The decade when it all began! Browse a year-by-year history of Album Rock Radio in the 1960's below.
WFUV Becomes First Album Rock Station
Programmer and DJ Peter Fornatale airs show Campus Caravan, playing album cuts instead of single records on WFUV.[1] Fornatale creates first album rock station.
FCC Ruling Opens Door For Album Rock Radio
In 1965, the FCC issued its "Non·Duplication" ruling for station owners who operated both an AM and FM station in the same market. Such stations now had to air at least 50% of their FM programming different from their AM side.[1] This allowed stations to experiment with their FM station, thus opening the door for Album Rock.
Gamache's Tee Time "Demolishes" Top 40 Radio
Tom Gamache of Boston's and MIT's WTBS starts radio show Tee Time, a "demolition" of mainstream Top 40 radio. Gamache plays his own albums and runs fake commercials. Tom's show gains a wide following among Boston's college studens.[1]
Progressive Rock Radio Begins
Program Director Murray the K starts the first commercial album rock station at New York City's WOR FM. Murray encourages his DJ's to play non-Top 40 album cuts, including songs with social commentary. He terms his format Progressive Rock.[2]
Album Rock Reaches The West Coast
Tom Donahue introduces the Album Rock format to KPMX in San Francisco. Donahue wanted an alternative to Top 40 radio and fed off the success of similar stations on the East Coast. Donahue himself was originally from Philadelphia.[1]
Counterculture Spurs on Album Rock
The Hippie "counterculture" greatly influenced new Rock music starting in 1967. Many such artists found a home for their music on Album Rock stations, with many of the artists originating from San Francisco.
Calm During The Storm
In a year marked by turmoil - Senator Robert Kennedy and Rev. Martin Luther King being assassinated, riots during the Democratic Party convention - Rock began to calm down. Artists such as Bob Dylan, The Byrds, and The Band, to name a few, released popular albums that year combining genres such as folk and country to Rock music. The result was much more toned·down Rock from the more psychedelic sound that marked the previous two years. The music still mainly spoke to the counter·culture generation, but in a more "relaxed" tone. Album Rock Radio played a key role, as more FM radio stations began to experiment with non·Top 40 singles, instead playing longer album tracks on the air.
Woodstock: Music Festival of the Decade!
The Rock music that defined a generation all assembled for the Woodstock music festival in August, 1969. Located in a farm field in rural New York state, several Rock bands and artists - notably Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Crosby Stills and Nash, among many others, performed for their fans in a concert spanning 3+ days.
The original concert lineup was scheduled for only 3 days, but bad weather and traffic jams caused delays that sent the fesival into a fourth day.[3]
In 1994 and 1999, for the 25th and 30th anniversaries, new Woodstock concerts took place to commemerate the original concert, albeit with current Rock bands of the later era.
2. Comaratta, Len. "Rock History 101: Freeform Radio" Consequence Of Sound, 15 May 2011, https://consequence.net/2011/05/rock-history-101-freeform-radio/. Accessed 23 September 2019.
3. "The Woodstock Music and Arts Fair" Bethel Woods Center For The Arts, date unknown, https://www.bethelwoodscenter.org/museum/woodstock-60s. Accessed 9 April 2022.