[BC] Early FM Growth. Its Cause

[Glen Kippel]

One of the reasons for the demise of the "EZ-listening" or "beautiful music"
format must lie with the operators who automated the format and ripped every
shred of life out of it.  KWXY is doing well in the ratings and we get calls
from people who say they wish there was a station like ours where they came
from.

On 2/12/07, FrankGott at aol.com <FrankGott at aol.com> wrote:
>
> 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. >>
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