This is the first in an occasional series on the history of freeform FM radio. Here at Freeform Portland we are one of the few true freeform stations still active on the FM dial. It may be hard to understand now, but the expanding popularity of freeform FM radio in the late 60’s (also called “underground” radio) brought with it a cultural and musical revolution. Stereo albums and rock music soon grew quickly in popularity, and clothing, hair styles and attitudes changed rapidly in the younger crowd that listened to FM radio.
The format of freeform radio is wide open, meaning DJs (disc jockeys) control the playlist, and not the station. That is 100% true at Freeform Portland, where you are unlikely to hear the same song in a 24 hour period, and maybe not during an entire week. Contrary to AM radio in the early to mid 60’s, which had strict playlists and often repeated songs hourly, freeform radio offers DJs the opportunity to express their feelings and mood, and in the case of the late 60’s, historic cultural and political influences.
I was born in Yakima and lived in Seattle until I was 5, but spent most of my youth in Southern California. I was a freshman in high school in 1968 when I first heard FM radio, having listened for years to some of the most popular AM stations in the LA area: KFWB, KHJ & KRLA. My first FM station was KMET in Los Angeles, sister station to KSAN in San Francisco and WNEW in New York City. I later added a FM radio converter (mono) to the AM radio in my 1964 Falcon, as most cars didn’t have FM radios at that time.
Many shows claim to be the first freeform radio program, but the earliest on record is “Nightsounds” with DJ John Leonard in the early 60’s on KPFA-FM in Berkeley, CA. WFMU is currently the longest-running freeform radio station in the United States. WNEW-FM 102.7 in NYC was the first commercial station in the US to introduce a freeform format. It stayed that way under the ownership of Metromedia Broadcasting (parent of KSAN-SF and KMET-LA), until it was sold and the new owners were not interested (per wikipedia.org).
After KPFA, WOR-FM in New York City is generally considered one of the first pioneers in freeform radio. The station announced in 1966 that they would start broadcasting in stereo soon, but didn’t specify the type of music or format. They announced names of some of their DJs (from AM radio) in early summer, and then posted a large Milton Glaser ad in the New York Times on 7/29/1966 that said “The Sound is WOR-FM 98.7, starting tomorrow July 30th 6 am.” (per nyradioarchive.com).
A curious aspect of WOR-FM’s launch was that they hadn’t reached agreement yet with the AFTRA radio union over salaries for the DJs, so they started broadcasting rock music without their radio hosts. And although they advertised that they broadcast in stereo, many albums and singles released at that time were only available in mono. The DJs for WOR finally started in October 1966, and more stereo albums and singles became available as the popularity of FM radio started to catch on in 1967 and 1968.
WOR had some of the most well-known DJs on the east coast, including Murray the K, Scott Muni and William “Rosko” Mercer. Rosko was a rare African-American voice on a predominantly white radio station. WOR-FMs freeform format didn’t last long, as station management announced in the fall of 1967 that they would start enforcing a playlist format. Rosko stunned his audience and radio colleagues by boldly announcing live on air that he was quitting the station in protest. He soon reappeared at WNEW-FM, which will be covered in the next installment of this blog series. Many of WOR’s DJs followed Rosko to WNEW, which happened again at FM stations on the west coast.
The onset and expansion of freeform radio in the late 60’s was a direct result of the FCC’s “FM Nonduplication Rule” in 1967, which forced many commercial FM stations to change their formats. Until then, most FM stations just rebroadcast or simulcast programming from AM stations. After the FCC rule was enforced, some decided to try free-form programming because the non-commercial stations proved popular with teenagers and young adults. Commercial free-form stations such as WPLJ and WNEW in New York, KMPX in San Francisco, and WHFS in Baltimore flourished for a few years, but their management gradually reinstated playlists or other controls on the DJs (per wfmu.org).
For more information on freeform FM radio and WOR-FM, I’m providing these links for your reference:
History of freeform radio, with current freeform stations: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeform_radio
Definition of Freeform radio: https://wfmu.org/freeform.html
History of WOR-FM (with audio airchecks): https://www.nyradioarchive.com/worfm.html
Rosko Mercer aircheck, 1967
https://archive.org/details/rosko-mercer-1967-wnew-102.7-fm-nyc
I’ll return with more on the history of freeform radio in my next chapter of this blog. We’ll focus on Tom “Big Daddy” Donahue, one of the pioneers of freeform FM at KMPX and KSAN in San Francisco, and the 3 sister stations owned by Metromedia (WNEW, KSAN & KMET). In the meantime, enjoy Freeform Portland’s brand of freeform radio and my show, Melting Pot, every other Sunday at 8-10 am.
