...except they play '80s hair bands now and the overall sound is more uptempo.
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What Killed Beautiful Music?
- Thread starter Hoxie
- Start date
Fair enough, perhaps, it was a ranking I saw. If there are two CHRs and two ACs in a market, wouldn't it be possible for the Beautiful Music station to come in fifth or sixth with 18-34 women albeit well below the #1 station rating? Oldies wasn't all that strong a performer until B/EZ was on its way out.
Went down a rabbit-hole and found this gem of material on this subject:
The Rise and Fall of the Beautiful Music Radio Format
The Rise and Fall of the Beautiful Music Radio Format
Some of that is quite inaccurate.
It does not define the fact that both Bonneville and The FM 100 Plan (which is called, inaccurately, "Century") had both "matched flow" and "random" alternatives. And it does not describe how the "matched flow" (finished quarter hours) were refreshed very often and rotation systems were set up so that it was a long time before a segment repeated in the same daypart, and even then it was a different hour and position in the hour.
There was still plenty of good instrumental product being produced well into the mid-80's. Some syndicators insisted that the titles have been "hits" in the US, and thus they excluded a lot of Claderman, Jean Claude Borelli, Caravelli and even Muriat and Pourcel. Those that realized that many if not most of the listeners were not familiar with Top 40 hits played the songs from those artists and others that were European hits and did much better than Shulke in the later years.
And most of us used real time, not high speed, tape duplication using many decks and recording 1:1. Some used advance and better quality tape, too.
The Time Spent Listening did appear to be quite long, but not 8 hours a day. That's because later we learned from the PPM that a person who thought they listened for 8 hours a day at work or in the home actually had countless distractions, breaks, and time away from the radio. In any case, the average TSL for Beautiful even in the late 70's was around 10 to 12 hours, not the "8 hours a day" in the article.
I could go on, but the perspective of the article is imprecise and appears to have an agenda. There were at least a dozen Beautiful Music syndicators, and only one did it the way Shulke and his company did it. Bonneville, FM 100, Churchill, KalaMusic, RPM, Drake-Chenault, Peters and a number of others did things in each one's personal way. And the few stations or groups that self-produced, like E-Z and Jerry Lee, also had their own system and their own independent productions.
You can listen to my own company's "Música en Flor" demo at https://davidgleason.com/1981-1985-Musica-en-Flor.htm This is an old site, and you should use the "Firefox" demo as the other one is less off speed. Note that much of the music in the demo is not a bunch of covers of Top 40 hits; the songs are instrumentally much better than the covers used by some US syndicators.
I’ve gotten a tremendous education here. Thanks to all.
Chicago was a beautiful music hotbed for a long time. WLOO 100.3 “FM 100” led the pack, of course. And legendary John Doreamus’ in-flight music operation, which started with his MOR/BM-based show, was also based here.
WGCY in Gibson City, Ill., used to stream but rising Internet royalty rates caused them to drop it. The station is a mom and pop near Bloomington and doesn’t quite make it to Peoria.
Question for the group: How close is SiriusXM’s Legend channel to the standard BM format?
Chicago was a beautiful music hotbed for a long time. WLOO 100.3 “FM 100” led the pack, of course. And legendary John Doreamus’ in-flight music operation, which started with his MOR/BM-based show, was also based here.
WGCY in Gibson City, Ill., used to stream but rising Internet royalty rates caused them to drop it. The station is a mom and pop near Bloomington and doesn’t quite make it to Peoria.
Question for the group: How close is SiriusXM’s Legend channel to the standard BM format?
You mean Escape? There is no channel called Legend on SXM. The answer is very close. All of the usual BM suspects (Chacksfield, etc.) and no songs more recent than the '80s or early '90s. More vocals were introduced a year or two back, but quickly pulled for reasons that, of course, no one at tight-lipped SXM will reveal.
Yes, Escape, on Ch. 70. Too early to think! (Also misspelled Doremus.)
I've listened to it a bit in the new chariot, and it sounds a lot like the old FM100 sound and style.
On FM only, cloud cover is a factor -- but so is heat. Santa Barbara FM signals travel best to San Diego (about 200 miles away) on days with hot Inland temperatures & offshore fog. That creates tropospheric ducting. And it's not just KRUZ which does well under that condition. 99.9 KTYD also blasts into San Diego, plus you get decent reception of Santa Barbara's 88.7 (even overriding the Tijuana station on that frequency) and 93.7. Sometimes you can also pick up the lower-powered SB signals like 91.9, 92.9 & 105.9.
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Back in the day before a whole bunch of LPFMs were put on 101.5, during a strong Summertime temp inversion, you could literally hear KGB almost continiuosly from around Santa Maria all the down to SD. Not to mention 91X would occasionally capture out local station Classical KDSC on the coast at Oxnard. KDSC is licensed to Thousand Oaks and has its xmitter above Ojai line of site right out to the coast. This makes for an interesting study on co-channel interference: you've got 5 kW at 3000 ft at 25 miles unobstructed against 100 kW at 500 ft across 160 miles of water with a temp inversion.
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With respect to FM, one historic aspect is FCC FM-AM duplication of programming rule, initially adopted in 1964, updated several times over the years to reflect marketplace changes, and eliminated in 2020. During the 60's and early 70's many station owners were seeking programming for the FM signal that was cost-effective, format and viscerally acceptable, and required minimal involvement from the staff, since the AM signal brought in most if not all the revenue.
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Semoochie:
I think you have an image of 18-34 women as older, or older-thinking and older-behaving than they are or were at the time. Remember, the center of that demographic would be 27.
The last year I programmed AC before moving to news was 1980. I was 24. We played Steely Dan. We played Fleetwood Mac. We played Michael Jackson. I was single and dating women around my age (nobody under 21---I wanted to go to nightclubs and the dinner shows at Reno and Tahoe---and I think the oldest might have been 30). Almost universally, when it got around to what I did, they weren't listening to my station. One of them called it "Mom music". I was aiming for---and getting----25-49 year olds, and the center there was 37.
If Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac and Michael Jackson are "Mom music", Beautiful is "Grandma music".
All that said, rather than guessing, let's go look. Again, the demographic rankers didn't start showing up in the R&R Ratings Reports until the fall 1983 Arbitron, so we'll use that.
To get to a market that only had two CHRs and two ACs in 1983 is tough. AC was a big format just because it was where the sales dollars were. Scrolling through R&R's Ratings Report, here's what I could find.
Memphis. Market #41. One CHR, one AC. A beautiful that was tenth 12+, but trending upward. Here's the 18-34 female ranking:
1. WMC-FM (CHR)
2. WRVR-FM (AC)
3. WGKX-FM (Country)
4. WHRK-FM (Urban)
5. WZXR-FM (AOR)
6. KRNB-FM (Urban)
7. WKDJ-AM (Urban)
8. WDIA-AM (Urban)
9. WLOK-AM (Urban)
10. WLVS-FM (Beautiful)
So, yeah---if you limit CHR and AC, you can get a Beautiful Music station into the ten most popular radio stations among women 18-34, but it's going to trail three AM Urban stations in a market that had an FM Urban.
What's not on that top ten among women 18-34? WMC-AM (Country), WREC-AM (Big Band), WHBQ-AM (News/Talk), KWAM-AM (Religion), WWEE-AM (Talk) and WMSO-AM (block programmed). Basically, what that says is that for a small sliver of 18-34 women, Beautiful Music was the least objectionable alternative compared to those six stations.
Let's find another market. San Antonio. Market #38. Three CHRs, but one's on AM and one of the two FMs is a weak also-ran that's 13th overall. Three ACs, but the third is a very weak AM at 1420 on the dial that's dead last in the 12+ ratings. One beautiful music station that was a strong fourth 12+, only a tenth of a point from tying for third. Here's the 18-34 female ranking:
1. KTFM-FM (CHR)
2. KLLS-FM (AC)
3. KXZL-FM (AOR)
4. KTSA-AM (CHR)
5. KAJA-FM (Country)
6. KITY-FM (CHR)
7. KONO-AM (AC)
8. KISS-FM (AOR)
9. KKYX-AM (Country)
10. KQXT-FM (Beautiful)
A very similar situation to Memphis. It's trailing three AMs---and in 1983, AM listening among 18-34 women was pretty small.
What didn't make the top ten in women 18-34? KCOR-AM (Spanish language), WOAI-AM (News/Talk), KBUC-FM (Country), KEDA-AM (Spanish language), KVAR-AM (Spanish language), KESI-FM (AOR), KAPE-AM (Urban), KSLR-AM (Religion) and KGNB-AM (AC).
I'd do one more just for the rule of threes, but those are the only markets large enough for R&R to do demographic rankers that only had a couple of CHRs and ACs each.
Bottom line---for women 18-34, Beautiful Music was a last resort or close to it (we don't know what the signal or programming issues were at the stations the Beautifuls edged out of those rankers). Sure, there were some 18-34 women listening---but they were outliers. I was 27 that year---the center of the Male 18-34 demo---and I listened to the revival of KMPC as a Big Band station. I wasn't indicative of anything.
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I see I put SiriusXM's Escape on 70 when it's on 69. Sinatra is 70.
Cuba's instrumental-happy Radio Enciclopedia (530 AM) is receivable in much of the southeastern U.S. at night. I'd think that's as close to beautiful music, or at least the old formats of the all-night shows such as WGN, KMOX and WJR, to name three standouts, as you'll find on AM these days.
Cuba's instrumental-happy Radio Enciclopedia (530 AM) is receivable in much of the southeastern U.S. at night. I'd think that's as close to beautiful music, or at least the old formats of the all-night shows such as WGN, KMOX and WJR, to name three standouts, as you'll find on AM these days.
Before I start, a caveat: I am older than baseball and therefore have a certain point of view.
“Beautiful Music” originated back in the late 60s as something called “Good Music” that was mainly on FM stations. (Think IGM or International Good Music.) It was easy to automate with the early automation systems, didn't cost much to operate, got good compliments for the station owner or manager at the country clubs and no one really expected FM to get any ratings anyway.
Jim Schulke was a television ratings analyst and when a friend who owned an FM in New Jersey asked him to look at the station's ARB (what Nielsen was called back then) he discovered a quirk in the methodology. If a station kept few listeners for a long period of time, the ratings would be much better than a station with many listeners but high audience churn. (Cume vs quarter hours) Additionally, with the diary system used at the time, people who listened to a station for a long period of time were more likely to write it in the diary used to record listening for the ratings agency. In office and in store listening was a big deal. Marlyn Taylor over at Bonneville was doing much the same thing.
Schulke realized the biggest competitor for Beautiful Music stations was not another station but “off” and worked to remove all reasons for a listener to switch off. No vocals, commercials were generally straight reads and run at a lower level than the music, a high level of quality control. If the station pulled good numbers it was due to Schulke's genius. If the numbers were bad, it was an engineering problem. Personally, I think this was as much sales hype as actual fact.
As time went buy and people like Mantovani, the Living Strings, etc. passed from the scene, Schulke and other Beautiful Music syndicators began to produce music to add to the rotation. This became increasingly expensive and the audience, initially 25 to 54 year old females, was aging.
To attempt to skew the audience slightly younger, Schulke created “Schulke II.” It was a combination of instrumentals plus soft rock tunes by the original artists. The format had some success but was overtaken by Soft Rock and Adult Contemporary stations. As time went on, the FM band became more competitive, the ratings methodology changed, hardly anyone wants to buy the 65+ demo, group ownership increased and the string just sort of ran out.
There are still a few Beautiful Music stations around. They tend to be in smaller markets with older populations like Naples FL, Sun City AZ and so on. It was a good run for Beautiful Music. But, like all runs, it came to an end.
“Beautiful Music” originated back in the late 60s as something called “Good Music” that was mainly on FM stations. (Think IGM or International Good Music.) It was easy to automate with the early automation systems, didn't cost much to operate, got good compliments for the station owner or manager at the country clubs and no one really expected FM to get any ratings anyway.
Jim Schulke was a television ratings analyst and when a friend who owned an FM in New Jersey asked him to look at the station's ARB (what Nielsen was called back then) he discovered a quirk in the methodology. If a station kept few listeners for a long period of time, the ratings would be much better than a station with many listeners but high audience churn. (Cume vs quarter hours) Additionally, with the diary system used at the time, people who listened to a station for a long period of time were more likely to write it in the diary used to record listening for the ratings agency. In office and in store listening was a big deal. Marlyn Taylor over at Bonneville was doing much the same thing.
Schulke realized the biggest competitor for Beautiful Music stations was not another station but “off” and worked to remove all reasons for a listener to switch off. No vocals, commercials were generally straight reads and run at a lower level than the music, a high level of quality control. If the station pulled good numbers it was due to Schulke's genius. If the numbers were bad, it was an engineering problem. Personally, I think this was as much sales hype as actual fact.
As time went buy and people like Mantovani, the Living Strings, etc. passed from the scene, Schulke and other Beautiful Music syndicators began to produce music to add to the rotation. This became increasingly expensive and the audience, initially 25 to 54 year old females, was aging.
To attempt to skew the audience slightly younger, Schulke created “Schulke II.” It was a combination of instrumentals plus soft rock tunes by the original artists. The format had some success but was overtaken by Soft Rock and Adult Contemporary stations. As time went on, the FM band became more competitive, the ratings methodology changed, hardly anyone wants to buy the 65+ demo, group ownership increased and the string just sort of ran out.
There are still a few Beautiful Music stations around. They tend to be in smaller markets with older populations like Naples FL, Sun City AZ and so on. It was a good run for Beautiful Music. But, like all runs, it came to an end.
A good overview, bigdonho.
A couple of minor points—-Beautiful started in some markets earlier than this, and on AM. KABL, Oakland launched in May of 1959, with live but low-key announcers and commercials and uninterrupted 15-minute music sweeps. There was usually one vocal per sweep, but most often a highly-identifiable Broadway show tune.
KPOL and KGBS, Los Angeles—-both AM stations—-were doing essentially the same thing by 1960-61.
While “Beautiful Music” was not yet a format description, KABL used the phrase “uninterrupted quarter-hour segments of beautiful music” on the air as early as 1960.
KPOL automated in 1966, setting off a war with the announcers’ union. That coincided with the FCC’s looming mandate, effective in 1967, that limited simulcasts of AM and FM stations to 50% or less of a broadcast day, unless the AM was daytime-only (KGBS was).
As you say, that was a big opportunity for syndication of turnkey automated formats. And because most of the existing audience for FM was listening to Classical or Jazz, most station owners saw Beautiful as a logical format.
It did well from the start in most cities, but the huge numbers came in the 70s when MOR stations turned away from Sinatra and Tony Bennett and became Adult Contemporary stations, playing all but the five or six hardest songs on the local Top 40 stations.
Traditional listeners, mostly 50 and older, turned to Beautiful…and that transition was helped mightily by their tastes in automobiles. The big Oldsmobiles, Buicks, Cadillacs, Mercurys, Lincolns, Chryslers and Imperials—-along with upscale imports—-were among the earliest cars to make FM radios standard, years ahead of the requirement to do so.
We should also make a demographic note that, yes, in 1967, Beautiful was a 25-54 format. MOR targeted 18-49 in those days. In fact, MOR’s morph to AC in the 70s was an attempt to stay in that demo.
The trouble is, Beautiful was not a format that had room to evolve. In 1967, a 25-year-old woman was born in 1942. A 54-year old was born in 1913. And the center of that target was born in 1927.
What they all had in common was that rock and roll wasn’t a factor in forming their musical tastes.
But bump that 25-year-old’s birthdate up four years to 1946—that’s a Baby Boomer. And everything changes.
The trouble is, Beautiful was not a format that had room to evolve. In 1967, a 25-year-old woman was born in 1942. A 54-year old was born in 1913. And the center of that target was born in 1927.
What they all had in common was that rock and roll wasn’t a factor in forming their musical tastes.
But bump that 25-year-old’s birthdate up four years to 1946—that’s a Baby Boomer. And everything changes.
Thank you Michael, I appreciate the time you have spent with me on this. There's one other thing I want to say: At least in my market, AC was limited to full service AM stations until the existing Top 40 stations evolved to AC in the early 80s and were replaced by new CHR stations around 1983. There was and still is no significant Black population to support a full power FM signal and the Hispanic population has only recently become viable. In a situation like this, might some percentage of the 25-34 segment of 18-34 women choose B/EZ as a second or third option?
I didn't claim to have any knowledge of the accuracy of what was provided in that piece of material.
History is simply information provided and documented for others to discuss and scrutinize for accuracy.
You, sir, lived thru that history in real time. Many of the rest of us were on the other side of the receiver as it happened.
"Inside baseball stories" and all of that.
Side note though, was there ever really an-all channel requirement? I bought a new 1982 Ford Escort which still was AM only, and I had to add an aftermarket AM/FM/Cassette.
This one of the things I like about this discussion board, making a radio discovery like the above mentioned Radio Enciclopedia. I've been streaming thru a link I found on Wikipedia. No website, but very upbeat instrumentals with a Cuban / Latin flair, even some electronica. The Cuban newscast was interesting, very pro government, with a little propaganda. Didn't hear anything anti- American.
The power of this station seems to be a mystery. Read where someone thinks it's as high as 500kw.
Never knew about this one.
Nowhere near 500kW, MW Lists at 10kW with a Radio Rebelde outlet at 1KW at the other end of the island. They often come in together.
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