Book "Electronics of Rock and Roll"

vladan3101 wrote: ... The first of two chapters on it chronicles its rise to the top, easiest to add another quote again: FM ratings soared rather quickly, blowing past what most AM stations were achieving in many geographical areas, not just in the Top 40 but in other formats on AM. The total FM listenership did not exceed that of AM until late in the 1970s, but AM never recovered from this onslaught – it took about another decade for AM to turn from being just uncool into its present sorry state, but it was done pretty much for good.

Hi,

I think this might depend on the place/area in the USA. In California, at least LA and Santa Barbara, I would say that the only AM personality that stood out and continued was Wolfman Jack. For the most part California was all about FM radio ... but now, we have to take a look at the smaller markets, that rarely, if ever, follow the rest of the numbers. I know in Madison, WI, for example, the FM station blew out the AM station in 1968/1969 ... and mostly due to some DJ's that thought they were bigger than the music and spent their time trashing the hippies and ... yeah ... a lot more. But Madison, with a school and 50K students was probably very liberal and the station got ripped.

The late 70's would be an incorrect assumption, because that is like saying that the Great American Corporate Rape, was what made FM come out on top, and that would be incorrect and not likely ... why would you buy something that is not "on top" or "number one", which means that information is likely fudged because no one has stood out for the FM side of things, and someone like Jim Ladd, who would have a million stories between his stays on KMET and KLOS, did not write much about it, and kinda let it go ... I always thought he was paid to shut up about the past ... but the album he did with Roger Waters, pretty much is right on the money about it but we think it didn't happen ... it might also have happened in NY, but I have not much information or knowledge of the radio state in NY, and I can not imagine that the FM radio didn't explode there, since it was in STEREO, whereas AM radio was cheap MONO. In other words, we got to listen to the music you could buy, instead of hearing something not even close and poorly "recorded".

ALL big cities were major on the FM radio in America, and they were what helped the Progressive Music and a lot of Jazz come alive for many folks, instead of hearing some kind of top ten, that had not as great musical design and talent.

And it was the rise of the FM radio adventures that brought us the "new" music, and it started way back in 1972, at least ... when I became aware of it in Santa Barbara, but it had been on in LA, with the PBS station (yeap the famous one) had a lot of progressive and experimental stuff that was only played on the FM radio signal and this even included the Firesign Theater and many other bands by a couple of folks over there in the middle of the night. KNAC also deserves a huge mention, as they had been playing "imports" for a very long time, and probably deserve the kudos for a lot of bands like Golden Earring, Nektar, Genesis, Yes, and many others since they were playing the stuff way before the bigger stations were ... it just shows you how much is "hidden" and not paid attention to ... saddest thing ever ... and you haven't even discovered Archie Patterson, who was a part of the early "imports" and continued it for many years, and was the only American to offer the KS Works, and then MG Works. He was in LA at the time of Jem Records and the beginning of the "import" explosion that happened with the help of a lot of FM stations, though I would say that KMET and KLOS were not as adventurous, but they were all over ELP, Yes, Pink Floyd (much more after DSOTM) ... 

Along with the "imports" came one of the reasons to buy them even more ... if you check with Moby Disk and their folks, TD and KS were totally major as were many other electronic folks that were not exactly played on the air with the except of Guy Guden in Santa Barbara that I am aware of, who played a lot of these things in their entirety!

Both ARchie and Guy (AFAIK) are "retired" from talking about the old days, as the misinformation is not interested in the rebellious folks that helped it come alive. It's much easier to kiss up to the industry so you can get your book published .... oh well ... so much for knowledge, and the attention to it! 

The real knowledge is not wanted or appreciated! But the same gibberish that is from the record companies is what you rely on ... you might start your "education" with the excellent special on Tom Dowd to have any idea how so much of this came from and got started. Rock'n'roll is the last of the elements to wake up and it had to do with the record companies, making sure their stars were given the attention not the bar music scene as folks like Elvis and Chuck Berry were originally considered and called!

vladan3101 wrote: ... It bothers me tremendously that no such thing is possible on any radio programs these days. “Classic Rock” FM stations would play some excerpts here and there, but never a full-length piece if it is longer than maybe 10 minutes. ...

Hi,

All "Classic Rock" stations in America are corporate owned and generally do not play independent stuff, and their play list is related almost exclusively to the material their groups distribute around America, which is probably about 80% now ... and that number will slowly fade away and go down as more and more people buy things off downloads and pick up the CD online, so you don't have to wait for a distribution group to wake up.

Regarding the "Classic Rock" plays, it is usually a tape (or mp3 these days ... cheaper!) and it is distributed the same. Just recently I wondered if the stuff repeated elsewhere and I marked down a sequence of pieces while at 7-11 getting some morning brew, and sure enough I got home and turned on my boom box and it was some FM station ... same sequence ... and that was 30 minutes after my 7-11 visit.

The tough part is that the "ratings" system that many stations used years ago, is gone ... so if the Classic Station has only 5 listeners, you are still going to be fed the same stuff.

We need another FM radio explosion, that is another new way to present music, and mostly new music as a angered response to the commercialization of it all, that is gone over the top and not given us anything new for some 30 to 40 years now. However, I don't see this happening since the majority of "radio" done on the Internet, is not different and understands what created "progressive" and "prog" which was to disdain all the rules and do something else. What you find in 9 out of 10 shows is just a bunch of songs, and too many of them have a similar sound ... and that's the difference .... in the old days, on any FM station in 1074/1975 or so, you would hear 10 completely different things ... and an hour has passed by before you noticed it.

We have to revolt to the commercialization of all this by corporate groups and their controls, but before we do that we need a new FCC since the folks running it are the same folks that are a part of the major music corporations!

• Awesome book.
• Comprehensive.
• Extraordinarily entertaining while at the same time being technically informative in plain language.
• Loaded with key charts, diagrams, tables, and photos of electronic equipment & milestone musicians. It is now one of my key reference sources. I learned a ton!
• The Eastern European viewpoint is a definite plus- sprinkled with author's wit.
• Impeccably written, and no matter what kind of music you like [beyond just Rock & Roll], you will so 'get it'.
• I  got the hardcover and believe it is more than worth the extra cost vs. paperback black & white."