A saipan based station KYOI Shortwave that claimed a Los Angeles location

Debut:

Full time operation began on December 17, 1982. In the weeks prior, the station had been heard intermittently during testing. With the slogan 'Super Rock' it was an instant hit in the intended target area of Japan, but also unexpectedly with listeners worldwide. The initial schedule was:
KYOI - Transmission Schedule
2200 - 0300 UTC on 15405kHz
0300 - 1000 UTC on 15190kHz
1000 - 1600 UTC on 11900kHz
1600 - 1900 UTC on 9665kHz
1900 - 2200 UTC on 9670kHz
Subsequently 1600 to 2200 UTC consolidated on 9670kHz. This schedule remained unchanged for just over four years. The only interruption to the continuous flow of music occurred on the first Tuesday of the month from 0200 - 0600 UTC when the station would close for maintenance, if required.

Format:

The programme consisted of continuous top 40 / rock music controlled primarily by a computer audio sequencing system, with automated song title and station ID announcements inserted as required.
The programming was produced by Drake - Chenault in Canoga Park, California. I suspect this is how the slogan 'Now Music from L.A.' wound up being used on KYOI. Hank Landsburg from Drake-Chenault tells me that they did nothing special as far as the production values used in making tapes for KYOI. Marcom were merely another customer, who had chosen the 'no-announce' and mono programme options for their contract. Presumably Marcom was adding the English and Japanese voice announcements independently, probably using studio facilities provided by KHVH in Hawaii.

The equipment used to present the programmes was industry standard 1/4" tape. There is a lot of detail on how the automation system worked on the Drake - Chenault website.

I did notice a few times at which something would go wrong with the flow of music, but it is a tribute to how well the automation system was designed however, that such failures were rare. The most likely time that the sequencing would be noticeably wrong was immediately after KYOI returned to air after a maintenance break. I suspect that this 'mis-sequencing' were caused by the technicians at Saipan unceremoniously stopping the automation system mid-song, instead of closing it down properly and resetting the tape positions prior to restarting.

The Drake - Chenault system was the state-of-the-art in taped music presentation in this era. The audio transitions from track to track were very smooth and well structured. On air, it sounded so natural that the audience were unaware of the fact that they were listening to a computer sequencing system.

'Seiko' had the distinction of being the first commercial advertiser on the station, sponsoring the automated time announcements at the top of each hour.

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multiplex said:

I remember KYOI quite well and really enjoyed it. At that time there was also a shortwave station in Utah (Super Power KUSW) with live jocks. (Trinity Broadcasting bought it around 1984.)
Incidentally, not as unique as KYOI with a Los Angeles address: WRUL broadcast for years as as being from New York City, although their transmitter was in Scituate, Massachusetts.
Around 1968 or so Bonneville bought it and the calls changed to WNYW (Radio New York Worldwide.) In the mid-70s Family Radio bought it and moved the transmitter site to Florida, although their mailing address was in Oakland, California.

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