> > I fondly remember enjoying WKAT as a Big Band and
> occasional
> > classic radio show broadcaster quite a few years ago. I
> was
> > curious as to when they went to this format (from their
> talk
> > format I presume)and when they dumped the format.
>
> I believe it was 1981, from the Miami Beach studios on Bay
> Rd....They dumped the format roughly around Fall of 87 or
> early 88 after they'd moved to North Miami, in favor of a
> VERY short lived Oldies format, with Roby Yonge (of WQAM
> fame) in mornings, Lisa Ford (a carryover from the Nostalgia
> format) in middays, and Jim Kelly in the afternoons...Nights
> were syndicated Wolfman Jack, and overnights were Larry
> King....Ken Held's "Doo Wop Shop" ran on the weekends...I
> worked at KAT in '94 briefly and they told me it was a last
> attempt at something cohesive before going brokered ethnic.
> It did not work with Majic already having a strong hold in
> the format. Within mere months they had no other choice but
> to flip yet again, to brokered ethnic, mostly Colombian
> "Radio Klaridad", and Haitian programs...The interesting
> thing is the Top Of Hour ID (with the classic 60s KHJ/Los
> Angeles brass) from the short lived Oldies format) survived
> all the years the brokered format did, until 96 or 97 that
> the station went all Spanish, then Classical, and now Talk
> again.
>
> When I worked there in Summer '94, nights were variety
> Haitian Creole, weekends Creole, Hebrew, Peppy Fields on
> Sunday night), and the Archdiocese of Miami did not yet own
> WACC/830, so they split Radio Peace programming from 6a-7p
> weekdays, several hours were in Spanish live, some English
> live, and one in Creole that used to come on a reel. There
> was also a brief Buddy Clarke commentary in English at
> 6:57pm on movies. Kinda was an anomaly but like Peppy they
> were the two things on the station that were not brokered
> and gave WKAT that 'legacy' sound.
>
> In 94 when I was there also, alot of the carts from the
> Nostalgia format still survived, also, in the KAT production
> studio, dust gathered on them...Arnie Premer, GM and owner
> Howard's dad didn't want to get rid of them and there was a
> sign on them saying not to touch or remove them...A few of
> the Oldies carts were still in the on air studio to be used
> as fill but never were.
>
Boss, thank you for chiming in on this one, I figured you definitely would have some insight as I've seen from your other posts that you had worked there and certainly have an eye for detail and history. You brought a name back into my consciousness that I had long forgotten---Peppi Fields!
I loved the Big Band sound, even though I am nowhere near old enough to have heard it when it was actually in its heyday many, many decades ago. Is there anyone on the Dade dial playing Big Band at this point?
