Allen Bryan, 1961

WKLO Tunedex 1961

Allen Bryan (left) hosting the WKLO Hi-Fi Club Dance in January, 1964. A representative from Coca-Cola is on the right.

Allen Bryan came to WKLO in Louisville in May of 1960 from Lawton Oklahoma, where he had worked for both stations there (KSWO and KCCO) in less than a year.

Allen writes:

I was hired at WKLO as a night newsman (6pm-12m). By 1961, I was doing the 9am-12n DJ show, and afternoon drive news. By the Fall of 1961 I also was doing the Coca-Cola Hi-Fi Club on Friday nights. It was a live remote record hop done at area high schools.

In December of 1961, I was drafted and served two years at Ft. Jackson , S.C. as a Broadcast Specialist. After being discharged, I returned to WKLO where I stayed until I left broadcasting in 1973. The majority of my time there was spent as a newsman and later News Director.

I have a Hooper Rating sheet from January 1964 that shows WKLO with 32% of the audience from 6am-12n, and WAKY with 24%. In the 12n-6pm period, WAKY had 33%, and WKLO had 27%. This was very typical of the 60's and 70's when WAKY and WKLO went head to head. The two usually had a combined audience of about 60% or more of the people listening to the radio.

I think that this is the thing about early top 40 radio that younger people today can't appreciate. These stations were GIANTS in their markets. There was no real FM competition, and in Louisville there were maybe 12 signals that were available. WAKY and WKLO just dominated this market until the early 70's when the expansion of FM started breaking the audience into smaller pieces.

I believe I was the only air person to span the entire period of the "glory days" of WKLO, from 1960 to 1973.

The Repository thanks Allen for sharing!

Allen Bryan, WKLO Louisville Hi-Fi Club 1964 (9:59)

. . . And tonight, Hi-Fi Club comes to you from Holy Rosary Academy . . .

[Description by Allan Bryan]

The Hi-Fi Club aircheck is from January 10, 1964. The style may seem a little restrained, even for a teen record-hop jock in 1964, but that's what Coke insisted on. They didn't want a "screamer".

Paul Cowley was the original host of the show. In 1961, I was added, and Paul and I split Friday and Saturday night. When I came back from the Army, we returned to that format.

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