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"WABC Goes Disco!"

6

68RKO

Guest
One of the things I have never been able to get to the bottom about is the "WABC Goes Disco" event.

I remember the front page and headline on Billboard as if it was yesterday.
However, I could never find anyone (in the know) who could ever explain it.

I know that the music started leaning towards disco, as the entire world seem to be embracing it. But how did that headline ever get out? Did someone at WABC announce this? Was there a press release? Who was it? Was it retracted later on?

I remember tuning in after the arrival of Billboard magazine, and noticing they were emphasizing the rhythmic danceable top 40 tunes. (Not really disco like WKTU, etc.)

Anyone know what was going on INSIDE WABC at that time?

(What issue of Billboard was that anyway? Anyone know?)
 
68RKO said:
One of the things I have never been able to get to the bottom about is the "WABC Goes Disco" event.

I remember the front page and headline on Billboard as if it was yesterday.
However, I could never find anyone (in the know) who could ever explain it.

I know that the music started leaning towards disco, as the entire world seem to be embracing it. But how did that headline ever get out? Did someone at WABC announce this? Was there a press release? Who was it? Was it retracted later on?

I remember tuning in after the arrival of Billboard magazine, and noticing they were emphasizing the rhythmic danceable top 40 tunes. (Not really disco like WKTU, etc.)

Anyone know what was going on INSIDE WABC at that time?

(What issue of Billboard was that anyway? Anyone know?)
Click to expand...

April 28, 1979.


Google Books rocks: http://books.google.com/books?id=9yMEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT33&dq=WABC+disco&hl=en&ei=-NDRTfSrIOXq0QGS78SHDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=WABC%20disco&f=false
 
WABC's hand was forced by WKTU's sudden ascension. By October 1978, only three months after the flip to disco, WKTU took the #1 spot from WABC. 'KTU was getting an 11 rating and as high as 16 at night.

To compete with WKTU, WABC went about 50% disco, a move which angered many long time listeners. That shows how polarizing disco music was in 1979. :)
 
radioguy39nj said:
WABC's hand was forced by WKTU's sudden ascension. By October 1978, only three months after the flip to disco, WKTU took the #1 spot from WABC. 'KTU was getting an 11 rating and as high as 16 at night.

To compete with WKTU, WABC went about 50% disco, a move which angered many long time listeners. That shows how polarizing disco music was in 1979. :)
Click to expand...

Good point. WABC was in the panic mode. Their ratings had been eroding due to the rise of FM and WKTU hit them hard.
WABC had never been used to being beaten.
 
I recall an interview with former PD Jay Clark, who came to WABC about a year and a half after this era. He asserted that the fault was with the long standing system of designing the playlist, based largely on record sales. In Clark's opinion, once WKTU took off, they helped spark record sales throughout the metro area. The consequence of this was that it accelerated the audience decline during that period. The first audience who left were the trendy disco lovers, who now had a new station (KTU) exclusively devoted to this genre. Once the playlist shifted to reflect the record sales of these disco titles, rock/pop audiences in Northern NJ and Long Island, who preferred the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel and Boston had a harder time hearing their favorites on WABC, and they in turn moved on to either WNBC, or WPLJ-FM-both of which showed growth during that time.
 
Wow, seven posts into a thread about WABC radio in the late 70's, and nary a word yet from lalumia about how they should have been playing the likes of Wayne County and New York Dolls... ::)
 
DToTheJ said:
Wow, seven posts into a thread about WABC radio in the late 70's, and nary a word yet from lalumia about how they should have been playing the likes of Wayne County and New York Dolls... ::)
Click to expand...

Well, tangentially...I *did* mention WPIX-FM...
 
Vince Santarelli did an interview with former WABC PD Glen Morgan for his Apple Bites column. Morgan said that he tried to calm upper management's nerves following the ratings drop to WKTU. He emphasized WABC could never compete directly with WKTU and disco leaning WBLS and the best strategy was to stay the course. Instead upper management was unable to accept no longer being the number one music station so they demoted Morgan and brought back Rick Sklar. What made matters worse was Sklar announced to Billboard Magazine that Glen Morgan was now in charge of moving carts around, obviously that didn't sit well with Morgan. It was Sklar that moved WABC towards disco. A similar strategy was used a few years earlier against WCBS-FM when they began the oldies format, Sklar added more oldies to combat the new competition. However, it was now an issue of cume moving to FM and not coming back to AM for music so leaning disco probably did more damage that good.

Ironically just before the disco book WABC had their highest AQH and cume in years. But within four years WABC was out of the music business.
 
radioman148 said:
Good point. WABC was in the panic mode. Their ratings had been eroding due to the rise of FM and WKTU hit them hard.
WABC had never been used to being beaten.
Click to expand...

Remember also that about a decade earlier, it was the Drake-formatted WOR-FM that fragmented WMCA's audience enough to allow WABC to take the #1 slot in the NYC ratings. Despite the rise of FM throughout the 70s, WABC maintained its #1 rating until WKTU flipped to disco.

True, WABC wasn't used to being beaten. They thought no one could do that! Today's WABC seems to have a similar attitude with their nearly all-syndicated talk format. If someone went with mostly local NY Tri-State issue oriented talk on FM, WABC would be very much impacted IMHO. That thought is for another thread. :)
 
>>Despite the rise of FM throughout the 70s, WABC maintained its #1 rating until WKTU flipped to disco.>>

All the more reason that they panicked. They had never lost before.
 
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