That was how our "Service and Music" worked. Some brief instrumental fill between groups of callers. The phones were always jammed. In its heyday it ran 10:05-11am and then 6:30-7pm. It's still running but I think its once at 10am. Still lots of callers...I'm wondering if some were the same ones who called in the 70s.
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Multiple "Formats" on 1 Station (depends on time of day/week)
- Thread starter kfbkfb
- Start date
At KTNQ in LA in the later 1990's (when we often tied KFI in 25-54) we did a show from 6 to 8 AM on Saturdays called "Chistes y Chácharas" (Jokes and Junk) where listeners would call with things for sale but had to tell a joke to be able to announce what they had for sale.
Those two hours had around a 4 share in LA.
Philadelphia’s WIP had for a time a (MOR/AC) music in the day, talk at night split, alongside the Eagles and Flyers coverage. Talk started out as one show weeknights 8-midnight and fairly quickly became a 6 pm to 6 am format. All local at first, before they turned overnights to Larry King.
Weekend editions of “WIPeople Talk” as it was called were of course added. Saturday nights eventually became a spin-off show based on a segment from Friday nights, the unfortunately named Desperate and Dateless. Combined Cala from the lonely with love songs.
Somewhere in those dying gasps of music on AM was a hybrid music/magazine based midday show, too.
Eventually, except for overnights the general interest talk went away and music returned mostly full time. Until they quickly tried dabbling with a sports talk show. Then that gradually pushed the music into more and more limited times, but they co-existed.
Weekend editions of “WIPeople Talk” as it was called were of course added. Saturday nights eventually became a spin-off show based on a segment from Friday nights, the unfortunately named Desperate and Dateless. Combined Cala from the lonely with love songs.
Somewhere in those dying gasps of music on AM was a hybrid music/magazine based midday show, too.
Eventually, except for overnights the general interest talk went away and music returned mostly full time. Until they quickly tried dabbling with a sports talk show. Then that gradually pushed the music into more and more limited times, but they co-existed.
Thanks for this bit of information -- I did once see a station listing that showed 102.9 in Dallas as having religious programming, and I suspect that you've explained where that came from. And, yes, they apparently did have the KDTX call letters for much of the seventies, before changing to KMGC.
Growing in Eastern Washington in the 80s/90s it was common for stations to air Spanish language programs after 8pm; KENE Toppenish (country in daytime) and KREW Sunnyside (full service AC) come to mind. Conversely, pioneering Spanish language KDNA Granger would air English language programs after 10pm, mostly R&B oldies.
I'm amazed anyone is still doing them. I'd have thought they'd have died out long ago.,
WTRO 1450 in Dyersburg, TN has had a swap shop show called Party Line for as long as I can remember. The rest of the day they carry the Good Time Oldies satellite network.
I've worked at stations with a"Party Line", usually that was the opinion show. Back in those days it was usually "the traffic light at 3rd and main takes too long" type stuff.
It used to be a mix of that and people selling their junk, some of which was the same people with the same old junk every day. I haven't heard it in years but I wouldn't doubt that they're having people pushing pro-Trump and anti-vax garbage unless the station management is putting a stop to it (which I doubt is happening).
The station I work for does a Swap Shop with live callers. They can also call in anniversaries and birthdays with a drawing after the show for a birthday cake or dinner for 2 for the anniversary winner. Calls are about 40% things for sale. It is rare to not have a call coming in (it's 30 minutes). It is one of the most listened to programs we run. It's a pretty amazing station, #1 out of some 50 signals available on the dial (most major market) and not by just a share or two. We're talking the only local station for almost 75,000 people.
I haven't listened lately. I needed a button on my radio when WHVN started playing music and I don't need it back now with Rush gone, but I believe they're still doing this where I live. No music because there were plenty of callers.
It depends. Can the station still sell sponsorships for these programs? If so, then they might be able to soldier on for a bit longer.
My dad was part of that demographic. When my parents moved here to the midstate to be near us (me and my late sister) after they retired, my dad sought out a local radio station with one of these programs. He found (at least) one, that I was aware of. But he also bought stuff through the likes of Craigslist and Amazon. So he was a part of both generations.
My first station also had a call-in program that had music fill for time between callers. My thinking was that the program was too long for its relatively small audience. It was a half-hour long. I think that it would have served their audience better, had it been a concise 15 minutes. I remember on one of the occasions when I hosted the program, we got calls from BOTH spouses who had a car for sale. I only noticed because I wrote everything down, and had TWO identical calls for the SAME car with the SAME phone number. Apparently, they both called from work, and neither was aware that the other had called.
And if I recall correctly, this WASN'T a program that they inherited from the old WDSG, although they are now using WDSG's old frequency, right?
This has been an interesting thread, to say the least. A few pages back, there was discussion about interrupting a station's music format with sports presentations, usually live ballgames. When I was at the old WDXN in Clarksville, TN, back in 1993, the shoe was on the other foot. They tried a "hot country" format, in AM stereo, no less! This was less than an hour from Nashville (from where listeners could already hear it in FM stereo WITHOUT buying any new equipment!), so needless to say, it fell on (mostly) deaf ears.
However, the station's biggest draw was (far and away) Atlanta Braves baseball. If we ever pre-empted the games, or simply failed to carry the games, we would hear about it from our listeners! The first GM that I worked for declined to carry a game because it was during OUR afternoon drive! Made no sense to me! But since this was still during office hours, THEY fielded the calls from irate disappointed listeners asking questions like "don't you carry the Braves ANYMORE?" After a few of these calls, the GM relented, and let me join the game in progress, which was what I wanted to do anyway. The next GM (a REAL brain trust) pre-empted the Braves for the 13-year-old Clarksville All-Stars! We fielded calls from listeners about that, too (we had them on THREE stations at the time!), but there was nothing that I could do about it. It wasn't my call to make.
However, the station's biggest draw was (far and away) Atlanta Braves baseball. If we ever pre-empted the games, or simply failed to carry the games, we would hear about it from our listeners! The first GM that I worked for declined to carry a game because it was during OUR afternoon drive! Made no sense to me! But since this was still during office hours, THEY fielded the calls from irate disappointed listeners asking questions like "don't you carry the Braves ANYMORE?" After a few of these calls, the GM relented, and let me join the game in progress, which was what I wanted to do anyway. The next GM (a REAL brain trust) pre-empted the Braves for the 13-year-old Clarksville All-Stars! We fielded calls from listeners about that, too (we had them on THREE stations at the time!), but there was nothing that I could do about it. It wasn't my call to make.
Running baseball in afternoon drive calls for a lot of rescheduling of spots, especially a problem if you typically have a busy log. I don't know if this is the case today, but with the Chicago Cubs having had a lot of day games, they had a package where affiliate stations could take only night games.
Our phones were busy for the entire 55 minutes or 30 minutes.....almost 90 minutes of "I've got 2 used tires to trade for baby clothes". We had people who were running side businesses on our show.
It was brought over from WTRO's old frequency at 1330. They also had Paul Harvey when he was alive on both WTRO and WASL 100.1, which had been AC and then classic rock. I believe WTRO still carries St. Louis Cardinals baseball and University of Tennessee football. I hardly ever listen to them since they're out of range for me unless I happen to be in Dyersburg and UT football is on. I do listen to WASL at times though since it's Jack FM now and I can get them into Alamo and Jackson.
I would suspect that my station management knew the schedule months in advance, and could plan accordingly. But what do I know? I don't remember the log being particularly busy, and it would seem that they could reschedule the ads that they had.
Wouldn't doubt that for a minute. I remember someone on the old hometown station who advertised air-conditioning units nearly every day. They were in a neighboring county, so it was probably a long-distance call for most of the station's listeners.
This one in particular always started with a baby bedframe.
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