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1983: The year with no AC or country crossovers on local top 40 radio?

N

NoWayNoCC

Who else remembers this?

In 1983, the top 40 stations in Cincinnati played almost no country or super-soft AC crossovers, even those that were big hits on the national chart.

On the AC side, there was "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" by Air Supply and "Never Gonna Let You Go" by Sergio Mendes. The top 40 stations played most of the regular AC like Hall & Oates or Billy Joel, but not the really soft AC like Air Supply or Sergio Mendes.

On the country side, there were songs like "Islands In The Stream" by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton that the top 40 stations seemed to avoid.

I was reminded of this when I heard the AT40 broadcast from 1983 this past weekend, in which Air Supply was #2 and Kenny & Dolly was #3. I don't think I ever once heard any of these AC or country crossovers on top 40 stations in Cincinnati, even ones that hit #1 or #2. It wasn't just Q-102. It was also WCLU, even though it had a much broader playlist. It is possible WCLU did play these songs, but I don't ever remember it. I also remember not being too surprised by the lack of AC and country crossovers on our top 40 stations, because top 40 stations back then seemed to have more of a rock image than they did later.

Yet websites like ARSA show that top 40 stations in other cities did in fact play these AC and country crossovers quite a bit.

Was it just that Q-102 and WCLU were actually ahead of the curve in moving away from the AC and country booms of the early '80s? On the other hand, Q-102 did seem to play a lot more AC stuff later.
 
NoWayNoCC said:
On the country side, there were songs like "Islands In The Stream" by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton that the top 40 stations seemed to avoid.
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One other title I'd add is "You & I" by Eddie Rabbitt & Crystal Gayle. Did it get airplay in Cincinnati?
 
NoWayNoCC said:
Who else remembers this?

In 1983, the top 40 stations in Cincinnati played almost no country or super-soft AC crossovers, even those that were big hits on the national chart.
Click to expand...
This situation also happened in the NYC/NJ area, where CHR station WHTZ (Z100) was launched that same year. Z100 never played any of the songs that you mentioned or any other song that was very soft. Neither did WPLJ.
 
Marcos_C said:
This situation also happened in the NYC/NJ area, where CHR station WHTZ (Z100) was launched that same year. Z100 never played any of the songs that you mentioned or any other song that was very soft. Neither did WPLJ.
Click to expand...

Of course at that time there was a Top 10 rated country station in NYC that would play anything by Kenny, Olivia, Crystal, and even Linda Ronstadt.
 
TheBigA said:
Of course at that time there was a Top 10 rated country station in NYC that would play anything by Kenny, Olivia, Crystal, and even Linda Ronstadt.
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WHN. I remember listening to "the world premiere" of "Islands in the Stream" on that station.
 
I think "Hot Hits" 96 WHYT in Detroit was the same way. By 1984 competitor Z 95.5 began and aimed for both the 12-24 and the over 25 crowd, while WHYT kept the younger crowd.
 
NoWayNoCC said:
Who else remembers this?

In 1983, the top 40 stations in Cincinnati played almost no country or super-soft AC crossovers, even those that were big hits on the national chart.

On the AC side, there was "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" by Air Supply and "Never Gonna Let You Go" by Sergio Mendes. The top 40 stations played most of the regular AC like Hall & Oates or Billy Joel, but not the really soft AC like Air Supply or Sergio Mendes.

On the country side, there were songs like "Islands In The Stream" by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton that the top 40 stations seemed to avoid.

I was reminded of this when I heard the AT40 broadcast from 1983 this past weekend, in which Air Supply was #2 and Kenny & Dolly was #3. I don't think I ever once heard any of these AC or country crossovers on top 40 stations in Cincinnati, even ones that hit #1 or #2. It wasn't just Q-102. It was also WCLU, even though it had a much broader playlist. It is possible WCLU did play these songs, but I don't ever remember it. I also remember not being too surprised by the lack of AC and country crossovers on our top 40 stations, because top 40 stations back then seemed to have more of a rock image than they did later.

Yet websites like ARSA show that top 40 stations in other cities did in fact play these AC and country crossovers quite a bit.

Was it just that Q-102 and WCLU were actually ahead of the curve in moving away from the AC and country booms of the early '80s? On the other hand, Q-102 did seem to play a lot more AC stuff later.
Click to expand...
I remember Q 102 and WCLU playing those songs. However, I remember Q 102 not playing a number of other songs that were really big hits back in the day. Because of that, I would often listen to WCLU or radio stations in Louisville (99.7 DJX), Lexington (WLAP), and Dayton (Z-93)……. back when you could still receive them in Northern Kentucky before the great translator invasion and the cheap tuners in radios.

Among the songs Q 102 didn’t play when they were hits, just to name a few that popped into my head:

Cool It Now - New Edition
Life in a Northern Town - Dream Academy
People Are People - Depeche Mode

However, they had their favorites like that d-bag Billy Squier. They played his songs into the ground.
 
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I think there was one point around 1984-85 when there was something like 4 songs in the national top 10 that Q-102 didn't play. But I don't think these were all AC or country songs, since there wasn't as much soft AC or country on the national chart then. This may have been around the time of "Cool It Now."

I remember hearing Q-102 play "People Are People" only once.

As for the AC stuff, it seems like there was a time around 1985 when WCLU actually played more '70s AC than '80s AC. They would dig up a weird oldie every now and then. I actually heard "On And On" mixed in with all the Tears For Fears, Prince, and Madonna.
 
Q 102 had their songs they latched onto too that weren’t big hits like “Don’t Fight It” by Kenny Loggins and Steve Perry and “If You Was A Woman and I Was a Man“ by Bonnie Tyler. The first one was even played in the early 90s when they did their “The station you grew up with has grown up with you” thing. Q 102 LOVED ♥️ Kenny Loggins and ran him into the ground. The second song wasn’t even a Top 40 hit, and I don’t recall hearing it anywhere else. I’m surprised considering how provincial Cincinnati is that it got played esp as much as it did. The song was weird. Strange they would play that and then not give “People Are People” a chance.
 
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NoWayNoCC said:
I remember hearing Q-102 play "People Are People" only once.
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I requested the song once, and they wouldn’t play it saying it didn’t perform well in Cincinnati (paraphrased). (Not disagreeing with you and saying it didn’t get played though)
 
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fedacct1 said:
I remember Q 102 and WCLU playing those songs. However, I remember Q 102 not playing a number of other songs that were really big hits back in the day. Because of that, I would often listen to WCLU or radio stations in Louisville (99.7 DJX), Lexington (WLAP), and Dayton (Z-93)……. back when you could still receive them in Northern Kentucky before the great translator invasion and the cheap tuners in radios.

Among the songs Q 102 didn’t play when they were hits, just to name a few that popped into my head:

Cool It Now - New Edition
Life in a Northern Town - Dream Academy
People Are People - Depeche Mode

However, they had their favorites like that d-bag Billy Squier. They played his songs into the ground.
Click to expand...
Take out my mention of WCLU. I didn’t discover them until 1984. So, I don’t know if those songs were played or not. However, I do remember my stepdad having them on once in the early 80s and thought that at that point they played rock music and not CHR.
 
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Also, one act who was big around that time that Q-102 didn't play much of was David Bowie. They played "Let's Dance" a little bit, but he had a bunch of big hits they never touched.
 
NoWayNoCC said:
Also, one act who was big around that time that Q-102 didn't play much of was David Bowie. They played "Let's Dance" a little bit, but he had a bunch of big hits they never touched.
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One of the biggest snubs was “I Want Your Sex” by George Michael. Of course, Q 102 wouldn’t play it. WLAP in Lexington dubbed the verse with “I Want Your Love” when the song was heavily implying sex. Why bother? So lame. It did get played in Louisville on DJX.

Not that I was crazy about the song anyway, but without streaming thank god for good FM tuners and no overabundance of translators to knock out distant stations back then. In Union, we were in that sweet spot where we received Dayton, Lexington, and Louisville. With Z93 though, move the antenna rod one way you get K93 in Lexington. Move it the other way, you get Z93.

My posts were sort of moving away from the original subject on the surface, but it really wasn’t. The OP was inferring that Q 102 was ahead of the curve, but it really wasn’t.
 
NoWayNoCC said:
I first heard WCLU in late 1982. They played a lot of new wave plus "Up Where We Belong" and "Maneater" quite a bit.
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They always had audio problems and their turntables sounded awful. I remember listening and all of a sudden I heard a crash when a ceiling tile fell down and hit the turntable in the middle of a record
 
microbob said:
They always had audio problems and their turntables sounded awful. I remember listening and all of a sudden I heard a crash when a ceiling tile fell down and hit the turntable in the middle of a record
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I was listening when this happened! It was "Sweet Freedom" by Michael McDonald.

It sounded like half their records were all scratched up, especially around 1985-86.
 
I can't imagine WCLU having any real influence on local tastes or what other stations played at that point. I do remember hearing "Maneater" on Warm 98 as a current.
 
gr8oldies said:
I can't imagine WCLU having any real influence on local tastes or what other stations played at that point. I do remember hearing "Maneater" on Warm 98 as a current.
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And that awful signal! I was riding in the car with my dad down on I-71 past the split in Richwood/Walton. I see the signs ahead for Verona and hear “rrrrrrrrrrrrr”. Dad said “It’s breaking down. Time to change the station.” Very spotty in Grant County too.

When I lived in Morrow several years back, I did a test run on the station. Can’t get it past exit 25 on I-71.
 
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