[BC] Where formats come from

[nakayle@gmail.com]

  My best memories of radio were as a kid listening to a couple local FM
stations in the early 1960s.  At the time FM radios were so rare you
couldn't give FM time away, much less sell it.  Even so there was a couple
daytime AMers in my town who ran low power FMs just so they had something on
the air after sunset.  Because the audience was paltry small they never had
ads so programming was very casual with lots of music and casual chat from
the DJ, a college kid earning a few bucks.  We few listeners would call and
talk to him and he would dedicate songs to us and soon we all knew the names
of the few dozen listeners there were.

 It was all so intimate it was like we were a private club.  In fact most of
my friends at school couldn't listen if they wanted to because they didn't
have a FM radio (which were rare and expensive in those days).  One night I
was chatting with the DJ and he invited me to come visit the station.  I
began hanging around there which lead me to a thirty year career in
broadcasting.  That seems like a century ago now.  Those little stations are
now 100KW blowtorches owned by big out-of- town mega-chains and play the
same crappy music over and over in strictly structured formula formats.
Sadly how radio has changed.   :-(