| The
rEvolution Always Starts At Midnight A Concise History of Creative Music Programming, from Neanderthal Choirs to Video Payola [ part one ] | [ part two ] | [ press ] | [ links ] |
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| Fact: | Before Man had any spoken
language, humans first communicated with music. The beat-beat-beat of their tom-toms united humanity. And the caveperson with the best sense of this power in music became leader around the tribal campfire. Then came Radio. Alright, first Edison invented the phonograph. But grammaphones were playthings of the rich. Radio didn't sell records. It sold sheet music! Early radio was all live -- and gloriously alive! Radio brought hope to a Depressed humanity, and Orson Welles scared us to death with drama. Radio taught us to use our m-aginations sitting around the evening hearthfires. Oddly enough, due to atmospheric anomalies, even now radio still comes in clearest late at night. Along comes that instrument of the Devil: television. Radio didn't die -- but it sure wasn't alive after that. TV was live, while radio became canned music. From 1954 until 1967, you had no choice. Strictly business. Payola came, payola went. Radio primarily targeted Kids. No imagination. Jocks pushed the same few songs over and over and over..... .....then FM exploded on the dial and overnight blew AM away! |
| Fact: | Before 1967, FM radio was
strictly "Cable Public Access" -- Some classical symphonies, lots of foreign language programs, and sound effects demo channels! Dad could impress his friends with local broadcasts of steam trains and jets planes going zoom across the room on his brand new "don't touch" hi-fi stereo console. That's it.
Just a half-dozen TV stations and kiddy music on AM radio. With Top-40 AM Radio's stranglehold on popular music, the 45rpm Hit Single is the most correct symbol for this second phase of the Broadcast Music rEvolution. Then, in 1967, the next rEvolution began. Late one night... |
No cable TV. |
UNDERGROUND RADIO was born in the Midnight hour, launched from the Graveyard shift at KMPX-FM in San Francisco. Within two years, 2,200 hip free-form FM stations captured our m-aginations and forever changed the music buying and listening habits of America. |
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