The RKO General story is one of those interesting corporate histories. The forced sale of RKO Broadcasting came as GenCorp sold General Tire to Continental. So by the end of the decade, the company was a shell with some real estate and rocketry assets. That's really what the company remains today, still doing about $600 million a year. Not bad for a shell of a company. But the heritage it lost was just incredible, and happened long before consolidation began in broadcasting. I look at those call letters, and think about all the history that took place at those radio stations. Then I remember RKO Pictures, that produced Citizen Kane. Then it was sold to Lucy & Desi's DesiLu. That building still sits on Melrose in Hollywood, and is now part of the Paramount lot. Memory Lane.
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The old KRTH
- Thread starter David Shapiro
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K.M. Richards
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But Scott, that's what you said ...
One minute you say one thing, then you say that of course that's wrong?
You're making me dizzy.
In a very complicated series of strike applications against RKO's Boston, LA and New York TV station license renewals, the separate issue of parent General Tire came up. General Tire had admitted to bribery and slush funds, particularly in Libya and Argentina, to further its tire operation. Combined with some lack of candor issues in the license renewals (which took the case to the Supremes), RKO "sold" at a giveway price its Boston TV while getting conditional renewals of the other two TV stations.
The FCC then made RKO agree to a prompt sale of the rest of the stations. Thus the Beasley purchase in LA.
KHJ became KRTH-AM "Smokin' Oldies" at midnight on February 1, 1986. So you caught the final month of "Car Radio". The songs were called "Car Tunes", they were recent hits (what we'd call recurrents...songs that had been hits within the past year), not oldies...and the format was traffic reports every 10 minutes...a traffic report, followed by two songs, a commercial break, a traffic report and so on, endlessly.
Needless to say, it didn't work. 0.7s and 0.8s.
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Thomps2525
Guest
This thread is "The Old KRTH." How about 73 years old? Due to the August 9 death of former KNX general manager George Nicholaw, the August 11 LARadio.com will be devoted exclusively to Nicholaw's illustrious 58-year career with CBS. The Rewind feature will not appear but, because of its historic significance, I'm posting it here:
LARadio Rewind: August 11, 1941. Cadillac dealer Don Lee, who had purchased KHJ in 1927, puts K45LA on the air at 44.5 MHz, broadcasting from studios on Melrose Avenue with a transmitter atop Mount Lee. The station became KHJ-FM in 1943, moved to 99.7 in 1945, then moved to 101.1 in 1948. The station simulcast KHJ's top-40 format from 1965 to 1967, then began airing the Drake-Chenault "Hit Parade" format. In 1971 KHJ-FM was top-40. In 1972 the station became KRTH, "K-Earth," and began playing oldies from 1955-63. KRTH now emphasizes 1970s-80s classic hits with a few from the late '60s and early '90s. The transmission tower is now atop Mount Wilson and is shared with KCAL-Channel 9. KRTH's airstaff includes Gary Bryan & Lisa Stanley, Jim Carson, Shotgun Tom Kelly, Christina Kelley, Dave Mason, Charlie Tuna, Sylvia Aimerito, Bruce Chandler, Dave Randall, Christian Wheel and Sky Walker.
LARadio Rewind: August 11, 1941. Cadillac dealer Don Lee, who had purchased KHJ in 1927, puts K45LA on the air at 44.5 MHz, broadcasting from studios on Melrose Avenue with a transmitter atop Mount Lee. The station became KHJ-FM in 1943, moved to 99.7 in 1945, then moved to 101.1 in 1948. The station simulcast KHJ's top-40 format from 1965 to 1967, then began airing the Drake-Chenault "Hit Parade" format. In 1971 KHJ-FM was top-40. In 1972 the station became KRTH, "K-Earth," and began playing oldies from 1955-63. KRTH now emphasizes 1970s-80s classic hits with a few from the late '60s and early '90s. The transmission tower is now atop Mount Wilson and is shared with KCAL-Channel 9. KRTH's airstaff includes Gary Bryan & Lisa Stanley, Jim Carson, Shotgun Tom Kelly, Christina Kelley, Dave Mason, Charlie Tuna, Sylvia Aimerito, Bruce Chandler, Dave Randall, Christian Wheel and Sky Walker.
I would only argue with one element of that history, Steve. KHJ-FM went from "Hitparade '70" to just plain "Hitparade" in '71, and then switched to "Solid Gold Rock and Roll", which was also a Drake-Chenault syndicated format (the main difference being that while "Hitparade" could be configured to be either 40% or 60% gold, "Solid Gold Rock and Roll" was 80% and could be 100%.
I don't recall KHJ-FM going Top 40 for any period of time in 1971, nor can I find any evidence of it.
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Thomps2525
Guest
As I often do with these Rewinds, I tried to keep that one brief so I omitted the reference to the "Gold" format. Somewhere in one of my many boxes of radio memorabilia I have a playlist from KHJ-FM, 1971. There were around 35 current songs and there were no chart positions; rather, they were listed by number of weeks on the playlist, with the oldest songs at the top. I'll try to find it.
That sounds like a list of recurrents, and we know that KRTH FM played "future gold" and recurrents at various times. The fact that the chart is by age and not rank supports that being a "recent gold" list. And, knowing how RKO protected the Top 40 stations, I really doubt they did a full fledged Top 40 against their own leader.
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Thomps2525
Guest
Oh boy, Michael! Oh boy, David! Oh boy, everybody else! I found the KHJ-FM playlist. It's from mid-December 1971 and has 30 songs, including Sweathog, Melanie, Badfinger, Dennis Coffey, N.F. Portyer (!), Donnie Elbert, John and Paul and George---but no Ringo---and the English Congregation. I posted it on page 16 of the KRTH thread at http://www.xmfan.com/viewtopic.php?t=120994&start=225
Being 55, I remember pretty much all of those forgettable titles. Would I want to hear them today? Not a chance. I very much would enjoy the KRTH of today much better.
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Thomps2525
Guest
In 1971 KHJ-FM was playing Don McLean's American Pie. I think KRTH still plays that one every few weeks. Oh, excuse me---I meant to say every few hours. Keep On Keeping On by N.F. Porter---he also recorded as Nolan Porter---was on KHJ-FM's playlist and reached #20 on the KHJ Thirty but stalled at #77 nationally. It would be fun to hear it again. That probably means going to Spotify. I'm fairly certain that no AM or FM station has played that song since December 1971.
Right. That was (as it says right on the playlist) from the "Solid Gold Rock And Roll" format. 80% gold, 20% currents. And that's the list of currents that made up the 20%.
Comparing it to the KHJ "Thirty" of that week, KHJ was playing album cuts KHJ didn't list (Cat Stevens' "Changes IV", Carole King's "Brighter", Paul & Linda McCartney's "Some People Never Know", Aretha Franklin's "Oh Me Oh My", George Harrison & Leon Russell's "Beware of Darkness" and George Harrison's "Awaiting On You All"), and five singles KHJ wasn't playing (Sweathog's "Hallelujah" and Sonny and Cher's "All I Ever Need Is You", both of which had already dropped off the Thirty, Three Dog Night's "Never Been To Spain", which KHJ would add two weeks later, Carole King's "Sweet Seasons", which KHJ wouldn't add until January, and J. Geils Band's "Looking For A Love", which KHJ never played). KHJ didn't list John & Yoko's "Happy Christmas", but they did play it.
KHJ was also playing songs KHJ-FM didn't (Bread's "Baby I'm A-Want You", Les Crane's "Desiderata", The Temptations "Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)", Rare Earth's "Hey Big Brother", Yes' "Your Move", Isaac Hayes' "Theme From Shaft", Lou Rawls' "A Natural Man", B.B. King's "Ain't Nobody Home", The New Seekers' "I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing", Chase's "So Many People", Michael Jackson's "Got To Be There", Joe Simon's "Drowning In The Sea Of Love", Robert John's "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", Apollo 100's "Joy" and Bullet's "White Lies-Blue Eyes").
On the 18 songs they shared in common, KHJ-FM was several weeks ahead of KHJ on some (4 weeks ahead on Three Dog Night's "Old Fashioned Love Song"), but never more than three weeks behind ("American Pie").
Still, that's 12 songs that they don't have in common (both stations have lists of 30, 33 if you count KHJ's Hitbounds). And if I remember the Drake-Chenault "Solid Gold" format clock, it was designed for 14 minutes of commercials an hour. That left 46 for music. Subtract jingles and IDs, you're at 45, average song length 3 minutes and you're playing 15 songs per hour. At 80% gold, they were only playing three of those currents per hour. So, not a Top 40, but an interesting hybrid of oldies, hit singles and a bit of album rock.
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Thomps2525
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Did the AM and FM have separate music directors in 1971? I'm surprised the two playlists are so disparate. (Not "desperate"---"disparate"!) The songs by Apollo 100, Lou Rawls, Michael Jackson, Bread and the New Seekers would not have sounded out of place among the 1950s-60s hits. I wonder why KHJ-FM didn't play them. I have some KHJ-FM airchecks from 1969, 1970 and 1972...but none from 1971. However, I now know that the FM never had a format that might have been known as "Boss 101." 
On another board, I asked David this question. I'm good at asking questions...but not always so good at answers. Anyway, many AC stations play only two or three currents an hour and the playlist is usually quite small, sometimes only 12-15 songs. Michael, are you surprised that KHJ-FM would play only three currents an hour and yet have a 30-song playlist?
On another board, I asked David this question. I'm good at asking questions...but not always so good at answers. Anyway, many AC stations play only two or three currents an hour and the playlist is usually quite small, sometimes only 12-15 songs. Michael, are you surprised that KHJ-FM would play only three currents an hour and yet have a 30-song playlist?
(Michael will know the answer) Wasn't the 1971 format a Drake Chennault production, as opposed to being done on Melrose?
That does not surprise me... they likely had several rotation categories so what you had was newer/ climbers, peakers and decliners in different rotations.
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Thomps2525
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"Newer/climbers, peakers and decliners." Gee, I think almost every one of us on RadioDiscussions could fit into one of those categories!
Did the AM and FM have separate music directors in 1971? I'm surprised the two playlists are so disparate. (Not "desperate"---"disparate"!) The songs by Apollo 100, Lou Rawls, Michael Jackson, Bread and the New Seekers would not have sounded out of place among the 1950s-60s hits. I wonder why KHJ-FM didn't play them. I have some KHJ-FM airchecks from 1969, 1970 and 1972...but none from 1971. However, I now know that the FM never had a format that might have been known as "Boss 101."
On another board, I asked David this question. I'm good at asking questions...but not always so good at answers. Anyway, many AC stations play only two or three currents an hour and the playlist is usually quite small, sometimes only 12-15 songs. Michael, are you surprised that KHJ-FM would play only three currents an hour and yet have a 30-song playlist?
KHJ and KHJ-FM had separate program directors (Ted Atkins on the AM and, in 1971, Dave Jeffries on the FM). Made sense, since the stations were five miles apart (KHJ on Melrose and KHJ-FM on Venice. While KHJ had a music director (Betty Brenneman until mid-1972, then Meredith Lifson), I don't believe KHJ-FM had one.
As to the size of the playlist, I went back and double-checked: Solid Gold Rock and Roll was 60% gold, 40% current, so it actually played six currents an hour, not three (my apologies for the error). The ratio would be roughly the same as today's AC playing three currents an hour from a list of 15 (but for different reasons...today's AC is playing songs it know its audience wants, whereas KHJ-FM was very broad).
I never saw KHJ-FM's automation, so I don't know how many reels they were running. If it was a three or four reel setup, then there'd probably only be one reel for currents, and those 30 songs would repeat every five hours or so. If they were running five, six or more reels (they were rare, but I've seen as many as eight), then they could break the currents up into two or three rotations, with the hotter songs repeating more often.
David: It's complicated. My understanding is that KHJ-FM ran the Drake-Chenault format and that the reels were produced up in Fresno (prior to D-C moving to Canoga Park), but that Dave Jeffries had control over the new music (with Drake's input). So, KHJ-FM was running a customized version of "Solid Gold Rock and Roll" (and before that, "Hitparade"), and not the same exact reels the syndicated customers got.
As I mentioned in the comment just before this one, rotations for currents would probably be dependent on the number of reels in KHJ-FM's automation system.
And it gets even more interesting...I just ran across an old article about "Solid Gold Rock and Roll" written in an NAB special section of Billboard about five months after Steve's playlist. This is how the format worked for syndicated customers buying it from American Independent Radio (Drake-Chenault):
Stations receive freshened library tapes (of oldies) every six months. Each week, stations receive two tapes (30 songs each) of current popular music.
I think that's an error in the original copy. We ran D-C's "Great American Country" on KUKI's FM sister in Ukiah, and those tapes rarely if ever had more than 15 songs on them. The author probably meant 30 songs total.
I also ran across an interview with Gene Chenault, who mentions in passing that KHJ-FM ran a four-reel automation system. So it could have been two gold reels and two current, or three golds and a current. I'd bet on the latter, just to keep from having strangely staggered reel changes.
Stations receive freshened library tapes (of oldies) every six months. Each week, stations receive two tapes (30 songs each) of current popular music.
I think that's an error in the original copy. We ran D-C's "Great American Country" on KUKI's FM sister in Ukiah, and those tapes rarely if ever had more than 15 songs on them. The author probably meant 30 songs total.
I also ran across an interview with Gene Chenault, who mentions in passing that KHJ-FM ran a four-reel automation system. So it could have been two gold reels and two current, or three golds and a current. I'd bet on the latter, just to keep from having strangely staggered reel changes.
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