Short Stuff: BM Radio

There was a time – a glorious time – when you could turn the dial in any city in the US and hear popular songs rearranged to be the most pleasant version of themselves. This was the Beautiful Music format and we are spiritually poorer for having lost it. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Josh Clark?

  Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability and it starts with a great deal on an off-road ready Tacoma or half ton Tundra, two of Toyota's longest lasting trucks, combining power for work, tech for adventures and style in between. And they're built on a reputation for quality and reliability, which is why Toyota trucks are known for holding their value, which could mean big savings when it's time for your next Toyota. So get a great deal today and a great value tomorrow. Shop toyota.com for more. Toyota, let's go places.

• 0:39Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too. And this is short stuff, the rootinest, tootinest, down home, sarsaparilla drinking podcast on the planet.

• 0:50Speaker 02

  That's right. Welcome to WSYSK, your source of all the smooth podcasting sounds.

• 0:57Josh Clark?

  That was great, Chuck. You, uh, you have a future in radio.

• 1:01Speaker 02

  Oh, great. I hear there's a bright future in radio.

• 1:05Josh Clark?

  So we are talking radio. That's why you just did that. And we're talking about a specific kind of radio, but we should kind of go back a little bit to the beginning because, and I should, it occurred to me that there are people who listen to us, they won't even know what we're talking about with AM and FM. But if you know enough about radio, there were two bands, the AM band and the FM band. And when you, if you grew up in this late seventies, eighties, nineties, you knew that AM radio was as square as.

• 1:35Speaker 02

  A Rubik's cube.

• 1:36Josh Clark?

  Yes.

• 1:38Josh Clark?

  And the FM radio was where it was at. But it turns out that when FM radio first came on the scene in the sixties and then early seventies, it was square and AM radio is where it was at. That's where you'd hear hits and rock and stuff like that. FM was so super squared that it actually gave birth to what we consider easy listening music today.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  By the way, I know this is going to be kind of a long wind, but I still have to say this, when you were just stumped on trying to think of a square thing, all I could think of was the little Homer Simpson bubble above your head with just like a donut.

• 2:10Josh Clark?

  Or that, that black and white donkey swatting flies with his tail. That one always gets me. No, I thought of a Citroen Wilson quote that I just can't, I can't say, but it's hilarious.

• 2:20Speaker 02

  All right, well, tell me later. All right, so you left off that AM radio was where FM radio was where the rock hits were.

• 2:27Josh Clark?

  I think you said the opposite.

• 2:29Speaker 02

  Well, if you grew up like we did.

• 2:32Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 2:33Speaker 02

  They did a switcheroo and early on, AM radio was the cool one and FM was the upstart that was trying to find its way.

• 2:40Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and so FM essentially gave birth to that easy listening music, which is also called elevator music. Some people call it good music, but the type of music format that we're going to talk about today is known as beautiful music. And it is a great name for a great kind of music, if you ask me.

• 2:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, and you know, if you heard our Muzak episode, we talked a lot about this stuff. Muzak is of course a proprietary acronym or AKA a company, right?

• 3:08Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 3:09Speaker 02

  Or did I use that right?

• 3:10Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 3:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, okay. But beautiful music is that. It is like, let's take a pop hit of the day, like a Beatles song or something. And let's arrange it as an orchestral arrangement, a lot of strings. We'll either do pop hits or maybe we'll do old standards from like the Great American Songbook. And you know, we're going to make it super polished, very easy on the ears. We're going to remove the vocals almost always. And instead of like the singing, there's going to be like a flute or a clarinet or something is the singing voice. Or if it does have human voices singing, it's probably going to be like a chorus just singing a little bit of it here and there.

• 3:50Josh Clark?

  Yeah, or doing that that kind of singing that the vocalist does on the Star Trek theme, where she's just using her voice as an instrument.

• 3:58Speaker 02

  I don't know the Star Trek theme.

• 4:00Josh Clark?

  What?

• 4:01Speaker 02

  I don't. I've probably heard it, but I can't call up like, oh yeah, that thing.

• 4:06Josh Clark?

  It goes.

• 4:13Speaker 02

  It turns out I do know that, actually. Yeah.

• 4:16Josh Clark?

  So like you said, the vocals were almost always removed, except when they were humming or that kind of thing. Sometimes they would include vocals, but.

• 4:25Josh Clark?

  They like, the carpenters were a little too hard edged for beautiful music. So they would have like the Ray Kond of singers.

• 4:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:32Josh Clark?

  Sing the song and provide the vocals. Like, this is how softened they would take these songs and make them. And, I mean, if it was done right, even like the hardest core punk, even the members of Crass would hear that song and be like, I'm not going to admit this out loud, but that is actually beautiful music.

• 4:54Speaker 02

  Are you going out on a limb and saying that everybody likes this stuff?

• 4:58Josh Clark?

  I, I, no, not, no, no, no, not as a genre, for sure. I'm just saying, there were some, there's this one version of What's Up, What's New Pussy Cat? That is way better than any version, Tom Jones, Burt Bacharach. It's so good that I really think that basically anybody could hear it and be like, this is, this is a great song. It actually is great, whether they'd admit it or not. But I don't think that that would automatically convert them to beautiful music. I'm just saying, in some instances, done perfectly, it really is beautiful music.

• 5:30Speaker 02

  All right, well, pressing forward.

• 5:33Speaker 02

  The BM format really took off because of an FCC ruling in 1965 that said, if you are a company that has AM stations and FM stations, you gotta play different stuff. Because at the time, there were companies that are like, hey, this is great. We can just broadcast the same thing on AM and FM and get ads on AM and also get different ads on FM and essentially double down on our product. And that's like the opposite of what they were trying to do with FM to begin with. So the FCC came around in 65, said you can't do this anymore. You gotta play different stuff. And so beautiful music came along and said, hey, this is a pretty cheap solution. It's, it's gonna be, sell a lot of ads, because it's gonna be directly aimed at women, especially housewives.

• 6:18Speaker 02

  Because you know what they're doing? They're at home all day, doing that housework, listening to music. And this'll make them happy while they're doing their housework. They're gonna have it on the background and we're gonna pump ads in there for all the stuff that they're making the buying decisions over, which is household stuff.

• 6:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah, because they were the target demographic of advertisers at the time. They bought most of the stuff that advertisers were selling. They made those day-to-day decisions about purchases. So they were what teenagers are today, as far as the target demo, right?

• 6:50Josh Clark?

  And it was just basically assumed and presumed that women would not want anything intrusive or jarring or something. They just wanted smooth, beautiful music. So much so that like a version of this was called music only for a woman. That's what the industry called it, M O W, right? The thing is, despite the fact that that this was set up to advertise to women directly, beautiful music as a whole, as a format on the radio, actually, I guess the best way to put it is mellowed out as far as advertising goes and was very protective and defensive of the listener experience, which meant cutting down on ads and doing all sorts of other interesting things to ads too.

• 7:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, there was a company in particular that came along called Shulkey Radio Productions, SRP, and they were a, they became like the biggest player in syndication, like being a syndication company for the BM format because they offered, they were like, here, we're going to send you these ready to play reel to reel tapes. It's all programmed. You just slap that sucker on there and push play and you're set. And they said, this sounds great. And they said, oh, but wait a minute. If you want to use our stuff, like we're audiophiles, so we want the listening experience to be great and we want it to be kind of perfect. So you've got to update your broadcasting equipment because we're sending you high quality tapes and they need to come across that way. You got to hire an engineer that really knows what they're doing and make sure this is

• 8:18Speaker 02

  all going to go as we say it goes. And those ads, those 16 minutes of ads an hour that you're playing, you can only do six minutes of those an hour. And when you do, you got to have those lower in volume than the music even. And all the stuff you should know, listeners stood up and cheered.

• 8:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's true because they found that if you had the radio on a low enough volume, those ads at six decibels less were like, you couldn't even hear them sometimes at a certain volume threshold, even though you could still hear the music. And there was another thing about the ads too. They're like, you cannot use attention grabbing tactics to advertise. And in some cases, some of these local radio stations had to go back to their average. And be like, crazy Murray, we're gonna have to tone this down quite a bit.

• 9:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:04Josh Clark?

  And like they, they had to re-record, rewrite ads to follow these Shulki standards. And the reason that Shulki could get away with this was because they were selling up not just like pre-recorded tapes that you could just put on and have your radio station. They were selling what Muzak did as well. That there was a scientific basis to this that like followed the rhythm of the day and like built up and crested and then waned and then built up and crested and waned, just like Muzak. The thing is, is just like Muzak, that was essentially totally made, made up. But Shulki still had the data to prove it. People who listen to beautiful music radio listened essentially all day.

• 9:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, uh, feels like a good time for a break.

• 9:48Josh Clark?

  Agreed.

• 9:49Speaker 02

  And we'll be right back to finish up with BM Radio right after this.

• 10:11Josh Clark?

  Buy smart, drive for less and trade for more. That's Toyota affordability. And it all starts with a great deal on a truck from your local Toyota dealer.

• 10:20Speaker 02

  That's right. Make a smart buy on the off-road ready Tacoma or a half ton Tundra. Two of Toyota's most capable and longest lasting trucks, built with the strength for the tough jobs, the tech to power your next big adventure and the rugged style for everything in between.

• 10:33Josh Clark?

  Or discover Toyota's off-road lineup, including the iconic 4Runner and Land Cruiser, designed to go beyond the everyday. And with Toyota's proven reputation for quality and reliability, plus hybrid power on many models, you can get more for every mile and drive for less along the way.

• 10:49Speaker 02

  That's right. And long after you leave the lot, your Toyota keeps delivering with great resale value. So you could trade in for more when you're ready for your next Toyota. From a great deal today to a great value tomorrow, a Toyota is right for you. Shop toyota.com for deals and details or stop by your local Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let's go places.

• 11:14Josh Clark?

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• 12:37Speaker 02

  All right, we're back. I think where we left off, Shulky was doing pretty good business. Crazy Murray was reduced to slightly eccentric Murray. And they were selling like hotcakes. And they had the ratings to prove it, like you said, even though the science was not true. And they were listening for hours and hours and hours. But that posed a problem, or I guess presented a problem, which was, hey, they're listening for so many hours a day, they're just having to hear the same playlist in order, basically, when it loops back around. And we can't get these tapes out the door fast enough to you guys. So people have like a, you know, because they were concerned about the listener experience. And certainly, listening to a playlist on a loop is not a good one. And so some companies came along that said, all right,

• 13:19Speaker 02

  well, let's just start hiring conductors and arrangers and putting together our own stuff. Until a company called Bonneville came along with a really unique idea, right?

• 13:29Josh Clark?

  Yeah, Bonneville did what Shulkey did, like you would get pre-recorded tapes of beautiful music from them, but you also had to have essentially a random automatic tape player that would select a tape, a song from a tape at random. So even though you had like the same set of, say, 50 songs, there was never going to be a playlist over the course of like, say, 12 hours that was the same as before. Same songs here or there, but never the same entire playlist starting over every 12 hours.

• 14:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, so they send tapes in packages.

• 14:04Josh Clark?

  Tapes and tapes.

• 14:05Speaker 02

  Tapes and tapes, oh man, I miss those guys. And then, yeah, I mean, pretty good technology at the time to randomly select and, you know, queue up different songs, so it was a pretty big leap forward.

• 14:16Josh Clark?

  Well, beautiful music itself was basically an incubator for figuring out how to standardize and automate radio. That's where, that's the cradle of it, is beautiful music, weirdly enough.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it spread throughout the country as a format. Every city had at least one station. If you were a big city, you probably had a few. A lot of times it was like, you know, in Detroit, WJLI, like very mellow call signs. They just wanted to really put out, like, brand themselves as BM Radio because it was such a big deal, but it wasn't a big deal for that long because, you know, buying power shifted as rock and roll came along and younger listeners became the dominant sort of listener of radio. And one by one, they kind of, you know, BM radio stations switched over, which is a very jarring thing for any radio station format change. I'm sure we've all suffered those where you're like, well, I can't listen to this station

• 15:11Speaker 02

  anymore because you're just not the same radio station.

• 15:14Josh Clark?

  Do you remember the opposite happening when 99X came out in the early 90s? And they played like The Smiths and it was like, what are The Smiths doing on the radio? This is awesome.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, because 99 in Atlanta before that was sort of cheesy pop and all of a sudden it was alternative music, which was the first, the first true alternative station in Atlanta.

• 15:35Josh Clark?

  Yeah, like truly alternative too, especially at first.

• 15:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was a 96 rock kid, but then...

• 15:42Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah?

• 15:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, but when 99X came along, I was into that, but then 99X got really bad, too.

• 15:47Josh Clark?

  Right. But at first, it was pretty great.

• 15:50Speaker 02

  No, I agree, because you couldn't hear this miss on the radio unless you went left of the dial, which I was doing with the great Album 88.

• 15:56Josh Clark?

  Oh, Album 88. Guys,

• 15:58Speaker 02

  Georgia State Radio.

• 15:59Josh Clark?

  I feel bad for anybody who didn't live in Atlanta while Album 88 was on the air. It was so great. It had the best shows. They played the best, like, regular rotation music.

• 16:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:10Josh Clark?

  It like, it was a great, great radio station. And like, you can't find it anywhere. Nobody's archived it, sadly enough.

• 16:17Speaker 02

  I think they still have it on the weekends.

• 16:19Josh Clark?

  Do they?

• 16:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, the weekday, they switched over to NPR, which is dumb, because we already have an NPR station.

• 16:24Josh Clark?

  Yeah, they play, they play basically the same thing.

• 16:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I'm still pretty sure that Album 88 exists on the weekends. And if you haven't heard of it, you maybe, maybe have heard of the great WFMU out of New Jersey. It's, it's our version of WFMU. But every, most every city had a great left of the dial station.

• 16:40Josh Clark?

  Well, this one was the best left of the dial station.

• 16:43Speaker 02

  I agree.

• 16:43Josh Clark?

  And do you remember Adam Baum? He, he had like a soul show?

• 16:48Speaker 02

  No, I don't remember that one.

• 16:49Josh Clark?

  Soul Kitchen, I think it was called.

• 16:51Speaker 02

  Oh, okay. I remember Soul Kitchen.

• 16:52Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that was Adam Baum. And that's not, that's definitely not archived anywhere on the internet. So if anybody has old tapes of Adam Baum's Soul Kitchen, please post them.

• 17:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, they had Reelin' in the Years was a good show. Their Sunday morning reggae show was amazing.

• 17:06Josh Clark?

  Do you remember the Sunday, Saturday morning cartoon theme?

• 17:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:09Josh Clark?

  Show? That was a good one, too.

• 17:11Speaker 02

  Good stuff.

• 17:12Josh Clark?

  I think we should just put one last thing. You said that a BM station started to drop like flies in the, or 80s in particular. By 1990, they were basically gone. There was a fictionalized, like, version of this event.

• 17:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:26Josh Clark?

  And we like to call that fictionalized version WKRP in Cincinnati.

• 17:31Speaker 02

  You know what? I did not remember this, and I loved that show until you included it in the article. And I was like, wait a minute, I do remember the pilot. Like, I remember that happening.

• 17:40Josh Clark?

  That's what happened. That's why they hired Andy as station manager, because they were converting from beautiful music to rock. And that's exactly what was going on at the time around them.

• 17:49Speaker 02

  Yeah. And, and that's why Dr. Johnny Fever and Venus Flytrap all were stoked about their job.

• 17:54Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And Herb Tarlick had to go to Crazy Murray and be like, can we, can we turn you upward now? Because we're a rock station.

• 18:01Speaker 02

  That's right. And Lonnie Anderson said, "Did I type this?"

• 18:04Josh Clark?

  Right? And leaned over the desk. That was a good show. Uh, oh, let's thank our, um, sources for this episode. Chuck Tarver at the University of Delaware. Go Blue Hens. Ken Mills at Radio World, diffin.com, Ken Seeapura at Cradoville, and the Forum at Radio Discussions. And since we have nothing more to say about beautiful music, short stuff is out.

• 18:34Speaker 03

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, MyHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.