An online tribute to K/men
If you grew up in the Inland Empire during the 1960s and ‘70s, you probably remember the radio battle between KMEN (now KKDD, 1290 AM) and KFXM (now KTIE, 590 AM). It was the area’s equivalent to the battles in Los Angeles between KFWB (980 AM), KRLA (now KWVE, 1110 AM) and later KHJ (930 AM). In fact many of the elements heard on KHJ were heard on KMEN before KHJ even launched the top-40 format in 1965.
Bruce Chandler, perhaps known best for his many years at KIQQ/K-100 (now KKLQ, 100.3 FM) remembers it well … he was there. First as a newsman, and later as a DJ at KMEN, his first radio job out of college. And he’s helping bring it back, as a partner with a huge fan of the station, who started his own online tribute. I’ll let Chandler explain it.
“As a retired radio dude I was just kicking back and enjoying watching my favorite teams on TV, getting into more varied recipes and cooking at home — including a fabulous spaghetti sauce — surfing the internet every morning with coffee, running errands outside the house,” he said.
“About three weeks ago I was contacted by Mike Kunert, who is based just outside of Portland, Oregon. I did a few of Mike’s ‘I Remember Radio’ video interviews for YouTube in the past. He asked if I’d mind voicing a line or two for his new online radio station venture — kmen129.com — named after the legendary top 40 radio station.”
Kunert grew up in the IE, and loves everything K/men and KFXM. Kind of the Inland Empire’s version of me.
Chandler agreed, and made a few samples to use on the station. But in talking, Chandler realized he could help expand the playlist and more. “I told him about the 3,000 CD’s I have collected and all of the tunes I have on my computers”
Chandler described it as “every hit you can think of” and many you can’t. So the two agreed to work together to make what Chandler hopes is the premiere 1960s music source.
“It’s what K/men would sound like 2026-style, though with no live DJ’s.” This includes assorted “liners” between tunes every three or four songs or so and will eventually feature short “story intros” to various songs a couple times an hour as introductions to specific songs.
“And,” Chandler says, “everything fans of the music of the ‘60s are not getting now, at least locally: a sixties based hit music station, one that you can leave on all day and not hear the same song twice.”
“I had no idea how much fun it would be to do this,” Chandler told me. We started with 300 songs, and we’ve been slowly adding them with a goal of more than 1600. Hopefully, you will never know what’s coming up next.”
The tribute station is still evolving, but in its current form is already pretty darn good, including some original K/men jingles. Check it out at kmen129.com or via the Live365 app.
“By the way, says Chandler, “we’re running a ‘sounder’ with Suzie Horton before every song written by Jimmy Webb. Mike knows her from her Colton days and she was Webb’s flame at the time, the gal that broke his heart. He wrote ‘Didn’t We’ about her and other songs like ‘MacArthur Park,’ so we have her saying she was the ‘muse’ on the song. Very inside stuff … but what a coup.”
AM Radio Bill
A law requiring AM radio to be available in all consumer vehicles sold in the United States got another step closer to reality, with the United States House of Representatives overwhelming passing the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (HR 979). The bill thus advances to the Senate, where the companion bill (S 315) is expected to pass.
The reasoning reflects a reality that emergency bulletins need a reliable means of transmission, and in spite of AM radio’s problems, it remains one of —if not the most — robust means of broadcasting information.
Of course if AM programmers provided entertainment that people wanted to hear, this bill never would have been needed. Hopefully this lifeline will get programmers to do the right thing.
GM Car Play
General Motors has reversed a decision to remove Apple Car Play and Android Auto from the company’s future cars, which is good news not only for those who like specific features of the smartphone systems but also for radio fans … I use CarPlay when I want to hear local stations in bad reception areas, as well as tuning in stations from around the country and the world.
When GM originally announced the decision, it was met with many complaints such as my own – I will never buy a car or truck without it.
Apparently executives got the message. Nice that a company finally listens to its consumers.