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An online return of the original KNX-FM!

C

ChannelFlipper

One of the greatest stations ever to have graced the LA airwaves is back online and available to listening at https://www.knxfm93.com/ . All the music is back along with the mellow KNX-FM LA sweepers.

If you have never heard it, it was quite the unique station - soft rock/pop hits, light jazz (examples: George Benson, Spyro Gyra), folk, and the 70's SoCal country/rock stuff (example: Poco). While none of these acts are unique in and of themselves, the musical presentation was - truly an "Adult Alternative" before the term was ever coined. All of the jocks were taped, but it was done with such skill that only a very close observer would be able to tell. No obnoxious Cal Stereo spots were allowed that would get in the way of the mellow groove. Also the musical director made sure that the key of the ending song matched the key of the beginning of the next one to get a seamless presentation. No focus group needed here!

I have been listening for 1/2 hour and it sounds really good. Most songs from the 1973-1983 window of the station, but at least one I identified that comes from after that period. No trips to the Odyssey file yet though!

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that although there is only one KNX-FM, SiriusXM's "The Bridge" (Channel 32) is obviously based on KNX-FM and is also, with just a few exceptions, beautifully stuck in time at 1970-83. Because it reminds me of the good times listening to KNX-FM back in the day, it does get a nice percentage of my listening time.
 
Just turned them on and heard a familiar song that I haven't heard since ..... 1980 ??? Toto's "99" Nice, got them on Tune In Radio; BTW I was living in New Jersey when they were on the first time, not the 2nd time in the early 90s? Thanks, ChannelFlipper
 
It sounds very nice. And erwin33's spot-on---the processing is stellar. They need to get it on an app to make mobile listening easy. I'd absolutely listen in the car.
 
SuperRadioFan said:
Don Barrett gave them a mention http://www.laradio.com/
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A fun story that I read on Don's site several years ago: Back in those days the station owners were back in New York and the boss in New York loved the beautiful music format, so he wanted KNX to be a competitor to KOST and KBIG, who were both beautiful music stations back then. Of course the station was mellow, but not beautiful music mellow. Since the boss was in New York and online streaming was still a few decades away, he had no chance to monitor the station from afar. But every now and then he would fly into town to check up on it. Station management had to micromanage his visit, accompany him all over town and give him no down time so that he didn't have time to actually listen to the station while he was here. So much effort expended so they could keep on playing Ricki Lee Jones! Hilarious!

Bonus Fun Fact: Although everyone referred to them as "mellow rock", the "in" term at the time, they never referred to themselves that way. Given what we know about marketing and calling your product by what the customer calls it, I always wonder if they would have been more successful if they had. But now that I think about it, they probably never used it because it would have tipped off the New York boss!
 
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michael hagerty said:
It sounds very nice. And erwin33's spot-on---the processing is stellar. They need to get it on an app to make mobile listening easy. I'd absolutely listen in the car.
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Turns out it is on the TuneIn App. Drove home listening to it last night. The guys behind this are Dale Berg, Pat Veling and James Cole. Cole's dad was Vice President of CBS' FM group and oversaw KNX-FM. It appears the story Don Barrett told that ChannelFlipper referenced about keeping New York in the dark regarding what KNX-FM was doing was apocryphal. Cole's dad got regular airchecks from KNX-FM, which is how James came to know and love the station.
 
michael hagerty said:
Turns out it is on the TuneIn App. Drove home listening to it last night. The guys behind this are Dale Berg, Pat Veling and James Cole. Cole's dad was Vice President of CBS' FM group and oversaw KNX-FM. It appears the story Don Barrett told that ChannelFlipper referenced about keeping New York in the dark regarding what KNX-FM was doing was apocryphal. Cole's dad got regular airchecks from KNX-FM, which is how James came to know and love the station.
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I always believed the story was a bit exaggerated, after all, as you point out, they did have aircheck tapes and a mail service both in wide use back then, but I am not going to let small things like facts and details get in the way of a good story!

I love the visual in my mind - driving him around town with him in the back of the car, incessantly chatting him up, car radio secretly tuned to KBIG to lead him astray! Changing the station in the offices when he walks in. It could easily have been a WKRP episode.
 
ChannelFlipper said:
I always believed the story was a bit exaggerated, after all, as you point out, they did have aircheck tapes and a mail service both in wide use back then, but I am not going to let small things like facts and details get in the way of a good story!

I love the visual in my mind - driving him around town with him in the back of the car, incessantly chatting him up, car radio secretly tuned to KBIG to lead him astray! Changing the station in the offices when he walks in. It could easily have been a WKRP episode.
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KNX-FM's Steve Marshall left the station to be a writer on WKRP In Cincinatti. It may very well be that the story originated with him. Cole says George Nicholaw (KNX and KNX-FM VP/GM) sent his dad KNX-FM airchecks every two weeks.
 
Tried listening this afternoon on my PC but the stream was constantly interrupted (buffering). I have very high service and don't suffer buffering on any other stream so I assume the problem was on their end. Nice try though.
 
landtuna said:
Tried listening this afternoon on my PC but the stream was constantly interrupted (buffering). I have very high service and don't suffer buffering on any other stream so I assume the problem was on their end. Nice try though.
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I've tuned in on three separate occasions with no problems, but all on my home PC which has blazin' fast internet speed. Might be different at work or if I was trying to use the app on a mobile device. As noted above, the sound quality and processing is very good, even to my untrained ears.
 
I am listening now at 1130 pm is coming in clear am hearing songs have not heard in a while I liked the mellow rock format Glad it is back Wish 100.3 The Sound would come back
 
Uh-oh, Trouble in Paradise. Looks like we have some sort of "What is the Real Online KNX-FM" rivalry between the folks originally involved in the station. This letter was on Don's www.laradio.com website yesterday:


“KNX/fm is back … sorta … me don’t think so … but almost! After 35 years of being begged to bring back KNX/fm, I started working six years ago on re-building two Mellow Sound stations … one the ‘Classic KNX/fm’ from ’73-’83 and the ‘Mellow Sound Now: ’73-present. They are now in their Beta testing stage and will be soon ready to fly. The original KNX/fm music library contained 1200 tunes … the two I have just compiled and completely re-mastered contain over 5200 cuts and that is just the beginning. I programmed the original station for 7 out of its 10 years on the air … and produced a good many of KNX/fm’s well-known jingles. I feel bad that an eager beaver would put all that work into his current project, however, I think Dale Berg might be better off hooking his wagon to our train.” – Michael Sheehy, Program Director, Music Director, KNX/fm


I am just a former listener glad to have some incarnation of the station back regardless of who produces, so I definitely take no side in this teapot tempest, but I would ask Mr. Sheehy "If you have been asked for thirty-five years and actively working on the project for the past six years, why are we just hearing about it now that a competing service is online? It sounds like you sat on it too long and someone else beat you to the punch."
 
Make from the current KNX FM 93 a new station, called it KMET because the music is almost as psychedelic as KMET was only KNX FM is a bit softer and the music is a little bit more soul oriented sometimes what I monitored when I listen the last days. But ok, let the guy who is already working on it then implement his plans if he says he has been working on this for years.
 
Currently our app is being created. Now you can download the 97 Lite FM app available on Google Play, BlackBerry World, and the app store for iTunes.
 
I'm very much enjoying this on-line version of Classic KNX-FM. Someone asked if NYC had a similar station. Yes and yes. 92.3 WKTU was the original Mellow Rock station. And later, when NBC's News & Information Service ended on all-news 97.1 WNWS, that station became Movin' Easy 97.1 WYNY. So for a year or two, we had competing Soft Rock stations. It is interesting to note that KTWV used many of these same songs as the vocals between jazz cuts on the original Wave. A few of these songs have survived to this day on KTWV's current playlist, such as "Sweet Baby" by Stanley Clarke & George Duke.

I have one quibble. The end cues are a bit too tight. One song hasn't faded much and the next song starts. Or a jingle begins. If a song ends with a mellow outcue, maybe a single piano note, we hear the next event very quickly. Again, I remember the cues being looser on WKTU and WYNY. Unless the producer thinks in today's world, we don't want a brief pause between events, even if that's the way Mellow Rock stations used to sound.
 
Gregg. said:
I'm very much enjoying this on-line version of Classic KNX-FM. Someone asked if NYC had a similar station. Yes and yes. 92.3 WKTU was the original Mellow Rock station. And later, when NBC's News & Information Service ended on all-news 97.1 WNWS, that station became Movin' Easy 97.1 WYNY. So for a year or two, we had competing Soft Rock stations. It is interesting to note that KTWV used many of these same songs as the vocals between jazz cuts on the original Wave. A few of these songs have survived to this day on KTWV's current playlist, such as "Sweet Baby" by Stanley Clarke & George Duke.
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WYNY off course, I found an aircheck from it on youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCnrd2dJbh4 Sounds very similar. From 92.3 KTU no aircheck found from their mellow rock format. Only disco.
 
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