Where Oldies Music Still Lives

[vchimpanzee]

I recall what you describe as Progressive MOR and if memory is correct, it was similar to KNX FM back in the middle to late 1970s.

For me, I recall the format called "Mellow Rock". It was what I liked to call the more acoustic side of album rock but the long playlists, album tract centered format with atypical Album Rock Radio's soft speaking jocks back announcing long sets of music, centered on those very artists mentioned as Progressive MOR. In fact, In Dallas, it was 102.9 that went to the format in the mid-1970s after KDTX sold. I was hoping Mellow Rock would hit Dallas after a trip to Orange County, California where what was KORJ FM, K-Orange, was mellow rock and KNX FM was going strong.

I really enjoyed the short time the McKinney, Texas station was Mellow Rock. It seems they had abandoned their Beautiful Music format for the Mellow Rock sound. They were automated but played some great stuff. You heard plenty of early Fogelberg, things like Let It Grow by Clapton, CSN&Y, James Taylor, etc. They were all 'deep' tracks with a well known song about every 15 minutes. It didn't last too long as the station sold and went all hit top 40. I doubt they had too many listeners given their coverage and the fact that Dallas had yet to expand out to Plano, much less what was a farm town of 10,000 back then, McKinney, miles of open country from the northern reaches of metro Dallas. I lived in Mesquite then and it was hard to catch very clearly there.

According to Broadcasting Yearbook, WRXR in the Augusta GA market was "beautiful rock". I never found out just what that was. Maybe this is it.

 

[b-turner]

Wow, I had forgotten 'beautiful rock'. That term didn't last long since it had to be defined, as I recall. Beautiful Music and Rock were at opposite ends and the term was widely misunderstood or perceived.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Beautiful Rock was an automated soft rock format from TM in the late 1970s through mid 1980s. Had both singles and album cuts, á la KNX-FM in Los Angeles. I have a demo reel of it somewhere around here.

 

[b-turner]

I recall about 1980 one of the format providers (maybe Peters or Broadcast Programming) we got a mailer from offered a beautiful music format based on country versus pop music. It was MOR artists doing vocal covers of country songs and orchestrated versions of country songs with a bit of Chet Atkins, Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass and sort tossed in for good measure. Although my cup of tea, I recall thinking what a great idea. Some many, especially rural areas had country stations and since those rural areas had older populations, the idea was a natural since these were covers of what the local station played. Also about that time, lots of towns had recently signed on an FM to supplement their AM and like so many FMs at the time, would have been automated.

By the way, this was different from what was pitched as 'The Natural Sound' where they tried to bridge soft pop and easy country songs in the pre-Urban Cowboy days. This was all vocal.

 

[gr8oldies]

There was a "beautiful country" format which I never heard, but my understanding was it was mostly instrumental covers of country songs (I could be wrong, David Eduardo could probably say for sure). I worked at WNON in Lebanon IN for a short time and they were running a syndicated format called "Casual Country". It sounds a little like what you describe though it was mostly country artists (I remember it played Hoyt Axton's "When the Morning Comes"), and a 50% mix of instrumental country, most which seemed to be Danny Davis and the Nashville Brass.

I recall about 1980 one of the format providers (maybe Peters or Broadcast Programming) we got a mailer from offered a beautiful music format based on country versus pop music. It was MOR artists doing vocal covers of country songs and orchestrated versions of country songs with a bit of Chet Atkins, Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass and sort tossed in for good measure. Although my cup of tea, I recall thinking what a great idea. Some many, especially rural areas had country stations and since those rural areas had older populations, the idea was a natural since these were covers of what the local station played. Also about that time, lots of towns had recently signed on an FM to supplement their AM and like so many FMs at the time, would have been automated.

By the way, this was different from what was pitched as 'The Natural Sound' where they tried to bridge soft pop and easy country songs in the pre-Urban Cowboy days. This was all vocal.

 

[DavidEduardo]

There was a "beautiful country" format which I never heard, but my understanding was it was mostly instrumental covers of country songs (I could be wrong, David Eduardo could probably say for sure). ]

That was from The FM 100 Plan and programmer Darryl Peters. It was the basic FM 100 library with fewer MOR standard instrumentals and a bunch of instrumentals of country songs including lots of country crossover tunes. It made it more familiar sounding in parts of the south.

It was essentially a "spice reel" that became "Deck 4" by replacing the softer stuff or "Deck 5" to be mixed with the standard format which had less non-contemporary songs.

 

[landtuna]

I sent out the link to WKCE to my peers about a week ago and a number of them are now listeners. Great for us Olde Fartes!!!

 

[K.M. Richards]

I remember a horribly done Beautiful Music format called "Music Just For The Two Of Us" which was syndicated by Peters Productions in San Diego starting around 1973. It came in MOR, Country, and contemporary configurations ... but had one severe drawback: They edited the songs in the library so that none ran longer than 2½ minutes. After you listened to it for a while, the emotional pleasure you might have received from the overall sound was offset by the fatigue of hearing so many songs in an hour (do the math ... with no commercial load a station would play a minimum of 24 songs in an hour!).

It was the first Beautiful Music format to "throw in the towel" as stations moved away from the format during the 1980s and tape syndication started to be replaced more and more during that decade with CDs. Peters sold out to Broadcast Programming, Inc. -- which had been around since the 1960s as International Good Music, existing primarily to provide programming to stations that bought IGM automation systems -- in the late 1980s. BPI also acquired Bonneville's BM format in the early 1990s.

 

[b-turner]

I also recall there was an FM that went Beautiful Country, maybe Philadelphia, possibly Pittsburgh. From what I read, lots of custom recordings on those instrumental.

Did like the Lite and Lively BP format: 75% soft vocals (John Denver, Peter Paul & Mary, Gordon Lightfoot and others) with 25% instrumentals from the 1960s and 1970s with more of an upbeat feel that traditional beautiful music. I think a Seattle full service AM went with it early on....maybe mid 1980s.

 

[DavidEduardo]

I remember a horribly done Beautiful Music format called "Music Just For The Two Of Us" which was syndicated by Peters Productions in San Diego starting around 1973. It came in MOR, Country, and contemporary configurations ... but had one severe drawback: They edited the songs in the library so that none ran longer than 2½ minutes. After you listened to it for a while, the emotional pleasure you might have received from the overall sound was offset by the fatigue of hearing so many songs in an hour (do the math ... with no commercial load a station would play a minimum of 24 songs in an hour!).

Another thing about Music Just for the Two of Us was that they faded the end of every song and toned it so there was a cross-fade between tunes... quite the opposite of the SRP and Bonneville system of precisely timed pauses.

MJFTTOU was likely the most contemporary blend of Beautiful Music, even more pop than KalaMusic or RPM out of Michigan. I chose it for that reason for WSRA in San Juan and actually became the #1 station out of 5 in the format. After a while, though, we customized the FM 100 Plan to insert our own custom music from Spain. We beat both Bonneville and Drake-Chennault on other stations plus two other home grown instrumental formats.

We used the slogan in both English and Spanish, alternating liners in the two languages. That approach had relatively good snob appeal.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Another thing about Music Just for the Two of Us was that they faded the end of every song and toned it so there was a cross-fade between tunes... quite the opposite of the SRP and Bonneville system of precisely timed pauses.

Oh, I had forgotten that ... thanks for the memory flogger, David.

MJFTTOU was likely the most contemporary blend of Beautiful Music, even more pop than KalaMusic or RPM out of Michigan. I chose it for that reason for WSRA in San Juan and actually became the #1 station out of 5 in the format. After a while, though, we customized the FM 100 Plan to insert our own custom music from Spain. We beat both Bonneville and Drake-Chennault on other stations plus two other home grown instrumental formats.

I'm glad someone was successful with that format. All I ever heard of were the failures.

You're also dating yourself with that reference to D-C, since they went in and out of the BM field very quickly in a matter of a couple of years ...

 

[gr8oldies]

I take it then that "Beautiful Country" stations didn't necessarily call themselves that on-air. It sounds like it was more of a regionalized BM format rather than a competitor to a BM format.
Music Just For the Two Of Us...I don't remember much about the format, other than WMDH in NewCastle (Muncie), Indiana carrying it. I remember seeing the billboards....a mid 20s looking couple sipping wine. WEZV in Fort Wayne was a Kalamusic O&O starting in 1979, the year WMEE flipped their CHR format to FM, displacing the long-standing BM format there.

 

[b-turner]

There were two or three companies that did a Country based easy listening or Beautiful Music format. One I had the chance to grab at a small market station was on 14 inch reels. There were 4 segments: 25% vocals of MOR artists doing country covers and a few country artists that crossed over (Eddy Arnold, Ray Price, etc.), 25% small groups of which I saw quite a few Chet Atkins, Floyd Cramer, etc. 25% Fully orchestrated like 101 Strings, Henry Mancini and lots of others and 25% "Fun Instrumentals" that were all pretty uptempo tunes, a few were bluegrass like the theme from Beverly Hillbillies (not hardcore but more like Bluegrass for the person who didn't typically listen to bluegrass) and you got country instrumentals with a beat (Yakety Yak by, maybe Boots Randolph) and a couple of Western Swing tunes toned down for the format. As I recall it was one of those music services that offered a buy out versus monthly lease on the music. I think it might have been called Country Fresh and Beautiful but something back in my memory says maybe that Country Fresh and Beautiful term might have been the moniker for the station in Beardstown, IL. instead. I doubt there were few takers for the format no matter how many offered it. I always thought it was ill timed and could have been much more successful had it been introduced 10 years earlier when the easy listening and Beautiful music stations were a dime a dozen.

 

[DavidEduardo]

Music Just For the Two Of Us...I don't remember much about the format, other than WMDH in NewCastle (Muncie), Indiana carrying it. I remember seeing the billboards....a mid 20s looking couple sipping wine.

Here is the couple... in the poster for WSRA (FM) San Juan in the background. That's me holding the sales brochure.

 

[JRH]

There's a demo of "Music Just For the Two Of Us" on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYWbXc-pfbU

 

[K.M. Richards]

Here is the couple... in the poster for WSRA (FM) San Juan in the background. That's me holding the sales brochure.

I keep forgetting you were as young as the rest of us once upon a time. I keep thinking of you as that wise man who knows everything I never learned.

 

[DavidEduardo]

I keep forgetting you were as young as the rest of us once upon a time. I keep thinking of you as that wise man who knows everything I never learned.

There is a Spanish saying I am growing fond of: "The devil knows more because he's old, not because he is the devil" (Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo).

 

[gr8oldies]

Ryan O'Neil/Ali McGraw look and all! "Love means never having to listen to bad beautiful music formats"

Here is the couple... in the poster for WSRA (FM) San Juan in the background. That's me holding the sales brochure.


View attachment 714

 

[DavidEduardo]

Ryan O'Neil/Ali McGraw look and all! "Love means never having to listen to bad beautiful music formats"

Interestingly, we took the Peters Productions format at WSRA because is had almost no standards type songs and was mostly covers of 55-75 and AC pop songs. To that we added custom vocal reels with Julio Iglesias, Camilo Sesto, Roberto Carlos and similar artists mixed with more contemporary Peters English language vocals. And an additional set was made of custom recordings done in Spain of Spanish-language pop / AC hits plus our own collection of instrumental covers from Latin American artists.

For as long as we did the format, it was the #1 FM in Puerto Rico, but at the time there were only about 15 FM shares. We got nearly 30% of the total FM numbers at times in the San Juan Pulse ratings. A competitor, owned by a dear friend, switched to Bonneville from a home grown format; I got to see a letter from a well known Bonneville exec sent to my friend saying "WSRA is a perfectly executed station in every way. As a recent entry, WFID has little chance of equaling them due to their heritage and image. We recommend switching to our all vocal format where you can differentiate yourself." They did switch and later did a local English language music AC format that was quite successful.

Still, we were never happy with the 4 share on the station and switched to an all-salsa format in '79.

 

[klutch00]

All we know is that they are staying on the air. That is no guarantee that they aren't just draining the owner's bank account. Fortunately, that owner has a dozen or so other stations that all seem to be doing better.

If they are asking for donations, that sounds like a last gasp before pulling the plug.

well such is the case. WFAT will end it's 'Graffiti-Gold' format the end of the month. They along with WFNX (99.9) will then simulcast AAA WXRV Andover/Boston.