The early days of SF Top 40 hit radio

[davideduardo]

Re: The difference between CHR and okld time top 40 radio...

You don't have to go back to the 60's (I'm assuming thats the era you're referring to with the songs you quoted)....The Hot Hits format created by CBS consultant Mike Josephs was the purest form of top 40 that I've heard since the sixties...All but one of those Hot Hits stations were East of the Mississippi..The lone one being KITS in San Francisco.....CBS's other CHR, Hitradio tended to play everything as well.....

It's not too well known, but Michael Jospeph developed Hot Hits at WKAQ in Puerto Rico. He consulted the station, which morphed from AM to FM, from 1968 through the early 90's.

 

[Fastphilly]

Re: The difference between CHR and okld time top 40 radio...

You don't have to go back to the 60's (I'm assuming thats the era you're referring to with the songs you quoted)....The Hot Hits format created by CBS consultant Mike Josephs was the purest form of top 40 that I've heard since the sixties...All but one of those Hot Hits stations were East of the Mississippi..The lone one being KITS in San Francisco.....CBS's other CHR, Hitradio tended to play everything as well.....

It's not too well known, but Michael Jospeph developed Hot Hits at WKAQ in Puerto Rico. He consulted the station, which morphed from AM to FM, from 1968 through the early 90's.

WOW!! No kidding? I was a big Hot Hits fan in the early 80's on KITS....I'm 36 years old now....
I always though Hot Hits started on WTIC in Hartford in late 1977...

 

[davideduardo]

Re: The difference between CHR and okld time top 40 radio...

WOW!! No kidding? I was a big Hot Hits fan in the early 80's on KITS....I'm 36 years old now....
I always though Hot Hits started on WTIC in Hartford in late 1977...

It evolved in Puerto Rico. Mike did the first pure Top 40 on the Island in 1968, and as audiences moved to FM, he, apparantly, developed the Hot Hits idea to transition WKAQ AM 580's format to FM. Interestingly, for the decade that the format was on AM, they had a 3 hour news block from 6 to 9 AM every day.

I only met Mike once, at an R&R convention in LA where I was on one of these panels where four or five PDs try really really hard not to say anything useful for an hour. I noticed Mike in the audience, and after the panel, he walked up to me, said "I am glad I only had to compete with you in one market" and turned and left.

 

[Fastphilly]

Re: The difference between CHR and okld time top 40 radio...

WOW!! No kidding? I was a big Hot Hits fan in the early 80's on KITS....I'm 36 years old now....
I always though Hot Hits started on WTIC in Hartford in late 1977...

It evolved in Puerto Rico. Mike did the first pure Top 40 on the Island in 1968, and as audiences moved to FM, he, apparantly, developed the Hot Hits idea to transition WKAQ AM 580's format to FM. Interestingly, for the decade that the format was on AM, they had a 3 hour news block from 6 to 9 AM every day.

I only met Mike once, at an R&R convention in LA where I was on one of these panels where four or five PDs try really really hard not to say anything useful for an hour. I noticed Mike in the audience, and after the panel, he walked up to me, said "I am glad I only had to compete with you in one market" and turned and left.

His Hot Hits format tended to launch stations, but from what I can remember, after a year or so, many would dump the format due to repetition and no re-currents........Did WKAQ run the fusion jingle package?

 

[davideduardo]

Re: The difference between CHR and okld time top 40 radio...

His Hot Hits format tended to launch stations, but from what I can remember, after a year or so, many would dump the format due to repetition and no re-currents........Did WKAQ run the fusion jingle package?

I'm not familiar with the package names, but the KQ package sounded like the CBS hot hits package.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

WOW!! No kidding? I was a big Hot Hits fan in the early 80's on KITS....I'm 36 years old now....
I always though Hot Hits started on WTIC in Hartford in late 1977...

It evolved in Puerto Rico. Mike did the first pure Top 40 on the Island in 1968, and as audiences moved to FM, he, apparantly, developed the Hot Hits idea to transition WKAQ AM 580's format to FM. Interestingly, for the decade that the format was on AM, they had a 3 hour news block from 6 to 9 AM every day.

I only met Mike once, at an R&R convention in LA where I was on one of these panels where four or five PDs try really really hard not to say anything useful for an hour. I noticed Mike in the audience, and after the panel, he walked up to me, said "I am glad I only had to compete with you in one market" and turned and left.

...At which time this thread lost its relevance to the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

[LA_Guy]

I thought that Mike Josephs came up with 'hot Hits' while P.D. of WPJB-FM (JB-105) in Providence, RI. This would have been around 72-73.

THAT station was smokin'! It was even pulling numbers in Boston.

 

[davideduardo]

I thought that Mike Josephs came up with 'hot Hits' while P.D. of WPJB-FM (JB-105) in Providence, RI. This would have been around 72-73.

THAT station was smokin'! It was even pulling numbers in Boston.

It was actually developing a year or two before that in PR, where he had total freedom with the playlist and execution.

 

[Fastphilly]

WOW!! No kidding? I was a big Hot Hits fan in the early 80's on KITS....I'm 36 years old now....
I always though Hot Hits started on WTIC in Hartford in late 1977...

It evolved in Puerto Rico. Mike did the first pure Top 40 on the Island in 1968, and as audiences moved to FM, he, apparantly, developed the Hot Hits idea to transition WKAQ AM 580's format to FM. Interestingly, for the decade that the format was on AM, they had a 3 hour news block from 6 to 9 AM every day.

I only met Mike once, at an R&R convention in LA where I was on one of these panels where four or five PDs try really really hard not to say anything useful for an hour. I noticed Mike in the audience, and after the panel, he walked up to me, said "I am glad I only had to compete with you in one market" and turned and left.

...At which time this thread lost its relevance to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Since when is a Mike Joseph discussion not relevant in a San Francisco Bay Area discussion of Top 40 Radio? Hot Hits KITS was a Mike Josephs consulted Top 40 station.....IN SAN FRANCISCO..

So this post has relevance.. ;D

 

[davideduardo]

...At which time this thread lost its relevance to the San Francisco Bay Area.

That's sort of saying that Tom Rounds is not relevant to SF because he lives in LA.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

...At which time this thread lost its relevance to the San Francisco Bay Area.

That's sort of saying that Tom Rounds is not relevant to SF because he lives in LA.

No, no, no. That wasn't my point.

My point was that Mr. Eduardo begins to get into the minute detail of how a format was actually originated by someone in Barranquilla and the music was tested on chicken pluckers on a 12-acre farm three miles outside of town, and the jingles were recorded in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and the next station to pick up the format was WELZ in Pottawattamie, Iowa, where it exploded -- EXPLODED! -- dominating the 18-34 left-handed male demographic with a 14 share (within only six months!) and then got picked up in New London, Conn., and four other mid-minor markets. One of the stations, interestingly enough, located in Baraboo, Wis., actually ran Tradio during the 10 a.m. to noon slot and still managed to be the sixth-rated station in the market, while in Festering Sore, Tenn., it was on a 500-watt daytimer and rocketed to #2 in a four-station market...

Oh, and it eventually made it to San Francisco, where it received no ratings and was replaced by brokered kidney cleanser infomercials within a month.

THAT'S what I mean by losing relevance.

You want to talk about Tom Rounds in San Francisco? Great. But when you bring up fascinating tidbits like:

> Interestingly, for the decade that the format was (on WKAQ AM 580 in Puerto Rico), they had a 3 hour news block from 6 to 9 AM every day.

...it becomes glaringly apparent that you and I must have a different definition of the term "interestingly" as it applies to a San Francisco radio discussion.

 

[davideduardo]

You want to talk about Tom Rounds in San Francisco? Great. But when you bring up fascinating tidbits like:

> Interestingly, for the decade that the format was (on WKAQ AM 580 in Puerto Rico), they had a 3 hour news block from 6 to 9 AM every day.

...it becomes glaringly apparent that you and I must have a different definition of the term "interestingly" as it applies to a San Francisco radio discussion.

Well, Mike Joseph did KITS, and we are directly discussing the Hot Hits format execution. I think it is quite interesting that Joseph allowed or maybe even wanted a news block on a high energy CHR. I think a lot of CHR programmers and aficionados would wonder more than once upon knowing this. It's like Clifton playing Debbie Boone.

I suppose if the example were in Fresno, it would be relevant to you...

 

[doublecashkgb]

Very revealing. David E needs to feel important so when the topic of Mike Joseph came up he
brings up some obscure station in Puerto Rico which he is familiar with, then makes it appear
that Mike Joseph was worried about David challenging him. A few years ago David suggested
that the Drake format was actually invented in Puerto Rico & that he (David) invented more
music tactics before Drake.

 

[LKellerIII]

I was never good at Geography. Aren't Fresno and San Diego in Puerto Rico?

 

[davideduardo]

Very revealing. David E needs to feel important so when the topic of Mike Joseph came up he
brings up some obscure station in Puerto Rico which he is familiar with,

Puerto Rico is US market 13. A station that has been in the top 5 for the last 40 years is hardly obscure; WKAQ AM&FM were Mike's clients for about 25 years.

Not all radio innovations come from the US, you know.

then makes it appear
that Mike Joseph was worried about David challenging him.

He was; I beat him with four different stations I managed or programmed or both during the time he was with WKAQ, including in 1971 beating the AM for the first time in its 49 years of existence

A few years ago David suggested that the Drake format was actually invented in Puerto Rico & that he (David) invented more music tactics before Drake.

I stated that I was doing an approach in Ecuador in the 60's that predated or paralled Drake in that it had lower commercial load (10 minutes an hour), less DJ chatter,etc. than was common in that era. Obvously, nobody looked at Ecuador for format innovation, so what I did was obviously not noticed. I also had a very profitable FM in '67 when you coud barely give FMs away in the US.

 

[davideduardo]

I was never good at Geography. Aren't Fresno and San Diego in Puerto Rico?

No, San Diego is a smaller market than Puerto Rico, USA, and Fresno is infinitely smaller.

 

[doublecashkgb]

David: Reality check Ten years ago Puerto Rico was not an Arbitron market. It didn't count here.
I'm not discounting it's size, but it wasn't even ranked here in the U.S. until recently.

 

[davideduardo]

David: Reality check Ten years ago Puerto Rico was not an Arbitron market. It didn't count here.
I'm not discounting it's size, but it wasn't even ranked here in the U.S. until recently.

Over 30 years ago, SRDS, the buyers' source for market and rate information at the time, ranked Puerto Rico and its metro areas, included all stations in its listings, and the major stations had reps like Bernard Howard, Katz, etc.

Arbitron did not measure the market because Pulse did, and they did not think they coud make money. Once Pulse and the company that "bought" the Pulse methodology pretty much gave up, each in its time, Arbitron came in.

The CMSA, which is the whole Island, has always been the 13th or 14th market. Arbitron presence does not define a market, as those who preferred The Pulse or Hooper well into the 70's know.

 

[BossRadioDJ]

Over 30 years ago, SRDS, the buyers' source for market and rate information at the time, ranked Puerto Rico and its metro areas...

You understand that in trying to make your point regarding relevance, you are going even farther afield in your discussion of Puerto Rico, don't you?

At a certain point, the discussion stopped being about Mike Joseph and KITS and started being about your very impressive and all-encompassing knowledge of Puerto Rico as a radio market. (I am not disputing that you are the all-time champion of Puerto Rico Radio Knowledge Bowl. Kudos!)

It would not matter whether you were discussing Fresno (you aren't); you are not discussing San Francisco radio. Carrying on a long diatribe about Puerto Rico, and abstractly tying it to San Francisco, is not relevant here.

 

[davideduardo]

It would not matter whether you were discussing Fresno (you aren't); you are not discussing San Francisco radio. Carrying on a long diatribe about Puerto Rico, and abstractly tying it to San Francisco, is not relevant here.

In case you did not notice, I did not bring the market rank issue up. Take your complaints to the doublecaskkgb window, please, and stay in line.