Well, isn’t this aircheck reminiscent of a similar crisis we’re experiencing today? It opens up with a ‘special’ bulliten where KYA tells listeners that they will suspend normal public service messages in order to tell Bay area residents where they can purchase gas. After that, this is a really great, tightly scoped aircheck.
This is amazing to hear, but not unexpected. They say a rising tide raises all boats, and with KFRC, one of the best Top 40 radio stations of all time in the same market, any wannabe competitor had to make every attempt to be at least as good. KYA certainly sounds good enough here to rise to the top of any other market in the nation – it certainly rivaled KFRC in sound, even if they couldn’t succeed in unseating the Big 610! Most definitely worth your 8 minutes 55 seconds!
Remastered on 8/10/11
I believe that’s Steve Jordan, and later Bill Holley on this tape… sounds like Jordan was somewhat influenced here in his delivery style and tone, by Steve Lundy, who was cross town at KFRC around ’71-72 …
You’re right – that is me (a MUCH more energized STEVE JORDAN than you’ll hear on KFRC today (I’m here afternoons, 3-7) ! Barry’s right – Lundy was an influence, along with the Real Don Steele, Barry Kaye and the like. That’s how it was back then. The other voice is, indeed, Bill Holley (one of the greatest talents KYA ever had). My dear friend Bill passed away a few years back, but it’s good to hear his work lives on here. Take care everybody !
Steve Jordan is definitely one of the best. (He STILL looks 29 years old).
Also the reason KYA sounded “very Drake” is because Drake programmed the place years before he went over to RKO. KFRC was the copy-cat, not the other way around.
Tom, even during the time that Drake was at KYA in the early 1960s, the station was much looser than the “Boss Era” Drake stations were, mostly because the KYA jocks disrespected him so much (Tom Donahue and Norman Davis are prime examples).
Listening to KYA in the 1966-1970 period up against The Big 610 in the same era shows how much tighter KFRC was under Drake’s whip hand.
(And no, KFRC wasn’t my station back then. I was a KYA Kid all the way — give me Tom Campbell, Johnny Holliday, Gary Schaffer, Bill Holley and Bwana Johnny or give me dead air!)
DJ
What bugs me is that so many people think that KFRC was a Top 40 station first and that KYA was an “imitation”. Once I overheard someone say that during a temporary job I was on and I laughed out loud.
Oh yeah,those were the Best days of “Top 40” Radio in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the order as I remember it, KOBY,KEWB,KYA then 610 KFRC! In some ways, KDIA & KLIV. I later worked for a Big 610 KRKE, in Albuquerque, NM as Dr. Wu the Wizard. Such good times.