From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1984
Detroit’s WKSG Focuses On Local Color
DETROIT — WLBS ended a brief experimentation with top 40 here Friday, November 9 when the station switched it’s call letters to WKSG and its format to oldies.
Now known as Kiss 102.7, WKSG has adopted the “Kiss Of Gold” format developed by by veteran programmer and Detroit native Paul Christy. According to general manager Joe Buys, the new format focuses on the music of the ’60s and ’70s, emphasizing Detroit artists and songs that were popular in Detroit in particular.
Program director Sergio Dean continues in that capacity. The rest of the staff will remain intact. However, Buys doesn’t rule out the possibility of signing longtime Detroit personalities: “We could use at least one person who understands Detroit’s lifestyle and characteristics,” Buys suggested.
According to Buys, who joined the Inner City Broadcasting-owned station last month after a year in Chicago with Arbitron as central division manager, WLBS had undergone several changes since its 1979 inception as a disco station.
After a lengthy stint with an urban format, the station switched to a “new music” orientation, which remained in place until last August. At that time, a Burkhart/Abrams-consulted “hybrid” hits format known as “the best of everything” went into effect.
“It didn’t work,” says Buys, noting that WLBS faced stiff competition in the top 40 market from Gannett’s WCZY and Capitol Cities’ WHYT. After researching and “evaluating the market’s holes,” Buy says, ‘we found gold’ to be the biggest hole.” The Detroit area’s only other oldies radio station, he notes, is WHND Monroe, a daytime AM outlet which consultant Christy “got off the ground” in 1978.
“The baby boom generation is growing older, and they’re bringing their musical heritage with them,” says Buys. “We found an audience which wants updated gold, and they want stereo FM to hear it on.”
According to Christy, a 25-year radio veteran most recently with WCLS (formerly WABX) Detroit and currently consulting four other radio stations, WKSG’s “Kiss Of Gold” format was “modeled for Detroit.”
“There is an emphasis on Motown music, of course,” say Christy, “as well as other artists popular in Detroit in the ’60s and ’70s.” In addition to better known artists as Bob Seger, the MC5 and Ted Nugent, Christy says local favorites such as the Dynamics, the Wanted, the Velvelettes, the Gallery, the Scott Richard Case, the Rationals, the Fantastic Four, and other acts such as Tim Tam and the Turn-Ons will be heard.
“I feel a cyclical backlash to top 40 coming on,” says Christy. “Artists like Prince and Cyndi Lauper are wonderful, but they’re played into the ground. WKSG’s new format, on the contrary, involves at least 3,000 titles, which is enough material so that there’s no repetitive — with the advantage of built-in familiarity.”
Adds GM Buys, “Gold is a format that traditionally attracted loyal listeners, as well as cume sharing tendencies.” END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; November 17, 1984)
A MCRFB Note: Paul Christy, real name Paul Christides, passed away on June 4, 2007. He lost his life to Parkinson’s Disease. He was 69. Christy formerly was music director at WCFL. He was also the morning personality on WCAR in the early-1970s in Detroit. Christy also programmed WABX in the early-1980s, WCLS, and WKSG. As recently as the latter 1990s, he was doing mornings on WYUR-AM 1310.
