't that many FM listeners in el Lay, and most of them had their dials welded to the elevator music stations. All Want Ads was a wild idea that sounded like it could stir things up on FM and cover operating expenses without ratings. He didn't have much to lose, so McLendon tried it and failed...but left his mark. He also brought all news to Chicago before WBBM made the switch. It might have worked there, but his high end directional Ancient Modulation station was no match to CBS' 50kw flame thrower at 7~Eighty.

The Old Scotsman was always an innovator. To think almost 50 years after K-Ad's, we're still talking about it is a tribute to Gordon McLendon.


Not sure what this has to do with KABC...but if you want to kick another former ABC O&O around, try KXYZ in Houston. YIKES!