Rock Radio Scrapbook
AIRCHECK OF THE WEEK
For week of
January 1, 2012
Weekly issue #662
Talent:
THE REAL DON STEELE
Station: KHJ Los Angeles
Date: December 31, 1970
Time: 9:23
(KHJ Chart, Dec. 30, 1970/Courtesy Tom Howard)
Remember regional hits?
Time was when Top 40 stations were programmed for the communities they served, including the music. The cookie-cutter/one size-fits-all/focus group approach for music programming was years away.
Case in point: this aircheck of The Real Don Steele counting down the Big 93 of 1970. Check out what came in at #9 - "Viva Tirado - Part 1" by El Chicano. It wasn't a national hit - peaking at #28 on Billboard - but they loved it in El Chicano's hometown of Los Angeles where it went to number-one.
Nowadays it's tougher for a song to break out regionally, as many stations are not programmed locally. So how does a local artist get played if the local station - and for that matter the audience - has no say in the playlist? The answer is they don't, and that's unfortunate. It's one of the things we really miss about Top 40 radio.
The Real Don Steele has the Top 10 of KHJ's Big 93 countdown of 1970 here.
(The Tom Howard Collection)
More 1970 airchecks here!
|
Click here for technical help |
