Open House Party
 The Current Open House Party logo | |
| Genre | Top 40/CHR, Dance |
|---|---|
| Running time | 5 hours |
| Country | United States |
| Creator(s) | John Garabdiean |
| Exec. producer(s) | Jimmy Walter |
| Air dates | since 1987 |
| Website | http://www.openhouseparty.com |
Open House Party is an American radio show hosted on Saturday nights by John Garabedian that promotes itself as "the biggest party on the planet". It focuses on playing contemporary hit radio (CHR) music, also known as Top 40. The show differentiates itself from most Top 40 stations because it plays a fairly significant amount of electronic dance music. OHP started in 1987 and is syndicated to more than 150 stations in the U.S. A companion program, Open House Party Sunday, hosted by Dallas, KLIF-FM morning host Kannon, also runs on the next evening on many stations.
The Saturday show originates from the basement of Garabedian's house, located in suburban Boston, Massachusetts.
Only the Saturday edition of OHP is broadcast live (in Eastern and Central time only) via satellite from 7:00 p.m. to midnight (in Eastern and Mountain time) or from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. (in Central and Pacific time). Some stations only broadcast OHP on Saturday, while others broadcast it only on Sunday, while most broadcast it on both Saturday and Sunday. Some stations only broadcast a portion of OHP to make room for a local or another syndicated program. Many stations rebroadcast OHP from midnight to 5:00 a.m. (in Eastern and Mountain time) or 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. (in Central and Pacific time). Open House Party and Open House Party Sunday are syndicated by United Stations Radio Networks.
Current Hosts
- John Garabedian(Saturday)
- Kannon(Sunday)
History
In 1955, the original Open House Party was created as the afternoon show on radio station WORC in Worcester, Massachusetts.[1] A few years later, then 17-year-old John Garabedian was hired to DJ on Saturdays and Sundays. One night in 1987 Garabedian went to a party in Boston. There he bumped into Sunny Joe White, radio programmer of Boston's WXKS-FM "Kiss 108". White asked Garabedian if he would do the weekend shift. The following week, the two of them met to discuss it at dinner, where Garabedian proposed the idea for a national interactive weekend party show. White loved it, and agreed to put it on Kiss 108 after Garabedian created a studio to do the show. After looking into various office buildings, Garabedian decided to do the show from his basement. He and his friends strapped a 50-foot pole to his chimney to hold up a little microwave antenna aimed at the Prudential Tower, 27 miles (43 km) to the east, in downtown Boston.[1]
On September 5, 1987 at 7 p.m., Open House Party hit the air for the very first time on Kiss 108.[2] Within six months it became the most listened to radio program in Boston on Saturday night, as well as the most listened to radio program every week in the Boston radio market with a 14.8 share.[1]
By the following April, stations across the country had heard about Open House Party's success and were signing on. The 50-foot pole was taken down and was replaced by a satellite dish. By 1990 over 100 stations were carrying Open House Party in the United States and another 40 in Canada.[1]
Garabedian continued to DJ on both Saturday and Sunday until March 2004, when WFLZ afternoon DJ Kane took over the Sunday night show from his house in Tampa. Kane later moved to Washington, D.C. and is now the morning host on WIHT. In December 2007 Kannon, the former afternoon DJ at WRDW-FM "Wired 96.5" in Philadelphia, became the new host of the Sunday edition.
Segments
These are a few of the segments heard each week on the show:
- Make It Or Break It! (also called "Rate the Record"): Garabedian plays a new song each week and listeners call in to say what they thought of the song. The votes are tabulated and, based upon the final vote tally, the listeners decide to either "Make It...or Break It!" Open House Party trivia tidbit: Only one song has ever "Made It" by 100%... that was "Friday I'm in Love" by The Cure and was announced on air by Open House Party intern Jeff Docherty back in 1992.
- Who Sings It?: Garabedian plays a classic song and listeners call and guess the artist in order to win a prize pack. People who have won can win only six months later.
- Satellite Mega-Mix: Garabedian talks to one of the world's top club DJs, and a dance mix of up to 3 songs is then played. This segment was discontinued after the show's July 17, 2010 broadcast.
- Research Rich: Mediabase president Rich Meyer gives his company's list of the week's top 5 songs (based on radio airplay) and then Garabedian plays Meyer's pick for the "Hot New Song of the Week".
- The Big 3: Garabedian plays the 3 most requested songs of the night. After this, there are usually one or two songs played afterwards and then the show ends.
- The Purple Chamber of Gold: Garabedian takes a caller who has a special meaning behind a particular song. The caller's story is played on air followed by the song. The segment usually deals with the death of a loved one or a love lost. Recently, this was changed to over 30 minutes of songs with a certain theme. The segment was again changed, this time to all "throwback" songs.
- Long Distance Nighty Nights: This segment always airs at the end of the Sunday night show. Bruno Mars' famous hit "Just the Way You Are" is played with an extended instrumental intro. Over the intro, Kannon plays calls from listeners all across North America saying a special "Nighty Night" to their loved one.