Pronouncing KNAK

[CAwasinNJ]

When 1280 was KNAK, how did it refer to itself? I can think of two possibilities. One would be the way most stations do it today, which would be to say the individual letters K-N-A-K. The other would be to pronounce it the same way as the word "knack." Is one of these correct?

[christopherjohn]

I believe one of the slogans was “You’re on the right track with K-NAK”

[henry]

The old "AM to FM" documentary from 2007 had a panel of radio participants. They called it "K - Nack" as mentioned above.

Wish I remember who produced that. Would love to digitize it (with their permission) and put in online somewhere. Was a guy who did business with KSRR, and all my contacts there evaporated after Bob died.

[amanuensis]

The Beach Boys provided KNAK with a version of their song "Salt Lake City" in which they give KNAK a shoutout, and they pronounced it as K-NAK.

"There are two versions of the song. When they sign about the #1 radio station, someone in the background yells "KNAK!" They recorded a version for the other stations to play." www.reddit.com/r/SaltLakeCity/comments/r4mh8a/today_i_learned_there_is_a_beach_boys_song/

www.sltrib.com/news/2015/09/15/whatever-happened-to-knak-and-kcpx/

If you really crank the volume up, you can here the "K-NAK" here www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbGASY-Om5s at the 31 second mark. Immediately after the "yeah".

[CAwasinNJ]

That Beach Boys song was actually the exact reason I asked this question.

I've listened many times to the original mix that includes it, but I've never been able to pick out exactly what's being said even knowing more or less what it's supposed to be. I'll have to try again.

The modern remasters specifically don't include it but I was under the impression that the original mix on the Summer Days and Summer Nights album did. I have an original 60's vinyl pressing in storage somewhere, so someday I can check.


henry, that documentary was produced at KUED, er, PBS Utah, by Greg Carlisle. There was a DVD for sale at one point with a contact number for him of 801-225-8835. I have no idea whether any of that is still accurate.

[amanuensis]

Who knew that the Beach Boys came out with an instrumental album, that included Salt Lake City on it?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbGASY-Om5s

I love that an image of album cover is included.

There is so much recorded music that just never gets played anymore.

[CAwasinNJ]

I'm actually surprised there aren't more albums like that, though I've been seeing more of them in recent years. Basically it's just a remixed version that omits the vocal tracks, but in this case they set up the stereo channels so the listener can use the balance control to further isolate the different instruments.

Karaoke covers of big hits have been around for decades. It never made sense to me why the artists/labels didn't put out their real versions instead of having fans buy 3rd rate knockoffs.