Jive Radio Revisited

I've previously mentioned what I believe was the enormous impact of KSAN on radio programming as we know it.* For better or for worse, most of the sound and techniques employed by FM music stations today are directly attributable to the innovations carried out by the mighty Jive95.

When Jive Radio rose from the ashes of it's short-lived predecessor KMPX, it's approach to broadcasting was utterly profound. Others approximated the style, some successfully (Detroit's WABX comes to mind), but it was Jive95 that set the standard for what was to become almost a blueprint for all FM rock radio to follow. To fully understand the implications, one must consider that before KSAN and the birth of underground free-form, it was supercharged Top 40 and AM radio that ruled the day. The superior FM band was grossly underutilized, home to scant classical music and foreign language stations. While Top 40 in it's limited rotations did offer a variety of musical genres from rock and soul to country and pop, Jive95 took the 'new sounds' of the burgeoning underground, mixed it with a smattering of blues, jazz and folk, and let the music ride without intrusive breaks. The DJ's too, delved deeper into album tracks supplying hip, relaxed commentary in stark contrast to their AM counterparts. It was all incredibly new and terribly exciting! Great music, laid-back announcers, good vibes, all on FM radio and in stereo, I might add. These were the key elements that contributed to the immediacy of Jive95.

When I allude to the sound and techniques adopted by KSAN's successors, I am referring to the style of the on-air DJ banter, the elongated music sweeps, personalized commercial content and investigative news reporting. As the new methodology took hold, the profit driven industry began to fine-tune it, primarily by imposing limitations on the broad scope of the music content, pulling in the reins to create the slightly more urbane 'Album Oriented Rock.' Whereas KSAN DJ's selected their own music, free of constraint and reflective of their personalities, the AOR crews drew from a smaller musical pool designed to maximize audience response while cutting down on potential 'dial drifting' (read: playing to the common denominator). The results musically were less personalized and more generalized, less varied and more defined, less exploratory, more mainstream. The freewheeling DJ raps morphed to a studied uniform approach, somewhere between the neighborhoods of the highly charged 'Top 40' sound and the hip 'in the pocket' underground that informed it. Though still quite listenable, it clearly was not as enlightening and certainly much less entertaining. In a word, it became predictable. The evolution only worsened through time and of course has since gone entirely to shit. Elements are still discernible, but the biggest offense is the 'niche' programming so popular in the last decades; formats that cater to an extremely targeted core audience by broadcasting an equally limited selection of music, ie: your lite-rock, classic rock, smooth jazz, modern country, etc. Compound this with an even tighter playlist and you've got some fairly bland and forgettable programming.

Jive Radio was undeniably a product of the times and it's demise was inevitable. But while alive (and especially during it's prime), Jive95 was as revolutionary to radio broadcasting as digital downloads are to the music recording industry.

While I was never a part of the KSAN legacy, I have worked with many former staff members over the course of my radio career and count them among my friends. In the early 1990's, the award winning college station KUSF hosted an on-air reunion of ex-Jiver's which evolved into a weekly program astonishingly called 'Jive Radio' (who would have guessed?). I was invited to participate as a rotating host along with others from the original Jive95. The premise of the broadcast was not meant as a nostalgia fest, but rather to celebrate and embrace the cutting-edge sound and vibe of the once mighty KSAN; a form of music radio programming that no longer exists on commercial radio today.

This week's mix contains excerpts from actual broadcasts capturing my occasional appearances on the program. The sources come from analogue cassettes (lovingly recorded by my girlfriend). FCC be damned, many were made in a slight state of inebriation; tipsy mostly. Alright, maybe just a little bit shit-faced. I only mention this because of the inappreciable disparity on my part from one clip to another, but then that's part of the charm of restraint-free radio; a venue where DJ's were free to be human with mood swings, feelings and flaws. These sets showcase my own Jive sensibilities (as well as my flaws); a contribution that is also contestable as one for better or for worse. You make the call.

Miles On Jive Radio!

Jive #1)
Plastic Rose/Dave Alvin
The Rounder/Dan Hicks
Everybody Thinks I'm Crazy/NRBQ
When Jesus Left Birmingham/John Mellencamp
When It's Sleepytime Down South/Terence Blanchard (Incomplete)
Jive #2)
I Broke My Promise/American Music Club (Incomplete)
Could Be/Les McCann
Come On In/Martha Valez (Incomplete)
Jive #3)
Gregory Corso's 'Marriage'
Jive #4)
Jive Radio Promo
Jive #5)
Purple Sneakers/You, Am,I
Hello Amsterdam/American Music Club
I Never Play Basketball Now/Prefab Sprout
Dance Cadaverous/Wayne Shorter
Grass/Pretty Things
Checkin' In, Checkin' Out/The High Llamas
Don't Explain/Etta James
You Can Never Get Too Big And You Sure Don't Get Too Heavy,
That You Don't Have To Stop And Pay Some Dues Sometime/
The Sir Douglas Quintet
Audrey's Dance/Angelo Badalamenti
Broken Bicycles/Tom Waits
Beginning/Colin Blunstone
Sorta New/Chico Hamilton And Euphoria (Incomplete)
Jive #6)
'It's My Party And I'll Cry If I Want To'

To download, click here, then hear the difference!

*See August 28, 2007 post 'The First (All Things Must Pass)'