When did WSIX-FM give up the easy listening metropolitan country format and become a mainstream country station? Was it before or after WSM-FM went country which was on January 31, 1983?
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Metropolitan Country
- Thread starter briancraig
- Start date
Easy listening country? Would this be like the country equivalent to soft rock?
yes
You can hear an aircheck of WSIX Metropolitan Country at http://airchexx.com/2005/11/30/325/
kr0nic said:
That must have come from the later days of the Metropolitan Country format due to the use of "Stereo 98". When I was there in the 70s, it was always "97.9". We never talked over the intros nor was there any overlapping of the songs, following the formatics that Bill Gerson established that were faithful to a beautiful music approach. For the most part, the music was downtempo with an emphasis on the smoother artists such as Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline. We also played a lot of crossover from the MOR/EZ realm such as Perry Como, Gordon Lightfoot, Henry Mancini, The Living Strings and so on. We had great freedom in selecting the music so long as we adhered to the overall philosophy that Gerson had put into place.
Oddly enough the format was successful for years, pulling double digits in the Arbitron and consistently beating the AM down the hall, which nevertheless treated WSIX-FM as the stepchild. The success may have been due to the rather weak country competition: WENO from Madison was signal challenged in many parts of the Metro and wasn't 24 hours. WKDA, which had switched to 24-hour country in 1970, also was hampered by a poor signal in the outlying areas of Davidson county. And WSM was still AC during the day, relegating its country fare to nighttime.
I recorded that aircheck linked above & it was my first trip to Nashville in August, 1978 (the 1970 date listed is incorrect). On that trip Metropolitan Country was the only country FM in the city other than US-107 from Lebanon. The main 'top 40' country was 1240 WKDA and 1430 was WJRB Madison "serving metro Nashville" at that time. WSM-AM was still country at night only with Tony Lyons & Ralph Emery. Gerry House was doing mornings on adult contemporary WSIX-AM 980. John Conlee's "Rose Colored Glasses" had just come out & I heard it wherever I went around town coming out of all the country gift shops near Music Row. I paid $1 to tour the soon expected to be demolished Ryman Auditorium & saw a package show at the War Memorial Auditorium with Kitty Wells & Johnny Wright, Bob Luman, Barbara Fairchild & Charlie McCoy. Even from Pennsylvania I was familiar with Ralph Emery from WSM & his syndicated show & it was fun to get up early & watch him do local morning tv including live commercials with the sponsors in the studio with him selling aluminum siding & doing late school bus announcements & Kieth Billbrey doing weather! A fun trip & lots of good airchecks!
John1 said:
Was that the early morning show on Channel 4 that had a "studio band"? My father use to watch before he left for work. (I was still in bed!) Didn't they sometimes have major country stars "drop in" and do a few songs. If so who was the newscaster? And was it true that sometimes a band member would try to make him laugh when he was reading the news?
spew said:
old enough to NEVER use the word "peeps"... now get off my lawn!
secondchoice said:
I believe the Newscaster was Al Voecks, but Buddy can check me on that.
Journeyman said:
I think you're right about Al. HEY!! Remember D.T. McCalls' live spots? And over on channel 5 I remember watching Eddie Hill's Country Junction.
And... who is going to bring up the phrase "Countrypolitan"?
briancraig said:
I vaguely remember during the switch that Gerry House's morning show was "live" - followed by segued music throughout the rest of the day and night. During this time, WSIX was running TV commercials promoting House's morning show and showing him figuratively turning on the "music machine" that played the non-stop country hits after his show. I don't exactly remember how long this lasted but when they finally had the remaining on-air talent hired and in place - WSIX then did an official reboot and became the "Big 98". That's how I remember it and if I'm wrong please feel free to jump in and correct me.
BTW... we only had one radio in the house while I was little. Sometime around 1967, my mother tuned it to WSIX-FM and told my brother and me that if either of us ever moved the dial we would both get a whooping. In 1969, she bought us a pocket sized transistor radio (with an earplug for privacy) from Western Auto because we complained so much that we couldn't hear the songs all our friends were listening to. (I listened to WHIN during the days and WLS at night on my transistor). Around 1990, she finally changed the dial from WSIX to Oldies 96.3 because she didn't like the "New Country" sound. I don't know if it is a record or not - but her radio dial did not move from 97.9 for 23 years.
and I lisyened to WLS at night also..after we signed off WHIN... - Status