Maximum Louie Louie

This was an event unparalleled in the history of college radio. There are radio stunts that garner a bit of attention for a radio station. This stunt is recorded in no fewer than half a dozen books and innumerable websites. This stunt eventually led to a recurring parade... this stunt outdid all other radio stunts and thus became a historical event unto itself. It was called Maximum Louie Louie.

The setting was an infamous college radio station, 89.7 KFJC in Los Altos, CA, on the campus of Foothills College. It's only a 110 watt station but it blankets downtown San Jose, CA which gives them a reach of about 1 million people. The station was founded in 1959, when Foothills was just a Junior college giving name to the JC following the KF. Originally a 10 watt station on 88.5, the station moved to 89.7 in 1961, before the station ever aired rock n' roll music. They went stereo in 1974 and then increased power to 110 watts in 1980. (Note: some sources put them at 250 watts.)  All this was prelude to the big event.

On August 19, 1983, at 6:00 PM , the station aired 823 different versions of the song Louie Louie consecutively. The event is referred to as Maximum Louie Louie. The idea originated with two student members of KFJC, Jeff "Stretch" Riedle and Phil Dirt aka Frank Luft with encouragement from SM Robert "Doc" Pelzel. How this event came to be, and all of it's unintended consequences are two different stories:

The idea originated with two student members of KFJC, Jeff "Stretch" Riedle and Phil Dirt aka Frank Luft. In an inspired moment back in 1981, Stretch tore through the KFJC library and found 33 versions of Louie Louie and aired them consecutively. It took about 90 minutes. Coincidentally KALX held a completed a listener survey and determined that their all time favorite rock song was Louie Louie. A DJ there, Mel Cheplowitz used the KFJC song list and added 17 more versions and aired a  50-song all Louie Louie power block in December of 1981. Riedle responded with an 88-version special in the Summer of 1982. Cheplowitz raised the stakes and broadcast a "Lou-A-Thon" in December of 1982 that included 100 different versions. (some sources say 200) Local press started to comment on this musical escalation. Cheplowitz said he was done, but Riedle told the San Francisco Examiner " We started this thing, and we intend to end it." It sounded almost like a threat. More here.

The station began soliciting versions of Louie Louie. They planned to broadcast live versions by local bands every two hours. Jack Ely, the original Kingmen's vocalist flew down from Oregon. The original songwriter Richard Berry took a train up from Los Angeles. Riedle would tilt this windmill and kick it's ass. Local press began to guess how many versions KFJC might pull together... 200?  400?. All told it was 63 consecutive hours of programming. Los Altos was never the same again.

So how many versions were really broadcast, and by which artists? Riedle taped the event. But 24 years later, despite the numerous aircheck sheets, some versions remain unidentified even today. [SOURCE] In honor of the event, Rhino Records released RNEP605, a "Best of Louie Louie" compilation. It's only 10 tracks, but that LP made it into the hands of a very special DJ in Philadelphia.

On the East coast, 2,900 miles away a WMMR DJ named John DeBella, regaled his listeners with the true tale of Maximum Louie Louie. Inspired, he decided that Philadelphia needed a Louie Louie Parade. Thousands of people came. On April 1st, 1985 it happened. They did it again in 1986, and 1987 until the City itself started to complain about the costs. But by then it had spread, Louie Louie parades had been held in multiple cities... as of 2017, Peoria, IL has been doing it annually for 30 straight years. So that parade has outlived the LouieFest, held yearly in Tacoma, WA from 2003 to 2012.

But 30 years is a long time. Jack Ely died in 2015, and Richard Berry back in 1997. Stretch Riedle is still with us but has not been terribly healthy of late. But in 2011 the original conspirators gathered at KFJC for “Return of the Invasion of Maximum Louie Louie.” More here. It was significantly shorter, but aired some archival tapes no one had heard since the original broadcast.  In their collective honor, we all now celebrate International Louie Louie Day every year, on April 11th; aka Richard Berry's birthday. It's been held since at least 2003, but I'm pretty sure Stretch is behind that one too.

SJC

Needless to day the towns not all taco trucks and indie rock. In terms of market area, San Jose is the southern lobe of the San Francisco market. It's fully embedded, and in fact in terms of DMAs it's inexplicably embedded in Sacramento and Stockton. In radioland that leaves it poorly defined. I've visited this town once before but my stay was very brief.

I caught San Jose on a bad day. Too much talk on that September day back in 2006 drove me away from from KSJS, KSQQ and KPFA. I ended up listening to KPIG. Nothing wrong with KPIG you know, but there's a lot more to be heard here.My plane landed on a Sunday night so that's when I did my first band scan. 91.1 KCSM was cranking out some Hammond organ -fueled jazz. 91.5 KKUP was running an old radio play. 89.7 KFJC was rocking boogie-woogie piano and old bluegrass. Mysteriously this has nothing to do with what the kids had on the schedule that night. Monday morning I checked in again and 90.5 KSJS was laying into a strange mix of obscure oldies and rockabilly. I don't hear the Bob Wills version of "Straighten Up and Fly Right" very often. This afternoon I caught a drone-rock program on KFJC and some great brit-rock on KSCU.

When you look at your non-coms in San Jose it's interesting how few are really based outside the metro. KZSC and KUSP are both really in the Monterey market However 88.1 KZSC is completely blocked by a KAWZ satcaster K201FW . KFJC, KSCU, KKUP, KMTG, KSJS, and KZSU are all in on or around San Jose. If you're unfamiliar with the bay, you might not know that KMTG is boxed in on 89.3 by KOHL in Fremont. Strangely I can only hear KOHL in San Jose today. In 2007, KMTG owned their corner of the bay for a couple days when KOHL went off air. KOHL plainly explained their outage as follows:

"The cause was found to be normal weathering of the antenna, exacerbated by hawk excrement. This is the longest KOHL has been off the air in more than 20 years."

Tonight the best game in town is on 89.1, KCEA where I caught the program ""Two Hour Tuesdays" hosted by Ms. Victoria. 

QA with Jose!

Who on earth would wish to interview Jose Fritz? Well, Jennifer Waits did and Jose was willing to take that ego inflating opportunity and run with it. She is the force behind Spinning Indie and Radio Survivor; two radio-focused blogs of distinction. He is a bookish hypergraphia poster boy. She's a hip KFJC Disc Jockey turned blogger.

Q: What do they talk about?
A: Radio of course!

Interview HERE
and also HERE

San Jose Travel Missive

San Jose radio is pale beside Monterey. Pioneer High School station 89.3 KMTG was running commercial hip-hop as was 90.5 KSJS. KSCU never seemed to come in clearly and KPFA was running talk in the afternoon. I mean Democracy Now is an interesting program but I was looking for tunes. Maybe it was the wrong time of day. I'd heard that 96.1 KSQQ was kind of eclectic Portuguese music but that too was talk while I was in town.

I caught KFOG (simulcasting on KFFG) and I can see why KPIG has been slowly gaining on them since the addition of KPYG to the market. The K-FOG playlist is very safe, mixing only the most popular classic rock tracks with the most centrist Triple A cuts. Of course neither is progressive compared to a station like KCMP.

The infamously eclectic 89.7 KFJC sounded like they were having technical problems, then I realized what I was hearing ten synthesizer keys held down at once and a woman holding a flat note over it. They followed that up with a cassette tape from 1980 of two biology students banging trash can lids together. When I checked back an hour later it was someone beating two sticks together and shouting random nouns. I can say ... as least they are original, and they plug local shows between sets of noisy crap.

I ate at a Chinese restaurant with ducks hanging in the window. I couldn't read the menu and they couldn't under stand me. Food arrived spontaneously at my table anyway. Someone in the kitchen made a safe bet I assume. It was some of the best chicken I've ear had and I don't even know what the dish was called.

I had been wondering why one metro would have three Asian AM outlets: KVVN-AM, KSJX-AM and KYAA-AM. Now I know they have an Asian population that rivals that of Seattle. Entire plazas are lit with signs in mandarin and similar-looking characters. Might be a book store, might be a bakery. I can't tell from the road.

On the drive back I caught a blues show on KKUP that ran a long set of Slim Harpo and Lighting Hopkins. The Route 101 traffic near Route 880 was thick and the friendly music was welcome. 101 thins out to two easy lanes after Watsonville giving me a little time to look at the country. The grass on the hills was yellow, but all the fields were green. I'm out of here tomorrow morning and I think I have one more chance to hit that foggy and chilly Marina beach. I kind of wish I packed a coat.