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WCBS-FM in NYC in the late 60's

A

alok

I remembered this recently, so I thought I share it, maybe some of you remember it too. The format I am talking about, on WCBS-FM was apparently on all the CBS owned FM stations around the country and I understand some other non-owned CBS FM stations too.
I liked it and listened to it often, they played many instrumentals of songs that were on RnR radio at the time.
They'd ID on the hour as The Young Sound and played, this theme.

MUSIC, by Tony Hatch


*****
a post by someone talking about this format at the beginning of video, the person said it took them years to learn the title of the song used, but I recall on WCBS-FM the announcer would say "our theme is MUSIC by Tony Hatch" just before it played on the hour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVcicZ1_DYY

*****
an example of some of the music you'd hear, (about 16 mins long)


It was a good format,
Naturally WABC 770, WMCA 570 and WOR-FM 98.7 were the RnR rulers in NYC at the time, but this CBS-FM format was, as I said good.
 
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That was CBS' automated format, which they did indeed call "The Young Sound", that ran for several years on all of their owned FMs after the FCC stopped allowing full simulcasts of their AMs in 1966. They also offered it for syndication to stations in markets where they did not own stations.

It is referenced on several station pages on Wikipedia, if you search on the format name.

In Los Angeles, it was ultimately replaced by the famous "mellow rock" format on KNX-FM.

I also found these articles in Broadcasting that preceded the format's launch:
 
K.M. Richards said:
That was CBS' automated format, which they did indeed call "The Young Sound", that ran for several years on all of their owned FMs after the FCC stopped allowing full simulcasts of their AMs in 1966. They also offered it for syndication to stations in markets where they did not own stations.

It is referenced on several station pages on Wikipedia, if you search on the format name.

In Los Angeles, it was ultimately replaced by the famous "mellow rock" format on KNX-FM.

I also found these articles in Broadcasting that preceded the format's launch:
Click to expand...

It didn't last that long on WCBS-FM. By early 1970, that station had adopted a top-40/AOR hybrid mix that it would stay with until (if memory serves) July of 1972. That mix is an enjoyable listen today but wasn't accepted by New Yorkers back in the day. (Of course, part of the reason for that was the lack of FM radios, either portable or in the car, at the time.)
 
Thanks to KM and Ted for replying. Yes,it sounded automated and as far as it not going over big in NYC. I believe that. Like I said I liked it. When WCBS-FM changed in 1970 my wife and I were headed to CA from NJ.
 
ted chittenden said:
Of course, part of the reason for that was the lack of FM radios, either portable or in the car, at the time.
Click to expand...

That's the main part of the story. FM was a copyrighted technology up until 1965. It wasn't commonly available in radios because the manufacturers had to pay for it, and they had to include an additional antenna. RCA was in the middle of a lawsuit with the Armstrong estate. AFC didn't exist, and stations drifted all over the place. But the FCC had mandated that co-located AM-FM stations couldn't simulcast their stations. So these stations came up with ways to comply with the new rules. It was similar to HD radio in 2002.

ABC radio came up with a national rock format for it's owned FM stations. WABC-FM ran it in NY. Of course both WOR-FM and WNEW-FM had a head start in live & local rock programming. But the most popular stations on FM in the 60s were the beautiful music stations such as WRFM and WPAT.
 
TheBigA said:
But the most popular stations on FM in the 60s were the beautiful music stations such as WRFM and WPAT.
Click to expand...
New York City Arbitron
June 1966, P12+
10.6 total shares for FM stations
11. WPAT-FM 2.2
13. WPIX-FM 1.8
14. WTFM 1.7
16. WNEW-FM 1.5
17. WOR-FM 1.1
18. WQXR-FM 0.8
19. WVNJ-FM 0.7
20t. WABC-FM 0.4
20t. WCBS-FM 0.4

Two years later, 15.9 total shares:
10. WOR-FM 3.2
13. WPAT-FM 2.0
14. WQXR-FM 1.8
15t. WPIX-FM 1.6
15t. WNEW-FM 1.6
19. WTFM 1.4
21. WCBS-FM 1.2
22t. WABC-FM 1.0
25. WRFM 0.7
30. WLIB-FM 0.4
31t. WNBC-FM 0.3
31t. WEVD-FM 0.3
31t. WVNJ-FM 0.3
34. WHOM-FM 0.1
 
ted chittenden said:
It didn't last that long on WCBS-FM. By early 1970, that station had adopted a top-40/AOR hybrid mix that it would stay with until (if memory serves) July of 1972. That mix is an enjoyable listen today but wasn't accepted by New Yorkers back in the day. (Of course, part of the reason for that was the lack of FM radios, either portable or in the car, at the time.)
Click to expand...
July 7, 1972, according to Wikipedia. It was a unique mix, as you said, of Top 40 and AOR. I remember a guy named Steve O'Brien ("Your friendly SOB") and Bobby Wayne "The Wizard" were part of the lineup.
 
Huff said:
New York City Arbitron
June 1966, P12+
10.6 total shares for FM stations
11. WPAT-FM 2.2
13. WPIX-FM 1.8
14. WTFM 1.7
16. WNEW-FM 1.5
17. WOR-FM 1.1
18. WQXR-FM 0.8
19. WVNJ-FM 0.7
20t. WABC-FM 0.4
20t. WCBS-FM 0.4

Two years later, 15.9 total shares:
10. WOR-FM 3.2
13. WPAT-FM 2.0
14. WQXR-FM 1.8
15t. WPIX-FM 1.6
15t. WNEW-FM 1.6
19. WTFM 1.4
21. WCBS-FM 1.2
22t. WABC-FM 1.0
25. WRFM 0.7
30. WLIB-FM 0.4
31t. WNBC-FM 0.3
31t. WEVD-FM 0.3
31t. WVNJ-FM 0.3
34. WHOM-FM 0.1
Click to expand...
Huff, do you have access to the equivalent FM shares for June 1967?

For context, WOR-FM launched its "MOR-style" Top 100 format at the end of June 1966, just after the ratings period you published. That quickly morphed into an early try at a progressive rock format after the jocks came on the air in October. (Their launch had been delayed ~3 months due to pay scale issues between AFTRA and RKO-General.) By summer of '67 the progressive rock format was fully functional, and it was just before Bill Drake and his people started infiltrating "OR-FM" in preparation for blowing up the format and launching his own format. It would be very interesting to see how the ratings had evolved by that mid-point between the two surveys you posted.
 
Coupla really talented heavy drinker 'Bobbys' I had the pleasure of working with long after I'd heard them years before as a DXer : Way Eastern Long Island native Bob Dayton and one Robert Wayne Satterfield of West Virginia.
While a DXing high school freshman up in Queens NYC in 1963 trying at times to hear my vacation fave WNOR Norfolk 1230, I'd hear Bobby Wayne doing his overnight Top 40 show off WITH Baltimore. I wound up working with him over ten years later when we both were at AoR WBAB on the Island. Kind of a pudgy type redhead, like the ballplayer John Kruk (also from WV). What a talent. Wayne played some air check bits from when he was at some Ohio Top 40. WUBE Cinncy or WCOL Columbus. Sound effects, a sidekick, timing. Lol -- we even had the obligatory shoving and shouting match he was famous for. What a hothead (him too).
But if there was ever a 'mentor', he was one. We'd share a bottle and he'd spin stories of where he'd been. He had a few management problems, but his on-the-air personna -- suggested by a few as the person you always wanted to be -- recalled only the good times he'd had at every station he'd bring up for discussion. A super-mischievous talent.
(So was Dayton. Another story)
 
sjs1959 said:
Is this the same Bob Dayton that was later at WMPS Memphis and then WMAQ Chicago while each station was country?
Click to expand...
There was also a Bob Dayton at WPIX-FM New York (101.9) in the 70s.
 
sjs1959 said:
Is this the same Bob Dayton that was later at WMPS Memphis and then WMAQ Chicago while each station was country?
Click to expand...
I don't think that Bob Dayton was the one you refer to from Memphis or Chicago, but I could be wrong.
Ed Nielson said:
There was also a Bob Dayton at WPIX-FM New York (101.9) in the 70s.
Click to expand...
Now that Bob Dayton is the same guy who was on 77WABC in the early '60s, who got himself canned by making a joke about the 20th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing (while Leonard Goldenson's wife was listening and touring a group of ladies who survived that same bombing). Later on WCBS-FM in the early '70s, even later on WBAB. That is the guy Steve had worked with at 'BAB.

There is a story I had heard from one of Dayton's co-workers at CBS, who shall go nameless. Dayton was considered an obnoxious prick by the guys who worked the security desk in the Black Rock lobby, many of whom were retired or moonlighting NYPD cops. One day Dayton came down from 17 into the lobby acting tough, and made some motion like he was going to hit the security guy. Said security guard cold-cocked Dayton, completely knocking him out, right there in the 51 West 52nd lobby. It never happened again, because his tenure at CBS didn't last much longer.
 
Then there was Rosko, who quit on the air at WOR-FM. He was on CBS-FM briefly in the 70s, and I believe it was late Sunday nights.
 
Maybe I'm mistaken. (Not the first time.) But I do remember listening to him on late Sunday nights, because it's where I first heard "Did She Mention My Name" by Gordon Lightfoot. That much I do remember.:)
 
@Ed Nielson
This is all starting to sound like Old Home Week in the barracks of the spoof movie 'Hot Shots!'
But while we're at it: Ed Neilson, are you the same guy who did some great mornings at Countrypolitan WJRZ in the late 60's?
'Darlin', lol ?
Pretty good radio!

(For those posters not in the area: This Queens NYC rock and roll punk listened almost exclusively to WJRZ and their cowboy records for the better part of a year. Now I don't know if it was the first such approach to air, but it certainly was *ours* in NYC.
Imagine a full-service, leaning-Top 40 presentation ..... nothing 'hick-y' about it ..... a jingle package based on the logo 'I'm an Old Cowhand, On The Rio Grande' ...... an oldie 'Country Classic' rave-up sounder each hour ..... and even Mets games!
I know WALT Tampa was to have that jaunty 'sound' with their approach -- those great, loud Florida spots really fit -- but WALT's was in 1970. Perhaps folks here know more, from their markets).
 
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Steve Green NEPA said:
This is all starting to sound like Old Home Week in the barracks of the spoof movie 'Hot Shots!'
But while we're at it: Ed Neilson, are you the same guy who did some great mornings at Countrypolitan WJRZ in the late 60's?
'Darlin', lol ?
Pretty good radio!
Click to expand...
No, not me. I was around 15 at the time...
 


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