The numerous urbanite, Seattle tech-bros probably listen to them. The great unwashed in places like Lynnwood, Tacoma and SKC, probably not so much. But it doesn't matter.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Seattle-Tacoma Radio Ratings - Holiday 2022
- Thread starter pjc1961
- Start date
Thank you for that -- I got a nice chuckle reading your suggestion. Unfortunately, there probably aren't a lot of people in the Puget Sound area who remember "the FM KVI" any more, but I do still have fond memories of tuning by 101.5 in late 1976 and hearing Top 40 music there in place of the previous (easy listening?) format.
I was wondering about that -- I noticed on All Access that they've been rotating their biggest currents about 25 times a week, which doesn't seem at all Hot-ACish. And now that I look, I do see that their format is showing as AC instead of Hot AC, although it looks like they are trying to skew a bit younger than Warm.
and we launched KYYX less than a year later to compete head-to-head!
What is SKC?
South King County
Thank you! I had pretty much ruled out, "Southern Kentucky Colonel".
Kentucky Fried CountyThank you! I had pretty much ruled out, "Southern Kentucky Colonel".
I remember when they first came on; I was in 9th grade at the time and just a bit south of Tacoma. Somewhere, I still have a recording of "Day After Day" by Badfinger recorded off that station within a week or so of sign on. At the end of the song, I remember an automated station ID in the stiffest possible voice (I think it was O'Day, but I'm not sure) announcing "THIS IS KYYX SEATTLE" like he had a board up his rear-end.
A couple years later, I remember the era when they had the whispered station liners over the intro of the third song in each set of three, "Playing favorites, KYYX". Most of the time it worked pretty well, but occasionally the whispered liner would step on some vocals in the intro of that song.
From you comment, it sounds like you worked at KYYX for some period of time -- can you talk about when you were there, or share any interesting stories?
fmKVI was launched mostly as an Adult-Contemporary station, trying to fit between KVI am (full service/middle-of-road) and the concept of contemporary music moving to FM. KYYX launched as a straight-on Top-40, but without the "clutter" of what AM presentations had become. Some of the early imaging leaned on O'Day's connection to the ownership; but it moved mostly to Jim Bach doing ID's, segment intro's, etc. and sounded much more polished. "Forward Momentum" was probably the best way to describe the approach .. keep the energy flowing to the next segment.
Technically, the station was using some of the newer toys from IGM in Bellingham; which is probably why the "whisper liners" (those probably showed up around 1979-1980) would step on music. While it was a great time-saver for doing show tracks, I wasn't a fan of the automation because it was harder to connect with the music (you had to imagine everything -- not like today's toys). For the most part, the system worked very well -- biggest glitch I can recall was these "tank track" oval cart playback devices that we used to load cart's for Gold (loaded before each operator shift). Problem is when carts were upside down on the opposite side in the track from the playhead device, the carts would tend to shift such that they would be prone to jamming later during playback.
In all, the station didn't last THAT long in the Top-40 configuration and went New Wave in early 1980's. After that, sold to some investors who moved it to Madison Park (as A/C KKMI) and then that became KXRX later on. Much of the business side was O'Day doing a Donald Trump impression ... getting into hydroplane, limousine, etc. and his usual inclination to party. Not that alone killed the station, but he was also propping up KORL in Honolulu and when you're years ahead of a 12-step program your focus is not always on the best business decisions. In any case, with some concentrated focus I think it could have prevented KUBE from launching years later but that's not the way the story was written.
Great air staff, though ... featuring Bob Simon, Burl Barer, Emperor Smith, Robin Mitchell, Eric McKaig, Lan Roberts and others later like Sean Lynch. All, as old-school veterans, did surprisingly well with voice-tracking and putting together an entertaining show without (as mentimoned above) a real connection to the music.
Sorry to everyone else for the deviation from the ratings topic....
I remember touring KYYX in my late teens. I was more interested in engineering so I remember that automation system. It was interesting watching it run, If I remember right it was a Digital CPU S100 buss machine for the computer. Engineering was behind the automation. As you walked past the automaton (on the right) down the hall the studios were on the left. If I remember right there was a printer that printed a line every time a source switched. Monochrome monitor terminal. The carousel cart players. Didn't really pay attention to who I met. I was to mezmorized by that automation system.
Okay, but here's a spot trivia question: Who was the manufacturer of that automation?
Oh, and here's a bonus trivia question: At one time KYYX had a one-of-a-kind/prototype automated cart playing system for their automation. What was the manufacturer and model number?
I don’t know. We just called it the “damn cart machine”
Hint: It was a large floorstanding box with plexiglass sides. There were two cart machines in each corner of the box, with a robotic arm that would remove carts from the spinning storage drums, load the cart into a machine, then assign that machine to the next to be played.
You're right, it was an IGM 770. The cart playback robot was an ITC-1K. The robot with drums of carts fed, and unloaded twelve Series 99B decks.
Now days all this can basically be delivered by a computer or cell phone. But yes I remember working at an automated am in the 80’s where I had an fm slot but required to change the am tapes, which always seemed to need to changed at basically the same time. What a pain, and of course took my attention away from my fm show. Management either had no clue or didn’t care. And this was a top 15 market.
Welcome to the normal small market operation in the 80s! Where they somehow wanted you to be "live assist" on two stations at the same time LOL!
- Status