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In 1967, when a Drake-Chenault radio format hit the Big Apple at WOR-FM, the radio and music industries took notice. The reality is AM radio was not the best place for rock and roll radio after stereo rock and roll records became popular. FM was the answer because only FM could broadcast in stereo. New York City’s WOR-FM, which is perhaps best remembered for a world-famous disc jockey, Murray “the K” Kaufman, became a focal point in the growth of FM as the dominant radio of rock and roll.. The station was a pioneer in presenting rock and roll in stereo on the radio on the FM dial. Entertainment World, a trade publication of the entertainment media, in 1972 explained what happened at WOR-FM in a most concise fashion: “Radio and music people literally laughed and daydreamed of Drake’s Waterloo when he entered the New York rock competition with his live AM format on an FM station. Among others, he was fighting WMCA and WABC, two extremely popular AM rock stations. In addition, there was, and is, the added factor that FM receivers are in a definite minority, which cut the listener potential before anyone even turned the transmitter on. In spite of the odds, when the latest [Pulse ratings] book came out, WOR-FM beat everyone in the market--FM and AM--except WABC. Although WABC was ahead by miles with 40’s while WOR-FM was No. 2 with 16’s, Drake sat is his office reading the Pulse book and chuckling, ‘An FM station with these kinds of numbers has never existed before,’ he said, ‘it’s just never been done.’” Billboard magazine in 1967 publicly objected to the Drake-Chenault radio format change at WOR-FM which resulted in the ouster of Murray “the K.” But, in 1968, Claude Hall offered Drake an open letter of apology in the magazine: “Not that I like any better what you’re doing, but it’s good radio...ratings are the name of the game and you’ve proven that the golden Drake touch can even work on FM.” Here are “Drake jingles,” music beds and news theme from WOR-FM, New York in the late 1960s: Just when it seemed as though Drake-Chenault radio would succeed on AM and FM regardless of the radio market, reality finally sunk in. Bill Gavin, the radio and music industry columnist, explained how Drake did not always succeed: “In those days he was making spectacular successes wherever he went, until he went into Cincinnati at WUBE to try to consult that station. He made the mistake which he said he never would make: taking an inferior facility, a poor coverage system, and a poor signal. He was up against Pacific and Southern on WSAI and Drake got beaten. He pulled out of there in a year. So it was not a foolproof system at all because it required everything else that goes with a successful operation.” A second failure occurred in 1972 in the Washington, DC radio market. RKO Radio’s WGMS AM and FM were classical music stations. RKO Radio wanted to allow for Drake-Chenault to change one of the stations to a rock ‘n’ roll format. Advance word on the impending format change gave WGMS listeners time to prepare a protest against the RKO Radio plans. The company backed down and Drake-Chenault never got the chance to test their format out in the nation’s capitol. Drake told me that failure was in how RKO Radio went public about the proposed format change: “Well, I think the first mistake was having a cocktail party and announcing to everybody three to four months before it was supposed to happen...We weren’t talking about depriving the market of classical music at all. We were talking about putting the classical either on the FM or the AM, and using the other station. But, the thing is, there was eventually a lot of heat so RKO figured it couldn’t afford to go through all that.” The choice of FM instead of AM as the preferred method for the transmission of rock ‘n’ roll radio formats changed both the world’s music and broadcasting industries starting in the late 1960s. Certainly, the Drake-Chenault success in New York City at WOR-FM was one factor in this trend. But, it was the Federal Communications Commission who pumped up the growth of FM. The FCC wanted to stimulate the growth of FM and changed the regulations to disallow owners of both AM and FM from simulcasting on both stations. The FCC also mandated that all radios manufactured (over a baseline price level) had to be capable of receiving both AM and FM stations. This stimulated brand new markets for radio programming for FM stations, and Drake-Chenault jumped in quickly by developing a syndicated radio format. |
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