Hello everyone,
I recently found about this site from Steve West and have nearly gone blind reading up on the Memphis and east Tennessee boards. I feel most fortunate to have grown up in Memphis and gotten the chance to listen to so many great radio stations in the 60's 70's and 80's. I used to love WHBQ-AM 56, WMPS-AM 68, and WMC FM100 in the late 60's and early 70's. I was really disappointed when FM100 dropped the album rock format in '75 and went with the "Easy Rockin' Stereo" programming. In fact I am still mad about that! To this day I have never heard another AOR station that is as good as FM100 was then. Although I have found Rock 103 versions 1 and 2 (before and after Z103 era) to be good, there was just something about FM100's choice of album cuts that made them different. They used to play everything from the Allman Brothers to ZZ Top, and everything in between. With FM100 you could get Joni Mitchell, Moody Blues, Frampton's Camel, Carole King, Jeff Beck, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Elton John, Henry Gross, David Werner, Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Savoy Brown, Wishbone Ash, Traffic, Santana, Uriah Heep, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Billy Joel, Todd Rundgren - the list goes on and on. The personalities were also great. Greg Hamilton in the morning playing those great country rock songs by Pure Prairie League and others, Mike Powell mid-days, Ron Michaels afternoons, Greg Siggers evenings (I recall him playing "Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder" by Quicksilver one evening and went straight to the record store and bought the album), and Leon Griffin and Henry Nelson nights. Also Sheila Hall weekends. Why can't the classic rock stations today play the sort of music FM100 used to play? Our so called classic rock station in Knoxville is little more than a steady diet of Aerosmith, Bad Company, ACDC, Lynryd Skynyrd and a handful of other super groups. Visits to other cities usually are the same thing - same old songs, same groups over and over. Rock 103 in Memphis is still fairly good about playing some of the older stuff, but all in all I don't think Rock 103 is as good as it was in the early 80's (although I was pleasantly surprised to hear Rock 103 playing "Tell Mama" by Savoy Brown on my last visit to Memphis). Anyway, I just wanted to reminisce about FM100 in the AOR days - hope some of you will relate your FM100 listening experinces. Anyone know the whereabouts of the DJ's I mentioned above? Also, it would be nice if any playlists from the AOR days were still in existence.
The record industry complains that album sales are low, usually blaming internet downloading. I maintain that if radio stations, particularly rock stations, would expand their playlists, album sales would pick up. I have yet to hear anything from the newest Sheryl Crow or Rolling Stones albums on the radio here in Knoxville. One rock radio station here in Knoxville did play John Mayer for a while, but only "Your Body Is A Wonderland" and "Daughters." It was only after I borrowed two of John Mayer's CD's from a friend that I discovered what great music he was putting out. There were several songs on the two CD's that I thought were worthy of airtime that never got it. I can't help but believe that if this had been 1972 that Mike Powell would have had these "lost" cuts playing on the radio.
Steve Forrest
Knoxville, TN
(Where you'll never hear "Legend of A Mind" by the Moody Blues on the radio)
I recently found about this site from Steve West and have nearly gone blind reading up on the Memphis and east Tennessee boards. I feel most fortunate to have grown up in Memphis and gotten the chance to listen to so many great radio stations in the 60's 70's and 80's. I used to love WHBQ-AM 56, WMPS-AM 68, and WMC FM100 in the late 60's and early 70's. I was really disappointed when FM100 dropped the album rock format in '75 and went with the "Easy Rockin' Stereo" programming. In fact I am still mad about that! To this day I have never heard another AOR station that is as good as FM100 was then. Although I have found Rock 103 versions 1 and 2 (before and after Z103 era) to be good, there was just something about FM100's choice of album cuts that made them different. They used to play everything from the Allman Brothers to ZZ Top, and everything in between. With FM100 you could get Joni Mitchell, Moody Blues, Frampton's Camel, Carole King, Jeff Beck, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Elton John, Henry Gross, David Werner, Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Savoy Brown, Wishbone Ash, Traffic, Santana, Uriah Heep, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Billy Joel, Todd Rundgren - the list goes on and on. The personalities were also great. Greg Hamilton in the morning playing those great country rock songs by Pure Prairie League and others, Mike Powell mid-days, Ron Michaels afternoons, Greg Siggers evenings (I recall him playing "Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder" by Quicksilver one evening and went straight to the record store and bought the album), and Leon Griffin and Henry Nelson nights. Also Sheila Hall weekends. Why can't the classic rock stations today play the sort of music FM100 used to play? Our so called classic rock station in Knoxville is little more than a steady diet of Aerosmith, Bad Company, ACDC, Lynryd Skynyrd and a handful of other super groups. Visits to other cities usually are the same thing - same old songs, same groups over and over. Rock 103 in Memphis is still fairly good about playing some of the older stuff, but all in all I don't think Rock 103 is as good as it was in the early 80's (although I was pleasantly surprised to hear Rock 103 playing "Tell Mama" by Savoy Brown on my last visit to Memphis). Anyway, I just wanted to reminisce about FM100 in the AOR days - hope some of you will relate your FM100 listening experinces. Anyone know the whereabouts of the DJ's I mentioned above? Also, it would be nice if any playlists from the AOR days were still in existence.
The record industry complains that album sales are low, usually blaming internet downloading. I maintain that if radio stations, particularly rock stations, would expand their playlists, album sales would pick up. I have yet to hear anything from the newest Sheryl Crow or Rolling Stones albums on the radio here in Knoxville. One rock radio station here in Knoxville did play John Mayer for a while, but only "Your Body Is A Wonderland" and "Daughters." It was only after I borrowed two of John Mayer's CD's from a friend that I discovered what great music he was putting out. There were several songs on the two CD's that I thought were worthy of airtime that never got it. I can't help but believe that if this had been 1972 that Mike Powell would have had these "lost" cuts playing on the radio.
Steve Forrest
Knoxville, TN
(Where you'll never hear "Legend of A Mind" by the Moody Blues on the radio)