Letters: We're Making Fun of Our Competetors! (Oct 2, 2009)

From Carl: Rock 105.3 used to have sweepers that made fun of The Planet and The Flash as the station told their listeners to compare rock stations. For Planet, they played James Taylor, and for Flash, they played some techno pop group from the 80s. For Rock, they played AC/DC. "Any questions?", the announcer asked.

From Steven: When Free FM started advertising on the billboards Carolla and Leykis three years ago, KOGO copied the Free FM format and advertised Limbaugh and Hedgecock on the billboards. I guess there was some kind of rivalry between them.

From Henry: Z-90 used to run radio spots that Q106 sucked around 1991. I remember a night deejay from 91X telling the listener that he was brain-dead for calling the wrong station for the contest and wondered if he listened to Q106. Case of radio stations slamming their competetors, though I wonder if the deejay at 91X had a vengence against Q106 at the time.

From Geo: Power 106 used to run a spot asking the listeners "Would you listen to this on KIIS?" and played something that sounds like pop music. By the time, Power changed to an urban and hip hop station.

From Mike: Pirate 100.3 poked fun at KIIS and Power in their spots, saying that Power played disco, but I forgot how they made fun of KIIS.

From Len: I'd like to see a rivalry between KGB and KPRI, but the way radio is today, who's in the mood to risk losing listeners because of one station's bad attitude. I'm guessing that radio stations are playing it safe by not attacking other stations.

We're Making Fun of Our Competetors! (Oct 1, 2009)

That is what I used to hear back in 1990 when then upstart Z-90 was identifying itself as a play on its competetor, Q106, which was based in Kearny Mesa along Aero Drive back then.

I'm trying to think of radio stations that made fun of their competetors on their station IDs, and I also came up with one FM 94/9 used to run. "Absolutely, positively, not owned and operated by Clear Channel. We won't even be seen in the same building with them!" That was in reference to 91X being housed at 9660 Granite Ridge Road, suite B. It used to be opreated by Clear Channel until 2005, but when they spun off 91X and others, the building was remodeled so that CC's seven stations were still in the main part of the building as suite A, but to get to suite B, where 91X, Z90, and Magic 92.5 reside, you have to go to the back door on the NorthWest side of the building to reach the three stations now operated by Finest City Broadcasting.

I came up with then MOR KFMB-AM 760 when it aired their radio ads with the slogan that said something about being un-KOGO, as taking a stab at KOGO 600's then more softer contemporary format it used to have.

I'm not sure how Q106 came up with the slogan "A Better Mix of Music and More of It" when it signed on in 1987, but I'm guessing that people were fed up with KS-103's then CHR format and wanted a better mix. Six months later, KS-103 changed formats.

B-100 in 1980 changed from top 40 to adult contemporary. It used a TV ad where it asked the question whether the viewers were too old for bubble gum music among other things.

When Channel 933 signed on in 1996, it produced an ad that took shots at three stations. It referred to Z-90 as a scary music station and played something like a gangster rap with gunshots for about five seconds. It referred to Star 100.7 as B-100 the corny music station and had someone gagging on "Up, Up, and Away". It then said that "Q106 was sleepy" and played a folk guitar with some guy yawning. Obviously, that ad was an overexaggeration of the three formats that the station made fun of. B-100 flipped to Star in 1994, so I'm guessing that Jacor's wizards didn't do enough research.

A 1989 TV ad produced by KGB had a radio tuned in to its new now-defunct competetor KCLX 102.9. It had in the background a soft song by James Taylor that was about Suzanne being put to an end, and the announcer said, "You call this rock and roll? Nuh, uh! Too many wimp songs." Then a hand flips over to 101.5 KGB and plugs the station for the rest of the 30-second ad.

One ad from 91X back in the 80s had a weight lifter declaring that he hates top 40 so he listens to 91X; "they don't play the same songs into the ground", he says as he drops the weights he was lifting and it falls through the floor!

The Eagle 94.1 in 1997 produced some bumpers that said "no bubblegum oldies" and played a second of "It's My Party" before scratching the record off the air and then announcing "just the best classic rock of the 60s and 70s."

Nowadays, nobody is taking shots at their competetors anymore. That's what made radio fun when it was about rivalries. What happened to that?