[78-L] AM Radio (and the music) is now dead

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Biel" <mbiel at mbiel.com>
> Michael Biel wrote:
>> > It is worth noting that none of the NYC independent stations you
>> > mentioned were "formatted" stations playing only one type of music for
>> > the entire day. That type of specialization programming only came in
>> > the 1950s. EVERY station had a something-for-everybody format prior to
>> > that.
> From: "Kristjan Saag" <saag at telia.com>
>> So what happened? Was it the Roosevelt era that came to an end or what?
>
> The number of radio stations in the U.S. exploded in the decade after
> the war.  Although we think of that era as being the growth of TV, radio
> actually grew at a greater pace during that time.  There were fewer than
> 900 radio stations when the war ended, and by the end of the 40s that
> number had doubled, and then doubled again in the following few years.
> There were about 4000 stations by 54 or 55.
>
> Meanwhile TV started with 13 stations and had about 40 by 1948 when
> suddenly the FCC stopped taking applications because they realized that
> RCA had lied to them about how far stations in that band could reach and
> they would have to re-do the entire allocation charts.  It took them
> four years, and by 1952 there were only 110 TV stations on the air.  It
> wasn't until 1954 thru 1957 that the next batch of TV stations hit the
> air, and there were HUGE parts of the U.S. that didn't get their first
> TV station until long after the most famous early TV programs had left
> the air!!
>
> But since the TV stations were in the largest cities, many of the best
> radio stars were leaving radio, which left the radio networks having to
> develop new programs and new stars.  But most of the thousands of new
> radio stations could not affiliate with the networks because there
> already were affiliates in their area, so these new stations had to
> figure out what to program.  Cities that only had 2 or 3 stations now
> had 8, so specialized formatting turned out to be the way to break out
> of the pack.
>
> In areas like mine in Kentucky the small towns were getting their first
> stations -- only one per town -- and these stations often kept to the
> something-for-everything formula.  When I moved to the small town of
> Morehead, Kentucky, the AM-FM station WMOR was still simulcasting the
> same programs on both, and were still doing different formats at
> different times of the day.  Farm programs in the morning and at noon,
> housewife programs in mid morning and early afternoon, rock after
> school, middle of the road in the evening, sign off of FM at midnight
> (AM signed off at sunset, which varied from 4:15 to 8:45 depending on
> the season).  And 30 miles to the West was another town with a similar
> station, 30 miles to the East was yet another, and so on and so on.
>
> But New York City had 30 stations, so the formats were day-long and
> quite varied.  Now we have about 13,000 stations and except for some
> listener supported stations and student-run stations, all are
> uni-formatted with just one type of music or talk all day and all night.
>
>
>
>> Meanwhile, back in the jungle (Europe) public service stations continued
>> their "something-for-everybody"-format and no one complained, except the
>> advertisers. Poor fellas, how many millions didn't the idea of public
>> service steal from Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola and...Volvo?  Kristjan
>
In the small Illinois town where I grew up, there were two (maybe three?)
local-area AM stations...WHOW in Clinton, one in Bloomington and MAYBE
one in Lincoln. WHOW played all "hillbilly" music and shut down for sunset,
while the Bloomington station was 24-hour (IIRC it was on one of the several
"lotsa low power" station freqs...1230?). As a teenager, I, like my cohorts,
listened to top-20 rock'n'roll on WPEO in Peoria!

We could bring in all the network shows from Chicago stations; our sports
(baseball) listening was from either Chicago or St. Louis depending on our
favourite team. And most of us listened regularly to the "National Barn
Dance" weekly on WLS! But, like our "local" newspaper (the Bloomington
Pantagraph) we listened to our "local" radio to keep up with regional 
news...
like obituaries! And EVERY station broadcast farm market prices.

Then, in the spring of 1960, WLS suddenly went "rock'n'roll" and we all
reset one button on our car radios (at least we young folks did!)!

In 1959, I bought an old Philco 38-9 console set for $5 at a local
auction...and got deeply involved in MW AM "DX'ing!" I think I
had heard 40 or so states in the next year...and I also discovered
WLAC, who played blues once the sun went down.

We had HEARD OF...but seldom heard...FM radio. It wasn't yet
stereo...and most FM stations either simulcast their AM counterparts
or played strictly classical music. I recall the first stereo broadcasts...
one channel on FM and one on AM.

...stevenc