KKCY "The City"

[jprg]

Does anyone remember KKCY "The City" back in the mid 80's? I loved it with it's ecletic format even though it had a small but loyal audience. I would love to see "San Francisco's Record Collection" give it another shot even though the KKCY calls are used someplace else.

[djj]

Agreed...KKCY was unique and enjoyable, but being on the weak 98.9 frequency didn't help...

I loved their billboards on I-80 in Vallejo:
"The only boring thing about our station is this billboard."
 

You may recall James Gabbert bought 98.9 some time later and, with Thom O'hair, lauched
KOFY-FM, "The Spirit Of San Francisco," which tried to emulate "98.9 The City." It lasted,
what, about two years?
Or, as Ben Fong-Torres aptly described in one of his Chronicle Pinkie reviews, KOFY-FM
sounded "more like 'The Spirit Of K-101.."
--jay

[Lkeller]

Agreed...KKCY was unique and enjoyable, but being on the weak 98.9 frequency didn't help...

I loved their billboards on I-80 in Vallejo:
"The only boring thing about our station is this billboard."
 

You may recall James Gabbert bought 98.9 some time later and, with Thom O'hair, lauched
KOFY-FM, "The Spirit Of San Francisco," which tried to emulate "98.9 The City." It lasted,
what, about two years?
Or, as Ben Fong-Torres aptly described in one of his Chronicle Pinkie reviews, KOFY-FM
sounded "more like 'The Spirit Of K-101.."
--jay

I more or less missed "The City"...my loss, I guess.  At the time, I was somewhat bored with rock, and obsessed with jazz.  But being a radio-nerd, I remember James Gabbert buying 98.9 - it was a big controversy.  Though The City may have had a small listenership, they were rabid, and formed " The Committee to Save the City" -lobbied the FCC strongly and held up the sale to Gabbert for quite some time.  They were suspicious that Gabbert wanted to turn 98.9's format into a new version of K-101, and they were probably right.

Gabbert made a lot of concessions to get the sale approved.  He promised to keep the free-form format, but the resulting KOFY-FM format was kind of a mess, with Gabbert constantly trying to take it in a more pop-music direction. It ultimately lost all the free-form City listeners, but wasn't mainstream enough to attract any of hit-music audience.

Unfortunately, the history of "free-form" rock stations is a checkered one - they never last long because radio is a commercial medium, and need substantial ratings to sell air-time.  All the free-form formats of the late 60s (KSAN and KMPX in SF, KMET and KPPC in LA) had just a few glorious years, and were then either co-opted by management into more restrictive AOR formats (like KSAN), or flipped formats entirely (like KMPX).

The most recent example is Indie 103.1 in Los Angeles, which just ended its short life as a modern day free-form station.

[Madmansam]

Agreed...KKCY was unique and enjoyable, but being on the weak 98.9 frequency didn't help...

I think it might have been the format that drew small ratings considering that today, 98.9 is a Regional Mexican Powerhouse as KSOL despite the weak frequency.

[Lkeller]

Agreed...KKCY was unique and enjoyable, but being on the weak 98.9 frequency didn't help...

I think it might have been the format that drew small ratings considering that today, 98.9 is a Regional Mexican Powerhouse as KSOL despite the weak frequency.

Remember that KSOL simulcasts on the South Bay 99.1 frequency, which gives them good coverage.  Post KOFY-FM, "Double 99" did the same, making it part of their imaging. 

[Goldilocks94941]

98-9 "The City" was a marvelous station, but I think it lasted less than two years.  It, along with the old 92.1 from Walnut Creek (what were those call letters?  had a "Q" in 'em), were  my favorite music stations as a newcomer to the East Bay in the 1980s.  Right about the time KKSF debuted, too.  KKCY had a really good vibe to it, without any of the silly liners and filler hype that drives discerning adults away from most commercial radio.  Because of that, I knew it was doomed. It was just too good and too easy to listen to for long periods.  Like WXRT in Chicago, but not too hard rockin'. 

To get the feel of the station, just listen to Kate Bush "Running Up That Hill," throw in the long version of the O'Jays "Love Train, some Natalie Merchant, Santana, and a little Van Morrison before he got overplayed elsewhere, etc.  They had a good blues show, too.  I still have a casette or two somewhere of a KKCY aircheck from back then.  Will have to dig 'em out and transfer it to CD. 

I forget the name of the Irish guy who hosted middays - he was a delight.  Didn't Norm Davis do the news, too?

I think the adult album rock format, with a decent personality picking many of the tunes, is still a format a few public radio stations are able to pull off in other parts of the country, with long time loyal supporters, and sometimes decent Arbitron ratings.  Try the midwest and south to find most of them, in medium and smaller markets, with and without NPR newsmagazines in drive time. 

It seems like the perfect thing for KALW to try, at least in one or two dayparts.  I mean for decades KALW has pulled in than 30% of the audience you could expect them to attract in a public radio type of market like the Bay Area.  A couple hours here and there of a mixed bag of music on KALW just doesn't make as something listeners can rely on to accompany their afternoon or evening.  And "The City" type of format can really thrive with lower ratings than most commercial operators will tolerate.  Because, when its done well with good air talent with refined and broad tastes, and includes new and older releases, it becomes something like what Tower Records or a Hear Music store was like, with a different economic model to pull it off.  Anyone want to take this ball and see if it can snowball?   Might give the commercial guys some creative competition if KALW, or one of the college stations, knew how to present a real AAA format as more than a specialty show. 
   

[Lkeller]

Interesting comments, Goldilocks.  Since I never lived in Walnut Creek, I'm not familiar with the station you mentioned, but KTIM in San Rafael served the same purpose for me in the early and mid 1970s.  Their signal would reach parts of San Francisco, but it was basically a local Marin County station. It survived with a more or less free-form format into the early or mid 80s.  It was low key, and played great music.  I believe Bob Gowa ( who posts here on occasion) was a jock there - and possibly PD.  Another jock I always liked on KTIM was Paul something-or-other...can't recall his last name.

KTIM was owned by the Marin Independent-Journal, which was a very successful "small-town" daily paper in those days, and I got the impression that they took a hands-off attitude about KTIM, and didn't care that it wasn't making a lot of money.

The party ended in the mid 80s, when they decided to go with a smooth jazz format.  The called it "The Wave" - and the owners of KTWV in Los Angeles sued them for copyright infringement, so they quickly changed to "The Tide."  I believe the station ultimately went bankrupt.

As for the KALW idea - I like it.  KCRW - public radio in Santa Monica - runs a great show called "Morning Becomes Eclectic" - the ultimate free form. Its' become an influential program in Los Angeles, and they've premiered quite a bit of new music.

http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb

[SFStatic]

98-9 "The City" was a marvelous station, but I think it lasted less than two years.  It, along with the old 92.1 from Walnut Creek (what were those call letters?  had a "Q" in 'em), were  my favorite music stations as a newcomer to the East Bay in the 1980s. 

The 92.1 in Walnut Creek was KINQ for a time when Jim Chabin owned it. Later, it joined the am as KKIS-FM, and was AC.

[Madmansam]

Agreed...KKCY was unique and enjoyable, but being on the weak 98.9 frequency didn't help...

I think it might have been the format that drew small ratings considering that today, 98.9 is a Regional Mexican Powerhouse as KSOL despite the weak frequency.

Remember that KSOL simulcasts on the South Bay 99.1 frequency, which gives them good coverage.  Post KOFY-FM, "Double 99" did the same, making it part of their imaging. 

I agree with you that KSOL benefits from the added coverage of 99.1, but I still don't think the Eclectic Sound of KKCY-THE CITY would have succeeded even if they had the additional coverage of 99.1. Even now with Corporate Radio.

[Lkeller]

Agreed...KKCY was unique and enjoyable, but being on the weak 98.9 frequency didn't help...

I think it might have been the format that drew small ratings considering that today, 98.9 is a Regional Mexican Powerhouse as KSOL despite the weak frequency.

Remember that KSOL simulcasts on the South Bay 99.1 frequency, which gives them good coverage.  Post KOFY-FM, "Double 99" did the same, making it part of their imaging. 

I agree with you that KSOL benefits from the added coverage of 99.1, but I still don't think the Eclectic Sound of KKCY-THE CITY would have succeeded even if they had the additional coverage of 99.1. Even now with Corporate Radio.

Oh, I totally agree, Madmansam.   And I think you were saying that it would be even harder in today's corporate climate.

That's why I mentioned the recent Indie 103.1 in LA, which had a small but rabidly loyal audience for a couple of years until the inevitable downfall.  Indie's fans have been expressing their anger and disappointment on the LA Board recently.  It reminds me of my reaction 38 years ago when the owners of KPPC FM in Los Angeles ousted the entire staff of inventive and talented jocks and performers headed by Les Carter. The station stayed with an album rock format, but was never the same again.  The owner was the National Science Foundation - hardly a huge media corporation like Clear Channel.  But even then, the corporate desire to exert control and maximize profits won the day.  It's to be expected.