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Radio Ink recruited two of the best programming minds in the business concern, Lee Abrams and Randy Michaels, to answer this question: "What are the greatest Superlative 40 stations of all time?" Here'southward how they stacked them upwardly … and your lively contend, comments and disagreements on how they did.

Lee, in add-on to answering the question, included what he considers to be the 15 characteristics of nifty Top 40 stations. Randy lists his tiptop stations, and also details why each station he picked was great in the Top xl format.

Radio Ink besides held a three-calendar week online poll and asked you which yous believe are the all-time Top 40 stations of all time. Those results are at the end of this commodity. It was certainly an interesting consignment. Here's how anybody stacked up confronting each other.

fifteen Characteristics of the Great Top forty stations

Lee Abrams

By Lee Abrams

1. Product. From the drama of news to the promos to the wild tracks, product was an art form that created a theater of the listen that manufactured sonic magic.
2. The Bible of Music. From the printed playlist to the countdowns, station-generated nautical chart positions defined what was popular in the urban center.
3. 24/7 Personalities. There were shows, not shifts, and every daypart mattered. People yet talk about Charlie Greer and Denison's Men's Clothier, on WABC at iii a.m.
4. Eccentricity. From crazed nighttime DJs to whacked promotions — parents were appalled while the new mainstream ate it upward.
5. City Sound. Unlike the generic radio of today, these stations oozed the vibe of their city; they were soundtracks of the community.
6. Anticipation. In that location was ever something coming up.
7. Swagger. A hard-to-define vibe that was all about confidence in everything they did.
8. Well-Oiled Machines. Fifty-fifty the personality-driven stations were well-oiled machines that held the basics in high regard.
9. Audience Respect. No bullshit. The stations delivered without needing to resort to tricks and promises.
10. Completeness. From news and sports to sneak previews of Beatles songs, the stations were consummate, with no need to tune away.
11. Smarteners. The DJs turned you on to what was going on. The stations were hubs of local information.
12. Graphics. They had visual identities that mirrored the on-air delivery.
13. Engineering. AM radio once sounded badass as resources were poured into signal integrity.
14. New ideas. Every few years, "new ways" came into play. From Storz to Drake to Bennett, things evolved. It's sad that radio is still executing a 40-yr-onetime playbook these days.
15. Selling new records. Especially in the mid-'60s, the great stations would make a new Herman's Hermit record sound similar the Second Coming.

And hither are my picks for the 20 greatest Top twoscore radio stations of all time:

1. KHJ/Los Angeles
2. WABC/New York
3. WHTZ (Z100)/New York
4. WLS/Chicago
5. WHYI (Y100)/Miami
6. KIIS/Los Angeles
7. CKLW/Windsor-Detroit
8. KCBQ/San Diego
9. KFRC/San Francisco
10. WFLZ/Tampa Bay
11. KLIF/Dallas
12. WQAM/Miami
13. WKBW/Buffalo
14. KFWB/Los Angeles
15. WFIL/Philadelphia
16. CHUM/Toronto
17. Radio London/The North Sea
18. Means/Charlotte
19. WIXY/Cleveland
20. WCFL/Chicago

And Now We Have Randy Michaels

This was a tough assignment. Top twenty based on what? One could consider ratings, longevity, originality, influence, or many other criteria. Some stations have been astonishing at times and only awful at others. Many of the well-nigh spectacular Top 40 stations weren't around that long. Many stations that are just boilerplate accept lasted a long time. I based this list on originality and impact. These were stations worth traveling to hear. Getting it down to xx was tough, unfair, and subjective. But hither we go.

20. WTIX/New Orleans. WTIX spent its first days on the air reading the phone volume to become attention. WDSU had number one afternoon show called The Top 20 on 1280. Todd Storz took the tight playlist formula from KOWH, doubled the number, and the outset "Elevation 40" station was born. With only 250 watts way up at 1450kHz, WTIX debuted with a 50 share.

nineteen. WKVQ (15Q)/Knoxville. It was a crazy idea. In the mid-'70s, Knoxville had a three-way AM Meridian forty battle between WKGN, WNOX, and WRJZ going, while WOKI was playing the hits, sort of, on FM. A doctor's son financed the killer Pinnacle 40 15Q until the money ran out. Suitcase Simpson, Chuck "Boo" Businesswoman, Eddie Beacon the Swingin' Deacon, and others have never sounded better. But the signal was awful, the staff was expensive, and 15Q failed speedily. It was worth driving 500 miles each way to hear live. I did.

xviii. KBOX/Dallas. Yeah, I know KLIF was the starting time polished Tiptop 40 station and the big station in Dallas. But KBOX was pretty amazing for having only 500 watts at night at 1480. John Box gave Gordon McLendon fits and forced KLIF to be even ameliorate. KBOX gave us Dan Ingram, Neb Ward, and many others. KBOX and the Balaban stations trained Stan Kaplan. And that news intro: With Morse code beeping in the background and plenty of slapback echo, the news opened with "From effectually the universe, around the world, around the nation, effectually Texas, around Dallas, and around the corner from your house, this is K-B-O-X news."

17. WVAQ/Morgantown, WV. Morgantown? Have yous heard it? This station has a major-market audio in a small market place. WVAQ is a multiple Marconi Accolade winner for good reason: Information technology sounds keen. Longtime morn human Lacy Neff passing was big news final June. WVAQ is a giant in North Key West Virginia. It could compete anywhere.

sixteen. KNUZ/Houston. With just 250 watts on 1230, KNUZ was the longtime market place leader in Houston. Dave Morris was the owner/morn human. When Gordon McLendon signed on KILT with v,000 watts down at 610, information technology should accept been endgame, merely KNUZ bested KILT for a long fourth dimension. Gordon McLendon considered Dave Morris his toughest competitor.

fifteen. WMCA/New York. Aye, WABC had more listeners and more attention. WABC was adept merely rarely bully. WABC had 10 times more power. In the mid- and late '60s WMCA soundly beat WABC, where the signals weren't even close. WABC "won" by dominating the areas WMCA didn't reach, and by raiding WMCA for talent and ideas.

14. WKTQ (13Q)/Pittsburgh. They were late in the AM game. They didn't final long, but they were crawly. KQV had the heritage and was owned by a visitor that knew something almost Top 40, so 13Q was instant roadkill. Buzz Bennett showing up the outset twenty-four hour period with a High german shepherd — and a sledgehammer to knock the NBC logo off the lobby wall — set the tone.

13. WAKY/Lousiville. WGRC was purchased past Gordon McLendon and went Acme 40 in 1958, debuting by playing "Royal People Eater" for a calendar week. The FCC wasn't tickled, but the public was. With Johnny Randolph equally PD, WAKY played one black and one land record every quarter hour. If that sounds crazy, look at the ratings. The "WAKY" shout was created by Johnny and a group of girls he met out just after the bars closed. (That'south 3 a.yard. in Louisville. It was overdubbed several times. That shout is still in use at 620 AM and 103.five FM, which use the WAKY calls today.)

12. WLS/Chicago. I like edgy Peak xl stations, and that WLS was not. WCFL was occasionally a better station. WLS was vanilla in most respects, but it was consistently excellent. That 50,000-watt night point put everything e of the Rockies in earshot at night. WLS was the most influential station in the nation in the late '60s and early on '70s. I know a PD in Texas who couldn't afford research, and then he merely listened to WLS to see what to play. Kids all over the Midwest left their radios on 890, turned them on after schoolhouse, and waited for darkness.

11. WKBW/Buffalo. WKBW went Top 40 in 1958 by stealing the PD and airstaff from WBNY, which was number 1 with simply 250 watts. The studios were in a former railroad vehicle house with a false forepart to brand it look taller and a mirror at the end of the long single hallway to make it look bigger when you walked in. Everything near KB was show business. When anybody in Top xl was going to short jingles and less talk, KB hired big talent, played long jingles, and gave the jocks all the time they wanted if what they said was compelling. The equipment was ancient. All of that astonishing talent spoke into a vintage RCA mic and spun records on 16-inch transcription tables, right into the 1970s. KB proved that great talent, not great equipment, make great radio.

10. WAYS/Charlotte. Stan and Sis Kaplan were fierce competitors. Stan was a sales animal, but like McLendon, Kaplan knew that advertisers spent money to reach listeners, not the other way around. Stan invested in talent and promotion. He stole and enhanced McLendon's treasure hunts and other promotions and added a crazy outrageousness that hasn't happened since, except peradventure for the Power Pig, which owes a lot to the Kaplans. Mind to any aircheck from any era of Kaplan buying — Jack Gale, Robert Murphy, Boo Baron, or Jay Thomas. It will exist amazing.

9. KLIF/Dallas. Todd Storz had the first Height 40 station. Gordon McLendon made information technology theater. Height talent, memorable promotions, attending-getting advertisement, over-the-top production, and a relentless focus on the listener, not the advertiser, made the McLendon stations ratings juggernauts. KLIF was the first and best. The McLendon format memos remain some of the best how-to handbooks for radio. With just a i,000-watt night bespeak, KLIF routinely clocked more than listeners than all other Dallas-Ft. Worth stations combined. Storz and McLendon traded PDs, air talent, and promotion ideas. Bill Drake and others refined it, but Top twoscore was the child of Storz and McLendon.

8. WAPE/Jacksonville. The Brennans' technology genius and home-built transmitter pumped l,000 daytime watts from Daytona to the Northward Carolina beaches. It was an awesome signal, simply somehow they couldn't become that hum out of the transmitter. WAPE introduced a lot of the south to Carolina Beach music. After it sold to Stan and Sis Kaplan, WAPE was only amazing. This is where the Greaseman was at his best. "Don't become screwed, get WAPE'd!"

vii. WHTZ (Z100)/New York. In 1983, right after NBC paid half dozen figures to researchers to learn that at that place was absolutely no hole for Acme 40 in New York, Milt Maltz paid $eight.3 meg for an FM in Newark that played show tunes, figured out how to move it to Empire, brought in a redneck morning man and PD (Scott Shannon, who was so not New York and went "worst to first"). History-making in and so many means, and still great today.

6. KFRC/San Francisco. Nib Drake'due south KHJ was amazing and should probably be on this list. His KFRC was ameliorate. Edgier. Better production. Jocks with a bit more rope. It was the Top forty station in San Francisco during the Summer of Love. And information technology had Dr. Don Rose.

v. WJET/Erie, PA. WJET dominated Erie every bit a daytimer on 1570 with 250 watts. After moving to 1400, still at low power, no one could touch them, and everyone tried. The founder and owner, Myron Jones, built the edifice and wired the studios himself. His wife did the music. He hired major-market talent and they stayed. Forever. No station was better about promoting, playing the hits, and focusing on the community. Many of the big AM Height 40 stations had FM stations. None of the big-market owners did the smart thing and moved to FM in the '70s. Myron did, and because he had a Goggle box station, he had to sell the AM to practice it. At the time, the AM was notwithstanding number one! WJET-FM debuted at number one. Pretty remarkable.

4. KCBQ/San Diego. Astonishing talent, awesome production, revolutionary promotions. "The Last Contest" was built-in here. This is the station all of the "Super Q" imitators wanted to be. Neat call letters, too. Listening to Happy Hare or Shotgun Tom or Charlie and Harrigan, you wouldn't know the calls originally stood for "CBS Quality."

3. CKLW/Windsor-Detroit. As "Radio 8-0" CKLW spent the early '60s as a crappy Acme xl well behind WKNR and WXYZ. It exploded in 1967 with the Drake format. No one, always, anywhere, did the basics improve than the Big 8. With dissever board ops for the jocks and the newsroom, intro times to the quarter second, including commercials, no station was ever tighter. The Drake stations all had "Kanner Boxes," but Ed Butterbaugh's setup, l,000 watts, and lax Canadian rules on positive modulation made CKLW bound out of radios in a dozen U.South. markets all day long, and made the programming sound even better. The glory days of CKLW were merely five years long, but the Big 8's influence reverberates today.

2. WYHY (Y107)/Nashville. Maybe I'g biased, simply it's my list. This is my favorite Elevation 40. Marc Hunt made more noise at WFLZ and WEBN, but this was his best work. Marc took "The Outrageous FM" to a 17 share, 500,000 cume in a market of less than a one thousand thousand at the time. The Power Grunter was more outrageous, just Y107 was a better station. When Metro Traffic came to Nashville, Marc put a Dumpster in the station parking lot and asked listeners to donate chip metallic so Y107 could buy a airplane. That's how a Top xl station owned the traffic image. Scott Shannon and other PDs stole from Y107 every fourth dimension they came to Film Firm to cut a Telly spot. "Lock it in and rip the knob off."

1. KIIS/Los Angeles. Other stations have been more outrageous, more groundbreaking, or more entertaining, simply KIIS is the near influential Tiptop 40 station. Chuck Blore used the name on the AM, 1150: KIIS=K115. Just it's been copied around the world merely because information technology's KIIS/Los Angeles. Few stations have been able to reach consistent success in ratings, and the conversion of ratings to acquirement and cash flow, like KIIS. None in major markets. KHJ lasted about ten years. KIIS is going on 40.

I apologize to all those I left out.

Readers' Height 10 Height 40s.
We held a three-week online poll asking readers what they think are or were the all-time Top 40s, and hither are the results:

1. CKLW/Windsor-Detroit
2. WKBW/Buffalo
3. KHJ/Los Angeles
4. WLS/Chicago
5. WABC/New York
6. KFRC/San Francisco
7. WING/Dayton, OH
8. KLIF/Dallas
9. KFMB (B100)/San Diego
10. WFIL/Philadelphia

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Source: https://radioink.com/2017/08/21/greatest-top-40-stations-time/

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