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

Huff said:
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.
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I suspect that where WLS won the biggest was in areas of the metro where the WIRL night signal was bad. Left with no choice, WLS won.

Dealing with multi-county metros was one of the things that pushed AM stations with bad or very directional signals over the cliff. Or "over the KLIF..."
 
CTListener said:
Not to mention that if the format was done in the way WABC did Top 40, the original poster might be disappointed. Such a station would have strong personalities and imaging (the best things about WABC back in the day), but the playlist would be tight, conservative and limited to chart-toppers that research shows people still want to listen to today. Nostalgia has dimmed a lot of bad memories about WABC -- including the songs it refused to add, or didn't add for weeks until they were already hits in "lesser" markets. It was not a particularly interesting station to listen to for music, more a follower than a leader.
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And by the mid 1970's, they were unlistenable
 
inorm99 said:
And by the mid 1970's, they were unlistenable
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Let's fact-check that one.

I went to the later mid-70's, Spring of 1976 to be specific.

WABC #1 with a 9.1 Metro share and a Total Survey Area cume of 4,880,900 persons.

(#2 was WOR, with an 8.1 share, and #3 was WRFM with a 5.0 share).

That's an interesting definition of "unlistenable".
 
David--do you think there would have been any circumstance where RKO would have flipped WOR (AM) to top 40? A Drake-Sklar head to head battle would have been epic no doubt. I've had one guy on Facebook claim to have been privy to the possibility of the AM flipping, even claiming to have heard Drake-voiced "The Big 71" liners. I've read a lot about Drake and WOR-FM, and I've never had anyone else tell me that flipping WOR's successful MOR format was even the slightest possibility.
 
gr8oldies said:
David--do you think there would have been any circumstance where RKO would have flipped WOR (AM) to top 40? A Drake-Sklar head to head battle would have been epic no doubt. I've had one guy on Facebook claim to have been privy to the possibility of the AM flipping, even claiming to have heard Drake-voiced "The Big 71" liners. I've read a lot about Drake and WOR-FM, and I've never had anyone else tell me that flipping WOR's successful MOR format was even the slightest possibility.
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Drake wanted WOR and WGMS as well; RKO corporate opposed the idea. Both stations were likely brought up by Drake every time they had a round of top ratings.
 
DavidEduardo said:
Drake wanted WOR and WGMS as well; RKO corporate opposed the idea. Both stations were likely brought up by Drake every time they had a round of top ratings.
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It would have been a tough go in NYC as long as WMCA was still viable. That ended in 1968 when Gary Stevens and Harry Harrison left.

The attempt by WNBC to go Top 40 showed how hard it could be, even with top talent.

Seems to me that Sklar got similar pushback from ABC over taking KABC Top 40.
 
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