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How many per market?

J

johnbasalla

How many Beautiful Music stations were there in your market? I the Greater Cleveland, Ohio area I can, off the top of my head come up with these... Additions welcome:
WDBN-FM Medina, Ohio, (Kiss-FM), WKSS? 99.5 FM (didn't last too long), WDOK 102.1 FM, WQAL 104.1 FM, and ... WBEA 107.3 FM, Elyria, Ohio (When I first heard them while dialing around, they had a monsterous, booming signal that "ate up" a larger part of the dial, as I dialed from station-to-station, than the others, and I was in Southwestern Cuyahoga County. not Lorain County where Elyria is located. Were they 100,00 watts?).

Might WJW-AM 850 have been one too, or partially? What about WEOL AM930 in Elyria whose owners, I think, owned WBEA? What about WERE-AM 1300 and WHK, 1420 AM before the 1970s? What did WDOK-AM 1260 air before switching formats to the iconic WIXY? Heck, what about WGAR AM1220?
 
johnbasalla said:
Might WJW-AM 850 have been one too, or partially?
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It was network based until the later 50's, with some personality shows with MOR artists... things like Big Wilson in the earlier 60's.
johnbasalla said:
What about WEOL AM930 in Elyria whose owners, I think, owned WBEA? What about WERE-AM 1300 and WHK, 1420 AM before the 1970s?
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WERE was the earliest Top 40 station, beginning around 1956. WHK became Top 40 after the Plain Dealer sold it to Kluge and it went Top 40 around '58.
johnbasalla said:
What did WDOK-AM 1260 air before switching formats to the iconic WIXY?
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MOR... traditional with instrumental mixed in.
johnbasalla said:
Heck, what about WGAR AM1220?
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MOR, like WDOK but more standards based and lots of network shows. Went gold-based AC around '72.
 
DavidEduardo said:
It was network based until the later 50's, with some personality shows with MOR artists... things like Big Wilson in the earlier 60's.

WERE was the earliest Top 40 station, beginning around 1956. WHK became Top 40 after the Plain Dealer sold it to Kluge and it went Top 40 around '58.

MOR... traditional with instrumental mixed in.

MOR, like WDOK but more standards based and lots of network shows. Went gold-based AC around '72.
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And, MOR (Middle of The Road) would be current hit records for adults, but not considered part of the Beautiful Music umbrella?
 
johnbasalla said:
And, MOR (Middle of The Road) would be current hit records for adults, but not considered part of the Beautiful Music umbrella?
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No, that would be what became AC starting in the early 70's.

MOR was significantly library based, with traditional artists, such as Andy Williams and Nat King Cole and the like. Some played crossovers from Top 40 like Paul Anka, others did not.

A lot of MOR stations were holdovers with NBC, CBS, ABC and even the few remaining Mutual net shows and music "interludes" in between plus heavy news and talk in morning. WOR, KMPC, WGN, KFI in the 50's and 60's are examples.

The term "Beautiful Music" did not come about until around 1970 when the flood of syndicated formats for FM popped up. Before, the usual term was "good music" and it had lots of flavors but was based on smooth instrumentals.
 
TheBigA said:
New York: WRFM, WPAT-AM/FM, WVNJ-AM/FM, and WTFM. Three of them used syndicators: Bonneville, Schulke, and TM. Not sure about the fourth. Maybe Narwood.
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WVNJ (AM) was an adult standards station (like WNEW), while WVNJ-FM was an easy listening station by day and a jazz station by night during the early 1980s. While they were audible in New York, they were actually New Jersey stations.
 
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Boston had three in the early '70s: WCOZ, WJIB and WWEL. Later in the decade, WCOZ flipped to AOR and WWEL became WXKS-FM (Kiss), first with a disco format, then CHR. WJIB (96.9 FM, not the Cambridge station now at 740 AM) stuck with beautiful music until 1990, when it went smooth jazz.

When I moved to Connecticut (Hartford market) in 1981, only WKSS was playing beautiful music. There was a standards station on AM (WRCQ) and two soft-rockers on FM (WWYZ and WIOF). All had different formats before the decade ended, and two are still in the same format they switched to in the '80s, uninterrupted: CHR WKSS and country WWYZ.
 
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Here's my MOR story. In the fall of 1974, as the new Music Director of WBWC, the college radio station, I was tasked with categorizing music and coming up with a filing system that would work. So, I came up with an Alpha-numeric system that would be used for all categories/genres of music. The term "MOR" was still relevant to us as I used it for the library that held all of the, generally, non-contemporary, non-Rock/Top 40 based Pop music. Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Julie London, Mantovani, 101 Strings, Frank Sinatra, Billy Vaughn and His Orchestra, Andy Williams, and many others were filed there. Sometime, in the 1980s, "MOR" clearly didn't work anymore, so I spent over a month changing it.
 
TheBigA said:
New York: WRFM, WPAT-AM/FM, WVNJ-AM/FM, and WTFM. Three of them used syndicators: Bonneville, Schulke, and TM. Not sure about the fourth. Maybe Narwood.
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WPAT was locally done for most of its history... when HBC bought it the old tape libraries were still there!

Never heard of Narwood.
 
TheBigA said:
Narwood Productions, a NY based radio production company that at one time did beautiful music tapes.
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I searched Broadcasting, the Broadcasting Yearbooks issues and all the other music and radio trades and did not come up with that one... not a single hit.

I did find it via Google as producing some shows like Allison Steele and a bunch of the Sunday morning armed forces shows. But no format syndication.
 
Detroit had several around the 1972, '73, '74 time frame: WQTE 560 AM (licensed to Monroe), WLDM 95.5, WJR-FM 96.3, WWJ-FM (later WJOI) 97.1, WNIC AM/FM 1310/100.3 (the former Keener AM & FM), and WOMC 104.3. There may have been others I'm overlooking. Of these, only 96.3 and 97.1 were still in the format by 1981, and WJR-FM would disappear in September 1982 giving way to Hot Hits WHYT. WJOI would survive into the early '90s, with its only direct format competition coming from Windsor's 93.9 during its short period as CKEZ circa 1985 and from Ann Arbor's WPAG-FM 107.1. But for a time, the Motor City was a Beautiful Music buffet. That didn't even count stations from neighboring markets like WLQR (Toledo), WGMZ (Flint), WGER (Bay City) and WJIM-FM (Lansing) that could be picked up in parts of the metro. Those four all survived well into the '80s.
 
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CCBInMI said:
Detroit had several around the 1972, '73, '74 time frame: WQTE 560 AM (licensed to Monroe), WLDM 95.5, WJR-FM 96.3, WWJ-FM (later WJOI) 97.1, WNIC AM/FM 1310/100.3 (the former Keener AM & FM), and WOMC 104.3. There may have been others I'm overlooking. Of these, only 96.3 and 97.1 were still in the format by 1981, and WJR-FM would disappear in September 1982 giving way to Hot Hits WHYT. WJOI would survive into the early '90s, with its only direct format competition coming from Windsor's 93.9 during its short period as CKEZ circa 1985 and from Ann Arbor's WPAG-FM 107.1. But for a time, the Motor City was a Beautiful Music buffet. That didn't even count stations from neighboring markets like WLQR (Toledo), WGMZ (Flint), WGER (Bay City) and WJIM-FM (Lansing) that could be picked up in parts of the metro. Those four all survived well into the '80s.
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In late 1978 there were 6 Beautiful Music stations in San Juan, PR. I had one of them, WSRA, which was the #1 station in the format but at the end of 1978 I made the mistake of dropping the format and going all-salsa. I had to work 12-hour days for the next 6 months!
 
In Dallas/Fort Worth at one point, Beautiful Music was airing on KRLD FM, WBAP FM, KWXI, WFAA FM, KTLC, KFWT, KIXL FM and KXXK all on FM. KWXI was Beautiful Music but obviously going for the younger side as was KXXK calling itself Music for Groovy Grownups. KXXK was no MOR station as they littered the AM dial: WFAA, KKDA, WBAP, KJIM, KIXL, KRLD, WRR and KTER (Terrell but good through Dallas). KIER, the Elkins Institute station was on 9am to 11pm except Sundays at 102.9 playing MOR commercial free. This would have been around 1970. I think WBAP was only MOR during the day because I know they were country by about 10pm.

WBAP FM played 30 minutes of uninterrupted music starting on the hour. They interrupted to remind you of this at 15 past.

WFAA FM was, at one point, 'music only for a woman'

KWXI liked "Bright in the middle" to designate their more youthful approach.

KFWT used jingles that mixed seamlessly with their lush music selections.

KXXK back announced songs, playing 2 in a row. Weather was on the hour and 5 minutes of news 4 times a day. Very few commercials back in late '69 and early 1970. Played more combos and small groups than big orchestras. They would have played Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat when it was a hit, had they been around.

KLIF, KXOL and KFJZ fought it out in top 40. KBOX, KBUY and KCWM (KXOL's FM) duked it out in country. Freeform/Underground was on KFAD but they would wait until about '71 to go 24/7 Freeform. In 1969 it was Top 50 6am to Noon, Freeform Noon to 6 and Jazz all night. The Top 50 was exactly like a freeform radio jock playing top 40 and even playing and reading all the commercials on the hour to get them out of the way (maybe 2 or 3 for head shops and water beds, etc.) KNUS was sort of the alter ego of KLIF.

Things would change fast. By 1973, KRLD had tried Hit Parade, Top 40 and Album Rock (real tight playlist), WBAP became Silver Country, an easy country station. KWXI would become top 40 KFJZ, WFAA became KZEW, The Zoo, a legendary rocker. KTLC became KMEZ, still beautiful music with the calls going to KIXL FM. KFWT became Adult Top 40 KFWD (no heavy rockers), KXXK became KOAX, a long running Beautiful Music station. KEIR sold and moved to 91.7 which had been silent. 102.9 became KDTX with, I recall, ministries 6am to Noon, Christian music Noon to 6 and top 40 until midnight sign off.

On the AM, WFAA was top 40, KKDA was Soul Sockin' 73, WBAP 100% country, KJIM was old country, KRLD was Top 40 days and Album Rock at night. WRR was a year away from going talk, I think. They ran a comedy feature at :45 every hour called Library of Laffs. KTER would be all country by then. KCWM had become KXOL FM with automated oldies daytimes (50% currents; 50% gold) then carried the AM signal after about 6pm. KFAD would have sold and become a country station. KNUS dropped album rock after McClendon sold KLIF and took the station to a 'more hip top 40' (for example weather was KNUS environment)
 
Dayton, Ohio-Powerhouse WHIO-FM (the present-day WHKO-99.1) was in the format before it was a format. The only other BM in the immediate area, other than Cincinnati was WPTW-FM, Piqua (the CURRENT WHIO-FM news/talk simulcast), which served the upper Miami Valley and was the FM voice of the Cincinnati Reds for that area. Cincinnati, I believe had WWEZ, WLQ?? (the present-day Warm 98), and I think a smaller one or two.
BM stations I could get from Western Ohio included WMEF Fort Wayne, WHIO-FM Dayton, WPTW-FM Piqua, WOGM Bellefontaine, WMVR-FM Sidney (weird, primitive set-up there), WMDH NewCastle, IN. WBNS-FM Columbus, OH, WDBN, Medina, Ohio; WBEA Elyria and WVNO Mansfield were in frequently.
 
b-turner said:
Would love to now more of the WMVR FM Sidney weird, primitive set-up.
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Sure! It consisted of 3 large carts with music recorded by our engineer, who had a fledgling syndication company. They probably contained about 60 minutes of music apiece and I think they just fired the next machine in rotation after every song. There was no insertion system; instead, the AM jock would see an asterisk on the log, then flip a switch that would interrupt the music on the FM and simulcast the spots with the asterisk, which carried a little higher spot rate. The music was joined in progress after the break. It was in living mono.
 
Portland:

KPOK-FM(Now KUPL) changed its format from oldies to BM "98-FM" in 1973

KJIB-FM (Now KWJJ) signed on in 1968 with BM. This station later changed to a "Beautiful Country" format. "The sound was soft, but used instrumental cover versions of country songs, rather than pop songs."

KQFM(Now KKRZ) Starting in 1955 "KQFM aired a "good music" format of softer popular songs. This evolved over time to an easy listening format known as "Q-Music."
 
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