WKLO's last days.

[RJC]

I will never forget the day that my parents told me the WKLO was going to go away(the first time that I had to deal with the realities of radio), I had been raised on "The Big 1080". My question is, who's idea was it to kill(sorry can't think of a better word)WKLO, and couldn't WKLO just be moved to 99.7?


FWIW, I tried to stick with 1080 after the change to KJ, but it just wasn't the same, and like most did, I abandoned AM all together.

[John Quincy]

Based upon the tapes I've heard, by 1979 WKLO had morphed into more of an AC station than a Top 40 station. If the owners wanted to put a Top 40 FM on (as they did with KJ100) it would make more sense to start with something new than to just roll over AC-ish WKLO and "rock it up" again.

Now, had they moved WKLO over to the FM frequency in 1976 or 1977, it probably would have worked just fine.

That's my guess.

[RJC]

John said:

Based upon the tapes I've heard, by 1979 WKLO had morphed into more of an AC station than a Top 40 station.

I agree, that is very clear, as one of the Rusty Rogers airchecks(1979 I think), begins as he is playing Music box dancer. I guess the WKLO people saw the writing on the wall, and that FM was the future for music.

[Max]

Now THERE'S a song I haven't heard since back in the day! That song seems older than 1979 (peaked 3/79)...more like 1973. Kinda sounds like it shoulda come from an old cheesy movie soundtrack, and when you heard it on the radio it would be sandwiched in between "Top of the World" and "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree". Guess my imagination just ran away with that one.

In that time frame, do ya think they (WKLO-FM) could have given Hi 95 a run for their money?

[Gary Major]

Oaky I will try and set the record straight on the last days of WKLO but I am working on a more in depth piece to sort of wrap up and include all the changes in the time I was there from the Fall of 73 til the end in 79

I was the program director of WKLO from Jan 78 to the end. What was going on in the marketplace at that time WQHI "Hi 95" or really was it "High 95"...WLRS both had become marketplace leaders on FM ...the AM dial around the country was slipping. AD agencies did not care if you ruled in teens and 18-24...so Bernie Thompson the GM, Charles Sawyer and I met to plan a shift of the demos (greening the radio station) at least on demo cell to the right...in other words..age the audience to a more revenue appealing audience. of course to do this you have to tweak your music...change some personel...spend some money...which lead to a churning of the market...and some drastic changes in numbers in the transistion...the bottom line is that while we were making all these changes and tweaking things...the owner, Charles Sawyer died. Remember the call letters at that time of the FM were WCSN (Charles Sawyer Network) (again smooth move Ernie) and along with all the other changes going on ...there were soon to be changes at the top. as a side bar...the fall rating of WKLO in transistion total 12+ quarter hour share was a 5.4...the spring 79 book WKLO was the ONLY AM station that increased their audience and we also managed to shift the demo (green the audience) on target. It was after all the "new KJ-100 changes had been made before the ratings came out. More to follow soon

[RJC]

Thanks Gary, I was 11 when WKLO was changed, and I never knew all the details as to what went on behind the scenes.

[Travis]

Roughly. This is how I remember it, but don't take this as gospel:

Hi95 could have been an incredible station, but automation and poor management were its downfall. Born in April of 1974, the station did very well as Louisville's first, and only, pop FM station. Les Arms, whose family owned a station in, or near, Elizabeth, Indiana (and said to be the station where WAKY's Weird Beard first worked as a DJ) did what he could with the automated format, but was constantly at odds with management. The same was true for Alan White (who later worked for WAKY and the Kentucky News Network) and Bob Reis, who was new to broadcasting, but very good.

As the only pop music station on FM, Hi95 easily did well and was one of the best sounding FM stations I have ever heard, thanks to Bill Elliott, who was not only an excellent engineer but had an ear for music and believed in dynamic range, as opposed to overcompressing (as so many engineers do). Hi95 was unchallenged on FM, but that all changed when the new KJ-100 took to the air around '77 or '78. Under the program direction of C.C. Mathews, and armed with live jocks, KJ knocked the stuffing out of Hi95 until its ratings went right through the basement floor.

Ironically, after Hi95 was sold and became QMF in February of 1981, C.C Mathews came over to become the station's first program director. He then proceeded to kick the stuffing out of WLRS. What a year that was.

[gmam1080]

Travis just to set the overall collective memory straight...WKLO changed over to the New KJ-100 late may of 1979. I will fill in as much as I remember from those last days sometime soon. Louisville was one of the last markets nationwide that had two top 40 stations on the AM band going so late into the 70s. Everything you may have heard over the years about how good this radio market was is true. Louisville had so many major major players thru here and some did stay. Louisville used to be a dynamite radio town. I has not been that way for several years.

[Max]

And that is very sad. But to know we all witnessed and/or were a part of it, like you, the Duke, and the others, is very gratifying. Not that any of you got a big head or anything, but you all and we, the listeners, were very privileged, don't you think?

[Travis]

Wow. Was it as late as 1979 before KJ came into being? It does make sense in a way because when I wrote the last post I kept thinking how miraculous it was that Hi95 survived for 3 years with KJ in the game. Competing with KJ for a little under 2 years before being sold makes a lot more sense to me.

Still, it seems to me that I was listening to Jill Lawrence on KJ before 1979. Is that possible? And on John Quincy's 'WAKY Remembered,' Johnny Randolph states that he left WAKY at the end of 1977 because AM was not going to last, musically, and that with an FM CHR in town, it didn't take a genius to realize that WAKY's 18 share was going to drop. I assumed that he was referring to KJ-100, but was he actually referring to Hi95?

Ooops!!! I just did a Google on Supertramp's 'Breakfast in America' which was extremely overplayed on KJ during the time that I was listening to Jill Lawrence. The LP was hot in... 1979. Gary Major "1" Travis "0"

[RJC]

Even Howard Stern aknowlidged that Louisville was a great radio town at one time(said so on his first show that aired in Louisville). At one time it was great, but I blame Clear Channel for changing that.

[Chad]

I have to agree 100%. Clear channel hgas ruined radio nationwide. The only station I listen to for music anymore is the high school one (88.1FM WNAS) as they have a 10,000 song playlist and no commercials. WHAS is good for news and traffic but that is it. I never forgave them for yanking Joe Donovan off the air.

[Max]

And it will only get worse. The #2 radio conglomerate in Kentucky is planning to standardize all its stations across the state, so you'll have the same voices all across the state in spots and in some cases sharing announcing talent.

[RJC]

Max said:

And it will only get worse. The #2 radio conglomerate in Kentucky is planning to standardize all its stations across the state, so you'll have the same voices all across the state in spots and in some cases sharing announcing talent.

Wonderful news.