With so many current-based formats looking to program their way out of their current doldrums, there is the question of what leads Top 40, or Country, or any other format, out of a morass. Is it better product? Is it radio stations making better use of the product?
Ron Gerber is host of the syndicated “Crap from the Past,” based out of non-comm KFAI Minneapolis, a specialty show that is particularly resonant with Ross On Radio readers. Recently, he found himself in a group discussion about the recent documentaries about New York’s WLIR and Z100 and their impact in driving the early ‘80s new wave and CHR explosions respectively.
“I think both movies fail to address a fundamental reason for WLIR and Z100’s success. In the early ‘80s, the music released by the major labels was extraordinary. 1983 was a banner year for pop, much like 1967. All a station had to do in the early ‘80s was play what the majors offered, and they would sound remarkable on the air.”
I have some thoughts on this.
The Top 40 doldrums of 1980-82 never had to happen. In 1979, the apex of disco, the earliest new wave breakthroughs, and the continued strength of corporate rock made for one great summer of hit and almost-hit music. Then the disco backlash (really an R&B backlash) took hold, and to a lesser degree, the rush to bring new wave to Top 40 slowed until the arrival of MTV.
Hit music sounded better on U.K. radio, when I could hear it. Disco never disappeared. New wave was mainstream. “Going Underground” by the Jam was mainstream hit music. It was only underground in the U.S.
Hit music sounded better in Canada, where new wave was also embraced more fully by both Top 40 and Rock radio. In Toronto in 1981, there was a Top 40 station that leaned rock (CHUM), one that leaned AC like most of its American counterparts (CFTR), and then there was nearby CKOC Hamilton, which played both “Rapper’s Delight” and Squeeze’s “Another Nail in My Heart.” CKGM Montreal had a similar formula but often with entirely different records. They were a station I wish I could have heard more.
1980 was an uneven year for Top 40 format. Heritage AMs finally gave up. Many of the FMs evolved to either Album Rock or AC. But 1980 is one of my favorite years for pop music. It could have been awesome if those songs were what American radio played. And what was happening in Canada and the U.K., proved that we were missing hit records, not just my obscure record geek faves.
On the stations that did play it all, the comeback started early.
WXKS-FM (Kiss 108) Boston evolved from disco to Urban, but kept going for the next few years, becoming the hippest top 40 in America. Kiss 108 was the place where R&B crossovers never stopped crossing over, but it was also the station where “Watch Your Step” by Elvis Costello went Top 10, without being played on any other CHR.
KFRC San Francisco made the decision in 1980 not to continue on the road to AC. It was aggressive on R&B crossovers, as well, but also stayed away from a lot of the AC-leaning product, and doubled down on personality and promotion. KFRC typically had three contests going at once. Jocks spoke over almost every intro. (There was one sweeper an hour.) In 1981-82, it was a reminder that Top 40 didn’t have to sound like it did almost everywhere else.
WCAU-FM Philadelphia got attention for being all-current and for Mike Joseph’s “Hot Hits” presentation, but by being sales-based, it was also playing the R&B crossover hits in 1981-82. WCAU-FM was where you heard “Apache” by the Sugarhill Gang as a current (along with plenty of AC on the other side). WCAU begat WBBM-FM (B96), which proved that the R&B hits worked even in Chicago. By 1982, it was the seed station for CBS Radio’s other “Hitradio” outlets and thus for dozens of similar stations.
(Update) WBZZ (B94) Pittsburgh should have been on my original list, when this article was published on March 10. I’m adding it a few days later. Prompted by the success of Dan Vallie’s WEZB (B97) New Orleans, B94 went against AOR/CHR hybrid WXKX (96KX) and proved that Mainstream Top 40 still worked, even in what was then thought to be a “rock” market (and did so about nine months before the B96/WLS battle).
WINZ (I95) Miami and KKBQ (79Q) Houston shared a music consultant in John Hartman who moved boldly with both currents (R&B crossovers and new wave reaction titles) and gold. I followed I95 in the trades, but I had 79Q’s listen line when it debuted in summer ’82. KKBQ’s success on AM, and the subsequent launch of 93Q in a market that had been briefly without Top 40, was a catalyst for the CHR land rush that took place in 1983.
In Los Angeles, the station that played it all was KIQQ, with a broad, quirky mix that included crossovers from new wave KROQ, but plenty of early ‘80s AC as well. When KIIS-FM relaunched with Rick Dees in 1982, it shifted from a Kiss 108-like format to Hot AC. But over the next year, KIIS opened up its music, began to embrace R&B again, and quickly upstaged KIQQ. Soon KIIS was one of the protagonists in the CHR comeback. (The KIIS game plan was very similar to what sister KHKS Dallas did when it helped revive CHR in 1984-85 during the next near-extinction period for the format.)
It might seem strange that I haven’t talked about MTV yet. MTV did help programmers in 1982-83 realize that new wave music was hit music, just as it was in the U.K. and Canada, and not only college radio or KROQ music. But stations like Kiss 108 and 79Q already knew this. And they played the R&B crossovers that MTV famously would not.
Z100’s music in its first few years with Michael Ellis as MD was indeed great—both Z100 and rival WPLJ played lots of R&B crossovers that never became hits to the same magnitude anywhere else. By Shannon tapping into this for New York, Z100 was in the tradition of WABC, but also stations like CKLW Detroit, WPGC Washington, and numerous secondary Southern markets. (Being the pop station that played R&B was also part of WPLJ’s game plan from the outset.)
What the Top 40 format tended to take from Z100, however, was probably more presentational than musical. Scott Shannon’s WRBQ (Q105) was another example of CHR flourishing in the doldrums, but it wasn’t as contrarian musically as some of the stations mentioned here. Q105 and Z100 helped spread the Morning Zoo template and Shannon’s hot-rocking, flame-throwing showmanship. (79Q and 93Q helped spread the Morning Zoo as well.)
By the time Z100 launched, the hole to be the only Top 40 in a market had pretty much closed, including in New York. As it turned out, there was room for both Z100 and WPLJ. If stations like WCAU (and KHTR St. Louis) and KIIS had encouraged stations to grab the Top 40 franchise in 1982-83, Z100 emboldened a new generation of challengers in 1984-85.
I asked readers for their most influential stations of that era, not necessarily limited to music. There’s a long thread on my Facebook page.
Is there hit music hiding in plain sight now like there was between 1980 and 1983? I manage to find songs for my CHR playlist, Big Hits Energy, every week. Some are songs I pluck from the ether, but some are already hits at Alternative, Hip-Hop/R&B or Active Rock. Others are already hits elsewhere in the world. CHR in the U.K. has its own issues, but dance music has kept the format’s energy level up. CHR tends to acknowledge one dance record at a time, but there’s always more available, and with most stations playing so few records, there are plenty more slots for all sorts of hits.
Are there more hits waiting to be harvested from TikTok and streaming overall? Yes, although I continue to emphasize that streaming shouldn’t be the only place that radio and labels look. Like MTV in the mid-‘80s, there will be a lot of songs that will never cross to radio. (Remember “That’s The Way That It Is” by Uriah Heap?)
Right now, the stations that make the boldest decisions with the music available to them are success stories, but they tend to be in medium and smaller markets, not in Boston, Philadelphia, and Houston. (San Francisco, with two of the most aggressive large-market CHRs is a happy exception.) Current-based formats now have challenges that didn’t exist in 1980-82, but if there is going to be a comeback, it will start with stations being more aggressive with the music already available to them.
I listened to the podcast from this CFTP show (which was awesome, btw) and it reminded me of just how badly CHR radio blew it in 1980-2. I was in HS then and nobody was listening to Top 40 at that point; it was mainly AOR. And AOR stations actually played more variety than the schlock that CHR was offering up (as a geek, I listened back then to both). The arrival of MTV brought that British pop into our living rooms, so I maintain that it did have an impact in its early days. This is where we first heard/saw the likes of Split Enz, Peter Gabriel, and others from the other side of the pond.
I note that many of the songs played in the 1980 episode of CFTP were songs that my friends and I heard on MTV – resulting in many LP purchases. Our local Top 40 stations were too busy playing the likes of Air Supply and Olivia Newton-John to notice.