Capulet: You are skating all around a bunch of subjects going in and out of the truth. I'll try to clarify:
This again? WMMS was not a CHR? Cheesy Cheesy Cheesy Cheesy
WMMS, in the era you are talking about...the era of the reporting change when Gorman was still running it (pre-mid 1986) and was behind the reporting (key word...reporting) change, WMMS (now listen closely) did not drop a single AOR track from their playlist. They were a "hybrid AOR-POP". They did not "replace" (your words) anything. You still heard lots of traditional AOR album tracks mixed in with SELECT pop singles, again heavily dayparted and (see my previous list) NOT everything on the top 40.
Putting your call letters in the CHR reporting section of Radio and Records as a P1 certainly changed the record companies and the record promoters ( indy and label employed ) approach to getting records played as well as what records were promoted.
Ask Joel Denver. He was the CHR editor then if I recall. Joel started a little internet thing called All Access after he left R&R.
Well yes, that was the whole idea according to various books. WMMS played Prince (hardly "disposable pop", eh?) but, because the labels
considered Prince a "pop" act, WMMS could not get Prince concert sponsorship, interviews, etc, because the labels were under direction from the top to keep G98 happy because of their reporting status. WMMS, as an "AOR reporter", could play Prince all day, but would get no reporting credit. The system sucked, and all WMMS was doing was playing the system. Again, they were pretty smart because their ratings were the highest in their history during that period....12s, 13s, and 14s, total audience with all the right demos, deeper than ever before. The station, IMO, sounded great because they rocked, but also had a freshness.
After Gorman left for WNCX WMMS hired 3 or 4 programmers who came from CHR! Trying to pretend they were not playing the game as a CHR with CHR records is rubbish. When WMMS flipped to CHR, the CHR product was hotter than rock product. Anyone who knows radio knows music is cyclical. MTV was driving the CHR bus then. WMMS hopped on board.
After Gorman left, the station went all over the place, so you may be right that they were straight CHR at one point after he left. But, the Gorman era was the era where the reporting change was made, and the format under him was a careful balance of rock and rock-culture pop.
Ask some civilians who lived in Cleveland back in the 80s about " what happened " to WMMS. They don't know reporting status from status symbols, but they do know a change in format. Did WGCL's beating WMMS have anything to do with the change?
What format was WGCL? Country? Grin
Yes, I think G98 making hay with new acts inspired WMMS to get more aggressive. But remember: WMMS always had a pop sensibility even back in the late 70s. Kid Leo played the Ronettes all the time. WMMS played Motown and AWB and The Isley Brothers. It was never a typical AOR. Never.
Go read Hit Men. Go read Appetite for Self Destruction. Labels have been paying for airplay since radio started playing records.
Of course there have always been deejays who took payola and record and indie guys who shelled it out. But it was the exception not the rule, at least in the FM era post late 60s. If you think it was the rule at WMMS, then why are not all of the deejays from the famous period living in Hawaii in big houses?
Tell me that's not true and I'll show you some bridges for sale in NY, Brooklyn for sure Wink
Let's keep the situation in perspective, please. I am sure that there are many broadcast veterans who read this board who will challenge your suggestion that pretty much all deejays were on the take in the FM era. Some, yes. Most, no. So cut it out.
