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So what do you call it?

The World Radio-TV Handbooks of the 1970s used to call it "Good Music," IIRC. :)

I was a fan of MOR stations in the 70s to a degree....but since the "road" has gotten rougher, "MOR" today would be Miley Cyrus, Maroon 5, ...heck, I don't even listen to enough modern pop to know what would pass for 21st century MOR.

WAIA "A1A" 97.3 Miami in the 70s had a top-of-the hour statement, "Between the rock.....and the soft place...."

Trouble is, even the softer stuff today has the instruments so loud that you cannot even make out the words...much like top 40 in the earlier days. You don't hear singers....you hear arrangements.

cd
 
I don't think so......I don't have any of those old books, but I'm sure that WLW, WGN & the others had the "Good Music" moniker. Anyone here that can verify?

(World Radio-TV Handbook has never listed FM stations in the US. Can't think of a lot of "beautiful music" stations on AM in the 70s. I'm sure there were a few, but any at 10 kW or more, like W.R.T.H. would list? WVCG in Coral Gables FL was one, but hmmm....)

[Edit....I think I know now what semoochie meant....I was referring to how MOR was called "Good Music" in the W.R.T.H.es, although that was their way of referring to MOR.]

cd
 
EZway2go said:
I completely agree with Nick Gerard. I always thought it would be a neat idea to put up a billboard for a station with this format that simply said the following...

"Remember When You Heard Good Music On Your Radio? Hear It Again On [call letters/frequency]."
Click to expand...

For some reason, we seem to be popular with folks who work at other radio stations.

One of my helpers made note of that situation and produced a tongue -in-cheek liner to the effect of, "At QX-FM, we welcome listeners who work for other radio stations. After all, even they need something good to listen to."

I've never had the guts to run it though... ;D
 
Yes. The GOOD MUSIC moniker berlonged to the "beautiful music" stations - NOT the full service/mor stations

"WLW, WGN had the good music moniker"

Not at WGN. They have ALWAY been "full service."

In the 60's they were "first in sound, first in service, first in sports."
Later they were, "radio home of millions throughout mid-America."

LIVE country music from "Lino Frigo and the Musical Wheels" during the 5-6am farm show. The rest of the day, MUSIC WAS VERY
GENERAL. mor - BUT OCCASIONAL "POP."

Wally Phillips (morning drive) only played 2 songs in 4 hours, usually Bert Kaempfert or Billy Vaughn. The station had finesse; Mantovani - but also Jim Croce, not quite Elvis/Beatles (but they did on occasion) Sarah Vaughan, no "rock annd roll" til Uncle Bobby Collins -Jerry Lee - but also Barbara Streisand. Very Ecclectic.

They were/are more "pop culture" and "general." They had specific "schmaltzier" programs, like around dinner music time and Sunday mornings after some religous programs, "Music Unlimited," but they also featured "The Barn Dance" on Saturday night. Franklyn MacCormack had been a "big band" (Wayne King) alum and he played mostly "music to sleep by" overnights. Late Saturday nights Paul Rogers played beaut music cuts and jazz. Late Sunday nights Floyd Brown played Jazz and Gospel.
 
Chuck said:
Since my station doesn't really fit in what a lot of people are expecting when you say "Standards" I've been pondering the question. There must be a better (more marketable) way to describe it. How about "Soft Oldies?" Just a thought....
Click to expand...

Hmmm, listening to Unforgettable QX FM, I can see your point. Actually, my first thought was to just stick with Unforgettable, especially with those nostalgic tidbits and jingles from years ago (a neat touch, I might add).

Forget Standards and forget Soft Oldies. The Louis Prima type stuff is far from soft. As I said in an earlier post, Standards to me is a strict regimen of things like "The Very Thought Of You." Oldies, on the other hand, means rock-n-roll to me.

I was thinking of something along the lines of "60 Years of Pop Classics" or "Vintage Pop."
 
EZway2go said:
Chuck said:
Since my station doesn't really fit in what a lot of people are expecting when you say "Standards" I've been pondering the question. There must be a better (more marketable) way to describe it. How about "Soft Oldies?" Just a thought....
Click to expand...

Hmmm, listening to Unforgettable QX FM, I can see your point. Actually, my first thought was to just stick with Unforgettable, especially with those nostalgic tidbits and jingles from years ago (a neat touch, I might add).

Forget Standards and forget Soft Oldies. The Louis Prima type stuff is far from soft. As I said in an earlier post, Standards to me is a strict regimen of things like "The Very Thought Of You." Oldies, on the other hand, means rock-n-roll to me.

I was thinking of something along the lines of "60 Years of Pop Classics" or "Vintage Pop."
Click to expand...

Well, it is 60 years (or maybe a little more) of popular classics. You might be on to something...
 
When Red 104.1 in St.Louis had a "lounge" type standards format a few years ago, they used "Music With Class."

Similarly, KKZZ AM in the Ventura CA market was playing standards earlier in this decade and they used "Music With Style."

I thought both of these slogans were great and wished we'd had one of them at my station. Still, while they may have communicated "cool" to existing listeners, they wouldn't really tell the story to someone unfamiliar with the station.

The St. Louis station also had a terrific visual logo, with "Red 104.1" in art deco style letters alongside a martini glass.

Nick Gerard
 
West Palm Beach has "The Sound of the Strip" which is similar to Red in St. Louis. However, it's only on WEAT's HD 2!

cd
 
I agree that Red had a great graphic logo. We sometimes use the term "radio with class" in a few of our liners, but that can really backfire on you if the automation decides it should be followed by Roger Miller's "Do-Waka-Do," or some such similar piece. :eek:
 
Just thinking..............................
"When music was MUSIC?" or

"Where all the good songs have gone." or

"60 years from the Great American Songbook."

"Where Tony, Frank, Ella and Dean still sing."

"Familiar music is always Close to You."
 
Ray Charles lives here. So does Rosemary Clooney, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, The Lettermen, and The Nelson Riddle Orchestra. We play the original hits of the 40's, 50's and 60's every day.
 
Prais said:
"Familiar music is always Close to You."
Click to expand...
Just to be clear, that's Al Martino, not The Carpenters.

I like The Carpenters, but it would be nice to have a station with just standards, as opposed to what is being called standards.
 
Chimp,
You need an i-pod.

NO station, anywhere, could survive on what YOU call "standards." It's WAAAYY to old-skewing.

Jeff Rollins and those guys have it right. Some people even dislike it even in the nursing home where I play that music (automated) on the cctv channel.
 
Dial Global sounds fine. They keep playing more real standards and it makes the more AC-sounding tunes easier to take.

Another station where I live leans much more toward standards, but you hardly hear any commercials and they finally fired their morning DJ (the people on this site say the rest of the music must be hard disk) and added a talk show. Then they added a sports talk show. Then another one.
 
25 years ago I helped a friend with a small market AM who wanted a MOR flavor to his station. We came up with
Nice Songs as a frequent promo liner, though the station never used that as it's day in day out image.

The old TM Productions had a Burt Bacharach-esque jingle package back in the early 70's entitled "Where Your Friends Are."
One of the stock jingles had the call letters sung with one of my favorite phrases, "Keeps on playin' the good songs."
 
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