Radio Days, part 1 (1960s/70s).....
Jan. 24th, 2006 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poltr1On an email list I'm on, some of us were cursing Clear Channel, the limited number of songs they play on their stations, and their "notched demographic" scheme (own many stations, each one catering to a different segment of the market).
And then I got nostalgic about some of the stations I used to listen to. Yeah, those truly were 'The golden days" of radio, even though they weren't so golden, and not so far back.
Growing up in Buffalo NY, we had 4 major AM radio stations: WGR (550), WBEN (930), WEBR (970), and WKBW (1520). All of them played news and popular music (WEBR focused on R&B and not the top 40 that the other three did). There were others, but we didn't listen to them very often.
In my early days, I didn't get to choose what we listened to at home or in the car: it was mostly Dad's choice. Dad, being a fan of the Big Bands, liked to listen to WADV (106.5) which played jazz, and WBNY, later WJYE (96.1) which played the "beautiful Muzak" that still makes me cringe to this day. Mom liked to listen to Dan Lesniak's "Polka Ballroom" on Saturday mornings on WADV. Our car had only an AM radio with 5 presets, so we were usually listening to either WBEN or WEBR in the car, except for Buffalo Bills [football] games on WKBW, and Buffalo Sabres [hockey] games on WGR.
In 1974, I went on a field trip with my 5th grade class to the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. On the bus, they played WKBW. It was my first exposure to top-40 music, and loved it. Later that year, I was to discover Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" on WYSL (1400), which I began to follow religiously. (For the next several years, I wrote down the list of songs and their positions every week.) And for Christmas, I received my own clock radio. (With a leaf-type digital clock display.)
I also started listening to Rock 102 (WBEN-FM (102.5)) that year. Rock 102 was a semi-automated station -- there were no DJs, and all announcements and station IDs were pre-recorded. Even the names of the songs were automatic -- two songs would play in a row, followed by an announcer saying, "That was [title2] by [artist2]. Before that, [title1] by [artist1]." However, they probably needed someone to load and swap the tape cartridges. I think it predated today's fully-automated stations, now that we have the cartridges in robotic, jukebox-like systems. If I wanted weather, or a human, I went just down the dial to WPHD (103.3).
In 1979, someone in my biology class had asked me if I had ever heard of Q-FM 97 (WGRQ, 96.9), and why I wasn't listening to it. They had moved on from top-40 music and anyone who still did was from Squaresville. So I gave them a try, and liked it. It was the town's classic album-rock station. That year, they shifted their format a little (under the moniker "97 Power Rock") and featured more new wave -- the Boomtown Rats, Bruce Wooley & the Camera Club, et al. They were already playing lots of Canadian bands like Rush and Triumph -- no doubt due to our proximity to the Canadian border -- so I became familiar with them as well.
Next: the '80s: WZIR, WRXT, Canadian stations, The Wave, and goodbye top 40.
And then I got nostalgic about some of the stations I used to listen to. Yeah, those truly were 'The golden days" of radio, even though they weren't so golden, and not so far back.
Growing up in Buffalo NY, we had 4 major AM radio stations: WGR (550), WBEN (930), WEBR (970), and WKBW (1520). All of them played news and popular music (WEBR focused on R&B and not the top 40 that the other three did). There were others, but we didn't listen to them very often.
In my early days, I didn't get to choose what we listened to at home or in the car: it was mostly Dad's choice. Dad, being a fan of the Big Bands, liked to listen to WADV (106.5) which played jazz, and WBNY, later WJYE (96.1) which played the "beautiful Muzak" that still makes me cringe to this day. Mom liked to listen to Dan Lesniak's "Polka Ballroom" on Saturday mornings on WADV. Our car had only an AM radio with 5 presets, so we were usually listening to either WBEN or WEBR in the car, except for Buffalo Bills [football] games on WKBW, and Buffalo Sabres [hockey] games on WGR.
In 1974, I went on a field trip with my 5th grade class to the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. On the bus, they played WKBW. It was my first exposure to top-40 music, and loved it. Later that year, I was to discover Casey Kasem's "American Top 40" on WYSL (1400), which I began to follow religiously. (For the next several years, I wrote down the list of songs and their positions every week.) And for Christmas, I received my own clock radio. (With a leaf-type digital clock display.)
I also started listening to Rock 102 (WBEN-FM (102.5)) that year. Rock 102 was a semi-automated station -- there were no DJs, and all announcements and station IDs were pre-recorded. Even the names of the songs were automatic -- two songs would play in a row, followed by an announcer saying, "That was [title2] by [artist2]. Before that, [title1] by [artist1]." However, they probably needed someone to load and swap the tape cartridges. I think it predated today's fully-automated stations, now that we have the cartridges in robotic, jukebox-like systems. If I wanted weather, or a human, I went just down the dial to WPHD (103.3).
In 1979, someone in my biology class had asked me if I had ever heard of Q-FM 97 (WGRQ, 96.9), and why I wasn't listening to it. They had moved on from top-40 music and anyone who still did was from Squaresville. So I gave them a try, and liked it. It was the town's classic album-rock station. That year, they shifted their format a little (under the moniker "97 Power Rock") and featured more new wave -- the Boomtown Rats, Bruce Wooley & the Camera Club, et al. They were already playing lots of Canadian bands like Rush and Triumph -- no doubt due to our proximity to the Canadian border -- so I became familiar with them as well.
Next: the '80s: WZIR, WRXT, Canadian stations, The Wave, and goodbye top 40.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-25 07:31 am (UTC)Then it came back under a different format which we listened to for awhile and then we all listened to KLOS pre Mark and Brian.
Because my husband at the time was interning at Cal State Long Beach's radio station, we started meeting people and got to know some folks at a local Long Beach (CA) radio station that played too much soft rock, but at least they were live. KMET after it went through the transition ultimately became the west coast soft jazz WAVE station.
Everyone thought automated playlists were the death of radio and I agree--they were the death of a certain kind of radio for sure.
A lot of people HATE Jack radio, but I like it--they don't have "talent" on air and don't even pretend to care what plays. And you get lots of odd combinations of songs that are either jarring or amusing.
One of my daughter's friends had a radio show on their campus radio and they had so much fun...it was like stepping back in time in a way...to get on and play stuff that you feel like playing and talk a little about this that and the other thing.
It's really fun remembering all of this, thank you for the gift of it!
BTW, my parents were polka fans and watched Lawrence Welk religiously. My dad taught my sister and I to waltz and to polka and I can still do each one if my partner know how to dance well enough to lead. I love the polka!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-26 02:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-26 04:42 am (UTC)