The old KRTH

[Thomps2525]

How is it that I didn't discover this KRTH video three years ago? It's a brief 40th-anniversary compilation that was shown at a 2012 concert. There are some quick glimpses of Los Angeles traffic in the early '70s and a glimpse of the Johnny Mann Singers recording the jingles. Boss, man!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP6WhgSGLSE

 

[oldies76]

How is it that I didn't discover this KRTH video three years ago? It's a brief 40th-anniversary compilation that was shown at a 2012 concert. There are some quick glimpses of Los Angeles traffic in the early '70s and a glimpse of the Johnny Mann Singers recording the jingles. Boss, man!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP6WhgSGLSE

The early stuff is especially good, should have stayed that way.

 

[michael hagerty]

The early stuff is especially good, should have stayed that way.

If it had, there wouldn't have been a 40th anniversary to create the video for.

 

[Thomps2525]

...speaking of which, 2015 is the 80th anniversary year of both KABC and KFWB. (And no, I wasn't around back then!) Is either station---or both stations---planning any special commemorative programming?

 

[oldies76]

...speaking of which, 2015 is the 80th anniversary year of both KABC and KFWB. (And no, I wasn't around back then!) Is either station---or both stations---planning any special commemorative programming?

I wonder if KRTH will make it to their 80th, in 2052? By then "Happy" and "Uptown Funk" will have been phased out to aging demos!

 

[K.M. Richards]

The early stuff is especially good, should have stayed that way.

If it had, there wouldn't have been a 40th anniversary to create the video for.

What Michael said.

 

[Vinnie Daniels]

How would you feel if you drove into McDonalds, and they were selling sushi instead of hamburgers. It's just for a weekend! Would you stay in the drive thru?

This is a business. We make money delivering on expectation. Our customers expect us to do something very specific. You want us to diverge from that. It's not good for business to do that.

Hey Oldies 76, it sounds to me like TheBigA is jumpin the big shark on this one. Tell me something Big A ... how is what K-Earth did once a year on Labor Day weekend, "bad for business?" It's funny you would use this particular fast food chain in your analogy. The problem with radio nowadays is that you can listen to "McDonald's Music" anytime on any music station, 24/7/365. K-Earth did "Southern California's Number Ones of Rock & Roll" annually for a reason. They had enough die-hards that expected it plus new listeners that they were introducing to it. Apparently we do have differing views on what is a "special" and what creativity is. I don't know if you ever actually listened to the #1's as they rolled 'em out in chronological sequence from 1955-1985. What you heard were what the people of So. Cal were eating up (musically) and through their purchasing power, what they made #1 in record sales. Not only did you get an idea of L.A.'s taste in music compared to the rest of the country, but you also get to hear living history unfold. You started with the innocence of the mid-50's, building up to this anomaly called "Rock Around The Clock," then back to our parents and grandparents music, then to Rock & Roll coming more into its own. Then by the mid-60's you would hear our innocence start to go away with two back to back songs: "Like A Rolling Stone" and "Eve of Destruction." The Bob Dylan song was a national Number 2, but beat out "Help" by The Beatles to be #1 in So. Cal. No doubt that Californians compared to the rest of the country had better taste in music and knew what they wanted. It's a fantastic time machine-type story in song that is sadly missing ; and if you're too focused on the almighty dollar to appreciate a specialty show like this, then it sounds like you wouldn't know great art if it walked up and drew a picture for you.

 

[oldies76]

Yes Vinnie Daniels, that was one huge special that they did back then and one that should have never left the airwaves. Unfortunately, 1990 was the last year it aired on KRTH. But now with the shifting demos, why couldn't they revive a special that features music that relates to today's listeners of that station. The number ones of 1985-2015 over a holiday weekend, based on Southern California demographics and surveys. Why not? It would fit their ultimate goal of reaching out to the "new" 25-45 crowd. With songs like "Hey Ya" and "Forget You" and many 90's songs already in rotation, this shouldn't be rocket science. Radio does need a kick in the --- sometimes, to get things going again.

You never know what you're gonna get, unless it's tried. And in that show, hearing Bob Dylan taking out the Beatles in Southern California in 1965, or a song like "Night Theme" by Mark II reaching #1 in L.A., but only #75 nationally, made that special....even more special.

I totally agree with your assessment above.

 

[davideduardo]

It's a fantastic time machine-type story in song that is sadly missing ; and if you're too focused on the almighty dollar to appreciate a specialty show like this, then it sounds like you wouldn't know great art if it walked up and drew a picture for you.

But consider the changing demographics. LA had relatively small ethnic communities during the 1955-1970 period, while today LA is about 70% ethnic or first generation immigrant. The history of rock and roll is not relevant to most of the community and much of the music is unknown or disliked by a huge portion of it.

Doing a program with an "art for the sake of art" attitude will get very, very few listeners and do very great harm to your regular listener base. Regular listeners can easily think that their favorite station changed programming; they tune out and do not return... perhaps ever.

 

[oldies76]

The history of rock and roll is not relevant to most of the community and much of the music is unknown or disliked by a huge portion of it.

Well.....that's subject to debate, especially the second half of your statement, but I won't go down that road. Hispanics that have lived longer than 10-20 years in the LA basin, I believe have been exposed to more music than is realized. While they won't know many of the rarely played hits, they should be familiar with what oldies radio has thrown out since the then....but have now mostly forgotten since radio has stopped playing them. New arrivals probably know less of our musical history, but should know some basics.

 

[davideduardo]

Well.....that's subject to debate, especially the second half of your statement, but I won't go down that road. Hispanics that have lived longer than 10-20 years in the LA basin, I believe have been exposed to more music than is realized. While they won't know many of the rarely played hits, they should be familiar with what oldies radio has thrown out since the then....but have now mostly forgotten since radio has stopped playing them. New arrivals probably know less of our musical history, but should know some basics.

Hispanics who are first generation and who arrived in the US in their late teens or early adulthood already have their life-long musical taste formed. If, as a kid they hear and listened to regional Mexican music of some kind, that is what they will continue to like. And that is the case for most immigrants in LA who arrived in the period from the 50's to the 70's... a group that was almost entirely Mexican.

Remember, in Mexico pop music did not come to the radio until the early 60's in the largest cities, and it was mostly pop in Spanish when it did arrive. When I lived in Mexico City in around '63 only one pop station played some songs in English. In the smaller cities there was no play of English pop and little play of Spanish pop comparatively. In rural areas there was an almost total absence of pop music, even in Spanish. Since most immigrants in that period came from rural areas ("rancherías") and small towns, they came with no exposure to US pop and would not acquire any interest in it ever.

Thinking that Hispanics born in Mexico "learned to like" 50's and 60's rock and roll and pop is just contrary to reality; they liked Javier Solís, not Janis Joplin.

 

[Vinnie Daniels]

Consider the changing demographics. LA had relatively small ethnic communities during the 1955-1970 period, while today LA is about 70% ethnic or first generation immigrant. The history of rock and roll is not relevant to most of the community

David, your argument to my original post can be defeated with two words; and this man still has the hottest nighttime request show in nationwide syndication and plays to demographics both old and young .....

..... Art Laboe

 

[davideduardo]

David, your argument to my original post can be defeated with two words; and this man still has the hottest nighttime request show in nationwide syndication and plays to demographics both old and young ... Art Laboe]

Art Laboe is only in syndication in a couple of Califas and peripheral markets, and his demos are not what they were a decade ago. There are about 8 stations taking his weeknight show, and a couple more taking the Sunday show. There is no weeknight station in LA, either, although he is on limited-signal KDAY on Sunday evening for a few hours.

The largest market Art is in for the weekday show is Phoenix, where in 25-54 he is rated between 20th and 25th, and in 18-49 between 22nd and 26th. In 18-34 he ranks 25th to 31st. In the Inland Empire, he can go from 9th in one month to 27th the next; the show bounces all over the place.

The music on his show appeals to later-generation Hispanics, not first generation which has no familiarity at all with the the songs he plays. In fact, much of the music he plays was not hit music in Mexico and Latin America.

 

[michael hagerty]

Here's your demographic reality check:

https://newimages.bwwstatic.com/upload11/1387395/files/aarp.jpeg

For those of you who won't click on links, it's the cover of this month's AARP Magazine---featuring Cyndi Lauper.

When "Remembering the 80s" is the cover blurb on AARP Magazine, it's time to be doing exactly what KRTH is doing.

 

[davideduardo]

When "Remembering the 80s" is the cover blurb on AARP Magazine, it's time to be doing exactly what KRTH is doing.

Excellent observation. When my copy arrived (hey, gotta love the discounts) I did not do the "what does this mean for radio" translation. I'm glad you did.

 

[CTListener]

Here's your demographic reality check:

https://newimages.bwwstatic.com/upload11/1387395/files/aarp.jpeg

For those of you who won't click on links, it's the cover of this month's AARP Magazine---featuring Cyndi Lauper.

When "Remembering the 80s" is the cover blurb on AARP Magazine, it's time to be doing exactly what KRTH is doing.

Fair point, although Lauper was already in her 30s when she had her first hit, old enough to be some of her younger fans' mother. She is five years older than Madonna, six years older than Sheena Easton, 14 years older than Lisa Lisa (Lisa Velez). So it's not like all the stars of the '80s are logical AARP Mag cover choices -- yet. Kind of like Petula Clark, who is now in her 80s and was considerably older than most of the other stars of the "British Invasion" when she hit big in the US with "Downtown."

 

[TheBigA]

Fair point, although Lauper was already in her 30s when she had her first hit, old enough to be some of her younger fans' mother.

Good point, however, that's not necessarily how magazine covers are chosen. Cyndi is promoting a new album, and her publicist got the placement. The magazine isn't appealing to advertisers, but members.

 

[michael hagerty]

Fair point, although Lauper was already in her 30s when she had her first hit, old enough to be some of her younger fans' mother. She is five years older than Madonna, six years older than Sheena Easton, 14 years older than Lisa Lisa (Lisa Velez). So it's not like all the stars of the '80s are logical AARP Mag cover choices -- yet.

It's not about Cyndi's age, it's about the age of the AARP Magazine reader. Unless you're really bored in a waiting room, you don't pick one of these up until you're (at least) 50....four years before the end of the sales demo.

I have vivid memories of Cyndi breaking with "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". I was living with a girl who had graduated from San Diego State nine months earlier. She just turned 55 a couple of months ago.

AARP is dead on with this one.

 

[Vinnie Daniels]

The music on his show appeals to later-generation Hispanics, not first generation which has no familiarity at all with the the songs he plays. In fact, much of the music he plays was not hit music in Mexico and Latin America.

All this bloviating on the board reminds me of one of the reasons why music radio is so dead today.

You can take all your "studies" and all your 8-second per song focus groups, not to mention all the sassy speculation and get it as far away from me as possible.

You want a real litmus test? Do what I did on the 4th of July. I was on a crowded San Diego beach from early morning until it started to get dark. The night before, to my amazement, I was in Target and found an AM/FM, C.D. and Cassette player. Cassettes! Can you believe it? So I went into my storage unit and dug out my case of K-Earth's Number One's of Rock & Roll ... recorded off the air back in 1989 and during the final year they did it, in 1990 on chrome cassettes., complete with all the jingles and air personalities of the day. I cranked it up and played them in random order. I started in the early to mid 70's and worked my way back to the fifties. One woman in her mid-20's came up and said, "Love this music" and sat the whole day enjoying it with me. A quick glance around the beach saw people either singing or bopping along to songs that have such an eternal value, that they were familiar to people that your so-called research says shouldn't even know this music.

These are all 90-minute cassettes and at one point, it came to an end and I had to switch to the next cassette. The girl next to me said, "you mean these are tapes? This whole time I thought this was on the radio right now." I said, "well, it was, 26 years ago. Unfortunately, you won't hear this kind of thing anymore." She said, "That's awful. This is so good and everyone seems to be enjoying it. Why not?" Sensing that she wasn't a radio person, I answered the best way I knew how. "Because at around the time they stopped doing this, radio stations started to be taken over by people in suits that thought they knew what you liked to listen to, more than you did." She said, "I can't believe you sat for hours over two Labor Day weekends and recorded all this. You must have known something was gonna happen." I said, "honestly, no. They had been doing it as a tradition for about 12 or 13 years and I knew that eventually it would end. I just wanted to grab it while I could." There was a big party of people behind us. One guy said, "I'm glad you did. We're having fun listening."

 

[semoochie]

Here's your demographic reality check:

https://newimages.bwwstatic.com/upload11/1387395/files/aarp.jpeg

For those of you who won't click on links, it's the cover of this month's AARP Magazine---featuring Cyndi Lauper.

When "Remembering the 80s" is the cover blurb on AARP Magazine, it's time to be doing exactly what KRTH is doing.

AARP's covers regularly feature people who just turned 50. I remember Valerie Bertinelli making the cover and let me tell you, THAT was a reality check!