I hear about KNXFM93.com from readers at regular intervals.
Last week, Irv Goldstein, CEO/president of Berkshire Broadcasting, reached out to ask if I’d heard the online re-creation of KNX-FM Los Angeles during its ‘70s/early ‘80s soft-rock heyday. Goldstein grew up in the Northeast listening to a similar format on pre-disco WKTU New York and pre-Country WWYZ Hartford, Conn. “Stumbling across this was akin to finding Atlantis,” he wrote. “The best audio-processed stream I’ve ever heard too.”
Three months earlier, reader Paul Harner had chimed in about KNX-FM. “Some of it might be considered ‘yacht rock’ today, but that doesn’t quite tell the story,” he wrote. “The term ‘West Coast’ might be a more accurate description.” (As it turns out, KNXFM93’s Douglas Brown hates the term “yacht rock.”) Harner also liked that “the processing has a similar sparkle to the original station’s air chain.”
Last year, Robert Unmacht, publisher of the Tom Taylor Now newsletter, wrote in on behalf of the other online version of KNX-FM. This one was KNXFM.com, programmed by Michael Sheehy, who had been MD of KNX-FM in the ‘70s, then PD in the early ‘80s until the station’s change to KKHR (Hitradio 93) during the CHR boom in 1983. Harner liked both stations, but felt like KNXFM93 was more fully realized. Unmacht was writing to pass along a column from L.A.-area radio writer Richard Wagoner, who had written about the station twice in three months by then.
KNX-FM’s soft-AOR format was found in many large markets during the ‘70s. Some of those stations, like WMGK Philadelphia, evolved to become key stations in AC’s late ‘70s breakthrough. In the mid-‘80s, after KPWR (Power 106) forced KKHR out of the format, KNX-FM returned to “quality rock,” but by that time AC KOST (which played a lot of Ambrosia and Jackson Browne in its early days) was too entrenched. Plus, in that period, when AOR was reacting to Classic Rock, that whole format was sort of mellow. You could hear a lot of “quality rock” on KLOS.
Between them, the KNX-FM tribute stations are the ones that generate the most unsolicited mentions from Ross On Radio readers; that might be once every few months, but given the number of choices for online radio stations, that still takes some enterprise. And the readers who’ve written about KNXFM93 weren’t people who grew up with the station — just the music, and the little bit of Southern California that it brought to other places. The interest in the station is in keeping with what we’ve seen recently for ‘70s-based pop stations like KDRI (The Drive) Tucson, Ariz., and even Easy Listening KNCT Killeen, Texas.
Douglas Brown worked for the mid-‘80s KNX-FM. He’s one of four principals who oversee the station together; he’s also the de facto production director, writing and producing new imaging that recalls the original feel of the station. (The voice of the new station is ‘70s KNX-FM PD Steve Marshall.) Brown has also refurbished and remastered several of the station’s original short-form artist specials, including the upcoming “Randy Newman: Short People & Tall Tales,” which airs on Nov. 21. Recently, such original core artists as Carly Simon, James Taylor, and Al Stewart have all contributed liners.
KNXFM93 plays more than 2,000 songs. Brown says 98% are songs that the original station played, some of them discovered by going through the original automation reels. Brown says that listener response has been more to artists not typically heard on the radio — J.J. Cale, for instance — than to individual songs. If there is a signature artist, it’s Linda Ronstadt, represented by approximately 30 titles.
I took a “Fresh Listen” to Sheehy’s KNXFM.com as well. KNXFM93.com is more produced, including the original station’s “Odyssey Files” feature, although both channels run the mini-song-length jingles that KNX-FM was associated with. Both stations introduced me to songs I didn’t know when I listened; on Sheehy’s station, they tend to be deeper cuts from the format’s core artists. On KNXFM93, they’re often from the Pousette-Dart Band-type acts that were mostly stars in the soft-rock radio universe.
Both stations play Earth, Wind & Fire and other R&B acts that were part of the AOR format until the late ’70s. I heard KNXFM play Quincy Jones, “Bet’cha Wouldn’t Hurt Me” and there have been other titles from the early ’80s jazz/R&B/AC crossover period. KNXFM also plays some artists who eventually ended up on the AC side of the divide when “soft” and “rock” split apart in the late ’70s as well, such as Anne Murray and Lobo. But it’s artist-by- artist; the station doesn’t play onetime KNX-FM artists like the Carpenters or Captain & Tennille. KNX-FM itself played Barbra Streisand briefly at its launch, Brown notes.
Brown talks about finding a song on the automation reels that everybody vaguely remembered, but nobody could identify. Eventually, it was determined to be “Desert Moon” by Thieves, a 1979 LP cut by an Arista act pseudonymously produced by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn; it was added to the station, but not until after the title had been found through a copyright database, the group’s female lead singer had been found, and a clean copy of the album had been located in a Chicago record store. That the song made it to KNX-FM at the time speaks to a level of music director enterprise typical then, but unheard of now. The station’s Brad Goldman recalls taking the Thieves song to a record swap meet in case anybody knew it; he also cites another deep cut, Glenda Griffith’s 1977 Don Henley-produced “All My Friends.”
Here’s KNXFM93.com at 1:00 p.m., Nov. 11:
- Nielsen/Pearson, “Two Lonely Nights”
- Little Feat, “All That You Dream”
- Eric Clapton, “Another Ticket”
- Elton John, “Love Song”
- Kim Carnes, “Where Is Your Heart”
- Beatles, “Fool on the Hill”
- James Taylor, “Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight”
- Ambrosia, “Biggest Part of Me”
- Charlie Dore, “Wise to the Lines” (Joni/Steely Dan-esque jazz/rock shuffle that sounds nothing like “Pilot of the Airwaves” or her original “You Should Hear How She Talks About You”)
- Rodney Crowell, “Shame on the Moon” (original version of the Bob Seger hit)
- Simon & Garfunkel, “Cecilia”
- Tim Moore, “Second Avenue”
- Carly Simon, “Attitude Dancing”
- Sailor, “Jacaranda”
- John Paul Young, “Love Is in the Air”
- Earth, Wind & Fire, “After the Love Is Gone”
- Rolling Stones, “Wild Horses”
- Mickey Thomas, “Can You Fool” (precedes Glen Campbell’s 1978 top 40 hit by a year)
Here’s Sheehy’s KNXFM.com at 2 p.m. on November 11. KNXFM’s processing was pretty vivid as well, and there’s a choice of stream quality:
- Little River Band, “The Other Guy”
- Beatles, “All Together Now”
- Gerry Rafferty, “Baker Street”
- Ian Matthews, “Don’t Hang Up Your Dancing Shoes”
- Eric Clapton, “Lay Down Sally”
- Joni Mitchell, “Night in the City”
- Supertramp, “Rudy”
- Paul Simon/Phoebe Snow, “Gone at Last”
- Dave Mason, “Here We Go Again”
- Neville Brothers, “Fire on the Bayou”
- Carly Simon, “Jesse”
- Mick Fleetwood, “Cassiopeia Surrender”
- Queen, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”
- Dan Fogelberg, “Scarecrow’s Dream”
KNXFM93.com’s other partners are Dale Berg, who launched the station with another format, and Pat Veling, who convined Berg to launch the KNX tribute. The station accepts listener donations.
