At almost all music stations even going back to the 50's there were strict playlists along with "clocks" in the studio indicating when each category played.
There are so many specialized streams and music options today that I think that the era of specialty music shows on radio is over. People who want to hear some kind of limited-appeal music will find it online and at their convenience, not at 10 PM on a Sunday.
And most of them were eventually massacred by more regimented formats. Only the few that were so magnificently programmed like WMMS with Gorman and Halper managed to thrive.
As a rule, jocks did not talk with folks at other stations about music. If they did talk, it was usually about openings!
Few jocks went to R&R... Billboard... Gavin conventions. I attended most of those in the 70's and there were mostly PDs, consultants, a few music directors and a bunch of GMs who went for the free vacation. And, of course, hot and cold running record ducks with hospitality suites with party favors.
And, of course, any collaborative efforts among a broad width of station staffers on music choices was very much limited. A contributing factor was the creation of call-out research in the mid-70s and AMTs and perceptual research as the 80's began.
That's right, you could be 36 and grow up with your parents' oldies!
The labels paid for the shows and some had "hospitality" suites. But the daytime activity was all about programming. As a programmer and manager from Puerto Rico and Latin America, I did not have as much interest in the music content, of course... although at one of those in LA Scott Shannon, then with Bogart at Casablanca, introduced me to Donna Summer and Village People (I had worked with Scott at Mooney Broadcasting in the earlier 70's)
That surely was true in rock and to some extent in CHR. But in R&B and Country and Latin music, the closeness withg fans (to some extent) and radio have remained for many more decades.
And they do. Obviously big market stations like KRTH and WCBS no longer, but plenty of lower rated small market stations do. Probably fewer 50’s but I hear plenty of 60’s and 70’s on radio stations across SW Florida all the time, focused on the retirees (65+) that live around here and on FM frequencies. They may have lower ratings, low revenues ..etc etc, but they still dish out the true oldies and hits that people WANT to hear and have been on the air for years, in the 2010’s and 20’s. Lecom Radio WSRQ is a fine example.
And there are a few other communities where advertisers depend on retired people for their revenue and where such stations can survive.
Gorman and his other long-term associate Denny Sanders grew up listening to WBZ, WMEX and (most notably) WRKO. It wasn't that they didn't want a focused sound at WMMS but that they didn't want the consultants, trusting more on their own staff to achieve it. Thus, why Donna was able to have the freedom like she did.
Incorrect. 30 year radio veteran. Have a good day.
Nobody is in business to go broke--true. Yet 20 years of evidence shows innumerable bad decisions have been detrimental to THIS business. If they were better at this business, it wouldn't be cannibalizing itself for decades and more radio people would be working and thriving as in its heyday, because there wouldn't have to be so much cost-cutting--which cuts creative human beings who contribute to the product--out.
Whatever decisions one agrees or disagrees with, chasing a demographic that isn't as profitable and useful to most ad segments isn't going to work either way. And I always remember that hindsight provides clarity that isn't always as discernible amidst a rapidly changing technological landscape and advertisers naturally migrating to new and more targetable platforms. Doesn't mean no one made mistakes. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But at the same time, it was never, ever going to be like it once was. Also not by any stretch of the imagination.
The cost cutting is due to an inflation adjusted decrease of about 70% in total radio revenue in the last 20 years.
