Unscoped KLAY-FM 106.1 December 1977 Aircheck

[Bongwater]

KLAY FM 106.1 Tacoma Lakewood, WA December 1977, as an AOR curiously known then as "K-106", a name they would later revive in the early '90s during 106.1's longtime run as country station KRPM/KCIN.

And it's actually in stereo.

I found a motherlode. Hours of fun.

 

[boombox4]

I first heard Van Halen on that station. The Seattle rockers hadn't picked up on them yet. Too new a band. Album had been out maybe a couple weeks, if that. A lot of us South Enders listened to KLAY. A third alternative to KISW / KZOK.

 

[Bongwater]

And yet KISW got all the Van Halen love.

But this is like finding a unicorn. No publicly known audio record of KLAY-FM existed until now. And one could only ponder what else could be found out there. So bookmark this page and check it every now and then.

My only memories of KLAY-FM was it was a rimshot signal in Lynnwood. Like KNBQ, which I think was way softer than KLAY and fully automated-they didn't go full tilt into CHR until 1981, if I got the timeline right on all that. (It's all getting treacherously fuzzy these days.)

But the Seattle skyline hadn't developed yet. So the Tacoma FM signals came in reasonably well on Lynnwood hilltops with only slight distance hiss (weren't all the Tacoma stations on that tower on the Hill back then?)

And KLAY-FM was also the first rock station in Puget Sound to host a New Wave music program, I think it was in 1979. I first heard Squeeze on it. So you're right about KLAY-FM being more progressive musically than the Seattle stations were.

 

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

(weren't all the Tacoma stations on that tower on the Hill back then?)

I know KNBQ was right next to Hwy 16 @ about Union St. exit. Went out to tower site a few times with the engineer when they shut the station down for maintenance and I had a choice of either catching up on production or learning about doo-hickies.

 

[TexasTom]

My only memories of KLAY-FM was it was a rimshot signal in Lynnwood. Like KNBQ, which I think was way softer than KLAY and fully automated-they didn't go full tilt into CHR until 1981, if I got the timeline right on all that. (It's all getting treacherously fuzzy these days.)

KNBQ dropped the automation and went live a little sooner than that. Probably late 1979 or early 1980.

That would be the time frame in which the DJs started talking over the music and would actually name the songs that they were playing. When they were automated, they weren't able to do either of those things.