KHJ 93 Los Angeles - Format Change from Top 40 to Country - November 7 1980
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- Опубліковано 15 лют 2018
- KHJ 93 Los Angeles - Format Change from Top 40 to Country - November 7 1980. The Top 40 format ended with The History of Rock And Roll, into the big announcement, then the Country music.
I grew up in SoCal through the 60's and listened to KHJ and KFWB - was inspired to get into radio through the Air Force and AFRTS. I left SoCal in 1971 with wonderful memories of great radio. Today is the first I heard of this change to Country in 1980. Damn near made me shed a tear listening to that speech before the change. At 68 years old I am now thoroughly traumatized.
To use my timeworn phrase: Thanks so much for this aircheck. At
That corporate speak from the VP/GM doesn’t sound any better now than it must’ve then.
One of a number of AM Top-40's to jump ship for Country in the late 70's and 80's. Didn't work, as mainstream music formats migrated to FM. Maybe they should have called it "Boss Country".
The VP/General Manager of 93 KHJ at the time had the perfect last name. Neil took the rock off KHJ.
Thanks for posting. I have never been to LA, when I saw the KHJ 93, I was thinking a FM station but they are a AM. I'm glad to see AM KHJ is still on the air with the same call letters in 2020.
That GM shpiel was the lamest explanation of a format change.
Wow!!!! Great listening enjoyment and thanks for posting.
A big mistake.
Similar to what happened in Minneapolis three years earlier when longtime top-40 station WDGY (owned by Storz Broadcasting) switched to country. The format was successful for them for a few years, lasting until a switch to news-talk in 1990 and then sports talk in 1991. (WDGY also played "American Pie" before the switch.) How long did the country format last for KHJ?
KHJ: I use to be with it, but the 'it' changed what it was. Now, what I'm with isn't it. and what IS it seems weird, and scary to me. It'll happen to you.
Top 40 music was bland and boring in the early 1980's. It wasn't until "Thriller" that the format (now known as CHR - Contemporary Hits Radio) made a comeback. But even more importantly, the teen audience was moving to FM in a big way then. Think about it. WABC went talk about 2 years later. WLS died about 4 years after that. CKLW in Detroit was killed by the CRTC in Canada which refused to allow the station to move to an FM channel. But, before you think I am a "hater" of AM...it is possible today to bring music back to the AM band and on heritage stations which played Top 40 in the 60's. You just need either to be an FM simulcast or have an FM translator. Or, be "combo sold" with a sister station playing "Classic Hits". 93/KHJ could be revived as an oldies station under those conditions and were it possible to do that, I would LOVE to be its PD.
They had no choice but to dump Top 40. KHJ was bleeding red ink and had been since at least the mid 1970s according to the final "93 KHJ Card Radio" program director who oversaw the switch from KHJ to "AM 930; "Smoking Oldies" KRTH in 1986. They should have adopted oldies, you say? 930 AM in LA has a night time pattern, which in the winter months eats up a good portion of AM and PM drive. Plus music on AM....
All bull!
"Urban Cowboy" was as much of a passing fad as anything. And the lead character in that movie was not at all likeable.
Rubbish!...guess the format switch didn't work out so well for them, lol.