How and Why of KPWR's Popularity

October 18, 1988|PAUL VARGAS

"It's a similar disco-type format from the late '70s. It's changed a little bit, but it's still the same dance format," Barnes said. "We thought it would work again. We would even talk about when someone would start a station for it. There was a hole here for it. Big enough for a truck."

But KPWR officials maintain that the station does not play disco.

"We are not disco or anything like it," Wyatt said. "Our beat is different, the sounds are more sophisticated, there are a greater number of rhythms. This is not just the beat of a base drum. People who say we're disco are probably still listening to 'L.A. Woman.' They can't dance and are still into rock and roll, which has picked up more from disco then people realize."

Whatever KPWR's music is called, it now seems clear that there was a demand for it long before KPWR went on the air. Until such unknown groups as Stacey Q began selling thousands of self-financed records on independent labels, there was little evidence of the dance music upswing. KPWR became the first station to introduce Stacey Q's "Two of Hearts" and the group has gone on to national prominence--a feat that has been repeated several times on KPWR.

"There were a lot of bands that people were listening to out there that just weren't getting air play," said Warner Bros. Records publicity director Bob Merlis. "You could drive to East L.A. and listen to some of the tapes people were playing, and you knew that it didn't come off a radio. Before anybody else, KPWR tapped into that, and I think the result surprised everybody."

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