Louisville Radio Ink
A collection of newspaper articles about Classic Derbytown Broadcasting

My heart is breakin' honey,
but I sure am makin' money!
This article appeared on the Scene section of the Louisville Times on February 14, 1976

By Rob Kasper
SCENE Staff Writer

When country disk jockey Mark (The Spark) Anderson recently told his WTMT radio audience that he and his wife "had split up, and I'm lookin' for a place to take a shower," the stations' telephone rang for an hour with offers of showers and solace.

The telephones at WINN, Louisville's other major country radio station, also have been ringing with callers requesting WINN disk jockeys, such as Bucks Braun, to play their favorite country records. Some neighborly souls have felt obliged to explain their plea: "How about helpin' a country boy fight a hangover," said a 10 a.m. caller who asked for a mellow tune. "I was drinkin' like a fish last night and now I wish I'd have just drunk red pop."

At WHAS, one of the area's biggest and mildest radio stations, an early morning show carries country music and advice from farm editor Barney Arnold. At WAVE, generally regarded as the area radio station Perry Como would feel most comfortable listening to, a song about truck drivers, "Convoy," has been getting air time. And even at the "rockers," radio stations WAKY and WKLO, crossover country hits, such as "Third Rate Romance" by the Amazing Rhythm Aces, have been mixed in with the latest from Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

All of which illustrates that in the Louisville area, as throughout the nations, country music radio is in clover. Growing faster than the number of backyard gardeners, the number of full-time country music radio stations in the United States and Canada has grown from 81 in 1961 to 1,050 last year. And according to the Country Music Association in Nashville, Tennessee, 37 percent of the 7,082 radio stations in North America now play at least some country music.

But while the hired hands at country radio stations are grinning at their new success, they also acknowledge that they have worries. Acting much like a country boy who has struck it rich in the big city, country radio stations are struggling with their identity and wondering about the changes and seeming contradictions their newfound status has brought them.

"There has been a big change in country music," says Anderson, who grew up in Harlan County and played in a small band before beginning his radio career. "They've laid down the dobros and megaphones. Country music has modernized....and it is a big, big business."

There are four main country music stations in the Louisville metropolitan area. Two are FM stations, WMMG (93.5) in Brandenburg, Kentucky, and WMPI (100.9) in Scottsburg, Indiana. While both are authentically country stations -- WMPI has a lengthy stockyard report at noon --- their signals are sometimes hard to pick up in Louisville. The two AM radio stations, WTMT (620) and WINN (1240), have good strong signals throughout the city.

Of the two AM country stations, WINN is larger and has corralled a respectable 11 per cent of the morning rush-hour listening audience. The 1975 ratings, published by Pulse, Inc., and estimating the 6-10 a.m. audience over 12 years of age, report that WINN trails WAKY, WHAS and WAVE. WAKY grabbed 20 percent of that audience, WHAS and WAVE each garnered 14 percent.

WTMT, the bantam rooster of country radio stations here - it goes off the air at sundown and doesn't subscribe to ratings services - has a small but, it claims, extremely loyal audience. A Pulse survey given to WINN indicates that WTMT's weekly audience in the metropolitan area comprises 8.5 percent of the men over 18 and 8.4 percent of women over 18.

"We're all into country music," said Hugh Barr, station manager of WHAS-AM. "I listen to WINN and they play an awful lot of songs we play, and that WAKY plays, Probably WLOU (soul radio) is the only station that doesn't play country music."

Country's new fans are, in part, made up of young educated adults who enjoy both the feisty pride of country music and the rough, rural poetry of its lyrics.

"Country music taps the disenchantment with urban living," says Dr. Richard A. Peterson, a professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, who has published several scholarly articles and a book on country music. The heroes of country music songs handle their urban showdowns in much the same style that the cowboy, America's mythical free spirit, handled his. When the law is after him, he takes to the road - in C. W. McCall's "Convoy," truckers outrun the police. When a beautiful woman tempts him, he falls but apologizes to his true love - the title of Conway Twitty's latest song is "This Time I've Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me." And when his woman gives him trouble, the country hero turns to the bottle - "She's Actin' Single, I'm Drinkin' Doubles," laments a popular tune. And these rural-based models of how to behave are proving to be appealing to disgruntled rush-hour cowboys.

One result is that country radio audiences, once written off by advertisers as interested in buying only flour or fertilizer, are now attracting such clients as automobile dealers and apartment building owners. "Advertisers are discovering that our listeners no longer suck on a piece of straw or dress in bib overalls," says Max Rein, general manager of WINN. While acknowledging that many listeners are "bumper-sticker-type guys…who drive campers," Lee Stinson, president of WTMT, claims there are "a lot of big rollers in Cadillacs and Lincolns" who listen to country music radio, too.

The average country music fan, according to surveys at events such as a 1973 George Jones-Tammy Wynette concert in New York and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, is white, 25-49 years old, has eight years of education and works in a blue-collar job that gives him an income of between $5,000 and $15,000 a year. Since many of their listeners are blue-collar workers, WINN, as well as other country stations, are selling advertisers on the notion that blue-collar workers are eager consumers. A WINN promotional packet called "A Tale of Two Collars," matches hourly wages of Louisville area blue-collar workers, such as electricians, who earn between $6 and $10 an hour, against the wages paid white-collar workers such as programmers, who are listed as earning $5 an hour.

Anderson, a fast-talking and blunt disk jockey and program manger at WTMT, puts it this way: "When Joe brings Mabel to town on a Saturday night and he has got $100 in his pocket - so much money in his pocket that he is walkin' with a limp - he's gonna spend it all."

Along with new status, country music radio stations have received a truckload of new problems. Foremost is the nettlesome question of what constitutes country music. As the music has become more popular, it has become less country. The twang of guitars and high voices are fast being replaced by the "full sound" of an orchestra and background singers. Violins are pushing out fiddles. Rebellious country singers have started to move from Nashville, the mecca of country music, to Austin, Texas. Bakersfield, California has also become a recording center for country artists.

Usually the radio stations choose to mix current Nashville sounds with "gold," that is, successful records of a few years back. Louisville's two AM country stations use this mix, a kind of country programming that critics call "chicken country," implying that it is not full-blooded country but a cheap imitation.

Even inside the rhinestone world of country music there is a rift between young long-haired singers, "outlaws" such as Willie Nelson, and the more traditional country performers.

The results of the rift and the subjective nature of determine what a "country" sound is were seen at WINN last fall. Then Moon Mullins replaced Al Rise as the station's music director. Risen liked Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain," and thought that Nelson's album, "Phases and Stages," also deserved to be played. But Mullins thought the album was too "harsh and brusque" to fit in with definition of country music. He didn't play it.

Attitudes change

WTMT's Anderson says that he won't play many old country recordings, even those of Roy Acuff, the grand ole man of the Grand Ole Opry. "They wouldn't be air-worthy…all that twangin'," says Anderson.

Two other aspects of country music that have accompanied its new popularity are its changed attitudes toward law and order and toward women.

Several years ago Merle Haggard's "Okie From Muskogee" was a country best seller as it castigated draft dodgers for not obeying the law. But nowadays the best seller is C.W. McCall's "Convoy," which makes heroes out of truckers who not only disobey the 55 m.p.h. speed limit, but also form a convoy, an outlaw band of truckers, that brazenly defies the police.

Five years ago Tammy Wynette's song title and advice, "Stand By Your Man," aptly summed up the country music model of women and marriage. But more recent lyrics tell of a more lenient attitude. Loretta Lynn, the girl from Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, recently caused a stir when she released a single called "The Pill." In this song, the woman, in barnyard metaphors, tells her husband that she is tired of him running around with other hens while she is tied to the brooder. But now that she has discovered the pull, she too is going to roam unless he wants to make "a deal."

"There is a recognition there," says Vanderbilt's Peterson, "That things are not right. Liberation may not be the answer, but neither is perpetual pregnancy." Peterson predicts that more of the new songs by women country singers will break away from the previous strict "You-Want-to-Make-Me-be-a-Mother" relationship between men and women that Tammy Wynette has sung about.

This transformation has started already. "Sometimes," a song currently played on Louisville's stations, begins with a man asking a women if she is married. She replies, "Sometimes." And several months ago a song briefly appeared that expressed a tough, get-even sentiment. It was titled "I'd Rather Be Picked Up At This Bar Than Put Down At Home."

Country music audiences no longer blush when sex is mentioned in their songs. A few years ago, though, WINN refused to play Conway Twitty's "You've Never Been This Far Before." The station figured that the lyrics, which talked about touching "forbidden places," were too strong for the Louisville audience.

Now WINN and most country stations freely spin disks with such explicit titles as "Love in the Hot Afternoon," "Motels and Memories," and "Don't Come Home a-Drinkin' With Lovin' on Your Mind."

"Our audience will tell us when we've played a song we shouldn't have, Rein at WINN says. "If they don't like the words of a song, our phones light up."

Neither WINN nor WTMT devotes much of its program time to national and international news.

WINN relines on ABC's Entertainment Network for its major news and has a report from conservative commentator Paul Harvey at noon. Last year, in an economy move, WINN eliminated its local news gathering team.

WTMT pays little attention to international news. "Our listeners don't give a damn about who (Secretary of State Henry) Kissinger is taking to tea," says Stinson, explaining why WTMT has community bulletin board in its newscasts. "They'd rather hear about the Black Mudd (Volunteer) Fire Department doing a good job for the (WHAS) Crusade for Children."

Stations make news

Last fall, when anti-busing activities accompanied the opening of Jefferson County public schools, both WTMT and WINN were in the unusual position of reporting and making news. WTMT made news when it aired "A Concerned Parent's Plea," a song critical of forced busing. The Task Force for Peaceful Desegregation then asked the radio station for a rebuttal. The group submitted a tape recording to the station, but the station said its quality wasn't good enough to be played on the air.

WINN made news when it, in a break with its previous policy of not becoming involved in social issues, asked listeners to send letters to the station expressing opinions on busing. WINN then delivered the letters, which were almost unanimously against busing, to Kentucky's senators and representatives in Washington.

In the future, country radio apparently will be dominated by stations that play a short list of songs and adopt a tight, fast-moving format. This is the pattern that made rock 'n' roll stations fast and sassy. Veteran listeners of WTMT and WINN have noted within the last six months that the station's disk jockeys are talking faster, the record selection seems to be smaller, and the jingles being used by the stations sound like those once used on Top 40 stations. WINN also is going to sponsor more contests such as the recent "Don't Say 'Uhhh'" contest.

At Vanderbilt, Peterson said that a large segment of the lower middle class, the group that makes up the core of country music listeners, also have a strong preference for "easy-listening" music such as songs by Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Accordingly, a large number of future country songs will be written to appeal to the "easy-listening" tastes.

But at present, despite its newfound popularity and problems, country radio still credits much of its success to its tradition. "Anyone who listens to country music radio," says Rein, who once drove a tractor in Kosmosdale and now drives a Cadillac," will find something it it that reminds him of his background…or his fantasies."

WTMT's Anderson, who spends a good deal of this morning show talking about his friend who is "chasing that divorcee down on Cane Run Road," or his plans to sell his "swamp lots down in Harlan County," explains the appeal of country music radio this way: "It talks about booze, broads and bill collectors. And when you're talking about those things, you're talking about things people experience."

War on the Airwaves
This article appeared on the Scene section of the Courier-Journal on March 29, 1980. It offered a snapshot of the state of "rock radio" in Louisville right before 1980's Spring Book kicked off.

Rock radio stations are saying 'Lend us your ears' - and they mean business.
By Laurice Niemtus
Scene Staff Writer

If you haven't noticed, the radio wars are on. And you - the one with the ears on the sides of your head - are the prize.

Local radio stations will ply you with "commercial-free hours." Or how about an album of your choice? Need a concert ticket? We'd like to stick to your bumper, soldier. Our specially made candy bar will tickle your tonsils and do good for someone, too.

The stations will give away hot (as in racy) cars, even $100 bills. They'll light up the Big Four Bridge. They'll stop at nothing - well, almost nothing.

These people want your ears - and all the money advertisers will pay to whisper into them.

Rock is king on the radio

But why all the fuss? Isn't this the age of television? Is there really much money in radio?

To answer that, let's take a look at the Louisville radio market.

Almost 70 percent of the AM and FM audience listens to one of four rock-oriented "formats." Religious programming draws about 1.4 percent; so-called "black music" accounts for 6.6 percent; and "beautiful music" - critics call it elevator music or Muzak - captures 9.7 percent of the audience. That leaves 12.5 percent of you folks tuned into "country" stations.

So when you talk about radio, rock of one kind or another is what most ears are listening to. The format may be called AOR (adult-oriented tock), P/A (pop/adult), R (just plain rock) or M (miscellaneous, including "adult contemporary," "top tracks" and "top 40," among other things), but it's still all rock music.

Lately, strange things have been happening on Louisville's rock-oriented stations.

One of the hot spots - down around the 100-megahertz neighborhood on the FM side of your dial - is a three-way battle between "the new" WKJJ (KJ-100), WLRS (LRS-102) and WZZX, near 101. Then there's WQHI - back up the dial in the vicinity of 95 - with its steady share of the listening audience, and the "new kid" on the dial, WRKA-FM (formerly WNUU) around 103.

There are also the AM guys at WHAS (840 kilohertz), WAKY (790) and WAVE (970) - each vying for its portion of rock's 70 percent of the listening pie.

If you take the rating service figures seriously - and local radio folks do - KJ-100, WLRS, WZZX and WQHI on the FM side share about 27 percent of the audience, and about 25 percent is shared by AM rockers WAVE, WHAS and WAKY. WRKA hadn't been on the air long enough to have any ratings this time around, but it is definitely in the fray.

WAVE, WHAS, WLRS and WKJJ each are getting about 10 percent of the total number of radio listeners, 12 and older. But if that sounds like a small slice, it isn't. Every radio executive in town would gladly accept, say, 15 percent and consider himself a huge winner.

In fact, that 13-14 percent position had gone to WLRS in the rock radio world until about a year ago. The something began happening. No one knows for sure what it was. Everyone involved has his or her ideas, however.

But let's go back just a bit.

The history of rock radio

For years, top-40 AM radio stations, with their 50,000-watt signals and their high-powered pitchmen, were the top dogs everywhere. The legends - Alan Freed, Murray "The K" Kaufman, Dick Biondi, to name just three - had incredible saturation among the young rock listeners and the all-day-listening housewives around the country.

Then along came stereo and FM - no static at all, as the Steely Dan song goes - and the rest is history. Rock moved to FM; the "youth market" that had gotten bigger and richer moved to FM; and then the housewives went back to work, deserting their daily AM habit. Finally, the power in the music business and the ad dollars moved to FM.

Louisville Times TV/radio critic Vince Staten explained the evolution of the local radio war last May when he reported that 33 percent and them 46 percent of radio's audience had tuned to FM by 1976 and '78, respectively. By that time, WLRS-FM had become the rock station in Louisville, up against WQHI-FM and AM rockers WAKY and WKLO (now "The New KJ-100's" AM side). WHAS brought back "personality" Gary Burbank, and the "radio war" started looking serious.

Staten quoted country station WINN-AM's general manager Max Rein as saying, "I've been in radio here for 15 years, and I've never seen anything like it."

But that might be partly because the stakes have risen so dramatically over the last 10 years.

Billions of dollars - instead of paltry millions - came into play as rock rose to the top spot in the entertainment business nationally. Finally, rock outstripped movies and all other forms of entertainment in the early '70s. For several years, those billions just kept doubling, and suddenly, all forms of rock radio became important again.

These stations didn't necessarily deliver the huge mass audiences TV promised, but they could deliver specific, younger, richer, rock folks in ways TV couldn't even attempt. Advertisers, realizing this trend, diverted more and more dollars to rock radio, hoping to capture some of these listeners, most of whom also had the most "spendable income" - they weren't paying off mortgages, supporting kids in college or saving for retirement.

Getting dollar figures on what stations make is nearly impossible; the Federal Communications Commission does not release them station by station. But Louisville Area Radio Stations (LARS), a local trade group, keeps its own figures. And part of the reason today's war is on is because the stakes have been rising.

Revenues for all Louisville stations in 1978 totaled $11.8 million. That was a rise of 17 percent over 1977, according to LARS.

So far, 1979 looks pretty good, too, despite a declining economy. All of the latest figures are not in yet, but based on 90 percent of the stations reporting, Ed Henson, president of LARS in 1979, said '79 revenues would show another 12-13 percent increase. In dollars, that means all stations here combined took in between $12.2 million and $13.1 million. Naturally, every station wants as much of that pot as it can grab.

Louisville used to be such a nice, quiet, steady kind of place for radio. So did most other "markets" in the country. But with the decline of the economy, the rise of FM radio and more money passing into the hands of people between 18 and 34, "steady" became an obsolete idea.

What's more, a whole new army has entered the radio war. These troops spend lots of time on airplanes, studying research and demographics - the figures and charts that break "the audience" down by age, sex and listening habits. These folks are the consultants, and they form the "game plans" for the stations they advise.

It's called 'the book'

American radio is a product of American business! It is just as much that kind of product as the vacuum cleaner, the washing machine, the automobile and the airplane. - George Storer, Storer Broadcasting Network

The mail is in, and there it sits, its shiny red-and-white cover beckoning. It's called "the book" at most radio stations, and its gritty newsprint pages are crammed with numbers. It's the latest Arbitron survey, considered the Nielsen ratings of radio.

No matter how it comes out, the ARB survey will cause headaches and handshakes, grins and grimaces, and it will affect what you hear over your airwaves during the coming months.

The numbers will help determine not only who's "Number 1" and with whom, they will determine how much radio stations can charge for their airtime.

If this sounds more complicated than just "playing the hits" for any chosen segment of the audience, you're getting the idea.

And now, Arbitron has said in New York magazine that it will begin "sweeps" 48 weeks of every 52 instead of just during the "critical" periods of April-May and October-November. But the new system will take a while to sink in - with both programmers and listeners - so it's that April-May 1980 book that's got everyone's attention. It begins in two weeks.

You may already be noticing the changes if you dial around a lot. And, the new book isn't the only reason. John Page Otting, president and general manager of "the new KJ-100-FM and AM" (which replaced WKLO-AM and "beautiful music" WCSN last year), looked at the last Arbitron book with consultant E. Alvin Davis and came here full of confidence.

"People get really mad when I say Louisville is an easy market," Otting said. "But QHI was automated and had no numbers and LRS had them all; it was obvious from our X-ray of the market survey that there was no good rock station here - not for that lucrative 18-34 (age) of the market."

But Otting thinks of radio as "non-existent theater," and he's proven in last October-November's book that his formula works. If you take just the "total persons 12 and older" Arbitron figure, which used to be "the magic number," his KJ-100-FM beat LRS 10.2 percent to 10.1.

That 12-and-over number isn't so important anymore, though. It's specific categories and groups, usually those between 18 and 34, that the advertisers want to see on "their" stations.

Battle of the gimmicks

Drivin' over canyons, singin' to my soul
'Cause the people out there
Turn the music into gold.

John Stewart, "Gold" from the LP "Bombs Away Dream Babies," © 1979 Bungle Publishing/Stigwood Music Inc.

Gold used to be the name of the game in records and radio. Now the word is platinum, of course, but Stewart's point is well taken. The only problem with it is that for the people to act and make the music "gold," they must hear it first, and mostly, they get that first hearing on the radio.

How that happens - and the listener gets to hear something new on his radio - is a fascinating sequence of events. It's part glamour, just like you've been led to believe. And it's part bottom-line, down-to-the-nitty-gritty business, complete with cutthroat competition, special sales and gimmicks and a whole grab bag of promotional tricks.

WKJJ's program director, C.C. Matthews, for instance, is proud of a pre-Kentucky Derby promotion that is to climax with the giveaway of a new Trans Am.

WRKA's Johnny Morgan was supposed to immerse himself in a tub of catsup yesterday afternoon to prove he's a big U of L fan.

WLRS recently gave two listeners a trip to New York to see Pink Floyd's concert version of its album, "The Wall."

LRS also has begun commercial-free "half hour music jams," an attempt to keep people listening longer, because the ARB book also ranks stations by how long people keep listening to any station.

WZZX has "commercial-free" time, too, and even WKJJ has positioned itself as the station with the most "free" time, playing every third hour without commercials.

Other ideas to capture and hold listeners abound, too. Supporting local music is one, and both WZZX and WLRS, with its homemade album projects, have become the vogue again.

And WLRS, besides lighting up the Big Four Bridge every Christmas - and this week in honor of the U of L NCAA champs - has covered plenty of the bases as far as public service is concerned. After this spring's third annual "Walrus Walk" for the March of Dimes, general manger Louisa Henson noted the station will have donated $500,000 to the various charities in the last 2 ½ years.

Consulting, research and marketing of radio plays a larger and larger role in the business as the slices of the available pie get thinner and a market like Louisville becomes more and more segmented.

What's more, the Radio Advertising Bureau in New York estimates that adults of all ages now spend five times as much time listening to radio as they do reading newspapers. More than 114 million radios have been sold since 1972, the RAB notes, adding that whereas 96 percent of U.S. homes have at least one television set, there is virtually no home without a radio. Most households have three or more.

Not only that, television watching has been dropping off in the last few years and, according to the RAB, always drops off about 26 percent during the good weather months. Radio, on the other hand, reaches 96 percent of the adult men and women in the country for an average of three hours each summer day, the RAB says.

So get those ears ready. The seduction as already begun, and if you listen to radio, you're already hearing some of the techniques.

Stay tuned. It's likely to be a hot courtship before the war is over.

Rock on the radio: How the stations see themselves

WAKY-FM (790): Mike McVay, program director at WAKY, is confident he's on the right track. He has "the Duke of Louisville," Bill Bailey, and "as the morning goes, so goes the day," he said. He also sees that "top singles and album tracks" get played for his pop-adult audience.

"Basically, we're a utility - always there in the background. We want to be a part of your life, just like the toaster, And we want people in the 25- to 49-year-old group to remember: 'We're the station you grew up with, and we've grown up with you.'"

Besides the music, McVay like to bring in celebrities - like Jerry Mathers, the star of TV's old "Leave It to Beaver" series - when they're in town. "We're in a period of transition, but we're getting back on track, going for the biggest slice we can get. We're playing Billy Joel and most of the 'top 10' artists with lots of soft rock."

As for the "real rock listeners," though, McVay has no plans to chase them at the moment.

WHAS-AM (840): "We are mass-appeal radio at WHAS," program director Jerry David Melloy said. "Right now, we're playing Kenny Rogers AND Pink Floyd, but the idea is to find out what the people want and give it to them. It's a total commitment to the community, not just the music, that makes us tops with those 25-34. Wayne Perkey is the top-rated personality in the market; we have the largest news staff and the best equipment; our traffic reporter has a presidential citation; we have the best sports voice in Van Vance. We say, 'You can depend on WHAS' because we really ARE the only station you can depend on for all those things. WLRS has been the image station among the young. They don't make many mistakes, but even kids today know that for news PLUS mass-appeal music, you depend on WHAS. There are always changes; we'll change too, as our listeners change. But if you're going to be THE radio station, you must have that total commitment, and there, we're safe."

WQHI-FM (95.7): Alan White, operations manager at WQHI, said his station's biggest change lately has been its switch to live disc jockeys in "prime" drive-time shifts. The station had been automated since 1974. Now, the station hopes to develop more "personality" with live jocks and still maintain its firm hold on the 25- to 49-year-old audience.

White doesn't see that as a big problem for QHI because, he said, the fracturing of the market would be split up and battled for by WZZX, WKJJ and WLRS. And QHI plans to keep its ratings stable with "good rock 'n' roll - Bob Seger, Tom Petty - the solid trustworthy mid-'70s stuff for our 25- to 49-year-old folks."

He's not worried about all the commercial-free promotions at other stations either. "That's a vicious cycle, you know," he said.

WAVE-AM (970): Jim Markham, program director at WAVE, said he doesn't consider his station to be in the rock wars. "We're more pop-adult or bright MOR (middle of the road), and we want those people from 30 up - until they die. We stay out of that 18-34 battle because we're strong on news, weather and sports. The young people don't want news, but our listeners do.

"Basically, we're doing what we've done forever - serve the people. And we get results for our clients (advertisers). There's going to be more and more emphasis on the older people, so we're not worried about any race to get the young rock listeners. Older people are spending the money now, instead of saving for their kids and homes.

"And as you grow up, the old rock station you loved so much just doesn't work anymore. You want the traffic copter reports, the news, the sports.

"There'll be superficial changes; right now we want to get into more lifestyle information for our listeners. But basically, we're right were we want to be," Markham said.

WKJJ-FM (99.7) and AM (1080): "Radio is marketing. It's simple," said E. Alvin Davis, consultant to WKJJ-FM and AM. "It could program a radio station if I were deaf, and I believe I could deliver what people want.

"I was on the air at 18 and felt I could be anything I wanted to be. I didn't know you had to special to get into radio; I just did it," said Davis who swears his first initial stands for "Everlovin'" and that he created the "Paul is dead" rumor.

John Page Otting, president and general manager of KJ-100 AM and FM, is proud of his stations.

He said the combination of the two stations, offering listeners the added attraction of "lateral replay," is a winner of an idea. He said he thinks KJ-100 is first in the nation with the concept, which involves listeners catching their favorite song on the FM side, then being told exactly when they can turn to KJ-100-AM and hear it repeated.

Otting hopes both stations can become one, simulcast over AM and FM, "at some point." Then, he figures, that 15 percent slice of the listener pie that means success in Louisville will be his.

WZZX-FM (101.7): "There are so many followers and no leaders," said Randy Davidson, music director at WZZX-FM. "Research is so cold, and music is emotion. But there's something in the air, all right, a new movement. AOR (adult-oriented rock radio) has become so commercial, and we want to make it fun again - but without the problems."

Program director Mark Thomas stressed the lack of commercials on ZZX as a solution to one "problem" listeners mention. Another plan, not yet permanent, is a "Homegrown Music Hour," with local groups, on Sunday evenings.

"It's just one little thing, but Louisville is ready for a whole new thing. We hope to make it a sophisticated music market," Davidson said. "I think we're the most progressive station in town.

"We play Genesis, Gentle Giant, Toto - plus all the standards - Ronstadt, Billy Joel, the Doobies. We won't play the Knack or Blondie, and probably not Devo or the B-52s. But we may get into danceable new-wave stuff. It's just that so much of it is too contrived, too vicious. With me, the music comes first."

WLRS-FM (102.3): Mick Dolan, program director of WLRS, said: "After '71, the mentality changed. High ideals lost out to practicality - the 'me generation.' But moods are coming back, mood listening, and what we really need is more research.

"I've never been one of those 'I know" gut-reaction types. I believe in choice, and if radio can help a person feel good about making that choice, they'll be loyal, Music is the biggest part of it, but they've got to trust you.

Drake Hall, music director at WLRS, said, "If you believe in something, go for it. If you don't, don't waste your breath. That's how you build credibility. Imagine you're talking to one person, and if you touch one person, you've done your job. At least that's what I've been told."

He's apparently learned well, having been voted "best AOR personality" in a medium market at National Music Report's convention in Atlanta recently.

He and former LRS program director Lee Masters have added more "old" records to the playlist, plus "new rock." There's no question in his mind, Hall said, that he and WLRS have what it takes to "blow the doors off" anyone.

WRKA-FM (103.1): WRKA (formerly WNUU and, before that, WSTM) is the new kid on the block in Louisville FM rock.

Program director Johnny Morgan said he has no worries at the moment and that he is confident the station was on the right track with its "progressive-oldies-adult-contemporary" mix. Morgan favors the label "oh wow music," because WRKA's format is designed to cause listeners in the rich 25- to 34-year-old group to say exactly that when they hear a memorable song.

"Radio changes constantly," Morgan said. "I'm sure there'll be adjustments down the line - we have only two of the original air people we started with now - but there are no new ideas. And we won't run scared; we won't counter-program. My feeling is that you get your thing together and run with it. I'm not saying there's nothing we won't play, but our research tells us we're giving people what they want," he said.

Louisville Observed: Broadcasting
WHAT on Earth is Happening to Local Radio?
This article appeared in the September 1981 issue of Louisville Magazine.

By Jim Oppel

If you've noticed that Louisville radio stations seem to playing a game of musical chairs, switching call letters, formats and disc jockeys about as readily as partners are changed in a square dance, you're not alone. Nearly everyone in radio has noticed - so much so that, in the national trade, it's not uncommon to hear references to the "the top 10 markets and Louisville."

According to Tom Birch, president of Miami-based Radio Marketing Research, Louisville's radio market is the most competitive in the nation. That's something of a paradox, because with annual advertising revenue of only about $12 million, Louisville isn't a particularly lucrative radio market. For that matter, Bill Campbell, station manager of WHAS-AM and WAMZ-FM, says that only half of the stations here are making a profit.

At a glance, the situation looks like this: Louisville has 17 commercial channels, nine of them on the AM band, eight of them on the FM band. A look at formats reveals that there are five adult, three country, five rock, two religious, and two Big Band stations, as well as one station oriented to the black community. In addition, there are three non-commercial, publicly-supported stations offering everything from serious music to in-depth analyses of the news.

Blink, however, and the lineup is likely to have changed. Put another way, it's easy to count on one hand the numbers of stations that haven't changed formats in the past 10 years: WAVE-AM, WHAS-AM, WLOU-AM, WLRS-FM and WVEZ-FM. They are the lucky few who somehow have managed to carve a niche for themselves before the current game of musical chairs began.

The game itself is played at a furious pace, and it can be treacherous - just ask any one of the 10 stations managers who have left town lately. In fact, every major station in the city has had a change in management within the past 18 months except for WLRS. "When my brother Ed and I first got into the business about 10 years ago, we were the young newcomers," says Louisa Henson, executive vice-president and general manager of WLRS. "Now, when we go to a trade meeting, everyone turns to us as the old-timers."

Numerous dramatic seat-changes have occurred thus far in the game. WAKY-AM, once the standard-bearer for teen music, has retained its call letters, but settled into an adult format not unlike that of WHAS. WZZX-FM dropped its AOR (album-oriented rock) format, changed its call letters to WJYL-FM, and now offers one of the more novel approaches in town - a scientifically devised flow of current hits, best of the '60s and '70s, and standards. The list of format changes goes on, including WNNS' move from all-news to WAMZ country, and WINN-AM's switch from country to the Big Band sound.

So, who's on top of the game? The answer depends on which scorekeeper you want to use: Arbitron or Birch. Not surprisingly, local station managers will point you to whichever survey shows them to best advantage, but the industry standard still seems to be Arbitron.

Arbitron's latest report shows that, in total number of radio listeners between 6 a.m. and midnight, WAMZ (that's a country station, mind you) captures the most coveted spot with a 10.6% rating. Close behind is WVEZ-FM (presently one of two "beautiful music" stations in the local market) with 10.4% of the listening audience.

None stations follow with shares between 10% and 5%. They are WHAS-AM (adult), 9.7%; WKJJ-FM (top 40), 8.7%; WAVE-AM (adult), 8.2%; WRKA-FM ("between rock and rocking"), 6.8%; WCII-AM (country), 6.7%; WLOU-AM (jazz-soul), 6.3%; WQMF-FM (AOR), 6.1%; WLRS-FM (AOR), 6.0%; and WAKY-AM (adult), 5.0%. The six remaining commercial stations each receive less than a 5% share of the market.

A closer look reveals some interesting breakdowns. In the teen market (ages 12-17), WKJJ leads the pack, followed by WLRS, WQMF and WLOU. Men 18 and over prefer WAMZ; women 18 and over prefer WVEZ.

One trend indicated by the statistics is the current popularity of country music. Among them, WAMZ, WCII and WTMT-AM are commanding an impressive 19.6% of the market. "Don't forget what country music is," says WAMZ's Bill Campbell. "It's basically what pop music was in the '50s - music you can tap your toe to, with a light message like 'boy meets girl.' We had 10 years of heavy music with a message, and now people are ready to have fun again."

What the statistics don't reveal, however, is that more than half of the radio market in Louisville is cornered by three combinations of AM and FM stations. For instance, the top AM station, WHAS, and the top FM station, WAMZ, are jointly owned by the Bingham family. Between them, they have the ear of just over one-fifth of the local market. Each of the other two combinations, WAKY/WVEZ and WCII/WKJJ, has a 15.4% share of the market.

The statistics also don't reveal the correlation between broadcasting power and success. With the exception of 24,500-watt WVEZ, the top four stations just happen to be the most powerful. WAMZ has a whopping 100,000-watt channel. WHAS broadcasts with 50,000 watts (clear channel) and WQMF-FM is carried over the air by a respectable 34,000 watts. (Note, however, that in the FM market, antenna height is also an important determinant of broadcasting range.)

Yet the real shortcoming of the ratings, according to Bill Campbell, is their inability to account for subjective factors. "This business is an art as well as a science," he stresses. "You can have the best research in the world, but when push comes to shove, you're still dealing with a bunch of creative people, and sometimes you make decisions based on feelings rather than facts."

Ed Henson echoes Campbell's sentiments. "Radio is a business, and you run it like a business," he says. "But people tend to forget that it's show business."

In radio, show business means high profile disc jockeys and lucrative contests. Alan Gantman, general manager of WAKY, places great stock in his current lineup of Liz Curtis, Jack Petrey and Bob Moody. However, the consensus of almost everyone in the business is that when Bill Bailey - the king of local DJs - went from WAKY to WCII, he took a lot of listeners with him.

"Some guys don't think the DJ is important anymore, but I do," says Bill Campbell. "And all of the people have to do well in public or we don't hire them. People like to meet someone that they listen to on radio - to be touched by show business."

In the realm of contests, WLRS frequently steals the show with such lucrative giveaways as a new Mercedes-Benz and Caribbean cruises. Still, the Hensons are the first to admit that cash value alone doesn't always equate with the success of a contest. Several years ago the station announced that it would give away four vacations. Each turned to be more exotic than the last. When it came time for the Hensons to decide on the final vacation, they knew they'd have a hard time topping the first three. "We finally went on the air and announced a weekend for three at Leitchfield, Kentucky - with transportation on a Greyhound bus, a sack of White Castle hamburgers, and one bottle of Big Red," recalls Louisa Henson with a laugh. "But people loved it, and it was the most successful of the four trips."

Research is divided on the effectiveness of the contests. "I don't know if they get listeners," says Ed Henson, "But they keep things exciting, and that's important in this business. You don't want things to get static."

So what's the cause of the competitiveness and volatility of the Louisville market? Opinions vary, but two seem to carry more weight than the rest. The first that Louisville - a late entry into the FM market - is going through the same sort of convolutions that other cities experienced when they entered the market in the late '60s and early '70s. The second is that people are simply more sophisticated in their use of radio today. Five years ago, for instance, the average listener heard one-and-a-half stations per week; today, the number has doubled to three. To hold the ear of the listener, stations must be more competitive.

"I think that the market will be a lot more stable over the next few years," observes Ed Henson. "There are no more obvious niches left. Yet I think that the effects will be long-lasting. The quality of people who have developed the FM market here is outstanding. As a result, the average station here is programmed as well as any in the nation."

DJ Dictionary: A guide to who's who on the radio
This article appeared in the May 19, 1982 issue of the Louisville Times TV Scene.

By Times TV-Radio Critic Vince Staten

When we published our last "DJ Dictionary," Bill Bailey and Coyote Calhoun were top-40 deejays at WAKY, Dickie Braun was playing country music at WINN, and Gary Major was spinning rock 'n' roll platters at WKLO.

Now Bailey and Calhoun have both gone country - Bailey at WCII, Calhoun at WAMZ. Braun is still country, but WINN isn't. He now works at WAMZ. And Gary is back at WKLO. Only they call it WKJJ not. And it's the FM side instead of the AM.

That means it must be time for another edition of "DJ Dictionary."

We don't have as much space to devote to it this time as we did last time, so there won't be any pictures and biographies. The format is different, too. We are listing the deejays alphabetically instead of by station. So if Dan Deely used to be your favorite deejay when he at WQMF and you've been missing him since he left, you run down to the "D's" and discover that he's back in town and working at WLRS.

Here's a list of who's who on the radio and when you can hear him.

(* Means a deejay is at the same station he was at three years ago when we published our last "DJ Dictionary." The station in parentheses is where the DJ was working three years ago, if he was in Louisville then. Times listed are for weekdays.)

David Anderson* - WLOU, 10 a.m.-noon

Bill Bailey - WCII, 6-10 a.m. (WAKY). Some DJs are quick of tongue. Bill Bailey is the endurance runner of tongues. He's still the Duke of Louisville, even if does have to play an occasion drunken-cowboy song. It doesn't much matter what the music is, it's just there to fill the time between his tirades.

Jerry Bigler* - WVEZ, noon-6 p.m.

Future Bob - See listing under "F."

Barbara Bothwell - WLRS, 7 p.m.-midnight

Russ Bradley - WQMF, 10 p.m.-2 a.m.

Dickie Braun - WQMF, 10 p.m.-2 a.m.

Allen Brown* - WAVG, 10 a.m.-noon. Brown remains the same; his station has changed it s call letters from WAVE to WAVG.

Coyote Calhoun - WAMZ, 2-6 p.m. (WAKY). Coyote has left town and returned since our last guide.

Chuck Casteel* - WAVG, 6-11 p.m. He is also the host of WAVE-TV's "High Q."

Ron Chilton - WXVW, 6 p.m.-midnight

Brian Christopher - WLRS, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Gary Clark - WJYL, noon-6 p.m.

Shelby Clark - WCII, midnight-6 a.m.

Ron Clay* - (with Terry Meiners) WLRS, 5:30-9:30 a.m. Clay lost his longtime sidekick Dan Burgess to WHAS radio news. He is now suffering from "Morning Sickness" (which is also the name of his show). It it not for the fait of ear. Just this past week, with the help of two priests, Father Linguini and Father Piaza, they managed to exorcise the ghost of Ward Cleaver, which had been haunting the show since Hug Beaumont's death.

Steve Cochran - WTMT, 6:15 p.m.-sign-off

Bill Cody - WHAS, 10 p.m.-5:30 a.m.

Bill Cole - WTMT, 6-10 a.m.

Dave Conley - WLRS, 9:30-11 a.m.

Valerie Cox - WQMF, 2-6 a.m.

Steve Craft - WCII, 7 p.m.-midnight

Jeff Crawford - WRKA, 1-6 a.m.

Liz Curtis - WAKY, 1-4 p.m. Curtis is the former "Big Blonde" at WQMF, now just plain Liz Curtis for all oldies WAKY. I think she has one of the best voices, male or female, in person.

Archie Dale* - WDGS, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Randy Davidson - WRKA, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Dan Deely - WLRS, 3-7 p.m. (WZZX, now WJYL)

Joe Donovan* - WHAS, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. If DJs, like good-field, no-hit shortstops can be underrated, then Donovan is. His show is consistently interesting to listen to.

Bobby Dries - WTMT, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Gary Elder - WJYL, 6 p.m.-midnight

Joe Fedele - WRKA, 2-6 p.m.

Tim Fenn - WUOL, announcer for most of the schedule

Tony Fields - WLOU, 6 p.m.-sign-off

Future Bob - WQMF, 6-10 p.m.

Rose Garrette - WDGS, 2-8:45 p.m. WDGS was an all-talk station in our last guide. It went off the air for a while and is back as a black gospel station.

Steve George - WAVG, noon-2 p.m.

Tom Hall - WVEZ, midnight-6 a.m.

Tom Hardin - WXVW, 6 a.m.-noon

Gary Hart - WOBS, 6 a.m.-noon

Larry Holland - WINN, noon-6 p.m.

Mac Hunter - WINN, midnight-6 a.m.

Randy Hutchason - WFIA, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.

Eddie James - WOBS, 5 p.m.-sign-off

Rock N. Roll Jones - WQMF, 6-10 a.m. No relation to Basketball Jones.

Chris Kelly - WKJJ, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Ev Kelly - (With Tim Kelly) WAKY 6-10 a.m. You've seen them on billboards, where you probably thought they were twins, but Tim and Ev are a husband-and-wife team. She's the cure one - except on the billboards.

Tim Kelly - (With Ev Kelly) WAKY, 6-10 a.m. He's the other one.

J.R. Kennedy - WCII, 3-7 p.m. He is now J.R., not Junior. Junior Kennedy was at one time the "next great second baseman" for the Cincinnati Reds. He has since been traded.

Danny King* - WAVG, 5:30-10:00 a.m.

B.J. Koltee - WAKY, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Jill Lawrence - WKJJ, 7-midnight

Katherine Lurton - WUOL, 4-7 p.m.

Lisa Lyons - WLRS, midnight-5:30 a.m.

Gary Major - WKJJ, 6-10 a.m. (WKLO)

Karen Markins - WQMF, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Mark Mason - WXLN, 2-6 p.m.

Dave McCann - WKJJ, 3-7 p.m.

Bill McClane - WTMT, 2-6:15 p.m. (WNUU, now WRKA.) He was traded from WNUU to WTMT for Robert Cline and a player to be named later. You could look it up.

Brother Alvin McCottrey - WDGS, 6-11 a.m.

Terry Meiners - (with Ron Clay) WLRS, 5:30-9:30 a.m. See listing under Ron Clay.

Milton Metz* - WHAS, 7-10 p.m. Metz still here.

Duke Meyer - WQMF, 2-6 p.m.

Brady Miller - WFPK, 5:30-10 a.m. and 4:30-7 p.m.

Bob Moody - WAKY, 4-7 p.m. Incredible as it may seem, Moody wasn't working in Louisville at the time of our last guide.

Gary Moore - WRKA, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.

Bobby Jack Murphy - WAMZ, 6-11 p.m.

Pat Murphy - WAVG, 2-6 p.m. Mr. Murphy sometimes works in Louisville radio and sometimes doesn't. Right now he does.

Kevin O'Neil - WKJJ, midnight-6 a.m.

Neal O'Rea - WLOU - 6-10 a.m.

Wayne Perkey* - WHAS, 5:30-10 a.m. The most aptly named DJ in town. Wayne? No, Perkey.

Ed Phillips - WCII, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Drewe Phinny - WRKA, 6-10 a.m. For my money (and there isn't very much of it), Phinny has the best morning voice in town. It is soothing. Something that morning isn't.

Bill Price* - WLOU - 3-6 p.m.

Mike Redford* - WXVW, noon-6 p.m.

Bob Reis - WINN, 6 a.m.-noon. (WQHI, now WQMF)

Chuck Sears - (with Ed Sears) WOBS, noon-5 p.m.

Ed Sears - (with Chuck Sears) WOBS, noon-6 p.m.

Karl Shannon - WAMZ, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Rick Sparks - WXLN, 6-7:30 p.m.

Pete Sullivan - WHAS, 3-7 p.m.

Charlie (T) Thomas - WLOU, noon-3 p.m.

Lee Tobin - WRKA, 6-9 p.m.

Jim Todd - WXLN, 6-9 a.m.

David Wayne - WJYL, midnight-6 a.m.

Jerry Weston - WFPL, 8 p.m.-1 a.m.

Alan White - WINN, 6 p.m.-midnight (WQHI, now WMF)

Bill Wilder* - WVEZ, 6 p.m.-midnight

Mark Williams - WJYL, 6 a.m.-noon

Ed Williamson* - WVEZ, 6 a.m.-noon

The tote board:

There were 79 DJS listed in our last guide; there are 88 this time.

Fifteen deejays are working at the same place they were three years ago; 25 of the 79 are still working in Louisville radio. Many of the full-time DJs listed today were part-time and weekend deejays at the time of the last guide.

Voices in the Morning
This article appeared in the Accent section of the Courier-Journal on July 29, 1982.
It profiled all of the morning jocks on commercial radio in Louisville at that time.

By Tom Dorsey
Courier-Journal TV & Radio Critic

Voices in the morning. From clock and car radios their oh-so-cheerful, up-and-at-'em early-morning words come into our lives each day. They tell us the time every second except, it seems, the minute we really need it. They warn us to carry umbrellas on bright sunny days or insist that old Sol is shining as we watch the windshield wipers slap away.

They are the disc jockeys, the personalities who drag us from bed and get us through a first cup of coffee. They make the morning rush hour bearable as we weave our way to work. They become so familiar that people think of them as friends, although most listeners haven't the slightest idea who they are or what they look like.

As a public service we interrupt this page to bring you the image behind the voices and a little bit about their lives. Since ego can be a problem in the airwaves business, we present them in alphabetical order.

Mark Anderson, WTMT
Age: 34
Married; one child
Hometown: Lynch, Kentucky

Anderson is the newest, but one of the oldest, morning radio voices in Louisville. He's the newest because he just began the 6 to 10 a.m. shift on WTMT last Monday. But he's been around. He had been with WTMT since 1971 before leaving last August because "I simply was tired." He left on good terms and the station called him back to work last week.

Anderson got his broadcasting start when he was 17 and playing in a band in Harlan County. "One night at the VFW dance a guy came up and said, 'Hey, you got a good voice. How'd you like to work at my radio station?'" How the man knew Anderson had a good voice was a mystery, since the teenager played piano in the band and didn't sing. However, Anderson got his first radio job at WCPM in Cumberland before he was out of high school. Later he worked at WTCW in Whitesburg and WKOY in Bluefield, West Virginia.

In 1969 he came to Louisville to work for WINN, as about half the other DJs in town have done at one time or another. In 1971 he took two jobs - daytime at WTMT and nights at WAKY. That went on until 1973, when he quit WAKY and became program director at WTMT.

Bill Bailey, WCII
Age: "Fiftyish"
Married - six times ("First time at 18"); three children
Hometown: New Bern, North Carolina

Bailey refuses to say how "fiftyish" he is. But it's believed he's 55, based on usually reliable information such as the statement that he got his first job in New Bern at age 18 playing 78 rpm records. He was born George Boahn in that tiny North Carolina town.

Louisville first heard his raspy ravings in 1965 over now-defunct WKLO. That job got him an offer to do his act on ABC-owned WLS in Chicago. "Hated it." He made a triumphant return to River City in 1969 over WAKY where he crowned himself "The Duke of Louisville." He has also spun records and spoken his piece on radio stations in Anchorage, Alaska; Chicago; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Salt Lake City; Houston; and Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

He paints for fun and profit and would like to open a restaurant someday.

Dickie Braun, WAMZ-FM
Age: 54
Married; one son, one daughter

Braun got his first radio job in Ronceverte, West Virginia in 1952 at radio station WRON, a "position" that called for him to take tickets at the theater downstairs when hasn't on the air upstairs. Four years later he made the big time in Beckley, West Virginia, joining WWNR.

Braun got into radio because, as a victim of polio, he "spent a lot of shut-in time as a kid, and there wasn't much to do but listen to the radio." He still wears a brace because of the illness. His parents died when he was 12 and he was sent to the Industrial Home for Crippled Children. After high school he majored in accounting at the University of Pittsburgh and then took that announcing/ticket-taking job. Since then he's been heard in Buffalo, ("left after the first snow"), New Orleans and Cincinnati. He's also worked for WKLO, WLRS and WAVE in Louisville.

He's best known here for his 10-year stint as Wretched Richard on WINN in the '70s.

Ron Clay, WLRS-FM
Age: 30
Married; two daughters (6 and 3)
Hometown: New York City

Clay is half of the WLRS rush-hour show that's aptly dubbed "Morning Sickness." (The other half is Terry Meiners, about whom you'll read later.) Together they make up the resident wise guys who play a kind of can-you-top-this? game of one-liners between records.

Clay has been in Louisville four years, but he's done his routine on radio stations in Kansas City, St. Louis and Long Beach, California. He says he loves Lou-a-vul best of all. "I like the station and the people here." He got into radio because his father was in the radio production business.

Clay's hobbies are kids and dogs, and his favorite thing is "hiding out."

Tom Hardin, WXVW
Age: 33
Single
Hometown: Taylorsville, Kentucky

He has been at the Jeffersonville, Indiana station for the past year and a half. He moved there from WINN, which had hired him away from WCND in Shelbyville. Hardin climbed the radio ladder in the traditional way - up through a series of small-town radio jobs that included tours in Williamsburg and Brandenburg, Kentucky.

"I've always enjoyed radio, but I'm also going to Ivy Tech at night with an eye toward a different future," he says. "I might like to get into the electronics and engineering part of the communications business. You only live so long." He thinks being a radio DJ is like being a ballplayer - "your prime time may be a short time."

R.G. Jones, WQMF-FM
Age 22
Single
Hometown: Charleston, West Virginia

Jones has been at the rock station for a year and likes to refer to himself as "Rock 'n' Roll" Jones. His real first name is Rory. His family called him R.G. and a nickname of Rolan evolved into "Rock 'n' Roll" in Charleston.

By whatever name, R.G. got into radio at 14 "before, after and sometimes during school." He signed on as a "gofer" for his brother, who worked at WMOV in Ravenswood, West Virginia. The first time Jones was heard over the air was on a college station at the University of West Virginia in Morgantown. His first paying radio job was at WKLC in St. Albans, West Virginia. Jones later worked for a string of stations (four of them) in Parkersburg, where he was known to his fans as Dave Michaels. He managed to be heard over six stations before he was 21.

When he isn't making racquet over WQMF, he's on a racquetball court or out biking.

Evelyn Kelly, WAKY
Age: 28
Married; one very small daughter
Hometown: Detroit

Ev, as she's called by her husband, is half of one of the few husband-wife radio teams in the nation and the only one in Louisville. She's also the only woman DJ on drive-time morning radio in Louisville. The other half of her act (husband Tim) was also born in Detroit, but the two never met there. They traveled different paths to meet at a Denver radio station. Her parents sent her off to Europe to cool the romance. But Tim hocked his motorcycle to chase his true love.

He caught up with her and they've been a team ever since, but it hasn't been easy succeeding in broadcasting. It seems nobody wanted a twosome on the air, much less a married one. At some stations they had to use different names. In Boston she had to change her name to Beverly Hudson to work at the same station as her husband. KFI radio in Los Angeles was the first radio station to recognize their marriage, one that produced Elizabeth, the light of her mother's life and her only "hobby."

Tim Kelly, WAKY
Age: 33
Married; "one delightful daughter"
Hometown: Detroit

Ev's other, "but not necessarily better, half." Kelly ended up working for a radio station in Buffalo. From there he headed West, met Evelyn and their Silhouette-novel romance got under way. After their marriage they worked radio stations in Chicago, San Antonio, Boston and Washington - but not as a team. "Radio is the reverse of society," Kelly says. "Everybody wants to be married; radio wants a couple to keep it a secret." They finally got to work as a team at KFI in Los Angeles in 1979. Then last September Ev and Tim got a call from WAKY.

Would they like to be on during the morning rush hour, radio's prime time? They would and still are.

Danny King, WAVG
Age: 35
Married; one daughter
Hometown: Louisville

"Yeah, I'm one of the few who grew up here. I got my first job at the old WREY in New Albany as a DJ and clean-up man." He also put in a year at WKRX, which became WVEZ-FM. In 1970, he signed on - where else? - at WINN radio, where he did an all-night show and was program director.

By 1972, he was a little down on radio and itching to try his hand at the recording-studio business. The result? "I lost a bundle." So King went to WAVE in 1974. In 1980 he took a shot at teaching broadcasting at a school in Connecticut. A year and a half of that convinced him that he belonged behind the mike and he rejoined WAVE radio, which became WAVG last year when WLRS bought it.

He's married to an airline stewardess and they plan to open an art gallery and gift shop, "sometime in the future." In his spare time he likes to collect and refinish antiques and go up, up and away in hot-air balloons.

Gary Major, WKJJ
Age: 35
Married; two children (5 months and 19 months)
Hometown: Saginaw, Michigan

Major got his first radio job at WCOW in Sparta, Wisconsin in 1966 when he was 19. "It never got above 20 below. I froze my tail off for 10 days and then left." He went back home to Saginaw, which he insists is warmer, and worked for three different radio stations there. But he yearned for still warmer climes, and he climbed into his car in 1972 and headed for Norfolk, Virginia.

A year or so later, however, he was being heard over WKLO In Louisville, where he stayed for six years until it became WKJJ. Then he went of to Decatur, Illinois to learn management, and found out that "it was a dumb move." In 1980 Major came back to town to work at WAVE radio just in time for the station to be sold out from under him. He found himself out of a job, but he landed on his feet back at WKJJ, where he likes the climate.

"Louisville is my home. If I have to choose between being in radio and being in Louisville, I would choose Louisville."

About the DJ business he says: "If you can't make a few waves, it's no fun. In this business you have to take the knocks. Some manager will always want you to part your hair on the other side or the new owner won't like your tone of voice." But, just like the rest of the DJs, he loves radio. "Except the part where you have to get up at 4:15 after you've been up at 3:15 with the baby."

Terry Meiners, WLRS-FM
Age: 25
Single
Hometown: Louisville

Meiners is the other half of WLRS' Ron Clay-Terry Meiners, Ripley's-Believe-It-or-Not, R-rated radio show. His first memory of a radio station was Coyote Calhoun showing him the ropes as a teenager when Calhoun worked at WAKY radio in 1975. "I spent my summers hanging out there."

Meiners grew up in the Germantown area, but left at 18 to study communications at the University of Kentucky. While he was there he worked four years as disc jockey for WKQQ in Lexington. "Once I got tired of radio and tried running a grocery store. That came to a fast finish when somebody threatened my life." He finds gag radio much safer. And the pay's good too - "$102 a week."

Neal O'Rea, WLOU
Age 25
Single
Hometown: Louisville

In spite of his age, O'Rea's a veteran disc jockey. He started with WLOU when was just 16. "I was working at a restaurant and they had the radio on. I thought, 'Hey I can do that.' So I looked into it, found out what I had to do, which was study and get a Federal Communications Commission license in those days. I did it by studying at the library.

"After I got the ticket I contacted some friends and made an audition tape. I was nervous, but I sounded very confident. The next thing I knew my classmates at Central were hearing me on WLOU."

That was 1973. He's had offers from stations in cities up North but they didn't sound good. A feeler from a Dallas station in tempting, too, "but I love this city. My family and my friends are all here. It would have to be an awfully good offer to get me to say goodbye to Louisville."

Wayne Perkey, WHAS
Age: 44
Married; three daughters, two songs
Hometown: Knoxville, Tennessee

Perkey is the dean of DJs in Louisville, in terms of service at one station - 12 years. He's also one of the few who has never worked at WINN or any other stations here.

He was studying to be either a lawyer or a diplomat at the University of Tennessee when a friend "saw a notice that the campus radio station was auditioning for announcers. He said, 'Let's go try it for fun.' I said, 'You've got to be kidding, with our hillbilly accents.'" But Perkey got the job and he's been talking to microphones ever since.

His first paying job was at WNOX in Knoxville. Then he went to Mobile, Alabama, and put in three years at WALA-TV. After that he settled into his WHAS job.

Off air, Perkey's a man for all seasons, coaching Little League football, basketball and baseball. He loves it. What he doesn't like is getting up at 4 in the morning to come to work. But he has a daughter at UK, another in law school and a third in medical school, which explains why he puts up with the early hours.

Drewe Phinny, WRKA-FM
Age: 32
Single
Hometown: Philadelphia

Like the other record players and yarn spinners, Phinny has been around the radio loop. He's worked in Atlantic City, Des Moines "and other hot spots." He also put in time on stations in Charleston and Huntington, West Virginia before he came to WRKA in 1980.

Not long after he joined the station, doctors found that he had a brain tumor. "I was scared. I had been in Vietnam, but this was a lot worse." Surgeons successfully removed the tumor, which the doctor had thought was malignant, and it was found to be benign. Now Phinny's back at work with "a few leftover" problems from the surgery "but nothing I can't handle." He found the station and people to be "wonderful" during his illness. "I'm here forever, and I'm not just saying that."

Now his very favorite thing is Redbird baseball. "I go every other night and eat hot dogs. I'm wild about it, but I gotta cut down on the popcorn and peanuts."

Bob Reis, WINN
Age: 26
Single
Hometown: Louisville

Here's somebody working at WINN right now. Reis is a Waggener High School graduate, class of 1973, who "just sort of stumbled" into radio. He first worked at WQHI when it was an automated station, meaning that the only announcing involved delivering the time, weather and a few headlines on the hour.

He liked fooling around electronics so much that he stuck around six years. "They liked my voice, and I liked the production side of the business." But in 1981 the station was sold and its call letters were changed. Reis was out and all set to stand in the unemployment line when WINN, which was undergoing another in a continuing series of palace revolutions, offered him a job.

Jim Todd, WXLN
Age: 28
Married; two sons (3 years and 3 months)
Hometown: North Platte, Nebraska

Todd got his first job in his hometown when he was going to North Platte Junior College. A friend submitted his name to a radio station. The officials there asked for an audition tape, liked what they heard and made him an offer. "It was crazy. I'd never even thought about going into radio." He was a college math and physics major. "But radio is mixed up with all that electronic stuff, so I felt right at home. The longer you work in radio the more you become addicted."

Todd stuck around North Platte until 1977, when he joined WOBS in New Albany, Indiana, and also taught electronics at Ivy Tech. Four years ago he switched to WXLN.

Mark Williams, WJYL
Age: 34
Single
Hometown: Long Beach, California

Williams says he knew he wanted to be on radio when he was only 10 years old. He grew up in the Los Angeles area, where there are almost as many radio stations as listeners.

"There were lots of big radio personalities in those days, and it was very exciting business. Besides, I've always loved anything to do with music and electronics." So, like other would-be DJs, he started hanging around radio stations. KLFM in Long Beach adopted him as a gofer when he was 14 and he ferried coffee back and forth for the DJs, feeling very important. The day finally came when one of the on-the-air whizbangs got sick. "The general manager pointed his finger at me and said, 'You're going on the air.' You have to realize it wasn't a very big station and nobody probably knew I was ever on."

But it was the beginning of an eight-station jaunt up and down the California Coast, from San Jose to San Diego. In San Bernardino, California, he met Jim Markam who later moved to WAVE radio in Louisville and brought Williams east in the summer of 1979. But then Markam left, and Williams went to WZZX, which became WJYL about 18 months ago.

Radio ratings: Who's hot and who's not
This article appeared in the Courier-Journal TV SCENE on  January 28, 1984.

Time TV-Radio Critic
Vince Staten

Radio ratings are deceptive creatures. A station can have a small rating but be a huge success because it has the right ratings -- it has done well among the people it is aimed at.

Take WJYL for instance. Among all radio listeners age 12 and older, it attracts only 3.3 percent of the audience. But look at the ratings for young adults (18-24), the group which would be most interested in Top 40 music (which WJYL plays much of the time), and WJYL has 9.3 percent of the male audience and 7.8 percent of the female audience, ranking fourth in both categories. WRKA ranks eighth among all listeners, but it is the second most popular station playing adult contemporary music.

Are you an aging member of the baby boom generation and feel ashamed to tell your co-workers you listen to rock station WQMF? Fear no more. You're not alone. WQMF is the second most popular station among male members of the baby-boom generation (25-54).

Here are some interesting things gleaned from the latest radio ratings survey conducted in Louisville during the fall by the Arbitron ratings service.

Morning Drive (6-10 a.m.)

People are getting ready to go to work, people are on their way to work, people are sitting in traffic at Spaghetti Junction wondering why they call it traffic when it never moves. This is the big time in radio, the time when more people are listening than any other. Here are top morning deejays in town (based on people 12 years and older in the metro Louisville area).

1. Wayne Perkey (WHAS-AM) - 14.7 percent of all listeners. Wayne is king of the morning. He as much ringmaster as deejay as he keeps his show moving from traffic reports to news to sports to weather to school closings.

2. Ron Clay and Terry Meiners (WQMF-FM) - 11.7 percent. The most original -- and vulgar -- minds on Louisville radio are at top of the rock music heap. I don't know whether the attraction is the outrageous things they say or the music they play.

3. Dickie Braun (WAMZ-FM) - 11.2 percent.

4. Tony Fields (WLOU-AM) - 9.5 percent.

5. Bill Bailey (WCII-AM) - 7.5 percent.

6. Ed Williamson (WVEZ-FM) - 6.7 percent.

7. (Tie) Drewe Phinny (WRKA-FM) - 6.1 percent.

7. (Tie) Gary Major/George Lindsey (WKJJ-FM) - 6.1 percent

9. Allen Brown (WAVG-AM) - 5.8 percent.

10. Liz Curtis (WAKY-AM) 4.6 percent.

11. Ron Chilton (WXVW) - 2.9 percent.

12. Pru Miller and Dane Deely/Dave Morgan (WLRS-FM) - 2.8 percent.

Afternoon drive (3-7 p.m.)

This is the second most important time period on radio. The people who were trapped in their cars going into work are now trapped in the traffic on their way home.

1. Bill Price (WLOU) - 13.6 percent. This quite an achievement for Price and WLOU, considering that the station signed off at sundown which was near 6 p.m. at the end of the ratings period.

2. Coyote Calhoun (WAMZ) - 12.2 percent.

3. Rock and Roll Jones (WQMF) - 10.6 percent.

4. Bill Cody (WHAS) - 8.4 percent.

5. Jerry Bigler/Tom Hall (WVEZ) - 8.0 percent.

6. Leigh Jacobs (WKJJ) - 7.1 percent.

7. Doug Lane (WCII) - 5.6 percent.

8. Bob Moody (WAKY) - 4.9 percent.

9. (Tie) Brian Christopher (WLRS) - 4.7 percent.

10. (Tie) Joe Fedele (WRKA) - 4.7 percent.

11. Pat Murphy/Lee Masters (WAVG) - 3.3 percent.

Adults (25-54)

Turning now from individual deejays to stations, these ratings are for the group most advertisers request. (Ratings hereafter are for the time period Monday through Sunday 6 a.m. to midnight.)

1. WAMZ - 14.4
2. WLOU - 11.5
3. WHAS - 10.2
4. WVEZ - 8.9
5. WCII - 8.1
6. WRKA - 7.7
7. WAKY - 6.8
8. WKJJ - 6.3
9. WQMF - 4.8
10. WAVG - 3.4
11. WJYL - 1.9
12. WINN - 1.3
13. WTMT - 0.8

Young Adults (18-34)

This is traditionally the rock music crowd, but country and soul made strong inroads during this ratings period. The big news (and bad news for WLRS) is the large lead WQMF has.

Men

1. WQMF - 28.8
2. WLOU - 18.6
3. WLRS - 11.0
4. (Tie) WAMZ - 9.3
4. (Tie) WJYL - 9.3

Women

1. WQMF - 19.0
2. (Tie) WLOU - 14.7
2. (Tie) WAMZ - 14.7
4. WJYL - 7.8
5. WLRS - 6.0

Older Adults (35-64)

Country is the music of preference here.

1. WAMZ - 14.8
2. WVEZ - 13.9
3. WHAS - 12.2
4. WCII - 10.3
5. WLOU - 7.9
6. WAVG - 5.8
7. WXVW - 5.4

Teenagers (12-17)

WQMF is now the dominant teen station.

1. WQMF - 32.5
2. WLOU - 18.7
3. WLRS - 14.6
4. WJYL - 8.1
5. WAMZ - 6.5

Baby Boom (25-34)

This is the group born right after World Ware II, when birth rates made a huge jump. This group can't decide between rock, county and oldies.

Men

1. WAMZ - 12.7
2. (Tie) WQMF - 11.3
2. (Tie) WLOU - 11.3
4. (Tie) WAKY - 9.9
5. (Tie) WHAS - 9.9

Women

1. WLOU - 15.7
2. WRKA - 15.0
3. WAMZ - 13.1
4. WKJJ - 9.8
5. WVEZ - 7.2

By format, the ratings look like this:

Adult Contemporary

Target audience, 25-54

1. WHAS - 10.2
2. WRKA - 7.7
3. WAKY - 6.8
4. WKJJ - 6.3
5. WAVG - 3.4
6. WJYL - 1.9

Country Music

Target audience, 25-54

1. WAMZ - 14.4
2. WCII - 8.1
3. WINN - 1.3
4. WTMT - 0.8

Rock Music

Target audience, 18-24

Men:

1. WQMF - 28.8
2. WLRS - 11.0
3. WJYL - 9.3

Women:

1. WQMF - 19.0
2. WJYL - 7.8
3. WLRS - 6.0

Total Audience

And finally, in total audience (age 12 or older) the rankings look like this:

1. WAMZ - 12.2
2. WLOU - 11.4
3. WQMF - 10.0
4. WHAS - 9.7
5. WVEZ - 8.6
6. WCII - 6.2
7. WKJJ - 5.9
8. WRKA - 5.4
9. WAKY - 4.4
10. (Tie) WLRS - 4.3
10. (Tie) WAVG - 4.3
12. WJYL - 3.3
13. WXVW - 2.8
14. WINN - 1.7
15. WXLN - 1.6
16. WFIA - 1.3
17. WDGS - 1.0
18. WTMT - 0.6

Arbitron did not measure the audiences of the public radio stations.

This really only touches on the tip of the radio ratings. To do a thorough job you'd need to read the ratings book.

Radio Daze
A guide to AM and FM in Louisville:
Who Plays What When - And Even Why
This article appeared in the Courier-Journal SCENE on  July 9, 1988.
It provides a nice snapshot of the Louisville radio market that summer.

By Ronni Lundy
Pop Music Critic
And James Hold, Jr.
Special Writer

More than any other season summer calls for the sort of sound track that radio provides - the music blasting at the pool or on the beach, the boom box set down by the basketball court, the dashboard speakers of a cherry-red convertible vibrating the sound of the latest hit into the unconditioned air.

As temperatures soar and tans darken, listeners across the country are tuning in on a variety of wavelengths. In California New Agers groove to "The Wave" - broadcasts of Windham Hill music and its mellow instrumental spawn.

In New York rap records hit the airwaves with lightning speed (some of the top rap DJs are now top rap producers), and new mixing techniques and hot new songs show up on tiny stations tucked here and there in the various boroughs.

In Mississppi they're tuned into a blues channel. In central Louisiana one station spends its broadcast time speaking Cajun French and playing zydeco. In the Southwest, Miami and New York, the air is spiced with Latino rhythms.

Listeners within range of the hundreds of college radio stations now thriving across the country can catch the alternative frequencies of the Replacements, Soul Asylum, Big Dipper and Firehose.

There are gospel stations and bluegrass stations. In Detroit fans of the legendary Electrifyin' Mojo can call (313) 976-MOJO and hear a five-minute broadcast of what the former WJLB DJ (currently not employed) thinks is hot (the Bus Boys, Teena Marie, Brenda Russell, Herbie Hancock, Run-D.M.C.).

Meanwhile, the voice of the Turtles is heard throughout the land on a variety of oldie formats sweeping the nation.

And in Louisville?

Well, OK, so Derby City isn't the melting pot of contemporary radio.

We talked to more than 20 program directors at stations around the city, and not one would venture to call the local radio scene "adventurous." Perhaps the best description came from a PD who said Louisville was "diverse but stagnant."

But diverse it is - and curiously so, if you know where to look.

For instance, you can catch the top of "The Wave" in a couple of hours of New Age programming on one station Sunday nights.

Louisville has no alternative rock station (WLCV on the University of Louisville campus, which broadcasts alternative music, can be picked up only in campus dorms), but the city does have a couple of alternative rock shows, and some stations are programming some more adventurous hits.

There's a gospel radio station that spends its days half-black, half-white; another station appeals to upscale women by day but goes after oldie-loving dudes after sundown.

There's a high school station that fills more than six hour of requests each night during the school year; there are two stations where you can hear the evening television news; and there are even a couple of stations playing selected music by local musicians.

There are broadcasts of some live music shows - and live calls of the races at Churchill Downs.

Listeners could spend the whole summer just flipping the dials and trying to find out what's playing where and when.

Or they could use this, our handy guide.

What follows is a look at the major stations broadcasting in the Louisville area and their program directors' descriptions of what they're sending your way.

Scanning the FM dial

WNAS-FM

Data: 88.1 FM, 1080 Vincennes Street, New Albany, (812) 947-4278 (requests), (812) 949-4272 (business).

Owners: New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated Schools.

Program Director: Will be selected first week of the school year. Lee Kelly is the faculty adviser.

Hours: Summer hours 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; during school year it's 7:30 a.m.-9:00 p.m. Monday-Saturday, later for ball games and special broadcasts. (From November to mid-March Kelly does an early shift from 6 to 7:30 a.m. to cover bus delays, school closings, etc.)

Signal: 3,000 watts.

Target Audience: No target group, but listeners tend to be adults during the school day, junior high and high school students after 2:30 p.m.

News: 15-minutes newscasts taken from Associated Press wires and students' own reports hourly from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Headline news hourly 2:30-9:00 p.m. (News is broadcast during the school year only.)

Other: New Albany High School sports, short features on members of the faculty and school events, and three academic "game shows" - "Math-a-thon" for fourth-graders, "Spelldown" for fifth and "Challenge," a general-knowledge game, for sixth.

Playlist: About 200 songs; popular artists include Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, and INXS.

Format: WNAS claims to be the world's first student-run high school radio station. Student DJs choose their own music during the day. It roughly corresponds to the Billboard Hot 200, says faculty adviser Kelly, although sometimes the students are a bit ahead of the charts. "We've had only one or two students who had even a rough idea of what alternative music was," Kelly said, and perhaps one or two country fans a year (out of the 60 students working on the radio station).

After school the songs played are dictated almost entirely by requests. "When you consider the number of stations playing music in the Louisville market, I'm amazed at the number of calls we get," said Kelly.

WJIE-FM

Data: 88.5 FM, 3701 Fern Valley Road, (502) 968-1220.

Owner: Evangel Schools (the station is non-commercial).

Program Director: Steve Butler.

Hours: 6 a.m.-midnight.

Signal: 25,000 watts.

Target Audience: Adults 25-49.

News: USA network news hourly, sports reports six times a day.

Others: Saturday, 7-9 p.m., "The Gospel Greats" with Paul Heil, a show devoted to Southern gospel; and 9 p.m.-midnight, "Saturday Night Alive," a show for teenagers that combines talk, music and interviews.

Playlist: 30 current singles in rotation with 600-700 older songs. The station favors oldies (although many of them are only six or seven years old); out of 15 or 16 songs in an hour, only three will be current. Popular artists include Sandi Patti, Larnelle Harris, Steve Green, and Dallas Holm.

Format: 13 of the station's 18 daily hours are music. Butler describes the station as "sort of a Christian version of WVEZ." The music is "inspirational," which means it's "lighter" than contemporary Christian or gospel; there's also some contemporary "praise and worship" music, similar to the contemporary music you might hear in a worship service, and some of what Butler calls "contemporized" versions of traditional hymns.

The station also works to develop air personalities. Butler, who's in the afternoon drive-time slots, uses a group of fictitious characters, "just like (WHAS' Terry ) Meiners does," including Wally Washensteimer, an old guy who radios in from that station's non-existent traffic copter; Melon Melonhead, who mans the station's "Traffic Trike"; and professional complainer Ben Gripen.

"I've near seen a Christian station that's tried what we do," Butler said. "Christians…have so few people who entertain them in a way that's clean and healthy. …We're having a lot of fun, but we're also trying to keep the ministry aspect of the station on the level."

The station is going after the "older demographic" as opposed to WXLN's younger target audience. Butler sees nothing wrong with healthy competition between Christian radio stations. In his view, stations, like churches, meet different needs for different people.

WJIE signed on January 1. The station is "shielded north," which means that the northbound signal is deflected to keep it from interfering with WNAS; that makes the signal somewhat weaker in much of Louisville than it is farther south.

WFPL-FM

Data: 89.3 FM, Fourth and York streets, (502) 561-8640.

Owner: Louisville Free Public Library.

General Manager: Gerry Weston.

Signal: 100,000 watts.

Target Audience: 30 and older.

News: National Public Radio news programs "Morning Edition," 6-11 a.m. weekdays; "All Things Considered." 5:00-6:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and 5:00-6:00 p.m. Saturday; and "Weekend Edition" 8:00-10:00 a.m. Sunday. Local news at five minutes after the hour (and at six minutes after during "All Things Considered").

Other: "Good Evening with Noah Adams" at 6:00 p.m. Saturday; "A Prairie Home Companion" reruns at 4:00 p.m. Sunday.

Playlist: Jazz weekdays, with 65 percent new releases; catalog of 6,000-8,000 records.

Format: WFPL bills itself as the "Jazz and Information" station.

"But on the weekends we go beyond that format to include music commercial radio here will not touch, but we are happy to. We believe in it strongly," said Weston.
"We're here to provide an alternative to commercial music. I've never thought alternative means just jazz or folk. In Louisville it also means quite a lot of rock."

Saturday night features two locally produced, one-of-a-kind shows: Scott Mullins' "Saturday Night Blues Part" at 10:00 p.m., and Cary Willis' alternative rock show, "The Flip Side," at midnight.

Mullins' blues show has shown excellent ratings since it began two years ago. Weston said "The Flip Side" hasn't had time to prove itself in the few months it has been on the air, but Weston is confident it will do well, "because it fills an important gap in local programming. Alternative rock fares well in lots of other cities, and the initial verbal response I've gotten lets me know that Cary's doing something people like here."

WFPL offers the area's only New Age programming, a 10 p.m. Sunday show called "Totally Wired," and an 11 p.m. program, "Hearts of Space."

On Sunday WFPL features folk music, including taped broadcasts of the Lonesome Pine Special series from the Kentucky Center for the Arts. That series has been distributed by the station to public radio stations nationally, as have programs taped at the annual bluegrass festival on the Belvedere, performances from the Corn Island Storytelling Festival, and some Louisville Jazz Society-sponsored shows.

For several years the station also has taped segments of Louisville Homefront performances and broadcast them later locally. Weston said the station will distribute those nationally this year.

"Sometimes I have the feeling we're known better by people around the country than we are here," he said.

WUOL-FM

Data: 90.5 FM, Stickler Hall, University of Louisville Belknap Campus, (502) 588-6467.

Owner: U of L.

Program Director: Bill Underwood.

Signal: 3,500 watts.

Target Audience: No targeted audience, but station managers say that, by the nature of the format, a large portion of the audience is older, better educated, and has a higher-than-average income.

News: Broadcasts the "MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour" 6:00-7:00 p.m. Monday-Friday; no local news.

Other: "Adventures in Good Music" with Karl Haas, 11 a.m. Monday-Friday and 9:00 p.m. Monday-Saturday; complete Broadway musicals most nights; and music from the U of L School of Music Saturday and Sunday at 4:00 p.m. Saturday at 11 a.m. there is "The Band Hour," an hour of marching-band music. "Time Out for Jazz," a program of traditional jazz, is 10:00-11:00 p.m. the last Friday of each month.

Playlist: The station's library has about 10,000 LPs, 5,000 reels of tape and 2,500 compact discs. Favorite artists include Leonard Bernstein and George Solti; major orchestras such as those in Berlin, Vienna, Boston, Chicago and New York; instrumentalists such as Vladimir Horowitz, Jascha Heifertz, and Itzhak Perlman; and traditional classical composers.

Format: A mainstream classical repertoire from Bach through Stravinsky, the works one is likely to hear in a concert hall. The station plays no electronic music and little from the avant-garde (Phillip Glass' more conservative pieces, such as his score for the move "Koyaanisqatsi," are sometimes played). It plays only overtures and excerpts from operas, never complete ones. Because the station has a small staff, the announcers are usually recorded.

WFPK-FM

Data: 91.9 FM, Fourth and York streets, (502) 561-8640.

Owner: Louisville Free Public Library.

General Manager: Gerry Weston; music director, Phil Bailey.

Hours: 5:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m.

Signal: 100,000 watts.

Target Audience: Adults 35-plus.

News: National Public Radio headline news and local news hourly 6:00-10:00 a.m. and 5:00-6:00 p.m.

Other: Operas Saturday at 2:00 p.m. (during July they're running the Kentucky Opera's season); orchestra from various cities Monday-Friday at 9:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 p.m. (The Louisville Orchestra is broadcast during summer Sundays at 8:00 p.m.)

Playlist: The library contains about 8,000 LPs and 1,500 compact discs.

Format: "We're probably the easiest format on the dial to describe," said Bailey. It's mainstream classical or, in his intriguing phrase, "hard-core classical." There's some early Baroque and Renaissance music, and negligible amounts of avant-garde music.

Between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. the station mixes in some New Age music, primarily acoustic guitar and piano. "We're trying to broaden our audience a little bit," said Bailey. He sees the New Age strain, like '60s bossa nova, as likely to be absorbed into other types of music: "I think what we have is revolt against rock 'n' roll."

WQMF-FM

Data: 95.7 FM, 123 West Court Street, Jeffersonville, (812) 589-4400 (office), (812) 282-9696 (studio line).

Owner: Otting Broadcasting, Jeffersonville.

Operations Manager: Terry Medert.

Signal: 34,000 watts.

Target Audience: Adults 25 and older.

News: NBC Source and the station's own news department give reports every half-hour from 5:30 to 9:30 a.m.; there are reports at 3:50, 4:30 and 5:50 p.m. and hourly from 1:00 to 5:00 a.m.

Other: "Rock Line," Monday 11:30 p.m.-1:00 a.m., is a phone call-in show with rock stars; "The 12 O'Clock News," at midnight Wednesday, plays alternative artists outside the station's normal playlists; "In the Studio," Thursday at midnight, presents interviews about how particular albums were recorded; "Weasel's Late Show," Friday at midnight, generally presents live performances from the King Biscuit Flower Hour.

Sunday night is devoted to programs: "The Lost Lennon Tapes," at 7:00 p.m.; "Live Wire," a talk show with host Medert, at 8:00 p.m.; Legends of Rock," at 9:00 p.m.; "Flashback," from 10:00 p.m. to midnight, plus music and other audio footage from the late '60s and early '80s; and the "Amateur Hour," at midnight, lets listeners take their shot at radio stardom.

Playlist: 45 or 50 current songs; library has more than 1,000 older songs. Popular artists include Robert Plant, Van Halen, Steve Winwood, the Beatles and Bruce Hornsby. Hot new groups include Midnight Oil and Kingdom Come.

Format: ROCK 'N' ROLLLLL! (Or, at least, Album-Oriented Rock.) They played "Best It" because of Eddie Van Halen and won't touch Michael Jackson's other songs with a 10-foot pole - there's a straight line for zany morning nutball Ron Clay in there somewhere - because Jackson doesn't fit the station's image.

"To a listener of an AOR station, Michael Jackson is not very hip, he's not Robert Plant," said Medert. Is that because he's perceived as effeminate, because he had plastic surgery or because he's black? "Probably a little bit of all of those, not so much the last. He's too pop, two overexposed, too much glitter."

The mix of music is 60 percent classic cuts, 40 percent current; and many of the currents are by classic album-rock artists such as Jethro Tull, Yes and former Led Zeppelin frontman Plant. "AOR listeners are very product-loyal," Medert said, comparing them to country listeners in the way they'll stick with an artist and style of music through the years.

But Medert says the station plays more new music than other stations, and "70 percent of that is stuff no one else will touch." It's one of the few stations in town playing black singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car," and it also plays mildly alternative groups such as the Church and the Rhythm Corps.

The station prides itself on its sense of humor - embodied in Clay's morning show, with its telephone pranks and "Joke of the Day" - and its in-house production department, which comes up with the spots for fictional Weaselbrau Beer.

WAMZ-FM

Data: 97.5 FM, 520 West Chestnut Street, (502) 582-7840 (station), (502) 571-9736.

Owner: Clear Channel of San Antonio, Texas, which owns WHAS and more than a half-dozen other stations around the country.

Program Director: Coyote Calhoun.

Signal: 100,000 watts

Target Audience: 25- to 54-year olds, with a strong showing among 18- to 34-year-olds, especially women.

News: Local and national on the half-hour from 6:00 to 9:00 a.m. and at 4:30 and 5:30 p.m.

Other: Sunday morning Ralph Dix interviews local community leaders.

Playlist: 30-35 current songs mixed with 700-800 golden oldies.

Format: Calhoun calls country-music stalwart WAMZ a "highly researched music station. My job is to find the best available music there is."

To find that music, the station uses trade magazines, and Calhoun calls other stations around the country for judgments on new songs.

He also trusts his own instincts: "If you're in a competitive situation, you want to play the cream of the crop, and that doesn't just mean songs with a track record. Say there happened to be a real new artist with no background but a really, really dynamite song. I'd be more included to go for that new artist than a proven artist with a mediocre song. You have to trust your guts."

Twice yearly WAMZ uses auditorium testing to determine which songs in the "golden" category are sure-pleasers and which are suffering burnout.

Calhoun then feeds the titles of old and new songs, characterized by type and type of artist, into a computer, which is programmed to "shuffle the deck," or give each jock a daily list of songs he can play on his shift with a balance of old and new, fast and smooth, women and men, etc.

"Anytime it's left to the jock to pick what he is going to play, there are songs he's not going to play whether they're hits or not, whether the audience wants to hear them or not," Calhoun said.

Combining local research with the computer system provides "flexibility within a structure," he said.

WAMZ plays music by some local artists, "but it's going to have to be really good product, something that can hold its own in our format in terms of production as well as artistry. When Mike Lunsford cuts a record, it's going to be quality, and there's going to be a lot of excitement. It's an asset to my station to play it. It could be a detriment if I don't."

WDJX-FM

Data: 99.7 FM, 307 West Muhammad Ali Boulevard. (502) 589-4800 (office), (502) 571-4487 (studio line).

Owner: The owner has been Great Trails Broadcasting of Dayton, Ohio; it is being sold to Stoner Broadcasting of Annapolis, Maryland.

Program Director: Chris Shebel

Signal: 50,000 watts

Target Audience: Women 18-34 are the primary target; women 25-54 are the secondary target.

News: News at 20 and 50 minutes after the hour from 5:50 to 9:00 a.m.; no other news except for breaking stories.

Other: "Saturday Night Hot Mix," with dance versions of the hits, runs 10:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. Saturday. "Kentuckiana This Week," a talk show, is 6:00-6:30 a.m. Sunday.

Playlist: No set number of songs. Current hits vary between 30 and 40; library holds between 400 and 600 songs. The few oldies come primarily between the last three or four years. Popular artists include George Michael, Pebbles, INXS, Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, and Michael Jackson (although "Dirty Diana" was not a big song here).

Format: CHR, Contemporary Hits Radio. Where WLRS is a CHR that emphasizes rock, WDJX skews toward dance music. "If it's a choice between a hard-rock song and a dance song, we'll play the dance song," said Shebel.

The station avoids rap - the last rap song it played was LL Cool J's ballad "I Need Love." And it might play "Parents Just Don't Understand" if the song gets bigger (it's currently 28 with a bullet in Billboard).

The station sticks closely to its targeted demographic. For example, rocker Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me" is a national Top 10 hit, but you won't hear it on DJX. "We may be wrong in not playing that, but I see no evidence that women 18 to 24 want to hear it," Shebel said. Conversely, the large number of teenagers who listen to the station don't pull the weight the key group does. "If I get a bunch of teenage males who don't like a song, I don't care about it, because they're not my target audience, and they're still into that head-banging stuff."

"We've found most people don't care about cutting-edge music," Shebel said. He decided the station should play Ziggy Marley's "Tomorrow People," for instance, but it hasn't done very well.

WJYL-FM

Data: 101.7 FM, 10213 Linn Station Road, (502) 425-3444 (business), (502) 571-1017 (hit line).

Owner: Louisville Radio Partnership, a group of local and out-of-town investors.

Program Director: Tony Fields.

Signal: 3,000 watts.

Target Audience: Adults 18-34.

News: Hourly 6:00-10:00 a.m.

Other: "Quiet Storm," slow and mellow songs, 10:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m. Monday-Thursday; a dance party Saturday 10:00 p.m.-2:00 a.m.; jazz Sunday 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

Playlist: 40 current songs; popular artists include Keith Sweat, Sade, New Edition, Bobby Brown, George Michael, and Al. B. Sure!

Format: Urban contemporary - "right in the mainstream of urban," according to Fields; the mix of music is 70 percent black, 30 percent white.

It's what Fields calls a "current based" station; it plays no more than 30 percent oldies, most of which go back no more than five years or so. The station uses quite a bit of research, not only on which songs to add but following them throughout their life to make sure, for example, that the station doesn't drop a song too quickly. One song, the Deele's "Two Occasions," has been on their playlist for almost six months, an extraordinary length of time.

The station, which avoided rap a year or so ago, now plays cuts like Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It" and Doug E. Fresh's "Keep Risin' to the Top." "When rap first came out, it had a stigma like rock 'n' roll did - it was the guilty music," said Fields. "We were scared of our own music for a while. No urban station wanted to be linked with rap, because it was, quote, 'bad music.'

"But all of sudden rap has crossed over to CHR; rap has crossed over to MTV. Rap is part of the norm right now…. Now you got a lot of those kids that grew up with the Sugarhill Gang and the rest of them that form your target demo."

WLRS-FM

Data: 102.3 FM, 800 South Fourth Street, (502) 585-5178 (office), (502) 571-7625 (rock line).

Owner: Henson Broadcasting, a local company that also owns WLRS-AM. Both stations are in the process of being sold to Radio One, a new company owned by Tomey Brooks, a former Sandusky Broadcasting executive who may move to Louisville.

Program Director: Lisa Lyons.

Signal: 3,000 watts

Target Audience: Adults 18-34.

News: ABC Rock Radio network news hourly 6:00-9:00 a.m.; local news at 20 after the hour 6:00-10:00 a.m. and at noon.

Other: "Live from Phoenix Hill" Wednesdays at midnight. Tom Wills and Bob Domine give weather and sports reports during morning drive time.

Playlist: 40 currents. Popular artist include Robert Plant, Whitney Houston, INXS, Steve Winwood, Huey Lewis and the News.

Format: Top 40 or CHR, leaning toward the rock side of the equation. That's the station's history - when it went on the air in 1974, WLRS was the only FM rock station in Louisville; observers used to compare its influence among local teenagers with the Catholic church in the Middle Ages.

Facing stiff competition from upstart WQMF, it switched to CHR in 1984, becoming the first such station in the market. "The market was thirsty for it," Lyons said. "Michael Jackson was really hot (with "Thriller"), yet none of the rock stations were playing the album.

At one point in 1986, for about five months after an especially low Arbitron, the station tried to be more progressive in its music selection, adding new music more quickly. No large changes were made, Lyons said, and many listeners might not have even noticed. But WLRS started moving such groups as R.E.M. and David and David into heavy rotation.

The succeeding rating was the station's lowest in years. "It showed us that people didn't want to hear unfamiliar music; if they were listening to us, they wanted to hear popular songs they were familiar with."

The station has some difficulty because people associate it with its rock past. "You want to get a nice balance…so that you don't sound like either an urban station or a solid rock station or an adult contemporary station," Lyons said (there's very little crossover from country onto the charts). Among raps, the station plays the comical "Parents" but not Salt-n-Pepa's licentious, danceable "Push It" because the song "didn't test well." They also get heavy requests for the Christian rock group Stryper and such heavy-metal groups as Poison and Gun N' Roses.

WRKA-FM

Data: 103.1 FM, 1001 Linn Station Road, (502) 423-9752 (office), (502) 571-9752 (requests).

Owner: Capitol Broadcasting, a Mobile, Alabama company that owns 10 stations and the Alabama Radio Network.

Program Director: John Robertson.

Signal: 3,000 watts.