In the late 1970s and 1980s, there were a number of stations that introducted the "Hot Hits" format. This popular top-40 format played the new and current hits only with no or limited recurrents. Basically, this started the top-40 rotation of songs that we hear today. Stations that featured the "Hot Hits" format were WTIC-FM (Hartford), WBBM-FM (Chicago) and KITS-FM (San Francisco).

I don't think Portland had a "Hot Hits" station, but Z100 tried or symbolized the format a few times. Z100 used the theme as "Portland's HOTTEST music" several times, especially in 1984. Where there any "Hot Hits" stations in the Northwest in the late 1970s and 1980s?

I believe KMJK licensed the name but Z100 came up with "Hottest" and it lost something.

Consultant Mike Joseph is credited for inventing the "hot hits" format, although that probably could be debated. There were many AM's that ran tight current formats before "hot hits". What Joseph did was revitalize the energy of the format, especially on FM. When AM Top40 started dying, it didn't automatically transfer to FM in the same form. Joseph helped bring back the energy to the format on FM.

Not sure about Portland, but Seattle had clones of "hot hits"...KNBQ, KHIT come to mind in the 80's, although I honestly can't remember if they played much gold. In the mid-80's there were FOUR top40's in Seattle, KPLZ, KUBE, KNBQ, and KHIT.

KMJK did not want to pay the licensing for Hot Hits, so we used "Hottest Hits". Z100 use "Hottest Music" back in the 80's. I don't remember anyone in Portland dropping all oldies and going with just currents.

The Hot Hits format used a ton of jingles. Seems like it was before and after every element including in and out of stop-sets.

Here's a aircheck of WCAU-FM in Philly (2/82). It is a good example of what Hot Hits sounded like.

http://www.divshare.com/download/47734-ce3

In 1989 Z100's top of the hour sounder had some electronic voice singing "Portland's hottest music." As for the term "Hot Hits," I don't know if any station used that as a slogan or not.

As Steve mentions above, I believe "hot hits" was trademarked, or servicemarked (never really knew the diff), And yes, bringing back the uptempo shotgun jingles was part of this whole "reinvigorating" of the format on FM.

Many early FM top40's didn't use jingles, or used them sparingly, or used weird, more mellow jingles to try to show this was a "new" era for the format. Wrong, as Joseph rightly proved.

And a random thought on all the top40's in Seattle in the 80's...anybody remember Glenn Beck on KUBE?
Yes, the same Glenn Beck who is now one of the hottest national talk jocks on the air, both radio and CNN!

Although jingles are used a lot on the WCAU aircheck, it is just a handful of different jingles, and there are only two talkover music beds! It gets a bit repetitive after a short while. Were all the Hot Hits stations like this?

Every time that the talkover music plays, it's like a race between the DJ and the "WCAU-FM" at the end! These DJs must have drunk GALLONS of coffee!

Here's a link to other Hot Hits airchecks (in Real audio format). Most are east coast, but there is KITS in San Francisco at the top of the page.

http://www.stevemcvie.com/audio.asp

Paul,

Having worked on-air at both KNBQ and KPLZ, I can say that while I was at Q we didn't play any gold tracks at all. While on KVI-FM we played A LOT of oldies mixed in with the CHR of the day. After the the station became KPLZ, not so much.

That would probably make KNBQ the closest thing to hottest hits in Seattle. The "Q" sounded really good when former Z100 and KUBE PD Gary Bryan was PD. When I worked at KPLZ in the late 80's we were playing songs from the early and mid-80's but that was about it.

Mystery...The "FM" KVI was an interesting station. One of the first Seattle FM Top40's as I recall, if you don't count KOL-FM.

Mystery, just a hunch...but did you once ply your trade in the U-cities?

U-cities?

OK, must not be it. But this is fun trying to figure out who you are. Does Sacramento ring a bell? Don't worry, I won't reveal anything here.

Fun to be intriquing as the "mysterydj" Paul.
Actually my career has taken me all over...including Seattle and now PDX. Not Sacramento though.

Darn, thought I had it. Come on offer another clue...(really enjoyed your stories about Andy Barber!)

LOL! I did wonder about Dan Foley. He was another KING jock who I used to hang with. In about 1976 (when I started full time in Seattle at another station) Dan went into real estate.
Haven't been able to find him even with the Internet. Any idea? Might be an interesting thread to start...what careers are ex-radio people
ending up in for the most part.

By the way...MANY of my Andy Barber stories
would be inappropriate for this site.

Not Portland related but there was an interesting thread recently on a Bay Area radio site where John Mac Flanagan (KFRC) announced that he is now the night security guard for a downtown high rise. Nobody had heard from him in YEARS.

the careers of former radio luminaries seem quite random and would make a good thread.

Well, I'm still hanging in...but over the past two decades I took a "timeout" to try auto sales,(twice) but missed radio terribly and came running back. That might be yet another thread...those who left and couldn't stay away!

what do you guys thinking portand another sports station

Well, for one, you've already started a thread on this....

For another, I don't think Portland is a big sports town....it isn't part of our history..and let's face it, the glory days that the Blazers had in the 70's and then a resurgence in the late 80's/early 90's...those times are OVER. I don't think we have the audience for another all sport all the time station...this ain't Pittsburgh or Dallas.

It's just not in our culture. However, as a side note, I would LOVE to hear an indie station like the one down in LA up here....I think that would be rad and fit the feel of the city....but who knows....

how long will charlie fm will last in po i will be cool with a station thats different from the othr radio stations in portand like a hiphop station or blues station or black talk station

DJ, When Charlie's first came on the air, I was a bit skeptical. (Still am!) Apparently it's got momentum.......pretty much all the businesses I go to, that play the radio and not Muzak (gosh, can you even do that?) seem to have Charlie's playing. (On the other hand, I only have been to one place playing Movin'--a Subway restaurant in the Coove--and even they have realised there's no music to be had there! Now they play 94.7.......)

We already have a "Hip-hop" station, if you can call it that......95.5.

I'd definately go for a Blues station, personally.

I'd be cool with that!

(There's an idea for a new, actually practical format for 93.1, if any PD's are reading this! ;o)

Here's a KNBQ station composite from 1980. Gary Bryan was PD at the time. Enjoy!

http://www.divshare.com/download/12790-c47

The cassette that contained the above KNBQ aircheck actually had a second composite on the end. This MP3 has both composites.

http://www.divshare.com/download/147499-2e7

Thank you again, Steve! Never got to hear much of The Q other than tropo skip one morning on the northern Oregon coast.

OK, great check from the "Q", but where are the jingles? KNBQ had some great shotguns, but this check probably was a "mike" skim. The overall sound of this station was even better than this represents. They had a great flow, great shotguns, and an energy that really started the FM Top40 battle in Seattle/Tacoma. (Yes, probably the only Hot Hits in Sea-town.) I wonder why the legal only mentioned Tacoma...they could have easily mentioned Seattle too but they didn't.

As an aside, the recent Bonneville purchase of this frequency will most likely destroy the current oldies format of KBSG. All in all, a very nice and important history on this frequency, and the future remains to be seen.

You used to need a waiver to mention another city besides your COL. Maybe, this predated the rule change. At some point, apparently, you coudn't even get that or KISN would have been first in line!

I have never heard of a more hyped true Hot Hits station than WCAU in the early 80s.

Jingle into spots, jingle out of spots, jingle between spots, jingle between currents, deliver as fast as possible talking up every post/intro, keep a tight playlist of maybe 20 currents at night, and yeah.....drink a lot of coffee.

I have never heard anything like it in the northwest.

The only thing remotely close to the Mike Joseph format might be what KRBE Houston sounded like in the early 80s with Roger W. W. W. W. Garret and crew. But I believe the music was skewed a bit more rock-40.

Here's a KRBE station composite from June 1980.

http://www.divshare.com/download/156732-5ad

Wasn't KNBQ in the office building next to the Tacoma mall at that time? I had just moved to Tacoma in Oct79....

Wait, no, my bad KTAC/KBRD were at the mall KNBQ was downtown... Correct?

As for KBSG shedding oldies.... Not necessary, but they do need to freshen them up and expand a bit.....

WMJI probably has one of the better oldies mixes in the format.

KBSG sound alot like the local version here...WBBG same as I remember BSG

Roger, KTAC/KBRD were indeed in the Tacoma Mall office building. KNBQ, while not sure of the exact location, was not far from Cheney Stadium if memory serves. It had been housed with Channel 11, (original calls KTNT-FM, same as KTNT-TV, later KSTW-TV.) KNBQ became oldies KBSG in '88. Moved studios to Seattle in the 1990's.

Steve, KRBE had energy, but by definition wasn't really hot hits...in 1980 they were playing ten-year old Temptations and Supremes records!

Paul, also KRBE was not using jingles which seemed like a major element in the Mike Joseph format.

Paul and Steve..

I was thinking of the delivery of the jocks, but listening to that air check that has circulated for years, it doesn't come close to Hot Hits. I have always thought that early 80s music era was a freak to program. First you have Eddie Rabbit, Dolly, Kenny, Bette, then you have to deal with Barry Manilow gone punk with No Freind of Mine, mellow Olivia getin bad with Physical, and finally stir in early Van Halen, and Blondie...

Local folks might be interested to hear Eugenes Dan Dobner on that air check. What happend to Dan? The last I heard he did oldies at 99.1 but then where?

Right, Greg. The early 80's was an interesting era for music as a lot of genres were mixing and trying to stand out. MTV certainly had a huge impact. The disco backlash was in full swing, and pure pop seemed to be the flavor (Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, even the Police eventually fell into this category) Even some early rap was starting to creep in. Then there were the electronic bands trying to make in-roads. And Rock was not well-represented, except for an occasional Stones record, or Tom Petty.

Dan Dobner, don't know. Seems I heard he was in auto sales for awhile but that was a number of years ago. Whare are they now? Perhaps another PDX topic!

Hey last I heard dobs was doing home studio voice work.
I worked with him in Central Oregon.

Wasn't "Dangerous Dan" at KDUK back in the 80's when it was in the Matthews house in Coburg.
That place was great to lisyen too back then.

Yes Dan relieved me and worked overnights at KDUK in the Matthews house in 87. I think he also worked under Brian Burns at KDUK in 84 but not positive.

That place might have been great to listen to however having the transmitter controls, and taking meter readings in the bathroom 3 feet from the toilet was not always enjoyable.

As a matter of fact, the KDUK sports line was also in the bathroom. One day, Mike Parker apparently forgot to press the stop button after doing a sports update. The next thing you know Don Bishoff wrote a blurb in the Register Guard reminding Mike to press the stop button....because after the sport scores the sound of going pee and flushing the toilet wasn't too professional.

Good times.....

I don't think Tacoma even has a local TV or radio station anymore.... KLAY might be it.

When I was at KNBQ it was on South 56th in Tacoma along with co-owned KTNT. I'm fairly sure it was 56th...I'm fully sure that it was a long
time ago.

Mystery, that sounds about right. I remember sitting in with a college buddy, Beau (Rockin') Roberts while he did his night show on the Q. 1980-something. Even though they were Top40, I distinctly remember the most requested song that evening was "Free Bird"! (Atleast five years old at the time, not exactly a "hot hit"!) I think Gary Bryan was PD at the time.