Tanna Guthrie
I hear there’s a baseball game being played Friday night…
However there won’t be a bigger party in town that night than what goes down at Knucklehead’s, celebrating the 40th anniversary of radio station KY102. KY signed on in 1974 and during the late 70s and into the 80s, it ranked No. 1, or close to it, in many of the prime audience demographics.
It promises to be an evening of fun, friends and family with the intention of “putting the band back together” one more time to celebrate the legacy that was this outstanding rock music station.
Before the Internet, KY was the clearing house for just about everything you needed to know in town.
This morning I spoke about the shindig with KY102 event organizer and radio god Randy Raley.
Bruce Sringsteen drummer Max Weinberg and Randy Raley circa 1986
“KY was the place to hear concert information,” Raley says. “It wasn’t just a radio station, it was a lifestyle.”
And he was correct.
I remember those days like it was yesterday, back when my close, personal friend Paul Fredrocks was at the center of it all.
Come down to Knuckleheads in the East Bottoms Friday evening and meet the crew and personalities who made it all come to life.
Johnny Dare has survived as the last local rock radio god standing, but it’s easy to forget, that during KY102’s hey days, the format with its larger than life on air personalities, were the toast of the town.
Once upon a time, disc jockeys ruled the radio waves before they became secondary to the mostly music playing corporations whose sole intent is squeezing the last dime of profit out of corporate radio.
The soiree opens with The Snot Rockets, featuring former KY personality Doug Medlock. They take the stage at 7:45 with introductions around 8:30, first featuring the former KY102 support staff, then its on-air staff.
After everyone’s had a chance to share some thoughts, the local KC band Shooting Star, a long time friend of the station since the band’s debut release, will put the party into high gear and take it all the way to closing time.
Kansas Music Hall of Fame inductees, Shooting Star
Tentative attendees on the VIP list include your well coiffed scribe, Spike Santee, Casey Stengel, Stan Andrews, Dick Wilson, Joe MacCabe, Ray Sherman, Katey McGuckin, Vaughan Mac, Jon Hart, Skid Roadie, Slacker, Doug Medlock, Jay Stone, Tanna Guthrie, Larry Moffit, Jack Poessiger and last but not least, the legendary one, Paul Fredrocks.
“It would be great to get all our fans back together and celebrate,” Raley says. “I know we came into the listeners lives every day. A lot us have gone on to do different things but I think it would be great for people to show their appreciation to guys like Vaughn Mac one last time. After that, we ride into the sunset together. I think it will be great fun.”
Oh and commemorative merch?
There will be shirts and posters available for purchase and to be autographed.
Poessiger, Fredrocks, Skid Roadie & Raley: Mugging for their 10th high school reunion?
Come join me and meet these guys from a time that will never be reduplicated in radio anywhere again. Tickets are $15.00 on the Knuckleheads website www.knuckleheadssaloon.com or at the door. The doors open at 6:00 p.m. with a meet and greet featuring the on air and behind the scenes support people who made KY102 and 99.7KY a local legend.
“After all, if you worked at KY, you were family,” Raley says. “And if you listened to KY, you were our friends.”
DVR the baseball game if you have to, for crying out loud, but don’t miss this historic reunion.
Great guys and a girl. Tanna is a sweetheart and was always nice to me on the show as were Max, Paul,Slacker,Skid,Larry and crew…fun times. I wish them all well, I miss their show tons.
P.S. When I moved back from LA in the early 90’s Paul let me stay with him for several months at his apartment on the Plaza. Nice guy.
CG, that’s the first time I met you, at Paul’s place.
Craig has some wild ass Fredrocks tails from that experience…
Perhaps he’ll share a couple here in the comments section.
Paulie Fredrocks… The Legondary One. Awesome!
Ahhhhh, Northland girl; welcome.
Juergen looks scary in that photo!
Nice KSHE shirt Randy!
Viva Sweetmeat!
That was back in Jack’s serial killer days, dude
Are you sure that is not a picture of Spinal Tap in article above?
You got me, Harry.
Sorry, my mistake!
What about Max?
Think his wife is having surgery and he probably won’t be able to make it
Herndon and bob coming.?
no Frankie?
And no Bill Maas
I think Bill may be there.
I have pre-Chiefs Bill story from his MN Tiger days
Orphan, see you tonight!
Ahhhhhh, that remarkable mouth.
Frankie is living a very quiet retired life from the hoopla. She’s growing a crop of dental floss in Montana.
too bad max won’t be there… for all the talent on that station, he was the ringleader, or so my impression was. sorry I won’t be able to make it… hope someone is there taking a lot of pics and will post a nice follow-up story.
best regards to all of the KY crew! you guys were the best!
Mike, you’ll get pics and a follow up story! Sorry you can’t come.
Max may make an appearance. It’s hard to have a reunion without him.
just curious randy… did the guy who did your station IDs get invited? that voice was as much as part of the station as anyone. seem to recall he lived in MN?
Joe Kelly. He actually is in Arizona I believe and unfortunately, while invited, he can’t make it. But, we do have audio…
ah, good. sure wish I could be there…
Surely there will some Ozark Music Festival stories to be told. Past the statute of limitations, right?
ky was a huge hit…because they had no competition. Wheres the reunion for
61 country and wes and the gang…
Like kshe in st. Louis…..legendary stations.
and we’ll miss hearing about Frankie….I spent hours with her…a sweetheart…
hope tommy and the rest of kids are doing great.
good people….even fredrocks was a riot. No onewasclose to skid in talent.
No competition? You high?
From KWKI to KSAS to KKCI, we had plenty of competition, man.
In the spring of 81, KKCI comes on with 106 days commercial free, playing the same playlist, that’s not competition?
There was hardly any time in my tenure there that KY didn’t have some kind of competition.
Maybe we did our jobs so well, it didn’t seem like it but…dude.
Randy, please disregard Harley. There’s a reason every single comment he makes is moderated for approval before it’s posted. If that’s not enough, he’s the only reader who finds himself in that unique position. Somewhere out there is a tree working tirelessly to provide him with oxygen; he owes it an apology.
kwki? come on dude…run out of a submarine…
you’d been on the air for years andeveryone grew up with
you…no competition…just like kshe in st. Louis.
beck got slammed in kc… ky to much for his stations…was big man in st. lluous….
ky was a lay down station…kkci? come on
dude..that wasn’t even close.
kyys owned the city long before these stations came on…
you know better…stop fibbing!
The dude here.
Quit roping me into silly harlinator babble, OK??
Randy, thanks for all your help in putting this piece together; look forward to seeing all you guys tonight.
Man that’s Medicare at its best!
Hope to see you there (..as Frankie used to say about her live remotes:)
If you are coming down, the times have changed…Doors open at 6, first band at 8:30 or so, then introductions around 9ish, then Shooting Star
my bad, intros after the first band around 9:15 or so then…all the rest. Sorry.
saw the pic of the announcers. the real brains were Herndon…bob and abrams..
were they there…they made that station.
caught the end of ky era….and the salesstaff…they had some real head cases….
still without competition you can do whatever you want.
and they had none.
those other stations were midgets compared to ky and they neer had the
money invested to take over ky. Miller FROM st. Louis tried…failed…others tried
just that ky had such a big head start no one could catch them.
fredrocks looks really good….but the real head turner was FRANKIE!!
BG and Herndon both attended. Zuerowest who resurrected the station as 99.7KY also at the event last night.
thanks…Jack for info
bob and Hasty were the real brains behind the
whole operation.
Let me point out that KUDL-FM in 1973-4 showed KY the way. They were first and better for that first year head to head. When KY hit the air I thought, well there’s a new station imitating KUDL.
At that time KUDL had a 189 ft tower and 25,000 watts. KY who changed from WDAF-FM (circa 1973) had a 100,000 flame thrower at the top of WDAF- TV’s tower at over 1,000 ft. The KUDL pea shooter signal didn’t stand a chance.
KUDL finally got their 100,000 watt class C signal around 1984. Hard to believe neither of those two stations exist anymore.
I loved Ky 102 and Frankie , skid , tanna slacker I think moffit best station ever