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FM100 - 40 years ago

A

AlbumOldies

I have thoroughly enjoyed Tynosaur's write-ups on the past times of WREC. What a thrill it must have been for AT and others in the 50's, 60's and 70's to have been in the radio business. My dad was a big WREC fan, and I remember being a youngster riding around in the car with him as he listened to Fred and John on "The Zero Hour." Never knew the name of the theme song for that show until Allan told us what it was. Same for Rob Grayson's stories of his experiences on the various stations he's worked for. Great stuff! My own personal favorite Rob Grayson era is the one at Rock 103, when he was Rob "I live for the weekend" Grayson - Rock and Roll control of the 80's.

But, some of my fondest memories in Memphis radio are the days of FM100 between 1967 and 1974. If I remember correctly, it was 1967 (I was 11 years old) when Greg Hamilton, Ron Michaels, Mike Powell, David Day, and Jon Scott really started things rolling for WMC FM - 40 years ago! Thanks so much for the memories guys! And thanks for all the great songs from the Animals to ZZ Top, and dang near everything in between.

Anyone here with anything to add from the early days of this powerhouse station?

SHF
 
Not another nostalgic thread about great radio back in the day. How about who are the really good AT's right now in Memphis.

Wait a minute, there are none.

Back to the I-Pod and XM. Radio listeners wanted their favorite music back then and now they have many more choices. We can program own own favorites without having to wait for some long winded AT and some program director's Selector playlist to get around to playing it for us.

Music Radio is D_E_A_D! Satellite, IPOD, internet, cell phones, all replacements for some outdated technology that people still lament about.

Radio is good for information services, weather updates, traffic reports, obits, etc.

Talking about radio 40 years ago is like talking about the Nash Rambler. I guess it was a great car, but so is the new Toyota hybrid.

Move forward, the rest of the world is doing it.
 
Tenn Radio Boy said:
Not another nostalgic thread about great radio back in the day. How about who are the really good AT's right now in Memphis.

Wait a minute, there are none.

Back to the I-Pod and XM. Radio listeners wanted their favorite music back then and now they have many more choices. We can program own own favorites without having to wait for some long winded AT and some program director's Selector playlist to get around to playing it for us.

Music Radio is D_E_A_D! Satellite, IPOD, internet, cell phones, all replacements for some outdated technology that people still lament about.

Radio is good for information services, weather updates, traffic reports, obits, etc.

Talking about radio 40 years ago is like talking about the Nash Rambler. I guess it was a great car, but so is the new Toyota hybrid.

Move forward, the rest of the world is doing it.
Click to expand...


I totally agree that terrestial radio, as a place we go for music is in the beginning stages of becoming irrelevant. I think terrestial radio will be good for news, talk, weather, and maybe 30 minute game shows.

That being said, it's still pleasurable to wax nostalgic about the "good ole days". FM100 was the station that reflected the counter-culture. As one major ad agency head called it....."the hippie station" FM100 was good radio....and when a jock would put on the full 17 minute version of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida", then head to the boiler room in order to reach the "next plateau".............you had some great and amazing radio.
 
You are right-going up on the roof (no more that 5 minutes) or 2 minutes in the boiler room always had a positive affect on the rest of the show....i have some Ron Michaels airchecks, but lost a lot of mine in a flood when we moved to California..ahh...the good ole days..can't believe it's been 40 years...and we made it!
 
Oh, I agree we have to move forward, but hearing these stories of the past from the professional radio guys is a lot like hearing the stories of railroad engineers I worked with when I first started on the railroad - guys who are now long gone who started out working with steam locomotives, etc. If you've never heard it before then it's new and relevant. If we don't get this stuff saved, in print or otherwise, then it's gone forever. There's plenty of room on this forum for past and present.

Just like with the number of railroad mergers that have resulted in mega-systems, radio stations have fallen to the corporate merger mania also. I do not believe terrestrial radio is a goner - it just needs to be brought back to earth. The early days of FM100, to me at least, reflect the free form of radio that seemed to be pretty successful back then - why not now?

It does seem a shame that for the 40th birthday of FM100 that WMC has not done something to recognize the milestone (yes I know the station itself is a lot older than 40, but 1967 was the start of the "modern FM100" for lack of a better term). Those of you in radio must know that a lot of us grew up in the 60's and 70's with transistor radios strapped to our bicycles. Back then seeing a DJ out on a remote or announcing a concert was a big thing. It was a mystical thing to us kids, and I suspect it was the same for a lot of you who got the opportunity to become a part of radio history.

Yes, we can't live in the past forever, but is sure is good to take a trip back there sometimes isn't it?

Jon Scott, who I see has posted here (thanks Jon!), is certainly a major figure in Memphis radio history.

Jon, which one of you played the Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner that created all the controversy? I certainly think that was a big day in Memphis radio history - a lot of Radio-Info members may not remember that. I was pretty young then but I recall the big flap about it.

SHF
 
AlbumOldies said:
Oh, I agree we have to move forward, but hearing these stories of the past from the professional radio guys is a lot like hearing the stories of railroad engineers I worked with when I first started on the railroad - guys who are now long gone who started out working with steam locomotives, etc. If you've never heard it before then it's new and relevant. If we don't get this stuff saved, in print or otherwise, then it's gone forever. There's plenty of room on this forum for past and present.

Just like with the number of railroad mergers that have resulted in mega-systems, radio stations have fallen to the corporate merger mania also. I do not believe terrestrial radio is a goner - it just needs to be brought back to earth. The early days of FM100, to me at least, reflect the free form of radio that seemed to be pretty successful back then - why not now?

It does seem a shame that for the 40th birthday of FM100 that WMC has not done something to recognize the milestone (yes I know the station itself is a lot older than 40, but 1967 was the start of the "modern FM100" for lack of a better term). Those of you in radio must know that a lot of us grew up in the 60's and 70's with transistor radios strapped to our bicycles. Back then seeing a DJ out on a remote or announcing a concert was a big thing. It was a mystical thing to us kids, and I suspect it was the same for a lot of you who got the opportunity to become a part of radio history.

Yes, we can't live in the past forever, but is sure is good to take a trip back there sometimes isn't it?

Jon Scott, who I see has posted here (thanks Jon!), is certainly a major figure in Memphis radio history.

Jon, which one of you played the Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner that created all the controversy? I certainly think that was a big day in Memphis radio history - a lot of Radio-Info members may not remember that. I was pretty young then but I recall the big flap about it.

SHF
Click to expand...


AO......I don't think terrestial radio is dead in general......just that as a place we go for MUSIC, I believe it's dying. Go ask a bunch of young people how they get their music, how they experience their music, how they find NEW music, and I'm willing to bet that most will not say terrestial [ or as they put it, regular radio ]. MySpace, youtube, satellite radio, internet radio. Thanks to the internet, the world has truly become flat in many areas. This is one of those areas in my opinion. There is so much music available via the net and that is the norm for young people. You have to search for it sometimes, but the young people don't mind searching. The revolution will not be televised. It will be on the net.

I do agree we must continue to stress the history of all this. If we don't, it will be forgotten and in my opinion, that would be a shame.
 
I was attributing the lack of "first hand" early FM100 stories to the old adage "if you can remember (the 60's), you weren't there".
Along the album rock thread... I was flipping across TV the other night and caught Ed Echols doing weather and wondered if anyone rememberd his as "Ed the Night Ranger" on Rock 103 back in the 'Beard and John Rivers era?
 
robgrayson said:
I was attributing the lack of "first hand" early FM100 stories to the old adage "if you can remember (the 60's), you weren't there".
Along the album rock thread... I was flipping across TV the other night and caught Ed Echols doing weather and wondered if anyone rememberd his as "Ed the Night Ranger" on Rock 103 back in the 'Beard and John Rivers era?
Click to expand...

For those of us that participated, I think it's more a case of remembering a lot [ at least our own personal versions/reccolections ], but also a lot of blank spaces mixed in.......lol
 
Jon played the Star Spangled Banner...in the middle of the afternoon I think.

Jon also introduced me to the roof...boiler room...and Tonto's Expanding Head Band!

I will check this board for the next couple of days. If you guys really want to hear some war stories, we'll tell 'em. Well...some of them.

greg hamilton
 
For those of us who are interested in the history of Memphis radio (there must be one or two of us) especially if we weren't alive yet, these converstations are priceless, and much more relevant than if some programmer is a genius or not. Please, keep remebering!
 
It does seem a shame that for the 40th birthday of FM100 that WMC has not done something to recognize the milestone (yes I know the station itself is a lot older than 40, but 1967 was the start of the "modern FM100" for lack of a better term). Those of you in radio must know that a lot of us grew up in the 60's and 70's with transistor radios strapped to our bicycles. Back then seeing a DJ out on a remote or announcing a concert was a big thing. It was a mystical thing to us kids, and I suspect it was the same for a lot of you who got the opportunity to become a part of radio history.

Yes, we can't live in the past forever, but is sure is good to take a trip back there sometimes isn't it?

Jon Scott, who I see has posted here (thanks Jon!), is certainly a major figure in Memphis radio history.

Jon, which one of you played the Hendrix version of the Star Spangled Banner that created all the controversy? I certainly think that was a big day in Memphis radio history - a lot of Radio-Info members may not remember that. I was pretty young then but I recall the big flap about it.

SHF
[/quote]

Yes it was me that played The Star Spangled Hendrix version. The engineer at the tower thought we were signing off and he called GM Dean Osmundson, who completely freaked out. They made us pull every album out of the control room and only play The Billboard Top 40. So, after playing the Monkees about 10 times in a row, the protests started. Needless to say the Top 40 thing did not last long and we were back to playing The Groundhogs, Pinl Floyd, etc. Good memories as we spread the word with 400,000 watts of stero power.
 
Well Jon and Greg, I think the crowd has the lighters lit and is calling for an encore! Two 1967 DJ's from a powerhouse FM rock station in Memphis ought to have a lot of stories............

Jon, some time ago I googled FM100 on the internet and found a story about you and some DJ from WHBQ getting together on the phone and playing the same songs at the same time and as listeners called in about it you guys played it cool and convinced them it had to be a coincidence. I can't find that story any longer but I thought that was pretty wild! There was also a story someplace about Mike Powell getting some kind of program director's award (I think), but I can't find it right off hand either.

SHF
 
I meant no disrepect of memories of FM 100 back in the day. There were some really great air talents back then. Most of them sadly have moved on to other professions.

The point I was trying to make is that radio has lost the battle for the young listeners.
And they are not coming back. Radio is not cool to them.

YouTube, XM, Sirius, Ipod, Internet stations have replaced radio as their music source and they have no need for it. HD radio is certainly not the silver bullet either.

We have no one to blame but ourselves for losing the battle. But then, we cannot stop the march of time or technology, so probably there is no one to blame.

I had a closet full of 8 tracks, but did not think about it for a minute when I coverted to cassette, minidisk, cd, etc. and dumped them in the local flea market. I kept one or two to show my teenage daughters what we listened to back then. They only shrug and go back to their Ipods.

Time marches on for all of us.
 
Sorry, TRB, but 8-track, cass, cd, dat, video didn't kill the radio star, and the ipod ain't gonna either! The number one requested accessory for an ipod is: a radio!

As we talk about Dees, Scott, Rivers, etc., back in the day...who will we be talking about 20 years from now? hmmm, wake up crew when they were back in the day, Tom P, D&Z, Rob, the list goes on...c'mon, I'll bet in another 20 years we'll be sharing more "history"! ;D
 
PLEEEEEEZZZZEEEEE......more war stories and some air checks from the early days of FM 100. I just found out that the FM 100 Greg Hamilton is the same Greg Hamilton that was Sales Manager for Clear Channel's Union Ave. stations for a while. I knew Greg during that time and never put the two together.
 
radio_lurker said:
Sorry, TRB, but 8-track, cass, cd, dat, video didn't kill the radio star, and the ipod ain't gonna either! The number one requested accessory for an ipod is: a radio!

As we talk about Dees, Scott, Rivers, etc., back in the day...who will we be talking about 20 years from now? hmmm, wake up crew when they were back in the day, Tom P, D&Z, Rob, the list goes on...c'mon, I'll bet in another 20 years we'll be sharing more "history"! ;D
Click to expand...

Lurker......let's regroup on this topic in 5 years and we'll see who is right.

I hope I'm wrong , I really do.......and radio as a place we go for MUSIC will be like it's always been. But I don't see it. Most young people I talk to, and I question them on this subject every chance I get, are turning away from terrestial radio as the place they go for MUSIC. When I say young, I'm talking about 14 to 35 year olds.
 
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