Recall in the late '60s and early '70s KFRC (assume KHJ did this as well) would promote 'solid gold weekends'. Selected golden oldies would be played throughout the weekend and the stations would have a different sound (appealing to a slightly older crowd) than the Monday-Friday sound which was locked into the current Top 40 (appealing to teenagers). If I recall this included stuff back to the '50s (Elvis Presley, Everly Brothers) and early '60s (Beach Boys, Four Seasons). As a kid, I enjoyed getting to know some of these hits that were before my radio listening days.
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K-Earth at 6.5, August 2020
- Thread starter oldies76
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That's how I remember the "Million Dollar Weekends" on WRKO(AM) Boston. Lots of '50s/early '60s. "Mother-in-Law" and "Get a Job" were played frequently and sure sounded strange to my 12-year-old ears in 1967, as I'd only been listening to Top 40 radio for about 3 years.
What burned Steve out was irrelevant. He came to react negatively to "Brown-Eyed Girl" in a very extreme way. I used that merely as an illustration of how, as David put it, "violent" the negatives were on "Honey". It was the number one song in the country for a while. A few weeks later, it was a massive tune-out and remains so 52 years later.
WABC was very currents-based. I grew up with KHJ and KFRC. They, and from what I can tell from airchecks, other Drake stations, ran 3 to 4 goldens an hour. The percentage was higher in middays during the school year and in all dayparts on weekends starting at 3:00 pm Friday.
Again, I only have the West Coast as my point of reference, but even in the late 50s, Chuck Blore had a "flashback" an hour on KFWB and KEWB. KYA in San Francisco had "former Golden Gate greats."
Yep. KHJ did it too. "Million Dollar Weekends" is what they called them, until Ted Atkins came down from KFRC and then they became "Golden Weekends".
KHJ reached back to the mid-50s for those and they played gold that far back in middays. There's a 1970 aircheck of Charlie Tuna (2/27/70) playing Perez Prado's "Patricia".
The very old gold on KHJ stopped only when KHJ-FM (later KRTH) began upping its gold quotient as it transitioned from AC to oldies in '71-'72.
RKO sister CKLW ran Million Dollar Weekends (later solid gold weekends) from 3pm Friday to midnight Saturday with a little more gold. (As I recall in the 1967-69 format, the :27 and :57 spots were always "CKLW....Golden", but there was also room for "Double Golden" or "Number 1 then...number 1 now", "xx years ago today" or coming out of news with "That's what's happening today, June 11, 1968. (Tymp boom) June 11, 1964. I'm sure these weren't all the same hour. Years before I ever heard the word "daypart", I knew if I was home sick from school, the music on CKLW wouldn't be quite as good. There's a brief aircheck of Jim Edwards on CKLW which included 3 songs that were playing on the Westwood One Adult Standards format at a station I was working at at the time. I also remember Sunday mornings, after "Windsor Labor Speaks" and "Canada Now", hearing lots of early 60s Motown & soul, like Mary Wells, Barbara Lewis and similar.
Stations, irrespective of season, dayparted certain songs.
While there might be an adjustment of gold in summer, the late afternoon and night only songs still were protected, and in the daytime they just may have played more currents in the summer, but not the nights-only ones.
I'm thinking for one thing there wasn't the emphasis on in-office listening, though more women were at home ("Dave Shafer Gets it On For The Ladies 9-12noon"). I've heard summer airchecks that still had the likes of Dean Martin during midday.
Enjoy the ride Michael. Plenty of things to do during COVID-19, including having a nice discussion about a legendary radio station once again in 2020, unlike the drama of "7 years ago".
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Mr. Hagerty, "Honey" was widely popular in 1968. While it went negative later, this is a quote from wikipedia:
"Honey" was immediately and immensely popular. It sold a million copies in its first three weeks,[1]:BG4 the fastest-selling record in the history of United Artists.[6][7] It was certified gold on April 4, 1968.[8] It was the best-selling record worldwide for 1968, more popular even than "Hey Jude".[1]:BG8 It was a crossover hit, topping both the pop and country singles charts, one of only three songs to do so in the 1960s. The recording was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1968: Record of the Year and Best Contemporary-Pop Vocal Performance, Male.[9] The song was awarded Song of the Year in 1968 by the Country Music Association"
It's funny though, how some of the most successful songs in the rock and roll era (you know the songs I'm talking about), in terms of performance on radio and on the charts, are snuffed today, but yet, you have select songs that charted very low or stiffed originally, like "Brown Eyed Girl", "What I Like About You", "I Melt With You" and "Old Time Rock & Roll" are played to the moon today.
But hey, "Honey" is a sad song with emotional lyrics and it would play out of place today, unless it was sentimental to an older listener that had memories with it.
And once again, the radio stations that don't play those songs are among the highest rated stations in their markets. If not playing certain songs results in great ratings, then that's the proper course of action.
Brown Eyed Girl did not even get play on many stations. It was limited on others. But when researched later, it turned out to be a hidden gem. It even tested better the more it was played. And when gold-based stations played it, it was a hit in that moment.
Gold-based adio does not play hits of the past. It plays older songs that are still hits. It does not play songs that are no longer liked. Museums keep weird old stuff; people even smirk when they see old appliances and early devices. Radio stations play songs that are hits today and are wanted by people.
All those strange songs you keep bringing up are not liked today by most people. We asked those people to score them. In some cases, they slammed their meters or slid the scale to zero. That's why we don't play them.
You are off by one letter... put a "b" where the "s" goes in your adjective.
Most older listeners react in the area of "I can't believe I ever liked that piece of ...."
It has more to do with how ratings were done in the 60's. They were in-home coincidental or 24 hour recall. Pulse and Hooper did not measure at work listening except by memory, and calls or in-home visits were mostly done in the daytime. There was no weekly cume, and it was not until Arbitron started to gain momentum towards the end of the 60's that ages and narrow dayparts were included.
It was not until the British Invasion and the, the Summer of Love, that Top 40 pretty much purged the more AOR songs. Yet, still, we got Debbie Boone and John Denver in the 70's!
Boone is 10 years after the Summer of Love, a lot can change with music styles in that time period. You know, the mid-late 70's were loaded with successful adult contemporary type songs, many of them reaching the summit and the top ten. Just an alternative to rock music, metal and disco. Housewives just loved hearing those softer songs back then. Paul Anka "Having My Baby", Maureen McGovern, Roberta Flack, Helen Reddy, Mary MacGregor, Captain & Tennille, just to name a few. How do you think they were massively popular?? They are.
Many of those were releases in the brief period I was at an AM modern AC (called "chicken rock" by some) and one of the very early FM Top 40 stations. On the AM, we had a hard time deciding to add "The Morning After" as it was so MOR. On FM, we played none of them.
Many of those songs were propelled onto the charts by the still viable AM Top 40 stations which had kept some of their adult listeners. But the 12-24 and 18-34 were gone to the FMs in markets that had an FM Top 40 early on.
If you look at FMQB or Gavin from that era, those insipid songs were mostly on the traditional big AMs, and much less on the FM hit stations.
Also remember that the charts were severely compromised by record company shenanigans back then. A good number of "hits" simply weren't. And that is why many stations did not look at the Billboard, Cash Box and record World charts... only record stores and record ducks in the industry did.
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At the time leisure suits were massively popular too. Burnt orange shag carpets were popular. Fake wood paneling was popular. So what?
I don't see anyone wearing leisure suits today, do you?
And, like seven years ago, you're still pulling quotes out of context and/or ignoring what's in the quote.
As I said, "Honey" was number one for several (five) weeks. That's not in dispute. But by the end of that summer, it was burned to a crisp, and it has never recovered.
And you mention "Brown Eyed Girl" as charting very low or stiffing. Nope. Peaked at #10 in Billboard. Held back by some stations (mostly in the deep south) that wouldn't play the original lyric "making love in the green grass behind the stadium", and didn't add it when Bang Records did a radio edit, stunting sales in those markets. At KHJ, it peaked at #2.
Again, this site needs a "like" button.
And those mid-70s housewives who liked those songs? They were 35 then. They're 80 now.
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