They played rock, from albums, of the late '60s and the then-current 70's.
Here was their logo, for a while. I scanned it from some program or other, but I'd had a nice glossy vinyl sticker of it back in the day.
I listened to that station every day, in the car, in the house sometimes. One morning I turned it on and it was country music. Current country music.
No warning. A complete change.
If anyone knows what day that was, leave me a note. Wikipedia says it was 1980, Urban Cowboy that did it. It very likely had to do with the country line-dance craze that replaced disco as a singles-bar activity for lots of people. I thought it was earlier than 1980. I'm curious to know.
7 comments:
I found this news clipping from Billboard magazine on December 13, 1980 asking for record service because of the switch from AOR to Country format. Most likely the format flip happened shortly before that date, so Wikipedia probably has the correct year.
I neglected to include the link in my previous comment. I apologize. Too many things happening at once!
https://books.google.com/books?id=syQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT53&lpg=PT53&dq=krst+radio+date+switched+to+country&source=bl&ots=mvDZbNUbo_&sig=J2GKX-WOgvhhqzWB1KS3ML9eArI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7mM7TqeLYAhVDxmMKHShAD-UQ6AEIRTAF#v=onepage&q=krst%20radio%20date%20switched%20to%20country&f=false
I hopt this will make it clickable.
Thanks for finding more info!
https://books.google.com/books?id=syQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT53&lpg=PT53&dq=krst+radio+date+switched+to+country&source=bl&ots=mvDZbNUbo_&sig=J2GKX-WOgvhhqzWB1KS3ML9eArI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7mM7TqeLYAhVDxmMKHShAD-UQ6AEIRTAF#v=onepage&q=krst%20radio%20date%20switched%20to%20country&f=false
I remember when this happened, I listened to KRST all through junior high and high. I graduated from Del Norte in 1979, and in that spring, a new competitor to KRST started up, 94 ROCK, which was louder and more repetitive than KRST, but really gave KRST a lot more competition. I think that’s why they switched to country, and it really was a complete shock. One day it was there and the next day it was gone forever. I miss that logo, I had a friend in art class that made a screen print of it for t shirts.
I'm sorry the note just above (unknown Del Norte grad) sat in the queue. Somehow my notifications quit coming, so it was approved 7/29 (three months late).
I hope you had one of the t-shirts! I would've loved to have had one in those days. :-)
Thanks for the stories.
KRST's last report to Radio & Records as a rock station was late 1980, published in the issue dated September 12, so mid-to-late September seems highly likely, and is consistent with the service request three months later that is mentioned above.
I remember when it changed, they played This is End by the Doors for like 12 hours... can't remember the date tho
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