What was AM Radio like in the 1950's etc? (USA, ally, Atlanta)
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FM was first used by public radio, classics stations, and elevator music stations. That was an automatic turn-off to youngsters of the era.
Until the advent of progressive rock FM stations such as WOR FM in NY and later WNEW FM in NY and there was another in Boston that was featured in a recent documentary. The college crowd listened to these stations in the mid-60s when Album rock became popular, while AM became the domain of teenyboppers and high schoolers.
Cousin Brucie Morrow. He met the Beatles when they first flew to NYC in 1964 and interviewed and showed them around.
I liked Cousin Brucie but 'Murray the K' (Murray Kaufman) was the king. He called himself 'the fifth Beatle' to latch on to their success. Murray had watchwords and phrases which were unforgettable on his 'swinging soiree'. Who could forget 'submarine race watching' and what it meant? Every youth I knew had foreign appendages he described as 'Roman hands' and 'Russian fingers'.
However, in the fifties and sixties, the station featuring Randy's Music Shop in Gallatin, TN set the standard for R&B and jazz for listeners in many parts of the nation. It could not be heard everywhere, however.
Black radio had come to the fore in the fifties. There was WVON in Chicago (the 'Voice of the Negro') and WBLS in NYC (the 'Black Liberation Station'). My favorite was WWRL in NYC with 'Uncle Funky', Eddie OJ. I was never a big fan of Frankie 'Hollywood' Crocker. Of course, our family standard was WINS, all news all the time!
I was surprised WCFL AM 1000 was not mentioned in this thread. I grew up outside of Pittsburgh and in the evenings could pick up two Top 40 AM stations from far away. One was WCFL from Chicago, which advertised "The Voice of Labor," and WABC from New York City. This was important when I started driving in the early 1970s because the cars I drove only had AM radios. If I remember correctly, you could start to pick up these stations a little after sunset. I remember having it on one evening in the 1970s when I thought they said they were going off the air. A quick search found that on March 15, 1976, WCFL abruptly dropped its Top 40 format in favor of The World's Most Beautiful Music.
I have fond memories of sitting in the breakfast nook at Grandma's on Saturday mornings listening to "Let's Pretend" on AM radio and enjoying "children's coffee" laced with lots of cream and sugar.
In my teen-aged years nighttime radio from Little Rock, KAAY, could be heard all the way in southern MN. I lay in bed and was introduced to my first real Rhythm & Blues. Later, in the '60s, it was all about "Beaker Street" and underground radio.
I still drive my adult children crazy when I listen to AM radio. "How can you stand all that static?" Nostalgia.
So.. Just kinda curious.. What would you all say was the timeframe on the death of AM?
Let's be honest.. There's just not many AM music stations out there now. AM has become the land of Spanish music, Talk Radio and Sports. That's it's second life.. But.. When did its first one end?
Late 70's/Early 80's is where I would put it. It was going down in the late 70's, but still had legs. But, by the early to mid 80's.. Not so much
As for 'good' AM radio stations now.. KCJJ "The Mighty 1630" out of Iowa is really good. Lots of original programming on the station. I can actually pick that station up here in the upstate of SC when the wind is blowing right.
In the 70's, when I lived in the Middle-East, there was still no FM, and every country had tight control over its radio stations. Virtually all stations were government-owned, and wasted little air time on anything as frivolous as music. The only private stations were Christians evangelizing the world. Short wave was even worse.
I could only hear US-style radio on Voice of Peace, broadcasting ti Israel and the Middle, from a ship off Israels 12 mile limit, staffed by American abd Australian DJs. A helicopter flew out twice a week. with supplies and shift changes out of Tel Aviv. It was just solid US Top40 and country, 24 a day. No mention of peace, nor war. nor news about anything else. The onlo other relief was RSA's Radio Highvelt on SW.
So.. Just kinda curious.. What would you all say was the timeframe on the death of AM?
Let's be honest.. There's just not many AM music stations out there now. AM has become the land of Spanish music, Talk Radio and Sports. That's it's second life.. But.. When did its first one end?
Late 70's/Early 80's is where I would put it. It was going down in the late 70's, but still had legs. But, by the early to mid 80's.. Not so much
As for 'good' AM radio stations now.. KCJJ "The Mighty 1630" out of Iowa is really good. Lots of original programming on the station. I can actually pick that station up here in the upstate of SC when the wind is blowing right.
Cousin Brucie still has a show on 77 WABC AM on Saturday Nights followed by Tony Orlando.
I was in the US Army in the mid-1970s, stationed four years in West Germany, including a year in West Berlin. AM radio was a big deal, a lifeline back to "the world" (USA) for most of us young GIs in our late teens or early 20s. In the barracks or at our platoon workshop there was usually a radio turned into AFN (American Forces Network). AFN had strong transmitters which broadcast in areas of Germany where a few hundred thousand US service members were stationed (Hessen, Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rheinland Pfalz plus West Berlin and the port of Bremerhaven).
In walled-off and isolated West Berlin we also tuned into RIAS (Rundfunk im amerikanishen Sektor / Radio in the American Sector), a radio station run up until 1989 by the USIA (US Information Agency, that also ran Radio Free Europe). RIAS broadcast super-strong from Berlin and Hof, Bavaria, and could also be heard in much of communist East Germany. RIAS was like a 1940s AM station in New York City with its own choir, symphony orchestra, chamber orchestra, dance band and "big band" groups that performed on the radio and in live performances in West Berlin.
RIAS went off the air after the re-unification of West and East Germany, and all US forces in West Berlin withdrew. There was no more "American Sector", so RIAS was turned over to a German public radio network in re-unified Berlin.
I can vaguely remember my grandmother listening to one of those large, standup radios in the fifties. It was someone or other's "Breakfast Club" and they would sing out "Last call for breakfast" and play a little jingle.
Look, I was 3 years old so my memory of things in 1955 is kinda dim. The new thing was transistor radios ("portables") which one could carry around and listen to the radio anywhere. The AM dial, I believe, had little symbols for radio defense stations which one was to turn to in case of nuclear attack. WINS went to an all-news format in the early sixties.
Frankie Lymon sang a song: "I got a portable on my shoulder and my baby by my side..." Most cars only had AM radios (i.e. when they did have radios. Accessories in the car ads those days touted 'R&H' meaning a radio and heater). Those AM stations would fade going under bridges or in tunnels or sometimes going over a hill.
In the newspapers, along with the TV guides there was a listing for what programs would come on the AM radio at what time. As late as this year one could still listen to the old-time radio shows on AM after midnight in some regions.
In the 1950s soap operas were on am radio during the day. Also, the popular Arthur Godfrey show. I think he talked a lot and had singers who performed. He advertised something; I don't remember what it was.
I do remember the wonderful Gene Autry radio show. It came on in the evening when kids were in bed. He was the singing cowboy, a wonderful person all around, from what I've read about him. His horse was named Champion and I was lucky to be taken to see them!
I was still listening to am radio until a few years ago when a lot more stations were turned into right wing religion. There were talk discussion shows where people could call in and discuss things. Sort of like CD on the radio but there was always a show host to keep things polite and decent.
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