"The Ballad of John and Yoko"

[LKellerIII]

"In Boston WMEX played a LOT of songs that WRKO wouldn't touch. They also played the full length album versions of all the hits while RKO played the single edits. WMEX even mixed in popular album cuts. What a great station!"

I'm guessing from the call-letters that WRKO was an RKO General station, and was consulted by Bill Drake
along with RKO rock stations KFRC and KHJ in California. Drake stations (owned by RKO or otherwise) always played it safe as far as lyrics went, and played the single edits. At least on the West Coast, Drake stations were huge in the ratings - but they also got a lot of criticism for sticking slavishly to the "Boss" teenybopper format as songs got longer, and lyrics got more risque sexually, as well as more political.

 

[cheapman]

You pretty much hit that right on the head. WMEX was pretty much "THE" top 40 station in Boston through the mid 60's, but the station was high on the dial at 1510 and had a lot of signal problems reaching the suburbs, particularly at night. Then in the spring of '67 RKO General dumped the talk format it was running on WNAC to go with the Bill Drake top 40 format and changed the calls to WRKO. Unlike WMEX, WRKO had a 50kw signal that was low on the dial. From that day on RKO ruled the top 40 airwaves in Boston. But the local owners and programmers at WMEX weren't going to roll over and play dead, so they made a point of taking every risk that Bill Drake's format wouldn't. They had a much larger playlist and played a lot of music that Drake considered too risky. For that WMEX earned my respect. And they were actually able to keep that going until sometime around 72 or 73 when most of their better known jocks moved to FM.

 

[LKellerIII]

"But the local owners and programmers at WMEX weren't going to roll over and play dead, so they made a point of taking every risk that Bill Drake's format wouldn't.'

Sounds familiar, Cheapman. In Los Angeles, RKO owned and Drake programmed KHJ immediately crushed the Top 40 competition when it premiered in 1965 - 2 stations that had been Top 40 since the late 50s. KFWB responded by becoming a personality station - kind of an MOR format with Top 40 hits. Then they threw in the towel, and went all-news in 68.

KRLA did what WMEX did - expanded their playlist, and played the longer album cuts. For awhile in 69-70, they even went to an FM style album-rock-'hippie'-DJ format at night. It was an excellent station, but they were unfortunately plagued by inconsistent management that kept changing the direction of the station. It did outlast KHJ however, ultimately becoming an Oldies station, and was probably the last AM in Los Angeles to play rock music - into the mid or late 80s.

 

[Ultimajock]

KRLA did what WMEX did - expanded their playlist, and played the longer album cuts.

...however, significantly, KRLA didn't do that until after two other Los Angeles Top 40s, did that and eventually changed their entire formats -- KBLA to Country as KBBQ in 1967, and KFWB to News in 1968. And at the same time KRLA started doing that, so did KDAY...

 

[LKellerIII]

"...however, significantly, KRLA didn't do that until after two other Los Angeles Top 40s, did that and eventually changed their entire formats -- KBLA to Country as KBBQ in 1967, and KFWB to News in 1968. And at the same time KRLA started doing that, so did KDAY..."

You're partially right - thanks for the memory jog. KBLA was the first - about 1967 - to try some alternative programming on AM, but they had a horrible signal problem at 1500 kz. I lived in Tujunga, less than 8 miles from their Burbank transmitter, and could not get KBLA past sundown. From what I've heard, they could not be heard on a car radio in the station's parking lot. The KBBQ country format worked better for them because the only competition at that time was KFOX in far-away Long Beach. When high-powered KLAC (570) went country a couple of years later, KBBQ was screwed.

KRLA started playing album cuts, and switched to an FM "underground" radio sound at night - in early 69 or so, with Jimmy Rabbit and Johnny Hayes. KRLA also had the hugely innovative Credibility Gap doing alternative satirical news, which nobody else could imitate - not even KMET or KPPC on FM.

KDAY followed KRLA with album rock about a year later, though their more FM style format was 24/7, not just at night. KDAY also had signal problems at 1580, though they came in loud and clear for me, because I lived in West LA by that time - near their Santa Monica location.