Radio experiences in the old days...

[sammi782w]

Hello everyone, I am a student working on a questionnaires in my mass communication class. Can anyone share some radio experiences with me: Does anyone remember anything about the early radio commercials like in the 80s or 90s or even earlier? Do you remember any public concerns about radio commercials back in the days? Do you have any specific memories (good or bad) about listening to the radio when you were young?

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I highly recommend watching Mad Men for a taste of Madison Avenue advertising techniques back in the day 60's and 70's. As far as the 80's and 90's my radio listening habit was to record the Chicago Market, punk rock, Jazz, Fusion, Reggae in Chicago on the more progressive stations, most of which were non commercial outlets. Still there were odd ads for hair salons that catered to rock and roll clientele.

 

[prcguy]

Early in the 80s or 90s? That's not all that early. I listened to a lot of FM radio and a little AM radio in the late 60s to mid 70s and I don't remember anything special or concerning about commercials during that time. There was no advertising that I remember during that time for lawyer firms, that seems to be a more recent problem.

I grew up in So Cal and we had Wolfman Jack on AM out of a big station in Mexico. There were two competing rock stations on FM in the late 60s, KLOS and KMET and each one would edge out the other over a several year period. I was in Jr high and high school in the late 60s through mid 70s and also very interested in audio equipment so I did a lot of late night listening when they would get out of the top 40 mode and play Pink Floyd or Robin Trower and other musicians that didn't fit the pop mold.

In the mid 70s new wave was the thing and we got a great new station for that (KROQ) and some new DJs that pushed the limits of FCC boundaries. One of my favorites was Frazier Smith who made the rounds through KLOS, KMET and maybe a few others after KROQ. At one time he got canned for an on air prank and he was a bit like an early Howard Stern. I got to meet and talk with Frazier Smith later in life and he is a great standup comedian these days.

Anyway, is there something specific you are looking for in "early" commercials? I was focused mainly on the music and maybe a little of the outrageous DJ behavior and just don't recall anything worthy of mentioning about commercials. I do notice similar patterns today that really bothered me going back to the 70s, they put big mouth DJs on in the mornings who blab endlessly about nothing and all most people want is music for the drive to work. Today I love my satellite radio, no DJs, head banger music all day and all night, love it.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

(snip)

I do notice similar patterns today that really bothered me going back to the 70s, they put big mouth DJs on in the mornings who blab endlessly about nothing and all most people want is music for the drive to work. Today I love my satellite radio, no DJs, head banger music all day and all night, love it.

That is sure the case here. I picture wanna be bikers, WWE wrestlers and tattooed hookers/single mothers when I listen to their life stories. I am always waiting for the caller that say "Play some damn music" but never happens because the calls are screened . There is another station I call "all auto tune, all day, all the time". Terrible music. Not Daft Punk autotune, just lame country and western (both kinds) of autotune.

 

[mciupa]

Obviously tobacco smoking was a concern because they booted those radio ads off the air in the Nixon era around fifty years ago.

 

[hamstang]

I highly recommend watching Mad Men for a taste of Madison Avenue advertising techniques back in the day 60's and 70's. As far as the 80's and 90's my radio listening habit was to record the Chicago Market, punk rock, Jazz, Fusion, Reggae in Chicago on the more progressive stations, most of which were non commercial outlets. Still there were odd ads for hair salons that catered to rock and roll clientele.

Back in the 1960's I listened to WLS AM from Chicago which I could receive here in North Carolina at night. I recall the Mr Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge advertising Dodge Street Hemi's. From the 70's forward it was album rock on local FM stations. Public concerns about commercials? I don't recall any concerns. Yes, I agree about Mad Men. I went from age 12 to age 22 during the 60's. Quite a decade.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Back in the 1960's I listened to WLS AM from Chicago which I could receive here in North Carolina at night. I recall the Mr Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge advertising Dodge Street Hemi's. From the 70's forward it was album rock on local FM stations. Public concerns about commercials? I don't recall any concerns. Yes, I agree about Mad Men. I went from age 12 to age 22 during the 60's. Quite a decade.

Yup; Those ads ran all the time. I remember the Empire Carpet jingle '588-2300. In fact I heard it the other day on TV. I left Chicago in 84 and miss not only friends back there, the music scene from that era. I think station programming was far less about money than delivering music.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

Obviously tobacco smoking was a concern because they booted those radio ads off the air in the Nixon era around fifty years ago.

Lucky Strike: L.S./M.F.T. Of course the kids on my block had entirely different meaning for that "code". Loose straps, mean...

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

"Do you remember any public concerns about radio commercials back in the days?"

I really don't apart from tobacco ads being banned. I think I consciously tuned out radio and TV ads.

To be honest, I think my parents generation (WWII) were sort of brainwashed in a slow way to accept stuff that we would easily question today. If you watch some of the newsreels that accompanied old movies, it was clear "the war department" was pushing a lot of high grade propaganda. Some of the WWII posters are offensive in depiction of Japanese, etc. Then there was the whole civil rights movement and Vietnam war going on. My neighbor, who was our family doctor got sent to Vietnam as a medic and then on his return home his plane crashed. Not sure they gave him a medal for that. That sort of stuck with me.

But I digress because you ask about 80s and 90's which apart from Wall Street greed were a pretty good era in my opinion.

You might want to look into the propaganda angle.

 

[Benkasey]

Check out some of the airchecks on Youtube from the 70s and 80s. There is a mix of local and national commercials. Doesn't always include the full commercial. I like the WLS radio Chicago clips, back when they had real DJs with real personalities. The biggest difference I think you will notice from today is how upbeat everything was. The DJ banter was upbeat. The music was upbeat. The commercials were upbeat. Nowdays it seems like most of America is depressed and neurotic. Everthing we do is bad, bad, bad. Be worried. Be afraid. Global climate is gonna kill you. Covid is gonna kill you. Somebodys gonna nuke you. Maybe all in the same day. Oh, and did you know that average funeral now costs $10,000 or more? You better get the Silver Care burial plan insurance.

The products that they pitched has also changed a lot. The commercials had catchy jingles where they sang about everyday items like ketchup, Jello pudding, floor wax, fast food, K-Tel records and other music records. J-E-L-L-O. You deserve a break today. Get a bucket of chicken. Goodbye ho hum. Get Kentucky Fried Chicken and come on every-one. Today there is an astounding number of commercials from big pharma. I think big pharma wasn't allowed to advertise prescription drugs direct-to-consumer back then. You would just see those things advertised in doctors' magazines.

"wls radio 1970s airchecks"

 

[PACNWDude]

'80's - '90's radio and commercials. The first thing I recall is a lot less commercial breaks. Then there were many more independent radio stations so they would not all go to commercials at the same time. In my area, those commercials were mostly for local car dealerships, restaurants, and trade related businesses.

The only thing I really recall was the first time I heard the dad of a young lady I was dating on the air, he owned one of the local car dealerships and he was trying to sound personable on the radio, it did not work too well. He seemed way over acting to sound normal. This became something he did not want to talk about as he could not afford to re-do that radio commercial.

 

[ladn]

I also lived in SoCal, like @prcguy , and went to high school in the late '60s and college in the early '70s. Listened to pretty much the same stations, too. There were a lot of AM stations, and only a few were Spanish language. AM stations had a wide range of programming, while FM was mostly either rock or classical music.

Radio commercials then weren't as slick as they are today. Lots of jingles. There were alcohol (beer and wine) and tobacco ads since they weren't yet banned, but no prescription drug ads. There were plenty of automobile ads from local dealers ("Go see Cal" and others), plus the nationals. GM, Ford and Chrysler had more brands than today. New models were usually released in the fall, along with lots of advertising spots touting all the new features, including air conditioning.

Cellular technology was still in the wet dream stage and the only apple ads were from food stores.

Television broadcasters were just starting to provide some shows in "living color". There was no satellite tv and cable tv was in its infancy. We had VHF channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13. UHF tuners were on the newer sets, but we had only UHF channel 28 (KCET). Pretty much everyone had outside tv antennas. TV manufacturers like RCA, Philco, Sylvania, Westinghouse were telling everyone about their "huge" 21-inch color console tv's.

There were battery ads for familiar brands like Everready and Duracell, plus others like Ray-O-Vac. Two automotive battery brands that were advertised and are no longer with us are Die Hard and Nickel-Silver. A place called "Lou's Garage" advertised basic automotive repairs and Earl Schieb told us he'd paint "any car for $19.95" and Earl "Mad Man" Muntz sold car 4-track and later 8-track stereos. Gasoline brands like Mobil, Chevron/Standard, Phillips 66, Union 76 and Texaco (where Bob Hope told us "you can trust your car to the man who wears the star") advertised their leaded "ethyl" gasolines.

Col. Sanders was still alive and pushing his finger lickin' good chicken. Swanson advertised frozen "TV Dinners"

Amazon was only a river in South America, but Sears was the big name in retail. Los Angeles had lots of department stores including May Co., Broadway, Bullocks plus suburban upstarts like Zody's and White Front.