These days virtually no Top 40 stations air any news outside of traffic reports/sports/entertainment. But I've read on this forum about many top 40 stations in the sixties that did air quite a bit of news. Why? Did teenage listeners of the time pay any attention, or was it just noise? Did top 40 news sound any different than the news on MOR/country stations? And why did top 40 stations give up on news?
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News and top 40 stations
- Thread starter installLSC
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Back then, radio stations were more full service than they are now...with smart phones and the Internet, local news on radio has gone by the wayside due to the bean counters....Top40 stations did the same news but sometimes in a shorter format (5mins per hour) than other formats.
They didn't run news because they wanted to. If you read Rick Sklar's book "Rockin' America," he says he was forced to run news by the ABC suits. He felt any break in format would hurt the audience. Teenagers of the time treated it as teenagers today treat it. Some stations like CKLW in Detroit tried to make the news more intense, more energetic to keep the momentum going. But the minute stations were no longer required to do a certain amount of news, they quickly and gladly wiped it out. Not because of bean counters but because of ratings.
Canadian AM top forty stations ran news until the end, and the funny thing is they were considered respectable sources. Stations like 630 CHED in Edmonton also ran opinion commentary 3 times a day. This was common throughout the 80's into the early 90's. The kids I grew up with actually listened as intensely as they did with the music. We knew the names of the commentators, news anchors and would even talk about the same things they did. Outside of drive times they did a shorter segment of news like CHED's 63 second update, CKLG's 73 second update, CKY's 58 seconds, and AM 106's 106 seconds. 5 pm was always the last update.
F
FredLeonard
Guest
Yes, some did run news because they "had to" and considered news a resented intrusion.
Others treated it as a potential asset and strove to do news well. Examples include Group W stations in Boston, Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne, and Keener 13 in Detroit (among others). The Top 40 audience was not all teeny-boppers and there were listeners who wanted news included in a full service package with music and personality DJs.
Now, instead of five minute newscasts every hour, stations run five minute (or more) commercial stop-sets. Talk about intrusions!
Others treated it as a potential asset and strove to do news well. Examples include Group W stations in Boston, Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne, and Keener 13 in Detroit (among others). The Top 40 audience was not all teeny-boppers and there were listeners who wanted news included in a full service package with music and personality DJs.
Now, instead of five minute newscasts every hour, stations run five minute (or more) commercial stop-sets. Talk about intrusions!
In my area, most stations did local news in the 60's-80's. There were usually at least two reporters on staff, though sometimes they also had to be fill-in DJs, and the indispensable "company car" for remotes (usually a "woodie" station wagon with the call letters enameled in loud multicolors on the side.) Some even did credible investigative reporting. Almost all offered network news as well; CBS was on the full-service "granny station" which had by far the biggest news department, though shared with their then-sister TV station. The two country stations carried NBC and Mutual, and the several rock/pop stations offered one or another of the ABC networks. But news, and people to cover it, costs money, and that was that.
Recently, a sort of mini "press-radio war" has been going on between the local newspaper and radio outlets. They're threatening to sue any radio station that uses their paper as the basis for a rip-'n'-read newscast; including AP items, even though one station cluster here has the same AP wire as they do. (That's the former "granny station," now a sort of "stealth" right-wing talker, which is to say they are one but don't admit it as another station in the cluster promotes itself in that role.)
Recently, a sort of mini "press-radio war" has been going on between the local newspaper and radio outlets. They're threatening to sue any radio station that uses their paper as the basis for a rip-'n'-read newscast; including AP items, even though one station cluster here has the same AP wire as they do. (That's the former "granny station," now a sort of "stealth" right-wing talker, which is to say they are one but don't admit it as another station in the cluster promotes itself in that role.)
Top 40 stations did not give up on news. The FCC changed its attitude relative to renewal expectations.
In the 60's and 70's, the FCC would question any AM that did not have 8% non-entertainment or any FM that was less than 6%. Non-entertainment was basically news, public affairs, and "other" (educational, religious, etc) programming. If a station's license renewal's "composite week" had lower than these percentages, they would issue a letter of inquiry that was essentially "if not, why not".
With the extension of license periods and changes in renewal procedures, the need to have those percentages of news, PA and Other was interpreted by stations and legal counsel to have been reduced or eliminated. So predominantly music stations shed a lot of their news and related programming. They did this because they believed that in many dayparts that listeners did not want news interruptions and such.
But even before this, those of us with CHR or contemporary stations dumped lots of our news into overnights and did things like taking National Enquirer-like articles and making news bites out of them. We already knew by the early 70's that the audience was not interested in news outside of morning drive (and afternoons in some cases). And with the changes in some AMs to even heavier news and information based formats, people knew where to go for news and often did not want the same thing on their music station.
That depended on the station. Some, like KFI in Los Angeles during its Top 40 years (1977-1982) did news like the MORs. Others amped up the approach to suit the station. Probably the best example is CKLW, Windsor/Detroit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZiPXwbtbew
Others found a way to do excellent long-form newscasts with production values and pacing a bit different from the old-line stations. KHJ, Los Angeles is a good example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cHZJEEi95I
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The real downside of all this is that stations "back in the day" (I HATE that cliche!) were genuinely competitive with one another at uncovering and "breaking" stories. They were really hustling! Now there's no incentive. One station out of a six-station cluster here packages the news (such as it is) for all six, not even bothering with individual ID's; WCAT news comes "From the WDOG newsroom." Another group has a sister TV station supplying their news, while the third has a cross-plug deal with a TV operation that literally does the same newscast on two different stations simultaneously with different anchors.
Yes and no. In L.A. in the sixties, there really weren't more than three music stations doing stellar news coverage...KFI, KMPC and KHJ....two old-line MORs and one Top 40. The others were hit-and-miss and a lot of them were just ripping and reading the wire services, or doing "alternative" approaches to news like KRLA.
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Was news director/reporter/producer at a station in Athens GA in 1971. TOH UPI re-writes and what local news I could scarf up. Management insisted on using an electronic separator ('duh-duh-dah-dah") between each story to jazz up the sound a bit. Hated that thing. Also had to produce M-F 15-min PSA on local issues, weekly 30-minute "Visit with the Mayor." Competition was a CBS A</FM and an ABC Entertainment AM. Shortly after I left, they ditched news altogether.
Top 40 News
I guess I was a weird kid, but unlike my friends, I stayed tuned into Top 40 stations when the news was on. As I remember it, Top 40 stations mostly ran short newscasts (2-4 minutes) on the hour and half hour from the 50s to mid 60s. I grew up in LA, and seem to recall that KFWB tried counterprogramming KRLA for awhile by running news just before the hour and half-hour. In 1965, Bill Drake programmed stations took over the radio dial, and mixed it up further with "20/20 News," which ran at:40. Their weekday anchors were either stentorian sounding and had deep voices (Marv Howard) or were downright pompous and theatrical, like Jaaaaaaaay Pauuuuuuul Huddleston. They were a lot of fun to listen to. 20/20 News had teletype sound effects and jingles for sports and weather. I recall that Drake was quoted as saying (paraphrasing), "If I have to run news by FCC rules, we will produce an excellent news broadcast." I recall that they paid extra money to run nation wide reports from UPI, and had a number of local field reporters in LA. By the late 60s, KHJ and other Top 40 stations made their newscasts longer (10-12 minutes), but only ran them 3 or 4 times a day outside of morning drive.
KHJ and most other Drake stations ran straight-forward news. I believe CKLW was the only Drake station into that blood-spattered, gory and sensationalism thing.
In the late 60s, KFWB became LA's first all news station, and KRLA tried being the hip counter-culture AM rock station, including a satirical left-leaning news program called "The Credibility Gap." One of the "news" people on that program was Harry Shearer, later of Saturday Night Live, various voices on The Simpsons, Le Show on NPR, and many many voice-overs. Two other actors on the show were David L. Lander and Michael McKean, later Lenny & Squiggy on Laverne & Shirley. McKean, probably now in his 60s, still gets a lot of work in films and TV.
The Gap staff eventually wore out their welcome with KRLA management, and the station reverted to a more KHJ style newscast with the likes of Paul Oscar Anderson, another in a long line of pompous Top 40 newscasters, and an expert in the "prenant pause...he signed off with; "This (3 to 5 second pause) is Pauuulll OSCAR Anderson."
In the Bay Area of the 70s and 80s, the only equivalent was a guy named Gil Haar who worked at a number of AM and FM rock stations, and signed off with ..."and that's the news, so now ya know." He retired about a decade ago.
Most of these anchors have disappered - an anachronism I guess. The only exception I've heard in the past few years is the semi-pompous Doug Limerick on ABC radio news, and I've heard he worked WABC during their Top 40 format in the 60s and 70s.
I guess I was a weird kid, but unlike my friends, I stayed tuned into Top 40 stations when the news was on. As I remember it, Top 40 stations mostly ran short newscasts (2-4 minutes) on the hour and half hour from the 50s to mid 60s. I grew up in LA, and seem to recall that KFWB tried counterprogramming KRLA for awhile by running news just before the hour and half-hour. In 1965, Bill Drake programmed stations took over the radio dial, and mixed it up further with "20/20 News," which ran at:40. Their weekday anchors were either stentorian sounding and had deep voices (Marv Howard) or were downright pompous and theatrical, like Jaaaaaaaay Pauuuuuuul Huddleston. They were a lot of fun to listen to. 20/20 News had teletype sound effects and jingles for sports and weather. I recall that Drake was quoted as saying (paraphrasing), "If I have to run news by FCC rules, we will produce an excellent news broadcast." I recall that they paid extra money to run nation wide reports from UPI, and had a number of local field reporters in LA. By the late 60s, KHJ and other Top 40 stations made their newscasts longer (10-12 minutes), but only ran them 3 or 4 times a day outside of morning drive.
KHJ and most other Drake stations ran straight-forward news. I believe CKLW was the only Drake station into that blood-spattered, gory and sensationalism thing.
In the late 60s, KFWB became LA's first all news station, and KRLA tried being the hip counter-culture AM rock station, including a satirical left-leaning news program called "The Credibility Gap." One of the "news" people on that program was Harry Shearer, later of Saturday Night Live, various voices on The Simpsons, Le Show on NPR, and many many voice-overs. Two other actors on the show were David L. Lander and Michael McKean, later Lenny & Squiggy on Laverne & Shirley. McKean, probably now in his 60s, still gets a lot of work in films and TV.
The Gap staff eventually wore out their welcome with KRLA management, and the station reverted to a more KHJ style newscast with the likes of Paul Oscar Anderson, another in a long line of pompous Top 40 newscasters, and an expert in the "prenant pause...he signed off with; "This (3 to 5 second pause) is Pauuulll OSCAR Anderson."
In the Bay Area of the 70s and 80s, the only equivalent was a guy named Gil Haar who worked at a number of AM and FM rock stations, and signed off with ..."and that's the news, so now ya know." He retired about a decade ago.
Most of these anchors have disappered - an anachronism I guess. The only exception I've heard in the past few years is the semi-pompous Doug Limerick on ABC radio news, and I've heard he worked WABC during their Top 40 format in the 60s and 70s.
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We've got a real pause-meister on a regional (Learfield) network here... "Annnn--drew...Beckett...Wisconsin...Radio Network!"
One particular problem that ABC's owned stations faced until the mid-60's (when "ABC Radio" split amoeba-like into ABC Contemporary, Entertainment, Information, etc.) was that they were obligated to take all network programs, which at the time included an hour-long news roundup at 6 PM; along with Don McNeill's corny "Breakfast Club" show in the morning and Paul Harvey at noon, whose program was, I believe, a half hour then. (Not to mention odds-and-ends like Dennis Day singing Irish songs, sponsored by Archway cookies!) Once ABC subdivided itself, these shows were "divvied-up" among its various networks.
I suspect these longer-form programs were more the problem than the five-minute newscasts. As I understand it, the original ABC Radio network had been preferred by rock 'n' roll stations because they did their news at :55; so they would be playing music while CBS, NBC, or Mutual were doing TOH news. Their slogan back then was something like "News first, fast, and five minutes earlier on ABC!"
"Five minutes SOONER." Two syllables were faster than three. It's all about being concise.
We've got a real pause-meister on a regional (Learfield) network here... "Annnn--drew...Beckett...Wisconsin...Radio Network!"
There was a news guy at a number of stations in eastern NC in the late 70s who did the pause thing. "This.....................is [ex-TV weatherman]."
A friend of mine was the engineer at one of the places this guy worked. As a prank one day, he reset the detection time on the automation system's silence-sense, so the guy's pause stunt would trigger the next event in the automation.
F
FredLeonard
Guest
I once worked for a sleavy jingle package salesman who talked his way into becoming a PD and then the group owners made him a GM. Guy was addicted to news production gimmicks from at least 10 years before. Anyone working evenings or nights was supposed to record a couple of wire service stories over the phone line to sound like voicers in the morning.
He insisted on opening the news with "Good (daypart), (name of city), this is (name of announcers) and I have news for you." Sometimes read as "I have news for youse." UPI wire stories always began with the name of the city in parentheses and he insisted were read the city using an echo button before each story.
One time, the news director du jour read the news without that, and the GM came storming in and demanded, "Why didn't you use that echo button?" "Because it doesn't work." "Why doesn't it work?" Because I didn't push it!" He later went on to a long career in major market TV news.
He insisted on opening the news with "Good (daypart), (name of city), this is (name of announcers) and I have news for you." Sometimes read as "I have news for youse." UPI wire stories always began with the name of the city in parentheses and he insisted were read the city using an echo button before each story.
One time, the news director du jour read the news without that, and the GM came storming in and demanded, "Why didn't you use that echo button?" "Because it doesn't work." "Why doesn't it work?" Because I didn't push it!" He later went on to a long career in major market TV news.
I suppose using "sooner" was almost obligatory in Indiana.
You mean Oklahoma?
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