I don’t know. I was of the age where that didn’t really enter my thinking and I didn’t care. Top of mind was where the next nickle bag would come from. But all FM stations had an AM counterpart and I presume the FM side of things was supported by the AM.
As the FM side of the dial became more popular it was obviously realized at some point that, hmmm, there’s money to be made here. So commercials started gradually sneaking in. At first they were limited to local businesses and some were actually pretty creative. It wasn’t long before big corporations figured out there was an audience. Years ago it reached the point of unlistenable. And not only because of the commercials but because playlists are so repetitive and categorized.
There Doors were escorted from airport to stadium by The Vagabonds MC. They were the headliner. The Lennon thing, with Clapton, Alan White (Yes), Klaus Vorman was a last minute add in and came on before the Doors.
Another good one was Festival Express. It was a 2 day festival. Fond memory from that. We took sleeping bags. There was a park adjacent to the stadium where people could spend the night. The festival had attracted gate crashers and in order to minimize the impact of those morons a couple bands agreed to play free at the park. Grateful Dead was one of them. Don’t recall who else. This was all a long time ago so forgive my memory.
Also remember crawling out of my sleeping bag in the morning to see a fleet of catering trucks arriving. Turned out Polydor Records had hired them to provide the over nighters with free breakfast before we headed back over to the stadium for the 2nd days festivities.
This link mentions some bands that I don’t recall being there, like Ginger Baker for example.
https://msmokemusic.com/blog/blog/1970-the-saga-of-the-festival-express
Yes. Along with Chuck Berry, Bo Didley, Buddy Guy, Little Richard, Doug Kershaw . . .
There is a 2003 documentary on that one. It’s available on a variety of streaming services and there are a few clips up on YouTube.
The evolution of FM rock radio is an interesting story. The DJs on the original “Free Form” rock stations could play whatever they wanted to play, ranging from rock to jazz to a little classical to just about anything. They were all very “anti-establishment.” The problem with that was obvious. A friend of mine worked for a free form station and he had about a dozen artists or groups he liked, and he played them every day, several times a day. If you liked what he liked, fine, but if you wanted to hear Aerosmith, you were outta luck because he didn’t like Aerosmith and refused to play them.
A young guy (18 years old!) named Lee Abrams revolutionized FM rock radio by concocting a format called “Superstars,” termed Album Oriented Rock in the industry. That’s when FM rock stations began getting ratings and making money, which wasn’t a bad thing at the time. (Someone’s gotta pay the light bill.) Rock stations today follow pretty much the same formatics, for better or worse, depending on your viewpoint.
If you’re interested, Google “Lee Abrams Superstars.” There are several good interviews with him.
The rock FM station DJ’s in Vancouver went on strike. Probably around 1972 or 73. I forget what the issues were but that was the beginning of the end for free form FM. Most if not all were subsequently fired.
It’s been years since I’ve owned a radio other than what came with my car and I subscribe to Sirius for that. A few years ago when I had to renew I called to negotiate as usual. Except this time they called my bluff. I threatened to cancel and the assholes let me. Got into the car, tuned the radio to ‘classic rock’ or whatever. After 10 minutes of hearing nothing but commercial after commercial I shut it off. When I got back home I called Sirius back and grovelled at their feet like the pathetic loser I am 
Wow. Thank you for sharing! I love “being there” - catching the zeitgeist.
Most of my tickets were through Ticketmaster, at the door, or a scalper, or some online site like Craigslist or Ebay.
With podcasts and Spotify I don’t need a traditional radio format like Sirius
If you want to check out a very cool (old) concert featuring many bands, check out The T.A.M.I. Show. It’s available on You Tube. It’s from 1964 and still one of the best concerts ever featuring multiple bands, IMO. Sort of a precursor to later festivals. You can also Google it to find out neat background information.
Thanks, but the only music from 1964 I might like is jazz. I’ll probably check it out just for historical purposes on my “Watch Later”
One of the video links in this thread included a (short) clip of Chicago from Dick Clark’s “New Years Rockin’ Eve” - featuring the Beach Boys (well, Al Jardine, Carl Wilson and Mike Love)
I’d never seen Terry Kath sing this song video-wise. And here he is wearing tuxedo and tails and his voice is at the top of his game.
ETA: Terry is playing Bass while Peter Cetera is playing guitar
I saw this video before, and my estimation is that everything is pre-recorded except for Terry and Peter’s vocal. And yes, Terry’s most tender moment on record is him on “Wishing You Were Here”
“… and faraways…”
Terry does play some bass on Chicago VII - “Wishing You Were Here”, “Happy Man”, “Byblos”, and “Skinny Man” while Peter played acoustic on those first two.
Actually, Terry talks about this special before-hand, and comes up with the idea of a 1930s theme, an era he loves.
When I watched I was sure Cetera was lip-synching
Now that you mention it - this being Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve - the entire performance of the song sounds so much like the album cut of the song that it likely is.
The remarkable aspects are not so much that Terry is playing bass but that he looks so good in that tuxedo and singing along (for the camera) with his song.
I saw Chicago and the Beach Boys play together several times - I reckon always at Jones Beach Theater on Long Island, NY. “Beachago” was the name of the tour - at least in 1989. They certainly did “Wishing you were here” together and it was definitely live (even with Cetera and I dunno if he was playing guitar or bass).
There was a palpable sense that one of the original members was missing. Same when I saw Marshall Tucker without one or both of the Caldwell brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dead & Co without Jerry. Sorry to digress.
Yeah, that wasn’t the right audio. Here ya go. Enjoy!
The YouTube creator just synchronized it well. Here’s the real version:
This is one of those songs that ages badly because the lyrics are so badly written. The music is beautiful. But, come on, “so I guess that’s how it is”? Blech. The Muzak version of this is better because of the silly lyrics.
But that’s the way it was. A song about being on the road.
People can write better lyrics about being on the road. “So I guess that’s how it is” doesn’t even rhyme with any of the prior lines in the bridge section.
I like the direct lyrics. If I’m listening to music, and there’s a story/etc., clarity is great. In “Beginnings” there are no rhymes, and even the first lines don’t have the same timing, and some lines are completely independent sounding
" Oh oh oh oh oh oh woah oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh oh oh woah oh oh oh
Mostly I’m silent, hmm
Silent
When I kiss you
I feel a thousand different feelings
A cover of chills
All over my body
And when I feel them
I quickly try to decide which one
I should try to put into words, woah oh
Try to put into words"
