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Remember the Automated Format "Hit Parade"?

G

Gregg

102.3 St. Albans VT WWSR-FM
107.1 Barre VT WORK
92.1 Sanford ME WSME-FM
104.3 Gardiner ME WABK-FM

And possibly more Northern New England stations all
were Hit Parade stations in the 70s. Even though
the format required no live DJs, all the songs
were announced and the automation machine gave
several time checks each hour.

I suppose each station got numerous reels of
oldies, a few reels of recurrents and a reel or
two of currents. Each set would consist of two
songs of the same class, followed by a deep
voice announcing the songs. ("That's Chicago
and Saturday in The Park. We also heard Anne
Murray, Shadows in The Moonlight.")

Then we might hear a couple of commercials.
Then the deep voiced announcer would say "It's
9:17." Then a jingle would go "Hit Parade."
I don't think each station got a jingle of its
own. The announcer would give the call letters
and dial position but the jingle singers would
sing "Hit Parade." Then the automation would
play another set of two songs, followed by the
announcer and possibly another set of spots.
And so on...

The top of the hour ID would be the deep voiced
announcer saying "102.3 WWSR-FM St. Albans."
Followed by the jingle singers "Hit Parade."
I guess there was no exclusivity in the format
because WORK and WWSR had overlapping signals,
as did WABK and WSME. And what was so funny to
look back on was that all these stations had
fully staffed AM outlets. Management thought
it was wiser to fully staff the poor signal
day-only AM and keep the FM automated, despite
a signal that doubled or tripled the AM.
In those days few people listened to FM and
most car radios were AM only.



Gregg
[email protected]
 
> 102.3 St. Albans VT WWSR-FM
> 107.1 Barre VT WORK
> 92.1 Sanford ME WSME-FM
> 104.3 Gardiner ME WABK-FM
>

I'm pretty sure 1230/106.1 in Claremont, N.H. also carried Hitparade. 1230 was WTSV, but I think the FM had different calls by then. WECM maybe?

> I suppose each station got numerous reels of
> oldies, a few reels of recurrents and a reel or
> two of currents. Each set would consist of two
> songs of the same class, followed by a deep
> voice announcing the songs. ("That's Chicago
> and Saturday in The Park. We also heard Anne
> Murray, Shadows in The Moonlight.")
>


That was a different service, syndicated by TM. Forget what it was called. That one was around even into the mid-ish 80s. Hitparade was Drake-Chenault.

> And what was so funny to
> look back on was that all these stations had
> fully staffed AM outlets. Management thought
> it was wiser to fully staff the poor signal
> day-only AM and keep the FM automated, despite
> a signal that doubled or tripled the AM.
> In those days few people listened to FM and
> most car radios were AM only.
>

You just explained it in your last sentence. While FM was gaining and would dominate by the late 70s, early in that decade AM was still king.
 
I think the call letter at WABK at the time were WKME.I've got a bumper sticker from back then.
 
I remember hearing it on 98.5-WROR, Boston, from late 1968, though 1969. I also heard it on 96.9-WOUR, Utica, NY, around 1970-1971. At WOUR, it was kind of a transitional format. WOUR signed on as a religious station, in 1969. In 1971,
they began to program AOR/Progressive Rock. As a matter of fact, they are still an AOR/Classic Rock station, to this day.




102.3 St. Albans VT WWSR-FM
> 107.1 Barre VT WORK
> 92.1 Sanford ME WSME-FM
> 104.3 Gardiner ME WABK-FM
>
> And possibly more Northern New England stations all
> were Hit Parade stations in the 70s. Even though
> the format required no live DJs, all the songs
> were announced and the automation machine gave
> several time checks each hour.
>
> I suppose each station got numerous reels of
> oldies, a few reels of recurrents and a reel or
> two of currents. Each set would consist of two
> songs of the same class, followed by a deep
> voice announcing the songs. ("That's Chicago
> and Saturday in The Park. We also heard Anne
> Murray, Shadows in The Moonlight.")
>
> Then we might hear a couple of commercials.
> Then the deep voiced announcer would say "It's
> 9:17." Then a jingle would go "Hit Parade."
> I don't think each station got a jingle of its
> own. The announcer would give the call letters
> and dial position but the jingle singers would
> sing "Hit Parade." Then the automation would
> play another set of two songs, followed by the
> announcer and possibly another set of spots.
> And so on...
>
> The top of the hour ID would be the deep voiced
> announcer saying "102.3 WWSR-FM St. Albans."
> Followed by the jingle singers "Hit Parade."
> I guess there was no exclusivity in the format
> because WORK and WWSR had overlapping signals,
> as did WABK and WSME. And what was so funny to
> look back on was that all these stations had
> fully staffed AM outlets. Management thought
> it was wiser to fully staff the poor signal
> day-only AM and keep the FM automated, despite
> a signal that doubled or tripled the AM.
> In those days few people listened to FM and
> most car radios were AM only.
>
>
>
> Gregg
> [email protected]
>
 
> > 102.3 St. Albans VT WWSR-FM
> > 107.1 Barre VT WORK
> > 92.1 Sanford ME WSME-FM
> > 104.3 Gardiner ME WABK-FM
> >
>
> I'm pretty sure 1230/106.1 in Claremont, N.H. also carried
> Hitparade. 1230 was WTSV, but I think the FM had different
> calls by then. WECM maybe?
>
> > I suppose each station got numerous reels of
> > oldies, a few reels of recurrents and a reel or
> > two of currents. Each set would consist of two
> > songs of the same class, followed by a deep
> > voice announcing the songs. ("That's Chicago
> > and Saturday in The Park. We also heard Anne
> > Murray, Shadows in The Moonlight.")
> >
>
>
> That was a different service, syndicated by TM. Forget what
> it was called. That one was around even into the mid-ish
> 80s. Hitparade was Drake-Chenault.
>
> > And what was so funny to
> > look back on was that all these stations had
> > fully staffed AM outlets. Management thought
> > it was wiser to fully staff the poor signal
> > day-only AM and keep the FM automated, despite
> > a signal that doubled or tripled the AM.
> > In those days few people listened to FM and
> > most car radios were AM only.
> >
>
> You just explained it in your last sentence. While FM was
> gaining and would dominate by the late 70s, early in that
> decade AM was still king.
>

Yes Hit Parade was Drake...I believe the deep voiced guy was either Robert W. Morgan or Humble Harv...Bill Drake had his Boss Jocks from LA do the liners back then...a little extra money for them....Bill Drake generally only voiced the RKO clients "ladies and gentlemen Mark Elliot.....KHJ Los Angeles.......
They also sent along some acapellas from the Johnny Mann singers...solid gold...golden.....hitbound.....etc
 
Drake formatted FM'ers of the 1970's.

You are correct in 106.1 in Claremont, NH having the WECM call-letters in the late '70's. They did have the Drake/Chenault "Hit Parade" format. WSME-FM (92.1) in Sanford, ME did have "Hit Parade" as well, but DID break away every Friday 6:00 PM for "Solid Gold Weekend", using Drake's automated all oldies format until Sunday nights at midnight. I also recall hearing "Hit Parade" on WKME (104.3, Gardiner, Augusta, ME) in 1976 while vacationing in the Lakes Region of NH. ALSO, WHMP-FM (99.3) in Northhampton, MA, WMYS (98.1) in New Bedford and WBRK-FM (101.7) in Pittsfield, MA used a variation of "Hit Parade" called "Contempo 300", all about the same time (1975-1979).

>
> I'm pretty sure 1230/106.1 in Claremont, N.H. also carried
> Hitparade. 1230 was WTSV, but I think the FM had different
> calls by then. WECM maybe?

73,

Peter Q. (K1XRB)
> <P ID="signature">______________
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts</P>
 
Yes, you are correct, I listened to them a lot back in 1976-77 when I was in the Coast Guard here at Southwest Harbor. The put in a good signal to the west side of Mount Desert Island back then, (and still do) They had a great top-of-the-hour ID "Stereo 104, WKME Gardiner-Augusta", then the jingle.."Hit parrraaade!" I enjoyed the format so much, I recorded a lot of the music right off the air onto reels and cassettes. Can still remember the day Elvis died, I heard it right on WKME, a live announcer came on with the news and started playing a bunch of Elvis tunes in tribute.




> I think the call letter at WABK at the time were WKME.I've
> got a bumper sticker from back then.
>
 
We ran Contempo 300 on WFMP Fitchburg. For awhile we experimented
by running Hit Parade at night only. This was between 1978 and
1981. The station went by M-104.



> > > 102.3 St. Albans VT WWSR-FM
> > > 107.1 Barre VT WORK
> > > 92.1 Sanford ME WSME-FM
> > > 104.3 Gardiner ME WABK-FM
> > >
> >
> > I'm pretty sure 1230/106.1 in Claremont, N.H. also carried
>
> > Hitparade. 1230 was WTSV, but I think the FM had
> different
> > calls by then. WECM maybe?
> >
> > > I suppose each station got numerous reels of
> > > oldies, a few reels of recurrents and a reel or
> > > two of currents. Each set would consist of two
> > > songs of the same class, followed by a deep
> > > voice announcing the songs. ("That's Chicago
> > > and Saturday in The Park. We also heard Anne
> > > Murray, Shadows in The Moonlight.")
> > >
> >
> >
> > That was a different service, syndicated by TM. Forget
> what
> > it was called. That one was around even into the mid-ish
> > 80s. Hitparade was Drake-Chenault.
> >
> > > And what was so funny to
> > > look back on was that all these stations had
> > > fully staffed AM outlets. Management thought
> > > it was wiser to fully staff the poor signal
> > > day-only AM and keep the FM automated, despite
> > > a signal that doubled or tripled the AM.
> > > In those days few people listened to FM and
> > > most car radios were AM only.
> > >
> >
> > You just explained it in your last sentence. While FM was
>
> > gaining and would dominate by the late 70s, early in that
> > decade AM was still king.
> >
>
> Yes Hit Parade was Drake...I believe the deep voiced guy was
> either Robert W. Morgan or Humble Harv...Bill Drake had his
> Boss Jocks from LA do the liners back then...a little extra
> money for them....Bill Drake generally only voiced the RKO
> clients "ladies and gentlemen Mark Elliot.....KHJ Los
> Angeles.......
> They also sent along some acapellas from the Johnny Mann
> singers...solid gold...golden.....hitbound.....etc
>
 
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