| By the end of the 70s decade,
it was clear that WKBO's Top 40 days were numbered. WKBO was not alone
in this plight. Successful AM stations of the 1960s and 70s were losing
their music audience to FM in ever increasing numbers. Yet, there was not
a clear road map for change. Unlike today, there was no syndicated talk
or sports formats. Even satellite music networks were a year or two away
at that point. Also, stealing audience from the established dinosaurs like
WHP proved to be a challenge. What may have hampered stations like WKBO
was the gradual evolution from Top 40 to adult contemporary. The years
have taught that, as hard as it is to do, it is better to blow up a station
and start over with, if not call letters, a complete overhaul of the stations
format and identity. What was occurring with AMs in the late 70s and early
80s was that that old audience was gone and the audience the stations wanted
to attract still assumed they were the "old" rock'n' roll top 40 format.
In August of 1979, Mitch
McKeever left and was replaced by the decidedly more laid back and "adult"
oriented Neil Howard in afternoon drive. The music during the day was now
more gold-based and adult, while there was an attempt to keep the station
more current driven and Top 40 at night. In March of 1980, WKBO added the
NBC radio network, running its 5-minute top of hour newscast every hour,
except at night. NBC was a bit on the stodgy side, but not as bad as CBS.
It was also very feature oriented and KBO was forced to air the features
or a least the commercial inventory. WKBO had not had network news since
dropping the ABC Contemporary network in early 1974. Local news ran adjacent
to NBC at the top of the hour and at the bottom of the hour. It is ironic
to note that NBC was the network KBO dropped when in initiated the "1-2-3
Radio KB" format in 1971.
In early 1980, Betsy Kaye
was hired to do the Noon - 3 PM shift, while Jim Buchanan cut back his
airshift to 9 AM - Noon, so he could spend more time on programming. Betsy
came from WORD in Spartanburg, North Carolina and, too, was more adult
oriented. The lineup was now:
The early 1980 lineup was
now:
Tim and Heidi |
6 - 9 am |
| Jim
Buchanan |
9 - 12 noon |
|
Betsy Kaye |
12 - 3 pm |
|
Neil Howard |
3 - 6 pm |
|
Rick Shockley |
6 - 10 pm |
|
Chris Andree |
10 pm - 2 am |
|
Matt Michaels |
2 - 6 am |
|
The biggest change came with
the new slogan. "Musicradio" was now completely eliminated. The new slogan
was "Harrisburg, a Special Place To Be, One-Twenty-Three, WKBO". New jingles
were purchased.
Included in the new package
were many long image cuts that sang about the many amenities of metropolitan
Harrisburg. There was no real music positioning at this point. Even though
there were lots of new jingles, they were still used sparingly on air.
The one real problem with this whole concept was that in 1980, Harrisburg
was years away from having the Senators, City Island Park and restaurant
row. In short, Harrisburg was not a very "special place to be" and quite
honestly, neither was KBO anymore.
The final shoe dropped in
August of 1980. Al Dame had just bought out his partner of the last 9 years,
Mike Rea and now fully owned WKBO. The month before, the spring 1980 Harrisburg
Arbitron numbers were released. KBO had dropped from a 9.9 to a 5.0 share,
persons 12 + ! In the following weeks, Jim Buchanan, Captain Dave Edwards
and Matt Michaels left the station. Tim Burns was made PD and traffic reports
were eliminated.:
The August 1980 WKBO lineup:
|
Tim and Heidi |
6 - 10 am |
|
Betsy Kaye |
10 am - 2 pm |
|
Neil Howard |
2 - 6 pm |
|
Rick Shockley |
6 - Midnight |
|
Chris Andree |
12 - 6 am |
|
The station was now decidedly
full-time adult contemporary, with NBC news around the clock.
The Eagle, the Nittany
Lion and the Bear
will come to play on
WKBO
|
|
|
They began promoting that "
... this fall the Eagle, the Nittany Lion and the Bear will come to play
on WKBO" Russ Small was hired as sports director and play-by-play announcer
for the Hershey Bears as WKBO became their flagship. In December, Rick
Shockley departed and Chris Andree was promoted to 6 PM - Midnight and
Gary Jadus was hired for overnights. The transition was now complete. |