How did DISCO RADIO STATIONS all fizzle by fall of 79 (couldnt all be Steve Dahl)?!

[remicks]

*****

Disco's sudden assault on radio stations certainly didn't do our cause any favors.

Remember, new stations weren't created to become disco stations ... they simply displaced existing formats on existing stations. Imagine yourself in 1979, loving Supertramp and Aerosmith and all other rock and roll that was good and decent to your ears and your morning clock radio goes off and instead of Foreigner beginning your happy rock 'n roll day .... you get RING MY BELL instead. :icon_mrgreen:

Or another way of looking at it .....you go to your favorite disco in 1979 and overnight its become a venue for live rock bands only . How would you like it ????

This caused a lot of anger . Disco music hadn't just taken its own place in radio.... it wasn't just one more music to be found on the dial . As quickly as it had arrived ... it simultaneously just as quickly wiped out other formats loved by many for years. Gone! Eliminated !
Imagine that! NOT A GOOD PLAN for achieving universal love.

And those converted stations ... they were simply chasing ratings .... they weren't switching out if some new found love of disco. Again imagine yourself a DJ who probably loved playing rock ....going in for your shift and being told "From now on you're playing this" and being handed Chic!
The station staff and sales reps ...they probably worked at a given station at least in part because they liked the format there ....and now they had to swallow hard to go to their established accounts and say ..."your ads are no longer appearing within a rock/country/MOR format, your ads will be played amongst...gulp ....disco :icon_eek: . You'll need to change them to fit accordingly. ... how's that grab you ?? " :icon_redface::icon_rolleyes:

In Hawaii we literally instantly had THREE disco radio stations all chasing that golden ratings ticket , each hoping to be #1 by featuring this new sound ... all three abandoning the formats they previous had and what their listeners were used to hearing.

This was all doomed for failure.


*****

[Jayfar]

We had a an all-disco radio station in Pittsburgh--well, actually in a suburb of Pittsburgh called Greensburg--for maybe a year in 1979. It was a little-known medium power station, so I'm sure they figured "what the hell... let's play disco." There were no live DJs; it was all automated, but on Saturday nights (I think) you could call in and make requests. It played all the obvious hits, but also plenty of records I wasn't hearing anywhere else.

We also had Studio 97 on Easy Rockin' FM97 WFFM Sat & Sun nights. I was the host for about 9 months in '79; Jan Patton had it for several months, beginning in September 78, and Trevor Ley took over when I departed (actually he sort of pushed me out, as I learned later from a mutual acquaintance) Funniest thing I remember is that not long before my departure they made me sign an agreement to pay for the next set of studio monitors, if I blew out the tweeters again.

[garrybcoston]

*****

Disco's sudden assault on radio stations certainly didn't do our cause any favors.

Remember, new stations weren't created to become disco stations ... they simply displaced existing formats on existing stations. Imagine yourself in 1979, loving Supertramp and Aerosmith and all other rock and roll that was good and decent to your ears and your morning clock radio goes off and instead of Foreigner beginning your happy rock 'n roll day .... you get RING MY BELL instead. :icon_mrgreen:

Or another way of looking at it .....you go to your favorite disco in 1979 and overnight its become a venue for live rock bands only . How would you like it ????

This caused a lot of anger . Disco music hadn't just taken its own place in radio.... it wasn't just one more music to be found on the dial . As quickly as it had arrived ... it simultaneously just as quickly wiped out other formats loved by many for years. Gone! Eliminated !
Imagine that! NOT A GOOD PLAN for achieving universal love.

And those converted stations ... they were simply chasing ratings .... they weren't switching out if some new found love of disco. Again imagine yourself a DJ who probably loved playing rock ....going in for your shift and being told "From now on you're playing this" and being handed Chic!
The station staff and sales reps ...they probably worked at a given station at least in part because they liked the format there ....and now they had to swallow hard to go to their established accounts and say ..."your ads are no longer appearing within a rock/country/MOR format, your ads will be played amongst...gulp ....disco :icon_eek: . You'll need to change them to fit accordingly. ... how's that grab you ?? " :icon_redface::icon_rolleyes:

In Hawaii we literally instantly had THREE disco radio stations all chasing that golden ratings ticket , each hoping to be #1 by featuring this new sound ... all three abandoning the formats they previous had and what their listeners were used to hearing.

This was all doomed for failure.


*****

Remicks:

Never, ever, looked at it from that perspective; I knew that it probably happened that way, but never examined it in that vain. I would imagine that most disco radio stations were rock and roll or other formats since they were born; and then because of disco, changed their formats (more dollars). "What goes around comes around" I guess, in part, is what also happened to disco. It could have been that many people were waiting, looking and searching for ways to exact revenge on disco; and Steve Dahl helped that cause. Anyhoo, great time, great music, and it' still alive!

Garry

[Cdnbob]

2. Wasn't profitable.
Radio stations will play whatever brings in advertisers.

Radio today, and probably in the last 10 years, is not about the music. Its about what format will bring in the listeners and the revenue. If you have a format that people aren't listening to, then the listeners aren't hearing your sponsors adverts. And then the adverts aren't generating sales. Its all about the sales and almightly dollar. Not about the music.

I don't like the current DJ culture.

What is the DJ culture? Do you mean where DJ's are as big as stars, or bigger, than the singers/musicians themselves?

I just don't understand how rap/hip-hop has had such a long shelf life. Probably because it's cool and macho to teenage boys.

Because rap/hiphop is about crime, anger, objectifying and belittling women, intollerance, hate, abuse, murder, rape, bling, money and sex. All things that appeal to 13-25 year old white, and black, boys who think bling, money and sex is the be all to end all and haven't matured yet to realize there is more to life.

While I'm not saying disco didn't deal with bling, money and sex, the overall message of disco was having a good time and more so about positivity. Early house music was the same. A positive vibe.

[FranceJoliFan]

What is the DJ culture? Do you mean where DJ's are as big as stars, or bigger, than the singers/musicians themselves?

Yes, where it becomes more about the DJ, and less about the music and dancers. When a DJ gets into a 25 minute instrumental electronic loop, leaving you suspended, thinking he's about to mix into an actual song, but it never seems to happen.

It's also the insistence on playing let's-keep-a-few-vocals-and replace-the-melody-with-stripped-down-electronica remixes. When listening becomes a chore.

I do like the ambient DJ's. Where you're at a club, expecting some free flowing sounds during cocktail hour. Or later in the night when you're cooling down. But don't deprive me of my prime time favorites.

I do admire modern DJ's for creating followings, marketing themselves, filling up clubs. And some of them play a fun mix. But many clubs could save a lot of money by feeding an Internet electronica radio station through their sound systems. Few dancers would notice any difference.

I've tried to give modern dance music more of a chance, though. Forced myself to listen to the last Justin Timberlake album. Nelly Furtado. And some of it was catchy. But to take songs that are so sparse to begin with, and strip them down even more for club remixes...why don't they just install a giant metronome next to the dancefloor and let people dance to that.

While I'm not saying disco didn't deal with bling, money and sex, the overall message of disco was having a good time and more so about positivity. Early house music was the same. A positive vibe.

It really was a happier music. And overall, more sophisticated. Such great musical arrangements. Gutsy voices. And memorable songs.

One thing that seemed to work on radio in the late 70's was having a station format disco during certain time slots. Especially on Saturday nights. Where they might play top 40 during the week, but would play all-disco from 9PM to 1AM.

We had a station here in Seattle that did that. And they broadcast live from an actual local nightclub. So you'd hear the mixes of the club DJ. And you could also hear the sounds of the patrons in the background. It was a real party effect. I liked it.

So maybe more stations could have kept an abbreviated disco format.

[kdavid13]

Here in Montreal ; the city that was considered THE disco capital of the north...the disco boom was major.But in the fall of 1979 ; new wave had crept in.
Stuff like the B-52's,Zebras,Elton Motello,Plastic Bertrand started to share playlist with more traditional disco acts.Even bona-fide disco superstars like Gino Soccio started to inject some new wave touches here & there [his sophomore Lp S-Beat is a perfect example].His disco consultant,Robert Ouimet was quoted as saying that he was so over traditional disco and that this new wave of music was getting him excited all over again.The wave of the future...

The radio stations were shifting their attention and talking about the "upcoming revolution".

But it was short-lived - then the R&B scene had taken over and stuff like Grace Jones' Pull up to the bumper and Denroy Morgan's I'd do anything for you were fast becoming crossover pop hits in their own rights.
From New York's independent labels like Prelude or West End ; the sound was street oriented.Rick James was exploding all over with his Street Songs and Donna Summer was teaming up with Quincy Jones instead of Giorgio Moroder.

Montreal was always about dance music ; from the very active local scene [France Joli/Freddie James/Gino Soccio/Lime/Cheri/Geraldine Hunt/Bombers/Nancy Martinez/Kebeklektrik/Patsy Gallant...] to the huge international hits...right up to the cheesy eurodisco to the burgeoning house scene.

Disco is still ruling the airwaves in Montreal all weekend long.Friday,Saturday are traditional "disco" nights on the air of at least 2 local stations. From 5 to 8 ; it's not uncommon to eat dinner in a restaurant while tapping your feet to Boogie Woogie Dancin' Shoes or Supernature even in 2008.

I'm blessed...

[Cdnbob]

Yes Montreal has always been a bit more progressive in its musical tastes compared to the rest of Canada whereas in Saskatchewan its country, and Alberta its rock n' roll and British Columbia its pop and rock n'roll. Canada is still a country where sadly a group like U2 or Metalica (both groups IMHO are long past their sell buy date) can have a top 10 hit/album and someone like Rihanna or Kanye West can have a top 10 hit too.

[garrybcoston]

Wow; you are blessed KRIS. I wish I could hear even a few of the old disco hits/songs on radio nowadays; in fact, I wish they'd mix them in with some of the dance/techno that airs on some R&B/Rap Stations on Friday and Saturday nights.

Garry

[remicks]

****

Remicks:

Never, ever, looked at it from that perspective; I knew that it probably happened that way, but never examined it in that vain. I would imagine that most disco radio stations were rock and roll or other formats since they were born; and then because of disco, changed their formats (more dollars). "What goes around comes around" I guess, in part, is what also happened to disco. It could have been that many people were waiting, looking and searching for ways to exact revenge on disco; and Steve Dahl helped that cause. Anyhoo, great time, great music, and it' still alive!

Garry

Yes ,there's more to the story , but its hard to get it all down on paper.

--- I'll never forget Christa coming into Odyssey records all distressed and informing us her radio station had gone disco . Christa worked for the island's big powerhouse rock station ... and she created the ads for it and was the voice on our commercials. Now, we were a record store, so we could adjust easily ... in fact at this point we wanted to push whatever was hot .... of which a lot of it happened to be disco product. ( Make no mistake about it though ... even other managers at Odyssey ... our main one especially , who was a (cute) rock n roller from Texas, was supportive only in the sense of welcoming the revenue that disco brought :icon_twisted::icon_mad:).

Christa (a rock n roller herself ) was dreading the rest of her day ... going to her other accounts and having to tell them ...." I've got to update your radio spots so they'll better fit into ...:icon_eek: disco :icon_eek: music :icon_eek: ... that is, if you're still interested .. "

I think that was a very looong day for her !! :icon_lol: :icon_lol: :icon_lol:


*****

[C6 Vette]

I was in SF in the 70s and 80s as well. This is close to how I remember it, too. KSFX (tagline was "The Beat of the Bay!") was the 100% disco station that I listened to. My memory of the change in format came sometime in the Spring of 1980. Once an hour they would insert Kiss' "Beth" which would totally disrupt the mood. That's when I started to suspect something was wrong. By Fall, I think it was, KSFX changed format and it was either right then, or soon afterwards, became a total hardrock station. I was crushed.

I then had to go AM and tune into 1310 KDIA. They played from the Soul, R&B charts mostly, which included disco/dance tunes.

It was a very depressing time.

I do remember mainstream 610 KFRC playing alot of the R&B funk/disco into the early 80's..Believe it or not..I have a 45min unscoped airshow of KSFX "Disco 104" back in May of 1979..It was that latin DJ that would later be on KSOL . His name was Marcos .

[garrybcoston]

When Disco (the whole scene not just the music) left it created a huge empty void with the majority of radio stations that played disco, and the music industry as a whole scrambling to find out what format to move to and stick with, and what the next new thing (musically) would be, and hoping that they were right; a lot of experimentation went on in the United States from about 1980 to 1983 and finally smoothed itself out when the nation finally came to grips that disco was gone and moved on to the 80's British invasion. Disco didn't die as most thought but went back underground and tore itself up into many different types of dance genres spanning about a 25 to 30 year period up until about a few years ago when the old Disco that we knew and still love begin to resurface once again.

Many people that spurned, rejected and hated disco are now finding out, many years later, that it was really good, no, great and happy music especially compared with the sad, evil junk that is being cranked out in the music industry nowadays.

I wouldn't be surprised if one day Steve Dahl comes to front and admits that he now loves disco and actually apologizes for what he did (hell will surely freeze over then!).

Garry:icon_lol:

[KBallenger53]

Welcome to the DiscoMusic.com forums!

Regarding Disco radio stations, there were many of them outside of the major cities. I recall a "Disco 95" out of Springfield, MA while traveling and several college radio stations playing Disco the most notable being Seton Hall University's WSOU 89.5 out of New Jersey. I'm sure there were others.

I lived in the New York City area and Disco radio via WKTU's "Disco 92" was alive and well into the mid 1980s, although they dropped the "Disco 92" name around 1980.

Why did many Disco radio stations disappear? Over-saturation really and the changing tastes of listeners.

Now on to an area that drives me nuts: Steve Dahl did NOT kill Disco or Disco radio anywhere!!! I was around during the time and on NYC TV it was barely mentioned and when it was, it was treated like the absurdity that it was and for only a few moments during the sports portion of the newscast. No one paid any attention to this event. It's only been in recent years that someone on the internet (who probably wasn't around back then) has taken liberties with the truth and revised this nonsense to be something bigger than what it really was.

Bernie, I'm glad you've mentioned Seton Hall University's WSOU 89.5, out of South Orange, NJ. Between the hours of 6pm and 12 mid-nite, they had a segment called THE FRIDAY NITE FUNK JAM. Between 6 & 8pm, the opening segment was called R&B AND JAZZ PERSPECTIVE. After 8pm, that's when the FRIDAY NITE JAM would start. And although their signal strength wasn't that great, they played some of the best disco music in the World!!!

If they had a better transmitter, they would've ran 92 WKTU out of town, because at that special moment in time, every Friday belonged to them!!! And every home and car in the NYC Metro Area was tuned into them!!! I remember the DJ's: Alonzo Lee, The Raygun, & Jimmie "Superblue" Walker would just loose their minds in the station, playing everything that was the latest and the greatest. Including sound effects!!!

One evening, I was hanging out on the campus, because of a young lady that was a student there. This was around, 1980, and I was home on leave from the Navy. And she showed me were the station was. It was up on the 2nd or 3rd floor above one of their Halls. Now granted, I was expecting a giant studio, like the one they had at WABC in NY, when I went there on a class trip and saw Wolfman Jack.

But Seton's radio station was no bigger than my mother's living room! So I went up there, and lo and behold, Jimmy "Superblue" Walker was in there doing the news!!! I intoduced myself to him, got his autograph, and he let me sit in with him during his segment. Although, must of the stuff they played was on tapes, they still had a set of turntables with a mixer. Boy, the temptation was killing me to death, to ask him to let me spin, but I remained humble. It was a memorable experience none the less......

And I'm also glad you've mentioned 1980 because, although the "term" DISCO died that year, the music was actually the same. 1980 was the beginning of the end, for a lot of things. The economy, under Reganomics for one. The Social Security reform for two. And it was also the end of THE BIG CADDYS AND LINCOLNS........ No more Pimp Mobiles!!!

And it brought about the end of another era: Muhammad Ali getting beat up by Larry Holmes.............

'NUFF SAID