Bye Bye, KY

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David Cantwell writes:

I grew up in south Kansas City, Missouri listening to Top 40 AM radio. Here in KC, in the early 1970s, that meant 710 AM WHB, “the World’s Happiest Broadcasters!” About the time I was entering high school, though, I switched from AM Top 40 to FM Album Oriented Rock. That’s a pretty common transition for people my age, but it was especially pronounced for me because my shift from grade school/AM to high school/FM coincided with my family’s move in 1976 from the KC working-class suburb of Ruskin Heights to the rural small-town setting of Peculiar, Missouri. My new home was just 20 or so miles south of where we’d lived before but at 15 it felt like I’d moved to another planet. It still does.

I was friendless that summer–and there were no friends to be made either, as we lived, literally, “out on the rural route,” on a gravel road outside of town on not quite 20 acres. So I spent most of my time listening to a new radio station–KYYS FM.

KY 102, as it was nicknamed, and the songs it played (”tracks,” they were called) were lifelines to the urban world I imagined I’d left behind. Two songs, in particular, stand out to me from that time, Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” and, especially, the Little River Band’s “Long Way There.” The eight minute album version of that LRB song that KY played seemed to be written just for me. 

After I left for college in the fall of 1980, I didn’t listen to KY much anymore–from AOR to college rock snob is, regretably, another cliched transition–but it was nice to know I could tune in occasionally for a shot of ELO, Bob Seger, AC/DC, Foreigner, Boston, Styx, REO–all among the bands I cranked during my high school years, head phones on and alone up in my room or, later, cruising the Harrisonville Sonic and the square with my friends on weekend nights.

Nowadays, those bands comprise for a certain kind of listener about as un-cool a playlist as could be imagined. For me, though, back then, those bands represented the sophisticated big city ways that I’d lost. Well, you had to be there. But, really, anyone who believes that Radiohead or the Decembrists or Sonic Youth or whoever are better or more serious rock bands, or even less pretentious ones, than, say, Rush or Kansas is practicing class prejudice and self-congratulation much more than they are engaging in any critical aesthetic distinction.

KY went off the air last week, replaced by a new format called “the Boulevard.” I’ll have more to say about that switch in a future post, but today I just want to mourn KY. It was a mainstay of the FM dial for thirty years in Kansas City, embelmatic of my Dazed and Confused-era aesthetic as were t-tops, tube tops, and trying to find a buyer on Friday nights. Indeed, the station was so important for a lot of people that when it was taken off the air once before, in 1997, an overwhleming listener protest led KYYS to reemerge at 99.7 FM, its on-air personnel and Hippo logo in tact.

I don’t want to idealize KY. Even when I was growing up, it was a blatantly segregated format. It played Joe Cocker but not Ray Charles, for example, and it had a disco-sucks styled promotion called the Rock and Roll Army of which I am not proud to confess I belonged. For the most part, the station included no black people at all, at least none who weren’t named Jimi, and it didn’t too much better when it came to women. And, of course, it had long since become a dinosaur, bludgeoning a playlist that was not only stuck in the past but that was stuck in a frustratingly incomplete version of the past.

But when I listened to KY, from approximately 1976 to 1980, it was a great radio station. Seriously. It played four and five songs deep into some albums, and played stuff both a decade old and brand new, side by side. In fact, KY featured a variety of music that I think would shock people who weren’t there–it might even surprise some who were there but have just forgotten.

To prove that, I’ve compiled a long-ass list of the bands KY played on a regular basis during my high school years (If there was really only one or two tracks that KY played from that act back then, I’ve named them, but if they played many things from the artist, I’ve just listed the name with no specifics). A lot of these groups are the ones you’d expect, but it’s a long list–what station today has this much to draw upon in its regular format? And not just long but varied. Read through the whole list and I bet you’ll find surprise after surprise, with singer-songwriters, future Hall-of-Famers and new wavers holding their own with the expected arena rockers.

AC/DC, Aerosmith, the Allman Brothers, the Animals, April Wine, and the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

The Babys, Bad Company, BTO, Badfinger, the Band, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Pat Benatar, George Benson’s “On Broadway,” Blackfoot’s “Train, Train,” Black Oak Arkansas’ “Jim Dandy,” Black Sabbath, Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and “One Way or Another,” Blood Sweat and Tears, Blue Oyster Cult, Karla Bonoff’s “I Can’t Hold On,” the Boomtown Rats’ “Rat Trap,” Boston, David Bowie, Bread’s “Lost without Your Love,” Jackson Browne, Brownsville Station’s “Smokin’ in the Boys’ Room,” Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” and “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” and the Byrds.

Eric Carmen, Jim Carroll’s “People Who Died,” the Cars, Cheap Trick, Chicago, Eric Clapton, the Clash’s “Train in Vain,” Joe Cocker, Phil Collins, Alice Cooper, Elvis Costello, John Cougar, Cream, CCR, and CSN (and Y).

The Charlie Daniels Band, Spencer Davis Group, Deep Purple, Derek and the Dominos, Devo, Dires Straits, the Doobie Brothers, the Doors, Ian Dury’s “Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick,” and Bob Dylan.

Walter Egan’s “Magnet and Steel,” The Eagles, the Edgar Winter Group’s “Frankenstein,” Dave Edmunds’ “Crawling from the Wreckage,” ELO, ELP, and David Essex’s “Rock On.”

The Face’s, Jay Ferguson’s “Thunder Island” and “Shakedown Cruise,” Fleetwood Mac, Focus’ “Hocus Pocus,” Foghat, Steve Forbert’s “Romeo’s Tune,” Foreigner, Peter Frampton, and Free’s “All Right Now.”

J. Geils Band, Genesis, Golden Earring’s “Radar Love,” Grand Funk Railroad, Grateful Dead, the Guess Who, Arlo Guthrie’s “City of New Orleans,” Heart, Jimi Hendrix, the Hollies, Humble Pie’s “Thirty Days,” Ian Hunter’s “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida,” Joe Jackson, Donnie Iris’ “Ah! Leah!,” the James Gang, Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship, Jethro Tull, Billy Joel, Elton John, Rickie Lee Jones, Janis Joplin, Journey, and Judas Priest’s “Living after Midnight.”

Kansas, the King’s “The Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide,” the Kinks, Kiss, the Knack’s “My Sharona,” Led Zeppelin, John Lennon, Gordon Lightfoot, Little Feat, Little River Band, Kenny Loggins, Loverboy, Nick Lowe’s “Cruel to Be Kind” and “Swtichboard Susan,” Lynyrd Skynyrd, Manfred Mann, Marshall Tucker Band, Dave Mason’s “We Just Disagree,” Paul McCartney, Don McLean’s “American Pie,” Meat Loaf, Steve Miller, Missouri’s “Movin’ On,” Joni Mitchell, Molly Hatchet, Eddie Money, Moody Blues, Van Morrison, Mott the Hoople’s “All the Young Dudes” and Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen.”

Nazareth’s “Love Hurts,” Randy Newman’s “Short People,” Ted Nugent, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, the Outlaws, Pablo Cruise, Robert Palmer, the Alan Parsons Project, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Pink Floyd, Poco, the Police, Pretenders, Procul Harem’s “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” and Queen.

Gerry Rafferty, the Raspberries’ “Go All the Way,” Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love,” the Records’ “Starry Eyes,” Lou Reed, REO Speedwagon, the Rolling Stones, Linda Rondstadt, the Rossington-Collins Band, Roxy Music, Todd Rundgren, Rush, Santana, the Secrets’ “Uniform,” Bob Seger, Shooting Star, Paul Simon, Patti Smith’s “Because the Night,” Sniff & the Tears’ “Driver’s Seat,” Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl,” Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny’s “Vertigo,” Billy Squier, Ringo Starr, Steeler’s Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle,” Steely Dan, John Stewart’s “Gold,” Rod Stewart, Styx, Supertramp, and Sweet.

Talking Heads, James Taylor, Bram Tchaikovsky’s “Girl of My Dreams,” 10CC, Thin Lizzy, .38 Special, George Thorogood, Toto’s “Hold the Line,” Traffic’s “Low Spark of the High-Heeled Boys,” Triumph, Trooper’s “Raise a Little Hell,” T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong,” the Tubes, Uriah Heep, Vangelis, Van Halen, Joe Walsh, War, Bob Welch, the Who, Wings, Steve Winwood, Gary Wright, the Yardbirds’ “For Your Love,” Yes, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Warren Zevon, and ZZ Top.

I told you it was a long list! 

Even so, I doubt it’s complete. If you were around back then, and can remember something I’ve missed, please let us know. And if you grew up somewhere else, did you have a major commercial radio station with such a large and varied playlist?

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 8:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

21 Responses to “Bye Bye, KY”

  1. Chris Manson Says:
    January 21st, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    I have this great poster from WGLD-FM, circa early 70s when my father was GM of the Chicago radio station. “The #1 Progressive Rock Station,” it reads, with a bunch of photos of wildly varying artists assembled to form the numeral “1.” It has the usual early FM suspects, but also Fats, Ray, the Everlys, etc.

    Too young to remember listening, but that would be my dream station.

  2. Tater Says:
    January 21st, 2008 at 10:03 pm

    Wasn’t KY the Dr. Deminto affiliate in KC? I believe I heard my first John Prine song “Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian” via that program. Boy I didn’t know what I was missing.

    I also made my first “concert roadtrip” to see Cheap Trick at KY’s summer fest back in ?’85?. I remember driving with my buddies up D Hwy with the windows down, KY blaring on the radio headed to “The City” for my first glimpse of rock-n-roll.

    Kansas City was KY102 when I was a kid, while 60#1Country was Cass County.

    It’s tragic that the only station in the country with Missouri’s “Movin On” in steady rotation is 101 the Fox:)

    God Speed KY

  3. Happy Says:
    January 21st, 2008 at 10:29 pm

    I couldn’t resist your challenge. Here are two obscure songs and one staple you missed:

    Head East- “Never Been Any Reason” was a staple.
    The Fabulous Poodles- “Mirror Star” had a fun three months in rotation.
    Flash & the Pan- “Hey St. Peter” was a good one.

    And do you remember the $1.02 concerts? I saw both U2 and R.E.M. from the balcony of the Uptown Theater that way.

  4. David Cantwell Says:
    January 21st, 2008 at 11:22 pm

    Happy–You know, I actually typed the Fab Poodles cut but then deleted because I wasn’t sure if I remembered right. KY really was on board, briefly, with the a big chunk of New Wave…

    And you’re right about the Head East cut, too. How could I have forgotten that one!?

    Chris–Fats and the Everlys and Charles? Yeah, they never played those acts on KY, but they should’ve. Dream station indeed…

    Tater, I have my own KY roadtrip story to share, maybe in my next post… -David

  5. steve Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 2:03 am

    This made me smile…fuck, I’m an old man now!
    Lower Delaware (or downstate, as it’s known) didn’t have a proper rock station until after 1980. There was a station through the 70s that was Top 40ish during the day, but would rock harder at night (no ABBA after dark). It was WSUX (really…and eventually it did). Saturday night was dedication/request night, and it was always “Freebird” and “Stairway to Heaven.” And yeah, they played the Beatles as if they were new. The Trooper song and “Shakedown Cruise” are good memories. Also some song called “Here For a Good Time (Not a Long Time),” the Rockets’ cover of “Oh, Well” (better than Fleetwood Mac’s original, to me), and Randy Bachman’s post BTO band, Ironhorse. And “Black Betty” by Ram Jam. A good bit of Seals & Croft, too, which was weird, but a lot of people liked ‘em. “Don’t Throw Stones,” by the Sports.
    Shit, I’ve goota stop. Nice ride…
    PS We didn’t hear no Ian Dury or Jim Carroll, though.
    PSS It’s strange, now, to think that rockers used to listen to Little River Band.

  6. Rick Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 5:19 am

    KY may seem golden in retrospect, but all I remember is being frustrated that they wouldn’t play the new wave while it was happening. I don’t recall hearing Elvis, Nick, Roxy, Devo, et al. Nor Poco before them. Maybe I didn’t listen enough. I was a college radio snob then …

  7. Spencer Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm

    Hello David. K-SHE FM 95 in St. Louis looks to be quite similar to KY 99. I heard all of the above mentioned songs growing up listening to it. That said, I’m so disgusted with commercial radio these days because I was always led to believe they were there for the music. Maybe so in the 70’s, when they played album tracks and the dj’s actually knew a little about the records they were playing. However generic those records may look now - it’s what it was. Movies like “Dazed and Confused” and “Fast Times At Ridgemont High” really summed up the times. “Freaks and Geeks” was a short lived treasure too. So, my heart wants to dog these rock stations that didn’t play a list of songs (probably ten times as long as the one you listed), but I believe they at least cared about the music. Now, it’s either community radio, or satellite to get any great music shows. As Bruce says, it’s “radio nowhere”. Kudos to the fine dj’s on the community radio stations playing music that matters - and that we all need to hear! Oh, and by the way - as much as I thought K-SHE was the bomb growing up, if they closed up shop tomorrow it would have zero impact on me. They lost me somewhere back in late high school anyway…

  8. Steve Pick Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 pm

    Spencer’s on the money about the comparison between KY and KSHE, though I think some of the songs listed here were more likely to turn up on KADI, KSHE’s chief competitor at the time. But, what needs to be mentioned about all these stations is the live concerts and full-length albums that would get played.

    KADI broadcast Elvis Costello’s first concert in St. Louis live. I heard a Springsteen show from Cleveland on KSHE in about 77. Every Sunday night, KSHE played full album sides from seven different records. And, then there were the syndicated shows, like the King Biscuit Flower Hour.

    I picketed KSHE trying to get them to play New Wave, but in retrospect, that was a much stronger time for commercial radio than we have known since 1983 or so.

  9. Spencer Says:
    January 23rd, 2008 at 6:32 pm

    Yes. Steve is correct. Every Sunday night starting at 7PM, they’d play five albums in a row (in their entirety). It was called “The Seventh Day” show. I used to set my tape recorder nearly every Sunday evening. KSHE did do some cool things back in the day. Steve mentioned picketing KSHE in hopes of getting them to play New Wave music. Heck, Steve and other St. Louis local music lovers started a magazine back in 1980 called “Jet Lag” chronically pop, rock and new wave of the time. And it wasn’t all indie either as (they - at least Steve) were never too shy about liking some disco and other popular styles. It’s fascinating stuff and now available online thanks to Steve actually scanning old copies to read online. He also blogs about certain issues too. Great stuff at http://www.jetlagmag.net/home.html

  10. David Cantwell Says:
    January 24th, 2008 at 12:18 am

    Rick et al…KY did play new wave, surprising at it may seem today. But I bought, for instance, Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces because, having already heard KY play What’s So Funny… and Accidents Will Happen, they also played…you’re not going to believe this maybe…Green Shirt. I bought Talking Heads Fear of Music becuase KY played Life During War Time. Joe Jackson’s Is She Really Going Out with Him was in pretty heavy rotation, as was Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders, all sorts of pre-super star status Police. And so on.

    It should be noted, though, that on this issue of new wave on rock radio, KY was not unique but rather just following the trend of the moment. The summer of 1979, in particular, was one in which all sorts of early new wave cracked (though usually just barely) the American pop charts. KY followed suit, but it didn’t last…

    Two other tracks I have recently remembered but forgot to add to my long late 70s KY playlist: Ian Gomm’s Hold On also from 1979 (the melody of which is a perfect marriage of Nick Lowe and Fleetwood Mac; talk about of the moment) and, at least a couple of times, Tonio K’s Funky Western Civilization!

  11. steve Says:
    January 24th, 2008 at 1:39 am

    okay, last one…”friday night,” by herman brood’s wild romance. your fault, ’cause you mentioned ian gomm…
    was chilliwack too 80s?

  12. David Cantwell Says:
    January 24th, 2008 at 3:37 am

    I think the only Chilliwack I remember was Gone Gone Gone You Been Gone So Long–was that Chilliwack?–and that was like 81 or so I think. But Chiliwack makes me remember Nantucket’s “Heartbreaker.” They’re album had a giant lobster on it!

  13. Spencer Says:
    January 24th, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    I think the Chilliwack song was, “Fly At Night”. And Nantucket? “Heartbreaker, you mean misery maker..” Classic stuff.

  14. Steve Pick Says:
    January 28th, 2008 at 12:46 am

    I can’t remember if it was Nantucket or Trooper who showed up at the movie theatre where my brother took tickets one night back in the late seventies. I know he was excited to hang with such big giant stars!

    And, David, if KY played “Green Shirt,” then it was legions ahead of what we had in St. Louis.

  15. A Couple Days Off « The Hits Just Keep On Comin’ Says:
    February 12th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    […] Want proof? Check this post from David Cantwell at the inestimable Living in Stereo, about the demise of Kansas City’s KYYS-FM, a heritage album-rock station that dumped classic rock for adult alternative last month. It includes an astonishing list of bands and songs Cantwell remembers hearing during the station’s original heyday 30 years ago. Precious few classic-rock stations today, if any, would play everything on that list. My station doesn’t. To find it, you’d most likely have to go to satellite radio—the Vault on Sirius, for example, or whatever XM’s equivalent is. […]

  16. James Says:
    February 15th, 2008 at 6:32 am

    When I used to listen to “The Loop” in Chicago, ca. 1979-81, there were a lot of marginal things that time eventually forgot:

    “Rather Be Rockin’”, Tantrum
    “Slip Away,” “Goose Bumps,” Ian Lloyd
    “Media Man,” Flash & the Pan
    “Back Of My Hand,” Jags
    “Stay In Time,” Off Broadway
    “African Nights,” Pezband
    “Real Love,” Cretones
    “Don’t Misunderstand Me,” Rossington-Collins Band
    “Dirty Water,” Inmates
    “Too Late,” Shoes
    “Under My Thumb,” “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy,” Hounds
    “No Mercy,” Nils Lofgren
    “Saturdaynight,” “Heart & Soul Rock & Roll Junkie,” Herman Brood & his Wild Romance
    “Local Girls,” Graham Parker

    Power-pop was huge in Chicago then, and was probably the only way mainstream radio could ever feel comfortable with anything remotely resembling new wave. Although there are a few arena-rock left-behinds on this list (like Rossington-Collins, spun off from Lynyrd Skynyrd), the skinny-tie Knack influence was long & strong on Chicago radio ca. 1980. The Loop is still around as a classic rock station, although I’m sure every last one of these songs fell off the playlist a long time ago.

  17. Ed Jones Says:
    February 17th, 2008 at 7:15 am

    KY is gone? What a shame. I listened to KY when it first came on the air in 1974. They were an excellent station. Dick Wilson, Max Floyd were the first announcers on that great station. They did play some black artists. I do recall them playing the lp version of I Am Love by the Jackson Five, As by Stevie Wonder, Shining Star from Earth Wind and Fire. They played early REO Speedwagon. Their song Keep Pushing was in heavy rotation in late ‘76 and early ‘77. I also agree they played some great 60’s classics along with the current material. I concur that the classic rock stations today would not touch the a lot of the songs that KY played in the mid to late 70’s. RIP KY.

  18. RK Says:
    March 6th, 2008 at 12:16 am

    Proof that Joni Mitchell was right; “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.”

    I remember a little further back, too…

    Before there was a KY, there was KUDL-FM; before that, there was KBEY. And before any of those, we had to depend on KAAY, the “Mighty 1090″ in Little Rock AR after 11 PM to hear anything besides The Jackson Five of The Osmond Brothers.

    Some of the former KY DJs have filed suit against Entercom (owners of the station) for age discrimination; I hope they win.

    Good news for those of us who do remember Beaker Street (the show that was on KAAY after 11 PM)…it is streamed on the web on Sunday nights, 7 PM to Midnight on KPPT 94.1 in Little Rock.

    http://www.point941.com/pointweb/index.html

    Just put ‘Beaker Street’ into your favorite search engine and follow the links.

    This is the show that taught the AOR stations how to do it: fabulous butt-kickin’ rock & roll served up by laid-back personalities. Clyde Clifford should be in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with Max Floyd.

  19. Steve B Says:
    March 14th, 2008 at 3:09 am

    RK must be as old as me. I can remember running an antenna up to the attic so we could get Beaker Street from Little Rock on the radio at night in NKC.
    And listening to KUDL AM when it kicked WHB’s ass with real rock songs in the early 70s

  20. B.J. Says:
    October 15th, 2008 at 3:35 am

    RK and Steve B are not alone. I do remember KAAY in the early 70s. Though my friends and I(all suburban St. Louis kids) listened almost exclusively to KSHE. we would switch over to “the big KY” out of Little Rock to listen to Beaker Street. The signal was fairly strong, even in car radios. It was a different mind set, to be sure, and was the background music to many an adventure in what was then the wilds of west St.Louis County. Even into my 1st year of college, but, I, as did many, moved on as more bits of life demanded their time.

  21. Verne Elliott Says:
    October 19th, 2008 at 1:03 am

    I also grew up in KC listening to KY102 & 99.7KY. When they went off the air a decided to start my own station on the internet KCTunes.com to fill the void for good classic rock. See what you think and let me know.

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