Radio station from back in the day?

[stratovani]

That Rush vs King Crimson thread got me to thinking about the radio stations we used to listen to back in prog's heyday, the 70s. For me, living in Montreal, there was only one "go to" radio station - CHOM-FM, 97.7 on the dial. They played all the prog available at the time, from Yes to Crimson to the Moodies to Rush. They seemed to be really big on Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Genesis, oftentimes playing entire albums at a time. However, I don't recall ever hearing any American bands like Skynyrd or the Dead or ZZ Top played all that often.

So what was the "go to" radio station in your area?

[geeza]

Growing up it was WDVE (102.5) in Pittsburgh.

[Rockmusician]

For me it was either WHJY in Providence or WBCN in Boston. WHJY still exists but it is hard to figure out what their format is. There are times of the day when they play a mix of new and classic rock and other times when it is almost all newer hard rock. I used to listen on a regular basis but stopped because I don't like any of the newer stuff they play.

WBCN went off the air in August 2009 but came back on HD-2 and is now WZLX HD-3. It only broadcasts live from 11AM to 2PM.

Now, I pretty much only listen to Sirius/XM or music on my flash drive.

[BassChuck]

CKLW out of Detroit. I think the broadcast tower was actually in Winsor, so that's whats up with the "C" call letter. I heard all the great songs of the 60's first from that station.... quietlly at night so my parents wouldn't know I was listening to rock and roll.

[N.F.A.]

WMMS,WEBN,WPIC were good ones for me.

[Zooberwerx]

Originally Posted by geeza

Growing up it was WDVE (102.5) in Pittsburgh.

Yes, indeed! Jimmy Roach and Steve Hanson, soon followed by Scott Paulson (?).

Riis

[AnchorHoy]

There were two, right next to each other on the FM band

The first is still broadcasting, although IMHO it is now a mere shadow of what it once was: WMMR 93.3

In its early days, MMR had some amazingly open minded DJs such as Dave Herman, Michael Tiersen, and somewhat later on Ed Scaiky. Keep in mind that these were the days when the DJ in the booth actually had considerable power to influence what records would be played on their shows, and each had a very distinctive 'spin' (pun intended) on what they liked and played on their shows

Back in their first couple of decades, MMR was more than willing to devote considerable airtime to artists that the New York stations largely ignored, or simply wouldn't touch at all: Spirit, Yes, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel era Genesis, The Greatful Dead in its many permutations. Later on this same station was a big booster of the early careers of Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel, among others

The other station didn't last too long in the Rock format, and is now only a distant but Very fond memory: WIFI 92.5, which went through many drastic changes in format to eventually end up as WXTU Country 92

While MMR always had a pretty strong transmitter (still occasionally referred to on-air as the "50,000 watt flamethrower") WIFI never had that much power and their coverage was considerably smaller. 30 miles north of them, in my home town of Trenton, you could just get a decent signal and it helped immensely to have a Serious antenna hooked up to your receiver. Reception on a car radio was always spotty at best. What they lacked in broadcasting power, however, they more than made up for their truly amazing (both then and now) willingness to push well past the boundaries of what was considered "Rock" into some very cool music.

Just to give one example, the first time I ever heard The Paul Winter Consort's Icarus it was on WIFI, and IIRC they played it right when the album first came out. Not just the one song - the entire album, both sides start-to-finish! They were also the only radio station with big enough balls to play Zappa tunes, although IIRC they did play it relatively safe by bypassing the Mothers stuff entirely and focusing on the (then) brand-new release Hot Rats.

Other stations would play Hendrix' Purple Haze because it was one of the relatively "safe" Hendrix cuts that had made its way to even Top 40 stations like WFIL 56 (on the AM dial). WIFI would play stuff like Third Stone From The Sun and 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) - all 13+ minutes of it

MMR would occasionally play short and relatively 'accessible' Pink Floyd tunes like See Emily Play. WIFI would play Floyd too, but it would be stuff like an entire side of Ummagumma

Alas, the only thing to be found at that particular spot on the radio dial these days is 'Fluffy Pop with fiddles in the fills'

A Curse upon Clear Channel and the car dealer widget-sellers that invented it

[stratovani]

Originally Posted by AnchorHoy

A Curse upon Clear Channel and the car dealer widget-sellers that invented it

Amen to that, brother!

[tat2jim]

WNEW-FM 102.7 in NYC. Alison Steele aka The Nightbird.

[James Hart]

Originally Posted by AnchorHoy

MMR had some amazingly open minded DJs such as Dave Herman

I listened to Dave's "Rock and Roll Morning show" for years on WNEW out of NYC in the late 80s. I was too far out of MMR's range but had a friend (nephew of a neighbor) that visited often from Philly. He use to bring mix tapes recorded of the MMR broadcasts.

WNEW played some progressive stuff in the 80s... usually buried between a lot of Beatles, Led Zep and Tom Petty.

I will mention I did send a letter to Dave after a statement he made on the air... He said that his daughter was free to date musicians so long as it was never a bassists... that bassists are not trustworthy people.

[Stev187]

Originally Posted by BassChuck

CKLW out of Detroit. I think the broadcast tower was actually in Winsor, so that's whats up with the "C" call letter.

I grew up in the Detroit media market, too. "C" is the Canadian call letter (CKLW was/is a Canadian station). Here's an aircheck tape from the early 70s.

For me, the "go to" rock stations in Detroit were WABX and W4, then later WRIF which is still going. When I started listening to more than rock, WDET from Wayne State University exposed me to a whole new world of jazz, post punk, blues and African. Detroit had a pretty robust radio market back in the day.





--Steve

[Stinsok]

When I was a boy, I lived in the sticks with nothing really to do. There was an FM station in Birmingham that I spent a heck of a lot of time listening to. They billed themselves as an "album" station. They didn't talk over records and didn't have annoying DJ's. It was there I learned about ELP, The Dixie Dregs, King Crimson, Genesis, The Alan Parsons Project, and so on. They had The King Biscuit Flower Hour on regularly, and played extensive interviews with artists. I really miss that station.

[Jaco D]

Originally Posted by stratovani

They seemed to be really big on Pink Floyd, Supertramp and Genesis, oftentimes playing entire albums at a time.

This is what I miss about radio stations nowadays - playing entire albums at a time. I grew up in the Philippines and there was this cutting edge rock and roll radio station that was in step with the latest playing in the US and UK airwaves. I looked forward to when the rock jocks would play entire albums with just a station ID to swap vinyl sides. What they did while all those vinyl sides were playing I'll leave it up to you. Aside from this, they also played the popular rock ditties of the day, but also played the "side b" and obscure non-A&R cuts which would never make a standard playlist. I'm grateful that they guys played the less-beaten path as I got to know more of the less popular cuts of the rock and roll acts of the era.

Times have changed and all of these have gone the way of the Dodo due to commercialsm.

[ggunn]

In the late 60's and into the 70's there was no FM in southwest Louisiana where I grew up. Local AM was all Top 40, soul, or country.

But there was Clyde Clifford at KAAY (the Mighty Ten Ninety) in Little Rock, Arkansas and his Beaker Street show every night except Sundays from 11PM until 2AM. It's where I first heard Led Zeplin, Traffic, the Dead, Fleetwood Mac, King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service..., all that cool stuff that the rest of the world was waking up to. Say what you will about clear channel stations, but KAAY was one and we could not receive it on our car radios until the other stations at that and nearby freq's went off the air for the night; we were glad to have it.

Something he played once a week or so was Jaime Brockett's "The Legend of the USS Titanic", which was a rollicking, though historically inaccurate (the Titanic was not of US registry), alternative account of the events surrounding its tragic maiden voyage.

You gotta let it OUT, Captain! ;^)

[FilterFunk]

Well, I know this will be the uncool, unpopular answer, but I grew up on Top 40 radio. The only stations in my area that played obscure, avant-garde stuff, or whole albums, didn't play soul/R&B/funk, so I wasn't interested. The only soul/R&B/funk station in town was on from 4pm to midnight throughout most of my formative years, and the signal wasn't very strong. So, Top 40 was it, specifically KROY Sacramento and KFRC San Francisco. It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though. Sure, I had to sit through stuff like Tony Orlando and Dawn, The Captain and Tennille, etc. But there was also plenty of great rock, country and pop tunes that I wouldn't have heard if I was only listening to a soul/R&B/funk station. Being able to hear Led Zep, Parliament, Elton John, James Brown, the Eagles, Earth, Wind & Fire, the Stones, Stevie Wonder, etc., all without having to turn the dial was quite a musical experience and education.

[Ayce]

Growing up where I did, we only had 3 local stations on the AM dial, and FM was classical & jazz so I didn't listen to that much. Most times it was CFBC (top 40) for the kids or CHSJ (Country & Western.) for the adults. On good days, we could get the station out of Fredericton, but that was rare, and was basically the same as CFBC. We also had the local CBC station. Boooooorrrrriiiiiinnnnnggggg!!
When CFBC-FM became cool, in the mid-late 70's, we started to hear more off the wall music, like The Tubes, Genesis, KC, et al, late nights.
When the 80's came along, AM went to pot, while FM grew to 2 local stations, (CFBC FM& C100) include more of the days hits, with occasional forays in to avante guarde territory. Now, FM is the norm, and we have a bunch of FM stations, while AM is classic pop and talk. At least around here it is. CFBC became Big John, and plays classic rock. Dang syndicatated radio.

[Nedmundo]

When I first got into rock in the late 1970's, it was all about 95.5 WPLJ out of NYC, which, IIRC, played a pretty wide variety of rock including some prog, but probably nothing further from the mainstream than Yes or ELP. I don't recall ever hearing King Crimson, for example, but it may not have registered with me at the time.

Later, after WPLJ switched formats, I focused on WNEW 102.7 (classic rock), WLIR 92.7 (punk, new wave), and WBAB 102.3 (classic rock and metal). The last was over on Long Island, and its signal travelled right across Long Island Sound into Connecticut. It rocked much harder than the others.

[KJung]

In St. Louis, it was KSHE 95 in the early 70's. Very influential and from what I understand, an early pioneer into album rock programming. I remember enjoying them playing the entire Jesus Christ Superstar album on Easter back in the day, and Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving morning. Kind of became a 'thing'.

They put on the KSHE Kite Fly every year in Forest Park. Tens of thousands of people getting high and listening to tunes.... Rush, Charlie Daniels, etc. through the years. I remember KISS did (from what we were told) one of their first US shows and were boo'd off the stage back in the early, mid 70's at the Kite Fly

[jerry]

WNEW, WPLJ and WRVR in NY when I was a kid.

[runmikeyrun]

WMMS in Cleveland was incredible during the 70s (according to my dad) and the 80s (according to me). Their morning show with Jeff and Flash was great- they had people putting their dishes in the dryer and pouring water on sleeping spouses (Spousal Arousal it was called) for concert tickets. It was hilarious to hear dishes breaking and angry husbands swearing at 6am.

I also liked Majic 105.7 when they played real oldies. Now it's disco crap with the occasional Motown.

Anyone have a Z Rock station in their area? We had one but I was too young- it went off air before I got into metal. I barely remember hearing their station IDs flipping stations as a kid. I found a Z-Rock sponsored Helloween/Armoured Saint concert on youtube (music only) recently from 1987. That had to have been a great station.

I worked with a girl who's stepdad is Bill Louis, station director for 98.5 WNCX in Cleveland. He's been around for a long time and had some interesting viewpoints on the radio industry. When we were working we could get any song played any time we wanted, she would just text him while he was on the air