Favourite 3 Stations of All Time

[crs]

In order:

1) The Big 89 WLS. John "Records" Landecker and his Boogie-check was the stuff of legends.

2) 14-CFUN into the early 80s. Jim Hault and his cast of voices on the Morning Show, Chuck McCoy and his Love Lines late at night. Great news voices like David Palmer. Annis Stukus with the sports! Good times.

3) LG73. I was usually glued here after school for Racoon Carney and his "Racoon Tune of the Week". Then in the evening, listening to Terry Reid and Jay McPhail. I especially loved their shift changeover banter...they'd come on at 5 to 9 and have each other in stitches.

These three stations were a big reason behind my decision to get into radio rather than accounting. Hmmm, could've been a really rich man by now...but wud've missed out on some fun times.

[skyvalleyradio]

My favourite three stations were the ones that made me want to get into radio. In order:

1. LG-FM (CKLG-FM 99.3) - one of the original "Groove n Blue" fans, major influences on my decision to try getting into broadcasting were Bill Reiter especially the late John Runge whose musical vision was beyond belief. I was delighted to hear one-time AM boss jocks Tim (Pam) Burge, TDM, John Tanner plus the eclectic & complex Bob Ness entertain me during my formulative teen years.My ears were glued to 99.3 until I left to pursue my own broadcast career in the early 70's

2. KJR - when I first got a decent DX rig and long-wire antenna in the mid-60's I discovered the wacky world of one of the greatest of all time: the late Lan Roberts and of course, the "deejay's deejay" Pat O'Day who'se still got 'his pipes' voicing those Schick Center ads in NW Wash. "Channel 95" had a more progressive and broader playlist than C-FUN or the ever-tightening Drake approach at 73CKLG "Boss Radio". I listened to KOL "Lucky 13" a lot too but KOL had a tighter list than KJR and it was usually "Channel 95" that broke new ground for regional and local groups.

3. KYAC AM 1460 FM 96.5 Seattle - aside from being amongst my best memories in radio, KYAC was the "Soul Of The City" skewing towards Seattle-Tacoma's growing working-class population of African-Americans in the late 60's and 1970's. It's Top 50 R&B format (the "Rhythm 55" survey) was sprinkled with some jazz, blues and southern gospel music too! KYAC's biggest hindrance was its worse-than-shit signal based out of nearby Kirkland where it was licensed to. KYAC was, in reality a 'Sea-Tac' station with a crappy 5000 watt signal. As soon as it got remotely close to sunset, an AM station on 1460 from Yakima would start blasting through KYAC's signal. Even worse, KYAC had to sign off every day at local sunset which meant going off air at 4:15 in the winter and 9:30pm summer. This always prevented KYAC from playing with the big boys like KJR, KOL, KTAC, KRKO but did get respectable ratings and garnered enough ads to keep functioning. The purchase of a high powered FM signal in the early 70's was a huge boost. The 60 kW FM simulcast the AM to sunset with its "Rhythm 55" soul format and then switched to jazz evenings and overnight. KYAC could now be heard from Portland to Vancouver BC on 96.5 FM. (now KJAQ - Jack FM) Some awesome music by familiar soul/R&B/blues artists got played on KYAC but were never heard on any regional Top 40 stations. It had a very respectable jazz LP library too! According to most KYAC alumni, sadly, there is very little memorabilia existing today from this 12 year run as Seattle's Afro-American voice.

[hagopian]

Addenda:

Lan Roberts.

The most amazing of ALL.

One heck of a nice man, too. A genius and truly head and shoulders above the crowd at anything he did. This gentleman inspired three generations of jocks and broke new ground that should be kept weed free.

Ask Pat O'Day.

[skyvalleyradio]

Lan Roberts?? weed free??? I think NOT hagopian!

[hagopian]

LOL.

Touche amigo.

You just made my day. I am sure Lan is laughing too.

Thanks!

[Mike Cleaver]

Can anyone remember the name of the KJR jock who went to KNBR in San Francisco in the early '60's?
His name has totally disappeared from my memory, even though I talked with him several times when he was at KJR and he gave me a tour of the KNBR studios in the summer of '64.
That's when KNBR was rocking and became part of the sound track of my summer on the road from Vancouver to San Diego and all points in between.
It was a traditional old NBC radio station, with a huge studio and several control rooms.
The studio was used for storage, piled high with boxes of brand new RCA cart machines.
The jock told me that when a machine broke down, the engineers just installed a new one and sent the old one back to RCA!

[jon]

The late Mike Phillips.

I'm lucky enough to have a KNBR QSL card that actually states I was listening to Mike's show just after 8 p.m. on March 14, 1965.

RockRadioScrapbook.ca: "Phillips died October 16, 2006 of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles. He was 64."

Our own thread here at radiowest.ca: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=782

[sparky]

In the 100 Mile House area we didn't have a lot of choice.

Night-time was the only time we really got to hear Top 40 radio from the big city.

CFUN was always a fave along with KJR from Seattle. Wasn't there a guy on CFUN in about 1964 or 1965 named Mad Mel?
I seem to remember them letting him out of his cage each night to do his radio show. He also had a character or a guest
that showed up every now and then named Granny Scoopshovel.

I'm pretty sure it was Larry Lujack that we istened to on KJR.

Ther was a few California stations that came in most nights too. KDON 1460 from Salinas, KXOA 1470 in Scaramento
and KFRC The Big 610 San Francisco.

In addition there were smaller town stations from all over the west that we'd listen to every now and then.

It was all great radio.

[Mike Cleaver]

Thanks, Jon.
I'm usually pretty good with names but quirky as it may seem, Mike's name had just disappeared from my memory.
I called him at KJR one night while I was riding network and religious shows at CKOV and listening to his show on the tuner we had in the control room.
We talked several times and I remember him telling me he was headed for San Francisco soon and to look him up when I came down that summer.
He was really great to a young rookie who'd just graduated high school and had a few years under his belt.

[pieinthesky]

Lethbridge radio stations and one Spokane stations were my favs back in the 80s.

CILA-FM (LA-107) up until Rogers purchased the station. Nice playlist and I believe that it was free form DJ'ing at the time.

1090 CHEC, was a great AM station. Too bad nothing on FM even comes close to the ol' CHEC radio, not even The Lounge.

KZZU (93 Zoo FM) Cable FM. Took alligator clips to my FM antenna, from the coaxial cable. Recorded a lot of that station. Spokane's Most Wanted was my favorite show with Casey Christopher. I believe that was early 90's.

[radiofan]

In the 100 Mile House area we didn't have a lot of choice.

Night-time was the only time we really got to hear Top 40 radio from the big city.

CFUN was always a fave along with KJR from Seattle. Wasn't there a guy on CFUN in about 1964 or 1965 named Mad Mel?
I seem to remember them letting him out of his cage each night to do his radio show. He also had a character or a guest
that showed up every now and then named Granny Scoopshovel.

Here's a bit of Mad Mel from 1965 on CFUN from Jim Bowers' fabulous Vancouver Top 40 Radio site ....

http://www.vancouvertop40radio.com/Stat ... htm#MadMel

[douglasm]

Keeping in mind that I grew up in Detroit, the list is a bit slanted, but it would start off with...

The Big 8 CKLW. That 50,000 watt blowtorch followed me everywhere in the late 60's

WJR, Detroit. A station that lived up to it's slogan, "The Great Voice of The Great Lakes". Two of the best drive time jocks I've ever heard, J.P. McCarthy and Jimmy Lance, comprehensive news and sports broadcasts, Tiger baseball, what more could one want. Another 50,000 watt blowtorch, this one clear channel.

KKRV-FM, Wenatchee. For a couple of years in the mid 90's, I owned it, so I may have a vested interest here.

[CKNF]

Top 3? Hmmm...that's tough.

My historical list:

LG73 - CKLG AM
AM 106 - CFCN AM
93 Zoo FM - KZZU FM

Fictional:

WKRP
KACL (780 AM)
CKNF

Current:

QR77 - CHQR AM
Watercolors - XM 71
somafm.com


There are many more, but 3 is what the thread asks for.

[MicroPhoney]

WLS 70s to early 80s
KHJ Sam era (Robert W. Morgan is the best) Join reelradio.com and watch the hourlong video of him on KRTH in 94
KFRC early 70s