dfaulkner said:
What I recall hearing from some who worked at KVIL in it's heydays. The formula then was about 500 songs in rotation. About 10 of those would be currents & played more frequently. + they could play almost any song that was appropriate to follow a bit.
ACTUALLY....when I started there in 1978, we played 7 currents and a list of 400 songs, about 100 of which were "powered".
These were tested songs and if they didn't "test well", we didn't play them regardless of anything else.
I recall "If" by Bread was the top testing song for several years.
Yes, there was a LOT of repetition, but the songs were only the best of the best - and - KVIL was the #1 station, not only 25-54 Adults, but often 12+ as well.
Of course in those days, music was probably NOT the most important programming element on the radio station. Unheard of these days, but Personality, Promotion, and Information preceded music in order of importance. Having said that, each of those elements were treated as if they WERE thee most important programming element on the radio station, music included.
There never was a "hot clock" that told the jock when to say what - that was completely left to the discretion of the air personality - meaning you could essentially say whatever you wanted anytime during each hour.
The one thing you could not deviate from in any way was the music. We used a flip card system for music rotation. This was achieved by the use of several rolodex card holders full of cards with the songs name and artists plus intro, total time, and end note, plus where the song could be found. Very few were on cart, most either 45's or LP cuts.
A typical card file looked like this:
IF LP-B-10
BREAD cut 3
:20/2:28/COLD
There were oranges (up tempo powered library), Blues (down tempo powered library). Yellow (up tempo slower rotated songs)
There was a purple category (down tempo slower rotated songs), and Reds (dayparted 4pm-2am).
I actually have the KVIL Orange rolodex at home and use it as my phone number index at my desk.
You had to "play it as it layed" as Ron used to say. And to quote him further, "..if 2 Carpenters songs come up back to back, just play 'em, it might not sound half bad.".
With those few songs being played 24/7/365, they sure burned out on those of us working there, and I'd bet given the task, I could probably take a yellow pad and write the names of every one by memory, 30 years later.. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.
As a jock on the station, the music was almost a second thought. We were always on the hunt for a phone call to air, something to relate, or an observation to fit over the next intro or outro fade.
I also recall that outside of morning drive, the rule was "no stopping down and talking over dead air. All content was placed over an intro, unless it was "...better than the Bee Gees...", and if you stopped to talk - it better have been!
It created an incredible forward momentum format that constantly moved and did not bog down. If you didn't like the content, well, your favorite song is playing underneath it so hang in there. It worked. Other stations would stop down and talk endlessly, perhaps even providing uselful or entertaining material BUT stopping the station to do so. Outside of Morning Drive, KVIL of the time, very rarely did that.
Could the format of KVIL from those days work today...I think it could, but there aren't many around who know how it was really done to begin with.
Fun times.
