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Louisville 840 WHAS, when they played RnR
- Thread starter alok
- Start date
In the early 1970s WHAS had an overnight Progressive Rock show branded as “W84”. Music and presentation was essentially the same as what you would find on an FM station with the format during that era. I could hear it in Austin where I lived at the time.
Didn’t last very long; was replaced IIRC by the Herb Jepko “Nitecap” show that originated at KSL in Salt Lake City.
Didn’t last very long; was replaced IIRC by the Herb Jepko “Nitecap” show that originated at KSL in Salt Lake City.
Thanks for the post, Mediafrog+.
There are some airchecks on YOUTUBE of the period they played RnR, I thought it was in the 80's, but one is from the 90's, the overnight show.
I was living in California at the time so could no longer hear them at night with the 840 station in Las Vegas, before 840 in Vegas went on you could hear 840 WHAS out west.
I'd hear this RnR on WHAS when I would visit Northern NJ back in the 80's / 90's.
I just wondered how long they played RnR and how well they did in ratings while they did?
In the late 60s and early 70s, WHAS typically finished fourth behind WKLO, WAKY and WAVE. During its music era, it reached as high as a 12.2 share (Oct/Nov 1966) and cracked the 12 share mark on two more occasions - Apr/May 1969 and Apr/May 1976 - in that 1976 survey, it managed to finished second in the market.
It’s remarkable how WHAS really took over the AM adult audience as the 80s began, while WAVE stumbled. At the same time, FM WAMZ (after the WNNS / NIS network mess) became such a monster.
It was said at their peak WHAS & WAMZ took almost half of the revenue for radio in the market.
Both are still successful but nowhere near the double digit ratings leaders they were in the 80s - early 2ks.
It was said at their peak WHAS & WAMZ took almost half of the revenue for radio in the market.
Both are still successful but nowhere near the double digit ratings leaders they were in the 80s - early 2ks.
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Believe it or not, for a good portion of the early 1970s, KARM/1430 in Fresno (now KFIG) did progressive rock 24/7, after losing the MOR audience to their own Beautiful Music FM with the same call letters. That format ended when they affiliated with the ill-fated News and Information Service from NBC; most of the staff and the rock format itself moved over to KPHD/95.5 (which was owned by top-40 powerhouse KYNO/1300).
Nobody has mentioned Joe Donovan and his overnight Rock And Roll Revival show. He came to WHAS from KOA in Denver in 1977. He was on from Midnight until 5AM until 1997. Joe played his own records on the show. It was not your typical Oldies show. Always entertaining to listen to.
I remember that. I always wondered if he did it live because, if you had a request, you were told it would be on the following night.
Even into the early 90’s, WHAS played some music during the daytime hours. I can remember hearing Gloria Estefan “Live For Loving You” on 840 in afternoon drive around ‘91 or ‘92.
Those in the know, please correct me if I'm wrong. If I'm not mistaken, because Joe Donovan's show was on between midnight and 5am, it never appeared in any Arbitrend ratings book.
Midnight to 6 AM is rated by Nielsen and was by Arbitron ("Arbitrend" was a separate trending report). It's just that that daypart is not consolidated with the 6AM-7PM or 6AM-Mid and daypart tables most buyers want. When the ratings were issued in printed reports, that overnight data was at the "back of the book" and in the electronic Nielsen delivery it can be selected even down to specific hours and periods in the software.
That's the official song of 102.3. I feel like no matter what format 102.3 has, other than their late 90s alternative rock WLRS days, that song is inescapable there.
He would have to pull the requested records at home to play that night on air.
I've noticed that. Just last week I heard the song on The Rose!
I was an on-air personality for 84WHAS from 1988 through 1992 and then again from 1995 through 1997. We were still playing AC music when I left in 1997. Our weekends were called "Classic Hits Weekends" and we played music on Saturdays and Sundays. Saturday afternoon had a show called "The Best of Meiners" and on Sunday after Doug McElvein and later Joe Elliott hosted the Sunday Morning Talk Show, we'd play 6 hours of classic hits.
Joe Donovan had a collection of about 15,000 singles from the Top 40 era at his house and would pull from that stash every night to bring in to play. He also had about 1,000 CDs in the early 90s for even harder-to-find songs.
When music licensing changed in the era of consilidation in the late 90s, it became quite a bit more expensive to play music on any station, but the FM stations could justify it with better sound quality. AMs turned to mostly news, talk and sports. Still, hearing your voice in AM Stereo late at night was a thrill!
Joe Donovan had a collection of about 15,000 singles from the Top 40 era at his house and would pull from that stash every night to bring in to play. He also had about 1,000 CDs in the early 90s for even harder-to-find songs.
When music licensing changed in the era of consilidation in the late 90s, it became quite a bit more expensive to play music on any station, but the FM stations could justify it with better sound quality. AMs turned to mostly news, talk and sports. Still, hearing your voice in AM Stereo late at night was a thrill!
The last music show on 84WHAS was a Saturday evening Oldies show that ended in 1999.
After that, the only music they played was on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Now, they don't even do that anymore.
After that, the only music they played was on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Now, they don't even do that anymore.
While what you are saying is true for individual stations, keep in mind that companies that consolidated operations had to pay the music licenses for *all* of the stations they were operating and not just one. And that, of course, made the new monopolistic companies (mostly) decide to stop playing music on AM--the sound quality was (relatively) poorer than FM on most radios. And the ratings for most AM radio stations reflected that reality.
It doesn't matter. An AM owned by a mega company or a person will pay the same music licensing fee because it is based on revenue the station brings in and the size of the market when a minimum is established. If an iHeart engineer and local owner engineer go to a store for battieries, the cost is the same for both and the sales tax is as well. They don't charge more sales tax because it is an iHeart engineer.