5 Facts About the Golden Age of Radio

[Mark Roberts]

Interesting. I would have expected a place like that here in the East SFBA, but I haven't heard of any.

Diablo Foods in Lafayette? Lunardi's in Walnut Creek or Danville?

There's also Market Hall Produce in the Rockridge district of Oakland but they can be inconsistent. Monterey Market in north Berkeley. And, of course, there's the world famous Berkeley Bowl in, you guessed it, Berkeley - and it can be a zoo!

 

[CTListener]

Throwing in a plug for Vermont's venerable Co-Op Markets before the thread is locked!

 

[Mark Roberts]

It started out with background music in stores, which isn't all that off-topic, especially given that one very large retailer refers to its background music as "radio" and appears to program it with specific goals in mind.

 

[Gregg.]

CKLG Vancouver held on until 2001. Until the AM Revitalization thing, it was pretty much the very last AM station anywhere outside of Radio Disney that was playing contemporary pop music of any kind.

Let's remember in Canada, Top 40 was pretty much forbidden on FM. FM stations were stopped from playing too many songs from the Top 40 charts each hour. And how many times the same song could play per week. The CRTC (Canada's FCC) did not want the FM band to sound like the AM dial. That's why Top 40 stations on AM were still popular in Canada (English and French) long after they were gone from the AM dial in the U.S.

Now in Canada, music is nearly gone from the AM dial in the largest cities. And AM stations have switched to FM in most medium and small markets.

 

[Dr. Bob]

Yes! As I said in another post today, many don't realize that FM, after nearly 30 years of "going nowhere", was not using maximum power, antenna height and coverage potential. It took many stations well into the 70's to realize that an investment in facilities would make a big difference if coupled with something other than playing Ray Conniff over and over.

Make that into the mid-80’s in smaller markets where FCC docket 80-90 created new classes of FM stations and forced existing stations not at the minimum for their class to either upgrade or be downgraded. It also allowed additional stations to be added to the FM band by virtue of the new station classes and the stations that chose not to upgrade.

 

[cc333]

Diablo Foods in Lafayette? Lunardi's in Walnut Creek or Danville?

There's also Market Hall Produce in the Rockridge district of Oakland but they can be inconsistent. Monterey Market in north Berkeley. And, of course, there's the world famous Berkeley Bowl in, you guessed it, Berkeley - and it can be a zoo!

Ah, yes. Those are kind of "high class" stores, aren't they?

It's funny that I've never really thought of them that way, because aside from their prices, they are just like average grocery stores, playing the usual music that most of them play.

Diablo Foods can be quite a zoo as well. I can shop there maybe once every year or two at most because of it.

c

 

[Mark Roberts]

Ah, yes. Those are kind of "high class" stores, aren't they?

It's funny that I've never really thought of them that way, because aside from their prices, they are just like average grocery stores, playing the usual music that most of them play.

Diablo Foods can be quite a zoo as well. I can shop there maybe once every year or two at most because of it.

Well, I don't go to grocery stores for the music - if they have it, in which case I'm tuning it out.

My former Oakland gym played run-of-the-mill dance music most of the time, though there was the week when they suddenly went on an early 90s alternative kick. That was the first time I had really heard the Happy Mondays "Loose Fit". Then I come home, start looking through the CDs, and find that I had not just one, but two, copies of it. There were other gems that week at the gym too, gems that I missed because I was in Kansas City back in the early 90s, where radio was stuck in the late 70s, and not in a good way.

 

[TheBigA]

Well, I don't go to grocery stores for the music - if they have it, in which case I'm tuning it out.

Too bad. I do my grocery shopping after hours. That seems to be when they play the best music.

 

[cc333]

I find that the music a store plays affects my mood (I suppose that's the point?)

When they play something I like (basically most things 80s or older), I'm in a better mood and I find the experience more enjoyable.

When they play newer music, I'm more neutral, but sometimes they will play some pretty lousy stuff.

I remember visiting an Ace Hardware store in Walnut Creek several years ago around Christmas, and instead of the standard canned Christmas music, we customers were subjected to some sort of blues concert, completely uncensored and quite loud.

Needless to say, it put me (and everyone else in the store) in a pretty bad mood. So bad, in fact, that many customers complained to the manager. It was eventually fixed, but wow, was it bad!

c

 

[Bongwater]

Too bad. I do my grocery shopping after hours. That seems to be when they play the best music.

I miss 24/7 supermarkets (They all seem to have vanished with COVID in the Puget Sound area.) I used to live behind a giant Safeway and I'd go there at 2am in just my robe, PJs and slippers and do my weekly shopping - everybody thought I was crazy (Hint: I am.) I ended up with copycats too. But we actually loved it that way; No crowds, no long lines at the cash register. Plus the night crew were fun. And yes, the in-store music was better. I heard "Built For The Future" The Fixx. for the first time since 1986 in 2018. Love it when they break out the lost/"Oh wow"/near-hits.

 

[Mikey Radio]

I miss 24/7 supermarkets (They all seem to have vanished with COVID in the Puget Sound area.)

Even Walmarts in general, once known and somewhat appreciated for their 24/7 hours, cut back during the pandemic and then never again opened back up during overnight hours. It was always a bonus to be able to go there and grab a tool or piece of hardware or even the occasional automotive part when working late on a project once all the "normal" stores had closed - Or to be able to stop at Walmart and grab something when on the way home from a concert or event when their stores were really the only option.

 

[CTListener]

I miss 24/7 supermarkets (They all seem to have vanished with COVID in the Puget Sound area.) I used to live behind a giant Safeway and I'd go there at 2am in just my robe, PJs and slippers and do my weekly shopping - everybody thought I was crazy (Hint: I am.) I ended up with copycats too. But we actually loved it that way; No crowds, no long lines at the cash register. Plus the night crew were fun. And yes, the in-store music was better. I heard "Built For The Future" The Fixx. for the first time since 1986 in 2018. Love it when they break out the lost/"Oh wow"/near-hits.

I used to do wee-hours shopping in Connecticut when my work day ended at 1 a.m. Closest thing to an "oh wow" I ever heard at Stop & Shop was Van Morrison's "Why Must I Always Explain," although down the road a bit, the Big Y supermarket had the audacity to play "You Light Up My Life" in broad daylight!

 

[Mark Roberts]

Too bad. I do my grocery shopping after hours. That seems to be when they play the best music.

I'm retired. I don't have to!

 

[Mark Roberts]

I used to do wee-hours shopping in Connecticut when my work day ended at 1 a.m. Closest thing to an "oh wow" I ever heard at Stop & Shop was Van Morrison's "Why Must I Always Explain," although down the road a bit, the Big Y supermarket had the audacity to play "You Light Up My Life" in broad daylight!

When I was running a news department 40 years ago, our nightside reporter one day let us all know that the local Safeway was playing Devo's "Whip It" at 3 o'clock the previous morning. That was considered pretty edgy then, and good for some laughs. I suppose in another ten years they'll be playing it at assisted-living centers.

 

[secondchoice]

It depends on your location but in North GA all of the grocery stores and several Walmarts were scaling back night hours before Covid. One of the Ingles managers told the employees that only around half of the groceries that left the store after midnight were paid for.

 

[anotherguyTN]

It depends on your location but in North GA all of the grocery stores and several Walmarts were scaling back night hours before Covid. One of the Ingles managers told the employees that only around half of the groceries that left the store after midnight were paid for.

All the Walmarts in my area went to being open at 6 or 7 AM until 11 PM during COVID and haven't gone back. But Walmart radio is on all night for the overnight stock clerks.

 

[cc333]

Not that I care, since the discussion has been quite interesting, but what does any of this have to do with the golden age of radio? 😆

c

 

[secondchoice]

Threads wonder. I pread the 5th.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Not that I care, since the discussion has been quite interesting, but what does any of this have to do with the golden age of radio? 😆

Part of the "charm" of this site is the interesting side excursions threads can take. If we were too strict, we'd inadvertently discourage those topics.