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Hit Songs That Should Never Be Played On Radio Today
- Thread starter TheFonz
- Start date
"Wives & Lovers" and you're absolutely right!
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Which raises a point that's very pertinent to this discussion. We've talked about specific songs that shouldn't be played any more because they aren't politically correct for one reason or another. What about refusing to play anything from an artist's catalog of work if that artist is no longer "politically correct"? It's not just Cat Stevens. Several artists, producers, or writers have committed terribly anti-social acts. Should Phil Spector's catalog be left off of the radio because he's a convicted murderer? Should Gary Glitter's songs be left off because he's a convicted sex offender?
If we're going to discuss hit songs that shouldn't be played on the radio today, how can we avoid discussing why?
The AM/FM combo in the town where I grew up did some of that back in the '80s.
One dj wouldn't play Laura Branigan because she supposedly played South Africa while apartheid was still in effect. (I heard him mention this more than once.)
The GM of the station supposedly wouldn't play Beastie Boys, because they supposedly went to an orphanage and made fun of the children there. (My sister (RIP), not me, heard him say that, but I was never able to verify whether or not such a visit ever took place.)
At least two djs at that station (including the one who would not play Branigan) also said that they would not play Cat Stevens because of his support for the death sentence against Salman Rushdie.
The AM station played oldies, and the FM was top 40, so that should give you some idea of who would have been played where, and when. Stevens was years removed from his last hit, so a ban from FM airplay would have had almost no effect. Likewise, the Beasties weren't getting any AM play. The AM was still sort of AC at the time, and had not gone full-fledged "oldies" yet, so there was still the possibility of playing Branigan there, as well. ('80s music now gets played on that AM station (whenever I listen online) so Branigan is probably (back) there now.)
You would never take a job at a station with an Urban format, right?
Good example why DJs shouldn't make music decisions.
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I've said this before, but it bears repeating. Refusing to play an artist's music because of their political or social views is just plain wrong. The enforcers of political correctness are probably one of the biggest blights on our national landscape.
If you read his EXACT reply it does NOT support killing another human.
But that wasn't a music decision, it was a political decision.
A musical decision would have been to decide not to play Laura Branigan because, in the DJ's opinion, all her stuff stunk on ice. Or didn't fit the format. Or both.
If there had been a universal "never let the DJ make any music decisions" attitude back in the '50s, the cultural landscape would have, I suspect, developed quite differently.
It was neither. It was a selfish decision.
Interesting thought. If DJs had universally made GOOD decisions instead of occasional selfish ones, things WOULD have been different, and I wouldn't have to sign payola agreements as required by the FCC.
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I suspect the real difference was that back in the 1950's, radio was still in the transition from programs to programming. When scripted programs and personality programs like Arthur Godfrey dominated, disc jockey programs were treated as discrete shows where the DJ had the same responsibility for picking music as a host like Godfrey had for picking guests. It wasn't until the 60's that radio completely adopted the principle that stations ran programming 24/7 and DJs were just the voices hired to work certain time segments.
Right from the 1952 start at KOWH, the real "Top 40" stations had a playlist that could not be modified by the DJs. Usually, the 45's were color coded with the color determining the rotation according to the station's own music chart.
It's true, though, that those stations were in the minority during most of the decade of the 50's. However, comparing on that standard the start of the 50's with the end of the decade is a fool's errand or snipe hunt and serves no useful purpose.
The outside influences crept in in places were music, as you state, was block programmed based on the daypart. When Alan Freed was in Cleveland, he had a show on a station that was otherwise a conservative old line facility. In his show, Freed was DJ, producer and PD. So he called the shots on the songs. But in that same market, when WERE went full-time Top 40 in the middle of the 50's, they used a predetermined playlist of about 45 songs plus pick hits; legendary jocks like Bill Randall and Specs Howard could not insert their own favorites.
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Freed also brought the sponsor, a local record store. So my understanding was his was more of a brokered arrangement than an actual paid employee.
I knew it was wives. Why did I say friends?
I like the song mainly because it sounds good.
Well there is a song called Friends & Lovers from the 80s... Maybe that's what you were thinking of?
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Yes, Freed "partnered" with Leo Mintz of Record Rendezvous, a big Cleveland outlet. Per the local Cleveland lore, Mintz convinced Freed to start playing rhythm and blues songs on Alan's WJW night show. They had the problem that "rhythm and blues", commonly called "race music" did not have a good image outside the Black community. Mintz and Freed were impressed by how white kids would "reel and rock" to the music which already had underground popularity. They came up with the term we know today, "Rock and Roll".
And the show was definitely intended to drive kids into the record store on Prospect just a few blocks east of the Terminal Tower. I was one of those kids who took the "rapid" downtown to look through the bins of 45's. Record Rendezvous was the only record store I knew where I could actually touch the 45's... at all others you had to ask for the record and didn't get to touch it till you paid for it.
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Of course, everyone with a lick of sense understands that the transition from "programs" to "programming" was a process and not an event. Like every similar process involving many, many participants, it starts with some "early adopters" making the change early in the process, and others following suit later. Pointing out one or two of the earliest stations to jump on the new bandwagon doesn't change the fact that many others didn't follow suit until much, much later.
You are forgetting the fact that there were music stations in many markets even before Top 40 was created.
Any station not part of a network was a music station. Some had block programming of different music styles, some let the talent pick the songs, some had music directors and music librarians and the talent followed playlists. The key to those independent music stations had been the quashing of the power of Perillo and the AFM, the main obstacle to full recorded music based stations.
By the time the TV freeze had lifted in 1953, many stations began anticipating the future and switched to mostly music. Many of the net affiliates became music outlets in many dayparts. And the discipline at those stations required prepared music lists.
The DJs who played their own songs were either in very small station or in smaller markets or the major talents like Martin Block and others who had shows due to their musical prowess and knowledge.
But Top 40 was, by definition, non-stop repetition of a predetermined playlist and the jocks did not, as you have asserted, pick the songs. When the clock called for an A, they played the next one, and then put it in the back of the A box... nothing more.
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