Then in the 1950s, "Top 40" Radio was created by Todd Storz at KOWH-AM, Omaha, Nebraska. Playlists would never be as varied again and DJs would become less important as time went on in the choosing of music.
Along came Gordon McLendon from Dallas Texas who had the idea to match the Top 40 idea with PAMS jingles, contesting, DJ patter and that's when the format really exploded into a commercial success.
In the early 1960s, Rick Sklar built on his predecessors and made WABC-AM, New York, the premiere “Top 40” formatted station in the country. It was emulated nationwide…and around the world.
While Sklar was working on the East Coast, Bill Drake on the West Coast was creating his own version of Top 40 - something called “Boss Radio” which was born at KHJ-AM, Los Angeles.
Top 40 remained an extremely viable commercial format through the 1970s and 1980s. Why? Because even though the amount of songs on the playlist were limited, the format pulled these songs from any genre of music as long as it was a "hit", hence, creating a natural variety that overcame the repitition.
But, during the ‘70s, the rise of the long-ignored FM band began to take root and formats diversified, experimentation began and the competition started to heat up for advertising dollars.
By the 1990s, commercial Radio had splintered into a multitude of formats, each one aiming at a very specific “target demographic”. No longer were stations capable of getting everyone to listen because it had all became very specialized.
Consultants were readily available to help Program Directors figure out just how many songs it took to get females, 18-34, to listen; or males, 25-54 years of age; or adults, 18-49. Yes, radio stations were convinced the only way to get their portion of the ad dollar pie between all those AM and FMs out there was to go after just one slice and totally own it.
