Thirty years along the KOST.

[RBRadioWaves]

Just bringing this up, on Thursday, November 15th, KOST will celebrate 30 years of playing AC music.

Just bringing up a few questions.

1) What was the first song on KOST on November 15th, 1982? I believe Bryan Simmons was the first DJ on the station.

2) Will they lure any of the old DJs back for Thursday? Not sure if Kim Amidon has a non-compete since she left 94.7 in June, and I doubt Mike and Bryan will show up due to their appearances on 94.7 The Wave.

3) Will they even celebrate the Occasion? It's not often that you can proudly declare that your station lasted 30 years under basically the same format.

 

[Bryan Simmons]

1) The first song played was "You Can Do Magic" by America.
2) No one has asked.
3) Unknown.

 

[RBRadioWaves]

1) The first song played was "You Can Do Magic" by America.
2) No one has asked.
3) Unknown.

Thank you very much! I love listening to your show on The Wave!

About Thursday: I have heard that KOST will begin playing Christmas music sometime that day. What I would like to hear is a retrospective on the 30 year history during the morning, and then a flip to Christmas music around noon.

 

[davideduardo]

3) Will they even celebrate the Occasion? It's not often that you can proudly declare that your station lasted 30 years under basically the same format.

Some of us think that stations that are more than 20 or so years old should not celebrate station birthdays because doing so gives the impression of oldness and not stability.

 

[Thomps2525]

KOST would never do this---gotta play only the songs that the consultants, focus groups, auditorium tests and call-out research dictate!---but I would love to have a true AC station, one that plays not only the softer hits of the 1990s and 2000s but also plays the long-ignored 1970s-80s artists (Manilow, Streisand, Humperdinck, Denver, Diamond, Lightfoot, Warwick, Kenny Rogers, Carpenters) and an occasional 1960s adult hit (Sinatra, Monro, Martino, Mathis, Petula Clark, Steve & Eydie, Tijuana Brass). Los Angeles needs a station that musically falls between adult standards and the soft-rock format that parades under the name of "adult contemporary."

 

[RBRadioWaves]

KOST would never do this---gotta play only the songs that the consultants, focus groups, auditorium tests and call-out research dictate!---but I would love to have a true AC station, one that plays not only the softer hits of the 1990s and 2000s but also plays the long-ignored 1970s-80s artists (Manilow, Streisand, Humperdinck, Denver, Diamond, Lightfoot, Warwick, Kenny Rogers, Carpenters) and an occasional 1960s adult hit (Sinatra, Monro, Martino, Mathis, Petula Clark, Steve & Eydie, Tijuana Brass). Los Angeles needs a station that musically falls between adult standards and the soft-rock format that parades under the name of "adult contemporary."

I would enjoy that type of format, also.

As of now, there is KTWV, which tends to be softer then the traditional AC, yet still modern. And, across the USA, Florida has WDUV and WFEZ, which are closer to the format you described.

 

[davideduardo]

KOST would never do this---gotta play only the songs that the consultants, focus groups, auditorium tests and call-out research dictate!

Frankly, it really gets tiring to hear people... particularly those with some knowledge of radio... dismissing the act of asking the listeners what they want to hear and giving it to them (aka "research").

And it's more astounding that anyone thinks that consultants select songs when in fact the consultants who have survived the recession are the first to make sure stations play what the listeners have indicated they want to hear.

but I would love to have a true AC station, one that plays not only the softer hits of the 1990s and 2000s but also plays the long-ignored 1970s-80s artists (Manilow, Streisand, Humperdinck, Denver, Diamond, Lightfoot, Warwick, Kenny Rogers, Carpenters) and an occasional 1960s adult hit (Sinatra, Monro, Martino, Mathis, Petula Clark, Steve & Eydie, Tijuana Brass).

Tampa had such a station, of sorts, in WDUV. It has, over about two decades, transitioned from easy listening to soft / traditional AC. Still, despite consistently being #1 in 12+ in a market which over indexes in retirees, it's around 15th in 25-54 ratings and about the same in market billings... and has had to move away from the more traditional material a bit more every year to stay even moderately viable.

The same concept was tried in Miami, but they quickly moved to a much more contemporary soft AC type format and left the traditional stuff behind; not only were the demos too old to sell but much of the older traditional AC stuff was unfamiliar or not popular among the Latin population of the market.

Los Angeles needs a station that musically falls between adult standards and the soft-rock format that parades under the name of "adult contemporary."

LA has a variant on that theme in KTWV... and that station is at the forefront of the ongoing format-flip rumors in the market.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

3) Will they even celebrate the Occasion? It's not often that you can proudly declare that your station lasted 30 years under basically the same format.

Some of us think that stations that are more than 20 or so years old should not celebrate station birthdays because doing so gives the impression of oldness and not stability.

How shameful that a station cannot celebrate the most important success of all - longevity - without some radio consultant coming along and telling them not to do it because the kids think its boring and old. Particularly for a station whose focus is on adults.

I am not saying David is wrong. He makes a great point in another post on this thread about how consultants stay employed, but that doesn't mean it isn't a black eye on the profession - it is.

 

[davideduardo]

How shameful that a station cannot celebrate the most important success of all - longevity - without some radio consultant coming along and telling them not to do it because the kids think its boring and old. Particularly for a station whose focus is on adults.

It's not the consultant(s) who think about that sort of thing... most out of market consultants are pretty oblivious to things like anniversaries.

The oldest continuous AC formatted station in LA is over 36 years "in format." What that means, for a station targeting 25-49 as that one does, that there are no listeners from 1975 who are anywhere near "in demo" today. So a "35th anniversary celebration" would give the idea to the younger in-demo listeners today that they had somehow mistakenly picked a station that was for older people. In an era where everything is disposable, and those 10-year-old iPods with tiny little hard drives in them are museum pieces, that's a dangerous image to project.

People like banks and exterminating services to have a history. They like entertainment options to be fresh and with the times.

I am not saying David is wrong. He makes a great point in another post on this thread about how consultants stay employed, but that doesn't mean it isn't a black eye on the profession - it is.

A station I put on the air, programmed, managed and later consulted in a top 15 market spent 22 years and about 75 consecutive books at #1. After the first 5 years, we quit numbering the anniversaries. we celebrated, to be sure, with big concerts. But we did not have a 6th anniversary or a 10th or a 17th. We just had an anniversary. We used the date (which conveniently always fell on a Saturday) to emphasize the station's debt to its audience and its willingness and desire to do what it took each year to deserve everyone's listening. But we didn't count the years.

 

[calguy]

Long before this post I felt that outside of the 30th anniversary concert with Lionel Richie that KOST did not long ago, CC would most likely play down any other anniversary events for the exact reason David mentioned. However, KOST has previously celebrated every large milestone anniversary, 15, 20 and 25 years. So it's not out of the question to expect a celebration. This a big one and sad that the party they have at Disneyland on the exact date of their 30th birthday will not be happening for this reason. Instead they'll call it their annual holiday party as they have for a fewl years now. I have a suspicion that the person downplaying this is that fella we all love to hate. You know, he who shall not be named, but comes from abroad.

Sadder still, with the exception of one, the people who were there at the beginning that are still local, won't be invited at all.

 

[Mark.Wallengren]

Hi All!

Never posted but felt compelled. KOST 103.5 in all my years has never been very good at self congratulatory celebrations. We get close to the occasion and whip something together and then it passes. Jhani Kaye himself never cared much for them. We did very little for our 10th and NOTHING for our 15th. He was gone for our 20th. Mike and Bryan, being there from the beginning, were always the calendar keepers. We were all grateful. Consistency has always been the mandate at the station (yes many things have changed but still has much of the same feel). Let one day blend into the next. Time stands still. Why draw attention? It happens, it's not a mandate from anyone.

I love the suggestion of consultants. Those days are long gone at CCLA. They cost money. We now have CC national programmers that replace paid consultants. Every CC station is in the same boat. They rely on local programmers to do their job and Stella Prado at KOST-FM is exceptional. She, at times, has her hands tied like every programmer at every major radio company in the country (national contesting and such). Yes we still research titles (like every company) and I, at times, have questions about methodology but we remain a top 5 station so what the hell do I know? Adding old school AC titles (Carpenters, Humperdink, Denver and Diamond) will never happen. They simply do not 'test' and I understand why. Where do you fit in a 25-54 female demo? KOST average age is in the lower to mid 40s. Those ladies were in high school in 1985! They don't want to hear them.

In 1991, after KOST 103.5 went #1, Cox Radio led by Bob Neil, reined in Jhani Kaye and his music picks and we began to see new music adds drop substantially. Within a few years we went from adding 2 to 5 records a week to one or two every six months. One year while we were broadcasting from Glendale I remember we only added 1 record!! When this happened to the format the record companies took notice and stopped developing AC artists. The 20 year long term effect has been a loss of an oldies library. In my opinion that's when the hole for Hot AC first opened (Star 98.7). I've remained at KOST because I believe in the format. Saying that I would like to see traditional AC evolve faster to remain relevant (imaging, music). In my opinion it's our Achilles Heel.

Meanwhile I love how Andrew Jeffries gets thrown under the bus here frequently. He definitely came in here like a bull in a china cabinet (people who hate change were especially put off) but his ability to understand and translate PPO has been invaluable and his success with MyFm has been a big market story. I enjoy working for him and have come to find him to be a very decent man warts and all....Be well my radio friends....

 

[Bryan Simmons]

Yeah, I guess I'm a little more sentimental being a history buff. But actually Mark, we did celebrate our 15th Anniversary in 1997. It was our 1st big party at Disneyland. Remember? Even Dick Clark was there. Congrats on your anniversary! I'll be there with you in spirit!

 

[Thomps2525]

Mark and Bryan, thank you for your responses. (Why does it sound odd that I'm addressing two guys named "Mark and Bryan"?) There are many of us longtime radio listeners who miss the days of 60-song playlists and 2000-song oldies libraries. I have several old KOST playlists. KOST, like almost every other AC station in the country, is very slow to add new music and often adds nothing at all. (But there were weeks during 1974-78 that KHJ added no new songs either.) I wonder if anyone---Saul Levine, maybe?---would ever attempt an AC station that's programmed like a Chuck-Blore-era top-40: a big playlist, four or five adds each week, only five oldies an hour, personality jocks in every daypart, and jingles. Have a heavy rotation so listeners become familiar with the top 30 AC hits the way we were familiar with all the songs on the KHJ Boss 30, the KFWB Fabulous Forty and the KRLA Tunedex. And play those 1980s songs that don't "test well." Play them because they were hits. Play them just because no other station is playing them. Play them for the "Wow" factor. And don't worry about a certain "demo." Go after the entire family---another Chuck Blore idea. KOST is almost always among the top five stations in Los Angeles so they're obviously doing things right. I don't expect KOST to make changes based on a few fans on a message board...but could I at least ask KOST to not play Wham's Last Christmas every 40 minutes like you've done the past eleven holiday seasons? Thank you.

 

[davideduardo]

... And don't worry about a certain "demo." Go after the entire family---another Chuck Blore idea. KOST is almost always among the top five stations in Los Angeles so they're obviously doing things right.

There's a real difference between the Chuck Blore era of the late 50's to early 60's and today.

In the "Days of Blore" the market was only part of LA County, not all of LA and all of Orange counties. Stations like KGFJ could develop significant ratings with 250 watts off a downtown roof. FMs were essentially invisible, and didn't affect the ratings at all. Ratings had no real proportionality, and tended to be much more limited in terms of the tables and breakouts that could be found in them.

So the market was made up of the AMs licensed in the LA basin. 570- 640- 710-790- 930- 980- 1070-1110 -1230- 1330 and 1540. 1150 was a sharetime oddity, while 870 and 1020 were daytimers, as was 740 (but the station with the mermaid logo got real ratings) and 1300 and 1430 were mostly Spanish.

That's 12 really viable stations and a population that was far less fragmented in musical tastes and where Your Hit Parade on TV presented covers (remember Snooky Lanson?) of the week's hits performed live! So LA had a couple of easy listening stations, a batch of what would, 15 years later, be called AC stations, an R&B station, a couple of true MOR / Full Service stations, and a variety of Top 40 stations.

In that arena, as in almost all US markets, Top 40 stations were very broad... from Perry Como and Dean Martin to Buddy Holly and The Shirelles.

As FM became viable, mostly due to the 1967 push by the FCC that forbid simulcasting, the number of usable, competitive signals increased from that 12 number to about 33. And that is where the fragmentation started, with broad audiences being split by competitors who came in and better served individual parts of the audience than the generalists could.

 

[Mark.Wallengren]

I do remember! Great night. I just don't remember a huge self congratulatory promotion that lasted for the year or other promotions centered around the anniversary. Do you? We never did anything like KRTH's hourly announcement about this being their 40th year.

 

[hotpatrick2004]

Mark i love it when you do santa!!! It is one of the funniest things on radio in any market!!! I bet that is why clear channel keeps ya lol just kidding you do great!!!

The ac in my hometown louisville wvez market number 54 baby plays hinder and nickelback etc... And there ratings have dropped over the years as a result. Kinda weird a station that use to play neil diamond now plays nickleback.

Happ Holidays ;D

 

[Bryan Simmons]

I do remember! Great night. I just don't remember a huge self congratulatory promotion that lasted for the year or other promotions centered around the anniversary. Do you? We never did anything like KRTH's hourly announcement about this being their 40th year.

True, the closest we came to that was the 25th anniversary. Even then, not for the whole year. We gave away those pins, and I thought there was a jingle, but that may have been the one JAM did for you and Kim.

 

[Thomps2525]

On April Fools Day in 1988 and 1989, KRLA brought back some of the former DJs from KFWB, KHJ and KRLA and re-created the legendary stations of 20, 25 and 30 years previous, with the original jingles and the songs from the appropriate year. It would be fun to hear KOST re-create its 1982 debut, using the first week's playlist and bringing back Mark and Kim, Ted Ziegenbusch, Bryan Simmons, Jan Marie and anyone else who was on KOST back then. "You may say I'm a dreamer..."

 

[calguy]

On April Fools Day in 1988 and 1989, KRLA brought back some of the former DJs from KFWB, KHJ and KRLA and re-created the legendary stations of 20, 25 and 30 years previous, with the original jingles and the songs from the appropriate year. It would be fun to hear KOST re-create its 1982 debut, using the first week's playlist and bringing back Mark and Kim, Ted Ziegenbusch, Bryan Simmons, Jan Marie and anyone else who was on KOST back then. "You may say I'm a dreamer..."

Nice thought, but it'll never happen. Radio is too corporate. Where these things do happen is on public stations. A friend told me about KDVS in Sacramento becoming KZAP for a weekend. They brought back the early jocks from it's 1st ten years as a mostly free-form progressive rock station. I remember once hearing an aircheck from I believe KMET becoming KFWB for a day. But that was in the 70's. Perhaps KRTH could revert to it's old call letters so to speak and become KHJ for a day?

 

[Thomps2525]

On November 11, 1972, KMET had an all-day special, "KFWB: The Glory Years," re-creating the 1958-62 years of KFWB with the original DJs , original music, and original jingles. They had Ted Quillen, Gary Owens, Joe Yocam, Elliot Field, B. Mitchel Reed (who was easy to get because he was a KMET DJ at the time), and Bill Ballance. Unfortunately they played all the 1972 commercials. It was a bit jarring to hear Elliot Field play a Connie Francis song and then joke about it with his sidekick "Tex"...and then hear an ad for Waterbed Warehouse! A year or so ago, KSWD ("The Sound") brought back some of the KMET DJs for a day.

Mister Calguy, you're right in saying that corporate radio will never go for the idea of a DJ reunion. I'm afraid that Spotify, Pandora, Internet radio, satellite radio and other sources of music are making the traditional "disc jockey" more and more irrelevant.

As for KRTH, the former KHJ-FM, I've often wished they'd get the original call letters back and be "One-Oh-One KHJ." They still use the same KHJ-style jingles and contests and promotions. I've also wished that KCBS-FM could get the call letters and be 93/KHJ on FM, playing the music of 1965-80 and trying to get Bobby Ocean, Humble Harve, Charlie Tuna and some of the other "boss jocks." What did I tell you?---I'm a dreamer!