I've always been curious what it was like in 1970, I've got an old Chevy from that year so it makes me wonder.  I'm 19 myself but in my spare time I'm digging up oldies that don't get much airplay and learning about the artists.  1967 is my favorite year.  I've been into this stuff since I was 14 so I think I've got a pretty good grasp on what the 60's were like, I love that era, the music, fashions, everything(but the damn war).  Anyway, my guess is that '70 was just an extension of the late 60's for the most part and it wasn't until mid-71 that people started growing their hair out and sideburns and big collars came into vogue and that kind of stuff.  What I'd really like to know is, on the radio, like your typical station playing contemporary stuff, how far back did they go for songs for regular airplay in '70?  What I'm trying to say is, did hit songs from '64 through '67 still get much airplay or was it mostly 1967 on up?  Music changed a lot year by year back then from what I've noticed so I'm curious.

I remember listening to Cousin Brucie in the late 60s in NY and I remember him playing a lot of the contempory stuff. I think he may have played an earlier tune once in a while. But in the early 70s I was in Mass. and would listen to the pop stations that played the top 40. They may have played an older tune once in a while but not very often. But, my sister used to listen to an "oldies" station that played stuff from the 50s and 60s. The funny thing is, now oldies stations plays the stuff that we used to listen to on the top 40 stations.


Cat

8) ::)  Shawn, glad to know people your age are into '60s music.  Actually 1970 was technically part of the 1960s (61-70), and the airplay of the time was not much different than say 1969.  You should know that back then to the counter-culture in 1970 music from say 1966 would seem to them like it does to us: ancient.  Music was evolving so fast into art in the '60s, but the airplay itself was different.  Imagine Cousin Brucie interviewing Jimi Hendrix (which he did on air).  The counter-culture started to take over radio for a few years before the massive corporate takeovers began.
   And today there is nothing but junk on commercial radio.  Even today's "classic rock" stations have about 100 songs they play over and over.  For anything decent you have to get the college stations.
    But the main thing is that when the '60s ended a lot of idealism (as well as lives of the best stars) did too.  We've gone backwards in so many ways, but still a Renaissance might come.

---Adam Zen Bernstein

I was a radio DJ in the 70's (still am).  Radio in 1970 was very different from what we have today.  FM stations had not become popular yet and many people did not even own an FM radio (there weren't any in cars.)  Pop music was largely played on AM stations and most cities had only one or possibly two stations that competed with each other (these were generally called "Top 40" stations.)  Other stations on the AM dial played a now-nonexistent radio format called "MOR" (middle of the road.)  These stations might have played the Carpenters but not the Beatles.  Yet other stations played talk programs, country music and yet another format no longer heard today called "beautiful music" (elevator music).   The Top 40 stations were really where it was at for young listeners.  But unlike today's rock, urban and hip-hop stations, these exciting stations played a REAL mix of music.  In the same half hour peiod you could hear Steppenwolf, The Archies, Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye, The Rolling Stones and the instrumental theme from some new movie without changing the dial.  No station plays that kind of variety anymore.  And the reason it worked was that there was only one station in town that dared to be different and that's why young people listened.  In an effort to sound "brighter" many Top 40 stations actually sped up their turntables so that the records would appear to sound more upbeat!  Records were mixed in "mono" with added reverberation to take advantage of the loud punchy sound an AM radio had when you turned it up loud.  (And generally you could only play one "oldie" an hour.)  This was also the dawning age of DJ's who brought off-the-wall humor and spontaneity to the airwaves, usually with a screaming voice.  Today's "morning show" personalities owe a lot to those early pioneers.  And it's sad in a way because if you weren't around to experience Top 40 radio in its truest form you missed out on something of a bygone era.        

Top 40 ruled! I remember I used to have a Philco radio with an earjack I would sneak to bed and go to sleep with the music:)
Back then we had.......55 and 63 and 1110(i think).55 and 63 were top 40.I went to school with a kid whose dad was a DJ at WGNG(55)and got a whole tour of the studio.1110 was WLKW and no one under the age of 40 would DARE be caught listening.Hard core MOR.No lite rock back then LOL
Then FM came and blew the whole thing open and out.Most of the AM stations went all talk 'cept MOR which had another station on FM LOL