Unusual radio formats that never made...

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Author: Alfredo_t
Thursday, May 14, 2009 - 9:20 pm
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In college, a fellow radio buff told me that one station in his home town of Binghamton, NY briefly experimented with a format they called (on air) "Non-Hits Radio." This was a format that specialized in playing only B-sides and non-charting album cuts from artists that were familiar to Baby-Boomers. He told me that his mom's reaction to the station was, "This sounds like an oldies station, but there's something not quite right about it." According to my friend, the non-hits format only lasted a few months before the station flipped to another less esoteric format. Did anybody else try the non-hits format (marketing it on air specifically as non-hits), or was this just an oddball idea from a medium market program director?

In 1995, I was reading in rec.radio.broadcasting that some consultant or other radio "guru" had been floating around the idea of a "sets" radio format as the next big thing. The idea behind the format was that the music would be played in sets of three songs, and what would tie these three tracks together is that they would be by the same artist. As far as I know, this format never aired.

Author: Paulwalker
Thursday, May 14, 2009 - 9:36 pm
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Although this was not a different format, your thread reminds me of KING Broadcasting's AM top40 KING-AM in Seattle that attempted "20-minute music jams" that contained no jock talk whatsoever. If memory serves, there was no talk at all, not even recorded liners. This is circa 1978, kind of a last ditch effort to save the format on AM. Just horrible radio. I believe they lasted less than a year, the station then went back to a more traditional top40 format for awhile, then to AC for a couple of years, then news/talk in '82. Today the 1090 frequency (once the Big 11), is pretty much irrelevant. A textbook case on the death of music on AM.

Author: Randy_in_eugene
Thursday, May 14, 2009 - 10:13 pm
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"Sets-FM" was KXST 102.1 Oceanside/San Diego. I remember reading about the concept being tried in San Diego, but I don't know how long it lasted.

A Google search brought up an aircheck collector with a 2005 recording available for trade.

Author: Stevethedj
Friday, May 15, 2009 - 8:59 am
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KZEL-FM in Eugene, Or. was a progressive or underground rock shation in the early to mid 70's. They featured three songs in a row that were connected. they didnht talk about it. just did it. John W. Napier and Michael Wagner were friends of mine at the time.

Author: Waynes_world
Friday, May 15, 2009 - 10:37 am
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I remember two: Radio Oz on 1480 and all Elvis at 1290.

Author: Alfredo_t
Friday, May 15, 2009 - 11:25 am
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Wow! How could I forget the All Elvis and All Beatles formats that were tried in the late 1980s on struggling AM stations. I remember seeing a story about KLVS on CNN Headline News around that timeframe. I was living in Altoona, PA at the time, and I never thought that I would end up in the Portland area one day.

Author: Warner
Friday, May 15, 2009 - 11:45 am
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Please refer to our "Deep Cuts" thread for the perfect playlist for "Non-Hits" radio. I think we'd all listen to that one!

Author: Don_from_salem
Friday, May 15, 2009 - 12:03 pm
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How fondly I remember KTIL/KMBD with their all-Hawaiian format on Sunday mornings.

Author: Alfredo_t
Friday, May 15, 2009 - 12:25 pm
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Unfortunately, we might be the only ones that would listen to the "Non-Hits" radio station. The marketing behind that station, according to my friend, really stank big time because it relied on something negative: in other words, they pitched what they don't do as opposed to what they do.

I have to clarify that the reason that I originally asked whether any stations used the phrase "Non-Hits" on the air is that there have been many non-commercial stations that followed this program philosophy, but they didn't go out of their way to say that they deliberately refrain from playing songs that might be considered "Hits."

Author: Jr_tech
Friday, May 15, 2009 - 12:45 pm
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Before 1290 was KLVS, it was KVIX (Victor Ives) and ran mostly old time radio programs... I think it lasted a year or two... That format nust be pretty hard to sell.

Author: E_dawg
Friday, May 15, 2009 - 1:06 pm
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How about Jammin Oldies in Portland.

Author: Semoochie
Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 1:40 am
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FM in Canada used to be fairly close to that concept. They could only play a certain percentage of hits and a hit was defined as any "song" that was ever a hit by "anyone". For instance, if Ice Cube had an album cut of "Night and Day", it would count against the station's "hit percentage" because it was once a hit for Frank Sinatra!

Author: Jhumespcn
Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 9:43 pm
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It's kind of funny, but all this reminds me of a small town radio format I worked in as a teenager in the early 60s. Country from 5-9 in the mornings, religion for 9-10 a.m., MOR from 10 a.m. to noon, All news 12 noon-1 p.m., MOR from 1-3 p.m., top 40 from 3-5 p.m., all news from 5-6 p.m., MOR in evening. On the weekends, there were some classical segments as well. (By the way, for a college Radio-TV course I took at University of Washington where we were tasked in a project to program a mythical station, I installed this format and while all my fellow students guffawed, I knew my audience....my old-fashioned professor gave me an A!)

Author: Bob_kuhn
Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 10:36 pm
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Wasn't KLVS also while Vic owned the station? They had some very strange news breaks. Later when I was working in the building on First and Arthur there was a telco loop terminal still on the wall. Apparently the broadcast school also located there must have had something to do with it.

Author: Craig_adams
Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 10:56 pm
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No, KLVS was Dave Jack's idea after KVIX reverted back to him. Vic had fallen behind in payments. He was loosing $10,000.00 a month. The All Elvis format as suppose to give Jack the publicity to unload 1290KHz again. It didn't work and Jack shut it down after 3 and half months on December 31, 1988.

Author: Deadair
Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 11:31 pm
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I know KLVS was Vic Ives station but I thought it was before KVIX with studios in Mountain Park area of Lake ego. Monroe Pkwy @ Boone Ferry. Played old time radio (mostly owned by Ives)and music from 40's and 50's, as I recall. Also owned and operated from that location Oregon News Network and Oregon Sports Network. I remember Jimmy Hollister, Don Coss, Dave Bell and Pete Prlain (sp) with "How To With Pete". Around 1987-1988.

Author: Deadair
Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 11:39 pm
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I wrote

I know KLVS was Vic Ives station...

Should have written

I thought KLVS was Vic Ives station...

Forgot about Dave Jack. Craig knows best.

Author: Craig_adams
Saturday, May 16, 2009 - 11:50 pm
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The KVIX studios were in the "Oswego Towne Square" building, Suite 1290. Carol Ives was General Manager. Vic was also a syndicator and host of "The Golden Age of Radio Theatre" heard at the time on 160 stations including KVIX.

KVIX also picked up Al Ham's "The Music of Your Life" format on 2-1-87, which had been on KYTE. KVIX did local theatre broadcasts including "Live At The Heathman".
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Thought this would be fun to post:

AN ALL-ELVIS RADIO STATION? I'M ALL SHOOK UP
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - Thursday, September 15, 1988
Author: PETER FARRELL of The Oregonian staff

What has been KVIX (1290 AM) will, at noon Thursday, become KLVS. The station will play only Elvis Presley music. Nobody else's. Just Elvis, all day and all night.

Since Aug. 1 WCVG in Cincinnati, a small 500-watt AM station, has been playing continuous -- or constant, or interminable, depending on your view -- Elvis. Although there are indications the station was not doing well before that, WCVG has said its ad income jumped 321 percent by the end of the first week.

The news about a station playing only Elvis was in just about every paper in the country. But it was the paragraph about the big sales increase that caught the eye of David M. Jack, who has regained ownership of KVIX from a group of investors led by Victor Ives, who were not able to make it financially with an old-time radio format.

Jack is no fool. He wants to sell the station again, but he says it will take some time to put it in saleable condition. In the meantime, he has to keep it on the air with something. Old-time radio, as much as some people loved hearing ``Fibber McGee,'' did not work. Jack thinks Elvis could take the station from rags to riches.

``It might be a big hit,'' he said. On the other hand, he could have bought a lottery ticket.

Jack is not making a major financial commitment to Elvis. Well, when he ordered 60 Elvis records and tapes from Tower Records in New York, he did have them sent Federal Express. (So they won't be marked ``Return to Sender.'') But otherwise, he is going to see what happens.

A whole new staff will operate KLVS. They are instructors and students from the National Broadcasting School in Portland -- ``Dial 24 Be-A-DJ,'' it says in the phone book.

An entire radio station run by student interns? Don't be cruel. Jack has set strict standards for the school: ``I told them I didn't want any jerks.''

The morning and evening drive times -- the periods that really count in radio -- will be handled by supervisory people from the broadcast school, and Jack said National Broadcasting students work at other radio stations in town, including those that play music by more than one artist.

``This will give the students more of an opportunity to learn,'' said Jack. There are, by the way, 652 Elvis songs available, many of them hits. That should be enough, since Jack hopes to have a buyer for the station lined up in a couple of months, when its signal is improved. So Elvis is mostly an interim step.

But, hey it could work. Still, Jack doesn't mind a joke or two about his new format. You can say anything you want, but lay off of his . . .

Author: Semoochie
Sunday, May 17, 2009 - 12:11 am
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The KLVS calls continued after the station returned to the air. I'm having a mental block as to what format was aired. All I can think of is that they were early call letters for KKSL but that doesn't seem just right either.

Author: Craig_adams
Sunday, May 17, 2009 - 12:43 am
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Yes! KLVS returned to the air 18 months later on July 1, 1990. Studios were back at "Harbor Square" 5410 S.W. Macadam Ave., Suite 240. KLVS began broadcasting a talk format from the Sun Radio Network.

On July 29, 1991 KLVS was sold to Crawford Broadcasting Co. for $450,000. On September 12, 1991 the sale gained FCC approval and KLVS went dark again.

Then on January 6, 1992 KLVS signed back on the air with Christian programming. On July 6, 1992 KLVS became KPHP. On August 31, 1995 KPHP became KKSL.

Author: Skybill
Sunday, May 17, 2009 - 1:17 am
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...floating around the idea of a "sets" radio format as the next big thing....The music would be played in sets of three songs...they would be by the same artist. As far as I know, this format never aired.

Alfredo, I grew up in St. Louis listening to KSHE in the late 60's and 70's. That's exactly how KSHE played their music. They'd play 3-4 songs back to back by the same artist. The cool thing was that they had a policy that the DJ couldn't repeat the artist for a minimum of 8 hours and any song for a minimum of 24 hours.

They also had some continuity to their sets. Meaning, that they wouldn't play some hard rock (Hendrix or such) then follow it with Cat Stevens or Harry Chapin. They'd follow it with something along the same lines so there wasn't an abrupt change in the style of music.

Back then KSHE was the top rated Rock station in the country if my memory serves me correctly.

Author: Waynes_world
Sunday, May 17, 2009 - 2:06 pm
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why does 1330 keep the format it has now? how many listeners does it have?


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