Re: [neradio] That old Dupe rule

["A. Joseph Ross" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

"Martin J. Waters" wrote:
 
>         I disagree here. The AM-FM owners sure did have an idea what to do
> -- warehouse the FM station for the future day it might be worth something
> while making sure that no one else could get the signal and compete. They
> just simulcast the AM on it. The younger generation forgets that as late as
> the late 1960s, FM radio was nothing. A few stand-alone stations ran
> elevator music or classical and some of the big owners ran some separate
> programming part of the day. Nobody listened to FM and nobody cared about
> it.

Actually, I think that is exaggerated a bit.  I had FM in 1958 and listened
regularly, and I knew others who did.  Hi-Fi/Stereo buffs generally had FM
in their systems, and there were even some small FM-only radios around. 
Some really great classical music programming was done on WBCN, WXHR, and
many of the college stations.  Even the AM simulcasts had their uses, as
when my father was trying to listen to the Red Sox game during a
thunderstorm, and I got him to listen on WHDH-FM. I really appreciated
WEEI-FM because their AM signal wasn't that great in Bedford at night.  And
WKBR-FM was one of my favorite stations -- I couldn't get the AM at all. 
After WCOP dropped the Top 40 format in 1962, I heard a lot of my friends
griping about the fact that there was nothing to listen to after 10:00 PM,
when WMEX had Jerry Williams and WBZ had "Program PM."  While they
struggled with WPTR or WKBW, I could listen happily to WKBR-FM.

>         That's why "underground" and progressive stations like WBCN showed
> up on FM -- the financial stakes were low, the stand-alones mostly didn't
> make any money, and so, why not try something new. 

As I recall, WBCN moved away from classical programming because they had
never made money that way, and they apparently felt that with a different
format it would finally be possible to make money on FM.  I suspect a lot
of it had to do with the fact that college students tended to have FM
radios, in part because a number of schools had their own student-run FM
stations.

- -- 
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 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                     617.367.0468
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