Re: The ABC/FM Network

[mwaters@wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Bump Martin wrote:
>>I've never heard ABC contemporary news aired, nor FM news aired, nor CBS
>Radioradio, or NBC's The Source.  Is Unistar still offerring newscasts?
>Does anyone clear them?

        When you say "never" about ABC Contemporary, do you mean in the
past 15 or 20 years? When it started and through the '70s, the contemporary
news was run on a lot of stations, including the o-and-o's. I don't know
the history of the ABC decision to go with the four networks, but I think
their own o-and-o situation could have been part of the thinking. They were
running top-40 formats but were stuck using their own regular hourly news,
which didn't really fit. The contemporary network fit perfectly into the
sound of WABC.
        BTW, can someone say for certain that the Howard Cosell/Speaking of
Sports feeds were for the Contemporary Network in the early days? Or maybe
the deal was that affiliates of any of the four networks could use them?
What I do remember is that the sounder for his sports was clearly a
variation on the sounder for the contemporary news. I have a great aircheck
of his sportscast over WCOD, Hyannis, 1972, with the way-too-much WCOD
reverb on it, on it, on it, on it, on it, on it . . .

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