Wednesday, March 09, 2016

KOL-FM Soundcheck 1970





I'm told that KOL-FM was Seattle's first "Progressive" FM station.  Instead of high energy uptempo DJs, this genre had the opposite, and if you listened, you probably would have heard music from artists that you had not heard before.  While I was not around Seattle at the time, I believe this genre spawned KZAM, KZOK, and KRAB.  Later KISW and KEXP.
This format or lack of in shape or another was also prevalent of college campus radio stations.  It later became known as Album Oriented Rock and eventually surpassed AM radio, by then, the playlists had gotten tighter and it was less experimental.

3 comments:

Sharon Kay Schiller said...

Mike, this is great! KOL-orful KOL goes progressive. :)

Tom Corddry said...

Great to hear this! I was the Program Director at KOL-FM in 72-73. You are right about the flow of influence and people from KOL-FM. Several of us from KOL-FM, in different combinations, were involved in launching KZOK, KZAM, and KCMU/KEXP. The "Max" mentioned in this aircheck is Maxanne Sartori, who went on to fame and fortune at WBCN in Boston. One of the delights of working at KOL-FM was being in the studio right next to the young and brilliant Burl Barer on the AM side.

Unknown said...

I was a KOL FM listener back in '70 (at the ripe old age of 13) anyhow KOL FM played all the great artists that top 40 radio didn't play, and it was called "underground rock"