CHARTS 1966
     KTKT published charts on a weekly basis during 1966. The 1966 charts were the same style that debuted with the January 29 1965 edition. This design was a single page of paper about four inches wide and six inches long.  Different colors of paper were used each week alternating between blue, green, yellow and a pale tan color. While one side of the chart displayed the weekly top 40 tunes and the daily titles for the “Album Sound Of The Day” the other side of the published chart was vastly different for 1966. Instead of showing the KTKT logo and photos of the “The Swinging Seven “ DJs  the back side now would vary from showings ads one week to touting KTKT promotions and contests another week to photos of popular recording artists the next week. DJ photos and DJ line ups would show up from time to time but no longer on a regular basis. The KTKT weekly charts continued to debut on the air at 1030 Saturday morning and run until midnight the following Friday. The weekly top 40 countdown show on Saturday morning formerly hosted by Ray Lindstrom was taken over by Joe Bailey during 1965 after Ray left KTKT. Tom Wright filled in for Joe for a few months during 1966 while Joe did training his boot training camp duty for the military Reserves.

Music wise during 1966 the KTKT charts continued to show the continued popularity of several British Invasion acts. But the musical tide was now starting to turn in favor of the American response.  Folk rock acts like the Byrds, Turtles and The Lovin” Spoonful that first charted during 1965 seen more success during 1966. These groups were now joined by other American acts such as Monkees, Paul Revere and the Raiders and the Mamas and Papas. 1966 KTKT charts would also be home to hits from Detroit’s Motown and Memphis’ Stax label. The new “big” next thing music - wise during 1966 was the explosion of garage bands across America. A new genre called garage – known as grunge or punk in later years - was born during 1966. Groups like the Music Machine and Standells were on the leading edge of this sound .These acts were joined by local acts that did not always enjoy national success but did well locally or regionally. Every town and city across America had a number of local groups made up by kids who wanted to emulate the success of the Beatles and Stones. One of Tucson’s most popular local acts - the Dearly Beloved - captured the number one spot for the year In Tucson on the 1966 KTKT Top 99 for the year with their local hit ”Peep Peep Pop Pop”.

The Dec 2 1966 chart cover depicts KTKT DJ and program manager Frank Kalil with his partner Jay Taylor promoting and their Capitol comedy album “My Plumber Doesn’t Make House Calls”. For the full story read the Frank Kalil page found in the 60’s section of the KTKT Tribute page. The back cover of the top 99 of 1966 tells Tucson that Chickenman can be now be heard on KTKT. Chickenman – created by Dick Orkin of WCFL Chicago - was a syndicated radio comedy series that proved to very popular during the mid to late 60’s. Each episode – about two to three minutes longs – featured a “super hero” - Chickenman who fought crime on the weekends. During the week Chickenman’s alter ego named Benton Harbor was a full time shoe salesman. The show was kind of a satire and spoof of the then hugely popular Batman TV series.
  
At the end of the 1966 KTKT chart albums portions of the debut issue of the now rare Tucson ITT magazine are pictured. ITT (it’s for Tucson’s Teenagers) was published and edited by a staff led by Mr. Robert Kamman. The free magazine was published twice a month - on the first and 15th – consisted of 8 pages printed on newspaper. ITT was very similar in size and style of the then popular teen papers offered by many top 40 stations such as KRLA in Los Angeles. Unlike the radio stations papers that only focused on music and radio related news ITT featured a much broader range of stories dealing with many issues of interest for teens. The rear cover of the debut issue featured the KTKT chart for the week ending April 8 1966 and a short article wrote by someone from KTKT. The article features a current KTKT Agent 99 promotion that took a lot of cues from the popular TV programs Batman and Get Smart. Hopefully – in the future - more will turn up regarding ITT magazine.

Once again a big thank you to my friend Jim Chrisman for saving and sharing images from his KTKT chart collection. All but one of the KTKT 1966 weekly chart images – (a black & white Xerox for Jan 21 1966) are from Jim’s collection. The Top 99 of 1966 image came from an original chart I picked up trading with another chart collector a few years ago.  Right now there are not many weekly 1966 charts available to show for KTKT. Hopefully other issues will soon surface.   
      If anyone has KTKT charts to scan or loan for use on this web site (with full credit) please contact us at: colorchannel99@yahoo.com      



KTKT Charts 1966

    To view a slide show of the charts from 1966, click on the button below. As it appears, you can stop, start, fast forward, or go back by using the controls at the bottom of the page.





CLICK ON THE SURVEY SHEET BELOW TO SEE ALL THE TOP HITS OF 1966!