AM radio?
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Patrick9648-919-794375 — 13 years ago(April 22, 2012 10:26 PM)
The story is a sad one. Edwin Armstrong developed FM back in the 1930's. His chief rival was David Sarnoff of RCA which also built radios, owned stations and the NBC network. David Sarnoff apparentlly was concerned that FM radio might eventually take listeners away from his own stations and NBC. Television was being developed at the time and RCA lobbied the FCC to reassign the then FM band so that they could use it for TV stations. The FM band was moved from the old band 42-50 MHz to its current 88-108 MHz which made every Sarnoff radio obsolite. To make matters worse, Sarnoff was the one that hired Edwin Armstrong to work for RCA. When Armstrong invented FM, RCA claimed the patent belonged to them and Armstrong spent the rest of his life fighting RCA and David Sarnoff. Armstrong eventually lost his patent and most of his money. FM was a flop and Edwin Armstrong jumped out of his apartment window and killed himself in 1954. Most FM stations in the 60's made very little money and often simulcast their AM sister stations. Some would run religous ,easy listening or classical music. Most cars and cheap portables didn't have FM so the audience was small. In the late 60's the FCC began requiring FM stations to offer seperate programming from that of their AM counterparts and many FM stations began what was called "underground" rock. which later evolved into Album Oriented Rock or Progressive Rock. AM stations mainly played the hits, which would included mostly rock and roll with some crossovers from country or R&B thrown in. Basically whatever the top selling records were at the time.
By the late 70's more cars had FM radios and would soon become standard equipment. More FM stations began to be programmed like AM stations and many of the top-40 and country formats began to move to FM. Which eventually led to most AM stations switching to new/talk, oldies, ethnic or other formats. So basically, when you listen to modern FM radio. Your'e hearing something similar to what used to be on AM, just not as good as old AM radio. Live DJs are being replaced with "robo-jocks" that are pre-recorded and run by computers. Old AM radio mostly had live jocks 24 hours a day. You just don't see that anymore. -
Tobey — 13 years ago(August 06, 2012 12:54 PM)
What a great story, but sad as you mentioned.
If I'm not mistaken Stereo was available on FM long before it was launched on the AM band. FM also didn't suffer from some of the same signal issues AM did with buildings and other obstructions, although at night when the conditions were right AM signals could really reach out there.
The FM band has a certain area reserved only for non-profit broadcasters to license. Public radio, college stations and religious stations are all in the lower range, I don't know if there were ever similar restrictions on the AM band.
In my home town we had a AM/FM station that used the same call letters. The FM station usually broadcast pre-recorded all the time while the AM was a typical small town station with news, farm reports, weather, music and call in shows (but not like today). They used to run the Bargain Counter where you could call in if you had something to sell or wanted to buy something.
Most of the time we listened to 59.9, WOW out of Omaha (Wolfman Jack was one of the shows). It was one of the only stations west of the Mississippi that had call letters that started with W instead of K. Woodman of the World Insurance started it and a TV station as well. The TV station is still broadcasting as WOWT Channel 6 as an NBC affiliate. Sadly the corporate owners of WOW radio gave up that call sign a while back so it's no longer active. -
cabal24 — 13 years ago(August 09, 2012 08:02 AM)
Its amazing how teh radio industry has changed in teh past 30-40 years. I remember growing up that AM was where most of the good stuff was until the mid 80s when FM started to take over.
To put it in perspective, Howard Stern was on AM radio for the longest time. -
baran_erik — 10 years ago(August 23, 2015 12:06 AM)
In addition to WOW, there was KOIL, the low power daytimer across the river in Council Bluffs, KRCB and, on good nights, KLMS in Lincoln, at least for us in SW Omaha. KRCB-FM was the first FM station in the Omaha metro area that I remember broadcasting rock 'n' roll, at first just a simulcast of the AM signal. Remember when the Nebraska games were broadcast on both KFAB and WOW?
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pt100 — 11 years ago(March 06, 2015 06:47 AM)
As I mentioned in another thread, FM had been around since after WWII, and we had an FM radio in the early 1960s. By the end of the 1970s, 50.1% of radio listeners were tuned to FM, ending AM's historical prevalence. By 1982, FM commanded 70% of the global audience and 84% among the 12-24 year old demographic.
It is better to be kind than to be clever or good looking. Derek -
WarpedRecord — 13 years ago(September 04, 2012 11:27 PM)
Generally speaking, until the early '80s most AM rock stations were "top 40" and most FM rock stations were AOR, album-oriented rock. WKRP strikes me more as AOR, and the DJs are usually playing albums, not singles, so it would more than likely be on the FM dial. On the other hand, the radio contests that WKRP had also seemed more in keeping with AM stations at the time.
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WarpedRecord — 10 years ago(August 23, 2015 09:42 AM)
Very observant! Good points about the wattage. The map points to WKRP as being an AM station, though the pilot contradicts that.
I wonder if any of the dialogue referred to whether this was an AM or FM station? -
awhite2600 — 10 years ago(August 25, 2015 12:00 PM)
I wonder if any of the dialogue referred to whether this was an AM or FM station?
When Herb started his sales pitch to Del he said something like, "Let's tune to WKRP AM radio where your advertising dollar works it's hardest." -
JohnQ1127 — 13 years ago(September 05, 2012 06:40 AM)
In the 1970's, AM radio stations played mostly a top 40 format which was pretty crappy music by the late 1970's. You could also find "easy listening" stations which basically played elevator music. I think WKRP was basically this format before Travis changed it to R&R. You could also find stations that played "big band era" type music from the 40's-mid 50's.
The rock station featured in WKRP was really more like a F.M. station of the time period. The format was called "AOR" or Album Oriented Rock. Basically DJ's would play a wide assortment of songs from rock bands not just the hits. You would also find Jazz & R&B stations on F.M. You could also find "Oldies" stations that played music from the mid50's early 60's, basically pre Beatles Rock and Roll.
F.M. radios were kind of expensive in the 1970's and you could rarely find a F.M. radio in a car. Also the F.M. signals back then were kind of weak so the reception wasn't always great.
Around the early to mid 80's as the availability and technology got better, you started seeing more F.M radios. The top 40 format switched to FM stations and rock AOR stations slowly devolved into what's now called "classic rock". Classic Rock basically plays greatest hits packages from the big groups of the mid 60's to early 80's.
Because AM stations were now available and rather cheap, the mid-late 80's saw the rise of Right Wing talk shows and all sports formats. -
jefgg — 11 years ago(April 20, 2014 03:27 PM)
I was ten years old when WKRP began in 1978. I had assumed it was an FM station. I grew up listening to New York radio stations. By 1978 rock and roll was played on FM radio. AM radio was for pop music, talk, news and ethnic programming. Maybe it was different in other markets.
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Catnip86 — 11 years ago(April 21, 2014 07:15 AM)
It was pretty much the same for me. I remember my older brother listening to a New York FM station, and liking the music, so that was what I listened to. I never listened to AM radio unless it was in someone's car, usually an older person (parent, etc) who just wanted to hear the news, oldies, etc.
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darryl-tahirali — 11 years ago(May 14, 2014 01:22 PM)
Back in the day some cars had only AM radio. My father drove a Plymouth with an AM only radio. - jefgg
My first car, which I got in 1980, was a 1973 Chevy Malibu with the old factory-installed AC Delco AM-only radio. The previous owner had added an 8-track player. I put in a couple of rear speakers but I never did get around to installing an AM-FM stereo before I got rid of it. Those were the days.
"If life's for living, what's living for?" - Ray Davies