KKHR Los Angeles - The Whole Story! 

Hey Justo, that's an amazing relationship!! Thanks for sharing your story -- a treasure : )

You're right on dude!

Hey Chris, you're dead on! In '86 Jon and I sat down with Ed S. (P.D.). We were friends with a couple people at Power and felt that club music had made strides toward the mainstream. The "Dance Music" format was coming fast. We urged him to put a handful of Dance/Club music into the rotation. Unfortunately, Ed had to obey CBS. This ultimately sent the station spiraling down, which put the continuity and branding of KKHR in jeopardy. Especially when CBS started panicking, and for whatever stupid reason, dropped "Hit Radio," just "93 KKHR." The ultimate clue of its demise came when CBS changed it to "93.1 KKHR." Don't know if you know about CBS's "The Flamethrower" panic attack so enuf for now! Thanks again for writing! Steve

Another issue that KKHR had was that they never had a very large promotion budget for advertising or prize giveaways (as Ed Scarborough had said: “They (KKHR) went to war with rubber bullets.” KIIS (and KLOS) at the time was giving away Porsche 944’s with 10K in the glove compartment, while KKHR was giving away (honest!) cans of creamed corn!!! (Yes, i’m serious!). CBS wouldn’t even allow advertising trade with their sister TV station, KCBS-TV. Toward the end, KKHR managed to give away one, and only one, Nissan 244Z that the station got from an ad trade out, but it was too little, too late. The station flipped back to KNX-FM in 1986. I really had felt that Scarborough had wanted to take KKHR toward a rhythmic approach (They were playing some non-CHR Dance and Urban product toward late 1985). Unfortunately, the suits put a stop to it very quick. At the end, the consultant, Jeff Pollack, had turned KKHR into a 10-in-a-row jukebox, killing what was left of the “Hitradio” format. Footnote: One thing that KKHR had going for it was it had a large 28kW signal that covered the market with no issues. KIIS had to simulcast the FM signal with its AM in order to cover most of L.A.

Hey Robyn, really cool to meet another KKHR aficionado! During the time we were shooting this footage I befriended the staff and subsequently interned. Still friends with the (living) full timers. KKHR was TIGHT in its original vision! Thanks for adding to the story!! Steve

Steve Elliot Jacobs Elstein You’re welcome. Someone that was visiting L.A. from Toronto in 1985 had talked to Ed Scarborough during a tour of the station. During the conversation, Scarborough had told him that if CBS would have given him 1/10 of the promotion budget that KIIS had, he could have made the station a winner. Corporate was under the impression that if you gave the station a 10 million dollar budget for promotions, you can make that money back and extra very easily. But if you took that same amount and invested in CBS network programming, you can make 30 million back! In other words, CBS left their Top 40 O&O stations to rot on the vine with no virtual support, which left them no choice but to flip formats. The one exception was WBBM-FM/Chicago (B96), which had managed to trounced the other CHRs in that market.

@@robynwatts6578 Yup, Ed usually maintained that position.

It was THE coolest station. Making this video was a lot of fun. Thx 4 your commeng

KNAC bit the dust too. The last song they played was the early version of "Welcome to the Jungle," then they signed off for the last time, one minute later Mexican mariachi music starting playing on the same channel. A sign of the times I guess. When I visited my high school I found that it had become 91% Hispanic. But I shouldn't be surprised, I got my first kiss from a Mexican girl, and hit my first "home run" with another.

the reasons why KKHR gone out in the trash : 1) They are not heard on both AM and FM something that KIIS had back then, they should have converted KNX 1070 into an simulcast of KKHR and probably KKHR-AM calls and have the CBS Radio News affiliation as well. 2) Marketing money that would have made KKHR visible and viable. 3) Promotional gimmicks that equal or even better exceed KIIS and lastly 4) Cross promotion with KCBS-TV.

@@ianminzy CBS never intended to keep this format. The did not do any of the things you suggest because they didn't want to. CBS to this day will throw a fast burn CHR on the air only to change it in a year or two.

@@shineministries7 Then why even bother to do it if you aren't planning to commit?

@@ThePumpin1 It's a quick burn format. Short playlist, all hits, cash cow but won't last. That's why.

@@shineministries7 Honestly, I don't subscribe to your theory. The issue was not wanting to win. We didn't launch knowing we were going to dump the format. We had so much success in Chicago, St. Louis, Philly & Boston without major marketing dollars. The hole in the market was begging to be filled. KKHR required a different formula because of the success of KIIS. It required a ton of funding and corporate, primarily a TV Network, didn't understand the need for those funds.