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Remember the movie "FM" ?

B

Betelguese

At the time I thought it was a cool movie. Perhaps a bit too Hollywood but, cool. Some thirty years later I rented it from the video store, watched it again and thought
man, this is ridiculous but, the music was still pretty cool and it was great to see a very young Jimmy Buffet and Linda Ronstadt concert footage.

I'm sure you guys all have really interesting opinions....
 
I remember it very well. A bunch of us went to see it at the theatre when it first came out, then I taped it from network TV a few years later (still around here in a box full of VHS tapes). I also bought the soundtrack double-album complete with the Q-SKY poster...."we never come down to earth." I always thought the best part was the very beginning where Michael Brandon (the PD) overslept for his morning drive shift and Cleavon Little (the overnight jock) called to wake him up, then left the studio with "Life In the Fast Lane" playing on the air while Brandon was hauling a** to get to the studio just as the song was ending, jumped into the chair, opened the mic and did his thing. Reminds me of a few times I ran late for an air shift.
I still think it was one of the best movie soundtracks, and pretty much what Q-95 was playing on the air at the time...no static at all!
 
Great soundtrack...the 2 minute version of Petty's "Breakdown". I think that was Martin Mull's debut. Double album set. Someone told me that movie is what inspired WKRP but I disagree. It was a little hokey with the Army sergeant getting stoned & especially the groupie with no nipples!
 
I've heard of FM, but never seen it. I was 8 when it was released.
 
This film was hugely influential for me. I'd always wanted to work in radio and this pretty much cemented it. Sure the story was hokey but as others have said the soundtrack was great. Watching it now I cringe at the scene where they are throwing albums around... all that vinyl, trashed!

Remember the young kid sitting in the toilet practicing his schtick? Yeah, I did that too.

As I recall the Army commercials depicted in the film were actual recruitment ads of the time.

At the Jimmy Buffett concert the discussion about how it would be great if they could just get rid of the music altogether and just have wall-to-wall commercials. Even back in '78 the suits were looking to squeeze an extra buck out of it even if it meant killing the station in the process.

It was a staple on the old STARZ network for years. VHS copies abound on ebay but I've never seen it on DVD. Still have the original soundtrack on LP but not the Q-sky poster.

Some time back an expanded soundtrack was re issued on CD but I didn't buy it as I have all the original records of the newly-included music.
 
Basnya said:
It was a staple on the old STARZ network for years. VHS copies abound on ebay but I've never seen it on DVD.
Click to expand...

Like so many other great pieces of its time, the rumor is that a DVD release has long been mired in Music Right Purgatory.
 
Great movie! Couple things that stand out include "Mother" Eileen Brennan broadcasting doing a remote from a store window and say something completely nonsensical (I don't remember what though) and the owner of the station coming in wearing his 10 gallon hat and cowboy boots to ultimately vindicate Dugan and his QSKY crew.
 
Am I wrong? But isnt that how you sometimes feel while dealing with sales people, sorry for those that are..dont read this go count your money...

I thought that FM was great! What about "Play Misty For ME"? Clint Eastwood, 19..something I think it was his first film as a director. That film freaks me out sometimes.
Anypoop that is my two bits.
 
Funny this thread came up...I just screened FM for my broadcasting class at a local college. They seemed to enjoy it except the Linda Ronstadt parts.
 
I LOVE THIS MOVIE! :) :D

I remember when album oriented rock was rare in Hoosierland until WFBQ made the switch in 1978. This movie came out right around that same time. The soundtrack album was promoted for its title song by Steely Dan but the movie itself hardly got (if any)promotion and if it did it was still overshadowed by "Grease" that same year.

I remember when Jimmy Buffett still had hair and Linda Ronstandt wasn't re-hashing adult standards yet.

Loved the scene where Jeff Dugan (Michael Brandon) was racing to the station outrunning the cops and made it into the studio just in time the record ended. A cult favorite of radio freaks as far as I'm concerned along with the equally under-promoted "American Hit Wax" with Tim McIntire as Alan Freed,Larraine Newman(of SNL)and Fran Dreisher along with Screamin' Jay Hawkins,Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis still looking 1950s youthful at that time.
 
nightfly61 said:
Great soundtrack...the 2 minute version of Petty's "Breakdown". I think that was Martin Mull's debut. Double album set. Someone told me that movie is what inspired WKRP but I disagree. It was a little hokey with the Army sergeant getting stoned & especially the groupie with no nipples!
Click to expand...

WKRQ and WKRC Inspired WKRP.
 
it`s a fun movie. I saw it at the arlington theater in indianapolis as part of a double feature(remember those?) with saturday night fever.

off topic.does anyone from indianapolis remember the arlington theater?
 
ChiefEngineer said:
nightfly61 said:
WKRQ and WKRC Inspired WKRP.
Click to expand...

Actually Susquehanna Broadcasting was much of the inspiration for "WKRP". There was an actual Arthur J. Carlson at Susquehanna (VP of programming) and one of the WKRP writers was a former Susquehanna employee. The real Mr. Art Carlson threatened to sue when he learned of the TV character's name but backed off when advised that a lawsuit would create more publicity that just letting it slide.
Click to expand...
 
Own it on VHS :)

"Look pal..I don't give a sh*t if you're the Messiah..come down from Jerusalem to make my life perfect! Nobody walks into this booth when I'm making my art..NOBODY!!!"
- Eric Swann
 
The Arlington theatre was a stand-alone, as most theatres used to be. It was in a nice (at the time) sort of strip mall. The best theatre in that time period (70s) was the Eastwood. It had the big screen and great audio. Star Wars Indiana debut was there.
 
Pardon my typo..it was "American Hot Wax" not "hit" as I got too rushed. Also loved the scene when Eric Swan (Martin Mull..later as Principal Kraft on "Sabrina") went into an on air depression/stupor begging to be loved by gorgeous young women when Jeff Dugan intervened in the studio holding up a pillow for Swan to punch out his frustrations...finally Swan (escorted by Dugan)received an accolade of young cheering girls in the lobby who answered his call. Back then when I first saw this film I debated in my mind "what if I did that?......nah!" Fortunately, I moved back to Ohio a year later and met my wife.
 
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