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Re: WODS jingles, songs-in-a-row
At 01:56 AM 1/10/02 -0500, A. Joseph Ross wrote:
> WRKO-FM became
>automated as ARKO part of the time in order to comply with the FCC's
>separate programming mandate in the mid-1960s. The success of ARKO is
>supposed to be what prompted the station owners to flip WNAC to WRKO and
>top-40 programming.
Actually, it was the success of KHJ & KFRC that convinced RKO-General to
switch their stations to Top 40. I can't imagine Arko was more than a
curiosity for the few teens who had FM radios in 1966.
>When WRKO-FM was ARKO, WBZ-FM was still automated classical. It didn't
>change to hit music until around 1971 or 72, by which time 98.5 had been
>WROR for several years.
>
>I believe WROR began as "Hit Parade 68" in 1968. The jingle changed each
>year on 1 January to become "Hit Parade 69", etc. I'm not quite sure
>when they changed to oldies, but when they didn they had a new jingle,
>with the same melody, that went "Solid Gold Rock and Roll."
As I recall, once WRKO got established, WRKO-FM/WROR played essentially the
same playlist as WRKO, only automated & jockless outside of simulcast
time. Did they get rid of Arco when WRKO debuted? I think the change to
WROR & Hitparade roughly coincided with the move to Govt. Center in late
1968. By the early 70s Hitparade went away, but the format was pretty much
the same. This may have been the "Solid Gold Rock & Roll" time frame, kind
of gave the impression of being oldies-based, but they played a lot of
currents--including quite a few that were not big national hits (but may
have been hits in LA where it was syndicated from). I believe ROR went all
oldies sometime in 1973. When did WBZ-FM go with the automated Top 40? I
seem to remember it as early as 1972.