That may be how it was thought out, but ABC had begun the conversion to satellite distribution using RCA Satcom in 1983.
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Drake Vs. Sklar
- Thread starter MasterDJ
- Start date
That may be how it was thought out, but ABC had begun the conversion to satellite distribution using RCA Satcom in 1983.
And remember, the Top 40 live format never got beyond being an ambitious thought. So we will never know what the real rotations, clocks, technical requirements, spot loads and the like would have ended up being.
They had the airstaff, produced demos & clocks to launch the syndication. It was all ready to go. Some of those materials are available online. Here's a link to one of the demos with Rick's introduction:
But yes, we don't know the rotations or spotloads. The first thing that hits me is the host keeps saying SuperRadio, instead of local call letters. By then it was possible to integrate local call letters with the format.
Yes, but as I said, it was still all a dream. Producing a demo is something any of us with access to a studio could have done back then. They may have had agreements with talent and the like, but nobody was permanently hired except a support staff for Sklar within ABC.
They never got to the point when the horses were in the starting stalls waiting for the gates to open. The critters were still in the stables waiting to be saddled.
Another Beautiful Music station that never used a syndicator was WGAY-FM in DC. They even had their own "orchestra," The WGAY Strings!
I had product from the same custom recording sessions, but called it the Orquesta Música en Flor. Same orchestras used by KalaMusic, too.
David, this is a fascinating read. Thank you for sharing this.
How could they miss the name The WGAY Blades??
At least some of the talent had contracts to appear on SuperRadio. Ingram and Lundy in particular. (I don't know about the others.) I've heard/read that Dan and Ron had to be paid for almost two years after the project was decapitated. Ron even worked off some of that time as a booth announcer for NYC Channel 7.
And that raises the question of how and why... and by whom... did the decision to cut and run come about. The more we discuss what was known outside of the ABC offices, the more it seems that there is a real story there.
Given the way ABC was managed, with radio, TV, stations, networks, even music in rather isolated silos per reports, I wonder if the project got to a higher level when expenses and projections looked rather significant and someone there said "unproven and likely not feasible".
The first question I would have had as an ABC exec is simple:
"We're burying WABC as a music station this year, after three years of ratings freefall. What makes us think the same basic approach to the format is going to be a hit nationwide?"
The thinking was that the format wasn't the problem. The problem was that it was on AM. The competition was FM. So the idea was to take a successful format and offer it to FM stations. Except FM stations already had other options. Especially ABC owned FM stations. It was too little too late. It might have worked in 1972, but not in 1982. Then three years later ABC bought Satellite Music Networks.
It was made at the very top. Goldenson himself. It was a major embarrassment that affected decision-making for years. One year later, Capital Cities bought ABC. David bought Goliath. It had been unthinkable that a station group could buy the great ABC. But they did.
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The thinking was wrong.
The only other Top 40s in the market at the time were WNBC (which beat WABC for its final four books) and WPIX-FM, which had about half of WABC's numbers.
WABC's five-book trend, 12+, Spring '81-Spring '82:
4.6-3.7-3.1-3.8-2.6
WNBC's trend (same parameters):
4.6-3.9-4.5-3.9-3.7
For that final book, WNBC was ranked 10th. WABC was 16th. 'ABC was getting beat by another AM.
Then WNBC was sold to Emmis and became WFAN. The final years of WNBC were not great either.
Yes, but that was SIX YEARS later.
My point stands. I’d still ask the same question if I were an ABC exec. We’re taking WABC out behind the barn to shoot it after three years of decline. Why would we base a national product on fundamentally the same sound?
But at that time, they were being hammered by WKTU, Z100, even WPLJ. The writing was on the wall. There was a lot going on musically (the death of disco, most notably). But the future for music on the radio was not on AM.
Once again, the format continued, just not on AM. We saw then the exact same thinking we see now. Stations said we can do the same thing locally without giving up inventory. This was a financial decision, not a programming one.
What you seem to be missing (possibly because you're not old enough to have been there and heard it live 42 years ago) is that there was a big difference between the WABC style of Top 40 and what became popular as CHR on FM with stations like 'KTU, Z100 and 'PLJ.
If ABC had been offering a fresh take on the format, or even a Xerox of what KIIS-FM was already doing and succeeding with in L.A., SuperRadio might have been more appealing to prospective clients (though I agree with you that for most stations, the financial case was weak).
But no, SuperRadio sounded like WABC---a station that was more interested in preserving the "WABC sound" (with roots in the early-mid 60s) than it was in a contemporary presentation.
Maybe. We really don't know beyond what we hear in the demo. Dan Ingram was the voice of the demo. But they had Larry Lujack from WLS and Dr. Don Rose from KFRC signed up as well. The concept was taking the best talent from Top 40 radio and offering them nationally.
Yeah, but there was a format. Lujack and Dr. Don would have been working within the framework of an overall sound---and that sound was essentially the WABC sound.
Once again, we don't know. It never launched. It was the Rick Sklar sound, whatever that was.
This was happening at a very traumatic time in radio. On the same page with the Superadio story, there's a story about changes at KHJ, which had flipped from Top 40 to country, and was now struggling in the country format. Top 40 radio as it had been done was changing. There was an audience for what it had been, but it was also evolving in a warmer presentation for FM. Not everyone saw that or accepted it.
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