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Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron and SW Ontario
iloveblackpeople
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Oct 02, 2007 11:04 pm

Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by iloveblackpeople »

https://seeburg1000.com/

I think I found my new favorite source for beautiful music. Check out this website. It's for the Seeburg 1000 which was a background music player popular in the 60s. They even have an app and they stream the music 24 hours a day. Fantastic.
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Musicrewired
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Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by Musicrewired »

matt1 wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:10 pm Former WGMZ Beautiful Music station (107.9 FM) switches to "CARS 108" WCRZ in Flint, MI back on June 15, 1984. Here is what happened (audio only): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEm-xKZze8k
I'm not sure which is less common: switching formats at around 1:00 am (based upon the current temp and weather forecast given in the clip), or having a newscast at 1:00 am.

The last song on that format was "Amazing Grace". Interesting.
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WOHO
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Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by WOHO »

It's a shame that the big radio conglomerates are so scared to try really bizarre station format changes like they did 40 years ago when there was a ton of competition. What I'm getting at is that WJR's pathetic 1.6 share tells me that Cumulus has nothing to lose by blowing-up the station format and doing something really bizarre, like beautiful music along with a full-service format and easy-going personalities. "Your new listen at work station, EZ-760- WJR, all day, all night, always nice, With Night Flight 76 departing at 10pm every evening for your two hour journey..." Flip the Ed Butterbaugh AM stereo processing back on to be the best-sounding station in town too. What have they go to lose than the brokered garbage and income from Rush Limbaugh after his meltdowns? The challenge would be to sell it and make some cash. They might have a really excellent TSL and triple their ratings, but that needs an upside in cash. I liked when WCZY was transitioning, that was a good mix of EZ instrumentals but with original artists and vocals thrown-in the mix. The only other 50KW music station that comes to mind is WSM-650 - how do they do, or are they basically a billboard for the Grand Ole Opry and that's their only concern?
JGP1954
Posts: 155
Joined: Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:47 am
Location: Detroit Area

Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by JGP1954 »

WOHO wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 3:13 pm It's a shame that the big radio conglomerates are so scared to try really bizarre station format changes like they did 40 years ago when there was a ton of competition. What I'm getting at is that WJR's pathetic 1.6 share tells me that Cumulus has nothing to lose by blowing-up the station format and doing something really bizarre, like beautiful music along with a full-service format and easy-going personalities. "Your new listen at work station, EZ-760- WJR, all day, all night, always nice, With Night Flight 76 departing at 10pm every evening for your two hour journey..." Flip the Ed Butterbaugh AM stereo processing back on to be the best-sounding station in town too. What have they go to lose than the brokered garbage and income from Rush Limbaugh after his meltdowns? The challenge would be to sell it and make some cash. They might have a really excellent TSL and triple their ratings, but that needs an upside in cash. I liked when WCZY was transitioning, that was a good mix of EZ instrumentals but with original artists and vocals thrown-in the mix. The only other 50KW music station that comes to mind is WSM-650 - how do they do, or are they basically a billboard for the Grand Ole Opry and that's their only concern?
Sounds good to me, I like the way you think!
BuckNaked
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Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by BuckNaked »

I wasn’t in Michigan but I remember in the mid ‘70s Steve Trivers and Bill Wertz produced a beautiful music format that one of the Detroit stations used. I believe it was WWJ’s FM station.

It was the format they used on WQLR, a mix of light pop (John Denver, Johnny Mathis, etc) as well as the traditional instrumentals. They also commissioned a studio orchestra in Toronto, IFRC to do instrumental covers.

They had a handful of stations that bought the service. I was working in Roanoke, Va and WPVR, one of the Beautiful Music Stations there switched from TM’s BM format to KALA Music.

“Light and Easy Favorites.....”
CK-722
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Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by CK-722 »

For a long time WWJ-FM and WGMZ had the same reel to reel based Beautiful Music format. Over the years one or both used SRP or Bonneville. When there was a strong tropospheric event which favored these stations, because they are 10.8 MHz apart, they came in all over the dial. The only thing was they were not synched because of the placement of stop sets, etc. Usually you heard the same musical selection at the same time, but several seconds or more shifted. People would complain about hearing the same song time shifted at the same time all over the dial. At the time, the distance requirement for these allotments was 15 miles. The distance between WWJ-FM (WXYT-FM) and WGMZ (WCRZ) is about 39 miles. The troposphere doesn't care about the hills in between or the curvature of the earth at that distance.

For a laugh, look at the 1964 CFR 47 Section 73.207 Distance Separation Requirements, and compare it to now.

https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Ar ... -73-74.pdf

The original intent of this table was to SIMPLIFY FM Allotments. Compare it to today's table(s). Before, they used contour overlap, still used for AM and NCE-FM allotments, and frankly, potentially much more efficient in the use of the bands. What the current rules have created is so complicated that only radio geeks can really figure it out effectively, and only lawyers can navigate in many instances. It's just a high stakes chess game now. The current rules presently favor allotments in the middle of nowhere, often when the middle of nowhere is already well served.
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JGP1954
Posts: 155
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Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by JGP1954 »

Funny story, I worked at a AM/FM combo in the 70s. I announced/deejayed on the AM. And, I ran the automation, if that is what you want to call it, on the FM, simultaneously. Basically all I did on FM was voice the Legal ID on the hour on the FM. The "automation" was large reels of beautiful music, which were located in the live studio. When the reel ran out, I would start the other reel. Then, cue a new reel on the playback machine. I worked there about six months, when the contract engineer called saying, I was playing the FM music reels tails out. Meaning I was supposed to rewind the reels, then play them back. Only, nobody ever told me that, and nobody ever called to complain! True story. Back then, the only commercials for the FM were played right after I voiced the Station ID, then it was back to the music. I don't ever remember anyone telling they listened to the FM.
format this
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Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by format this »

BuckNaked wrote:I wasn’t in Michigan but I remember in the mid ‘70s Steve Trivers and Bill Wertz produced a beautiful music format that one of the Detroit stations used. I believe it was WWJ’s FM station.

It was the format they used on WQLR, a mix of light pop (John Denver, Johnny Mathis, etc) as well as the traditional instrumentals. They also commissioned a studio orchestra in Toronto, IFRC to do instrumental covers.

They had a handful of stations that bought the service. I was working in Roanoke, Va and WPVR, one of the Beautiful Music Stations there switched from TM’s BM format to KALA Music.

“Light and Easy Favorites.....”
Nice work! I remember the easy format of 106.5 WQLR very well. Between that and WOOD-FM 105.7, those were her two stations of choice. Both stations easy listening.


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WOHO
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Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by WOHO »

Except 1972-1990, it was "Stereo 101.5, WLQR, Toledo" -boom, da, ba, boom, da, at the top of the hour.
Steve Kendall and Mike Shepherd (who did the ABC Warehouse spots for years) both worked there until Susquehanna Broadcasting sold it to Toledo Radio/Jacor/Noble and it was assimilated by ClearChannel/iHeart who changed the calls of 101.5 to WRVF (The River and ditched the beautiful instrumentals) and also 92.5 from WMHE to WVKS. Much of the WMHE staff ended-up at 3WM: WWWM-1055FM Oldies (Timm Morrison and Ron Finn).
(Also, just to piss-off CC, Midwestern Broadcasting, aka the new Cumulus, snagged the WLQR call letters and put them in play, to the point that 101.5 ran spots warning listeners not to be deceived by the WLQR call letters used elsewhere, although Cumulus never used on a similar format).
In 1990-1991, Lee Conklin was their AM drive newsman (before 2 decades as Anchor at WTVG-DTV) and Jim (Felton) Brady had the AM drive after a big stint in Toronto and was there until ClearChannel (waited 6 months and) snagged the morning dynamic duo of "Mitch and Marybeth" from (WKKO-FM) K-100 until Mitch's retirement and MaryBeth's two rounds of cancer left only Rick on River morning drive. Still think Easy Listening could survive on AM for 5-10 years.
videocollectore
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Joined: Tue Nov 20, 2018 9:39 am

Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by videocollectore »

Anyone remember WLDM? Another great beautiful music station.
ChrisWL1980
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Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by ChrisWL1980 »

BuckNaked wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:20 pm I wasn’t in Michigan but I remember in the mid ‘70s Steve Trivers and Bill Wertz produced a beautiful music format that one of the Detroit stations used. I believe it was WWJ’s FM station.

It was the format they used on WQLR, a mix of light pop (John Denver, Johnny Mathis, etc) as well as the traditional instrumentals. They also commissioned a studio orchestra in Toronto, IFRC to do instrumental covers.

They had a handful of stations that bought the service. I was working in Roanoke, Va and WPVR, one of the Beautiful Music Stations there switched from TM’s BM format to KALA Music.

“Light and Easy Favorites.....”
The Detroit station that used KalaMusic was WOMC. I think this was after the Sparks family (WEXL) sold the station to Metromedia in about '73. Metromedia would later push the station toward AC (or Pop-Adult as R&R called it at the time) by 1977 or '78.

I believe 93.9 CKEZ in Windsor also used KalaMusic during its short-lived easy format in 1985-86, in between "The Fox" experiment and the revival of CKLW-FM as an oldies station.

IIRC, KalaMusic also later launched a Soft AC format once B/EZ started to disappear by the mid-1980s.

The custom recordings by the European, Canadian, etc. orchestras became commonplace on B/EZ stations by the late '70s as the top "mood music" artists like Percy Faith and Mantovani retired, passed away or started putting out records less frequently.
BuckNaked
Posts: 4
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Re: Beautiful Music Stations in Detroit

Unread post by BuckNaked »

ChrisWL1980 wrote:
BuckNaked wrote: Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:20 pm I wasn’t in Michigan but I remember in the mid ‘70s Steve Trivers and Bill Wertz produced a beautiful music format that one of the Detroit stations used. I believe it was WWJ’s FM station.

It was the format they used on WQLR, a mix of light pop (John Denver, Johnny Mathis, etc) as well as the traditional instrumentals. They also commissioned a studio orchestra in Toronto, IFRC to do instrumental covers.

They had a handful of stations that bought the service. I was working in Roanoke, Va and WPVR, one of the Beautiful Music Stations there switched from TM’s BM format to KALA Music.

“Light and Easy Favorites.....”

IIRC, KalaMusic also later launched a Soft AC format once B/EZ started to disappear by the mid-1980s.

.
I talked to Steve Trivers around then when I was looking for alternative to Satellite Music Network that was being forced on me by new owners that I felt were being conned by their “consultant”
who also worked as a salesman for SMN.

Several years later when we moved to Michigan I ran into him again during an outing for Tigers affiliates. I also did traffic reports for WKZO and WQLR during a brief stint with AAA
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