ABC Radio Network

Prior to 1968 the ABC radio network ran the network feed at :55. ABC-C continued the feed after 1968. Was this feed picked up primarily by Top 40 stations? WABC and WLS are legendary with the ABC feed, but how extensive was the network throughout the country? It seems after WABC, WLS and KQV O & O' it was small/medium markets; WENE Binghamton, WDUZ Green BAY, WEBC Duluth. Were there any other major markets stations?

Oldies man said:

Prior to 1968 the ABC radio network ran the network feed at :55. ABC-C continued the feed after 1968. Was this feed picked up primarily by Top 40 stations? WABC and WLS are legendary with the ABC feed, but how extensive was the network throughout the country? It seems after WABC, WLS and KQV O & O' it was small/medium markets; WENE Binghamton, WDUZ Green BAY, WEBC Duluth. Were there any other major markets stations?

Click to expand...

IIRC, the Contemporary network was strictly Top-40 (AM) stations. The Information network was geared toward the larger markets, but with talk or full-service formats.

The Entertainment network was mostly stations in the smaller towns. One notable exception that I remember was WTAQ 1300 LaGrange/Chicago, which was an ABC Entertainment Network station. They carried the 30-60 minute ABC News blocks that WLS wouldn't air after 1964 or so.

The FM network was, of course, FM stations.

For those of us who want to get down to the real nitty-gritty
(aka the pre-Name Game Shirley Ellis ), when did the
pre-1968 single ABC News feed start--:55 straight up?
And when did it end?

The ABC-C feed at :55 was actually a :54:30 start (to :59:30)
as the network needed a short gap between that and the start
of ABC-I at :00:00 (with the TOH time tone of course).

ABC later added a Contemporary News-In-Brief feed at or around
:50:00 which ran--IIRC--1:30. I recall catching the in-brief feed
on WABC in the '70s during the evening.

That was also the era of two ABC-C net short-form features:
Retro Rock and Sneak Preview. Guessing they were fed at
:25 past certain hours, as was "Broach the Coach." A far
sight better demographically than the '60s-era Flair Reports
at :25. (Ohhhh Rob! ;D)

As I remember, in Los Angeles, the "American Contemporary Radio" feed ran at :55 on KDAY, a Top 40 also-ran that never had high ratings. When KDAY flipped to Album Rock in 69 (I think), they dropped the ABC feed. The "American FM" feed (I think that was what it was called), ran on album-rock KLOS (and ABC O&O) on the hour I think; and Talk Radio KABC-AM ran "American Information Radio" news on the hour.

Everybody seemed to love the musical sounder for the Contemporary Feed. I have a trivia question (no prize if you answer correctly):

What ABC feature in the 1970s and 80s used the last 3 notes of the Contemporary sounder as a musical intro and outro?

Lkeller said:

What ABC feature in the 1970s and 80s used the last 3 notes of the Contemporary sounder as a musical intro and outro?

Click to expand...

That was on the outro to Broach the Coach:
"...Howard Cosell reporting (three notes)"

As I recall, the intro was the trail-out bed of the ABC-C intro,
then under for: "Hello again everyone, Howard Cosell speaking
of sports..."

Two per weekday, fed at 8:25am and 5:25pm ET, IIRC.

Lkeller said:

As I remember, in Los Angeles, the "American Contemporary Radio" feed ran at :55 on KDAY, a Top 40 also-ran that never had high ratings. When KDAY flipped to Album Rock in 69 (I think), they dropped the ABC feed. The "American FM" feed (I think that was what it was called), ran on album-rock KLOS (and ABC O&O) on the hour I think

Click to expand...

...American FM News at the top of the hour would be out of pattern; WMKC Oshkosh always ran it from the live feed at :15 past the hour. And didn't KGBS pick up the American Contemporary feed for Los Angeles when KDAY dropped it? I seem to recall hearing a Hudson & Landry aircheck where they Legal ID into a Contemporary sounder...

oldiesfan6479 said:

Lkeller said:

What ABC feature in the 1970s and 80s used the last 3 notes of the Contemporary sounder as a musical intro and outro?

Click to expand...

That was on the outro to Broach the Coach:
"...Howard Cosell reporting (three notes)"

As I recall, the intro was the trail-out bed of the ABC-C intro,
then under for: "Hello again everyone, Howard Cosell speaking
of sports..."

Two per weekday, fed at 8:25am and 5:25pm ET, IIRC.

Click to expand...

You are correct, sir...and have a better memory that I do.

Originally, ABC American FM News at :15 had an opening and closer sounder. What year did they drop them?
Also, I remember in the 70's it was a 4 minute newscast. Did it start out as a five minute newscast? Any idea?

TimB said:

Originally, ABC American FM News at :15 had an opening and closer sounder. What year did they drop them?

Click to expand...

...I know that WMKC Oshkosh never aired American FM News with a sounder that I know of, and I started listening to them circa Christmastime 1969, so I have to suspect it was within the first year of operation...

I loved the old ABC information toh opener that was used in the 70's. I think it was replaced by the tv opener, or something similar in the 80's, then the current opener came around in the early to mid-90's. I'm going on memory on this...Anyone have the audio?

http://abcnews.andmuchmore.com/

Among a few sites dedicated to the ABC radio network.

You'll find the ABC sounders online at Jeff Roteman's ABC tribute site. Lots of neat WLS stuff, too.

http://abcradionews.cjb.net/

ABC started using a variation of the TV sounder starting in 1980ish, but prior to that they were using a different sounder that had replaced the one that ran from 1968 to 1979ish. I seem to remember them only using it to open up the news, not as a closer. Anyone have a copy of that one?

Feel free to chime in. My memory may be faulty.

TimB said:

You'll find the ABC sounders online at Jeff Roteman's ABC tribute site. Lots of neat WLS stuff, too.

http://abcradionews.cjb.net/

ABC started using a variation of the TV sounder starting in 1980ish, but prior to that they were using a different sounder that had replaced the one that ran from 1968 to 1979ish. I seem to remember them only using it to open up the news, not as a closer. Anyone have a copy of that one?

Feel free to chime in. My memory may be faulty.

Click to expand...

I associate the change in news open to the 1978 Pope stories. It was either during the death of Paul VI or John Paul I that ABC-I started using the TV theme.

It's funny you should mention associating the change of sounders with news coverage. I associated it with Olympic coverage...which would have been 1980. I'm not saying I'm right, though.

Guess I need to go through airchecks of Information affiliates to find out for sure. Don't think I've ever come across an aircheck of the sounder that was used briefly between the old one (68-to whenever) and the "TV logo" sounder (a variation of it is currently in use) on Information newscasts.

ABC-Contempooary was geared to Top 40 formats as WLS and WABC (ding!)

I remember 1340 WIZE Springfield,Ohio using ABC Contemporary but didn't use their network sounder..iinstead they used their own..probably from a TM jingle package or a production library.

Middle of the road formats as 1150 WIMA Lima,Ohio used ABC Entertainment

And then there was 1440 WPGW-AM Portland,Indiana with elderly voiced announcer/owner Glenn West using all Contemporary,Information and Entertainment newsfeeds before he retired and sold the station in 1974. Radio was changing around his world back then....he didn't have a clue....but that's another story which should be on the Indiana boards...but any-hoo the new owners afterward used Contemporary newsfeeds.

I knew a guy that owned a station in a small California town and also carried all four ABC networks.

I have the network radio news sounders on a CD from KenR. It's interesting to hear the Information Radio Network sounder (from the original 1968) without the fade out. It ends with the tympani (dum-dum). The final musical tag was added separately.

The FM Sounder was done by french horns. I do not know if they were dropped because too many people were reprising that Stan Freberg joke out of The United States of America.

(for the uninformed something surprising happens followed by a musical stinger [french horns] somebody says "What was that?" the answer, "french horns," and then, "No. I mean before that.") [you hadda be there.]

Mike

Here's what I remember....

In the late 1960's, I worked afternoons at WVUD-FM 99.9, a high-powered, Commercial station owned by the University of Dayton. It is now WLQT (owned by Clear Channel, like everything else, it seems). We carried the ABC FM network live at :15 after the hour. It was a 5 minutenews cast with a one-minute network commercial at :16 and a 30 second optional cutaway at :19 after. We also carried Howard Cosell's "Speaking of Sports" which came from the ABC Contemporary Network at 8:25 AM and 5:25 PM Eastern. Cosell was 4:30 or 4:45 in length (can't remember exactly).

Oldies man said:

Prior to 1968 the ABC radio network ran the network feed at :55. ABC-C continued the feed after 1968. Was this feed picked up primarily by Top 40 stations? WABC and WLS are legendary with the ABC feed, but how extensive was the network throughout the country? It seems after WABC, WLS and KQV O & O' it was small/medium markets; WENE Binghamton, WDUZ Green BAY, WEBC Duluth. Were there any other major markets stations?

Click to expand...

If ABC couldn't get a Top 40 to take the Contemporary feed in a given market they would let a black-oriented station pick it up. WHAT Philadelphia was a Contemporary affiliate in the early '70s; I think WWIN Baltimore, WCIN Cincinnati and WDIA Memphis were listed as ABC/C stations around that time as well. Eventually WIBG picked up the feed in Philly but they never ran the newscasts, they just ran Cosell and cleared the spots.

WXLW 950 Indianapolis (as an old line MOR)was a Mutual affiliate late-50's/60's... and when they went top-40 in 1972 they were rockin' with cbs news top of the hour. i don't know how many Top-40's at the time in top 50 markets were running cbs news and features including Walter Cronkite and Lowell thomas, i always thought it was unique. by the way WXLW in the 70's delayed cbs news to run 9 minutes after the hour(cbs wasn't happy about that)

i don't know how many Top-40's at the time in top 50 markets were running cbs news and features including Walter Cronkite and Lowell thomas, i always thought it was unique. by the way WXLW in the 70's delayed cbs news to run 9 minutes after the hour(cbs wasn't happy about that)

Did WXLW also air "Arthur Godfrey Time" (it was a live musical variety/talk show geared at the WW2 generation a sure ratings killer for a Top 40 station) or did WXLW simply clear the spots ? If I recall correctly, Godfrey's show was still a staple on CBS radio in the late 60's early 70's.