Composite: 136 KRUX Glendale AZ | December 20, 1971
August 7, 2012 
14 Comments
Found on an old tape we received back in 2004, here’s our first look at the legendary, if not forgotten 136 KRUX. While serving the Phoenix market, this relatively low-powered station owned the market with its 5,000 watt transmitter in Glendale all throughout the 60s and early 70s. The station remained a Top 40 giant until 1981 when it flipped to Big Band.
This is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, there’s a LIVE overnight guy… Jay Stone (surely not the guy from 99X New York?!). You judge his performance. We give kudos to the PD for using his overnight shift as a training ground 
. Other jocks featured on this aircheck are Todd Wallace and Phil Davis.
KRUX at the time of this broadcast is formatted by (or perhaps I should say consulted by) Bill Drake. The Drake format is alive and well here, with that great Bill Drake legal ID…”And Now, Ladies and Gentlemen…!!”. Drake’s trademarked format is all over this station from the jingles down to the jock patter.
One more, very interesting feature, about four minutes into this ‘check, you’ll hear one Logan Stuart doing commentary on the day’s news. It’s here that we were able to pin down the date of this aircheck, since Logan mentions it at the end of his commentary. And listen for KRUX “Traffic Watch”. Wow! Never heard traffic done like that before!
This may be short, but I think you’ll enjoy listening to a Top 40 legend that is long gone but hopefully not forgotten by all. A Drake station, too!
Podcast: Embed
*Sigh*
You were doing so well with the descriptions for so long….
Since when is 5,000 watts “relatively low powered”? Especially when the competition (KRIZ) is 1,000 at 1230?
EVERYBODY had a live overnight guy in 1971. And Jay wasn’t. The first thing out of his mouth is “from now until midnight”. That means he wasn’t working overnights.
That is NOT Bill Drake’s voice on the stagers. Not even close. They bought the jingles from AIR (American Independent Radio), period.
And the speed is a good 4% slow on Jay’s segment.
Calradio – You’re always so critical. Okay, so you know because you were there. I get it. But let me explain where I’m coming from. 5,000 watts is relatively low powered when compared with 50k, which that station managed to get later on. Yes, EVERYBODY had a live overnight guy. I should have re-worded it to say kudos to PD’s who back in the day had the overnight shift available to train jocks. And, okay, I missed the post – the aircheck was so heavily edited that I mistook the first jock for the overnight jock.
You have to admit, that SOUNDS like Bill Drake. This is a technicality. Important, yes. But still, come on- I described what I heard. I don’t know everything about every station that was ever on the air.
While I respect your opinions and critiques, I could just as easily have kept my ego from being bruised and simply not approved your comment. So, take that as recognition by me that I respect your corrections. How about not kicking my ass in the dirt on my own site when I goof and emailing me instead? Then I can get it right, fix it, and give you the credit on the site for being the source of information? It would be nice if we could work together instead of you trying to publicly embarrass me.
Because, Steve…I WASN’T there in 1971. Everything I wrote came from a couple minutes worth of online research. In fact, there isn’t a thing I’ve written in a comment on this site that you couldn’t have…if you’d spent the time and effort.
And if doing that (seriously, we’re talking 5 minutes, maybe 10)is too much and you don’t know, say so. Don’t make stuff up. And you have (remember KCBQ’s “Keep On Truckin’” contest being a teaser for Truckin’ Tom Kent…who was 15, nowhere near San Diego and not in radio yet?).
And that sounds like Bill Drake only in that it’s a carbon-based life form saying words Bill Drake is famous for saying over the same music bed.
PS: KRUX didn’t own the market. It was a back-and-forth battle with KRIZ. KRIZ quit first only because Doubleday sold it to Family Life Radio. When they did that, it was #1 in the Arbitron…amazing for a 1kw at 1230 on the AM dial in 1978.
I know it was different on the East Coast and in the Midwest with 50,000 watters like WABC, WLS and WCFL, but out West, the typical large market Top 40 was a 5,000 watt station (KFWB, KHJ, KGB, KFRC). In smaller markets, there were 1,000 watt winners (KROY, Sacramento).
Finally, Drake never so much as breathed on KRUX. It wasn’t a consulting client of his, it was what was known as a “Fake Drake”…in this case, running a jingle and ID series that Drake himself had ditched on his own stations more than six months earlier.
The stations Bill Drake consulted: KYNO, Fresno (where he had been PD); KSTN, Stockton; KGB, San Diego; KHJ, Los Angeles; KFRC, San Francisco; WRKO, Boston; CKLW, Windsor-Detroit; WHBQ, Memphis; WOR-FM, New York; KAKC, Tulsa and WUBE, Cincinatti. KHJ, KFRC, WRKO, CKLW, WHBQ and WOR-FM were RKO owned. The rest weren’t.
By ’67, the FM stations (except in New York) were running Drake’s syndicated HitParade and/or Solid Gold automated formats.
In ’72 and ’73, Drake consulted KRTH in Los Angeles when it switched from KHJ-FM.
From 1973-1977, Drake was part owner and oversaw programming of KIQQ-FM in Los Angeles.
In 1982, Drake consulted nostalgia KMPC, Los Angeles, using his updated “HitParade” format as a template.
And in 1992, Drake consulted KRTH again. This time bringing Morgan and Steele with him.
Again, not knowledge…Google.
And finally…I’m not a consultant for your site. I’m a customer. A reader. I have a right to expect the basics to be right. If (okay, when) TIME magazine blows the core facts of a story, I’m not going to send them a below-the-radar, off-the-record e-mail asking if I can help. I’m going to send a letter to the editor and if they have any integrity at all, they’ll publish it or one very much like it from one of the other disappointed readers.
You asked me to do this once before in a private e-mail, Steve, and I said no. Because, as I explained then, the stuff I’m complaining about and the stuff I call you on isn’t rocket science. The correct answers are available through the same machine that the wrong stuff gets typed on.
Hey here’s change, thanks for posting such a great aircheck. I was 15 when Todd Wallace was morning man and pd at KRUX. I still live in Phoenix, AZ. I later got into radio and worked in Phoenix for 10 years. I had the pleasure of meeting Todd Wallace at the KRUX reunion, which, by the way is available to watch in part on youtube.com. It brings back great memories. I have to agree with the poster. Close enough without splitting hairs.
Thanks so much for posting this aircheck!
As a lifelong Phoenix resident, it is very much appreciated!
As a young child, I remember KRUX & KRIZ really battling it out.
Please, more Phoenix airchecks!!
I first began visiting Phoenix in the summer of 1971 and moved there with my parents in the summer of the following year. This is certainly what I remember hearing KRUX sounding like at the time.
A history note. KRUX did top 40 until 1975, switched to NBC’s All News Network feed that year (anybody remember that flop?), and returned to top 40 in the late fall of 1976 when the all news service imploded. My understanding is that, despite its return, the station was never able to get the ratings it had before its 1975 format switch–though KRIZ threw in the towel in 1978, FM was coming in strong with both KUPD (since 1974 with 1kW from South Mountain) and KOPA (since the spring of 1978) grabbing away the top 40 audience. KRUX ultimately threw in the towel on the top 40 format in February of 1981.
if that isnt bill drake ill eat my shirt
just kidding lol
Good, Jim, because I was about to ask for your address.
The voice on the TOH stager was KRUX jock Jay Stone. At the time he also did the stagers for co-owned KTKT Tucson.
It was drake condulted by Todd and Jay stole the Drake playbook right down to the logs.
Krux never increased power to 50kw, and KRUX used the Johnny Mann singers like KHJ and KFRC , AIR was Drakes Topanga Canyon stufios that produced Hit Parade 69 and eventually Solid Gold Rock and Roll, i worked there as the second Bob Shannon. , please get your fscts right.