AM radio?
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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 -
grendelkhan — 11 years ago(September 15, 2014 03:37 PM)
I grew up near Decatur, IL, and if you wanted rock, you listened to WDZ AM (though it changed formats once or twice) or tuned in WLS, from Chicago (which could be heard across most of the state). My mother had an FM-capable clock radio and the station played easy listening, with stuff like Ray Coniff, Andy Williams, the Carpenters, and the like. It would be a few years before Y103 (the FM version of WSOY AM radio) would switch to rock.
The ironic thing is that Gordon Jump was once a DJ in Decatur (I believe it was at WDZ).
Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency! -
Doug-Oh — 9 years ago(July 31, 2016 07:52 PM)
In the mid-1980s, WLS was a combo of music and talk.
It was music until later in the evening, say around 9 p.m., when the station aired local talk programs like advice shows.
I vividly recall hearing the station play Toto or other artists in the evening and then moving to talk.
Later, like most other prominent AM stations, it went totally talk. -
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snelling — 10 years ago(October 25, 2015 08:14 AM)
8-tracks were a continuous spool of tape usually with an entire album on it. I never cared for this format because you could not rewind it. For more information, see Wikipedia. They go into detail and show diagrams of how it works.
"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley -
Doug-Oh — 9 years ago(July 31, 2016 06:23 PM)
Yes, the cheap Ford Pinto I drove in my pizza delivery job in high school (1978-79) only had AM.
My mom had an AM-FM in her late 70s Plymouth, but FM was mono.
My own used car in high school, an AMC Hornet, was AM only.
I purchased an AM=FM cassette stereo which I mounted on the bottom of my dash board, just above the carpet floor (screwed into that part of the car). -
asherp — 9 years ago(August 22, 2016 05:40 AM)
Back n the day WNBC 66 AM in NY was the biggest thing around.you wouldn't have really heard about FM at all.
I accept the premise that FM was doing more of an AOR format back then.which would have been high school and college age listening.Jethro Tull.GenesisBTOetc.progressive stuff.But WKRP was timed perfectly in that the world was changing and AM/FM was becoming equally acceptable.
so depending on the market and the year the biggest station could have been am AM or an FM