Ok What is your favorite type of format or music. Just want to get a feel where our crew is in their personal likes. I like Alternative rock, Prog Rock and what I would call Ambiance music if you have sirius sat, the Chill Channel.....

I like a truly great Classic Rock format such as the one KGON has along with the great DJ's that make it the great program that it is.

My favorite format from years ago was Full Service. I was one of those weird kids who was listening to the "adult" stations on AM instead of top 40, which had migrated to FM in most markets (this was in the mid 80s).

Today, I'd say that the most compelling format is talk, when there is an interesting person behind the program like Dr. Bill Wattenberg, Lionel, or Dr. Dean Edell. Some of the shows on KKSN, like Goddard's Gold and The Time Machine Show/Forgotten Hits come in a close second. What is so cool about the KKSN shows just mentioned is that they are presented in way that gives a sense of history about the period from which their music came.

"Full-service" was my favorite format, too! I used to listen to KJR-AM in college, and KEX when I moved back to Oregon. I loved Jim Donavan in the afternoon's on KEX! But, I was a radio geek and the full-service jocks got to really show some personality back then.

80's and 90's CHR was fun to listen to, too! Q105 and Z100...or whatever station Ron Leonard was on at the time!

full service and Classic hits..

And all ABBA

;-D

Mfarnes:

As somewhat of a KJR historian, not sure KJR was ever really "full-service", meaning heavy news, traffic and public affairs, maybe some specialty shows, and music mixed in as well. (There may have been a short period in the 80's when 'JR was trying to find a niche and it came off as full-service, but not long enough to make any impact, especially against their longtime history of being a top40 powerhouse.) I know the 80's was a somewhat strange decade for the mighty 95, but
again, "full service" was more identified with KIRO and KOMO during this era. KJR, of course, eventually ended up all-sports, and despite less than stellar ratings, has remained that for the past decade and a half. The calls on the FM remain KJR, despite a lot of formatic start and stops.

Proggy rock, alternative, indie, dance, electronica / trance / house. These are the usual faves.

Honestly, if the mix is good, I like creative selections from jazz, blues, folk, etc... All depends on how it's presented.

In the mid 80s, I was living in central Ohio, so the big Full Service outlets there were WTVN, WLW, WKRC, and WCLT-AM. WLW's full service format was created by combining an oldies format with news/information.

However, WTVN, "The Full Service Giant," was the most interesting. The daytime programming was primarily a personality driven contemporary pop format with news updates. There was a call in show in the evenings, and then it was back to music on the overnights. The weekends had oldies, sometimes with special themes (one day, for instance, they were spotlighting hit novelty records). There was also a yearly Christmas special and an end of the year music countdown. They were playing Tears For Fears, The Pet Shop Boys, and Falco on this station, for goodness sakes!! Sadly, I don't think that there will ever be a station with that type of format on any major market AM or FM frequency, on the Internet, or on satellite radio. I think that the public's expectations have changed over the last 20 years to the point that such a format could not work.

I really like the first decade of rock-n-roll, most of which I don't remember. If it were constantly available, I don't know if I would or not but it never has been so it could just be the novelty. I noticed many songs I didn't know, were aired on the most recent incarnation of Super 62 but liked them anyway despite not being particularly crazy about any new music for the last several years. I followed the Top 40 pretty well into the late 80s, got hooked on Rock 40 and later, Modern AC. After the latter died down, I couldn't make a currents connection and don't really like much of anything after about 1984, at least not very often. I was never much for AOR so Classic Rock doesn't do that much for me anymore either. It would probably be nice to hear some of the Modern AC from the '90s again to find out if I still like it. I find myself switching mostly between K-Hits and KISN and TRYING to listen to anything else. I didn't really have this problem until KISN-FM wemt away and I stopped taking them for granted. Before that, I would go from Oldies to AC to Hot AC to Classic Rock to AAA and occasionally, Country. Now I'm one of the 1200 people on K-Hits who had the right answer.

alt rock is just about the only day in day out listenable format for me. I check out others just to see "what's happening".

KYMN-1520 Oregon City was my favourite station when (1964-65) they were Top 40, patterned after KIMN in Denver. Robin Mitchell was doing weekends there.

They were the only station I ever heard that counted down their chart from 3-7 p.m. EVERY day! Great signal day or night into Vancouver, Canada.

As we reminisce I have to say the old KVAN underground and KQIV in Lake Oswego. From there wound up listening to KGW, KYTE-AM as well. Today I seem to listen to a little of everything but mostly enjoy Talk Radio and Christian radio.

I love our very own ChickenJuggs station!

I have heard some great stuff (new to me) and bought some new CD's at Tower Records 50% off closing sales.

"As we reminisce I have to say ... KQIV"

Thank you, Michael. Thank you very much!

Kq4...I don't think that there has ever been a station as great as what KQIV was...and such a wonderful history...I have two reel to reels of old KQIV...mostly music but I have a little bit of jock banter...somewhere on one of my reels has the Big BA coming on at midnight with the rocket countdown going into I believe Frank Zappa...can't quite remember...anyway those were great days....a great radio station and some great people who worked there...my only regret is that I didn't get into the biz until 1980, even though music was always such a big part of my life.

It would be nice to hear your airchecks, perhaps put some of it up on our website. We had a great time at KQ4, while it lasted!

Paul,

I'm sure you'd know more than me about KJR, but around 85-87, there was top and bottom of the hour news, music and personality DJ's -- which would be my definition of "Full-service." Gary Lockwood did mornings, Mary Reemer (sp) did mid-days, I don't remember the name of the afternoon guy, but he was also the host of the "Almost Live" local TV show...and legendary Pat O'Day had a 2 hour 6-8pm show. KIRO was all news at the time, although KOMO was full-service, too.

Regardless of the official name of the format, it was fun radio!

It is interesting to me that radio stations make an impact on different listeners at different times of their evolution.

KJR might have indeed been entertaining during the era you are talking about ('85-'87), but I guess because I grew up with this station in the 70's, and know the impact it had in the '60's, I consider the 80's as a difficult, almost desperate time for KJR. (BTW, the KING-TV "Almost Live" host on KJR during this time was Ross Schafer).

You are correct, KIRO was doing all-news (or almost all-news, as they still played music during middays in the 80's! Always wondered why...

Lockwood was at his peak at KJR in the late 70's into the mid-80's. I believe he was the highest paid jock in Seattle and was able to retire to Florida early because of it!.

At the end of the day, I will accept your point of it being "fun" radio. However, it didn't last very long and ultimately resulted in a format change. Most great AM's of the 60's & 70's also changed, so it isn't anything out of the ordinary.

But any history of Northwest radio will include the great KISN out of Portland, and the "Mighty 95" out of Seattle. Those days are gone, most likely never to be heard again, and that's a little sad.

However, as a postscript, I'm not one of those who
sit around lamenting about the "good 'ole days", as life moves on, technology and tastes change, and if you don't move with it, you will be lost.

I worked at KJR from 87-91 and did news for Lockwood. He was amazing. Also worked with Marty. He was the smartest and funniest guy I've ever worked with. I also worked with the late, great Jerry Kay. He was a major market talent. He worked at WLS in Chicago and would occasionally get a phone call from one of his pals who he worked with there. A guy named Paul Harvey!

Before the first big deregulation, ALL stations ran news, sports and weather, usually at least twice an hour during the operating day, It was a requirement. If you add in the music and hold it all together with a personality, it would certainly sound like full service but real full service came from the old MOR format.

I'm thinking AMs were required to be 8% news and FMs 6%

Paulwalker~
"...'full-service', meaning heavy news, traffic and public affairs, maybe some specialty shows, and music mixed in as well...." (sorry if it's out of context...)

Like KBOO, right? At 22 I am really too young to remember the heyday of "full service" stations, but I do vaguely remember KEX having a format similar to the descriotion. (At least, I do somewhat remember them playing music years ago.)

If I'm not listening to the instrumental programming on Muzak (Echostar 7) I like the "Different Nature" thing on KBOO, especially if it's musique concrete. Also anything electronica, ambient, or chill sometimes. "Area 54" is a longtime favourite.......

If nothing else I have been quite a fan of the 80s--mainly 80s rap, new wave and rock & roll.
(Yet I rarely listened to 107.5.....)

> Like KBOO, right? At 22 I am really too young to
> remember the heyday of "full service" stations,
> but I do vaguely remember KEX having a format
> similar to the descriotion.

I'd say not quite like KBOO, in that the full-service format was, in my perception, the opposite of niche-casting. The idea with full service was that you could turn on the station at work or anywhere else, and the personalities would keep you company, keep you informed with regular news updates, and keep you entertained with music. KEX's daytime programming in the late 1990s was full-service. A modern day analogy would be if you were to take KKSN, KKCW (K103), KEX, and KRSK (to some extent), and you wrapped them all up into one radio station.

KBOO and many other volunteer programmed community stations, on the other hand, have a block format that tries to serve a lot of niche audiences. However, the community stations generally don't try to mold their programming into a cohesive whole like full service did.

Another thing that was common with 80s radio was that even stations that were formatted as news/talk/public affairs would occasionally play music if they had a couple of minutes to fill on a slow news day!

Full service and news radio with music seem pretty bizarre to think about today!

I've heard there are still Full Service ACs in certain small markets. I don't know if there are any big ones left or not.

When I was growing up in LA many years ago, the full service radio statons were KFI and KMPC bolth ams. They did music, news, and sports. The News was on the hour. The Sports were updates were hourly and pro teams like The Dodgers and the Angeles. The music was AC, with DJ's that were pros like
Dick Whittinghill, Gary Owens, Dick "Whittington, Johnny Magnus, Jeff Edwards, Loman and Barkley, ect ect ect. They were as big a part of the full service formatt as any thing elese.
Full Service Today is limitted to the Smaller markets like Eugene. The Music would be more oldies, Sport either the Beavers or the Ducks (Blazers too). And the news on the hour local and national from 6am until midnight. With the ability to break away from music to become an all News Station when events happen (911) that require it.

KMPC Los Angeles was an amazing full-service radio station in its heyday, especially with all that talent.

I don't believe there is anything resembling full-service in Eugene. Neither KUGN or KPNW play music, which helps define the term "full-service."

In the NW, I believe one of the few left may be KONA-AM 610 out of Tri-Cities. But even they have evolved into more of a news-talk than anything else. But if you want to hear how full-service jingles sounded 30 years ago, check 'em out cause they still use that same jingle package!

Alfredo~

So, kind of like 103 in the mornings, with less emphasis on music in other words, right?

And yeah, now that I think of it KBOO was probably a bad analogy.............

I didn't get to listen that much in the mornings because I'd be getting ready for school at that time. Ironically, I was the one listening to the full service station and not my parents. My dad was a devotee of the Today Show on NBC.

The few memories that I have of the WTVN morning show were that it sounded like the Bob Miller show when KEX was full service. That is, they would do news, sports, weather, traffic, etc., some banter and then then throw in a record. Not much music would get played on that shift because the focus was on information. My guess was that perhaps two songs might get played per 1/2 hour.