[BC] Early FM Growth. Its Cause

[FrankGott@aol.com]

My first broadcast job was board oping overnights at WAMO-FM in Pittsburgh, 
and juggling programs on both AM and FM on Sundays.  WAMO has been the city's 
urban formatted station almost since its inception.

When I was there in the mid-60s the music had tremendous crossover appeal.  
What held the station back was having an AM daytime signal.  Signing of at 
5:15pm in December didn't help revenue or ratings.  

The FM built the audience.  But first, the audience had to know the FM 
existed.  The station promoted itself as the Double-WAMO -- WAMO AM and FM.  The 
72,000 watts of power on FM was promoted as well.  But most importantly, there 
were FM radio giveaways and FM receivers were heavily marketed in the target 
neighborhoods.  Believe me, the overnight soul music I played on FM was anything 
but commercial free.  Better sound and content sold radios and attracted an 
audience.

The "underground" music era brought new listeners.  It was successful enough 
to be briefly exported to co-owned WUFO in Buffalo and WILD in Boston.

Those were indeed "heady" days and a great beginning to this kids career.  
Who knows what direction my career would have taken if the draft board hadn't 
offered me a job I couldn't refuse.  At least the job was as a 71R20.

Frank Gottlieb
 



In a message dated 2/12/2007 7:06:44 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
richwood at pobox.com writes:

<<  It took years for FMs 
 to take listeners from the dominant Top 40 AMs. Broadening the 
 variety of formats sure helped but the FCC's prohibition against 
 simulcasting threw things into high gear. Prior to that there were 
 many AM formats simulcast and listeners stayed with AM for many years 
 when the same format was available on FM. Remember, AM sounded much 
 better back then than it does today. Just like today, quality wasn't 
 the driving force. In Boston, WBCN had a free form format that was 
 almost a cult. Couldn't get that on AM. It was imaginative 
 programming and lower spot loads on FM that drew listeners. >>