A survey of KAZZ-FM's hit lists

KAZZ-FM began publishing it's "hit list" -- in direct competition with the weekly top 40 list published by Austin's dominant AM station, KNOW -- in October 1964, only weeks after KAZZ began programming rock music. KAZZ's hit list was initially a survey of the 50 top rock songs, compiled by averaging the Hot 100 Billboard list and the Top Pop Cashbox list with telephone surveys KAZZ conducted with the top three or four record outlets in Austin, including J. R. Reed and The Record Shop. Here are all the KAZZ hit list designs, presented chronologically:

		The KAZZ hit list began as a 3-1/2" x 8-1/2" one-sheet, then morphed into a 3-1/2" x 5-3/4" top fold. Next, the hit list shifted into an 8-1/2" x 10-1/2" three-panel format (when folded, it was 3-1/2" x 8-1/2") that included the Fun Fifty, Jazz highlights, a folk music top 25, a pop top 25, the Showtime schedule, the 25 top country tunes, and special features.

In November 1965, KAZZ began publishing the Starline Record Survey, a 4-page 7" x 8-1/2" format that featured the Fun 40 + 10 (a restructuring of the previous Fun Fifty and designed to feature 10 "Kay-Zee Klimbers", newly released hot singles), Jazz Spotlights, Top Pop, Folk, Showtime, Country 10, Boss 40 R&B, and Debuts, along with a half-page of promotional material. With the advent of the double-fold, the back third featured photos of "The Bunch" provided courtesy of Austin's Neal Douglass Photography studio. Notably, every KAZZ hit list, except for that of the week of March 13-20, 1965, included an ad for KAZZ's owner's restaurants, known in Austin as the Big Four Restaurantes Mexicanos. Copies of the March 13-20, 1965, hit list featured a blank back page on which a sequential number was individually stamped. The number was used to determine winners in a KAZZ contest.

Rim Kelley, KAZZ's afternoon DJ, designed all the KAZZ surveys using hand drawings and Letraset-style dry-transfer lettering. Photos of the KAZZ DJs were taken at Neal Douglass Photography in Austin. The cheerleader on the cover of the first Starline Record Survey was one of Rim's former classmates at Travis High School in Austin; she also was featured as a Kay-Zee Cutie in the April 17-23, 1965, issue of the Alive 95 Fun Fity Hit-Listss. Rim went on to design most of the Sonobeat singles sleeves and album jackets.

Next: the rest of the KAZZ Starline Surveys