… I just happen to be the only disc jockey in Salt Lake City from Wassau, Wisconsin …
KCPX (5KW @ 1320) was typical of many medium market stations with a broad appeal playlist, though the list was short (about 20 currents). The result was a station that dominated the market for years with shares as high as an 18 as late as 1973. By 1974, a couple of FM’s were cutting into the pie (including KCPX’s own AOR FM and KRSP-FM) but the station still reigned supreme with 12 share in the high single digits.
The station was programmed by Gary “Wooly” Waldron, a gem of a guy with a great radio ear. Wooly had equal success previously with KNAK/1280. KCPX was owned by Columbia Pictures (Columbia Pix – K-PIX, get it??) along with a TV and FM station. KCPX and staff that included “Skinny” John Mitchell, Jonathon Browne (one of them), Lynn Lehman, Hal Buckner, Chad Stevens (Dan Jessop) and Jordan Mitchell. This recording is straight off the in-studio off-air aircheck machine, activated by the mic switch. Wooly air-checked every shift, but I don’t remember that he ever had a word of criticism, constructive or otherwise to any of us. We must have been either hopeless or damn good!!
Within a few years of this 1973 aircheck, KCPX was a shadow of itself, hurt by FM and an expanding metro area that favored big gun signals. In 2007, the calls remained on the FM band, but the call sign is now KFNZ/1320, a Citadel All Sports station.