Cases of ABC networks mismatched back in the day?

[destinationradio]

I'm just curious if there were stations back in the day that, for one reason or another, ended up with ABC networks which were mismatched with their formats.

For example, was American Contemporary heard on any stations that didn't air a Top 40 format, were there any rockers with Information or Entertainment newscasts, etc.? I guess there probably weren't any AM stations with FM Network News, though...

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

I'm just curious if there were stations back in the day that, for one reason or another, ended up with ABC networks which were mismatched with their formats.

For example, was American Contemporary heard on any stations that didn't air a Top 40 format...

Nashville's WVOL (an R&B format) was ABC/C in the early 70's. This probably wasn't an egregious case of a format mismatch since WVOL had a broad listener base, often was the second choice for teens and young adults after WMAK. I used to listen to Howard Cosell on The Mighty 1-47 (as well as a very young Oprah Winfrey doing local news).

WVOL was very mainstream too -- playing non-core artists like James Taylor ("Don't Let Me be Lonely Tonight") and even Billy Swan's "I Can Help". (Of course, James Brown also appeared on The Opry as Porter Wagoner's guest one night so the "color lines" weren't quite as rigid as one might think in Nashville...at least for music).

 

[MattParker]

Existing ABC affiliates were given the option of choosing the network they wanted and sometimes they didn't make the choice expected with their format. For example, some stations used to network news at :55 continued with the contemporary network.

For new affiliates, a station's audience demographics were as important (maybe more important) than format. The sales department was looking for demographically distinct audiences for each network.

In at least one case, ABC had its then owned station in Detroit take the Entertainment network because it turned out to be a harder sell to prospective affiliates than the other three and ABC felt it might not look good if none of their stations carried it.

I was working for an Information affiliate after the network split and I could listen to all four network newscasts in the newsroom. The original pitch was that each network would get newscasts with stories selected and edited for listeners of different formats - that they would be different and sound different. Except for the opening jingles, and the fact Information stories could run a bit longer, they did not. Same stories. Same sound cuts. Same writing style. Not much difference in announcing style. One editor covering all four newscast teams. Eventually the stop branding the demographic networks on-air and everybody got the same news but with different spots.

 

[jh]

When the switch was made, KCRG/1600 Cedar Rapids IA was a block-programmed hodge-podge: MOR days, top 40 nights, country all weekend except polkas on Sunday morning. They went with ABC/C... I assume because they wanted to keep network news at :55. A couple of years later they changed to a chicken rock format for a couple of years, then switched to top 40 in about 1970. Some years later, they went AC and switched to ABC/I briefly, then ABC/E for several years before settling on ABC/I through several formats.

When CC bought across-town WMT, they yanked ABC/I and Paul Harvey from KCRG. WMT later switched to Fox and there hasn't been an ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids since.

KWMT/540 Ft. Dodge IA was ABC/E and MOR. They kept that net when they went country in 1970, but after a few years switched to ABC/C. After several years, they switched to ABC/I which continued until CC flipped them to Fox. They're still country and Fox, but no longer owned by CC.

 

[radiophiler]

In the mid 1980s I was a very young news director at a Music Of Your Life station.

We carried the ABC Information newscast (the first segment only) at the top of the hour, but were required by our contract to clear the ABC Contemporary commercials. Strange hearing commercials for bubble gum and acne medicine on a station playing big bands, Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee!

Also, I always wondered whether what we were doing was OK, or whether our GM just figured that an unrated 1000-watt AM wouldn't get noticed by anyone at ABC. We couldn't get the Information or Entertainment networks because larger stations had them.

Eventually, we switched to the ABC Direction network. Case solved. Appropriate newscasts and commercials.

 

[anotherguyTN]

WASL 100.1 in Dyersburg, TN was a Top 40/AC station, and in recent years classic rock, but what was unusual about them is that for years they carried Paul Harvey until his death. But if they hadn't I probably wouldn't have become a regular listener to him.

 

[Ultimajock]

WASL 100.1 in Dyersburg, TN was a Top 40/AC station, and in recent years classic rock, but what was unusual about them is that for years they carried Paul Harvey until his death. But if they hadn't I probably wouldn't have become a regular listener to him.

...same for WNAM "Blue 128" Neenah-Menasha WI and WDUZ Green Bay in the '70s. In fact, I recall a short time in the early '70s when Paul Harvey was carried on Top 40 WCFL in Chicago, before Country WJJD picked up the Entertainment affiliation...

 

[cd637299]

WCKO 102.7 Pompano Beach FL (now Majic 102.7) was R&B as well, and running ABC/C in 1974. The music *was* contemporary, just not in the T40 sense.

One of the Vane Jones books (of which Mr. Eduardo has put up online via another site) listed one AM station as belonging to the ABC American FM network, but that had to be an error in printing.

BTW....didn't the American FM network run their news at :15 past the hour? Odd.

cd

 

[LKellerIII]

WCKO 102.7 Pompano Beach FL (now Majic 102.7) was R&B as well, and running ABC/C in 1974. The music *was* contemporary, just not in the T40 sense.


BTW....didn't the American FM network run their news at :15 past the hour? Odd.

cd

Odd? Why? No more odd than the Drake stations' 20/20 News (initially :20 and :40, then just :40). It was just a counter-programming ploy so they could fulfill their news obligation with the FCC, and get 100% of the teen and young adult audience by playing music while their competitors were running news - generally at the top of the hour.

I'm not sure what the American FM logic was, but probably similar. If I remember, the subscribing stations could tape delay the news, and run it at other times during the hour. They weren't bound by the :15 thing, were they?

 

[jh]

The local stations could tape the news and play it back later as long as it didn't run the same time as ABC programs on another station in the market. I think you had to indicate on the monthly affidavit whether it ran live or delayed.

ABC-FM was originally designed for beautiful music stations, with its laidback delivery and no actualities. I think it was designed to be taped and stuck into the automation. When ABC found out there wasn't that much interest in network news on elevator music stations, it was changed to FM pop/rock stations, and eventually moved to :45.

 

[MattParker]

Odd? Why? No more odd than the Drake stations' 20/20 News (initially :20 and :40, then just :40). It was just a counter-programming ploy so they could fulfill their news obligation with the FCC, and get 100% of the teen and young adult audience by playing music while their competitors were running news - generally at the top of the hour.

I'm not sure what the American FM logic was, but probably similar. If I remember, the subscribing stations could tape delay the news, and run it at other times during the hour. They weren't bound by the :15 thing, were they?

It was all counter-programming ploy.
NBC and CBS at :00 (Emphasis/Dimension at :30)
ABC at :55 (often local at :25).
Keener 13: :15 and :45
CKLW 20/20 News: :20 and :40.
The idea was that anyone who didn't want news would tune out and come back in when the other station started their news five or 10 minutes later. Of course, back then networks and stations actually put really effort and even some creativity into news. ABC introduced actualities. Keener had an effective, fast-paced presentation with excellent coverage of breaking local stories. (So did other Top40 stations like KIMN.). 20/20 News was pure tabloid, blood, guts, scandal. Disgusting and riveting.

ABC Radio Networks:
Contemporary News at :55
Information News at :00
FM News at :15
Information features at :25
Entertainment news at :30
Minor adjustments to schedules during hours when Paul Harvey and Breakfast Club were fed.

 

[LKellerIII]

The local stations could tape the news and play it back later as long as it didn't run the same time as ABC programs on another station in the market. I think you had to indicate on the monthly affidavit whether it ran live or delayed.

ABC-FM was originally designed for beautiful music stations, with its laidback delivery and no actualities. I think it was designed to be taped and stuck into the automation. When ABC found out there wasn't that much interest in network news on elevator music stations, it was changed to FM pop/rock stations, and eventually moved to :45.

In Los Angeles, American FM News ran on KABC-FM, later KLOS, which (at the time) was a very hit-intensive and regimented version of album oriented FM radio.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

ABC Radio Networks:
Contemporary News at :55
Information News at :00
FM News at :15
Information features at :25
Entertainment news at :30
Minor adjustments to schedules during hours when Paul Harvey and Breakfast Club were fed.

ABC/C was actually at :54:30 (to allow :30 of dead air between its end and the start
of ABC/I at :00. A 1:30 Contemporary News-In-Brief was later added, somewhere
around :50 or :51, IIRC. (Can anyone provide the exact feed time?)

If ABC/I features were at :25, then they had to share that slot with ABC/C features
during certain hours, such as Retro Rock and "Broach The Coach" (Cosell). Very early
on I recall an ABC/I feature running right after the :00 'cast.

 

[Ultimajock]

BTW....didn't the American FM network run their news at :15 past the hour? Odd.

Odd? Why? No more odd than the Drake stations' 20/20 News (initially :20 and :40, then just :40). It was just a counter-programming ploy so they could fulfill their news obligation with the FCC, and get 100% of the teen and young adult audience by playing music while their competitors were running news - generally at the top of the hour.

...which brings up yet another mismatch -- WMKC/96.7 Oshkosh WI was American FM, but played a strange combine of Beautiful Music, Soft Rock and Jazz, as well as running Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers games from WTMJ/620 Milwaukee. They took the American FM news at :15 live...

 

[jh]

ABC/C was actually at :54:30 (to allow :30 of dead air between its end and the start
of ABC/I at :00. A 1:30 Contemporary News-In-Brief was later added, somewhere
around :50 or :51, IIRC. (Can anyone provide the exact feed time?)

The ABC/C "News in Brief" was fed at 50:30, 1:00 of news followed by the spots (usually 1:30 of spots)

If ABC/I features were at :25, then they had to share that slot with ABC/C features
during certain hours, such as Retro Rock and "Broach The Coach" (Cosell). Very early
on I recall an ABC/I feature running right after the :00 'cast.

The ABC/I features (including hourly sports on the weekend) were originally at :10, when the top of the hour casts were shortened most hours to five minutes, they moved to :06.

The ABC/C features were at :25. The ABC/E features, mostly sports, were at :45. At some point, the ABC/E weekend sports was fed at :36 and repeated at :45.

Long-form programming on the weekend curtailed some of the schedule. ABC/C newscasts ran only from 11:55-8:55 ET on Sunday, there were similar holes in the ABC/F schedule.

 

[bpatrick]

When ABC came up with the plan for four "networks" it
was still illegal for a company to own more than one network
(think back to NBC's forced divestiture of the Blue network in
the 1940s). The way ABC got around it was to give each of
its networks a quarter of the hour, meaning that no two networks
would be sharing land lines, which explains the scheduling of the
four ABC networks' newscasts.

 

[MattParker]

When ABC came up with the plan for four "networks" it
was still illegal for a company to own more than one network
(think back to NBC's forced divestiture of the Blue network in
the 1940s). The way ABC got around it was to give each of
its networks a quarter of the hour, meaning that no two networks
would be sharing land lines, which explains the scheduling of the
four ABC networks' newscasts.

They had to get a waiver from the FCC on the condition that only one network would be heard at any one time. They did not schedule the four networks on one line to get around "the chain broadcasting rule" - but because AT&T line charges for separate lines were prohibitively expensive.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

WCKO 102.7 Pompano Beach FL (now Majic 102.7) was R&B as well, and running ABC/C in 1974. The music *was* contemporary, just not in the T40 sense.

One of the Vane Jones books (of which Mr. Eduardo has put up online via another site) listed one AM station as belonging to the ABC American FM network, but that had to be an error in printing.

BTW....didn't the American FM network run their news at :15 past the hour? Odd.

cd

WCKO in it's Rock days as K-102 still carried ABC/C in 1979. We'd record it and play it back on cassette (ouch).

News at :15 past was nothing new. In the '60's top 40 powerhouse WKBW Buffalo ran news at :15 and :45.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Some stations ran either Information or Entertainment to get Paul Harvey News.

 

[jh]

Some stations ran either Information or Entertainment to get Paul Harvey News.

Paul Harvey was a separate contact and usually went to the I or E affiliate (and later, ABC Direction) as they were considered the "full-service" networks. But there were always exceptions, ABC/C's that had been ABC for years, had higher ratings, or the only ABC affil in a market often ran Paul Harvey. Howard Cosell was also sometimes picked up by non C-net affiliates if the C station didn't want HC or there wasn't a ABC/C affil in the market.

I know of one AM daytimer that was a rather latecomer, the station signed on in the late 70s... they ran ABC/C with Paul Harvey... but part of the deal was they had to carry the hourly ABC/I sports on the weekends.