***A note to air check traders. Please do not record these air checks and try and trade. I have the original tapes many of which I recorded myself and thus the authenticity can not be in doubt and can be easily traced.
Three hours plus of B Mitchell Reed on KMET from June 10, 1975. The station may have been past it’s prime but the creativity and irreverence is still apparent.
Most of the music played is from the “Johnson Years.“ Now I know where KOME FM got their idea for the LBJ years.
You will hear an interesting and recurrent station ID using a bit from the Firesign Theater. A diverse set of music particularly on the third clip where you will hear The Rainy Daze, Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Count Basie and more. BMR at one point asks listeners to tune in to a competing radio station. Listen to Shadoe Steven`s reaction to that as he takes over near the end of the third clip.
More to come from KMET and other L.A. stations. Watch this space.
Two vintage air checks from The Los Angeles area featuring KPPC and KMET FM.
KPPC FM was the second progressive rock station in California, the first being KMPX in San Francisco. Both stations were founded by ex San Francisco top 40 jock Tom Donahue in 1967. Donahue brought another ex top 40 legend, B Mitchell Reed, to the station. KPPC ‘s initial progressive lineup left the station in a dispute with management and many of them including Donahue and B Mitchell Reed soon found a new home at Metromedia station KMET.
Both stations employed a number of well known free form era jocks including Charles Laquidara who worked at KPPC before joining WBCN.
The first clip features DJ Cosmos Topper on KPPC from September 1971 and though the founders of the station had left by this time, the station retained a free form format. You will hear plugs for shows by The Firesign Theater and Dr Demento and both of these acts also worked with KMET. The history and personnel from the two stations are intertwined.
KPPC’s time as a progressive station came to an end during the fall of 1971 but KMET carried on with the format. The second clip features B Mitchell Reed on KMET FM from June 1975. The station’s format was beginning to tighten and you can hear mainstream AOR creeping in but there was still some creativity and eclecticism left to make for an interesting listen. KMET, during this era, featured Shadoe Stevens and Jimmy Rabbit who also worked at the a third interesting LA station KROQ FM.
KMET was broadcasting a Quadraphonic signal at the time of this air check.
I have more tape from KPPC and KMET that I will upload in the future.
The third clip consists of one song that I found on a a tape that may be recorded off a Canadian radio station sometime in 1973. Can someone ID the artist ?
