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June 12, 1982 the day Rock radio started to die. Kinda

P

pokercho

I was searching google books and found old issues of Billboard magazine. I've been and a recent rant about how bad radio is lately, specifically WQMF and the classic rock format.
If you go to the front page of the June 12, 1982 issue of Billboard magazine, you will find an article titled, " Format Consultants: AOR Boon or Bane?"
This article forshadows what will (unfortunately) happen to the AOR format. At the time AOR was big in many markets, but they got gready. I get a sick feeling reading the article. It makes me want to travel back in time and hit these consultants and Lee Abrams, the creator of Classic Rock.
The entire article is very interesting but I found the following amazing:
1. The resignation to play "black Music" (somethings never change)
2. some stations claim to attract 12-50 years olds!! Try selling that to Clear Channnel!!
3. The term Classic Rock isn't used yet. It's superstars or oldies or superstars 2.
If you find the article interesting, then check out the rock chart. Can you immagine any station today playing 1/3 of these songs? Human Leage next to .38 special next to Flock of Seagulls next to Quarterflash
Most programmers today can't fathom that this could have ever happened. The good old days indeed.
 
If you find the article interesting, then check out the rock chart. Can you imagine any station today playing 1/3 of these songs? Human Leage next to .38 special next to Flock of Seagulls next to Quarterflash
Most programmers today can't fathom that this could have ever happened.

I remember those days, In Knoxville WIMZ tried that and called themselves the Rock of the 80's.
I even remember hearing Micheal Jackson be played.It didn't last too long.
 
pokercho said:
2. some stations claim to attract 12-50 years olds!! Try selling that to Clear Channnel!!
Most programmers today can't fathom that this could have ever happened. The good old days indeed.
Click to expand...

88.1 WNAS is the answer when it comes to 12-50. Or WFPK.
 
It was a reaction to MTV and it proved to be a disaster (which is why it only lasted a year).

In Milwaukee the Burkhart/Abrams Superstars client was WLPX. They were the top rated rock station. When they started playing the pop and new wave on Abram's list their competitor WQFM only played hard rock and metal. They not only became the top rock station, they actually forced WLPX out of the format! That's what a disaster "rock of the 80s" or whatever B/A called it at the time. Rock stations in other markets could have taken advantage of this too, but many markets only had a B/A consulted rock station with no competitor.

I'm in las Vegas and this market bucked the national trend. The B/A station KOMP had their best book ever in the Spring of 1983, IIRC a 13.4 share. My guess is that since this market is so close to L.A the synth pop-alternative they played went over especially well here. But you better believe by that Summer when B/A told their clients to go back to mainstream rock KOMP obeyed their marching orders.
 
Was the "Rock of the 80s" format also used by KROQ? I ask because a couple of T.V. ads available on Youtube show them with the slogan "ROQ of the 80's" (sic).
 
N1WVQ said:
Was the "Rock of the 80s" format also used by KROQ? I ask because a couple of T.V. ads available on Youtube show them with the slogan "ROQ of the 80's" (sic).
Click to expand...

KROQ did call themselves "Rock Of The 80s" but they were not a B-A "Superstars" client. They were independent. They were playing new wave (and a much more wacky variety of it) well before and after the B-A experiment. Personally I loved KROQ from that era.
 
It was really just the stillborn rebirth of CHR radio.

Many Top 40 stations vanished after the disco bust. Becoming rock or adult contemporary. Some of the AC stations were "hotter" than others ("Physical" Olivia Newton-John. Even "We Don't Talk Anymore" Cliff Richard wasn't considered exactly considered the "light" stuff you'd associate with it today back then. Even MTV played it.) AC pop had BECOME CHR in 1980-81. And bands like Foreigner, .38 Special, Journey, Loverboy and The Cars dominated the AOR rock stations charts in 1981.

Come the rise of "Rock of The '80s" new wave format in 1982. It was the Second British Invasion and like alternative 10 years later, it dramatically affected rock radio. But on the shirttails of this particular Invasion, British heavy metal like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest were the antidote to this Flock of Haircuts stuff.

Even KISW in Seattle played Missing Persons and Duran Duran for a brief while in late '82 to early '83. Trust me, it didn't last either.

But the new wave sound itself started morphing into full blown CHR once Michael Jackson and Madonna took off. That was probably when B/A saw the writing on the wall.

Many AOR rock stations dodged a bullet, others didn't.
 
Lee Abrams did not, under any circumstances, "invent" classic rock. It was Fred Jacobs.

On the other hand, even with Fred, the statement is very similar to "Al Gore invented the internet" ::)
 
You are correct "Stereo", thanks for correcting my mistake. You are also dead on with the Al Gore annalogy. Like someone claiming to have invented ice.
But I like to have my facts straight when blaming someone for killing any creativity in radio. Fred Jacobs is the devil, Lee Abrams and all the other "expert" consultants are his sidekicks.
 
Maybe Fred Jacobs coined the term earlier but I recall classic rock taking off shortly after Coke's failed (to say the least) new coke launch and introduction of classic coke circa 1985. By early 1986 there were several classic rock and classic hits stations. Those stations did very well I might add as the music was well rested at that point.

While I don't believe he used the term "classic rock" I read a 1976 Billboard article where Jeff Pollack (I'm not sure if he was a consultant yet) noticed there was a big split between fans of late 60s/early 70s rock and the current rock of the time He was predicting there might need to be two different rock formats.
 
Bongwater brings up a good point on market conditions around that time as the reason why that music wondered into an AOR playlist. Just look at Lexington and Louisville around that time.

WVLK(AM) and WLAP(AM) by the late seventies were pop stations that increased the intensity at night. FM had WKQQ and WLAP (FM) using "TM Stereo Rock" that leaned adult. By 1980 WVLK-AM started to drift to Adult Contemporary and was there by 1982. Once there you rarely heard anything on WVLK with loud screamin' guitars, it was all the mellow. WLAP, around the same time dropped AC for an easy listening format that was a combination of beautiful music and standards. After that proved to be a disastrous format choice, they returned to Adult Contemporary but the damage was done. It wasn't until WFMI Winchester changd to CHR that you heard the hits again in Lexington on a local station. Double Q did drift towards CHR a bit but nothing beyond "1999" by Prince and Powerstation. But for three years, there was little Top 40 on Lexington radio.

Louisville had the same problem. WAKY and WKLO were losing to WLRS. Both stations drifted towards Adult Contemporary by 1979 then WKLO morphed into KJ-100. KJ-100 was Top 40 at first but quickly dropped anything with a beat and emphasized rock. They played lots of Supertramp in the summer of 79. A year later KJ-100 dropped the simulcast and lateral replys with the FM going AC and eventually a new name Majic 100 FM and the AM became Country 11. WAKY grew up and became oldies. So Louisville for the same amount of time as Lexington didn't have a radio station that played the hits. It wasn't until WLRS drifted towards CHR around 1983-84 that the hits were heard again. It's worth noting around this time I remember WQMF playing Lionel Richie's "Running with the Night" so QMF did drift a bit during this weird time in music radio when WHAS was the American Top 40 affiliate.

There was many great songs during that time that was never heard on the radio because CHR radio was trying to reinvent itself. So some of it found its way to AOR.
 
You forget about WJYL 101.7 In 1982, they became a Top 40 station called "Hit Radio" and they were the home of AT 40. They were sold and in the summer of 1984 became Louisville's first urban FM calling themselves "The Rhythm of The City''
 
I always thought WLAP-FM was Lexington's leading CHR in the early '80s - even if it was automated at the time. Weren't they the 'AT40' affiliate back then?
 
NoWayNoCC said:
I always thought WLAP-FM was Lexington's leading CHR in the early '80s - even if it was automated at the time. Weren't they the 'AT40' affiliate back then?
Click to expand...

Yes and no. WLAP-FM was the closest Lexington had to a local CHR but the TM Stereo Rock package was more what we call "Hot AC" today. Also, their automation was old school. They would play two currents with a back announce from format voice John Borders. A typical back announce, "Sister Sledge with My Guy, before that Huey Lewis and the News with Do You Believe In Love". Then the format would play a recurrent and a couple of golds before playing two more back to back from the current reel. One could predict the next current pretty easy.

WLAP-FM began airing AT40 just after New Year's Day 1980. It had aired on WLAP-AM since the program's early days each Saturday Night. The program moved to Sunday mornings on the FM after the AM changed to the brief easy listening format.
 
radiorob2.0 said:
Bongwater brings up a good point on market conditions around that time as the reason why that music wondered into an AOR playlist. Just look at Lexington and Louisville around that time.

WVLK(AM) and WLAP(AM) by the late seventies were pop stations that increased the intensity at night. FM had WKQQ and WLAP (FM) using "TM Stereo Rock" that leaned adult. By 1980 WVLK-AM started to drift to Adult Contemporary and was there by 1982. Once there you rarely heard anything on WVLK with loud screamin' guitars, it was all the mellow. WLAP, around the same time dropped AC for an easy listening format that was a combination of beautiful music and standards. After that proved to be a disastrous format choice, they returned to Adult Contemporary but the damage was done. It wasn't until WFMI Winchester changd to CHR that you heard the hits again in Lexington on a local station. Double Q did drift towards CHR a bit but nothing beyond "1999" by Prince and Powerstation. But for three years, there was little Top 40 on Lexington radio.

Louisville had the same problem. WAKY and WKLO were losing to WLRS. Both stations drifted towards Adult Contemporary by 1979 then WKLO morphed into KJ-100. KJ-100 was Top 40 at first but quickly dropped anything with a beat and emphasized rock. They played lots of Supertramp in the summer of 79. A year later KJ-100 dropped the simulcast and lateral replys with the FM going AC and eventually a new name Majic 100 FM and the AM became Country 11. WAKY grew up and became oldies. So Louisville for the same amount of time as Lexington didn't have a radio station that played the hits. It wasn't until WLRS drifted towards CHR around 1983-84 that the hits were heard again. It's worth noting around this time I remember WQMF playing Lionel Richie's "Running with the Night" so QMF did drift a bit during this weird time in music radio when WHAS was the American Top 40 affiliate.

There was many great songs during that time that was never heard on the radio because CHR radio was trying to reinvent itself. So some of it found its way to AOR.
Click to expand...

Somewhere, I have one of those nearly 2-foot long WKQQ "Hardees" bumper stickers from 1980 or '81. Too big for any bumper today... and an aircheck on cassette. Tell you what, I'll play the tape and transcribe the tunes.
 
knoxbob said:
If you find the article interesting, then check out the rock chart. Can you imagine any station today playing 1/3 of these songs? Human Leage next to .38 special next to Flock of Seagulls next to Quarterflash
Most programmers today can't fathom that this could have ever happened.
I remember those days, In Knoxville WIMZ tried that and called themselves the Rock of the 80's.
I even remember hearing Micheal Jackson be played.It didn't last too long.
Click to expand...
The "old" Rock 103 in Memphis used to play "Beat It," reason being because it featured that guitar solo by Eddie VanHalen. But after Rock 103 went through that ill-advised "Z-103" debacle in 1985-1986, they were reborn as "The Eagle" (although they dropped that name and eventually returned to being Rock 103). The reborn Eagle/Rock 103 would never have touched "Beat It," because by then, Thrillermania had started to wear thin, especially on rock fans, and by that time, MJ was starting to become more known for his notoriety than for his music. It's worth noting that the "old" Rock 103 filled gaps in their playlist by playing local artists. Keith Sykes was an airplay staple of the "old" Rock 103 of the '70s and early '80s.

(As a side note, I should point out that "Love Is Thicker Than Water" by Andy Gibb featured a guitar solo by Joe Walsh, but as far as I know, no "rock" station ever used that as an excuse to play "Love Is Thicker Than Water.")
 
Davd Gilmour played guitar in Paul McCartney's 1985 hit "No More Lonely Nights", It was the best part of the song. But IIRC rock stations did not touch it, it was only a CHR and AC hit.
 
I was at the Burhart Abrams "Superstars" Rock 103 in Memphis, both "new" and "old", coming into it from an exclusive AM Top 40 background. The week I started there, we were playing "Tragedy" by the Bee Gees in currents. The Commodores and Brothers Johnson were in the recurrents. Eventaully, B/A gave the green light to rock, and we were playing AC/DC in mornings and middays.

Especially when Redbeard was PD, we had a good bit of local content in the current music at any given time. The station actually hit #1 12 + a couple of times, which was a feat for an AOR station in a 50% ethnic market. I believe the similar Louisville station would have been WLRS. Drake Hall came to Rock 103 from Louisville in the late 80', and is still here in Memphis doing mornings at 98.1.
 
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