bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
I grew up in range of Los Angeles radio. It was such a huge market that it could support whole radio stations that catered to various fractions of that market. It had two major album oriented rock stations KLOS and KMET. There was at least one station each of oldies (50s), country, soft rock, jazz, soul, disco, more mainstream pop. In fact, at that time there were probably half a dozen stations that played some kind of mainstream pop and/or disco. By 1980 there was an entire station dedicated to new wave (KROQ). And then there was my local college station, AM at the time, where I would hear an amazing array of obscure music.
Late at night it got even less structured. Dr. Demento, where Weird Al got his start, started on a station in Pasadena. There were shows that played whole album sides or dug up the least known songs of popular bands. Although it was extremely unlikely you'd get your local band on a commercial station, it was still a big wide open world of music. And if you listened to rock radio all day like I did, you would hear Stairway once or twice and probably four or five other Zep songs.
Late at night it got even less structured. Dr. Demento, where Weird Al got his start, started on a station in Pasadena. There were shows that played whole album sides or dug up the least known songs of popular bands. Although it was extremely unlikely you'd get your local band on a commercial station, it was still a big wide open world of music. And if you listened to rock radio all day like I did, you would hear Stairway once or twice and probably four or five other Zep songs.