I don’t know about other parts of the country, but there are a lot more San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco Progessive/AOR airchecks than I expected.
I think the key is that they were not traded as extensively as the Top 40 airchecks were.
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Carly Simon is classic rock?
- Thread starter vchimpanzee
- Start date
I think the key is that they were not traded as extensively as the Top 40 airchecks were.
San Francisco had KFOG. Sacramento had KZAP and KROY. There are many others. I'm not sure what archived recordings exist other than from memory. Album Rock and Alternative playlists were different in many markets. Even into the 90s during the corporate swapping, some stations kept their uniqueness...
Based on the name, I always assumed that China Smith was a woman.
China Smith
Thomas Wayne Rorabacher was born in Grand Rapids in 1943. He used the name Wayne Thomas for his first four years in Michigan radio. In 1969,...
traxandgrooves.blogspot.com
KFOG was beautiful music until October of 1982. The pioneering rock FMs in SF were KMPX and KSAN and sporadically KSFX. And in San Jose, KSJO and KOME.
KZAP only had KROY (FM) as a competitor for three or four years in the mid-late 70s.
KPRI was the trailblazer in San Diego until KGB-FM came along in ‘72.
In L.A. , it was KPPC, KMET, KABC-FM (which became KLOS in spring of 1971) and, from 1974 to 1981, KWST. Also, sporadically (1973-74 and 1976-78) KROQ-FM (the old KPPC) before it went modern rock and KNAC, Long Beach before it went metal.
KPRI 106.5 San Diego 25 November 1983 : Robert Zerwekh : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Rock station KPRI in San Diego - 25 November 1983
archive.org
KCR & KGB San Diego 1970s : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
KCR KGB San Diego 1970s
archive.org
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Another person who was considered Rock at the time
The China Smith aircheck I linked to begins with him back-announcing a set that included Melissa Manchester—-the song that had just finished was Michael Murphey’s “Wildfire”.
Nope, Top40.
Double gag me with a spoon. What's next, the claim that Muskrat Love is rock?
No claims, Kelly. These are songs that were playing, along with harder rock, on rock FMs at the time, as verified by R&R’s rock album airplay chart and airchecks from one of the most prominent stations of the type, KMET.
As for “Muskrat Love”, if you mean the Captain and Tenille, no. But if you mean the original cut by America, then, yes.
And again—-because this has gone on for some time—the question wasn’t “what does Kelly say?”
It was “Carly Simon’s name was used on a game show in connection with “classic rock”. Why?”
And the answer is, for those listening at the time, instead of in the late 1970s and beyond when the format had settled on harder rock “core artists”, the KMETs, KLOSs, KGB-FMs, KSANs, and other album rock FMs of the era played Carly (and Carole King, Billy Joel, Linda Ronstadt, Michael Murphey, America and—-(I’m still a little stunned by this one myself)—-Melissa Manchester.
Scroll back to the first page and Semoochie had the correct answer with post #4. Several people agreed. You popped up at #15 to say "No", and every excursion in the Wayback Machine has been to prove that those people (Semoochie, gr8oldies, MRBIboredop, rparky54, MrJohn, b-turner, tbolt909, dlf1) weren't wrong.
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R&R from the week of the China Smith KMET aircheck:
Michael Murphey's BLUE SKY-NIGHT THUNDER (with "Wildfire" as a leading cut) would debut the following week at #6, as would Gordon Lightfoot's COLD ON THE SHOULDER at #17.
Michael Murphey's BLUE SKY-NIGHT THUNDER (with "Wildfire" as a leading cut) would debut the following week at #6, as would Gordon Lightfoot's COLD ON THE SHOULDER at #17.
OMG, the above list came from a station that was classified as Rock & Roll?!? I see Henry Gross's name here, and though he may have recorded some harder material, the only song of his that I know is "Shannon," one of the syrupiest records around! And the operatic-sounding Minnie Ripperton got R&B and AC airplay, but I don't know how she ended up here. This isn't to say that these artists and their songs weren't good, I'm just surprised to see them here!
This situation reminds me of a thread on this forum about the 2021 Hall of Fame nominees. That discussion concerned the evolution of what "Rock & Roll" meant in the '50s when Alan Freed coined the term, to what it means today. I didn't remember, or deliberately forgot, much of what came in between.
No, it was a composite based on what "album rock" and "progressive" stations were playing in February 1975. I was living in the Boston area and listening to WCOZ at the time and, while I don't remember some of these artists getting airplay, Ronstadt, Dylan, Mitchell, Scott-Heron and others were very much present on the playlist back then.
Many of the others were played on WEEI-FM, which in those days was doing a softer album rock format, the ancestor of later "lite" formats. The music was softer, folkier, and in some cases poppier. Lots of Ronstadt, lots of Dylan, lots of Mitchell and Taylor and, especially, Billy Joel. Rarely the hit singles, mostly album tracks. I'm guessing that similar stations were reporting to the trade publications (like Radio & Records) too, and what resulted were charts like the one Mr. Hagerty has posted -- songs being played on stations all loosely defined as "album" or "progressive."
The typical Classic Rock format today(Zeppelin, AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Van Halen, etc.) wouldn't include Carly Simon. Nobody here is arguing that. Kelly can't seem to accept that a much wider list of artists were once played on FM album Rock stations. Times change. For many years, Classic Rock stations wouldn't play Pearl Jam, Nirvana, R.E.M., etc. They were "too new" and not "Classic" enough. It's no wonder that many people think Radio is a joke...
Yes indeed! I remember my local Classic Rock station didn't play any grunge at the time of Chris Cornell's death in May of 2017. About seven months later they added Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, STP, Smashing Pumpkins, Collective Soul, Green Day, etc. Sadly, I realize they had to weed out other artists to make room for these guys but that's life.
Note to Classic Rock stations: "In the End" by Linkin Park came out in 2000, just sayin'.
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In fact, album rock radio somewhat gave birth to a similar format termed Mellow Rock, that contained the folksier and acoustic side of album rock radio. Although short lived, the format had some success in a few major markets for a couple of years. Lots of Dan Fogelberg, Joni Mitchell and any others including healthy doses of Crosby Stills Nash & Young, America, Eagles and other base library artists. Like album rock radio, the emphasis was on album tracks but frequently a single from an album was pushed until it began to appear on top 40 or AC radio. I always thought this was the downfall of the format...encouraging listeners to migrate to AC.
That's the format WEEI-FM had. I believe CBS Radio tried it elsewhere (Philadelphia for sure, I ran into a very similar station while visiting there that summer). In Boston, an AM station, WEZE 1260, briefly became "Album 1260," playing an even more adventurous mix of softer album tracks, but was then sold to a religious outfit (Crawford, IIRC) and went teach-and-preach.
WEEI-FM had a memorable billboard ad campaign. "Eagles. Without the turkeys." "Linda Ronstadt. Without wondering what just blue bayou."
No, the question was: Is Carly Simon's music considered rock?
Mainly some rare non-industry people here who think DJ's should pick their own music.
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