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Rock and Roll Radio - 1983 Snapshot
This is a draft of an article I wrote in 1983 while I was working at WKZL in Winston-Salem. At that time, KZL was considered a rock station with the slogan "North Carolina's Best Rock." I did a show on Sunday evenings called "New Generation" where I got to play whatever I wanted, which was new stuff. By the mid-80s, KZL was pretty much Top 40. I quit KZL in 1985.
I never finished this project. It is very long and I got burnt out on it so I never edited down enough to submit anywhere. From January through April 1983, I interviewed around 25 radio station professionals - program and music directors, record company reps, radio trade magazine editors, and radio consultants. I also interviewed John Sykes, who at the time was running MTV, but he's not quoted directly in this article. He was the source for the MTV stats mentioned.
After hearing U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and marveling at how good U2's music is after all this time, I remembered interviewing all these radio professionals in the first part of 1983 and how many of them had said U2 would be the band to watch. Co-incidentally, I interviewed Bono when U2 played Chapel Hill on April 23 that year. So I dug this up out of my attic and decided to post it here. Keep in mind I wrote this in 1983. - DD
Intro
May 15, 1983
You may have noticed lately that your favorite rock radio station is playing many more different sounds than it was a year or so ago. Instead of hearing "Free Bird" and "Stairway to Heaven" every day you are hearing "Mexican Radio" and "She Blinded Me With Science." You might find this exciting. You might think this is the end of rock and roll. Welcome to the '80s.
The proliferation of "modern" music on rock radio is not exclusive to any part of the country, although you will more of it in some parts than others. We are experiencing a musical explosion on the American airwaves. Has rock radio finally awaken to the fact that rock music must and will progress? Radio is taking chances again, something it is not done for years. Radio is changing at a faster pace than ever, not only in the music we hear but in the formatics as well.
Next - Part 1: Album Radio Gives Rise to AOR >>
1983 AOR Radio Snapshot Index
This page was updated March 7, 2008.
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