More LA music

My good friend Len wrote a good post about Indie 103.1. I go back with KROQ much farther.
In Los Angeles in the 70s and 80s, young people tended to choose a radio station to identify with. Sure, people had specific bands they liked, but it was important that you had a cool radio station sticker on your notebook.
Back in 1981 I was in Junior High School and my station was KIQQ 100.3, a general Top 40 station. I decided that I wanted a new station. I wasn’t much liking the Top 40 stuff anymore and now that I was 14, I needed a new image. At the time, the cool stations in my thoughts were KMET (rock with a metal edge), KLOS (mainstream rock), KNAC (heavy metal), and KROQ (new wave).
I listened to them all and the new wave synth pop of Duran Duran, Devo & Blondie and the punk of X & the Sex Pistols drew me into KROQ. I became an avid listener of KROQ and got the requisite stickers from my notebook and locker. Since then, KROQ has been my primary music radio station. (Wow. 23 years of listening to the station…)
The lineup I would hear back then can be seen here. You could call up, talk to the DJ and they would actually play your song. Or sometimes they would yell at you if they thought the song sucked. We felt quite connected to the station and they were always playing new music and asking for comments.
The next 5-6 years, IMHO, was the golden age of KROQ, the ‘ROQ of the Eighties‘ era much fabled. The DJs were all on drugs, the music was fresh, and the station was something you could play at parties and not hear the same thing twice in a night.
Like most good things, this didn’t last. Grunge rock arrived in the early 90s with Nirvana and New Wave died a painful death. KROQ has continued to change with the times in the direction of maximum ratings. ‘Modern Rock’ is the new genre of KROQ and they absolutley dominate this on the national level.
If you told KROQ DJs or listeners in 1985 that KROQ would ever play Metallica they would have pissed their pants laughing. Yet today, Metallica and slew of basically metal rock bands are passed off as ‘alternative’. Gone are DJs deciding what to play or new artists stoping by the studio to chat and play a new record. It’s all carefully managed with iron-clad rotations and firm rules on band appearances. To get heavy airplay on KROQ these days, you pretty much HAVE TO appear at the summer Weenie Roast and the winter Acoustic Christmas concerts. Just like Clearchannel, the behemoth of America radio.
The music that Indie 103.1 is playing is in the ‘style’ of what KROQ played and would be playing today if things had not changed. Soon the wacky DJs, commercials and promos will appear on-air and we’ll get the full version of what this new station will or won’t be.
For now, I’m in heaven. I’ve got 100% pure good music.
The eternal optimist, I’m hoping for the best.

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    18 thoughts on “More LA music”

    1. Ya, what the hell is up with KROQ playing Metallica all the time. Does anyone like that crap?
      Personally, when ever I came in range of San Diego 91X was the station of choice. Hell, we would go on road trips just to get some good music.
      I’ve been listening to the 103.1 stream and gotta say that it has the best music selection of any station (barring perhaps Morning Becomes Ecclectic on 89.9).

    3. I can tell a similar story about KROQ.
      Moving to Orange County from western Oklahoma in 1984 was a big shock. Hearing back to back to back Devo songs on KROQ one Saturday was a bigger shock.
      (Devo – on the radio? Could such a thing be possible?)
      I was hooked.

    4. I was looking up e-mail addresses of MeFites who’d expressed an interest in the upcoming LA MeetUp, and I stumbled onto your blog and your post about the Golden Age of K-ROQ.
      Not to brag, but I was there in ’84. Saw the studios (which was then located above a dentist’s office in Pasadena just south of the Mall), met most of the DJs (who, as you said were very accessible and all on drugs – except Raymondo, who, when I met him had just gone through a ‘leave of absence’ rehab and was bein a good boy), and got my voice on the station (mostly as part of “Newsrag”, a Sunday feature that was part of their news requirement but really was a heroic but failed attempt to create a new generation of ‘Firesign Theater’ or ‘Credibility Gap’ satire…).
      Nice little overview of the history of K-ROQ here:
      http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1346/11_46/79396173/p1/article.jhtml
      Everybody talks about ClearChannel, but K-ROQ has been owned for 15+ years by Infinity Radio, a division of Viacom and sister station to KNX Newsradio, the WAVE, K-EARTH and Howard Stern. What can you expect?
      Thanks for the tip for 103.1; can’t get the signal here in The Valley but what I’ve picked up on their webcast in the last half-hour is good for what ails me. I’ve lost contact with all my old ‘radio neighbors’ from K-ROQ and elsewhere (would you believe KFI in the ’70s?). If I have any surviving K-ROQ-aphanalia, I’ll bring it to the MeFi MeetUp… Hope you’ll do the same.

    5. KROQ? Do you Old Skoolahs really remember the ROQs of L.A.? I do and I remember KPPC, before that playing every single genre available — I think they were playing Led Zeppelin boots and Bessie Smith 78s with The Rite Of Spring in between! KPPC was way too hip to last.
      Speaking of Too Hip, was not KROQ the home of Hollywood Night Shift, the free association/improve show that mutated into Frazier Smith’s Friday and Saturday night KROQ shows, the greatest radio programs ever?
      Okay, you kids, off to bed now, and I’ll tell you more stories of ’70s KROQ tomorrow night.

    6. I am trying so hard to enjoy Indie 103. I have this irrational idea that maybe it will mean I’m cool if I like it. But I just can’t do it. I try and I try but I can’t sit through 30 seconds of it. I keep switching back to Coast 103.5 Adult Contemporary.
      I am old. 🙁

    7. felt the need to clarify something here:
      back in 1981, KNAC (105.5 fm) was not metal. At that time their format was eclectic indie mix and they dubbed it “rock ‘n rhythm” and printed the slogan on ther bumper stickers. It was slightly similar to how KROQ used to be at that same time period. KNAC did not switch to their metal “Pure Rock” format until February 1986. The rest, as they say, is metal history.
      I have not yet tried the new format of 103.1, but I will now that i’ve read your post.

    10. I live in Washinton now, but born & raised in So Calif, listened to KROQ 1979-1986. It use to be the best station. Where else could you hear The Ramones, X, Stiff Little Fingers, The Clash & Human Sexual Response all in the same hour. Rodneys show was legendary and so were his listening parties. Miss those days couldn’t believe they ever played metal. I have to admit thought they started going down hill when Richard Blade got a prime radio time slot.

    11. word.
      i need to get the software to rip streaming audio as MP3. i have been researching lyrics for days and buying songs en masse from itunes.
      and anyone who knows that one irish type song they keep playing has dibs on my first born.

    13. Hey!
      I was just doing some search on K-Roq and came to this site. I live in Minnesota, so of course, I have never listened to K-Roq. Just a question, though: Did Carson Daly get his start at K-Roq?
      Thanks.

    15. Fraze ” The man so mean, the man so clean they just had to call me Frazzzz…”
      Loved his “poodle roasts in the valley”.
      His flying around LA with Stevie Nicks while she chopped off the heads of baby dolls.
      His run for president with the best slogans ever “A swimming pool in every yard, a hot dog in every bun, an ounce of cocaine in every hatband”.
      His T Shirts with the dice, and the champagne glass getting crushed by a stiletto heal……and of course his personnal “Must Get Laid” guarantee that came with each and everyone.
      Coming from Boston in “78” I thought we had some cool DJs and stations but The Fraz blew that wide open – I’d love to hear his rap today – I’ll bet he hasn’t grown up a bit……and neither have I……somewhere up in the attic I even have some tapes I made of him at the time…..that’s how good he was before he inevitably jumped the shark but what memories – Thanks Fraz – wherever you are.
      You truly were “Too Hip” !

    16. Right you are Domino. The Fraze was everything you wanted in a DJ. Irreverent, knowledgeable, and funny as Hell. “Too hip, gotta go”. What were some of his other catch phrases? It’s been a while.
      Lucky

    17. I remember his “Christmas in July” parties and his “Parties in my car” down on Sunset.
      He could fill a whole show with a stream of conciousness rap but had a bunch of catch phrases – come on out there – some of you folks have gotta remember more than me – I can still laugh out loud just thinkin’ bout some of his insane stuff.

    18. lived in LA early 80’s…..i remember Raymondo and the Blade and being SICK of hearing Oingo Boingo, Missing Persons and Berlin round the clock…..recently found a video thru ebay of the old Rock n’ America show that Frazier Smith hosted in the mid 80’s…..my girlfriend here in Boston remembered him fondly from 80’s tv………anything else from/by him out there? anybody ever tape stuff back in the day?

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