When it was current I heard it all the time, and plenty since then. It even found its way into a Super Bowl ad that was kind of controversial
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It's not just KRTH, and not just Los Angeles.
- Thread starter michael hagerty
- Start date
And this should be a real world example for our resident simian that format names are highly subjective, with industry sources often using different terms for the same station.
By then, Broadcasting only had a few pages for radio. The rest was TV and FCC. The smart thing Wilson did was hire actual radio pros as his editors, such as Joel Denver or Walt Baby Love. These people knew what radio people wanted to know. And they made sure to spotlight all of the individuals involved, because they knew people would subscribe to see their name in print. They were right. Denver still does it today.
Another factor that held "Taxi" back on the Billboard Hot 100 is that the airplay was spread over four months between markets. WMEX in Boston added it on February 10.
It didn't debut on CKLW in Detroit until March 27.
It was April 19th before it had adds in California outside the tiny towns of Arcata and Chico. That was a week after it peaked at #1 at WRKO.
KHJ, Los Angeles added it May 2. KCBQ, San Diego waited until May 12.
If they could have gotten all those stations on it at the same time, "Taxi" almost certainly would have peaked in the Top 20 in Billboard. But with scattered airplay, its best week was #24.
KMPC stopped publishing a singles chart when Russ Barnett took over as PD in 1963. And they did play more than just the hit singles from albums. Remember that in those days, labels would lead with a single, and then rush an album if it was a hit. By the time the album got to stores, that first single was dead, and they prayed for another cut to break.
KMPC was very good at identifying cuts from albums whether there was any push for it to be a single or not, based on the sound of the record. It wasn't until late '72/early '73 that KMPC became singles-focused again.
And spelled correctly (forgive me, Claude Hall, wherever you are).
It's hard to herd cats. Even today. I was talking to a label person about that the other day. It's hard to get focused airplay. That's a nice goal, and labels will try to set focus dates to get everyone to add on the same day. That happens with some songs, and not others. That's why we get threads here about songs that don't move as fast as others. Yes we know. That's because we don't all add songs at the same time. Sometimes we may all add a song, and then all give up on it in the 20s. That really pisses the labels off.
Do you remember when Broadcasting, searching for identity in radio, actually started publishing a Top 40 chart?
There was a cadence they used most of the time when I programmed in the 70s----unrated markets that were known for breaking records week one (Bishop, Palmdale/Lancaster, Ukiah, San Luis Obispo, Palm Springs, Monterey, Modesto), tertiary rated markets week two (San Bernardino, Bakersfield, Fresno, Stockton, Sacramento), secondary markets week three (San Diego, San Jose), and primary markets in week four (L.A., San Francisco).
If someone jumped on early, great, but ideally you get all your adds in four weeks, five tops.
"Taxi" just didn't break that way---the first add was Boston. Then Arcata, California. Then Detroit. Then Boise, Idaho.
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Nope, but I imagine it's on your site. I just remember it was more focused on transactions. The business of radio, not programming.
My take was they were aiming at GMs, SMs, and owners.
Yeah, and they were also working Bread, Carly Simon, The New Seekers, Mickey Newbury (they tried), Judy Collins and (dear Lord) Sailcat that year to Top 40 too. Not bad for what was then still kind of a boutique label.
Yeah Bread & Carly made up for all the other ones. Carly was the meal ticket they hoped Harry was going to be.
Jac Holzman liked those singer songwriters. In his heart. he was still a folkie.
They did get The New Seekers to #1 and charted Mickey (with a top 30 album) for the only time in his career.
It was later in ‘72 that Jac, who’d merged with Warners in ‘70, stepped down from involvement with Elektra, which then was paired with Asylum and run by David Geffen, whose singer/songwriters (Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell) did sell.
Hey, I like that Sailcat record:
"And we'll see the world from my Harley (if the chain don't break).
Hillarious.
And AC stations would probably be 2000s or 2010s hits through today instead of 80s through today with a lot of the 2010s hits from Top 40 that aren’t rap being added as well as more 2020s hits being added probably some of them from the Top 40 stations today. And only the ones that test well too. So maybe certain songs that used to be on the radio will come back in the next 20 years… or less. Hot AC would be 2010s or 2020s through today. Slogans for classic hits would probably be “The 2000s and more.” or “The 2000s, 2010s and more”. 90s would probably all be moved to AM same with 80s titles. Basically all of iHeart80s weekends would change to iHeart2000s weekends/Best of the 2000s weekends throughout AC and Classic Hits stations (unless it is 2010s weekends if the core music of the Classic Hits format is 2010s hits).
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Evolution of the format will probably be 90s to Now AC stations ten years from now majority 90s and some 2000s and early 2010s hits Classic Hits. Then it would probably move to the 2000s ten years after that and 80s hits deteriating from the FM dial throughout the 2030s and 90s also deteriorating ober the decade as well in addition to the early 2040s. Hot AC will probably drop 90s in the 2030s and then later drop 2000s in the 2040s.
What about The Doors? I realize they were primarily late 60s (and this thread seems to be primarily 70's to 2000s), but they were signed to Elektra, and they got pretty big.
c
Bet Boise was first to add Chapin's "WOLD"!
How many times do we have to say this?
Music---especially Gold----in ANY format---isn't a factor of arbitrary dates. It's whatever your target audience wants to hear at the time.
Period.
If you go back to BigA's original post on Harry Chapin, he says Elektra's promo guys were under a lot of pressure in 1972 to make Harry a big star since Jim Morrison died in 1971. The hits died along with Jim, with "Riders on the Storm" and the "L.A. Woman" album the last successful records.
No way of knowing---only a smattering of charts from Boise stations (and none from "WOLD"'s chart run) on Arsa-Las Solanas, which shows the first station on it was WDRC in Hartford, Conn.
"WOLD" did worse than "Taxi"---peaking at #36 on the Hot 100.
Another case of scattered airplay, with the earliest stations on it the last week of December, 1973, and some stations still playing it in May. KHJ in Los Angeles didn't add it until late March.
Gotta remember that chart numbers aren't cumulative (a surprising number of people forget this). A record doesn't pile on sales as it climbs the chart---it's a snapshot of that one week in time in relation to all the other records. So "WOLD" did worse than 35 other records on its best week on the chart.
If you could have gotten all those stations on the record within four to six weeks and had the sales from the earliest markets tallied in the same weeks as the sales from the later markets, the chart peak would have been higher.
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