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©
Viacom
Hot
AC
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In
the early '90's, 98.7 KXEZ was dead last in a three way
race for the Soft AC crown in LA, distantly trailing long
time market leader KOST as well as KBIG. In September of
1992, Viacom blew up the station and launched a Gold based
Hot AC featuring 'SuperSTARS of the '80's & '90's, the
new STAR 98.7'. The approach was a blatant rip-off of what
KEZY in nearby Anaheim, CA
was doing and a court case ensued.
KEZY
had foolishly never trademarked the '80's & '90's slogan
and lost the case (as it would many of its listeners).
Program
Director, Greg Dunkin had just programmed a station in Baltimore
and previously had been the Assistant Program Director of
WNSR in New York. As such, he knew of my air work at B104
and 66 WNBC in each of those
cities respectively. When he heard my tape from KEZY
doing virtually the identical format, I was 'in' as part
of the original air staff of STAR.
As
I had at many other stations previously, I also played a
role in the programming department, creating the weekly
'SuperSTAR Sunday' features that were used to push image
artists, scheduled music logs, and assisted with station
imaging and production chores as the need arose.
©
Viacom
Soft
AC
That
role was magnified significantly when just months after
Viacom blew up KXEZ, it became the first duopoly in LA as
it acquired what had been the old Pirate Radio. 'EASY' was
quickly reborn, this time on 100.3 and with a noticeably
brighter sound than KOST but not as forefront as KBIG. Doing
air work down the hall on STAR precluded me from doing the
same on EASY but off the air, I began performing the same
programming duties for Program Director, Dave Beasing on
EASY as I did on STAR.
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©
Viacom
Modern
AC
(Manually
stop the player at the top of this page if necessary before
starting this one).
Bonneville's
reaction to the arrival of EASY was to move further away
from it by brightening their library as well as on air presentation,
to such an extent it now encroached on STAR's territory.
At one point it was difficult to tell the two stations apart;
the music was the same, both had male / female morning shows
that were totally interchangeable and both trailed KIIS-FM
and KOST at opposite ends of the CHR / AC continuum respectively.
Perceptual
research showed that even in a market with as huge a cume
pool as Los Angeles, there just wasn't room for four Adult
Contemporary stations, be they Hot AC or Soft AC. It revealed
instead room for a female friendly Gold based station that
played many of the songs exposed in the '80's by Alternative
legend, KROQ. I happened to have a copy of KROQ's 'Flashback
500' list I picked up in a record store several months earlier
and that became the genesis of transforming STAR from a
Hot AC to one of, if not the first, Modern AC stations in
the country under Program Director, Randy Lane.
Beginning
with Memorial Day weekend of 1995, we began incorporating
large numbers of heritage KROQ titles. By Labor Day the
gradual transition was complete and it had evolved into
a distinctly different sounding station, including the on
air approach which borrowed heavily from KROQ's attitudinal
imaging. AC mechanics were not abandoned altogether, but
the on air style of execution was much more laid back and
far removed from the hype associated with most CHRs. The
second aircheck on this page was from the Modern era in
1998, shortly before I accepted a full time offer from Westwood
One's '70's satellite format.
© Viacom
Despite
KBIG readjusting its on air approach to be much more aligned
with STAR, EASY made little inroads into the legendary KOST.
Perceptually, 'Soft Rock' meant just one thing to partisans
of the format - KOST. With consolidation in the industry
well underway and Viacom harboring thoughts of selling its
radio division, the decision was made to replace EASY with
something else to make the property more attractive to potential
suitors.
The
answer was a Rhythmic based AC. KXEZ became KKBB in 1996
and was the forerunner of Rhythmic Oldies. Although some
current artists such as Toni Braxton and Babyface were featured
in the mix, the real thrust of the format was in Gold titles
with a particular emphasis on Motown. As I had done for
Dave Beasing on EASY (as well as on STAR when he moved down
the hall to program it after the format change), I also
assisted Tony Coles in programming B100 in a similar capacity.
When
I left STAR / EASY / STAR / B100 after six years, a total
of five Program Directors and four formats, I was the longest
employee at the station. Such was the state of the industry
in the wake of the 1996 Telecommunications Act that effectively
eliminated ownership limitations.
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