Open House Party
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The Current Open House Party logo
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| Genre | Top 40/CHR |
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| Running time | 5 hours (including commercials) |
| Country |  United States |
| Syndicates | United Stations Radio Networks |
| Host(s) |
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| Creator(s) | John Garabedian, Sunny Joe White |
| Producer(s) | RadioCraft, Inc. |
| Air dates | since September 5, 1987 |
| Website | Open House Party |
Open House Party (most of the time, shortened to OHP) is an American radio show hosted on Saturday nights by John Garabedian, and on Sunday nights, hosted by KVIL morning host Kannon. The show 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. Unlike most radio stations or programs, OHP plays all music by listener requests. That means, that there are no automated playlists, and that every song played is by a request that a listener made. OHP started in 1987 and is syndicated to more than 150 stations in the United States.
The Saturday show originates from 1 of the 3 houses that Garabedian travels to each weekend to broadcast Open House Party. While the Sunday show is recorded, and is broadcast from Kannon's house in Dallas, Texas.
Open House Party's voice over artist is Doug MacAskill. MacAskill has been the voice over for OHP since 2003. When original longtime OHP voice over artist, Mark Driscoll left the show after being with the show since the start in 1987. Driscoll was also commonly known as "Mr. Voice", in which he was nicknamed that by the well known radio Disc Jockey, Rick Dees.
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 is distributed via United Stations Radio Networks, and developed by RadioCraft.
Contents
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, legendary 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. Kane now has his own syndicated program titled "Club Kane". In December 2007, Kannon, the current morning personality on Dallas 103.7 KVIL became the new host of OHP Sunday, and broadcasts the show from his house in Dallas.
Segments
These are a few of the segments that have formerly, or still air on the show each week:
- 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 think 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 fact: 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. This segment is no longer featured on Open House Party.
- Who Sings It?: Always the 4th song of the show, Garabedian plays a "hard to remember" song and listeners call and guess the artist in order to win a prize pack. People who have won must wait another six months before winning again. This segment is only on the Saturday show.
- Satellite Mega-Mix: Garabedian talks to one of the world's top club DJs. Then a dance mega-mix of up to three songs is then played. This segment was only on the Saturday show. The last time this segment was aired was on the July 17, 2010 broadcast. On March 28, 2015, OHP talked to dance group Cash Cash and the group made a mix for the show. Garabedian made a minor reference to the old segment, then after the interview, Garabedian played the Mega-Mix Cash Cash had made for the show. This was the only time after the segment was cancelled that Garabedian had made a reference to the Satellite Mega-Mix.
- 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". This segment is only on the Saturday show.
- The Big 3: Garabedian plays the three most requested songs of the night. After this, there is usually one more song played, (usually an underground dance hit) afterwards and then the show ends. This segment is only on the Saturday show. In this case, Long Distance Nighty Nights, would be airing at this time, on the Sunday show.
- The Purple Chamber of Gold: This segment is on both the Saturday and Sunday show for the first 30–45 minutes of the final hour. The DJs play "throwback" songs. Otherwise, just songs from at least five months or later, when Garabedian and Kannon take calls live on air for this segment, they usually ask for a special meaning of the song or what made them remember the song they requested. Then, immediately after the Purple Chamber ends, The Big 3 starts (Saturday) and for the Sunday show right after the Purple Chamber, the Long Distance Nighty Nights starts.
- Long Distance Nighty Nights: This segment is always immediately after the Purple Chamber ends. Bruno Mars' 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. Before "Just the Way You Are" was released, the 2002 song, "Heaven" (Candelight Mix) by DJ Sammy was played instead. On April 19, 2015, "Heaven" was played again, for the first time in 4 years, by a listener request. The last time this song was used as the normal Nighty Nights song, was January 9, 2011 broadcast. Kannon makes his closing statement, and this is also the last song of the show. This segment is only on the Sunday show.
- The Breakthrough: This segment is featured on both the Saturday and Sunday shows. The DJs play one or two new songs that are doing very successful on the radio and charts. It otherwise promotes itself as "Your ticket to Hot New Music!". This segment is at random times throughout the show.
- Shout-Outs: Listeners call-in and just make a simple shout-out to a friend, family member, or a close acquaintance. About 1–3 minutes are used for this segment. This segment is only on the Sunday show.
- Rant Room: Listeners call in and "Rant" about something that is bugging them or upsetting them in life, whether it be a person, place, thing etc. This segment used to be called the "Bitch Box", until multiple radio stations began to complain about the name. It was then changed to the "Rant Room". This segment is only on the Sunday show.
