740 am???

does anybody know whats going on with 740am?

> does anybody know whats going on with 740am?
>
Why do you ask? They're Spanish--some local, some Radio Formula out of Mexico.

multiplex said:

> does anybody know whats going on with 740am?
>
Why do you ask? They're Spanish--some local, some Radio Formula out of Mexico.

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I remember when I first moved to Phoenix in the mid 1990’s, AM 740 KIDR-AM was a Radio AAHS affiliate, something I enjoyed since I was still a kid. Then around the year 2000, the station flipped to a Spanish language format. I kind of wish KIDR-AM would turn off at night so I can hear KCBS from San Francisco loud and clear. As it is, out here in Gilbert, I hear a jumbled mess of KCBS and KIDR fighting it out with KCBS occasionally rising to the top. If I drive about another 30 miles east, it’s all KCBS, all the time!

I can go back even further. In the 70s and 80s, 740 KMEO was a simulcast of 96.9 KMEO-FM, both playing Beautiful Music. The call letters stood for "Cameo," a woman's piece of jewelry.

Even though Phoenix is a large market where AM and FM stations could not full time simulcast, since AM 740 was a daytimer, the two stations were permitted to simulcast, as far as I know. Maybe the AM had to shadowcast some of the time, meaning it would run the same tapes as the FM with the same announcers, but not at the exact same time. In NYC, WPAT AM 930 would be prerecorded while WPAT-FM 93.1 was live. So if an announcer were going to do a public service announcement and a brief weather forecast in a given break, he'd prerecord it for the AM and do it live on the FM. It wouldn't be exactly the same, so the FCC rules were observed, even if that's not quite what the FCC intended.

Billboards for KMEO-AM-FM gave the FM dial position in large numbers, with AM 740 in small type. Even then, back in the 1980s, you could tell the AM was now the little sister to the FM station.

And since KMEO was a daytimer, KCBS would come in just fine at night.

That marginal facility sold for $1.85m in 2012. So yes, that's why there are three question marks after 740am. YIKES!!

KIDR doesn't have the Radio Fórmula programming—that's KNUV. KIDR is Catholic programming known as "En Familia Radio".

If you really want to go back a long time, I worked very briefly at KMEO 740 in 1969. It was in Christown Mall back then and they had a goofy program director named Joe Tyrell. Joe insisted that all the air talent use the first name of Joe and the last name of a bird. For example I was Joe Wren. I wanted to be Joe Vulture but they wouldn't allow that. Another guy who worked there had the real name of Joe Siegel and I thought he should be Joe Seagull but he didn't use that. Joe Light of KRIZ fame also worked there part time. The only other thing I remember about KMEO was that the roof leaked and they put buckets of water on the floor when it rained.

Don't think many will remember this, but there was a small period in the late 90s for 6 months (maybe 98) where they syndicated Beat Radio on 740 for 12 hours a day (5p-5a). It was a Dance pirate out of Indianapolis (I believe) and they were in court fighting to stay on air. The owners of 740am had 9 other affiliates around the country, and they were interested in the story, so they allowed him (Alan Freed) to be on their network until it sold. It was in the process of selling and they needed temporary programming to fill the time. It was a fun short lived era, I learned many great tunes even with the challenged AM signal overnight!

DJ_Perry said:

Don't think many will remember this, but there was a small period in the late 90s for 6 months (maybe 98) where they syndicated Beat Radio on 740 for 12 hours a day (5p-5a). It was a Dance pirate out of Indianapolis (I believe) and they were in court fighting to stay on air. The owners of 740am had 9 other affiliates around the country, and they were interested in the story, so they allowed him (Alan Freed) to be on their network until it sold. It was in the process of selling and they needed temporary programming to fill the time. It was a fun short lived era, I learned many great tunes even with the challenged AM signal overnight!

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I remember that. I was on KZZP and KMXP overnights and listened to it before shifts. Alan Freed was in Minneapolis when the whole Beat Radio thing started. I had just moved to Phoenix but knew people who listened to the original station.

And when KIDR flipped from RadioDisney to RadioUnica, I ran that automation system (DVS) and did the morning sho in Spanish with another lady (don’t recall her name) who was gracious enough to help me not sound overly idiotic in my gringo sounding Spanish.

DJ_Perry said:

Don't think many will remember this, but there was a small period in the late 90s for 6 months (maybe 98) where they syndicated Beat Radio on 740 for 12 hours a day (5p-5a). It was a Dance pirate out of Indianapolis (I believe) and they were in court fighting to stay on air. The owners of 740am had 9 other affiliates around the country, and they were interested in the story, so they allowed him (Alan Freed) to be on their network until it sold. It was in the process of selling and they needed temporary programming to fill the time. It was a fun short lived era, I learned many great tunes even with the challenged AM signal overnight!

Click to expand...

I was in Minneapolis in 98 when Alan Freed was doing Beat Radio on the AM dial. Great programming even if it was filler for Radio AAHS while they were in the process of bring sold. I think he still would have gotten away with broadcasting on the FM dial if it wasn't for a station in Mankato 75 miles away crying foul to the FCC over adjacent channel interference of a 10 watt station in downtown Minneapolis.