May 21 Radio History

In 1955...Comedian Ernie Kovacs begins a daily morning radio show (6-9a) over WABC 770 AM NYC.


In 1960...KFAX 1100 AM in San Francisco debuts a news and information format. It’s the first new radio format without a single record. No music anywhere. The format consists of a 15-minute newscast on the hour, a five-minute summary onthe half-hour, plus news analysis commentary, editorial and features to fill-outeach hour. (KFAX is still on-air, owened by Salem Media, and airs Christian teachnig programs.)


In 1961...Capital Cities Broadcasting Corp. purchased easy listening WPAT 930 AM  in Patterson, NJ for $5 million. It's  the first company purchase of a station outside a “capital city.” They own WTEN-TV/WROW-AM - Albany, WPRO-TV/Radio -Providence and WTVD-TV/Raleigh-Durham. WPAT is a successful stationserving the New York area.  In 1986, following the Cap Cities purchase of ABC, WPAT was sold to Park Communications.

In 1963... MGM Records was promoting a deejay-listener contest, tied to Connie Francis’ new single - “If My Pillow CouldTalk.” Participating deejays are asking their listeners “If Your Pillow Could Talk, WhatWould It Say?”

Writer of the winning lettergets a $100 U.S. Savings Bond, a phone call from Connie Francis and a complete library of her albums.

The deejay that receives the winning letter gets a week’s vacation at the Americana Hotel in Puerto Rico

Donna Reed, Carl Betz, Bob Crane

In 1963...It was announced that Los Angeles Disc Jockey Bob Crane will be a regular on the “Donna Reed Show” in the Fall. Bob has slowly built his acting career ever since he began doing mornings on KNX 1070 AM in 1956.

Barry Gray

In 1966..."two-way talk radio" is making a name for itself and is a viable format on some stations. On the East Coast, Barry Gray is one of the best-known two-way radio hosts. He conducts his show on music station WMCA 570 AM from 11p to 1a.

This week, Barry Gray signs a new contract with WMCA, which will take him into1970. The new arrangement is expected to give Gray $150,000 annually - a 50% raise!

WMCA was anxious to keep the high-rated talker. One reason, WCBS-AM made a bid for his services. Gray will actually split the show’s profits - 50/50. Atthe going rate (and his show is sold-out between 11p and 1a).

WMCA has been riding higher than high in the New York ratings. The musicstation topped all its competitors again in the recent Hooper and Pulse ratings.

Bob Grant

In 1971...Los Angeles radio talk transplant Bob Grant now does an afternoon talk show over WMCA 570 NYC. Grant says that New York is not like Los Angeles, where he spent many a year doing telephone talk radio over KABC and KLAC.

“L.A. radio is really hip compared to New York. Here the scene is very provincial and ethnic and liberal. Being a conservative, I am referred to by most of my callers as the house right-winger or fascist. Actually, it gets pretty funny because they do more yelling at me than engaging in useful debate. The audience in Los Angeles was much more sophisticated. Since WMCA started Dialog Radio, it’s really shot up in the ratings, we’ve gone from around 12th to third in the market.  One of the things WMCA is big on, though, is newsmaker calls and I do a lot of them."


In 1975...More than ever, disco music is spilling over to top-40.

The influence of the Discotheque – big in New York, is spreading. Disco records have been breaking into the top-40 more and more because of the initial play at discos. The so-called discotheque came to the U.S. from France during the early 1960’s, but the current trend came from gay clubs. Tom Moulton, who writes about the disco scene for Billboard – summed it up by saying New York is the hub of America’s disco scene. “The disco scene has doubled in New York in the last two years. New discos are opening all the time. In the New York area there are about 600 discos and about 30 key discos that you can look at to find out what songs are popular.”


In 1980...FCC realigns AM Clear Channel Stations.

The FCC votes to limit the coverage of so-called “clear channel” AM stations to 750 miles. The restriction covers 25 clear channel stations including KFI, Los Angeles, WCBS, WABC, WNBC in New York City, WLS, WBBM and WMAQ, Chicago and WSM - the home of the Grand Ol’ Opry in Nashville. These stations are “protected” so that their nighttime signals can be heard in outlying areas, providing radio service to rural communities at night where there was no radio service. The FCC modified the rules in the mid-40’s, to allow new nighttime stations to operate on some of the channels, but the distance between stations was far away (WABC- KOB, Albuquerque) and only two operated (at the most) on one channel at night in the continental USA. Some channels still remain clear, such as WCCO in Minneapolis and WSM, which can still be picked-up thousands of miles away from Nashville on a clear channel.

The new rules will allow smaller stations to broadcast at night, thereby “interfering” with the distant broadcasts. The FCC says it will make room for 125 more nighttime AM stations.

Other stations with clear channel status - WSB - Atlanta, WBAP - Ft Worth, WLW  - Cincinnati, WJR - Detroit, KDKA - Pittsburgh, KMOX - St Louis, WWWE - Cleveland, WHAM, Rochester, WCAU - Philadelphia, WOAI - San Antonio, WHO - Des Moines, WOR - New York, WWL - New Orleans, KSL - Salt Lake City, WBZ - Boston.

Certain mediumwave frequencies were set aside under the North American Radio Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA) for nighttime use by only one or two specific AM stations, covering a wide area via skywave propagation; these frequencies were known as the clear channels, and the stations on them are thus clear-channel stations. Where only one station was assigned to a clear channel, the treaty provides that it must operate with a nominal power of 50 kilowatts or more; stations on the other clear channels, with two or more stations, must use between 10 kW and 50 kW, and most often use a directional antenna so as not to interfere with each other. In addition to the frequencies, the treaty also specified the specific locations where stations on this second kind of channel (known as class I-B) could be built.

Some of the original NARBA signatories, including the United States, Canada and Mexico, have implemented bilateral agreements that supersede its terms, eliminating among other things the distinction between the two kinds of clear channel: the original "I-A", "I-B", and "I-N" station classes are now all included in class A.

Clear-channel stations, unlike all other AM stations in North America, have a secondary service area—that is, they are entitled to protection from interference to their nighttime skywave signals. Other stations are entitled, at most, to protection from nighttime interference in their primary service area — that which is covered by their groundwave signal.