-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
FM Radio-How did it rise?
- Thread starter dustintv
- Start date
dustintv said:
Lower prices on portable AM/FM radios and the decision by most manufacturers to start including the FM band in such radios. Also, the car manufacturers were beginning to include FM on factory installed units in the same way that Sirius and XM can be found on many car radios now. So the audience for FM was suddenly increasing by leaps and bounds and the especially so among the 18-30 demographic.
J
Julius Leonard Marx
Guest
In 1966 the FCC required stations in the top 50 markets to stop simulcasting their AM programming on FM. This led to new formats including progressive rock (alternative), album oriented rock and oldies. There was new programming on FM people wanted to listen to and so they wanted FM radios. Consumer demand pushed manufacturers to offer FM on most receivers (up to then, FM was an option or offered on a few high-end units). But programming is what drove interest in FM, not receivers.
The people pushing HD radio could take a lesson from this. FM sound is fine for most people. What's missing is attractive programming on the new HD2 and HD3 channels.
The people pushing HD radio could take a lesson from this. FM sound is fine for most people. What's missing is attractive programming on the new HD2 and HD3 channels.
dustintv said:
As Mr. Marx states, the 1867 drop dead date on separating simulcasts forced a lot of new programming to emerge on FM, just as Top 40 was fragmenting into pop, what would be AC (called Chicken Rock then) and harder rock. However, it took over 10 years for FM to achieve ratings parity with AM, so this was not an overnight happening.
Another factor which contributed was the continuation of urban sprawl, whereby most FMs covered the entire market while very very few AMs did the same... coverage, more than anything, doomed all but a few AMs in each market.
DavidEduardo said:
Yet another factor was the increasing non-hipness of AM. Times were changing, and AM's image (real or perceived) dj's that yelled & talked all over the music and too many commercials didn't help either. Some AMs experimented with "FM-style" programming, very few of which were successful. It seems that the people who liked that programming didn't want to hear it on AM.
"Yet another factor was the increasing non-hipness of AM. Times were changing, and AM's image (real or perceived) dj's that yelled & talked all over the music and too many commercials didn't help either. Some AMs experimented with "FM-style" programming, very few of which were successful. It seems that the people who liked that programming didn't want to hear it on AM."
That's right - and I think "free form" FM radio was a factor in the rise of FM. A big part of the huge baby boom generation (myself included) were finishing high school and going off to college in the late 60s and early 70s. In Los Angeles and San Francisco - elsewhere, too I'm sure - stations that had previously been running automated "elevator music" formats with very few listeners started to experiment with "free form" album rock a few hours a day. Young people took note and started listening in greater numbers. Before long, those stations had gone entirely over to rock formats, and the corporations that owned them noticed they were suddenly making revenues from FM.
And yes - there was the "hip" factor of rock on FM that AM didn't have, and for young college students, it fit in with their self image as revolutionaries: anti-establishment, anti-war, and anti-AM radio.
That's right - and I think "free form" FM radio was a factor in the rise of FM. A big part of the huge baby boom generation (myself included) were finishing high school and going off to college in the late 60s and early 70s. In Los Angeles and San Francisco - elsewhere, too I'm sure - stations that had previously been running automated "elevator music" formats with very few listeners started to experiment with "free form" album rock a few hours a day. Young people took note and started listening in greater numbers. Before long, those stations had gone entirely over to rock formats, and the corporations that owned them noticed they were suddenly making revenues from FM.
And yes - there was the "hip" factor of rock on FM that AM didn't have, and for young college students, it fit in with their self image as revolutionaries: anti-establishment, anti-war, and anti-AM radio.
I grew up in a rural area in northwest Tennessee. Where I lived, it took until about 1980 for FM to overcome AM. By about 1983, the FM takeover was complete. I have written a little more extensively on this subject here recently, and rather than repost it all here, I will let you click this link here and read my memories. The message that I'm referring to is the one that I posted on this particular page of the linked thread: (There are other messages by me within that thread that are irrelevant to the subject we're discussing here.)
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,83470.70.html
I should point out that the local AM in my town had always done well, and as far as I know, continues to do well. Part of it was that they never had much competition (at least within the county), and even once they did, they bought an FM and put it on the air as well. But as I said in the link above, their FM was much more commercial than the one that had predated it.
http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,83470.70.html
I should point out that the local AM in my town had always done well, and as far as I know, continues to do well. Part of it was that they never had much competition (at least within the county), and even once they did, they bought an FM and put it on the air as well. But as I said in the link above, their FM was much more commercial than the one that had predated it.
dustintv said:
At one time, both Howard Armstrong and Sarnoff were the best of friends. Unfortunately, Sarnoff basically crucified Major Armstrong as the sound of Armstrong's FM was quite superior to AM. In essence Sarnoff felt that static-free FM threatened the stability of the investment RCA made in amplitude modulation radio. The first thing Sarnoff said after being notified of Major Armstrong's death was "I didn't kill Armstrong". History will be the judge on that one. Thankfully, FM survived and flourished. As for the original RCA, it's just a memory of what Sarnoff's empire was. "Time is the ultimate equalizer", as they say!
"I grew up in a rural area in northwest Tennessee. Where I lived, it took until about 1980 for FM to overcome AM. By about 1983, the FM takeover was complete."
Rural Tennessee or not - 1980 sounds about right, Firepoint. In the San Francisco Bay Area, FM gained ground in the 70s, but Top 40 KFRC-AM still got high ratings throughout the 70s and into the early 80s, finally giving up their rock format around 83. Our hilly topography was the reason, especially for car radios. When I first moved up from LA in 73, I had an AM/FM car tuner. There was so much static and drop off on the FM stations as the car was moving, I often got frustrated and defaulted back to AM. By the 80s, both FM transmission and FM tuners had improved to the point that topography was no longer a problem.
So I would think that at least in hilly areas of America (rural or urban), there were technical problems for FM to overcome, as well. By the way, the top rated station in the Bay Area to this day is KGO-AM, a news-talk station. All news KCBS-AM is also in the Top 5.
Rural Tennessee or not - 1980 sounds about right, Firepoint. In the San Francisco Bay Area, FM gained ground in the 70s, but Top 40 KFRC-AM still got high ratings throughout the 70s and into the early 80s, finally giving up their rock format around 83. Our hilly topography was the reason, especially for car radios. When I first moved up from LA in 73, I had an AM/FM car tuner. There was so much static and drop off on the FM stations as the car was moving, I often got frustrated and defaulted back to AM. By the 80s, both FM transmission and FM tuners had improved to the point that topography was no longer a problem.
So I would think that at least in hilly areas of America (rural or urban), there were technical problems for FM to overcome, as well. By the way, the top rated station in the Bay Area to this day is KGO-AM, a news-talk station. All news KCBS-AM is also in the Top 5.
FM no static at all? ;D
Back in the late '70s, when I was a teenager, I had a clock radio with AM and FM on it. We lived at the corner of a subdivision street and a busy county road. I remember once when a heavy truck went down the county road, the truck's noise created identical static over the FM station I was listening to at the time, until the truck was far enough away that its noise was no longer a factor. Nothing like that ever happened to my AM signal, but obviously, bad weather often interfered with AM listening.
Back in the late '70s, when I was a teenager, I had a clock radio with AM and FM on it. We lived at the corner of a subdivision street and a busy county road. I remember once when a heavy truck went down the county road, the truck's noise created identical static over the FM station I was listening to at the time, until the truck was far enough away that its noise was no longer a factor. Nothing like that ever happened to my AM signal, but obviously, bad weather often interfered with AM listening.
"Nothing like that ever happened to my AM signal, but obviously, bad weather often interfered with AM listening."
Much of San Francisco's transit system is electric buses attached to overhead power lines that run down the middle of many streets. I don't know the science of it, but the buses create static on the AM band, but never FM.
Much of San Francisco's transit system is electric buses attached to overhead power lines that run down the middle of many streets. I don't know the science of it, but the buses create static on the AM band, but never FM.
C
chuckydoll
Guest
Julius Leonard Marx said:
Wrong, Julius! The FCC limited simulcasting in the top 50 markets to 50 percent of the AM station's total airtime. That limit was cut to 25 percent in the mid-70's. The Reagan-era FCC eliminated that rule in the 80's.
While music snobs drool over progressive rock, the most fondly remembered stations from that time are the pop-music giants: 77 WABC, 93/KHJ, "The Big 610" KFRC, WLS Musicradio 89, "The Big 8" CKLW.
As this thread is about the rise of FM the 70's had its FM pop pioneers as well -- Z93 in Atlanta, Y100 in South Florida, Q105 in Tampa Bay, KRBE in Houston.
chuckydoll said:
The first FM only CHR's were WMYQ Miami, KLSQ St Louis, WDRQ Detroit and WERC-FM in Birmingham, all in 1972.
Prior to that, there were some "virtually FM" Top 40's, such as daytime WPGC in DC that raised power and simulcast in 1970.
WHYI came several years after WMYQ (and under Buzzy and then Tanner, knocked it off). KRBE was the offshoot of Kirby-1070 in Houston, where the original turkey drop that was memorialized on WKRP occured.
"The first FM only CHR's were WMYQ Miami, KLSQ St Louis, WDRQ Detroit and WERC-FM in Birmingham, all in 1972."
In Los Angeles, the first FM only Top 40 was 102.7/KKDJ - the station that later became KIIS-FM. It premiered in April 1971.
In Los Angeles, the first FM only Top 40 was 102.7/KKDJ - the station that later became KIIS-FM. It premiered in April 1971.
DavidEduardo said:
WERC-FM 106.9 was originally WBRC-FM, and according to a couple of brief aircheck clips from 1971, they were doing top-40. This could be standalone, since at the time WBRC-AM was pretty much MOR.
However, WERC-FM was never an standalone CHR in Birmingham. The FM simulcast WERC-AM 960 (now top-40) for much of the day, then spun off at night with its own programming, mostly AOR-leaning stuff. B'ham didn't get its first bona fide FM CHR until August 1977, when WERC-FM was rebranded KICKS-106 (WKXX).
Three other FM-only top-40s predating 1972 (besides the obvious WOR-FM):
1) WMC-FM 99.7 ("FM-100") in Memphis, launching in 1967. Although it would later edge toward progressive rock, it started off as a hit music station.
2) KARK-FM 103.7 ("Ka-RoK") in Little Rock, also 1967. Didn't last long and by '69 flipped to D-C's "Hit Parade."
3) KNOE-FM 101.9 / Monroe, La., which gradually transitioned from MOR to Top-40 by 1971.
PS - The St. Louis station was KSLQ.
--Russell
KENR were the original calls on 1070 in Houston, launched January 17, 1968; it was country. KRBE-FM went on the air in November, 1959, as a full-time classical station (the Key to Radio Broadcast Excellence). It was sold in 1966 and probably went top 40 not long there after and was probably the first Top 40 on FM in Houston. I'm pretty sure it was top 40 by 1968 or 1969, not that anybody was listening. The PD was obsessive about tight board work and the talent was the not best or most experienced so songs were boxed up without the instrumental intro and the jock did his rap, then hit the cart -- hit the post almost every single time that way.DavidEduardo said:
There are some old posts on the Houston-Galveston board about the history and time-line of KENR but it took the KRBE calls from the FM, not the other way around, sometime in the 70s.
I think the first FM Top 40 station in Houston to make a mark in the ratings was KRLY-FM, 93.7 (Kerlie) which probably came on the air in the fall or winter of 1971/2 (flipping from KBNO-FM) and made the top 10 in the Spring Arbitron of 1972.
Oldbones said:
When Allen Shaw and his partner, whose name I have not been able to conjure up for days now, made their pitch to ABC for the FM group for Love FM their premises were that the increasingly hip radio listener would choose the greater fidelity of FM over AM and also would want the longer music cuts - album tracks as opposed to singles - and laid-back style that defined FM in that day. They foresaw that AM would hold on to younger listeners but that eventually the leading rock station in a market would likely be an FM album rock station. ABC liked to tell itself that it had written the book on Top 40 with WABC, WLS and KQV, and it wanted to write the book on FM Rock, too, so they went for it.
What happened, of course, is that some other broadcasters simply launched Top 40 stations on FM and lo and behold, Mikey and a lot of his friends liked it. Some of the ABC-FMs went Top 40 in a few years, notably KSFX-SF which had the WABC-MusicRadio format installed by late '73.
I think the importance of the hipness factor was fading as the desegregation and anti-war movements of the 60s wore out. It was more of a question of programming on FM aimed at a younger audience than had traditionally been the target of FM coming to the fore, whether it was actually hipper or not.
I thought at the time KRLY was a pretty bad sounding station compared to KILT-610, but it worked, it got listeners and survived. I think I've read somewhere on the Houston-Galveston board that it actually beat KILT eventually.
J
Julius Leonard Marx
Guest
chuckydoll said:
By the mid-late 70s, the audience had discovered FM. Many new cars had AM/FM radios as standard equipment. The percentage of households with FM radio had increased dramatically. FM had the majority share of audience. When Reagan rolled back simulcast percentages, few stations wanted to simulcast. The few examples of simulcasting that come to mind were FM simulcasting AM programming while the owner tried to sell the AM station or figure out what to do with it.
The simulcast rule worked. It forced broadcasters to adopt unique programming on FM and people started listening. Even though it applied in the to 50 markets, smaller markets followed suit when they saw it working in larger markets. One stations developed a format for FM, almost all stopped simulcasting completely. PLJ was not 50% ABC. CBS-FM was not 50% Newsradio 88. Stations generally went after a different target audience on FM; any simulcasting would make no sense.
The stations you mention were fondly remembered stations of the 60s; not the 70's.
Fact is broadcasters back then were too dumb to realize that two stations are better than one, have more listeners than one, can make more money than one. The FCC forced broadcasters to stop being stupid. When broadcasters try to remove regs, they usually end up doing something that drives away listeners and reduces the long-term viability of the business.
- Status