Stereo 104 (Late '70's)

[pensive sojourner]

Can anyone here help me? In 1978 I began listening to Stereo 104 (104.1) WTPA-FM in Harrisburg. I really enjoyed their unique format which was an interesting mix of standards and soft AC and occasional instrumentals. They featured Bob Janus on in mornings and Jack Wagner in afternoon drive and the balance was filled with fifteen minute blocks of music on automation in which the music was on reel to reel but constant play for the block and if you listened often and attentively enough you always knew which song was coming up next. Anyway, the instrumentals they played were upbeat and jazz intensive. Is there anyone here who would know who the artist was for a very jazz-fusion sounding version of "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing"? The dominant instrument was a saxophone I believe. Also they played a very upbeat jazzed-up version of "Laughter In The Rain" in which the piano was the dominant instrument. Any help identifying the artists for these songs or help in directing me to where I can find out would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks.

 

[loeper]

Back in those years , when there were still some FMs that programed "beautiful Music", some of the bigger companys like Bonneville or Susquhanna commissioned instramental arragements of reciently popular tunes to fit that format. These arrangements were recorded by studio musicians exclusivly for the "beautiful music market' and were never released commercially. I am guessing the recordings you mentioned fell into that catagory. at that time(1978) I was working for Susquhanna at WSBA-FM and they were listed on our playlists as being done by "The Susquhanna Strings" . I don't know what Bonnevile called them. we just didn't DARE refer to it as "elevator music". I wonder if anybody even remembers "the sound of your life"?

 

[John-Summers]

The Sound of Your Life on Bright and Beautiful FM 103? I certainly remember it, as one of the most unusual stops in my radio career. In 1980 was doing weekends and fill-in on WSBA-AM and was asked by Marshall Passmore if I would like to pick up some extra hours doing the same thing on WSBA-FM, which was Easy Listening. Me, a former Top 40 jock. I thought why not. On one hand it was easy, because you only spoke every 13 minutes or so. On the other hand it was challenging, because those breaks had to be interesting and well thought-out. We were never to call it "Beautiful Music" as so many other stations did. It was "Easy Listening." They would adapt popular songs to the Easy Listening sound, sometimes with amusing results. Who can forget the "Manchester Singers" rendition of "Kiss You All Over" for example?

Finding a particular version of a track would be next impossible now. Susquehanna devised and distributed their own brand, but Bonneville and Schulke were the leading syndicators of the Easy Listening format, in this area on WGAL-FM and WHP-FM, respectively. The instrumentals were said to be arranged and recorded as an extra revenue source by European and Asian symphony orchestras.

All heavily sedated I'm sure.

 

[loeper]

John, while FM103.3 "the sound of your life" was unusual...and I thank you for the laughter provided in your post, it was kind of challanging for the on air folks. You are correct, everything in and out of the brakes had to be thought out and had to make some kind of sense. the people on the other side of that building never really understood that. It was a big reason that WSBA FM had those killer ratings at that time. After I married Barb and moved to DC i worked part time for a while for a bonneville beautiful music station , ( EZ106) and all we were allowed to do was read off of index cards in and out of brakes. The big thrill was doing a 60 second newscast at the top of the hour. Looking back,I think my stay at WSBA-FM was pretty rewarding for me. It was a dumb format , but i felt like a pro doing it. I think Marshall made all us of feel that way . I still miss that crazy dude.

 

[stoshman]

the band 'vitamin string quartet' sounds like the 21st century of this classic format.........

 

[pensive sojourner]

Thanks loeper. I agree with you that with the "beautiful music" formats quite often the instrumentals were arranged and performed by studio musicians for Bonneville, etc. I worked at WCTX in the '80's and we had reels from Bonneville. In the case of WTPA though I think we are talking regular commercial music being used. I worked with Jack Wagner when he came to CTX and he told me that the music used on the automation were mostly the personal records of the air talent but he was not certain about the songs in question. I really believe they were some jazz fusion band. I've been trying to figure this out for over thirty years. ???

Back in those years , when there were still some FMs that programed "beautiful Music", some of the bigger companys like Bonneville or Susquhanna commissioned instramental arragements of reciently popular tunes to fit that format. These arrangements were recorded by studio musicians exclusivly for the "beautiful music market' and were never released commercially. I am guessing the recordings you mentioned fell into that catagory. at that time(1978) I was working for Susquhanna at WSBA-FM and they were listed on our playlists as being done by "The Susquhanna Strings" . I don't know what Bonnevile called them. we just didn't DARE refer to it as "elevator music". I wonder if anybody even remembers "the sound of your life"?

 

[pensive sojourner]

Thanks for your help on this one as well John. I remember helping you guys out at PDC probably twenty-five years ago for about an hour. Big Al Stevens was working a Saturday morning and had to leave for an emergency and I came over and ran the board for an hour till you got there. Ah the memories.

 

[vetguy]

When Steinman's owned WGAL-FM they ran tapes that they had owned for years with no brand on them. Pretty crappy quality. I believe they were recorded themselves. The story also goes that one of the Steinman brothers had to ballroom dance for physical therapy every afternoon. The station switched to a certain group of tapes that he liked to dance to, I think from 2-3 every afternoon. When Hall took over the station in March of 1977 the station became WNCE, Nice-101 and they switched to music from a company in Southfied, MI, near Detroit, something like Broacast Programming, Inc. (?) owned by a guy named Tom Krikorian. Around '79-80 or so they switched to a music provider out of Chicago who ran the FM100 beautiful music station there out of the Hancock tower. That station manager syndicated his music to other stations under the FM100 brand. Later in the 80's Nice-101 switched to Bonneville. WNCE never ran Schulke. WSBA-FM gave up the beautiful music audience to Nice-101 and became WARM. While automated most of the time, I don't think the WNCE staff recording the weather even mentioned that it would be "warm" outside and it was said that across the river in York, the staff was never to say it was a "nice" day. Thank-you Arbitron! I believe even FM-97 was beautiful music way before 1977 at one time.

 

[John-Summers]

As soon as I wrote that WGAL-FM used Bonneville I knew that was incorrect, that it had been it's successor, WNCE, after the sale to Hall. It wouldn't have been like the Steinmans to spend that kind of money on radio! WHP-FM used Schulke, at least at some point in their EZ existence, I was told. In its heyday there were several companies that syndicated the format to stations all over the country. I'm sure a lot of low-budget stations simply bought every Percy Faith, Ray Conniff, Andre Kostalanetz and 101 Strings LP available and just had minimum-wage people track the discs. The story goes that WYCR in Hanover used a jukebox. (Ray Thomas, can you confirm that?)

Those of us who go back a ways can remember when just about every FM in South Central PA was some form of easy listening or beautiful music. The exception might have been 105.7 WNOW-FM, which from the beginning simulcast its AM side, whatever the AM format was at any given time. I remember that even 92.7 played easy listening music in the daytime when it first went on the air, and rock at night before it morphed into full-time rock.

Trivia question for people over a certain age: Starview 92.7 was the second station to play album rock on FM in this area as a regular daily format. But there was another station before Starview that tried - and failed - in an attempt to bring free-form album rock to South Central PA. Who was it? There's at least one person who frequents this board who will know...

 

[bossjock 56]

John, I believe the answer to your question would be....drum roll please....WEPN Elizabethtown at 106.7...now home to Z-Country. They played contemporary MOR (now Hot AC) during the day. At 4 in the afternoon it was an hour of beautiful music sponsored by The David Martin menswear store as I recall. At 5 it was Top 40 until about 8...when they would start mixing in album cuts and by around 9 or so would be full scale Progrssive Rock until around 1 in the morning. That was the spring of 1970...and alot of good stuff was coming out. I was told that one night they decided to track the entire Woodstock album unedited...including the Fish Cheer. I actually joined two of their jocks one Saturday and tried to help the drum up some new clients. The station went dark in the early summer of that same year. WLAN-FM also had a late night Progressive Rock show around late 1970 and 71 called "The Electric Catylist"...it was a great show but didn't last.

 

[John-Summers]

Right you are, bossjock. WEPN AM & FM out of E-town was the first to venture into what was at the time called "progressive rock." Some other stations did an hour here and there, but WEPN did it every night and all weekend. Their first try was the summer of 1969, when they played album tracks from 8pm to 6am. Yes, all night, when the only stations on all night in this entire area were WSBA and WFEC, and maybe WLAN. I remember hearing the Who's rock opera "Tommy" played all the way through, along with Led Zeppelin, Traffic, Blind Faith, Moody Blues, Crosby Stills & Nash and other groups of the day. I think the jox were guys from F & M college mostly, playing their own records. They didn't put on any low-key hippie-dippie affectations and were very knowledgeable about new music. Then at the end of the summer the station abruptly switched to Country. With the same jox. How funny is that. Bummer! That lasted about six months and they were back playing rock at night with, as you say, MOR for part of the day, then Top 40, then free-form rock again. It wasn't to last and the station went dark that summer. WEPN was great while it lasted, though, but they were just a little too ahead of their time.

 

[RayThomas]

John...you are right about the jukebox at WYCR. When I worked there in 1975, the jukebox was still sitting in the back room behind the YCR main studio. It would track entire album sides. All of the beautiful music/easy listening albums were there and remained there well into the 90s. I spent a bit of time there in the late 80s after Rick McCausin took over as GM following the "Y-98" fiasco. Rick decided to take it back to CHR and I helped him set up the format for the new 98YCR. What an incredible museum of radio! Although it looks terrific, I was kind of sad when they remodeled the place a few years ago. Did you know the engineering/storage room that used to be to the left when you walked into the building was originally supposed to be the studios and offices for WHVR-TV, which of course never happened?