Last week while in Missouri, I was able to spend some time with the newspaper microfilms at the State Historical Society in Columbia, specifically those of the now-defunct St. Louis Globe-Democrat. The latter years of the Globe are not currently available online. I wanted to nail down some more information about the KCFM format that was in place for most of 1978 and part of 1979 until the station was sold to what became Gannett. Through much of the 1970s, the Globe had better coverage of local broadcasting than the Post-Dispatch, though that changed when Eric Mink came on board at the Post in the 1979. Still, the Globe's radio-TV columnist, Pete Rahn, remained a fixture until he retired in 1984 just before the Globe was thrown into turmoil. That's another story altogether; what I'm focusing on here is the origins of the KCFM format when it flipped from easy-listening/beautiful-music in January 1978. Rahn's column of January 24 featured several items, but led off with an interview with the person acting as the station's program director.
Until I found this column, I didn't know that the new format was called "Windchime". I don't recall that name ever being used on the air!
I transcribed the relevant part of this column by hand, complete with the quirky overuse of quotation marks (as well as one that wasn't properly closed with a quotation mark).
From "'Windchime' format for KCFM", Pete Rahn column, St. Louis Globe-Democrat (now defunct), January 24, 1978, page 8B
KCFM is changing its format and sound.
That's right, gang, the big daddy of commercial FM radio in St. Louis, the long-time proponent of so-called wall-to-wall "beautiful music" will switch to something called the "Windchime" format effective next Friday (Jan. 27).
I chatted with Sibley Smith, executive vice president of KCFM. So what's a "Windchime" format? Sounds rather Oriental, right? Wrong.
"It is really 'soft rock' (sic), said Miss Smith, "but we are trying to stay away from the work 'rock' because it scares off too many people.
"Windchime is 'today' music performed by the artists who make it. An example would be a Neil Diamond singing 'Song Sung Blue' as against a Mantovani doing that number. Windchime is for people who want to listen to 'today's beat', but don't like acid or hard rock, " said Miss Smith.
"It is a little difficult to describe," she added, "because it includes some 'album rock' ... some top 40 ... yet it is a soft, purely contemporary sound."
Be that as it may, the hard news here is that KCFM is changing -- obviously attempting to broaden its listener base -- after almost a quarter-century of airing the dreamy lilt of, say, Mantovani orchestrations with a little mix of standard ballads with vocals by the likes of a Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole.
A soft-spoken optimist named Harry Eidelman cranked up KCFM out at 532 DeBaliviere Ave. in November 1954. Those were the days when blessed few listeners had an FM receiver in their homes, much less in cars.
Eidelman is still the bossman-owner of the station and was the first in St. Louis to add the stereo sound to his FM operation at 93.7 on the dial.
He has prospered with the "beautiful music" format, but now reckons it's time for an update to a sound calculated to attrack an ever-growing (and aging) body of listeners who were weaned on "rock."
The syndicated Windchime format is the brainchild of Tom McKay, a Los Angeles radio supplier-entrepreneur. It is said to be "playing successfully" in major cities from coast-to-coast.
And the break from the long-established "beautiful music" format was not made hastily, said Eidelman. It was a traumatic decision for the man who built his station and reputation on the wall-to-wall sound, interrupted only by a limited number of commercials or "personalities."
KCFM will introduce its new Windchime sound for three broadcast days without any commercials. "We feel that will be the best way to get people to listen," said Miss Smith. After Sunday (Jan. 29), the "commercial policy will be no more than 10 units per hour, some of them 30 second spots, some 60," she added.
KCFM's Multiplex service will continue to operate without change on the station's sub channel.
That service supplies "background music" sans commercials and personality comment for some hospitals, offices, stores for several of the large food chains in the St. Louis area.
(The column then goes on to cover some TV programming matters at other stations.)
Until I found this column, I didn't know that the new format was called "Windchime". I don't recall that name ever being used on the air!
I transcribed the relevant part of this column by hand, complete with the quirky overuse of quotation marks (as well as one that wasn't properly closed with a quotation mark).
From "'Windchime' format for KCFM", Pete Rahn column, St. Louis Globe-Democrat (now defunct), January 24, 1978, page 8B
KCFM is changing its format and sound.
That's right, gang, the big daddy of commercial FM radio in St. Louis, the long-time proponent of so-called wall-to-wall "beautiful music" will switch to something called the "Windchime" format effective next Friday (Jan. 27).
I chatted with Sibley Smith, executive vice president of KCFM. So what's a "Windchime" format? Sounds rather Oriental, right? Wrong.
"It is really 'soft rock' (sic), said Miss Smith, "but we are trying to stay away from the work 'rock' because it scares off too many people.
"Windchime is 'today' music performed by the artists who make it. An example would be a Neil Diamond singing 'Song Sung Blue' as against a Mantovani doing that number. Windchime is for people who want to listen to 'today's beat', but don't like acid or hard rock, " said Miss Smith.
"It is a little difficult to describe," she added, "because it includes some 'album rock' ... some top 40 ... yet it is a soft, purely contemporary sound."
Be that as it may, the hard news here is that KCFM is changing -- obviously attempting to broaden its listener base -- after almost a quarter-century of airing the dreamy lilt of, say, Mantovani orchestrations with a little mix of standard ballads with vocals by the likes of a Frank Sinatra or Nat King Cole.
A soft-spoken optimist named Harry Eidelman cranked up KCFM out at 532 DeBaliviere Ave. in November 1954. Those were the days when blessed few listeners had an FM receiver in their homes, much less in cars.
Eidelman is still the bossman-owner of the station and was the first in St. Louis to add the stereo sound to his FM operation at 93.7 on the dial.
He has prospered with the "beautiful music" format, but now reckons it's time for an update to a sound calculated to attrack an ever-growing (and aging) body of listeners who were weaned on "rock."
The syndicated Windchime format is the brainchild of Tom McKay, a Los Angeles radio supplier-entrepreneur. It is said to be "playing successfully" in major cities from coast-to-coast.
And the break from the long-established "beautiful music" format was not made hastily, said Eidelman. It was a traumatic decision for the man who built his station and reputation on the wall-to-wall sound, interrupted only by a limited number of commercials or "personalities."
KCFM will introduce its new Windchime sound for three broadcast days without any commercials. "We feel that will be the best way to get people to listen," said Miss Smith. After Sunday (Jan. 29), the "commercial policy will be no more than 10 units per hour, some of them 30 second spots, some 60," she added.
KCFM's Multiplex service will continue to operate without change on the station's sub channel.
That service supplies "background music" sans commercials and personality comment for some hospitals, offices, stores for several of the large food chains in the St. Louis area.
(The column then goes on to cover some TV programming matters at other stations.)