KROY Goes Top 40
In 1960, KROY flipped to a Top 40 format competing against the stronger-signaled KXOA which had made the switch earlier. This competition would continue through the 1960s with KROY usually winning the ratings. Competition was fierce. Employees switched back-and-forth between the two stations, records were stolen from each other with claims "You heard it first on...", even local favorites The Beach Boys recorded promos claiming "When we're in Sacramento we listen to number one radio..." KROY had also moved its studios to 11th and J Streets (1010 11th Street), occupying the second floor above the Country Maid Restaurant. The KROY transmitter, which had been located in the southeastern part of the city (on KROY Way), was moved to the Sacramento City Dump at 24th and A Streets where the organic materials supposedly increased broadcast output.
KROY would play the top hits of the days by artists including Frankie Avalon, Chubby Checker, The Shirelles, The Four Seasons, The Beach Boys, The Beatles and the music of the British Invasion, Bob Dylan, the sounds of Motown, plus all the various dance sounds of the time; the Twist, The Watusi, and the Mashed Potato. The station became a homing ground for many disc jockeys who would find fame nationwide. Morning drive personalities in these early years included Gary Owens, Don MacKinnon, and Robert W. Morgan. Other notable personalities included Mark Ford, Dick “Buffalo” Burch, Mike Cleary, Buck Herring, Ron Lyons, and Tony Bigg. More important to the station's success was the highly-honored leadership of General Manager Dwight Case. He would run the station well into the 1970s before joining RKO Radio.
Read more about this topic: KROY (defunct)
Famous quotes containing the words top 40 and/or top:
“We fight our way through the massed and leveled collective safe taste of the Top 40, just looking for a little something we can call our own. But when we find it and jam the radio to hear it again it isn’t just ours—it is a link to thousands of others who are sharing it with us. As a matter of a single song this might mean very little; as culture, as a way of life, you can’t beat it.”
—Greil Marcus (b. 1945)
“In all her products, Nature only develops her simplest germs. One would say that it was no great stretch of invention to create birds. The hawk which now takes his flight over the top of the wood was at first, perchance, only a leaf which fluttered in its aisles. From rustling leaves she came in the course of ages to the loftier flight and clear carol of the bird.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)