Phil Collins, Elton John, and Gloria Estefan dominated Adult Contemporary radio back in the 1980s and '90s, yet have disappeared from modern radio. Seemingly, the only time you ever hear them is at the grocery store or your local CVS. This blog remembers the music, the stories and the quirky characters from my days working in Adult Contemporary radio.
Just before WPNT-FM in Chicago flipped formats to "Windy 100" (WNND-FM) in October 1997, the station scheduled a "close but no cigar weekend". That particular specialty weekend featured songs that went all the way to #2 on the charts, but failed to get to to the top spot. The station wound up firing its airstaff that Friday morning and went into "stunt" mode all weekend teasing a "big announcement Monday morning at 10am", so the "close but no cigar weekend" never materialized. (Why I remember all of this is still a mystery to me.) "Slow Hand" was The Pointer Sister's contribution to the specialty weekend that never was. The song peaked at #2 on the Hot 100 in 1981.
Radio stations became hot commodities after the Telecommunications Act of 1996 passed. No longer were there strict ownership restrictions (companies could only own 20 radio stations and/or 2 per market). National ownership caps were removed allowing companies to buy up as many stations as they could afford. Suddenly, radio stations changed owners faster than you can say "deregulation". Mom and pop stations started to cash out and sell to big radio companies. The station where I worked was sold three times over the course of a year (making for a fun tax season!). At one such meeting with the new owners, the General Manager announced the sale of the station to a room filled with dozens of people nervous about losing their jobs. Without making any promises or revealing many details about the future of the station, the General Manager proclaimed the mantra to be "business as usual". At the end of his speech, the afternoon jock raised his hand and said, "Chuck, I got a question." Chuck said, "Sure. What's your question?" The afternoon jock cleared his throat and said, "Are we still gonna play Hanson?" (long pause) "Yes, we're still gonna play Hanson," the General Manager replied. "Oh, good," the jock replied. A few weeks later, the afternoon jock was fired.
The foundations of the Adult Contemporary format come from instrumentals. I remember my Grandma working a jigsaw puzzle back in the early-80s and listening to "beautiful music" on FM100. The station somehow was a ratings juggernaut while playing such songs as "The Theme From Hill Street Blues". Fast forward to 1996, and pop radio was playing "Children", an instrumental from Italian DJ Robert Miles--think of him as 1996's Calvin Harris or Avicci.