wesdev224 said:
If you call progressive radio singer song writer then yes.
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If you call progressive radio singer song writer then yes.
Sam Lit said:
Sam,
I don't believe anyone, including myself, is trying to discount WDAS' role in bringing Progressive Radio to Philadelphia. However, as a very young man of 11, I was not listening to WDAS for that type of radio. In suburban Lower Bucks County, WMMR was the station of choice for Prog Radio. I never listened to WDAS during their time as a rock station. Because of their continued commitment to rock radio, WMMR will always be the pioneering face of Progressive Radio in Philadelphia. In all fairness, wasn't T. Morgan doing the earliest incarnation of Prog Radio on WIFI in 1967? Or is my memory turning rusty?
You're right, WMMR is the face of early progressive radio. WDAS-FM as we know evolved into the urban giant that it still is today. At that early time, very little urban album oriented material existed, so the early evolution of the urban format had to be developed, hence the emergence of TSOP the Sound of Philadelphia in the early 70’s, as a model for other record companies to follow. T. Morgan, was part of the original staff at WDAS-FM. T. went on to program WIBG in 1970, and then went on to program WMMR. As for WIFI92, I recall, different DJ’s did different things, so depending on who was on, determined the format of the hour. Incidentally, Rod Carson (of KYW traffic) was also part of the original WDAS-FM on air staff. Rod went on to WMMR in the 70’s, as he did the Rock and Roll roots show on Saturday mornings, while doing shadow traffic reports during the week for multiple stations. Rod was a newsman during the big WIBBAGE days of the 60’s.
Starbucks said:
Here's what I remember, Starbucks.... When I started listening to WIBG in 1962, Jerry Stevens was indeed the afternoon DJ, used to be on 3 pm - 8 pm before Hy Lit's return to WIBBAGE in early '62 (?), so Jerry was on 2 - 6 pm followed by Hyski "6 - 10 in the PM". Joe Niagra held down the 6-10 morning shift until sometime either late 1964 or early 1965 when he and Jerry switched shifts. That is my recollection.
Starbucks said:
Yes BW sr stayed at 10-2
Michael Tearson here as requested.
First, I wouldn't say as wcradio2 did that Progressive Rock in Philly died with Ed Skiaky. It was dead long, LONG before that.
OK, I'm being a bit over the top there, but only a bit.
What I do with Saturday Morning 60s on WMGK and psychedelic psupper on WBZC is to present radio in the style of those halcyon early days when we could be eclectic, and when a perfect segue could keep a listener through a song he'd maybe not usually like because he'd want to hear what would come next. That thrill is long gone from radio nearly everywhere. On my other WBZC show The ATTIC I do what I consider true free form radio with each show spun around a different concept. Sometimes I do two-parters with the psupper so they truly bookend Gene Godfrey's Classic FM which is as some here have noted is a fabulous show with truly spunky radio concepts. Gene is doing more and more live performance especially since he got a studio at home like I do. Further I use the same chops to create The Bob Dylan Radio Hour for Sirius' Sirius Disorder channel. That show is up to 222 episodes, and the topic of people worldwide doing Dylan only gets more fascinating as more and more is out there.
By the way, I had my Bob Dylan Radio Hour on Sirius for 22 months when XM debuted Bob's own show cleverly titled The Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour. Where'd they ever get the idea for that name? I figure that puts me into the elite fraternity of people from whom Bob Dylan has cadged ideas and used them. Best left-handed compliment I've ever gotten. Any more left-handed and he'd have picked my pockets clean.
So why would Progressive radio or as I prefer to call it freeform radio be an extremely difficult trick to do successfully in this Brave New Millennium?
First, as always, was money--as a free form station WMMR was a justly revered station. I think we were possibly the best there was at that in the early 70s, but the numbers were always kind of small (although my late night numbers were huge, especially after midnight when virtually no spots were sold), and the bottom line as ever was the bottom line.
Second, there simply was not available talent capable of creating a show from thin air day in/day out or in my case night in/night out. I remember some of the others saying at music meetings (yes, DJs had active input into the musical availabilities) that they felt they were really cooking 30-40% of the time. And I remember thinking, "What's your problem? On a bad night I'm kicking in at 75%."
The peril of self-indulgence was a very palpable issue. It was easy for the station to become disjointed (no pun intended) with each jock a virtual PD of his/her own shift. Avoiding that was tricky. You had to actively practice appreciation along with personal taste. By that I mean that you had to appreciate the validity and importance of the stuff you did not personally like because the listeners would inevitably want those. But discrimination in how you'd sequence and present was the most important thing.
Remember in the early 1970s there were very few TV stations, all of them over the air. There was no cable. And when that finally loomed the common thought was "Who'd ever pay for TV?" Same folks now say "Who'd ever pay for radio?"
Third, the audiences have splintered making this freewheeling sort of radio very, very hard to pull off full-time.
Then there's the technological issues of there being more choices than ever. AM, FM, HD, satellite, iPods, CDs, etc. The young generation has virtually rejected radio as something they do not need. Jerry del Colliano and I have discussed this frequently, and he regularly explores this issue in his excellent blog Inside Radio--free sub, check it out.
In short: the unlikelihood of generating enough profit$, lack of appropriate and top knotch talent and the difficulty of finding aenough audience to make it fly. Plus the array of other options.
Most of all, just doing this kind of radio is exhausting for the DJ. Back in 1992-1995 when I was in my "post-graduate period" at WXPN (I'd been there as an undergraduate 1967-1970 which predates WMMR and WDAS-FM much as Sciaky did on WRTI) I was offered the chance to do the last hour freeform as the inducement to counteract a preposterously bad pay rate. Toward the end they suggested I could do it all that way, but I declined. I found then that doing an hour of freeform radio at its best took about 2 hours of prep. Multiply that into full shows and you can understand how in the early WMMR hey day the show became my life. I was always mulling it even when doing everything else. The show was truly a calling for me then, and I've strived to keep that spirit alive ever since.
Today's radio feels like narrowcasting as formats try to carve enough of a niche to float the boat. In this atmosphere freeform or progressive radio as it was just cannot sustain itself. Except in small pockets like I've been lucky and stubborn enough to carve out. It is still the most thrilling thing I do. And doing it at home and delivering finished shows is a long held dream. I need to do these at home. All the music is there in my working library--it's way more than a collection. And I can do 'em when the muse seduces me. And between the four shows I do regularly at home I've delivered over 1400 broadcast hours.
In all likelihood this is To Be Continued. I look forward to reading reactions.
And thanks for the invite to run on like this. It was fun.
First, I wouldn't say as wcradio2 did that Progressive Rock in Philly died with Ed Skiaky. It was dead long, LONG before that.
OK, I'm being a bit over the top there, but only a bit.
What I do with Saturday Morning 60s on WMGK and psychedelic psupper on WBZC is to present radio in the style of those halcyon early days when we could be eclectic, and when a perfect segue could keep a listener through a song he'd maybe not usually like because he'd want to hear what would come next. That thrill is long gone from radio nearly everywhere. On my other WBZC show The ATTIC I do what I consider true free form radio with each show spun around a different concept. Sometimes I do two-parters with the psupper so they truly bookend Gene Godfrey's Classic FM which is as some here have noted is a fabulous show with truly spunky radio concepts. Gene is doing more and more live performance especially since he got a studio at home like I do. Further I use the same chops to create The Bob Dylan Radio Hour for Sirius' Sirius Disorder channel. That show is up to 222 episodes, and the topic of people worldwide doing Dylan only gets more fascinating as more and more is out there.
By the way, I had my Bob Dylan Radio Hour on Sirius for 22 months when XM debuted Bob's own show cleverly titled The Bob Dylan Theme Time Radio Hour. Where'd they ever get the idea for that name? I figure that puts me into the elite fraternity of people from whom Bob Dylan has cadged ideas and used them. Best left-handed compliment I've ever gotten. Any more left-handed and he'd have picked my pockets clean.
So why would Progressive radio or as I prefer to call it freeform radio be an extremely difficult trick to do successfully in this Brave New Millennium?
First, as always, was money--as a free form station WMMR was a justly revered station. I think we were possibly the best there was at that in the early 70s, but the numbers were always kind of small (although my late night numbers were huge, especially after midnight when virtually no spots were sold), and the bottom line as ever was the bottom line.
Second, there simply was not available talent capable of creating a show from thin air day in/day out or in my case night in/night out. I remember some of the others saying at music meetings (yes, DJs had active input into the musical availabilities) that they felt they were really cooking 30-40% of the time. And I remember thinking, "What's your problem? On a bad night I'm kicking in at 75%."
The peril of self-indulgence was a very palpable issue. It was easy for the station to become disjointed (no pun intended) with each jock a virtual PD of his/her own shift. Avoiding that was tricky. You had to actively practice appreciation along with personal taste. By that I mean that you had to appreciate the validity and importance of the stuff you did not personally like because the listeners would inevitably want those. But discrimination in how you'd sequence and present was the most important thing.
Remember in the early 1970s there were very few TV stations, all of them over the air. There was no cable. And when that finally loomed the common thought was "Who'd ever pay for TV?" Same folks now say "Who'd ever pay for radio?"
Third, the audiences have splintered making this freewheeling sort of radio very, very hard to pull off full-time.
Then there's the technological issues of there being more choices than ever. AM, FM, HD, satellite, iPods, CDs, etc. The young generation has virtually rejected radio as something they do not need. Jerry del Colliano and I have discussed this frequently, and he regularly explores this issue in his excellent blog Inside Radio--free sub, check it out.
In short: the unlikelihood of generating enough profit$, lack of appropriate and top knotch talent and the difficulty of finding aenough audience to make it fly. Plus the array of other options.
Most of all, just doing this kind of radio is exhausting for the DJ. Back in 1992-1995 when I was in my "post-graduate period" at WXPN (I'd been there as an undergraduate 1967-1970 which predates WMMR and WDAS-FM much as Sciaky did on WRTI) I was offered the chance to do the last hour freeform as the inducement to counteract a preposterously bad pay rate. Toward the end they suggested I could do it all that way, but I declined. I found then that doing an hour of freeform radio at its best took about 2 hours of prep. Multiply that into full shows and you can understand how in the early WMMR hey day the show became my life. I was always mulling it even when doing everything else. The show was truly a calling for me then, and I've strived to keep that spirit alive ever since.
Today's radio feels like narrowcasting as formats try to carve enough of a niche to float the boat. In this atmosphere freeform or progressive radio as it was just cannot sustain itself. Except in small pockets like I've been lucky and stubborn enough to carve out. It is still the most thrilling thing I do. And doing it at home and delivering finished shows is a long held dream. I need to do these at home. All the music is there in my working library--it's way more than a collection. And I can do 'em when the muse seduces me. And between the four shows I do regularly at home I've delivered over 1400 broadcast hours.
In all likelihood this is To Be Continued. I look forward to reading reactions.
And thanks for the invite to run on like this. It was fun.
Thanks for jumping in Michael. You Godfathers of freeform radio are what started a fire in me to make radio a career. Unfortunately, when I actually started getting some traction, I watched the break-neck speed of consolidation begin, and its aftermath. I soon lost my love and taste for radio. Have you ever considered writing a book about your time in Philadelphia radio? BTW, how's your bowling game these days?
When I hear the name Michael Tearson I always think of Gorilla Theater and that awesome promo. Yes I was an 'MMR listener starting about 1978 and only stopped listening(almost) completely while Y100 was on the air. I was ,and still am, living in the overlap of the Philly and Baltimore markets so had dual loyalty to one in each market. I never had a name for the kind of music I liked but it always tended to be NOT what my friends liked and before MTV you could at least HOPE for an equal dose of what you liked/hated. I'm a diehard FM fan so Y-Rock and HFS2 aren't an option until I can afford HD. Someone said "Who'd pay for radio?" well I can tell you it won't be me....if I'm spending money for music I'll have the CD in my hands. My ultimate station would have to be parts (maybe not equal) of MMR,XPN,Y-Rock,HFS2 and RNR....the missing parts would be the overplayed stuff execs think we should get addicted to. Leave addiction based noise to The Beat,getcha some on the corner.
I've been hearing Pam Early lately on Sirius XM Deep Tracks. She's not listed on the Web as a regular DJ, so maybe this is just a fill-in thing. But with her, Earle Bailey and Michael Tearson on Deep Tracks, playing stuff radio gave up playing 30 years ago, Deep Tracks is fantastic and even better than Philly radio back in the day.
J
jackeffinnasty
Guest
carnyfeet said:
That's a horrible playlist. I've heard literally three of those songs. Who, other than a guy with that stuff on his ipod, would WANT to hear that? Radio is about reaching as many people as possible, and that list would bring about 7 listeners to the table, don't you think?
Jeeesh you two guys need to discover music out there. I sure hope you're not in the biz or <shudder!!> on air. I know all but the NIN song. Where have you guys been anyway? 
BTW it's 'XPN' not a commercial station.
BTW it's 'XPN' not a commercial station.It's funny how people confuse their opinion with fact. If you have not heard 11 out of 14 songs on a list what makes those 11 songs that you never heard "horrible"? Wow! Try giving them a listen, then share your opinion after you actually listen!
On an unrelated note, someone dug this thread out of moth balls, and I noticed it had been started by Runwithscissors, aka ClassicCountry. He/she used to post daily but has not posted in just over one year. Does anyone know what became of RWS?
On an unrelated note, someone dug this thread out of moth balls, and I noticed it had been started by Runwithscissors, aka ClassicCountry. He/she used to post daily but has not posted in just over one year. Does anyone know what became of RWS?
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