KOST 103.5

In Portland, just from a listener's perspective, KISN had a top 50 chart until being challenged by KGW in late '69. KGW started with a top 40 chart and soon dropped down to 30. Shortly thereafter, KISN switched from 50 to 30.

oldies76 said:

Yeah probably less stations allowing their DJ's to pick and choose than I made it sound, but I sure remember Brian Beirne allowed to pick and choose those oldies records, in his mid morning show, oh so long ago. But that came to a screeching halt eventually, I heard.

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When I say "actual DJ who cares about the music and actually spins it and listens to it with his audience" Brian Beirne is an excellent example that comes to mind.

Yes most of the songs on his show came from the list but he was indeed allowed to play records on his show that were not aired anywhere else on the station - "Honeycomb" by Jimmy Rodgers* comes to mind as an example. But my point is not whether or how many records the DJ personally picks (I don't think anyone is deluded that the DJs pick their own music anymore), but Brian talked about the artists and songs and presented them as if he were there listening to them with you, which is why he was very popular. For all I know he may have been in the hallway drinking a cup or smoking a cig, but if he was, it didn't matter - he acted as if he was in the chair listening to the show with you the entire shift.

* Jimmy Rodger's "Honeycomb" is getting a lot of love lately at...Chipotle! Somehow it has made it onto their highly curated in-house muzak system. I have heard it several times there now so it must be on a pretty short loop.

ChannelFlipper said:

For all I know he may have been in the hallway drinking a cup or smoking a cig, but if he was, it didn't matter - he acted as if he was in the chair listening to the show with you the entire shift.

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That approach really only works for an audience that shares that passion for the music, and typically it's a very small percentage. In this world where there are so many choices, it's something that's best done online.

As I said in my previous post, there was a time when the music was part of the culture, was part of social change, and the musicians and the fans were all in the same community. Now the musicians use social media to create that community directly. No need for the intermediary.

TheBigA said:

I think it was the concert promoter Bill Graham who said back in 1972 when he shut down his Fillmore venues on the East and West coasts that he felt the business had begun to change, that the music had become too commercial, and the artists were too focused on the money. I think he was right. Things had begun to change. It's not the 60s any more.

Here's a bit of what he said: “The scene has changed,” Graham said in a prepared statement for the daily press, “and in the long run, we are all to one degree or another at fault. All that I know is that what exists now is not what we started with, and what I see around me now does not seem to be a logical, creative extension of that beginning.”

This is not to say that musicians or radio DJs today aren't passionate about what they do. Most are, and most are very involved in the lifestyle of their favorite music. That doesn't mean they have to do things the way their parents did them 50 years ago.

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As somebody who lived in the Bay Area, and went to many Bill Graham produced concerts, it's nice to hear his name again. I met him a couple of times - he was an...interesting, complex, and volatile person. As some of you may know, he died in a copter crash in 1991, returning to San Francisco from a Huey Lewis and the News concert in Vallejo...he could have driven that distance in an hour. It should be noted that even though he sort of cops to it - he too was very focused on "the money."

Also, IIRC, the days of true "free form" FM radio (KPPC, KMPX, early KMET and KSAN) lasted about a minute and a half - from about 1967 to 1971. For the most part, it was co-opted by rigidly formatted stations like "Rock N'Stereo" KLOS and KSFX. So even by 1971, most listeners appeared to just want more hit music, and less "culture and social change." 1971 was 47 years ago, folks.

LKellerIII said:

As somebody who lived in the Bay Area, and went to many Bill Graham produced concerts, it's nice to hear his name again. I met him a couple of times - he was an...interesting, complex, and volatile person. As some of you may know, he died in a copter crash in 1991, returning to San Francisco from a Huey Lewis and the News concert in Vallejo...he could have driven that distance in an hour. It should be noted that even though he sort of cops to it - he too was very focused on "the money."

Also, IIRC, the days of true "free form" FM radio (KPPC, KMPX, early KMET and KSAN) lasted about a minute and a half - from about 1967 to 1971. For the most part, it was co-opted by rigidly formatted stations like "Rock N'Stereo" KLOS and KSFX. So even by 1971, most listeners appeared to just want more hit music, and less "culture and social change." 1971 was 47 years ago, folks.

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Even back then, most listeners just wanted to hear the rock n' roll and were not down with the whole counter-culture, social-change aspect of these stations. KMET had a lot of listener events like the "immoral minority" events with Jeff Gonzer and other DJs, but they were always just attended by a cadre of the same few hundred hippie groupies that were already out of date by the early 80s. The whole counter-culture thing was always oversold.