What was middle of the road?

[michael hagerty]

These charts bring back memories..."Hi I'm Roger Carroll, and I play records!", and of course Gentleman Jim Lange, who we also remember from the great KSFO...(and the Dating Game !)

The personalities were amazing. Before '59 or so, the core was Dick Whittinghill, Ira Cook and Johnny Grant. The guys who followed in the evenings (Bill Stewart, Jerry Dexter and others) were top-notch, but they weren't stars the way the daytime lineup was. Roger Carroll was a big move (and worked a split shift for many years (1-3 pm and 6-9 pm).

Everything changed in '62 when they hired Gary Owens, and a year later Johnny Magnus. And from there, it's like the floodgates opened---it was the all-stars: Geoff Edwards and Jack Angel in '68, Jim Lange and Clark Race (a HUGE star in Pittsburgh) in '70, Wink in '71, Kathy Gori (who SHOULD have been huge) in '72, Sonny Melendrez in '73, Robert W. Morgan in '75 and Dave Hull in '78.

 

[michael hagerty]

This is a good description of Adult Contemporary programming. They generally played Top 40, but a softened Top 40, with a lot of gold added.

Back in the 70's, I used to "DX" around at night, just on a regular transistor radio, and KOIL 1290 Omaha came in pretty clearly, especially when my family was traveling in the Palm Springs area, or traveling to Phoenix. They called themselves Top 40 in those days, but it wasn't Top 40 like an L.A. station. They eliminated some of the hardest records, and played more gold than L.A. rockers. This is just my opinion. -- Daryl

A lot of smaller and more conservative market Top 40s were like that. There wasn't the mass of 12-34 year-olds in those markets to keep the station rolling with advertisers. Playing older and more gold and going a bit softer helped with clients.

 

[TomásEstefan]

The personalities were amazing. Before '59 or so, the core was Dick Whittinghill, Ira Cook and Johnny Grant. The guys who followed in the evenings (Bill Stewart, Jerry Dexter and others) were top-notch, but they weren't stars the way the daytime lineup was. Roger Carroll was a big move (and worked a split shift for many years (1-3 pm and 6-9 pm).

Everything changed in '62 when they hired Gary Owens, and a year later Johnny Magnus. And from there, it's like the floodgates opened---it was the all-stars: Geoff Edwards and Jack Angel in '68, Jim Lange and Clark Race (a HUGE star in Pittsburgh) in '70, Wink in '71, Kathy Gori (who SHOULD have been huge) in '72, Sonny Melendrez in '73, Robert W. Morgan in '75 and Dave Hull in '78.

If there were Martians and they had something like "radio" and wanted to know if we Earthlings had something similar, all we would have to is send them a ton of airchecks from KMPC. Quite possibly the finest this planet has ever produced !

 

[michael hagerty]

If there were Martians and they had something like "radio" and wanted to know if we Earthlings had something similar, all we would have to is send them a ton of airchecks from KMPC. Quite possibly the finest this planet has ever produced !

It and KSFO. I understand WNEW, New York was incredible as well, but I never had the opportunity to hear it and I haven't ever run across 1960s-era airchecks of 'NEW.

 

[TomásEstefan]

It and KSFO. I understand WNEW, New York was incredible as well, but I never had the opportunity to hear it and I haven't ever run across 1960s-era airchecks of 'NEW.

I never heard WNEW either.....One thing I wanted to say that when you mentioned KMPC changed from music to talk, didn't work out and months later went back to music. Based on what I remember reading in the trades, it wasn't so much that the KMPC talk format didn't work is that apparently the station received hundreds or maybe thousands of letters and phone calls from people saying: "You took away MY station, please bring it back!" It looked like the people have spoken and the station returned to music.

 

[michael hagerty]

Based on what I remember reading in the trades, it wasn't so much that the KMPC talk format didn't work is that apparently the station received hundreds or maybe thousands of letters and phone calls from people saying: "You took away MY station, please bring it back!" It looked like the people have spoken and the station returned to music.

That was KMPC's spin, but look at the ratings. In the fall '81 book, which came out before the decision to flip, KMPC was 24th in the market with a 2.0. KABC, which it had targeted, was #1 with an 8.0.

KMPC's talk format started out with a 2.6, fell to a 2.1, bobbed up to a 2.5, then down to a 2.3 before that final 2.0.

It didn't work.

And they didn't "bring back" anything. The music was music KMPC hadn't played since the 50s, and the only KMPC holdover in terms of talent was Robert W., who'd only been there since 1975 and had only been fulltime (replacing Whittinghill in mornings) since August of 1979.

They built a new Big Band/Nostalgia station (based on Bill Drake's Hitparade format, just with different music) and kept the call letters.

 

[TheBigA]

They dialed it back quite a bit in 1974, but never returned to what they were doing before 1973, largely because the mainline MOR artists were releasing less and less material.

It's an interesting list, because it says "These are the albums currently being heard." So they might not play the latest single by Blood Sweat & Tears or Elton John, but they might play a light ballad. The playlist of course was mainly for the record labels, to show they played currents.

The record labels went through their own metamorphosis at this time, with Mitch Miller no longer running A&R at Columbia, and the rise of rock music, because that's where sales was coming from.

 

[TomásEstefan]

That was KMPC's spin, but look at the ratings. In the fall '81 book, which came out before the decision to flip, KMPC was 24th in the market with a 2.0. KABC, which it had targeted, was #1 with an 8.0.

KMPC's talk format started out with a 2.6, fell to a 2.1, bobbed up to a 2.5, then down to a 2.3 before that final 2.0.

It didn't work.

And they didn't "bring back" anything. The music was music KMPC hadn't played since the 50s, and the only KMPC holdover in terms of talent was Robert W., who'd only been there since 1975 and had only been fulltime (replacing Whittinghill in mornings) since August of 1979.

They built a new Big Band/Nostalgia station (based on Bill Drake's Hitparade format, just with different music) and kept the call letters.

I believe Jim Lange returned to KMPC in the mid 80's, because I remember at that time my wife and I ran into him at Miceli's in Studio City and I welcomed him back to LA, for which he was very appreciative. Jimbo was very gracious and a good guy! He was definitively Mr. MOR.

 

[michael hagerty]

I believe Jim Lange returned to KMPC in the mid 80's, because I remember at that time my wife and I ran into him at Miceli's in Studio City and I welcomed him back to LA, for which he was very appreciative. Jimbo was very gracious and a good guy! He was definitively Mr. MOR.

Jim was great. He went back to KMPC in 1983 for middays (after Gene Autry sold KSFO) and ended up replacing Robert W. in mornings when Morgan went to KMGG (Magic 106) in 1984. Lange moved to afternoons when Morgan came back in late '87, and went back to San Francisco in 1990.

Eventually, KMPC brought back Wink Martindale and Johnny Magnus, too---but that was over the ten-year run of the "new" KMPC (1982-1992). The original 1982 lineup was Robert W. 6-10 a.m., Neil Ross (10-2), Eric Tracy (2-6), a one-hour sportscast (6-7), Larry McKay (7-midnight) and Deanna Crowe (midnight-6 a.m.)

 

[michael hagerty]

It's an interesting list, because it says "These are the albums currently being heard." So they might not play the latest single by Blood Sweat & Tears or Elton John, but they might play a light ballad. The playlist of course was mainly for the record labels, to show they played currents.

The record labels went through their own metamorphosis at this time, with Mitch Miller no longer running A&R at Columbia, and the rise of rock music, because that's where sales was coming from.

At the time of the 1970 playlist, they might play one popular single an hour. The rest were album cuts. By '73, the formula was reversed---mostly the current hit singles from those albums, with one album cut that wasn't charting.

Also important to note---because of KMPC's personalities, 18-minute hourly commercial load, newscasts (5 minutes at the top of the hour, 2 minutes at the bottom) and traffic reports (6 a.m.-6 p.m. and on weekends when there were sporting events), KMPC only played about six records an hour in the daytime and maybe nine or ten at night. So rotation and repetition was nothing like the Top 40 stations or even the more music-intensive ACs like KIIS-AM.

 

[TomásEstefan]

Jim was great. He went back to KMPC in 1983 for middays (after Gene Autry sold KSFO) and ended up replacing Robert W. in mornings when Morgan went to KMGG (Magic 106) in 1984. Lange moved to afternoons when Morgan came back in late '87, and went back to San Francisco in 1990.

Eventually, KMPC brought back Wink Martindale and Johnny Magnus, too---but that was over the ten-year run of the "new" KMPC (1982-1992). The original 1982 lineup was Robert W. 6-10 a.m., Neil Ross (10-2), Eric Tracy (2-6), a one-hour sportscast (6-7), Larry McKay (7-midnight) and Deanna Crowe (midnight-6 a.m.)

I think we have to also remember the wonderfully "insane" Jim Healy before he went to KLAC. Was a crackup, couldn't wait to listen!

 

[michael hagerty]

To illustrate the difference between KMPC as an MOR and KMPC as an AC, I've got two Gary Owens airchecks---one from 1970, the other from 1973.

Let's look at what records he played. These are both Saturday shows, so he's playing more records per hour than he would on a weekday show:

November 28, 1970:

4:30-5:00 pm

(News)
George Russell: In Laguna (guitar instrumental)
Bobby Sherman: Easy Come, Easy Go (early 1970---peaked at #8 at KHJ)
Claudine Longet: I'll Be There (cover of the Jackson 5 hit)
Chicago: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is ( the only current chart record in this half-hour, which Gary describes as having "a Four Freshmen-type of sound")
Ferlin Husky: Sweet Misery (a current, but only charted Country)
The Renaissance: There's Always Something There to Remind Me (a vocal group using baroque-styled arrangements and singing no words---just "ba-ba-da-ba-da")

5:00-5:30 pm

(News)
Five Flights Up: After The Feeling Is Gone (a current---but a stiff--peaked at #89 on the Hot 100)
Peter Nero: Summer Me, Winter Me (piano instrumental)
The Crystal Mansion: Carolina In My Mind (vocal group cover of James Taylor song)
Dionne Warwick: Alfie

The newscast at the top of the hour is longer, and there were some Sigalerts because of crashes in the rain, so the 5:00 half hour had fewer songs than the 4:30.


June 16, 1973:

4:00-4:30 pm

(News)
Stevie Wonder: You Are The Sunshine Of My Life (current)
Matthews' Southern Comfort: Woodstock (1971---peaked at #8 at KHJ)
The Big Bopper: Chantilly Lace (1958)
Freddie Hart: Easy Lovin' (1971---peaked at #19 at KHJ)
Henry Mancini: Theme from "Oklahoma Crude" (instrumental)

4:30-5:00 pm

(News)
Jan & Dean: Surf City (1963)
Tommy Edwards: It's All In The Game (1958)
Arlo Guthrie: Gypsy Davy (current)
Carpenters: Yesterday Once More (current)
Patrick Williams: Like Always (instrumental)


So, three pop chart currents in an hour compared to two three years earlier.

Five Goldens that had Top 40 play in the market (at KFWB, KRLA and KHJ) compared to two in 1970 (though Dionne Warwick's "Alfie" was a bigger record for KMPC when it was new than it was for KHJ, where it stalled at #17 and was only played for four weeks).

No more covers of pop hits.

Instrumentals moved from within the half hour to leading up to the newscast (both Mancini and Williams were pre-rolled to hit the top of the hour, and faded in when the commercials were over).

It looks pretty tame from 50 years out, but at the time, it was a significant shift---and sent many of KMPC's 50-plus listeners to Beautiful Music stations (which, with XTRA and KPOL, could be found on AM as well as the FM choices like KBIG, KOST, KWST and KLVE).

 

[gr8oldies]

Nope. "Adult Standards" was coined while these stations were still in a pre-rock universe---in the 80s.

Just checked---earliest reference to "Adult Standards" as a format description in R&R was February of 1985. First reference in Billboard was two months after that.

WRFD in Columbus, Ohio played what became The Music of Your Life as "The Un-rock of Central Ohio" in the late 70s. The syndicated MOYL format launched sometime in the early 80s.

 

[TomásEstefan]

To illustrate the difference between KMPC as an MOR and KMPC as an AC, I've got two Gary Owens airchecks---one from 1970, the other from 1973.

Let's look at what records he played. These are both Saturday shows, so he's playing more records per hour than he would on a weekday show:

November 28, 1970:

4:30-5:00 pm

(News)
George Russell: In Laguna (guitar instrumental)
Bobby Sherman: Easy Come, Easy Go (early 1970---peaked at #8 at KHJ)
Claudine Longet: I'll Be There (cover of the Jackson 5 hit)
Chicago: Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is ( the only current chart record in this half-hour, which Gary describes as having "a Four Freshmen-type of sound")
Ferlin Husky: Sweet Misery (a current, but only charted Country)
The Renaissance: There's Always Something There to Remind Me (a vocal group using baroque-styled arrangements and singing no words---just "ba-ba-da-ba-da")

5:00-5:30 pm

(News)
Five Flights Up: After The Feeling Is Gone (a current---but a stiff--peaked at #89 on the Hot 100)
Peter Nero: Summer Me, Winter Me (piano instrumental)
The Crystal Mansion: Carolina In My Mind (vocal group cover of James Taylor song)
Dionne Warwick: Alfie

The newscast at the top of the hour is longer, and there were some Sigalerts because of crashes in the rain, so the 5:00 half hour had fewer songs than the 4:30.


June 16, 1973:

4:00-4:30 pm

(News)
Stevie Wonder: You Are The Sunshine Of My Life (current)
Matthews' Southern Comfort: Woodstock (1971---peaked at #8 at KHJ)
The Big Bopper: Chantilly Lace (1958)
Freddie Hart: Easy Lovin' (1971---peaked at #19 at KHJ)
Henry Mancini: Theme from "Oklahoma Crude" (instrumental)

4:30-5:00 pm

(News)
Jan & Dean: Surf City (1963)
Tommy Edwards: It's All In The Game (1958)
Arlo Guthrie: Gypsy Davy (current)
Carpenters: Yesterday Once More (current)
Patrick Williams: Like Always (instrumental)


So, three pop chart currents in an hour compared to two three years earlier.

Five Goldens that had Top 40 play in the market (at KFWB, KRLA and KHJ) compared to two in 1970 (though Dionne Warwick's "Alfie" was a bigger record for KMPC when it was new than it was for KHJ, where it stalled at #17 and was only played for four weeks).

No more covers of pop hits.

Instrumentals moved from within the half hour to leading up to the newscast (both Mancini and Williams were pre-rolled to hit the top of the hour, and faded in when the commercials were over).

It looks pretty tame from 50 years out, but at the time, it was a significant shift---and sent many of KMPC's 50-plus listeners to Beautiful Music stations (which, with XTRA and KPOL, could be found on AM as well as the FM choices like KBIG, KOST, KWST and KLVE).

It's fun to point out that XeTRA 690 at this time was the first to use Leonard Kahn's "Independent Sideband" AM Stereo System where the Left channel is carried by the lower sideband, and the right by the upper sideband. All you had to do was place two radios a few feet apart and slightly off tune each one. This system although obviously very crude actually did work when set up correctly.

 

[TheBigA]

Ferlin Husky: Sweet Misery (a current, but only charted Country)

Its interesting how many country songs were played in the format. You have listed Jim Reeves, Ferlin Husky, and Freddie Hart. A lot of this was by design. Country producers knew they couldn't compete against The Beatles. So they created something they called 'The Nashville Sound.' Jim Reeves was a great example at RCA. He worked with Chet Atkins, one of the creators of the sound: Very thick strings, the Jordanaires, and light arrangement. Pretty much the same musicians on every record. Floyd Cramer played the distinctive piano. Reeves crossed over to pop and MOR at a time when country was a regional format.

Another great example was Roy Orbison, who filled the void when Elvis was in the army. Roy's ballads like Only The Lonely fit perfectly in the MOR format. Roy recorded most of his hits in Nashville, using the same techniques that worked for Reeves and others. His producer built a studio in an old church near Music Row. But Only The Lonely was recorded at RCA Studio B with a lot of the same musicians you'd hear on Jim Reeves songs.

Ferlin Husky worked with Ken Nelson, who did most of the Capitol artists. Capitol didn't have a Nashville studio like RCA or Columbia. Sometimes Ken rented time at Columbia. The early Ferlin hits were done at the old Capitol studios on Melrose in Hollywood. But it wasn't unusual for there to be country mixed in with pop at a MOR station in the 60s.

The early Haggard songs on Capitol got pop and MOR play in the 60s. Haggard recorded at the new Capitol studio at Hollywood & Vine in the late 60s. Of course by the 70s, the lush Nashville sound started to go away, replaced by the rougher Outlaw sound of Waylon Jennings. But for a time there was a lot of money to be made making pop country records for MOR radio.

 

[TomásEstefan]

Its interesting how many country songs were played in the format. You have listed Jim Reeves, Ferlin Husky, and Freddie Hart. A lot of this was by design. Country producers knew they couldn't compete against The Beatles. So they created something they called 'The Nashville Sound.' Jim Reeves was a great example at RCA. He worked with Chet Atkins, one of the creators of the sound: Very thick strings, the Jordanaires, and light arrangement. Pretty much the same musicians on every record. Floyd Cramer played the distinctive piano. Reeves crossed over to pop and MOR at a time when country was a regional format.

Another great example was Roy Orbison, who filled the void when Elvis was in the army. Roy's ballads like Only The Lonely fit perfectly in the MOR format. Roy recorded most of his hits in Nashville, using the same techniques that worked for Reeves and others. His producer built a studio in an old church near Music Row. But Only The Lonely was recorded at RCA Studio B with a lot of the same musicians you'd hear on Jim Reeves songs.

Ferlin Husky worked with Ken Nelson, who did most of the Capitol artists. Capitol didn't have a Nashville studio like RCA or Columbia. Sometimes Ken rented time at Columbia. The early Ferlin hits were done at the old Capitol studios on Melrose in Hollywood. But it wasn't unusual for there to be country mixed in with pop at a MOR station in the 60s.

The early Haggard songs on Capitol got pop and MOR play in the 60s. Haggard recorded at the new Capitol studio at Hollywood & Vine in the late 60s. Of course by the 70s, the lush Nashville sound started to go away, replaced by the rougher Outlaw sound of Waylon Jennings. But for a time there was a lot of money to be made making pop country records for MOR radio.

This is how KLAC 570 was for many years successful as a "country" station. KLAC played this music, and the personalities were instructed never to say country on the air. They wanted it to be a special kind of MOR station reaching a broader audience.

 

[TheBigA]

This is how KLAC 570 was for many years successful as a "country" station. KLAC played this music, and the personalities were instructed never to say country on the air. They wanted it to be a special kind of MOR station reaching a broader audience.

Same with WHN in New York. They played Olivia Newton John, Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers, and Charley Pride. The mix was younger than WNEW or WOR, but older than WABC. In fact WHN had been MOR in the 60s, competing directly against WNEW. They went country in the early 70s.

 

[michael hagerty]

This is how KLAC 570 was for many years successful as a "country" station. KLAC played this music, and the personalities were instructed never to say country on the air. They wanted it to be a special kind of MOR station reaching a broader audience.

Right. And KLAC made that switch, from MOR, about six weeks before the 1970 KMPC aircheck. This may have been a response.

 

[davideduardo]

The newscast at the top of the hour is longer, and there were some Sigalerts because of crashes in the rain, so the 5:00 half hour had fewer songs than the 4:30.

Now you are going to have to explain to the non-Californians what that word means.

 

[TheBigA]

I mentioned that Ferlin Husky recorded his early hits (such as Dear John Letter) in the old Capitol studio on Melrose. I did a little digging, and saw that the studio had previously been the home of KHJ: 5515 Melrose. The building is now part of the Paramount complex. I think the studio tour begins there. Capitol bought it in 1948, and recorded Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole there until they built the Capitol tower in 1956. Nat's Unforgettable and Mona Lisa were recorded on Melrose, not the tower.