LARadioRewind said:
Yes, that was when management thought that KHJ would become L.A.'s top station once again. They re-created the old 1965 promos (originally voiced by Robert W. Morgan) declaring that "other stations may try to copy us, and we invite them to try. For examples of pre-Boss programming, turn to..." and then the other local top-40 stations were named. Not a promo I would have used!
Mister rageradio, Rick Scarry was working at KMET in 1986, the year it became KTWV. In 1987-88, he was programming KMPC-101.9 FM (the former KUTE), which had an AOR format and some of the former KMET DJs. Too many people associated the station with KMPC-AM---sometimes recording artists would go to the wrong KMPC for interviews---so they changed call letters to KEDG, "The Edge." Ratings didn't improve. In 1989 Scarry remained after KEDG became adult-contemporary KLIT, "K-Lite." (It's now regional Mexican KSCA.) (Somewhere in there I trust I answered your question.)
Minor point of contention, but KMPC-FM/KEDG was not AOR, at least as it is defined in my mind, in which KLOS is the standard-bearer and has been for decades, playing nothing but stale classic rock with few if any current adds. KMPC-FM/KEDG was more of a modern rock station, as it was commonly defined in 1988-1989, the difference being that although they played many of the traditional AOR artists like Springsteen and Neil Young, they also played 80's and 90's New Wave/Modern Rock that until then only had a home on stations like KROQ and 91-X, such as XTC, Elvis Costello, Love and Rockets, and Fine Young Cannibals. New adds during their short run included artists like Cowboy Junkies, Midge Ure, Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians,and perhaps most famously, The Call's "Let the Day Begin", which Jim Ladd played both as a new add to the station and simultaneously as it's last song before sign-off.
They were the link between the old classic AOR, New Wave Modern Rock and what would later become AAA. I like to believe the various AAA stations that have come afterwards such as KSCA, 103.1 World Class Rock, and even the current version of KCSN have just a small bit of KEDG DNA in them.
As for KLIT, I liked its version of soft rock much more than KOST's, because they played a much wider variety and, to my way of thinking, the DJs actually sounded like they were talking to you, and not reading off the same liner cards where virtually every syllable is researched and perfected in advance and the presentation is flawlessly executed (read: sterile and monotonously consistent). You could tell the station didn't have very much financial support (Gene Autry was already trying to sell at that point) and there was no way it would win a war against KOST and KBIG, which did have the necessary financial backing and were both more professionally programmed for the format.
I do remember Rick Scarry being there and he always seemed out of place to me because he was on the rockin' station of my youth, KMET, so to hear him on an adult soft rock station was a bit awkward. But I always thought, "a pro has to do what he has to do, and he is certainly not the first guy to be on air in a format that is probably not of his choosing".
