Lohman & Barkley, 64 KFI Los Angeles | December, 1978
March 4, 2012 
1 Comment
Notice the style. Certainly not the quick pace heard at competitors 93 KHJ and KTNQ Ten-Q. But then, KFI, in 1978, was hardly a Top 40 station. This was a contemporary station that skewed older, mixing a generous dose of 60s and 70s oldies into the mix, along with a slower pace with personalities that were more likely to talk to you instead of shout. The morning show here is loaded with talk, and plenty of format elements to keep working adults tuned in. Marv Howard does news (it, like the music, is scoped, unfortunately). Bruce Wayne does KFI “Eye In The Sky” traffic. There’s a generous dose of sports. All tied together with a few records just for good measure.
Strangely enough, KFI eventually won the AM Radio Wars, maintaining a music format long into the 1980s, in fact, by 1984 it was a high-energy CHR station, touting its then-new C-Quam AM Stereo signal and calling itself “The Amazing AM” – with stiff competition in the format from FM competitors. KHJ and KTNQ were long gone by 1984, and we have other KFI airchecks right here at airchexx.com just to prove how good it sounded.
Listen now to a great slice of history. Lohman & Barkley on 64 KFI.
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“Strangely enough?” Don’t judge an entire radio station on one daypart. KFI absolutely was a Top 40 station.
Actually, it was the perfect formula. Take one of the best PDs in the country, John Rook (WLS, WCFL), keep the morning team that’s been at KFI since 1968 and is the only daypart with a strong audience, and then hire brilliant jocks (Charlie Fox, Eric Chase, Jackson Armstrong, Big Ron O’
Brien) and do a big, classy Top 40 on a 50,000 watt clear channel station.
Before this, the joke was that KFI could turn off the transmitter when Lohman and Barkley weren’t on and the ratings wouldn’t change.
KTNQ went Spanish in July of 1979. KHJ went Country in October of 1980. KFI was going strong for a while after that, though they really were AC after 1983.