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Home > Radio Radio > AOR Radio 1983 > Part 7 of 11

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Album Oriented Rock Radio – A 1983 Snapshot: Part 7

Taking notice through all of this have been the consultants who advise many radio programmers across the country. Lee Abrams of Burkhart/Abrams is often credited – or blamed – for turning progressive radio into a haven for dinosaur rock. As one of the country's most successful radio consultants, Abrams devised the tight programming systems that locked corporate rock into high rotations.

But in January 1983 at the annual Burkhart/Abrams Superstars convention, Abrams announced that it was time for a change. His “Superstars II” format was to be based on 60-70% current music, and of that 60-70%, about two-thirds should be the “modern sound.” Abrams believes that it is time for AOR radio to take an aggressive stance again and be on the leading edge musically. What Abrams hopes programmers will do is “have an aggressive attitude towards new music that's happening,” he says. “In the last year: Missing Persons, Joe Jackson, Stray Cats, Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls &3150; selling millions of records and we have to address ourselves to it. Not only play them but get aggressive about it. Look for the new ones. Be on the lookout for the Men at Work imports, Flock of Seagulls imports.”

But this is not to be done at the expense of all the established groups. Older acts who can continue to progress and be viable get just as much exposure on Abrams' stations as the newer material, he claims. You will new hear music from Journey and ZZ Top as well as new Men at Work and U2.

But this music has been developing for some time and it is only now that it is starting to be recognized.

“There is no question that what we are experiencing now was happening a few years ago,” says Abrams. “But this is the year that all these guys got it together and really started coming out with things that are really right for public consumption and that programmers are less freaked out about.” Abrams suggests we are entering a “new progressive era.” He offered some historical insight:

“Going back in history,” he says, “there are four major periods we call ‘musical renaissances’ or musically intense periods. 1956 when all of a sudden Elvis and the Platters and the Coasters broke and made all these other artists like Mitch Miller and Patti Page obsolete. Then 1964 came along and The Beatles and The Stones and The Who all of a sudden made Bobby Vee and The Shirelles and The Chiffons obsolete. Then there was 1969 when Led Zeppelin and Yes and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer came along and pretty much made all those Gary Pucket and the Union Gaps and Paul Revere and the Raiders obsolete. Now we are in another one of those periods where the Aerosmiths and the Thin Lizzys are kind of becoming obsolete.’ With this realization, Abrams insists that radio programmers should wake up and become aggressive in their programming again and not be afraid to take chances.

Another consultant who has had a substantial impact on the turnaround of American radio is Rick Carroll of Carroll/Schwartz/Groves. Carroll left his position as Program Director of KROQ-FM Pasadena, last year to start a consultancy with a primary focus on modern music, or what Carroll calls “ROQ of the '80s.”

At KROQ, Carroll built up a steady stream of increasing ratings points by emphasizing the best and most interesting modern music in high rotations. After KROQ continued to show a long trend of increased listenership by playing what most other AOR stations were ignoring, the commercial radio industry gave modern music a second look. KROQ is the flagship of Carroll's consultancy and is the eighth most listened to AOR station in the country. KROQ's playlist is one of the most closely watched by the rest of the AOR community.

“A lot of what is going on with AOR sprung in the last year from Los Angeles, primarily revolving around what Rick and Larry have done at KROQ,” says Hugh Surratt, Music Director at KMET, one of KROQ's competitors. “What they basically did was take this new music phenomenon and plug it in to something that almost resembles a Drake-Chenault system and turn it into a new music Top 40 kind of thing. Whereas maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago you had Top 40 stations like WLS, WCFL, CKLW, WABC doing their thing, we now have a KROQ that's doing kind of the same thing only the social norms are more this period of time – the '80s. It's a little looser, the music's different. But it's still tightly formatted – a rigidly formatted presentation of the music based on the clock.”

KMET takes a more conservative approach to its programming. “There are 86 signals in Los Angeles,” says Surratt. “If you want to hear something, all you have to do is push the right button. And it's such a fragmented market that you can't please all people all the time, so everybody has to take their stance in the market. KROQ has their stance. We have our stance. Our research shows that when listeners hit KMET's button they expect to be rocked. KROQ is so dominant with the teens that there's no reason for us to do that. There's a hole there for the 18-to-34-year-old male who likes to rock. The guy who drives a truck after he gets out of school. It's also a lot easier (to be less conservative) if you don't have two or three other AORs to bang your head against. If we had a higher rating than KROQ, then we might dabble more in new music.

Part 8: Tools and the “Trades”

1983 AOR Radio Snapshot Index

• Intro
• Part 1: Album Radio Gives Rise to AOR
• Part 2: College Radio to the Rescue
• Part 3: “Core Burnout”
• Part 4: AM on FM
• Part 5: Defining Rock and Roll
• Part 6: MTV – Angel or Devil?
• Part 7: The Radio Consultants
• Part 8: Tools and the “Trades”
• Part 9: Looking Back/Going Forward
• Part 10: U2 – The Band with the Spark
• Part 11: Rock and Roll Endures Despite Trends

This page was updated September 20, 2009.
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