Radio ... and Me - 10

By the mid ‘50s, new radio formats had to be adopted and tweaked, all due to the spread of rock ‘n’ roll.
The first major change, especially in big market stations, was the invention of the hour-long ‘Block Program,’ which featured a 5-minute News / Weather / Sport report, usually on the top of the hour, followed by the music, with an ad-libbing, fast-talking 'disc jockey' or ‘deejay’ or 'd-j' (the new title for 'radio announcer') and lots of jingles for the remaining 55 minutes.
Then, they did it all again.
This format was a big departure from a varied collection of 30- or 60-minute sponsored programs, which had been the norm on radio since its beginning.
CKEY and 1050 CHUM in Toronto were the first Canadian stations to turn radio into ‘one continuous program’ for 24 hours a day.
I listened to new formats at night on the big 50,000-watt 'Clear Channel' stations spread out along the U-S Eastern Seaboard, such as 77-WABC and 10-10 WINS, both in New York, 15-40 WPTR, in Albany, and WMEX-1510, in Boston.
The second change was also caused by the clock; the standard shift for a d-j was four hours in length and he -- there were almost no women announcers on rock stations until the late ‘60s -- played about 10 hits per hour, depending on the amount of commercial traffic and other features, so the music radio industry became billed as the ‘Top 40.'
Each station compiled and promoted its own List, from radio plays and local sales -- AND, of course, the ‘Billboard Hot 100' -- the list in the Bible of the industry for two generations. This set-up was to be more centralized later.
Some songs were recorded on tight budgets and time schedules, in warehouses -- or even washrooms, to get lots of echo.
This situation was ripe for cut-throat competition, especially in the bigger markets; for example, many stations promoted ‘exclusives,’ when records were sometimes supplied by unscrupulous recording studio engineers or pressing plant workers, and played with plenty of voice promos enclosed, or at slightly faster speeds, so the ‘competition’ couldn’t copy and play them.
For example, Pat Boone recorded Moody River one morning in Los Angeles, at Capitol Records -- in the building that looks like a stack of 45s. That very afternoon, while driving his youngsters from school, he was surprised to hear it being played on his car radio!
The record’s producer, it was discovered later, had shipped a tape of the song to one of the d-js at a rock station across town, who, of course, had gladly put it on the air. In that instance, the action was all quite legit.
However, record promotion and radio play were soon becoming so intertwined, that illegal ‘Payola’ scandals arose, when d-js and program directors had accepted money or gifts to play a song. That led to accusations, congressional hearing, and fines for some of the most popular radio personalities.
The others -- and their stations -- were more careful after that, but it was said that the practice never really went away, despite the persistent efforts of many well-meaning and law-abiding Program Directors.
The formats developed during the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll would continue to influence music radio for decades.