Welcome to Music From Studio Z!

Music From Studio Z


This website is not up for any reason other than your enjoyment if you are into good classic well arranged and performed music. We are not here to sell you anything, make any money, or scam you in any way. The story of what is known as popular music intertwines with radio broadcasting back as far as the 1920’s. You can click on the “Standards Plus”button and listen while you read this and listen anytime you like. There are over 6000 songs in our playlist so you are sure to hear what you like. Please let us know if you are enjoying the music here, if you have any complaints or suggestions or any songs you would like that we don’t have currently. Again thank you for stopping by.
Back in the early days of radio, 1920’s through the 1940’s radio programming was like television is today. Most radio stations were affiliated with a network,be it NBC Red, NBC Blue, CBS, or Mutual. Other than local news and sporting events, most stations simply carried what came down the network wire, news broadcasts, soap operas, symphonies,big bands and band remotes. There was a lengthy period of total variety on radio at night with comedies, drama, quiz shows and the like not to mention full length operas. For the most part, playing phonograph records on radio stations was strictly prohibited by the music licensing people. They wanted to sell records from the bands and orchestras that people heard on the radio and jukeboxes but the radio stations were prohibited from playing the actual records. This began to change in the mid to late 40’s as the music groups began to realize that radio was what was making people go out and buy records. People would hear a new song by say Sammy Kaye on his live radio show and go out and purchase the record. So finally, radio stations were permitted to play records provided they paid the music licensing people a fee for playing the music.
Now, move ahead to the 50’s a new medium, that of television came about and took most of the radio network variety programs away. Shows that people listened to on radio had moved to television and radio was left with nothing other than network news and a couple of turntables so records became the dominant fare of broadcast radio. The announcer sat at the turntables and played records, all records that were popular, new songs ,old songs, everything in between. Some stations stayed with symphonic music, but pop music was a bigger draw to the average person. Some stations especially in the south played Western and Hillbilly music as it was known but for the most part, “radio music” was what was currently popular in the movies, juke boxes, bands ,and what the radio stations made popular by themselves with the announcer or “disc jockey” as he became known,liked to play.Things went along smoothly until the mid to late 50’s when a new type of music emerged. It was a cross between Hillbilly, Jazz, Blues, and Black Gospel, named by DJ Alan Freed as Rock and Roll.This music had been around way before the 50’s but was confined to mostly the South and predominantly small radio stations in areas of heavy Black population. The term Rock and Roll was used all the way back in the 20’s but wasnt popularized as a music type until Freed.
Once Rock and Roll started to hit the airwaves, and for the most part, it started on radio stations that were in dire straits financially it hit big. Top 40 radio as it was called, played 40 songs, over and over, the 40 big hits that would change every week. Radio stations jumped on the band wagon to play Rock and Roll however some stations fearful they would lose their adult listeners as Rock and Roll catered to the teens,stuck with their original radio format of old and new songs but carefully ignored the Rock and Roll tunes. They became known as “Middle of the Road” stations. They didn’t play Rock, they didn’t play symphonic music, they just stayed in the middle. So now ,we have 2 separate radio formats, and a smaller third, the Hillbilly and Western stations mostly in the South. Some of the Western performers crossed into the Rock and Roll areas such as Conway Twitty and Elvis Presley and slowly the term Hillbilly music was dropped in favor of Country Music as it was more popular in the rural areas than in the urban. So now we have three radio formats, Rock and Roll, Middle of the Road, and Country and Western, plus a couple of concert music stations scattered around.



It’s now the 60’s and along comes FM. FM was developed by Edwin Armstrong in the mid 30’s but was impeded in its growth by several things. First, the major network operators such as NBC had a huge investment in AM radio and wanted nothing to disturb their monopoly. Second, the FCC had no idea where in the radio spectrum to put FM. It started in the 40-50 Mhz region. With Television arriving they decided to move it to 88-102. Well, people who invested in FM broadcast stations and listeners who invested in radios for FM in the 40-50 mHz. region were now owners of obsolete junk. The radio stations had to replace their transmitters and antennas and the listeners had to buy new radios which didn’t go over too well on either side. Slowly when the FCC finally started to believe in FM and made the band 88-108 and relocated television around FM did FM start to grow. The main growth of FM came with the advent of Hi Fi and Stereo FM. FM could now do something AM couldn’t besides Hi Fidelity, that was stereophonic sound which was developed for records just a few years earlier. Most of the FM stations were owned by operators of AM stations so they would simply simulcast the AM program on the FM transmitter. The FCC saw this as the waste of a facility and ordered the owners to split the programs and provide separate programs on the FM station. Not knowing what to do to keep the stations on the air with the smallest expenditure,many stations installed tape transports with large reels of music, usually what was termed Easy Listening or Beautiful Music. It was mostly instrumental with large string orchestras. Another radio format is born, Beautiful Music. Meanwhile some of the AM top 40 guys are starting to delve into the more obscure rock songs that are coming out,especially after the Beatles. Rock that is too heavy for the daytime housewives but great for the kids at night so they start playing the harder or Psychadelic rock tracks at night. The audience is big enough for this that some of the FM guys take note and since they are losing money hand over fist with their Easy Listening decide to go whole hog into Album Rock. Now we have another Rock classification besides Top 40. We have AOR or Album Oriented Rock. The stuff like Aerosmith, King Crimson, The Band, Spooky Tooth and so on. This is catering mostly to 18-30 year old males. Country is also making inroads on FM with new artists and a new sound but the classic country artists are still alive on AM so now we have two separate Country formats, new country and classic country. Top 40 also splits into several splinters, Hip Hop, Adult Contemporary, Top 40, Oldies, Classic Rock, Classic Hits, and many more. With all this most of the “MOR ” or Middle of The Road radio stations have disappeared with station owners believing that anyone who grew up liking MOR is probably dead by now as is also the case with concert music stations. There are still a few (you can probably count them on your hands)Concert music stations on the air, and a few MOR stations ,mostly relegated to small town single owner AM stations.
What we are trying to do here is bring back at least the music from the days of the MOR AM radio stations. We can’t do the live chatter, lost dogs, local events, etc. of the great days of real radio but we will provide the music and let your imagination take you back to the old 5 tube Emerson AM radio with its beloved 60 cycle hum sitting atop the refrigerator in the kitchen. Between the two of us Ron and Sam we have a combined experience of over 100 years of radio programming.
You will see another listen button. Bobby Day, WARMLAND remembered. If you are a resident of the Northeastern United States or ever spent time in Northeastern Pennsylvania in the 50’s-70’s you are no doubt familiar with WARM AM radio 590. WARM was another radio station with few listeners. They had moved from 1400 on the dial to 590 and from 250 watts to 5000 watts. By far the best signal in Northeastern Pennsylvania although very directional. They almost couldnt be received on the opposite side of the Susquehanna River from their tower site in Falls ,Pa but they came in loud and clear on the New Jersey beaches. In the late 50’s they were one of the first stations to adopt Rock and Roll and the top 40 format and they never looked back. Unlike many top 40 stations besides providing the hit songs for the teens, they had a fantastic news department and information for adults so at their peak they had in the area of 70% of the radio audience in Northeastern,Pennsylvania. The other 30% was divided among 15 other stations.They dominated the radio market through the 70’s with a crew of amazing announcers and news people. One of those was Bobby Day. Bobby puts together a program every Wednesday from 7pm to 10pm live and you can listen to it here. You can send Bobby requests and send him messages. If you were part of it ,you can relive the days of the Mighty 590 with the music and Jingles of probably the most popular radio station in Northeastern ,Pennsylvania forever.