This Day In 1970...

[SFStatic]

Some songs like "Itchycoo Park" got by in medium & smaller markets because the station owners or management were too clueless about the lyrics to know to ban them! A little later in time, Clapton's "Cocaine" was just too in your face with the title to slide by. Nothing more fun back in the day than sneaking a song onto the playlist you knew would cause the GM to wet himself if he had a clue. Of course, the listeners loved them. Ratings were one thing, but you knew you owned the market when you would drive around and see teen girls in their cars singing along with your station jingles!

 

[radioman148]

"Cherry Hill Park" was another record that many stations wouldn't touch.

 

[SFStatic]

Yeah, she was so much fun after dark...

 

[LKellerIII]

Some songs like "Itchycoo Park" got by in medium & smaller markets because the station owners or management were too clueless about the lyrics to know to ban them! A little later in time, Clapton's "Cocaine" was just too in your face with the title to slide by. Nothing more fun back in the day than sneaking a song onto the playlist you knew would cause the GM to wet himself if he had a clue. Of course, the listeners loved them. Ratings were one thing, but you knew you owned the market when you would drive around and see teen girls in their cars singing along with your station jingles!

I knew KHJ owned the market when I would go to the crowded beach in LA, and I'd hear "Boss Radio! 93/KHJ!" coming out of 125 portable radios simulaneously.

Yeah, she was so much fun after dark...

Yeah, until one day, she married away. A man with money said come on honey, and she said OK. She went away to play a one man game, and since that day it ain't been the same.

What was it about parks, anyway?

 

[michael hagerty]

And...does that mean that stations that ignored any genre back in the day (non-ethnic markets where the Top 40 avoided R&B...high-energy or rock-oriented stations that passed on country) really weren't Top 40?

Top 40 stations were based on sales of records. They either had Billboard's list or that from a another trade paper or they compiled their own based on contacting local record stores. If an ethnic or foreign language song sold enough it would wind up on the charts. Perez Prado's Latin tune "Patricia" was once such song. Also, Rene & Rene's 1969 song "Lo Mucho que Te Quiero (The More I Love You)" hit #2 on the Adult Contemporary chart and #14 on the Hot 100 chart.

Sales of records may have been the main consideration, but there was a lot of variation between the play lists of Top 40 stations. If you listened to the 3 official LA "Top 40" stations in 1967 - 68, the KHJ "Boss 30" emphasized Motown and 'teeny-bopper hits, the KRLA "Tunedex" emphasized harder rock, and the KFWB "Fabulous 40" leaned toward an MOR sound.

Then there were other issues - Drake stations shied away from controversial content, so any song with objectionable lyrics (generally involving religion, sex, or drugs) were verboten. KHJ never touched The Ballad of John and Yoko, or Itchycoo Park for example. Both of those songs had respectable sales, though they never hit the Top 10 because stations all over the country shunned them.

Llew: Right about Ballad of John and Yoko, wrong about Itchycoo Park, which not only got airplay on KHJ, but was #1 on the Boss 30 the week of 12/22/67.

And despite KHJ and other stations not playing Ballad of John and Yoko, it did make the national Top 10...peaking at #8 in Billboard.

Conversely, Itchycoo Park, which was #1 at arguably the hottest station in the country at the time, only made it to #16 in Billboard.

---Michael Hagerty

Wow - I'd obviously forgotten, Michael. I'm surprised that KHJ played Itchycoo Park. As I remember, the song was blacklisted by many radio stations. I guess it was only religious and sexual content that Drake stations shunned. Drugs, playing hooky, and trashing education was OK (?!). Well, it was the year of the "Summer of Love," after all.

Llew: I'm not even sure those were criteria. All I can reference is KHJ (I don't know any other of the Drake stations that have their entire playlists available online). Here are the songs that Top 10 in Billboard that KHJ didn't play during the Drake years, 1965 to 1973 (courtesy KHJ genius Ray Randolph and his excellent KHJ blog):

Barbara Ann - Beach Boys
Valleri - The Monkees--they played an earlier version from the TV show in '67
The Pied Piper - Crispian St. Peters ---they played an earlier version by the Changin' Times in '65
Yummy Yummy Yummy - Ohio Express
Nice To Be With You - Gallery
1, 2, 3, Red Light - 1910 Fruitgum Co.
Funky Broadway--Wilson Pickett
Nashville Cats--Lovin' Spoonful
I Got The Feelin' and Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud--James Brown
You Keep Me Hangin On--Vanilla Fudge---played original by the Supremes
I Say A Little Prayer--Aretha Franklin---played original by Dionne Warwick and played the flip of this (The House That Jack Built)
Atlantis--Donovan---KHJ played the flip side.
Ballad of John & Yoko--Beatles
Rock Me--Steppenwolf
Gimme Dat Ding--Pipkins
Cherish--David Cassidy
What The World Needs Now/Abraham, Martin & John--Tom Clay---Tom was on a competing station at the time
Jungle Fever--Chakakas
Hey Girl--Donny Osmond
Sugar Daddy--Jackson 5

About the only ones on that list that strike me as content related would be Ballad of John & Yoko (for using "Christ" in vain) and Jungle Fever, where the moans and groans were a bit much...though they did play "Pillow Talk" by Sylvia a year later. So I don't think there was a blanket aversion (no pun intended) to sex.

KHJ had no issues with religion, playing Johnny Rivers' "Think His Name", Ocean's "Put Your Hand In The Hand", B.J. Thomas' "Mighty Clouds of Joy" and The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows".

Most of the songs above that KHJ passed on were probably based on the competitive realities of the time. Ron Jacobs was programming Dylan, Stones and Beatles LP cuts in '67 and '68...skipping the Ohio Express and 1910 Fruitgum Company helped preserve street cred.

And from 1970 on, with KLOS and KMET eating away at their teen and young adult base, The Pipkins, David Cassidy, Donny Osmond and the waning Jackson 5 probably seemed expendable, too.

---Michael Hagerty

 

[radioman148]

What surprised me about Itchycoo Park was that WLS played it & they were very conservative with their playlists in the late 60s.
Maybe Clark Weber or whoever the PD was at the time didn't get the lyrics.