Bill Haley gave us the sound and how to structure the band. Alan Freed , the DJ at WJW 850 in Cleveland, gave it the name Rock and Roll. Your Hit Parade supplied the countdown, and on January 1, 1955, Billboard Magazine debuted The Top 40 . The stage was set but one more thing was needed.
Gordon McLendon , the Old Scotsman, took three obscure radio stations, KILT 610 in Houston, KTSA 550 in San Antonio, and KLIF 1190 in Dallas and created the first Top 40 powerhouses. Overnight, they commanded better than a 50% share of the market. The other flabbergasted radio executives quickly jumped on the bandwagon and Top 40 stations swept the nation, playing the songs I grew up loving and changing music forever.
Gordon also created "personality" radio with Hudson and Harrigan on KILT. An off the wall maniac cross between Monty Python and Good Morning, Vietnam . "Let's take a look at the baseball scores - we've got 6 to 5, 3 to 2, and 2 to 1 - back to more music." "The temp's 72 at Hobby Airport and 69 at Intercontinental - not bad for a town this size - back to ten in a row." With their various "guest characters," Billy Joe Jim Bob Jumpback, (just Jim Bob to his friends,) and The Story Guy, their one minute skits left us dazed and amazed. "Did he REALLY say that? "
So take a trip back to 1964 while H and H spin some classic 45 vinyls. They had about a 2 to 1 mix of Top 40 and Golden Oldies. You'll hear a lot of The Beach Boys because they were killing the AM radio airwaves in the early 60's.
But just as music changed in 1955, a new revolution was right around the corner - - -
The British were coming.
Reeves
PS The album photo is of a typical "antenna farm" cluster you see on hilltops around metropolitan areas.
I met Gordon McLendon is the late 1960's and attended a barbecue dinner at his ranch north of Dallas. He was a sponsor of that year's Golden Plate Awards as presented by American Academy of Achievement . At that time they had a junior organization, Golden Scroll Awards, to recognize high achieving high school students. Go figure - I was one of the kids that won the award. Boy, did I ever fool them!
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Track 1 - 0112 Rock Around the Clock Your browser apparently does not support the audio element. Please click the Audio HELP! navigation button of the Reeves Motal Piano and Synthesizer Music Website on the left or at the bottom and we'll see if we can fix the problem.
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Track 13 - 0124 My Boyfriend's Back Your browser apparently does not support the audio element. Please click the Audio HELP! navigation button of the Reeves Motal Piano and Synthesizer Music Website on the left or at the bottom and we'll see if we can fix the problem.
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