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June 12, 1982: When 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.
 
There's a lot that can be said here in response, but before we go any further let's make it clear: Lee Abrams was not the "creator" of classic rock. He was the creative force behind Superstars, the predominant AOR format in the late 70s and early 80s. The format had a number of variations customized for the given market situation, but the presentation was universally hit-driven and artist-driven.
I remember the huge Abrams station in Rochester, NY in '79 playing Nick Gilder and Little River Band (at least in the daylight hours) along with the format staples like the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and the Doobie Brothers. So, despite the rock-imaging, there was certainly a popish flavor to the playlist. They even played the hell out of Rod Stewart's disco hit "Do ya think I'm sexy?"
With Abrams stations so willing to play CHR/AC stuff and so many Abrams stations representing the AOR format in the trades, is it any wonder that the AOR chart would reflect a lot of different flavors?

1982 was a particulary problematic year for AOR. Stations consulted by Sebastian and Pollack were making some growing noise with pure heritage rock AOR formats, and Abrams was telling most of his clients to distinguish themselves by playing a lot of "new" music. The problem, of course, was that the record industry was pumping out Duran Duran, Human League and Men at Work and pushing it to AOR stations. There was little "new" hard rock to promote that was mainstream enough for Abrams stations, while Sebastian and Pollack were latching onto Def Leppard and AC/DC.

So the inevitable question: Did rock start to die in 82 because of bad programming decisions at radio? Or was it because the record industry was putting its energy and attention into the MTV-type pop wave that was beginning in 82 and went nuts in 83? iN either case the die was cast -- the next generatgion came of age without heritage rock of its own -- condemning the rock format to an aging base of baby boomer listerners.
Which was cause and which was effect?
 
A couple of things about that:

1. The now "classic" rockers of the day really didn't do themselves any favors. Boston took up to eight years between albums. Steve Miller took too much time off as well, and then came back with the "poppy" "Abracadabra." Foreigner hit us with "Waiting for a Girl Like You." Aerosmith went into rehab. Michael McDonald watered down the Doobie Brothers' sound. Even the Cars went wimpy!

2. It should also be said that we didn't necessarily know that some of the then-newcomers really wouldn't have any staying power. Some of them were actually seen as the future of rock and roll! We didn't know that many of them would become one-hit wonders, and that the careers of most of them would be over within a year or two. We didn't have the hindsight on those guys that we have now. If we had known then what we know now...
 
In Charlotte, NC, rock hung on for a couple more years, and then in 1984, no one on FM in the market was playing rock. The one station that did was top 40. A small nearby station was playing more rock than the others but even it was technically top 40. Although the three top 40 stations all played rock, even classic rock. Then an amazing thing happened. A daytime-only 1000-watt AM switched from oldies to rock and got listeners! Another small FM increased its signal and took advantage of the situation, and rock was back on FM. The AM went gospel. And then another FM played rock, mostly classic. With John Boy and Billy mornings. They had never done rock before. A few years later--someoe came up with a great idea--syndication!

In Greensboro, same situation. One station went from top 40 to album rock but by 1984 it was top 40. That same station found out people liked classic rock and did a classic rock show. Shortly after that a small station increased its signal and started playing classic rock. One of the three top 40s played rock but didn't last very long.
 
It might be worth noting that rock radio has probably not died.  It may be more a matter of the people who get on the air and abuse the privilege, unfortunately usually younger types who haven't a clue, and have weird little psychoses or obsessions of whatever variety, coupled with an agenda.  When the young little jockettes get caught their stations have stock answers and excuses that they think will hold up under closer scrutiny.  This is not the case, particularly when they have demonstrated that they are not above even altering documents and signatures.  The stations and the people on the air assume that a small, cornfield market is their protection.  It has happened more than once in such markets, and it is always just a matter of time before they are taken off the air. 

Such types literally go on the air and discuss what they are doing, except that many people do not have an ear for it.

It is not the music, it is the stations and the people they have and keep on the air, either because they are doing someone or because they are cheap, or a little bit of both.   Patience usually wins out in weeding them out and making them go away for better talent with an ear for music.  To say nothing of how some stations have protected such air staff types to the point that the station had to be completely phased out, from format to call sign.

Patience. Patience. And professional people to keep track to protect any professional innocents that may be in danger of being implicated in the criminal conduct of some of those cute little cornfield types.
 
What specific format are you seeking that you cannot find in New York? New York has everything...and then some.
 
Silkie said:
What specific format are you seeking that you cannot find in New York? New York has everything...and then some.
Click to expand...
How about standards? And daytime-only AMs that reach half the city or spend half their time doing something other than music don't count. This is New York City's heritage.
 
I got cable in Dallas in the early 80's as soon as it was wired in to the apartments that I lived in. One of the first things I noticed with cable was that music channel MTV.

We watched that for a over a year before what was happening there started to get airplay on local radio. The first song I remember that radio played, that had been big on MTV was Men At Work's "Who Can It Be Now?". After that, whatever was big on MTV was automatically on the radio.

Rock radio was stale long before 1982. I remember calling in a request to the KZEW in Dallas in 1978. I had discovered Cheap Trick by accident (warming up for a Kansas show early in '78). I requested one of their fine Hard Rock songs from their debut LP: "The Ballad of T.V. Violence (I'm Not the Only Boy)".
The DJ sarcastically told me "we don't play that".

But then, later that year (1978), when the "pop" song "I Want You to Want Me" was out from Budokan..... that "Heritage" rock station couldn't play enough of that.

The dying had already begun by 1978.
 
What would have happened if someone listening to Ornette Coleman had picked up Lee Abrams hitchhiking? Just a thought...
 
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