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Does anybody remember KNAI 99.7 FM
- Thread starter recto101
- Start date
recto101 said:
KNAI ("News and Information") ran NBC's attempt at an all-news network. Unfortunately for forward-looking KNBR, the Bay Area was not ready for news on an FM station. The News & Information Network product was very good, I thought, though they loaded the newscasts with so many sounders it began to get dizzying. I think the network failed because it just couldn't get clearance in enough cities.
Interesting thing at that time, KNBR/KNAI was feeding the western leg of the NBC network from an automation system that handled both the NIN and NBC networks and their west coast fills. I think it was a Schafer 800 or 902 or something. This was very late in NBC's ownership. In a previous era not only would union regulations have required an engineer to be doing it manually, but they'd have required both an engineer for switching and one for running tapes. My how times changed so dramatically from the 60s to the 70s. So, two union jobs replaced by one machine -- and NBC still couldn't make an all-news network go.
Now it works for KCBS on the FM dail
DavidKaye said:
The 70s was too early for news on FM. Chicago tried the same thing with WNIS. It didn't work then.
DavidKaye said:
Was KNAI supposed have this slogan "you give 22 minutes and we give you the world" type operation like they were supposed to be more like WINS and KFWB. but in San Francisco KCBS did better in the ratings and KGO beat KNAI. does anybody have an aircheck on KNAI.
I don't recall that KNAI used the "22 minutes..." slogan. I do recall that KNAI advertised all over the Bay Area, in keeping with the times.. especially on billboards in the City, East Bay, and on the Peninsula. It's interesting to me that current stations do little if no "outdoor" advertising, even though Clear Channel and CBS own all the billboards.
"FM 100," is what they called it, as I remember. It didn't last long, and KYUU replaced it pretty quickly in the Late 70s, initially with very soft-rock...lighter than KOIT, if anything, then morphing gradually into "Hit Music."
"FM 100," is what they called it, as I remember. It didn't last long, and KYUU replaced it pretty quickly in the Late 70s, initially with very soft-rock...lighter than KOIT, if anything, then morphing gradually into "Hit Music."
I have a couple of the KNAI fixed-tuned portable radios around somewhere. They're red, white, & blue and have the NBC blue & red "N" on them.
DavidKaye said:
Except you'd think that would be less of a problem now, what with Clear Channel stations advertising on Clear Channel billboards. Ditto CBS. Granted, they lose income when they advertise one of their stations because they can't rent those billboards out to other clients. But still - with that "synergy" there, you'd think there would be more radio advertising in years past, rather than less.
Lkeller said:
The accounting is separate, so the the station is charged on their books as if they were buying advertising from an outside vendor. This is the only real way to evaluate the effectiveness of the advertising. It does nobody any favors when one division advertises in another division's medium and that medium isn't a good fit. The advertiser loses the promotional punch they wanted and the medium loses outside income.
boiseengineer said:
I remember that logo. I think I even remember an FM station in (maybe?) Alexandria, MN, picking up that NBC Information service format, and thinking it seemed strange at the time. Now, thirty years later, news, talk and sports seem to be migrating to FM. It must really have been an idea far ahead of its time.
Madmansam said:
KQV in Pittsburgh, PA, switched from Top 40 to NIS with the 1975 sign-on (ABC sold off the station to Taft Broadcasting earlier in the year). After it failed, KQV took over the all-news blocks with their own production. Maintain them from 6am-7pm EST every day.
Another non-NBC O&O NIS affiliate was WIYY-FM/Baltimore (FM sister to Hearst's WBAL-AM). After it failed, WIYY went with AOR rock as "98 Rock," a format they've kept to this day.
Aside from those two, the only other stations I know that carried it were four of the five the NBC-owned FM stations (KNAI/SF, WNIS/Chicago- became today's [late] WKQX, WNWS/NY- later became WYNY) and WRC-AM/Washington (WRC-FM took for two weeks WRC's Top 40 format in a supposed 'transition' to the FM dial, then abruptly switched to disco as "Kiss FM" WKYS- the station is now Radio One's co-flagship with a mainstream R&B format).
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