Underground Rock

[Icangelp]

This may be too much of a narrow interest thread.

The album oriented underground rock format began in the late '60s, and although primarily associated with FM, was also featured on at least two AM Top-40 stations, neither of which were in my local market, so I had to do a little DX to hear them.

1090 KAAY Little Rock (of all places) featured underground rock late nights from about 1966 to 1972? The show was Beaker Street hosted by Clive Clifford, a very unlikely DJ. He was an engineering geek who fell into the job, and turned out to be a natural for the format.

From around 1967, Ron Britain hosted his Subterranean Circus show, Sunday evenings on 1000 WCFL Chicago. Like everything Ron did, the show creative along with cutting edge on the music side. I might add that I consider Ron to be a top 5 DJ of the golden age of Top 40. The guy was a genius, although he wasn't everyone's cup of tea.

Outside of those two programs, I don't recall any other AM station featuring underground rock format, or an underground rock program, though every major city had at least one FM doing the hippie long-hair music format.

Anyone else old enough to remember back that far?

 

[b-turner]

KRLD 1080 in Dallas, a 50kw, ran the album rock, aka Underground Rock format. Jon Dillon ran 'Montage' sponsored by Coca Cola from 7 to 9 in the evening. In a short time 7pm through the overnight hours were 'Underground Rock' until Dillon took KRLD's FM station to the format fulltime around 1972.

KRLD at that point had opted for a top 40 format to compete with KLIF and KVIL. Shortly after the switch to top 40, the program 'Montage' appeared.

I recall well known names jocking the format on KRLD. They did not go to the FM as the FM began automated with Dillon literally back announcing every set of music 24/7. In time they took their place as the top album rocker (maybe by default as KNUS was not full market, nor was Arlington's KFAD). KZEW, The Zoo, would take them down after appearing on what had been WFAA FM starting in 1974 after switching from their beautiful music format branded as 'Music only for a woman'.

A few small market AM stations had special segments of 'Underground Rock' especially on weekends when advertisers didn't buy time. I think their hope was a youth oriented business might add to their bottom line by buying a few spots. I can't recall the station (I was a kid) but a small town AM I was tuned to had their polka show end, a network newscast and then a stoned sounding jock playing the live version of Eight Miles High from the Byrds Untitled 2 LP set. Quite the transition indeed!

 

[radioman148]

I listened to Ron Britain, "King B" and he was a brilliant DJ. Not only was he ahead of his time with his underground show, but he had a brilliant mastery of sound effects and drop ins and used them very well to help express his humor on WCFL.
He came back to Chicago in the 80s & 90s and was still a comedic genius.
Back to his WCFL days in the 60s he was the first I ever heard play progressive music on AM.

 

[boombox4]

Another one would be late nights, KOL 1300 Seattle, w/ Burl Barer, right before the station folded. 1971-1972 or so.

 

[cyberdad]

KUOM (770), a student run 5kw daytimer at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, has been playing underground, progressive, etc. for as long as I can remember. At least since the 1980s, when my biggest customer was 3M and I was up there about every 4-6 weeks. I remember it as having lousy audio, but interesting music.


btw.....KUOM had its origins as an experimental station (transmitting morse code) in 1912. It claims to be the oldest station in the United States. Non-commercial since day one.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

I mainly remember when Ron Britain at WCFL was up against Ron Riley at WLS.

We were overrun with "Underground" in SE Michigan once the simulcast edict came down. CJOM, WABX, WKNR-FM, WXYZ-FM/WRIF, and WWWW all had a similar format at the same or slightly different times, and slightly different formats, with Album Oriented Rock, Progressive, Free Form and Underground all having similar formats, DJs trying to get around censors, etc. It was often so obscure that not many listened. Sometimes the DJs ranted about restrictions. Kids would talk about uncensored versions of records being played and DJs saying some of the 7 words accidentally or on purpose and getting in trouble. It drove some back to AM for more mainstream fare. So it had the opposite effect of slowing FM development a few more years, and I'm sure that the AM only and AM programmers loved it for that reason.

 

[cyberdad]

I mainly remember when Ron Britain at WCFL was up against Ron Riley at WLS.

Two fantastic....and very witty....talents. "King B" had a little more edge to his humor and more structured bits. But Riley was equally funny and just as much fun to listen to....especially when he got going with his "fued" with "Old Chrome-Dome" Clark Weber.

I don't recall Riley getting into (or being allowed to get into) the unerground/progressive stuff, however.

 

[radioman148]

Two fantastic....and very witty....talents. "King B" had a little more edge to his humor and more structured bits. But Riley was equally funny and just as much fun to listen to....especially when he got going with his "fued" with "Old Chrome-Dome" Clark Weber.

I don't recall Riley getting into (or being allowed to get into) the unerground/progressive stuff, however.

Riley never got into underground as I remember. He was probably too busy keeping an eye on "Bruce Lovely". LOL!

 

[rbrucecarter5]

KRLD 1080 in Dallas, a 50kw, ran the album rock, aka Underground Rock format. Jon Dillon ran 'Montage' sponsored by Coca Cola from 7 to 9 in the evening. In a short time 7pm through the overnight hours were 'Underground Rock' until Dillon took KRLD's FM station to the format fulltime around 1972.

KRLD at that point had opted for a top 40 format to compete with KLIF and KVIL. Shortly after the switch to top 40, the program 'Montage' appeared.

I recall well known names jocking the format on KRLD. They did not go to the FM as the FM began automated with Dillon literally back announcing every set of music 24/7. In time they took their place as the top album rocker (maybe by default as KNUS was not full market, nor was Arlington's KFAD). KZEW, The Zoo, would take them down after appearing on what had been WFAA FM starting in 1974 after switching from their beautiful music format branded as 'Music only for a woman'.

A few small market AM stations had special segments of 'Underground Rock' especially on weekends when advertisers didn't buy time. I think their hope was a youth oriented business might add to their bottom line by buying a few spots. I can't recall the station (I was a kid) but a small town AM I was tuned to had their polka show end, a network newscast and then a stoned sounding jock playing the live version of Eight Miles High from the Byrds Untitled 2 LP set. Quite the transition indeed!

Their underground rock show was tremendously popular at night in Midland - songs we formerly could only hear on albums, on the air!

 

[b-turner]

Made a mistake on the timeline...KZEW appeared in late 1973...maybe October.

 

[Icangelp]

I was just reading the WTAM Wikipedia listing, and saw 1100/WKYC Cleveland went to an acid rock format for a short time in 1969, calling themselves "Heavy 11".

Far out, man.

 

[pianoplayer88key]

I'm un-aged such to be late to the party, but what was meant by underground/album rock formats? For example, would a 50kW station's DJ run to the music store, buy, for example, a Korn CD/LP (or any that said Parental Advisory - Explicit Content), then play the entire album on the air straight through without edits or interruptions, just like you might have done at home? (Or maybe announced song names between each song, and if at TOH, given the legal ID.)

 

[davideduardo]

I'm un-aged such to be late to the party, but what was meant by underground/album rock formats? For example, would a 50kW station's DJ run to the music store, buy, for example, a Korn CD/LP (or any that said Parental Advisory - Explicit Content), then play the entire album on the air straight through without edits or interruptions, just like you might have done at home? (Or maybe announced song names between each song, and if at TOH, given the legal ID.)

Underground rock was, initially, the stuff that Top 40 stations would not play as it was too hard or less "commercial" sounding.

Album Rock, which was the basis for the format known as AOR or "Album Oriented Rock" was the same thing, often playing cuts from albums that were not released as singles.

 

[b-turner]

The format called Underground Radio in its early years came about when FM stations were not allowed to simply repeat the money making AM signal. Some stations had automated beautiful music formats that at times served as a background for in store music services with the commercials and news deleted on their subcarrier.

The format was freeform. The DJ generally selected the music they played. Some stations centered on creating sets of music where one song meshed with the next making the listener unsure where one song ended and the next song began. Sometimes sets told a story lyrically. Most stations played 15 up to 30 minutes of continuous music without liners then, traditionally, each song played was back announced from the most recent to the first song in the set. There was no such thing as image liners, etc. The goal was the opposite of the high energy personality DJs of AM radio.

The presentation was relaxed and, for lack of a better word, mellow. Let's just say if you sounded stoned, you sounded fine. The DJ was more or less the music guide that took you through various influences of music, not always rock oriented.

Stations that seemed to achieve greater numbers had real talents behind the microphone. You might hear the opening of Beethoven's Symphony #5 begin only to blend in with the song Roll Over Beethoven. Sometimes news was fully wacky stories with music under laid and sound effects. On one station the guy turned off the turntable in the middle of a song and once the song had completely stopped, the DJ said "Sorry about that. Time to pay the bills." He did the commercial and then said, um, let's see, where were we, ah, yes. He started the turntable again, mid-song.

FM stations generally had very few commercials at that time. I listened to a few stations that might just have one or two spots an hour. It was not rare for those spots to be read by the DJ in the early days. I often wondered if that was because cart machines were not cheap. A Volkswagen Beetle cost about as much as a record/play new cart machine back then.

As a listener, you tended to stay with a station through a bad song or two to learn who did the song you liked. You might not hear it again. One DJ I met from a station I listened to said you were allowed to play anything in the music library and the rule was not to play the same song twice in a week on your board shift.

It did not take long for the format to get organized. While the formatics were nothing compared to today, the freeform style became structured and most stations had specific breaks at certain times in an hour.

The popular KZEW in Dallas, that appeared around October 1973, has a music wheel telling the DJ what category of music they were to play when. Breaks were at :05, :25 and :45. News was added at :25 every other hour (sometimes it was Earth News Radio). Even with this 'rigid' format, there was a good deal of freedom.

When these stations began the format, the Vietnam War was the leading news story. The Civil Rights Movement, while not new, was still very forefront and the rejection of the more traditional social norms were being questioned. The Live Off The Land Movement was starting and I think the "Ecology" Flag, green and white stripes with a green 'e' where the stars would go on an American flag appeared. Publications like Rolling Stone, Mother Earth News and such were on most young people's reading list. Major cities all had an alternative newspaper if not several. From the adult point of view, the world was turning upside down. Cops stopped you if you were a male with long hair and might try to insult you by calling you 'ma'am'. The drug of choice is legal in some states but got you locked up for a long stretch if caught. So the music just wasn't the music but represented a movement. Some stations played some comedy records and there were a few syndicated shows after a couple of years. National Lampoon comes to mind among others (ironically some of the early Saturday Night Live folks had been with National Lampoon).

While stations weren't filled with 4 letter words, lyrics tended to get the point across in symbolic ways. Those stations that did cross the lines usually got hefty fines from the FCC. To cross that line you likely hated your boss and were working your last day at that station. Most of the jocks were serious and many stayed in the business.

 

[Icangelp]

b-turner. That about sums it up.

 

[Unregistered]

Essential Underground Radio: Beaker Street - KAAY, Little Rock Arkansas

I have fond and powerful memories of how Clyde Clifford's, late night show, Beaker Street, on KAAY (Little Rock), opened my young rural Iowa mind up to the rich and diverse musical underground of the early- to mid-1970's. Most of my current musical interests trace some aspect of their lineage back to the experimental music I heard on Beaker Street: early Spooky Tooth, King Crimson, Touch, Pink Floyd, The Damnation of Adam Blessing, The Hassles, Uriah Heep, Jaime Brockett, Spirit, Frijid Pink, Tonto's Expanding Head Band, Sugarloaf, Fantasy, East of Eden, Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes, and many more. I listened late at night on my parents Motorola tube radio, which I tucked under my pillow so as not to disturb my brother with whom I shared a bedroom. I didn't much need glow-in-the-dark posters or the incense they sold at The Red Barn, but I remain forever thankful for the exposure the show gave me to the improbable, brave, abstract, warbling spaces that carried marvelous new sounds thousands of miles out to listeners throughout the Central US.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

The popular KZEW in Dallas, that appeared around October 1973, has a music wheel telling the DJ what category of music they were to play when. Breaks were at :05, :25 and :45. News was added at :25 every other hour (sometimes it was Earth News Radio). Even with this 'rigid' format, there was a good deal of freedom.

The people in Midland who had the equipment had to wait until a pitiful country station, broadcasting in mono only, would sign off for the night, leaving 97.9 clear for KZEW. There was a 105.1 in Abilene that was playing some pretty good album rock at night until 97.9 was clear. Between KZEW and the smooth jazz / mellow soul program on KERA, we could get some pretty good music way out in West Texas. When I went to the university of Texas, I had a 6 element Radio Shack yagi hanging from the light fixture in my apartment - aimed at Dallas - so I could get KZEW. I still have my copies of the "Zewberry Jam" albums. Given the popularity of KZEW with DX'ers - I doubt the Midland and Austin addresses were much of a surprise to the KZEW staff who sent out the albums. When I graduated and moved to Houston, 97.9 was covered by a local, but one week between format changes, the local 97.9 was off the air and KZEW came through on the car radio very well all over Houston.

 

[davideduardo]

The people in Midland who had the equipment had to wait until a pitiful country station, broadcasting in mono only, would sign off for the night, leaving 97.9 clear for KZEW.

You seem to like dismissing country stations.

That "pitiful" station, by the early 80's, was the #1 FM in the Odessa / Midland market.

 

[Schroedingers Cat]

Yes, David. I can't begin to tell you how many of the Underground FM fans would tell me that they liked every kind of music-EXCEPT COUNTRY. It was like a mantra that they had been taught. Although I wasn't a huge fan of C & W, the crossovers were great. Not many people have told me that they dislike "El Paso" by Marty Robbins, the latest exposure to younger people was watching the last episode of "Breaking Bad". "Finale", the title of the episode, is an anagram of "Felina" which is the proper spelling of the name, roughly translated into English as "Kitty" or "Kat" today, of the girl that led the ballad narrator to an early death.

Progressive Country was popular in the 1970s, with Crossover (Low Hot 100 usually) artists like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Commander Cody, etc., and the more traditional like crossovers like Lynn Anderson, and Pop Crossovers like Linda Ronstadt and Olivia Newton John.

You'd be amazed what you could have gotten cochannel on an good outside dedicated directional tuned FM antenna on a rotator, unless he was very close to the cochannel transmitting antenna.

 

[rbrucecarter5]

You seem to like dismissing country stations.

That "pitiful" station, by the early 80's, was the #1 FM in the Odessa / Midland market.

You are correct. I don't like country. I guess the closest I get is the Eagles. And Taylor Swift, who is a really nice person. And I think there is a bit of misconception about what country really is. If I want to listen to country music, I will tune in WSM at night. That is country music to me. I don't know what the heck some of this stuff is that they call country today.

I wasn't the only one waiting for 97.9 Odessa to go silent. When word got around that it was possible - almost easy - to get Dallas FM, antennas started sprouting up all over town. Several people were getting KZEW. That was the era of audiophiles and classic audio gear. I personally set up equipment for at least 3 classical fans who were after WRR. There was a lot of money out there in Midland, and people were buying top of the line receivers and antennas. It was so prevalent, the cable company eventually got wind of it and put most of the Dallas stations over the TV cable. And that just added fuel to the fire - local FM eventually got the message that they were losing listeners and improved their offerings. In a market with only a couple of hundred thousand - a hundred DX'ers won't get much attention, but a few thousand cable listeners definitely DID! There was no local equivalent to KZEW or KERA's overnight programming, not even KNIT's evening programming. But at least FM got something more than country and beautiful music.