Sure. It started in the late 70s as a way of differentiating the stations with more news, talk and sports than the more music-based AC's.Does anybody remember the format? If was more personality driven AC with some emphasis on news, traffic, weather, sports, and talk. I think 1190 KEX in Portland Oregon was the last major market Full Service/AC format in the nation. (August, 1999).
Where did that come from? Full Service AC evolved from MOR a lot earlier than the late 70s. There was the other type of AC, coming from the opposite direction, softening Top 40.
KMPC had Robert W. Morgan and Gary Owens, both of whom were so entertaining to listen to that we didn't really want to hear a lot of music. I have a lot of 1960s KMPC playlists. I picked one at random: In early April of 1966, the format was a mix of MOR and jazz. KMPC was playing (among others) Roger Williams, Johnny Mathis, Chet Baker, Lena Horne, Count Basie, Skitch Henderson, Ray Conniff, George Shearing, Tony Bennett, Harold Betters---Who?---Wes Montgomery, Billy Vaughn, Don Ho, Buddy Greco, Paul Horn, Arthur Prysock, Jack Jones, Jimmy Smith, Willie Bobo, Johnny Keating, Frank Sinatra, Henry Mancini, Nancy Wilson, and the Tijuana Brass. By the late 1970s, as Michael pointed out, KMPC had "switched the music." The format was soft rock and Wink Martindale had a top-20 countdown show on Friday afternoons. And KMPC was the first pop station to play The Gambler by Kenny Rogers. (A bad pun about KMPC eventually "folding" is being tastefully withheld.)
I see what you mean. They didn't need a hyphenated name until a more music based AC came on the scene.They didn't have a name for it until the late 70s. They all got lumped in under the adult contemporary banner.
And the MORs, in a lot of cases (certainly for KEX, KVI Seattle, KSFO San Francisco and KMPC Los Angeles---all owned by Gene Autry's Golden West Broadcasters) didn't evolve from MOR, they just switched the music and left everything else alone.
The AC pioneers structured their formats like Top 40s...commercial limits in the 12 to 14 minute per hour range as opposed to 18, one newscast an hour instead of two and the barest minimum, if not an outright elimination of features from the network.
As a result, the WGARs and KFMBs were playing 14 or 15 records an hour while the KMPCs were playing six.
I see what you mean. They didn't need a hyphenated name until a more music based AC came on the scene.