What would they do if confronted with this?

[Cordelia Chase]

I know y'all are talking about the 50s and 60s, but as far as the 70s go, I wasn't too familiar with Pink Floyd when I worked my first shift at a Classic Rock station. That night listeners were treated to an entire side of "Dark Side of the Moon" because the tracks blended into each other!

"Children of the Sun" by Billy Thorpe was another good bathroom break song from back when we still played vinyl.

 

[bigdonho]

Worked at a country music station in a house trailer with the bathroom at the opposite end from the studio. At that time, just about all country songs were less than 2:30...except for Marty Robbins "El Paso" which ran just over 4 minutes. The 45 hung on a nail in the studio. If you had to do more then pee, you cued up "El Paso", had your pants unbuckled as you announced the song, closed the mic and ran down the hall. You were re-buckeling your pants as you ran back to the studio once you finished your business.

 

[firepoint525]

I can remember once when I heard a station playing a sampler album and I figured they were taking a break. The reason I knew it was because I had a copy of the same album. 😀

On the occasions when I have heard stations doing things like this, it was because they were in the midst of a management, format, or ownership change, and they were tracking literally ANYTHING just to fill up the time!

 

[firepoint525]

The reason I posted on the 1950s/1960s page is because there are so few options for long songs until the later 1960s. All of the long songs mentioned are outside of the 1950s and early 1960s window, which is the what the show is all about. Just lucky for the one Ray Charles piece.

I'm not old enough to specifially remember this, but I was told that back then, the SHIFTS were also shorter. In other words, avoid Taco Bell right before your airshift, and you should be just fine!

 

[Sammy Reed]

What long songs were from the 50's or 60's that made the top-100?
One I can think of that don't is the Doug Harrell 45 from the 50's with "Exsanguination Blues" on side 1 and "Hospitality Blues" on side 2, both over 5 minutes long!
"Exsanguination Blues"
"Hospitality Blues"
Later there was another 45 with shorter resung versions of both songs.

 

[Sammy Reed]

One I can think of that don't...

I meant "Didn't". It  didn't make the top-100.

 

[AMRadioGuy]

The posters here nailed it with "El Paso." I spin 45s on a local AM station today and that's one of my "break" songs. There aren't many of them from that era for sure. If you go forward even just a few years to the mid-60s, you've got Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone."

 

[bigdonho]

I'm not old enough to specifially remember this, but I was told that back then, the SHIFTS were also shorter. In other words, avoid Taco Bell right before your airshift, and you should be just fine!

I think most stations air shifts coresponded with the day parts: 6a-10a, 10a-3p, 3p-7p and 7p-12a. The overnights were not rated. I worked overnights at a particular radio station for almost 2 years before the general manager knew my name.

 

[davideduardo]

I think most stations air shifts coresponded with the day parts: 6a-10a, 10a-3p, 3p-7p and 7p-12a. The overnights were not rated. I worked overnights at a particular radio station for almost 2 years before the general manager knew my name.

That was only the "rated dayparts" after Arbitron established its dominance. Earlier survey dayparts were 6 to 9, 9 to Noon, Noon to 3, 3 to 6 and so on.

Arbitron measured overnights.