KLOL radio becomes `a thing of the past' for a day

By MICHAEL SPIES
Staff

Far out.

Monday morning, radio station KLOL became, like, "a thing of the past," as the station had mysteriously promised its listeners during promos for several days.

But this didn't mean the long-running FM album-rock station would change its format to playing oldies. Rather, it meant that for one day KLOL would plunge its listeners into the midst of the Summer of Love.

In an elaborately planned hoax, with only a few 1987 commercials to break the spell, KLOL spent 14 hours Monday in 1967. The broadcast day was complete with laid-back, underground-style disc jockeys, information about the upcoming Monterey Pop festival, news of the war in Vietnam, a teaser for that night's episode of F Troop, "Things Go Better With Coca-Cola" ads, hitchhiker referrals and, oh yes, the latest Beatles album.

That album was "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which was released 20 years ago Monday. And KLOL was joined in marking its anniversary by Capitol Records, which released "Sgt. Pepper's" Monday for the first time on compact disc, just as it's issued earlier Beatles albums on CD throughout this year.

Back at KLOL , the disc jockeys acted Monday as if the album had just been released and listeners were hearing its now-classic tracks (such as "When I'm Sixty-Four, A Day in the Life", With a Little Help From My Friends) for the first time.

The significance of "Sgt. Pepper's", which was the first rock album to receive widespread serious attention, gave the KLOL management all the incentive it needed to pull out the bell-bottoms, the love beads and the Nehru jackets. Incense was burned in the studio, and late in the day the station held a "Love In" in the form of a live broadcast from "The Cafe" (the Hard Rock Cafe).

"It's an important anniversary," said KLOL general manager Patrick Fant, who signed the station on in 1970. "It "(Sgt. Pepper's)" was the pivotal album for the culture, and the one that sparked stations like KLOL ." Fant wore a pink Nehru jacket and purple wide-wale corduroy pants for the occasion.

The station's staff spent the last few weeks gathering up the period pieces that would make the hoax plausible and even came up with ads for Black Sheep Imports and Mama Guatemala's restaurant and other local artifacts of the psychedelic era.

National network-radio tapes also were raided for rarities, such as Jimi Hendrix being interviewed on Armed Forces Radio because " Purple Haze" was the then-current favorite song in the military.

Rock fans who were baffled Monday by KLOL 's sudden switch to bands such as the 13th Floor Elevators and the Seeds need not worry. This throwback to the free-form days of early FM radio was only a one-day time warp in the station's format and will not be repeated.

Fant said the station's promotion of the stunt caused some agitation in listeners who thought the format would be changing completely. The ambiguous line "KLOL will become a thing of the past" had piqued audience interest.

"Everybody asked me about what we were going to do Monday, but nobody ever asked about Tuesday," Fant said. "Once everybody caught on to what we were doing, they started playing along."

KLOL may have gone the furthest to celebrate "Sgt. Pepper's "anniversary, but it wasn't the only rock radio station in town to mark the milestone. Classic-rock station Z-107 is sending listeners to London this summer as part of the anniversary celebration. And nightclub R 'n' R will recreate the tableau on the "Sgt. Pepper" album cover June 25, using Beatles songs as the inspiration for decor in the club that night.