I also don't recall "Taxi" being banned on either station. But I was living downstate when that song came out. It definitely was in regular rotation on KSTT and WQUA in the Quad cities where I was. And the jocks were also playing it on WHBF, my gig at the time (but not as a jock). At least at night (we basically followed the Billboard AC chart). I also remember it being on WIRL. Hard to believe what was OK in Davenport, Rock Island, Moline, and Peoria was "too hot to handle" for Chicago.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Why Did Neither WLS Nor WCFL Play "Taxi" By Harry Chapin?
- Thread starter Schroedingers Cat
- Start date
I also don't recall "Taxi" being banned on either station. But I was living downstate when that song came out. It definitely was in regular rotation on KSTT and WQUA in the Quad cities where I was. And the jocks were also playing it on WHBF, my gig at the time (but not as a jock). At least at night (we basically followed the Billboard AC chart). I also remember it being on WIRL. Hard to believe what was OK in Davenport, Rock Island, Moline, and Peoria was "too hot to handle" for Chicago.
Well I was finishing up my senior year at NIU in 72 and I remember hearing "Taxi", but I can't say I heard it on WLS or WCFL. Anybody got any airchecks from that time?
There was a DJ edit of Taxi that ran close to 5:00 long. In checking the ARSA survey site, sure enough, of the surveys posted there, no surveys with Taxi in Chicago. Alphabetizing the list of stations that played the song, it goes from Chico, CA to Cleveland, OH.
Interesting, thanks for that.
Were stations testing songs back then or just going on their music director and/or program director's gut feeling? It sure seems strange that two powerhouse stations in the No. 3 market would completely ignore a single that was more than just an East Coast hit. What was it about "Taxi" that made it a non-starter in Chicago?
"Taxi" was ranked #97 on the WABC Top 100 of 1972 so it was probably on the playlist for about eight weeks.
It could have been that they were worried that they would play a "stiff", and considering that it wasn't bounding up the charts (I seem to remember from AT 40 that it just inched up the chart one position at a time, which usually means it's ready to fall off), it seems reasonable. But I never understood the extreme "stiff phobia" that WLS had, even more than WABC, even though they were both under the control of Rick Sklar. But then, why did WABC ban "Ariel", and it was #4 at WLS? I know that Dean Friedman didn't like the lyrical edit on the single, and reportedly got religious defense groups involved, which might have not been relevant in Chicago.
More than one of us here have noted that "Rapture" by Blondie had an at best ambiguous sounding phrase in it, and WLS banned it.
Somebody leaned on WABC to not play "Twelve Thirty" by the Mamas and Papas because it ragged on New York City, and cost it peaking at #20.
More than one of us here have noted that "Rapture" by Blondie had an at best ambiguous sounding phrase in it, and WLS banned it.
Somebody leaned on WABC to not play "Twelve Thirty" by the Mamas and Papas because it ragged on New York City, and cost it peaking at #20.
I'm more surprised that WCFL didn't play it. They were more liberal with their playlist than WLS was.
It only peaked at #19 in Boston (WRKO), where you'd think a song ragging on NYC would have done well. It was on the playlist for six weeks, only one week longer and two positions higher at its peak than Long John Baldry's "Let the Heartaches Begin"! I was always under the impression that the song never really caught on. Was it a big hit elsewhere, the West Coast maybe?
I never thought of it as an anti-New York song. It was more of a pro-LA song. The subtitle was "Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon." It's a contrast between New York and Laurel Canyon. It was part 2 of California Dreaming. Pretty much the same dichotomy. It was also, as I recall, their final song as a quartet before they broke up. I think that had a lot to do with its lack of success.
Regarding Taxi, it wasn't just a long song. It was ponderous. I mean a song about a taxi driver could have been a lot more interesting. There was a TV series about life at a taxi company, and it was funny, and lasted several years. Imagine this song being released today. Would it get commercial radio airplay? I don't think so.
Was there any song more ponderous than Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald? Good Gawd, that song seemed to last forever! But it spent 2 weeks at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976, and is still played today.
I see 12:30 did get into the Top 5 on several radio station surveys. Understandably, it was fairly popular at WCOL 1230 Columbus. If I had been PD, I would have put a Pop Top with the call letters along with the 1230 on the intro.
It reached #1 on Cash Box. I was surprised it did well nationwide. It sounds like it would be a regional hit. Mentioning Lake Michigan sold it in Chicago. But then again, "All Summer Long", by Kid Rock, from the same Great Lakes Area, was much bigger in Europe than the US.
I agree. Ponderous. This is what we call a "turntable hit." It was driven primarily by record promoters, not by sales. The ONLY Lightfoot single certified by RIAA for sales of 500,000 copies is "Sundown." That's it. All of his other singles didn't sell. This was happening at a low point for Top 40 radio. The only reason it may get airplay now is because new programmers are swayed by the chart numbers and they're not actually listening to the song itself. It's not a hit. I wouldn't recommend either of these songs for current airplay.
It was nothing but an amalgamation of Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama and Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London, with new lyrics. I don't use the term "ripoff" because Kid Rock did pay for the rights to both songs, IIRC.
Interesting, considering that his first US single, If You Could Read My Mind (which was even more ponderous and boring than Edmund Fitzgerald), hit #5 on the Hot 100 in 1971. I would think that a #5 hit would have sold more than 500,000 copies.
WABC did use the opening lyrics of "Twelve-Thirty"(I used to live in NYC. Everything there was dark and dirty.) in a PSA about air pollution voiced by Dan Ingram.
And when I saw him sing it live... at age 80... at Stagecoach in 2018, the crowd applauded this more than any other, and most of the time they were singing along with the very lengthy lyrics. And that is in the California Desert, as far away from the lake they called Gitchigumi as you can get on this continent.
And Lightfoot, who sang at the secondary stage, drew the largest crowd of any of the thirty or so performers who performed at that venue. Not quite the same as FGL or Garth or Keith, but very well received.
If you've ever seen a winter storm in the northern Great Lakes, the song has a haunting quality.
Also from the obscure deep cuts list, "Kay" by John Wesley Ryles (1968). Similarly ponderous, but only a 3 minute run time. Similar chart performance on the country charts, but I liked it from the first time I heard it.
"Kay" painted vivid pictures of the people the cabbie encountered as well as his personal situation, all in three minutes. The cabbie in "Taxi" spends the whole song wrapped up in himself and the woman he'll never have for twice as long. I'll take "Kay" any day and twice on Sunday.
- Status