Birth of Top 40 Radio

£19.99

Birth of Top 40 Radio

The Storz Stations' Revolution of the 1950s and 1960s

Radio / podcasts Music Popular culture Business and Management History

Authors: Richard W. Fatherley, David T. MacFarland

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Language: English

Published by: McFarland

Published on: 3rd December 2013

Format: LCP-protected ePub

Size: 216 pages

ISBN: 9781476605753


Overview of "Top 40"

"Top 40" was the preeminent American radio format of the 1950s and 1960s. Although several radio station group owners offered their own versions of the format, the AM stations owned by Todd Storz and his father were acknowledged as the principal developers of Top 40 radio, and the prime movers in making it a nationwide ratings and revenue success.

Content of the Book

The Storz Stations in St. Louis, Omaha, New Orleans, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Kansas City, Oklahoma City and Miami are profiled in this book, as are various Storz air personalities and executives. A detailed chapter examines the unique "Storz Station sound," revealing the complexity of what detractors portrayed as a simplistic format. Another covers Storz advertising in radio trade magazines, which cemented the company's image as the format's most successful station group and Top 40 as the dominant programming of the day. There are extensive quotations from the memoirs of several of the founders of the format.

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