Beautiful music was on the air in the 1950s on WPAT (NYC)...and Gordon McClenden played it on his station in San Francisco where Ed Winton was working. Winton brought the format to WGAY which he changed to WQMR AM in Washington DC in early 1960s. Winton and I programmed the station long before long time PD Bob Chandler was hired. In fact in 1960 Art Wander hired me at WBAL AM in Baltimore as announcer for his beautiful music format there which was eventually dropped when FM stations did it. Another beautiful music station was WDVR in Philadelphia. It became successful overnight in 1963 NOT because they were using my voice tracks BUT because the AM dial switched to ROCK and mature listeners found mature music on FM. Marlin R. Taylor carefully crafted a flow of easy listening instrumentals which appealed to this neglected audience of music lovers. WJBR FM in the Phila market from Wilmington Delaware was a strong competitor as was WQAL, WWSH and others who copied the format. But WDVR was always the ratings winner. When Marlin Taylor syndicated beautiful music sweep tapes from Bonneville´s... WJIB and WRFM .... the format was taken to other market stations. Shulke, SRP and several others started syndicating via mailed reel to reel automation tapes. I joined KUMU in Honolulu in 1987 when simulcast was forbidden by FCC. They ran FM 100 tapes on AM and Bonneville tapes on FM and essentially sold time on the stations as one.
"I retired from over 50 years as easy listening music programmer-announcer and was reluctant to give up sharing those beautiful melodies with listeners. Now on the Internet I'm reaching a niche audience from all over the world," said veteran programmer R A Campbell, who has retired to Mexico. "It's amazing, I decided to share all of my favorite music, globally, by setting up BeautifulInstrumentals.com radio here in San Pedro Garza Garcia Mexico. Now fans from everywhere email me about how this easy listening format complements their daily home and office listening environment."
About BEAUTIFULinstrumentals.com: Easy listening instrumental orchestrations are programmed from CDs, singles and long playing albums of the mid 20th century. Many which have not been heard by our listeners for many years. Bringing back memories of youth and what Campbell calls "life in the past lane". Our slogan: Wonderful albums of beautiful music from Broadway, Hollywood, America's standards and hit instrumentals from around the world.
The format was popular through the 1980's but as younger listeners moved into stereo FM radio formats changed to reach them.
I hope listeners will continue to enjoy the format on Internet via www.beautifulinstrumentals.com...
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--R A Campbell
