The subject of FM Tuners got brought up in another fourm and got me to thinking about FM Radio in general and the lack of quality program material and lack of listener involvement these days.

I am speaking from a mostly Rock & Roll DJ time slot. I am not referring to Classical, Jazz or Talk Radio.

In June 1968 94.7 KMET was born and radio in Southern California was changed forever and it would appear will never be the same again.

The birth of Free-Form Radio on the West Coast. The DJ’s involved the listeners in their 4 hours sets. I call them sets because that’s what they were, it was not a time slot or a block. We would base gatherings at one another’s homes and listen and take part of that particular DJ’s “set”. Heck we would even sit in a car somewhere and listen to a set, plenty of dead car batteries.

We were able to call in and go on the air live and have an effect on the momentum of the set, actually choose the songs played. They would hold local events and we got to meet and party live on the air with other listeners in and around the area. The concert events were legendary. We could actually hang with and talk to these people.

Mr. Jim (Lord have mercy) Ladd ran a 10pm to 2am set every night that we at least weekly, more often in the summers, we would gather all the necessary supplies, turn it up to 11 and get into and participate in the set. When it was over we would pile into our cars and go to JoJo’s and graze.

We all listened to his set every night, even when not together as a group, and would talk about it the next day. We were there when he coined the “Headsets” name for his show. His shows always did and still do, he is on XM Deep Tracks, have themes that the listener determines the final destination. He calls his faithful his “Tribe”.

All the other DJ’s, Cynthia Fox, Raechel Donahue, Bob Coburn, Dr. Demento, Jeff “Gonzo” Gonzer, Paraquat Kelly, China Smith, The Burner Mary Turner, Ace Young and the rest of the cast of misfits all had their own shows with personality, character and intractability.

Here in Southern California with the fair weather also holds special KMET memories with the radio blasting, abundant sunshine and tanned bikini clad (married one of them) girls running around, refreshments everywhere and just enjoying the moment. At one two week gathering at my parents’ house (they were out of town), my buddies all brought over their stereos and we patched them all together through the tape circuits and we had 7 pairs of speakers in the living room, our own Wall of Sound if you will. We had multiple turntables and tape decks and would mix our own sets, Great Times!

If no one wanted to mix a set, flip on KMET and let it rip, no worries other than commercials.

At 10pm every night during that two week period we would put the 14 speakers in a circle, all other activities came to a halt, and sit in the middle and listen to Jims set for the full 4 hours. It was something that just happened and we looked forward to it. It was religion.

You never had to worry about a bad set, you could ALWAYS count on KMET to instantly cover the moment’s music needs.

Then corporate radio happened. In an instant KMET came to an end 1/14/87(actually 1/6/87 for the DJs) with no warning to them.

All the DJ’s literally came to work that day and found locked doors and a final check. They all went over to KLOS and had a big cry out that day live on the air.

Such a fantastic station with so much soul zapped into DJ free smooth jazz station that just sucked. It was a business decision and in the end the DJ’s did not hold a grudge.

KMET was inducted into the Rock Radio Hall of Fame in the Legends of Rock Radio Stations in 2014.

In 2009 and 2013, 100.3 The Sound had KMET tribute days and all the KMET DJ’s came in and did sets like in the old days.

Jim Ladd, the father of Free-Form radio is on XM Deep Tracks and with the exception of a few that have passed, the rest are still on the air on other stations mostly in the Southern California area.

That magic has never been recaptured. KLOS came close but is a corporate playlist, as well as KLSX was, before it went 24/7 talk.

KMET spawned KNAC for Heavy Metal for many years but at least when KNAC went down the DJ’s knew about it and were able to do a proper farewell. There last song was Fade To Black by Metallica, then the next song was Spanish music, as it still is today.

The only station Southern California has now that even has a hint of rebel is 100.3 The Sound where my friend Uncle Joe Benson (R.I.P. The Seventh Day) is a DJ. They shake it up as much as they can, but ultimately it’s a corporate playlist. For those that never got to partake in The Seventh Day, on Sunday nights Joe took seven albums and played them in their entirety. What a fantastic way to hear new music.

I love FM radio and still put a giant antenna on my roof (or attic) with a rotor and listen to radio, it just does not have the same magic.

The Jingle

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20 minutes on KLSX the next week WHOO.AA and gawd that relentless heart beat for a week till we found out we were boned into a smooth jazz station with no Djs,

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I miss the days of real radio. In the day I had a big antenna and appreciated excellent tuners. My favorite was the MR78 with it's little adjacent channel selectivity "trick". By rotating the antenna and using the narrow bandwidth IF strip, I could reach multiple metropolitan areas.

Now, it's the clash of the corporate playlists. Rather than a program manager and a staff with heart and community, it's an MBA with a spreadsheet managing multiple automated stations from a single desk. There are blocks of commercials running several minutes, a few minutes of content, then repeat.

At one point there was a family owned classical music station with a locked up audience. Likely, someone wanted to retire and the station was sold, the on-air personalities dumped, and there was an instant format change. But the station ended up as one station over the market limit for corporate and was sold again, and again, and again as various corporations jockeyed for market position and dumped their over the limit weak child. Each sale resulted in about a $10M profit. After being passed around and around, the final sale that I'm aware of was for about $60M. I can't imagine a business plan that can support that level of debt. Perhaps someone figured out how to use it as an accounting gimmick. Maybe it was the towers that everyone wanted. (Good location, AM & FM, permits in order)

In any case they can keep their corporate games, I'm not playing.

Yes radio now sucks, shopping for albums is done and streaming devices are gltchy. Music is no longer fun. Even my new car. XM sucks. Let that free trial run out. No CD player. You can bluetooth from phone which sucks too. Sorry, I miss WDIZ from central Florida when I was growing up.

Ask Joe about WZMF and WQFM. ZMF changed formats in October, '78 and it was the end in Milwaukee of what you're describing. QFM was great for several years, but it wasn't the same. Some of the DJs occasionally get together for reunions or special events, but they have basically scattered. Several are still in radio, one way or another. If he mentions The Mangy Man, that's Mark Krueger and he has a Prog show on Sunday evening called 'Planet Prog', on WMSE (the college station I have mentioned). It's one of the only stations worth bothering with and even though it's low power, staffed almost exclusively by volunteers and operating expenses are totally paid by donations, it has been a perennial favorite and top performer in the local polls. The only thing I know of that's given to the station by the school is the space where they operate.

Some friends and I got together at a bar the night ZMF went dark and after the last song, it was like being at a funeral- more whispering than speaking, a few glasses klinking and a whole lot of bummed out people.

The price of the station is high, but if their advertising costs $200/minute (I doubt it's that low) and they run ads 12 minutes/hour, they'll take in over $21 Million, annually.

Also growing up in LA that brought back a lot of memories. I was more of a KNAC fan and remember their last day. I vaguely remember KMET shutting down the door and heading over to KLOS.

I liked KNAC also and was listening when they played Fade to Black and signed off for the final time.

And yes on 1/6 the actual day they got fired/locked out they all went over to KLOS and had a big cry out, listened to that too.

If you want to hear a really cool old show, check out Radio First Termer. It was a radio show in the Vietnam war that broadcasted out of the back room of a brothel

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There are some enjoyable streams out there. Some SXM channels have some decent shows. KEXP out of Seattle, WTMD out of Towson, MD, both public radio stations, offer a good amount of new music mixed with old, both streaming online, check them out on a PC/desktio/laptop. KEXP streams on TuneIn, WTMD does not (last time I checked).

I really enjoy some of the XSM JamOn shows, Weekly Live Stash in particular. They will play 30+ minute songs, recorded live, including moe, Phish, Widespread Panic - people creating music with real instruments, heavily influenced by classic rock.

Folks in the business may know Kevin St John, who now works as a high end importer/distributor of screens, etc.

He worked at KQRS in Minneapolis when it was an independent FM station...

I made the transition from AM to FM in 1969, after borrowing my step dad's table top FM radio. KMET in 1969 was waayyy "underground", and I remember feeling that I had stumbled on something very special. Jimmy Rabbit was a jock on KMET in SoCal at that time that I really liked. Jim Ladd was (IMO) more commercialized and played a broader mix. By 1972, there wer so many FM option in SoCal that some of them had a hard time standing out. But 1969 and 1970 seemed like the genesis to me.

Searching on the net indicates Rabbit didn't join KMET until 71, but I would swear I was listening to him on the MET in 1970. KLOS was also "underground" in 70, and I think right next to the MET on the dial.

KLOS was/is 95.5, KMET was 97.1 on the dial.

KMET 94.7
KLOS 95.5
KEZY 95.9
KLSX 97.1

Hence the jingle posted AND the thread title, Little bit of heaven, 94.7 KMET Tweedle dee

KNAC 105.5
KROQ 106.7
KWST 106.1

How many of you sat around all day long waiting to hear DJ play your request?