I have not listened to online oldies tonight.
I even heard songs from late 70's.
How do the rest of you feel about KHits?

Usually boring. An occasional win, usually not.

Musically the best station in Portland.

NOPE, Charlie is

KGON "ROCKS"

I like KGON, BUT its the same songs OVER AND OVER AND OVER!! No surprises just the same songs. As much as I love the music that KGON plays, Im burnt out.

I happened to be stuck in the ER for a few hours early this afternoon; I'd taken my Walkman and having nothing else to do, listened to KLTH rather closely. While every other song was still a moldy oldie, the ones between them were still familiar but much less-overplayed selections, and it was quite enjoyable.

Also, whoever was working then wasn't pushing the limiter; it was sure a pleasure (and a bit of a surprise) to hear FM that didn't hurt my ears. The lighter processing was most noticeable on a Fleetwood Mac tune which had more of its delightful delicacy than I'd heard on the air in years. Gee, I might even start listening to radio again.

(Yup, those of you who've surmised by now that I didn't were right.)

I'm surprised that K-Hits doesn't get more praise on this board. Other than being corporate-owned, they seem to implore most of the features that most people here have always agreed make a great station. They're live almost all the time (or perhaps all the time- I never listen to overnights so I don't know), they hire talent that is locally known, they have creative promotions like the "45 at :45" thing, the music library is relatively deep, and they do a helluva job being local and relating to the demo with their clever "I remember when..." type liners. I like em! I hope K-Hits is allowed to thrive for years to come.

They appear to be live all the time including overnights. I'm a little surprised this format didn't pick up sooner because it's better centered on baby boomers than traditional Oldies.

K-Hits is pretty much the only station that I listen to lately, so I've noticed some subtle changes. I'm hearing noticeably more "lower on the chart" tunes sprinkled in the standard '60s-'70s fare, and not just at :40 after, but at other places in the hour. The result is that the playlist feels more "organic", if that's the word. Rather than individual songs triggering that "I remember when" feeling, the entire listening experience is a flashback to the kind of radio I grew up listening. The elements that do it for me are 1) keeping the core playlist fresh by rotating songs through, at least every 2 weeks 2) sprinkle in more of the lower chart songs, two or three an hour 3) always station ID between songs, keeping it "tight and bright".

BTW, all the jocks are sounding good and having fun (or at least sounding so), and souding "real" (and I don't just mean that they aren't VT'd).

Another vote for K-Hits here. I haven't moved the tuning knob for months. Seems it's just the right sound for this 55 year old fart. Almost 35 years ago, my radio was glued to 106.7 because it had to be. Today, it's because I prefer it there.

That's karmic.

This 52 year old fart agrees with Kq4, and Shane is right; this station is doing everything most people here say they want. This is pretty much the only FM in PDX I listen to.

Highly DOUBT that they are LIVE OVERNIGHTS! I also think Brad is VOICE TRACKED!! He doesn't say much so there really is no point of having him live. And Warner, remember that advertisers just don't care about you. You're too old and set in your ways.

Excuse me, Warner still has more than 2 years to go before looking for "sanctuary"!

...And that "sanctuary" is going to get mighty crowded before too many more years pass by. (I'll try and help make some room ahead of you LOL!)

Isn't it nice having our own little code that the kids don't even hear? It almost makes it worth growing old, well, maybe not.

The music is fun, and Dennis Constantine does a great job with some of the stationality elements. For me, when allowed to budget for the luxury of real people behind the mic, I'd tend to use them more between records, and canned liners less, to allow more distinction in personality among the dayparts.

I didn't grow up listening to Brad, so I'm missing any nostalgic connection there, but he sounds very "down" to me, especially for the format. To be fair, this happens to many jocks when they voicetrack. I believe he has management duties behind the scenes, so I'd bet most of his midday shift is voicetracked in near-real-time, and maybe in a hurry. There doesn't seem to be any attempt to match his mic level to variations in the intensity of what he's talking over, and he doesn't adapt his delivery to song moods or intro posts nearly as much as Dave and Steve do, so I suspect he doesn't get to spend much time finessing the VT.

When I first heard Steve in afternoons, the boardwork was horrific, and he stumbled and sounded distracted, maybe by the learning curve of the hard-drive system. That improved a great deal, and I enjoy listening much more now.

Dave does a nice job in mornings, especially considering what he's given to work with.

This station and KGON are my two most-used presets. (53/male)

As the station is developing some character, I think they need a more memorable ID than the generic-sounding "K-Hits."

KZAM was, well, Ka-Zam! KEZX was (somewhat bizarrely) "The temperature on Lake Union" station, KOL was "Colorful KOL." KWAX was a pun on "wax" (records) and "quacks," KISN was of course a winking innuendo, as well as "Ninety-Wonderful," plus the "Mighty 91" (I think that station made it largely on testosterone, although KEX also used "Mighty Eleven-Ninety"). KINK was originally "The Underground Link," K-BOO was an in-joke (who also filed an objection to KINK's choice of calls as an "ethnic slur" for a hoo-hah). KQIV was "Rockin in Quad" (and featured groovy graphics). KUPL was supposed to be romantic beautiful music but took on a much more suggestive twist when it went country just as Nashville got really funky. Somehow KGW somehow made it by just becoming sixtytookaaaygeeeedoubleyouuu! (crescendo on the "dub").

What can we make out of KLTH?

Musing on it tonight I came up with "Living to the Hilt," which is kind of a family in-joke. (My great-grandmother supposedly named the family's mill town of Hilt, CA because they were "up to the hilt in debt." Long defunct, one drives across a cattle guard at the freeway exit.)

A few others came and went (Long Time Hits? Live totally hip? Love to... what?), and when I got to "the station that bungees you back to the future" I realized I was getting silly-tired, but figured it would make decent thread-fodder.

Wait, I got it: KLTH, "The Fabric of Your Life" (aka the Polyester Station). (Sorry.)

Make sure y'all listnen on Saturday night to Mark After Dark, on KHITS, w / Mark Lindsay....

Can they start the song after they are done talking?
I'm still impressed with the selection of 70's classic rock.
In McMinnville, our local transit service busses have stereo's and most of the drivers have it on K-Hits!!
I mentioned it's "Rock And Roll Hootchie Koo Time"
to a passenger and that was the next song!

I can't complain, ITS LIVE, ITS LOCAL, Its great radio! Thank you K hits for making radio worth listening to!!!

While it isn'necessarily my musical "era", I will say that I notice that most places I go that have a radio on, they are tuned to K-Hits. While setting up for the boat show, people setting up booths and waxing, polishing, cleaning boats etc., were mostly tuned to them. The Subway I went into today was playing it. A few other businesses I went into were playing it. It is the only station I recall hearing in businesses lately. Can't recall hearing Charlie lately, although I have in the past.

Another vote for K-hits here. Although some segues are like mixing oil and water, such as transitioning from "The Mountain's High" by Dick and Dee Dee (1961) to "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits (1979.)

But the talent is all live, it's FM stereo, and CBS seems to give a damn about its Portland audience.

I like Khits, although i would prefer a little more early 60's and een a few 50's would be appreciated.

Back in Okie land in the 60's after the Kingsmen had Louie, Louie it was followed up with "Jolly green Giant", I have never heard that up here, didnt it get airplay here?

It got played when it was a hit. It probably doesn't test well because of the novelty.

maybe they can find room for john williams and scott thom at k-hits considering what happened at kisn.

If any station has managed to bring a bit of the old KGW back for me, it is KLTH. The playlist has variety, perhaps not as much of the battle scarred eclectica as I would love, but it is fun and I am just being picky.

Dave, Steve, Craig, Brad and the gang give it a really friendly, local and live feel. Of course, there is Mark and Tim and the crew every Saturday night too. Big monster corporate network owner or not, this is good local radio.

For your demographic study, I am currently aware of at least a dozen thirty-somethings who won't bother with any other non-public station and several local businesses where it is always on. My parents love it too, but alas, they have already found "sanctuary."

Oh, while we are tossing out silly ID ideas, how about, "Keep Loving The Hits" or "Keep Listening to the Hitmakers"? Truth is, I do like the simplicity of "K-Hits" and it adds to the general 70s trip.

The way this station sounds is the best part. My dearest pal is an engineer at a world class recording studio and has major label projects under his belt. He thinks this is the best sounding radio station he has ever heard in Portland. I am inclined to agree. It does an incredible service to the music to hear these songs with all of their natural beauty or spirited raggedness. :0)

Here is my problem with Khits.
The geeky voice guy needs to go, please someone put him out of his misery. Instead of the geeky voice guy talking about his pet rock, THEY SHOULD be using jingles., That would make the station sound more exciting. I also think Brad needs to increase his energy on the air, at times he sounds really monitone.

I'm sure glad ya'll are digging Khits...It's THE station to listen too....

Shameless Plug!

Jeff Thomas host of Khits Afterhours 7-Midnight M/F

"Another vote for K-hits here. Although some segues are like mixing oil and water, such as transitioning from "The Mountain's High" by Dick and Dee Dee (1961) to "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits (1979.)"

Weird transition.......if Tom Dickson listens to it I bet he'd be asking the question "will it blend?" ;o)

I like the music on K-Hits overall tho, even if the continuity is a bit weird. (Hey, I moonlight as a freelance audio architect, okay??) At least the personalities do sound live and local.........

Jeff is to modest to mention he's filling in for Steve Lloid all next week, as well as today.

And Craig is too modest to mention he's filling in for Jeff, at least for tonight.

I have avoided publicly dissing the male image voice, but jingles would be good, as would more of Sheryl (she does the legal ID).

I vote for a killer jingle package too! Re-sings of Drake's AA or TM's "You" series would be just fine. But, jingles or not, I'm enjoying K-Hits very much.

I don't know if Drake AA is available or not.

Many of the "Jack" stations have been using the "You" package (with a few other non-You TM cuts) resung to say "We play what we want" in place of "We do it (or 'play it') for you..."

I wonder if the poobahs are noticing that K-Hits is the talk of the town when Jeff and Craig are on? ;o)

Yah I agree The Voice guy for K-hits is AWFUL!! How much longer will they be using that geek. He sounds like the nerdy kid in High School you wanted to beat up for being such a nerd. Im done with K-hits, plus the people at my work have switched over to Charlie!

No appearance by Scott Tom or John Williams yet? perfect people to be filling in.

Hey guys,
What geeky guy are we talking about??? Jeff Thomas, or the liner guy?

I vote for Craig Adams for Middays! He has much better energy and actually talks about interesting stuff. Dolbier is too dry.

Was there some kind of transition between Dick & Dee Dee and Dire Straits, such as an announcement or was it a dead segue? Announcers are what made it feasible to go from the Beatles to Dean Martin 40 years ago.

I like the voice guy. It's unique, and just wierd enough to be enjoyable

Nope. I think the geeky voice guy needs to go. They should be using jingles, especially for an oldies station. The Geeky voice guy is rather annoying.
John Williams or Craig Adams would be a much better fit for middays.
Although I can't say I listen to Khits very often, they play play the same songs day after day! ZZZZZ!

There has to be an element of familiarity for most people to listen but I hear songs EVERYDAY that I haven't heard in years!

Khits plays way too many MOLDY-OLDIES! Like most stations people are getting burnt out! How many times can you hear a certain song untill you NEVER WANT TO HEAR IT AGAIN IN YOUR LIFETIME!!!!!!!!

Pretty much everytime I land on KHITS, I hear a song that I am tired of and don't want to listen to, either now or ever, and I move on.

I seemed to stay longer on KISN when I landed on them. These days, I don't even land on 910 to see what they are playing.

My TSL experience is similar to Jimbo's. I've tried hard to like K-Hits since KKSN bit the dust. It does play some good songs I don't hear much elsewhere, but its playlist simply covers too broad a time period. The early '60s and the late '70s have so little in common stylistically that the result is little more than a bunch of random train-wreck segues a la Charlie (even when a live DJ is present). Whipsawing back and forth over such a vast temporal distance does not create a mood the way KKSN did with its much tighter focus. Music from the second half of the '70s (disco/new wave/mullet rock) has much more in common with the following decade than with the preceding one. Ideally, I think we should have three oldies stations: one that focuses on the pre-Beatles rock'n'roll era (1954-ish to 1963), another that covers the golden age of AM Top 40 (circa 1964-74), and a third that goes forward from about 1975.

K-Hits, next to Charlie, is the best radio station on the PDX airwaves.

I like H-Hits, almost as much as Kisn, some of the later 70's I dont like, but there is some 60's i dont like. I would like to hear some earlier 60's, like Bobby Darin and Chuck berry.

Charlie KICKS K-hits ASS!!

They both Suck! Sorry but most stations in general just are really getting old. I am continually expanding my CD collection and making them mobile so that I can listen to the great B-side hits that nobody will play! Some stations are pretty good and have off-peak programs dedicated to this but for the most part most stations blow foo foo chunks!

Jimbo~

Honest truth, the only thing 910 is "playing" any more is the ol' political rhetoric, so you really aren't missing too much....... ;o)

(And outside of maybe "Loveline" or occasionally "Car Talk" I've never really had too much love for talk radio.)

If you listen to airchecks from the 70s, you will hear lots of 60s oldies mixed in. Apparently, it worked then.

The only talk show I've ever bothered to tune in was "Rock Trivia" on KGO. The idea was for people to call in, trying to stump the experts. You would tell them the name of a song and one of them had to come up with the artist but it had to have made the top 60 on the Billboard chart for any given week between 1955 & 72. In order for you to ask them a question, you had to qualify by doing the same with titles that they would announce on the air. The experts would almost always know the answer but sometimes, if a song peaked between #40 and #60, they'd miss it. It seems like this would usually happen when one of the experts who wasn't on that week would call in. The "experts" originally were listeners to the show who were invited as guests. Even the host was pretty good at identifying the songs! I think it was Ronn Owens.

I am not impressed with someone knowing all the songs using a book as a reference. I am impressed with someone that knows the facts on the top of their head.

I guess I don't like the current stations because the era of Pop/rock that I like from the oldies is basically 1955-mid '60's. I lost interest in the late 60's and did not care for much of it. I liked some things in the following years but not enough to listen with a steady diet.

So, most stations today aren't programming to me.

When the person qualified and then asked their question, if the experts didn't get the right answer, the caller would give it to them. At this point, the expert could challenge the caller's answer and they would open the book. That was the only time the book was ever used.

K-hits needs a morning show. Maybe add a few people and get a morning show going?? Dave Mckay sounds good, but more of a show would be good.

How about "Beano" on the morning show!

You are speaking of a Live body dishing out the tunes in the morning and not another morning talk show right? Radio in PDX has way to much talk in the AM drive already! Play music on the radio. Talk show killed the Radio Star! M&B nothing against you guys but the wedding is really starting to get old....and the lame things people are doing to win tickets is a bit.....boring! And Carolla & Bonaduce would you two just beet the crap out of each other and get it over with!

Vent Complete
L8R

"Was there some kind of transition between Dick & Dee Dee and Dire Straits, such as an announcement or was it a dead segue?"

Sorry for the slow response. It was a dead segue. Please don't get me wrong...I think overall K-Hits is great. Good variety and live jocks! I'm looking forward to the grand opening of Mark Lindsay's restaurant.

Your right Darktemper, LETS GET RID OF ALL AIR TALENTS, AND JUST PLAY MUSIC ,SCREW THE DJ'S!!!!!!

No thanks Darktemper, If I wanted to hear just music I'll turn on my IPOD because I can download the entire K-hits playlist to my ipod in about 2 minutes. ENTERTAIN ME!!!!!!! Again, if I wanted to hear JUST music I would turn on my IPOD! I certainly would NOT be listeninng to the Radio!!!

I think you may not have got what I wanted to say or I did'nt say it right. I would like Morning drive shows with DJ's playing music, DJ teams with entertaining shows with music and local news and not some nationally syndicated talk radio crap! No offense but morning radio is mostly hot air! I am against HAL900 radio and also against all talk and no play morning radio! Just my opinion though!

Thanks Russ, that does seem like a bit of a train wreck!

Is Jeff Thomas still around the halls of KHits?

.....ENTERTAIN ME!!!!!!! Again, if I wanted to hear JUST music I would turn on my IPOD! I certainly would NOT be listeninng to the Radio!!!

Beano is channelling me.....

Station has no vibe at all. Nobody talks about it. Too bad they did not put into the hands of someone who can take command of that format. It is like they are ashamed of the format and are trying to be too much to too many. Kiss of death in radio.

If you want a lap dance from me Roger, that is OK! Let your fantasy run wild, or at least talk about it on the radio.

I have a name for the two voice people, Poindexter and Harriett!

Oh, forgot...part II

KHITS would really be more of a station if there was more personality, you know, some spontaneity. It sounds very AC-ish and predictable. Radio of that era was famous for predictable unpredictability. Have you ever heard a KHITS DJ say anything that your thought about later that day? Great radio is about companionship not just format mechanics.

amen

"ditto"

Great radio is about companionship not just format mechanics.


For some PDs, Executing the format with no deviation IS GREAT RADIO!!!!

I like to hear something unexpected sometimes. If it makes milk shoot out of my nose, then all the better and memorable.

Brad Dolbier brings that station down ZZZZZZZZZZZ!
His talk breaks put me to sleep. That station needs more personality!

Well it's just like listening to that great music, at a museum. The atmosphere is missing.

How about some top 40 jocks who are from that era and can still pull it off. And NOT just people from here. How about a great 70s jock from Boston or Miami or Phoenix or Memphis or San Diego? It doesn't matter if they came here in a covered wagon, you know?

KHits needs a good jingle package ala KISN. It would bring up the energy of the station AND the on-air staff.

But I know that's more money/commitment than they are willing to give to this format, at least for now.

A top 40 jock would sound good middays, Brad Dolbiers energy doesn't match steve Loid. A top 40 jock would bring the enegy up and bring more excitement to the station.

I listen sometimes, and occasionally they will play something that surprises me. I think Steve Lloyd is a class act and fun to listen to. Also, when calling the studio line, Steve sounds as upbeat as his on-air persona. The one time I called during Brad's shift, he sounded almost annoyed at having to answer the phone.

I saw Steve Loid doing a remote for KISN. The nearest I can tell, he stood for the entire shift! I didn't know people still did that. At one time, some stations required it.

That has got to be Steve's great skill, talent, gift - his ability to interact so well with listeners. He was the only jock at KISN that took on-air requests, and the afternoon with Steve Loid at KHits is so friendly and upbeat that it makes the rest of the broadcast day seem bland by comaparison.

I have noticed the on-air folks "talking it up" more and more lately during stop sets. They're doing well enough, but still have a ways to go to approach the smooth delivery and wit of the classic Top 40 top jocks. Besides Loid, Craig Adams does a good job with his patter. Brad Dolbeer is still figuring things out.

I think Craig is by far the best jock on that station followed by Steve Loid. Brad Dolbeer kills all forward momentum and excitement to that station. His delivery is REALLY DRY! One thing I don't understand is how come Mark Dornfeld is now part of the afternnon show??? Nothing against Dornfeld BUT he is a traffic guy NOT a jock.

Armchair quarterbacks. We’re all armchair quarter backs!

Coming from that era of music , and programming stations that played that music back when it WAS new, I hear all your points. However, Dennis Constantine has a vision for the station, and so far, it’s working. If the station makes money, then he is doing the right thing.

I will agree it can sound a bit “ dry” at times, but over all I enjoy it. All the jocks sound more comfortable, and Mark Lindsey’s show has sounded much better over the few months.

"Armchair quarterbacks?"

Well yes you're correct Eugenebob! But that's what pdxradio.com is for, talking about the art and insanity of radio! And, since programming art has faded from so much of radio today, we're probably providing a valuable, or at least, thought provoking, service to humanity! At the very least we entertain ourselves and probably those who are doing the programming/managing, at the moment.