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Could FM Bring back a Music Radio Station like the old WABC ?

Just looked at a few hours of playlists. This is my favorite trainwreck:

7:17 p.m. -- You Should Be Dancing, Bee Gees
7:21 p.m. -- Green River, CCR
7:24 p.m. -- Houston, Dean Martin

Was there a jingle or at least some kind of announcement between Green River and Houston?
 
Was there a jingle or at least some kind of announcement between Green River and Houston?

No way of telling from just looking at a playlist. The song after "Houston" was "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," but the playlist had the time on the Rod Stewart song as 7:31, so there most likely was a set of ads or some other spoken-word material between those songs.

What sort of announcement would work in this scenario? "That was CCR and 'Green River' on Super Hits Radio. Now, you can find some other station to listen to, because we're gonna play a song that always made you change the station way back when it was current and you were a teen -- Dean Martin with 'Houston.'"?
 
Imports like Heineken, Lowenbrau (which hasn't been an import for many years) and Becks haven't been generally thought of as "quality stuff" since the '80s or early '90s. I don't even see or hear ads from the latter two anymore. You've never tried any of the many imports introduced to the American market since then, or "serious" American beers like the Sam Adams brews? No craft brews either? I'm eight years younger than you and have enthusiastically moved on from the Molson Canadian and Michelob of my younger days.

My stepdad (RIP) preferred Yuengling Traditional Lager and got me hooked on it. At stepfamily gettogethers I'll indulge (responsibly) in my stepbrother's boutique brews (or Yuengling or Sam Adams).

ixnay
 
No way of telling from just looking at a playlist. The song after "Houston" was "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy," but the playlist had the time on the Rod Stewart song as 7:31, so there most likely was a set of ads or some other spoken-word material between those songs.

What sort of announcement would work in this scenario? "That was CCR and 'Green River' on Super Hits Radio. Now, you can find some other station to listen to, because we're gonna play a song that always made you change the station way back when it was current and you were a teen -- Dean Martin with 'Houston.'"?

Some of us only had one Top 40 station to listen to, so we would sit through something like, "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte". Compared to that, I had no problem with "Houston", which was at least up tempo.
 
Some of us only had one Top 40 station to listen to, so we would sit through something like, "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte". Compared to that, I had no problem with "Houston", which was at least up tempo.

You've got a point there. I wonder if that was the case in Peoria. Yes, listeners there could get WLS in the daytime, but that station was 100 miles away and not comparable in strength to whatever the local Top 40 there was.
 
You've got a point there. I wonder if that was the case in Peoria. Yes, listeners there could get WLS in the daytime, but that station was 100 miles away and not comparable in strength to whatever the local Top 40 there was.

WLS could very well have been #1 in Peoria in the 1960s! About the only noise in those days was from lightning strikes.
 
Having been to Peoria many times. There is almost no noticeable signal degradation from the WLS transmitter site to Peoria. Back then, teens would have put up whatever signal loss their might have been to hear the best.
 
There was a decent local at the time, but WLS still beat it. Kids wanted the bigger city sound.

Sounds purely anecdotal. Most listeners go for the strongest signal and the local DJs and advertisers. New York's WABC, 100 miles away, had stronger personalities and a tighter presentation than Hartford's WPOP and WDRC. The Hartford stations were what the teens (and older) listened to, for the most part.
 
Sounds purely anecdotal. Most listeners go for the strongest signal and the local DJs and advertisers.

I don't have data that includes WLS prior to 1975, but in that year Peoria listening was only 30% to FM. WIRL had an 18 share of teens to a 10 share for WLS. Overall, WIRL had a 16.6 share and WLS had a 5.7.

I saw some 1972 rankings, and in every book, WIRL beat WLS in Peoria by about two to one.

WIRL was a pretty good Top 40 earlier on, but its biggest problem was lack of night coverage of the full metro. On programming alone, it stood up to WLS quite well. The areas that WLS did well in were places like Ludington, MI or Coldwater, MI, where there was no good day and night Top 40. Places as small as Muskegon and Peoria and Rockford and Grand Rapids actually had very good Top 40 stations with lots of local promotions and recognizable DJs.

For grins, I looked at New Haven, CT in the early 70's. Local... and signal impaired... WAVZ-1300 generally beat the 50 kw NYC monster at 77 (insert chime here) by two to one. Your point is well proven.
 


I don't have data that includes WLS prior to 1975, but in that year Peoria listening was only 30% to FM. WIRL had an 18 share of teens to a 10 share for WLS. Overall, WIRL had a 16.6 share and WLS had a 5.7.

I saw some 1972 rankings, and in every book, WIRL beat WLS in Peoria by about two to one.

WIRL was a pretty good Top 40 earlier on, but its biggest problem was lack of night coverage of the full metro. On programming alone, it stood up to WLS quite well. The areas that WLS did well in were places like Ludington, MI or Coldwater, MI, where there was no good day and night Top 40. Places as small as Muskegon and Peoria and Rockford and Grand Rapids actually had very good Top 40 stations with lots of local promotions and recognizable DJs.

For grins, I looked at New Haven, CT in the early 70's. Local... and signal impaired... WAVZ-1300 generally beat the 50 kw NYC monster at 77 (insert chime here) by two to one. Your point is well proven.

I thought about New Haven right after I posted. I knew WAVZ was quite the Top 40 station in its day and am not surprised that it beat WABC.

During my years at Syracuse -- the mid-'70s -- the only Top 40 in town was the VERY signal-challenged WOLF 1490. It was a very aggressive-sounding, high-energy station typified by the PM drive jock and PD, Howie Castle, whose loud "DOUBLE-YOU--OH--ELL--EFF!" coming out of every song I can still hear in my head today. No other Top 40s put any kind of signal into the 'Cuse during the day, and the only FM playing the music was WKFM Fulton, using primitive automation of the sort WCGY ("The Rock Garden") was using in Boston at the time. At night, all manner of distant Top 40s would roll in -- from WKBW to CKLW to WCFL -- but I have a feeling little WOLF beat them all handily.
 


I don't have data that includes WLS prior to 1975, but in that year Peoria listening was only 30% to FM. WIRL had an 18 share of teens to a 10 share for WLS. Overall, WIRL had a 16.6 share and WLS had a 5.7.

I saw some 1972 rankings, and in every book, WIRL beat WLS in Peoria by about two to one.

WIRL was a pretty good Top 40 earlier on, but its biggest problem was lack of night coverage of the full metro. On programming alone, it stood up to WLS quite well.

Peoria had pretty good top 40 stations. WIRL was very successful in the 60s and 70s. But in the 50s, daytimer WPEO on 1020 was the dominant station. They had a 42-share in the September 1958 Hooper ratings. Harry Harrison was their morning man until 1959, when he left for WMCA in NYC.
 
Coldwater, MI would have had CKLW blasting like a local during the day if not day and night. I remember being a few miles south of there at Pokagan State Park in Angola, IN and every radio on the beach was blasting The Big 8.





I don't have data that includes WLS prior to 1975, but in that year Peoria listening was only 30% to FM. WIRL had an 18 share of teens to a 10 share for WLS. Overall, WIRL had a 16.6 share and WLS had a 5.7.

I saw some 1972 rankings, and in every book, WIRL beat WLS in Peoria by about two to one.

WIRL was a pretty good Top 40 earlier on, but its biggest problem was lack of night coverage of the full metro. On programming alone, it stood up to WLS quite well. The areas that WLS did well in were places like Ludington, MI or Coldwater, MI, where there was no good day and night Top 40. Places as small as Muskegon and Peoria and Rockford and Grand Rapids actually had very good Top 40 stations with lots of local promotions and recognizable DJs.

For grins, I looked at New Haven, CT in the early 70's. Local... and signal impaired... WAVZ-1300 generally beat the 50 kw NYC monster at 77 (insert chime here) by two to one. Your point is well proven.
 
Coldwater, MI would have had CKLW blasting like a local during the day if not day and night. I remember being a few miles south of there at Pokagan State Park in Angola, IN and every radio on the beach was blasting The Big 8.




Valid point daytime. Nights were just not as good for The Big 8, and WLS, of the two, probably had the better signal both day and night.

Another interesting case was Cleveland, where CKLW got big ratings simply because a piece of the metro had a poor WIXY day signal and no night signal. WIXY was, for many years, perhaps a better CHR (question of opinion) but it had a dreadful signal... as all but one of the Cleveland AMs do.
 


I don't have data that includes WLS prior to 1975, but in that year Peoria listening was only 30% to FM. WIRL had an 18 share of teens to a 10 share for WLS. Overall, WIRL had a 16.6 share and WLS had a 5.7.

I saw some 1972 rankings, and in every book, WIRL beat WLS in Peoria by about two to one.

Luckily I do have the data... ARB started measuring Peoria in 1968. The largest book for WLS-A was Apr/May 1971 - in that book, they had a 32.8 share in teens, while WIRL had a 55.2 share.
 
David, I grew up right in CKLW's night null toward Mexico (in Western Central Ohio). We had a huge signal during the day but not much at night, with PJB overtaking what was left. When WMEE in Fort Wayne signed on, a lot of folks switched to it, but we also lost their signal at sunset.
 
David, I grew up right in CKLW's night null toward Mexico (in Western Central Ohio). We had a huge signal during the day but not much at night, with PJB overtaking what was left. When WMEE in Fort Wayne signed on, a lot of folks switched to it, but we also lost their signal at sunset.

Good memory! I forgot that Bonaire with its 500,000 watts seriously cut into CKLW well into the upper Midwest on most nights.
 
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