oldviolin wrote: 
Your old enough to know now... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFAT_%28defunct%29

What is this KFAT? A twisted ghost of some sort?

I'm about 1/2 way through it.
What a crazy read.

Great story.

I finally got my copy today.
Holy cow!  What a big read!
Lots of pages and semi fine print, with only a few pictures. 
There's even a couple of our fearless leader.

I can't wait to get into this one.

 OlderThanDirt wrote: 

yup..thank goodness for BillG & Rebecca

 Painted_Turtle wrote: 
Aren't they great? Back then (70s, early 80s) I was very careful about who knew I listened to KFAT. These are relatively mild, compared to some of the stuff they, especially Unkle Sherman, played. The Best of KFAT doesn't necessarily include The Worst of Unkle Sherman.   Most of it is Pure Lard (their description of FAT music), but long after the demise of KFAT and the rise of KPIG, I searched out and downloaded (still legal in those days) as many of Sherman's more outrageous tunes as would fit on a CD and titled them, "The Worst of Unkle Sherman's Dirty Boogie." I sent a copy of it to him, to which he replied, "Shame on you!" I still have a copy around here somewhere.

But, these files generally represent the best of KFAT. Artists and songwriters that weren't being played anywhere else at that time. New music. Good music. We listened to Charlie Daniels' "Devil Went Down to Georgia" for close to a year before I just happened to hear it on another local station one day. KFAT apparently heard it too, because I never heard it on KFAT again.

KFAT will never be again, but the concept of good new music that nobody is playing yet, or good old music that nobody plays any more, is alive and well at Radio paradise.

 OlderThanDirt wrote: 

These are great..I've been listening to them all evening, I'm on track 39 right now..Comander Codys Sunset on the Stage. Lived most of my life in the midwest with only about 10 yrs lived in the west..recognized lots of the singers & tunes. Got them bookmarked. They just did a commercial featuring "crack head Bobby Bare"..what a hoot!

 Xeric wrote: 
Good stuff! There's an Idi Amin Hot Tub bit, too. Some of their commercials weren't exactly intended to sell stuff, even if they had been paid to sell stuff.

 OlderThanDirt wrote: 
"Even when I'm-a in the Vatican I'm a listen to KGLT . . . but they just don't a-make-a antennas that-a big!"  Wow.  That was a memory outta the blue—the good Father's promo for my Montana college radio station, back in the day. . . .

 Coaxial wrote: 
There's a lot of that, but if you're only listening with one ear, a lot of it passes you by. They did a lot of station ID's using well known people who Gilbert interviewed on his "Chewin' the Fat" show. Bill Murray comes to mind. I have a Father Guido Sarducci spot that deserves playing if I can figure how to get the link from my phone to here. Tomorrow, maybe.

 OlderThanDirt wrote: 
Indeed, they played some off the wall stuff...Made you wonder how some was ever actually recorded.

 Coaxial wrote: 
And it's really quite a broad "E" too.

 OlderThanDirt wrote: 
I knew enough about them from my K-Pig listening days to know they put the capital E in eclectic.

Here's one of the 58 tracks from the KFAT "airchecks."  Eclectic music with a kind of "country" focus. You won't like all of the cuts, but I thought some of them were pretty spectacular. Well worth a listen. John Hartford starts it off.

KFAT 22

Gilbert Klein's "Fat Chance" is similar in style to the music they played there up until 30 years ago. Well worth a read.

 Pearhead wrote: 
I always love it when the DJ "wow's" a song on start up.

I think the last time I heard that was "Poorman" on KROQ way back in the early '80's.

 Pearhead wrote: 
Ayeup. KPIG has suffered from his absence. But the mechanics concept occurred to me after my last post so I added an *edit*

 OlderThanDirt wrote: 
Ayeup.  No worries with Bill on this drill.  

Overall genre s'not his primary wheelhouse (praise a lord)....but suffice to say his keen mechanics are drenched in the stench of PIG-FAT.   (sans blatant and booming needle drops/skates and somewhat muffled on-air uh-ohs)  gotdammit it's pure.....it's great.  

 Pearhead wrote: 
I know the feeling, I'm up to KFAT 11 and it just keeps getting better. Reading chapter 79 along with the music.

This was part of BillG's lineage, too, so I'm sure he will not take umbrage at our love of KFAT. It was a direct ancestor of Radio Paradise and I have to say that the family resemblance is remarkable. Fun radio is what it's all about.
 
*edit* Gilbert's book makes frequent reference to "the flow," as being the essential  essence of a music program. I never heard that term before I came to Radio Paradise, but RP has demonstrated it and helped me better understand why KFAT was so appealling. Bill continues and expands on the concept.

  Great anecdote of adolescence OTD.  Yer still hip....with questionable hips.  ;)  

Re: aircheck —>  About 20 min. in on 03 we get Hank Williams - Love Sick Blues  Cowboy Jazz - Too Much Fun  (Tommy Dorsey was a hack)  (the rockin' version of) Ted Hawkins - Watch Your Step.

fukinel, I'm bleeding profusely here..... 

 KurtfromLaQuinta wrote: 
And pearhead, too. I have a KFAT tale of my own  . . .

I started listening probably about 1976. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, and couldn't get enough of it. I had two pre-teen children at home, so I tried not to play some of the rougher stuff when they were around. And, if you know me you would never put these two three-letter words in the same sentence: OTD and HIP.

Somewhere during her high school career, probably about 1979, my daughter had one of those high school courses where they to explain to teens what their body is doing to them, how it affects their perception of their parents, why their parents are considering filicide, etc. The teacher asked the question, "What do your parents do that bothers you?" and went around the class asking each student to tell their story. When he got to my daughter, she answered, "My dad listens to KFAT!"

The teacher looked surprised, and said, "Why, Deb, I didn't know your parents were so hip!"

KFAT was forever after acceptable listening.