The greatest hits of the greatest decade in music history
From the decade that saw the invention of Post-It Notes and Nutrisweet, the start of CNN and the fall of the Berlin Wall ... when we played with our Rubik's Cubes while wearing parachute pants ... the decade when MTV actually played music ... K.M. Richards Programming Services brings you The Eighties Channel™!

A format with a spirit and attitude that is unique in any market
The Eighties Channel™ is a more focused approach to the Classic Hits format, and celebrates all the great artists and bands that were featured on the MTV music videos you remember from the 80s (which were also the biggest CHR hits of the decade). The format is embraced by listeners who are active and engaged, and who represent a remarkable opportunity for businesses, agencies and organizations to reach people who are successful and enjoy the positive atmosphere that the music and presentation of The Eighties Channel™ brings to their lives. Our audience really does listen, for hours a day ... just what your clients want!

Programmimg that builds local billing without exploding costs
The Eighties Channel™ is programmed with a mix of top-40, rock, and urban throwbacks, concentrating on those titles which had the heaviest airplay on CHR stations in the 80s (every other song is literally one receiving high airplay on top rated gold-based stations in the top 30 markets). We then carefully program additional songs in the hour that are proven to hold listeners for longer listening periods ... even the droppable "fill" titles are ones that still receive significant airplay nationwide!

Core artists include Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Hall & Oates, Billy Idol, Prince, The Police, Madonna, U2, Genesis/Phil Collins, Blondie, Journey, Talking Heads, Billy Joel, INXS, David Bowie, Pat Benatar and Tears For Fears.

Baby Boomers, Generation X, and more
The Eighties Channel™ is targeted 25-54, with a median age of 44. This takes in the tail end of the Baby Boomers and the first of what the media calls "Generation X". However, the appeal of the format goes beyond those demographics: Nielsen reports that we attract nearly as many 25-34s -- who have also embraced 80s music and will be active listeners to Adult Hits stations that play these songs -- as we do 35-54s or over 55s. (In other words, two-third of the audience is in the "money demo" coverted by national spot buyers.) And if you have a high Hispanic population in your market, you have no need to fear that the format is "too white", because this music also appeals to Latinos who "came of age" during this decade and they, too, will make your station a listening destination.

The format includes two accent categories which we use to make your on-air library bigger than just the approximately 350 songs which make up 90% of the "spins" on the hourly clock. The first consists of approximately 140 "New Wave" titles which were big MTV and radio hits (and therefore very familiar to the target audience) but didn't always score high on the Billboard charts. The biggest of these play twice an hour -- one of those prominently in the middle of the hourly "Eighties Music Marathon" -- and are also carefully researched against airplay monitors of gold-based stations nationwide. The second accent category comprises a wide variety of "wow-I-haven't-heard-that-song-in-years" titles which research shows won't cause tune out but will improve audience loyalty; these air hourly as the "Forgotten 45s" feature and are continuously replaced by fresh titles every week to prevent burnout. (We have close to 500 titles in that category alone, which ensures that titles rest for several months after their periods in active rotation before they return to the on-air library.) Including both of these in The Eighties Channel™ ensures the format works even in markets with Classic Hits stations that also include large amounts of 80s music in their playlists. This approach also prevents your listeners from complaining about "always hearing the same songs" day-in/day-out. We guarantee that the "power" songs will never play in the same daypart two days in a row, and when any do repeat they will always be separated by at least three hours from the last play in that daypart ... similarly, the secondary songs only play once every two or three days and also rotate through multiple dayparts on subsequent plays. Every weekday is a "no repeat" day on The Eighties Channel™ without songs that are less familiar to your listeners! We also program five hours on weekend evenings of nothing but New Wave hits that have remained popular over the years, using another specialized library of around 400 titles, interspersed with songs from a subset of the regular format New Wave accent library. (Both the hourly "Forgotten 45" and the Friday and Saturday night "Flashback Weekend" program are automatically included on the format clocks to be salable to local businesses at a premium sponsorship rate, but do not sound "out of place" without sponsors.)

You get everything to run The Eighties Channel™ from us ... music, jingles and imaging, liners, and the music logs for your automation system. Any updates can either be sent directly to you or downloaded from our affiliate services page. (We can even set you up with a third-party software program that will automatically check for updates, download them, and install them in the correct folders on your automation computer!) And we're always available to help with format execution, promos, and sales ideas ... we'll even set up the programming for your Sunday morning public affairs FCC commitment, at no extra charge!

All this won't cost you the proverbial "arm and a leg" either; depending on your market size and the number of barter spots you're willing to run, you could pay as little as $300 per month for the entire package ... nothing removed to cut corners. (We really want to work with smaller groups, unique markets and individual owners.) And if you'd prefer a turnkey hands-off approach, our flagship station in Albuquerque can provide the format pre-produced via the Internet, in exchange for a percentage of your local ad revenue. No "corporate pricing" here!

The Eighties Channel™ was designed personally by K.M. Richards, who was in radio five years before scoring a first Program Director gig in 1978 (and then proceeding to take that station from "no-show" to #5 in the very first book). K.M. was active in Contemporary Hit Radio for most of the 80s, both as a programmer and on-air talent (including an afternoon-drive shift at Y97 in Santa Barbara that in 1988 garnered an unbelievable 23 audience share in 12+), so you will have the benefit of a PD who lived with this music for the entire decade!

At KRKE Albuquerque, where the format was originally introduced and refined, the station had five upward-moving Nielsen books in a row. In the "money demo" of 25-54, KRKE had a 35% increase in cume after one year and both AQH rating and share more than doubled in 16 months. The experiment ended prematurely when personal matters of the station's owners forced KRKE to go silent and subsequently be sold ... but our story does not end there. On October 14, 2022, we returned to the Duke City on a new station, owned by the same company and reusing the KRKE call letters, and we are both honored and proud to have been invited back. (The "listen live" link is below.) After only six months back on the air, the reborn KRKE already had cume equaling nearly 70% of that which we had when the previous incarnation ended ... and the numbers keep going up.

Need we say that we believe you'll have equally great results with The Eighties Channel™ on your station?