When KKAJ hit the airwaves in Ardmore, it wasn't a country station. It was adult contemporary. Similar to the times, many of the songs played in a typical hour were oldies or recurrents (even top 40s were 40-60% currents at that time).
KKAJ's presentation was non-personality. Announcers spoke every two songs to back announce and here or there, a bit more. When I could listen during the day, the announcers sounded pretty good. The night jock sounded like he got his first gig and never heard of Elkins Institute or Columbia School of Broadcasting.
The station billed itself as "The new music concept". With 60 seconds of UPI News from the network on the hour, you had the weather forecast on the half hour with the outcue of the temperature "in the best (select season, winter summer, spring or fall) of all". The station jingled back in to music always, whether there were spots or not.
As my job had me working days, I cannot say if KKAJ dayparted their music, but by the spring of 1976, it was almost entirely currents in the evening. When they started it was not dayparted. 10pm sounded like 10am. By my calculation, recurrents were placed just before the half hour and top of the hour but depending on song lengths, number of spots and the like, that mostly was one reccurrent an hour. The DJ option to use an instrumental to hit UPI news frequently ate the second recurrent.
Looking over a very faded sheet of paper in an old notebook, I realize I do not recognize many of the songs played. Among these: Best Friends, Rick Cuna; New Orleans, The Staple Singers; Moonlighting, Leo Sayer; Oh Boy, Bo Donaldson; Memories Don't Leave, Tom Jones; Diamond Eyes, Rick Derringer. In the 95 minute written documentation there was Woman Tonight, America; Golden Years, David Bowie; Take It To The Limit, Eagles; Come On Over, Olivia Newton John; Fooled Around & Fell In Love, Elvin Bishop; Deep Purple, Donnie & Marie; December 1963 (Oh What A Night), 4 Seasons. The recurrents were Lying Eyes, Eagles and Stand By Me by John Lennon.
The commercial load was light but then again we are talking about 9:25 to 11pm. Between 9:30 and 10pm there were two single spot breaks: 1 with a 60 and 1 with a 30 sec. spot. In the 10pm hour, there was a 30 second promo in the first break, a 30 second in the second break and at 10:22pm, a 60 and 30. The last break was at 10:45 with a 60 and a 30, meaning there was no spot at the 10:37 and 10:53 breaks (most songs were around 3 to 3.5 minutes then).
KKAJ seemed to be successful but switched to country and never looked back. I figured, even back then when my radio career was my 100 mw. station in the garage, KKAJ was up against heritage stations with decades long relationships with clients. I imagined they had to almost give away spots to get new believers in this new and unproven radio station. Ardmore was much smaller then and KKAJ was the one willing to challenge the longtime AM/FM that had been the only stations in town. My thought was they felt the easier path to dollars was with country not some 'new music concept' that might have had more appeal to suburbanites in Dallas or Oklahoma City. Even so, even if bonused, having some commercials at night in a small town was something significant. In my radio experience, you bonus after 6pm to get that 6am to 6pm rate a bit higher.
That page notes: KKAJ, Ardmore, Oklahoma, Spring 1976 just before Easter.
KKAJ's presentation was non-personality. Announcers spoke every two songs to back announce and here or there, a bit more. When I could listen during the day, the announcers sounded pretty good. The night jock sounded like he got his first gig and never heard of Elkins Institute or Columbia School of Broadcasting.
The station billed itself as "The new music concept". With 60 seconds of UPI News from the network on the hour, you had the weather forecast on the half hour with the outcue of the temperature "in the best (select season, winter summer, spring or fall) of all". The station jingled back in to music always, whether there were spots or not.
As my job had me working days, I cannot say if KKAJ dayparted their music, but by the spring of 1976, it was almost entirely currents in the evening. When they started it was not dayparted. 10pm sounded like 10am. By my calculation, recurrents were placed just before the half hour and top of the hour but depending on song lengths, number of spots and the like, that mostly was one reccurrent an hour. The DJ option to use an instrumental to hit UPI news frequently ate the second recurrent.
Looking over a very faded sheet of paper in an old notebook, I realize I do not recognize many of the songs played. Among these: Best Friends, Rick Cuna; New Orleans, The Staple Singers; Moonlighting, Leo Sayer; Oh Boy, Bo Donaldson; Memories Don't Leave, Tom Jones; Diamond Eyes, Rick Derringer. In the 95 minute written documentation there was Woman Tonight, America; Golden Years, David Bowie; Take It To The Limit, Eagles; Come On Over, Olivia Newton John; Fooled Around & Fell In Love, Elvin Bishop; Deep Purple, Donnie & Marie; December 1963 (Oh What A Night), 4 Seasons. The recurrents were Lying Eyes, Eagles and Stand By Me by John Lennon.
The commercial load was light but then again we are talking about 9:25 to 11pm. Between 9:30 and 10pm there were two single spot breaks: 1 with a 60 and 1 with a 30 sec. spot. In the 10pm hour, there was a 30 second promo in the first break, a 30 second in the second break and at 10:22pm, a 60 and 30. The last break was at 10:45 with a 60 and a 30, meaning there was no spot at the 10:37 and 10:53 breaks (most songs were around 3 to 3.5 minutes then).
KKAJ seemed to be successful but switched to country and never looked back. I figured, even back then when my radio career was my 100 mw. station in the garage, KKAJ was up against heritage stations with decades long relationships with clients. I imagined they had to almost give away spots to get new believers in this new and unproven radio station. Ardmore was much smaller then and KKAJ was the one willing to challenge the longtime AM/FM that had been the only stations in town. My thought was they felt the easier path to dollars was with country not some 'new music concept' that might have had more appeal to suburbanites in Dallas or Oklahoma City. Even so, even if bonused, having some commercials at night in a small town was something significant. In my radio experience, you bonus after 6pm to get that 6am to 6pm rate a bit higher.
That page notes: KKAJ, Ardmore, Oklahoma, Spring 1976 just before Easter.