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Attn: Old Timers

R

Radio Nashville

Does anyone remember the approximate dates that newly-named WKDA-FM was actually freeform? Only at night, right?

When they went 24-hours in 1970, were they still freeform, maybe midnight-6? During the day they were a hybrid of pop*, rock, "outlaw country", select album cuts, and IIRC, comedy & oldies. *They played Simon & Garfunkle, Helen Reddy & the Bee Gees.

For a time, the AM was "progressive country."

Btw, Gabby Gone 'Gain.
 
I only made it to Nashville to see relatives about once a year. My cousin used to complain how Nashville was so 'behind' musically by not having an album rocker. It seems like 1970 or 1971 WKDA FM went with album rock and my impression was it was a pretty tight format. I think the AM was still Top 40 then.

Top 40 or 'pop' at points in the 1970s was a little bit of everything. There might have been a country song or two, some rocking tunes, some urban and even some of what we might term easy listening along with the bubblegum and core artists.

Would love to learn about those 'progressive country' on WKDA AM. In Dallas/Fort Worth KAFM 92.5 touted what they called 'Progressive Country' with an album based format and AOR Radio presentation. There was virtually zero 'country' crossover. They did play Waylon & Willie but much more of groups like The Eagles, Poco, Linda Ronstadt, Jerry Jeff Walker, Outlaws, Marshall Tucker, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc. In fact, KAFM is how Amie by Pure Prairie League became a hit. The album was a cut-out by then and the group was more of less broken up by the time the RCA rep got word of the new-found popularity of Amie reached the big boys in management who re-released the album. I was working in a record store then and we took lots of customers to the $1.99 cut out bin versus the $5.88 regular albums when that happened. KAFM as Progressive Country didn't last real long...1974 and 1975. Nashville would have been a good place to do 'progressive country'.
 
I discovered WKDA-FM around 1970 when the Radio Shack in the Bowling Green Mall had it on all the stereos in the store. It blew me away. I was a somewhat regular listener in Bowling Green (60 miles north) until they went Country. I don't remember ever hearing Helen Reddy or the Bee Gees, though. I usually listened in the evenings. Whatever happened to Clark Rogers? I think that was hie name. He was on late at night. I visited the studios in 1974 on a trip to Nashville to get my FCC Third Phone and Met Jack Crawford.
 
Bob Cole went from AM to FM, and played freeform at night for a couple years before the FM went 24-hours. Even then, late night may have been freeform.

The first WKDA-FM survey i have is dated 4/6/70. Singles: 1. Let it Be-Beatles, 2. Spirit in the Sky-Norman Greenbaum, 3. Instant Karma-John Lennon, 4. Bridge Over Troubled Water-Simon & Garfunkle, 5. House of the Rising Sun-Frijid Pink, 6. Come & Get It-Badfinger, 7. American Woman-Guess Who 8. Something's Burning-First Edition, 9. Woodstock-CSNY, 10. Love Minus Zero-No Limit-Turley Richards. Nothing you wouldn't hear on AM pop radio. A little embarrassing, for FM

Albums: 1. Deja Vu-CSNY 2. Morrison Hotel-Doors 3. Led Zepplin II 4. Bridge Over Trouble Water-S&G 5. Chicago [II] 6. Hey Jude-Beatles 7. Santana 8. Captured Live at the Forum-3 Dog Night 9. American Woman-Guess Who 10. Frijid Pink 11. Zepher [well, -yr] 12. To Our Children's Children-Moody Blues 13. Grand Funk 14. Let it Bleed-Rolling Stones 15. Climbing-Mountain. Nothing bold or unusual or obscure, certainly nothing "underground"

11/9/70 includes songs by Bread, the Carpenters, Christie, the New Seekers, Diana Ross, Neil Diamond & the [new] Supremes. By the time i started college fall of '72, they were playing, as i mentioned, " 'outlaw country', select album cuts, and IIRC, comedy & oldies."

AM went country March or April '70. 5/19/75 listed songs from Charlie Daniels, Marshall Tucker, Paul Davis, Amazing Rhythm Aces, Dave Mason, J.J. Cale, Jerry Jeff Walker, Bob Dylan Was their music country? Yes, to varying degrees. Did most country stations play it? No.

PirateJohnny said:
... I don't remember ever hearing Helen Reddy or the Bee Gees, though...
Click to expand...
9/9/72 #12 I am Woman-Helen R, #19 Run to Me-Bee Gees
 
That pretty much what I recall of WKDA FM...an album rock format but a pretty tight playlist of the biggest songs at the time.

WKDA AM sounds about like KAFM in Dallas around 1974. KAFM played sets of songs uninterrupted mostly based on theme or tempo with a low key album radio delivery. I'm just guessing WKDA might now have had an album rock radio presentation style. I'm guessing the progressive country format didn't last long.
 
In the June 20, 1975 issue, R & R reports that WKDA will give up its progressive country format in the middle of July so I don’t think it lasted long at all.

Always thought it was odd that country radio before the 1980s was kind of lackluster in Nashville. WSM only played country at night, WSIX-FM was “Metropolitan Country,” a hybrid of country and beautiful music and WENO and WKDA were low powered especially at night and pretty much low rated.

Coming from Memphis, it always surprised me that Nashville didn’t have a country station like our WMC which was often number one in the ratings with double digit 12+ numbers.
 
Interesting, WSIX FM doing a Country/Beautiful Music mix. While I was born in Nashville, I was working along the Texas/Mexico border when a reel to reel format provider sent a mailing of their format offerings with one called 'Bright and Beautiful Country'. It was a 75% mix of vocals of easy country hits and classics by both original artists and country favorites performed by MOR format artists. 25% was instrumentals ranging from the 101 Strings to say, Boots Randolph, Floyd Crammer and The Nashville Brass. It seemed the presentation was to be Beautiful Music style with sets of songs between liners (ie: the typical headlines on the hour, weather at :30,liners at :15 and :45 with a maximum 7 commercials an hour). The songs were country versus pop or were tunes by artists known to and liked by Country music listeners and easy listening music lovers. I thought this was a very interesting format that really made sense for especially more rural areas where the average person heard country hits much more often than they heard top 40 hits on area stations. Would the format I described be sort of what Metropolitan Country sounded like?

My Mom used to say Nashville always seemed less of a country music town than other cities where we lived. She was raised in Nashville. I agree with her statement.
 
b-turner said:
My Mom used to say Nashville always seemed less of a country music town than other cities where we lived. She was raised in Nashville. I agree with her statement.
Click to expand...

I don't think that's changed much. Three country FMs, and none are #1. WSM-AM is mainly a vanity station for the Opry.
 
There have often been markets with county stations getting a bigger share than those in Nashville, across the south, but also in the upper midwest and west.


As far as the "beautiful county" format, I remember b-tuner mentioning that before, and how it was popular in some smaller markets years ago. In old issues of R&R's program supplier guide, I found that or similar taped formats offered by several syndicators. It apparently missed the upper midwest, I don't remember any, although there were plenty of stations running other taped formats.

David's outstanding site has many of those old R&R guides:
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/RandR-Program-Supplier-Directories.htm
 
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