The 1968 Memo that Helped Create Modern Country Radio
Country radio was at a crossroads in 1968. It had spent over ten years chasing the fan base, and the advertising dollars that went with it, of Top 40 radio. Listening to AM radio in 1968 meant listening to an amalgamation of rock, pop, and soul. The country fan base had been shrinking since 1954, when Dewey Phillips of WHBQ in Memphis gave Elvis Presley’s “That’s All Right (Mama)” its first spin, ushering in the age of rock and roll. There is some irony that Elvis, who had been shunned by the country music establishment, actually had a regular presence on country radio early in his career. That Elvis had African American fans and also injected his performance with unabashed sexuality was too much for country music to bear. But now, as the 70s drew near, country music station executives would have to alter course or see the end of country on the radio.
The path to country music’s survival had been forged in 1962 by the country and western station, KRAK, in Sacramento. By following the formula established by Top 40 radio, which included sticking to a set playlist of hits with only occasional forays into beloved country “oldies,” KRAK became a giant in the country radio world. The disc jockeys did not determine the playlists. Management did. Alan Torbert and Associates, a radio consulting company formed by former KRAK general manager, Alan Torbert, sent a memo in 1968 to country radio stations across the United States, many of which were located far from the South.
In the memo, stations were advised to look beyond their rural fan base. “Modern country music has become a multi-million dollar business, and it could only do so by appealing to urban population centers — not limiting it to the farm,” the memo read. 1
This, of course, was directly tied to the advertising dollars that Torbert indirectly suggested that country radio stations were leaving on the table if they did not become more appealing to suburbanites and city slickers. He also took a not-so-subtle shot at traditional country music itself. “Modern country has no relationship to rural or mountain life... You find no screech fiddles, no twangy guitars, no mournful nasal twangs …Today, you will find the sweeping sound of full orchestrations, multi-voiced choruses, amplified instruments and sophisticated arrangements, and an adult lyric approach.”
The music was not even the most important part of the formula for country radio, according to the memo. “The winning-country music stations are, first, good stations, regardless of the music they play.”
The Torbert memo was just the beginning of a reliance on consultants and surveys to guide the direction of all formats of radio, not simply country. Historian Kim Simpson wrote in 2009 that it was this information that helped create the “niche market segmentation” that further squeezed the boundaries of what was and was not considered appropriate for various radio stations. Yet, it worked for country radio.
Simpson reports that country radio’s market share increased 52 percent between 1972 and 1977 as the format expanded nationally. This, of course, created a need for country disc jockeys but that was an easy problem to solve. Disc jockeys who had previously been spinning records by The Rolling Stones or Cream were, sometimes overnight, finding themselves playing the hits by Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette. It mattered not if the djs had any experience in country music radio or if they even liked country music. What was important was an understanding of the Top 40 formula. As country radio adopted the Top 40 format, Cash, Wynette, and their contemporaries had their songs in constant rotation, sold a lot of records, and rode the radio airplay wave to 70s country superstardom.
The solution to the problem of how to save country radio from obscurity in the midst of the tidal wave that was 1960s rock seems obvious now. The answer was to let country music fend for itself, while country radio would offer a brand of pop that felt just country enough to appeal to the masses. In fact, songs like, “Thank God, I’m a Country Boy” by John Denver thoroughly blurred the lines between country and pop. Denver’s iconic hit made it to #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Hot Country charts in 1974. Top 40 radio, whether country or not, became a welcoming environment for countrypolitan hits like Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” which also went to #1 on both charts in 1975.
Country radio is exactly where it wants to be. It has clung tightly to its format for over 50 years and it expects loyalty from the artists it promotes. To this point, no amount of essays, social media posts, or statements at awards shows has made much of a difference. Turn on country radio today and you will hear the hits, which are generally some version of white men singing about trucks, alcohol, and women. It has been a winning formula for country radio and its advertisers. What remains to be seen is whether or not country radio can survive in the age of streaming, where the storytellers, the fiddlers, the musicians steeped in bluegrass or folk, and the artists who are not straight, white, and male are only a click away.
- Richard A. Peterson. “The Production of Cultural Change: The Case of Contemporary Country Music.”
SOURCES
PETERSON, RICHARD A. “The Production of Cultural Change: The Case of Contemporary Country Music.” Social Research 45, no. 2 (1978): 292–314. Accessed June 2, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40970334.
SIMPSON, KIM. “HISTORIANS’ CORNER: Country Radio’s Growing Pains in the Music Trades, 1967–1977.” American Music 27, no. 4 (2009): 500–14. Accessed June 2, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25652231.
