Thursday, March 2, 2006

Radio Gaga

Used to be that when you turned on the radio, you had a few different types of radio stations you could listen to.

Okay, being from southeast Georgia, we didn't have a huge variety of stations to listen to, but we had some variety.

There were no Spanish-language stations, or talk-radio stations back then. At least, not around us.

As I mentioned before, the big station to listen to was the Big Ape, WAPE AM 690, out of Jacksonville. Later on, as FM radio took off, most teens and young adults opted for WZAT (Z-102) in Savannah. Sure, my hometown had a station, but the format changed throughout the day: Country, Adult Contemporary, R&B/Soul, Hot 100/Rock. The larger cities had the big stations.

The thing, though, was you could tell them apart. The Country station played Country music. The Rock station played Rock music. And so on.

The other day, I was listening to Boomer 95.3 (WRLD), the oldies station. They played a song by the Beatles. Then one by the Eagles.

Then they played something else and I didn't like it. So I changed the station, and landed on The River 95.7 (WIOL), the Classic Rock station. They were playing a song by the Beatles. Then one by the Eagles.

Did you catch that? A station with one format played the Beatles and the Eagles. Then, a station with a different format played the Beatles and the Eagles.

Is that a commentary on why they are two of the biggest-selling groups? Or is this saying that radio formats are being combined and diluted?

I mean, on the one hand, it's great that there are more stations playing the Beatles and the Eagles. But I hope I don't start hearing Barry Manilow's "I Write The Songs" played next to Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love".

Like actually happened on the stations we listened to back in 1975.

3 comments:

  1. I like Barry Manilow, and I like The Beatles and the Eagles even more. The number one song in 1975 this week was "Best of My Love".
    I know that many movies have the wide-screen version available which creates black "stripes" on the top and bottom of the television screen. Well, the black stripes are on the sides here, so is this the tall screen version? When did you change the way this blog looks? I saw it yesterday for the first time. It looks good, and I think it loads lots faster. You must have heeded your own advice, huh? You just keep working to make your little blog better all the time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What was the R&B station, had like a million megahertz or something like that in the mid 1970s. Great music in the 1970s

    ReplyDelete
  3. In the words of my very cute kids:

    "wow they had radio waaaaaaay back then?"

    I know, they get less cute with the more words they learn.

    ReplyDelete

Please choose a Profile in "Comment as" or sign your name to Anonymous comments. Comment policy