Drake From the Lost Oldies Vault of Epitome - Tend Years After

This originally appeared on the Eptiome site December 02, 2008

http://epitomime.blogspot.com/2008/12/bill-drake-dead-bogus-creator-of.html

BILL DRAKE DEAD, BOGUS CREATOR OF WINNING RADIO STYLE
I wouldn’t say I remember a time when radio was 'great'. Fact is living in Boston provides a lot of great radio now - with more than a half-dozen college radio stations in the non commercial category.

But for all intents and purposes radio is narrow, lifeless, boring. Radio is terrible, and there is every reason to think something similar could happen to the Web.

This is said while noting the passing of Bill Drake who in the 1960s transformed regional and local radio -- which had til then at times shown a bit of inspriration and salsa -- into national radio paplum.

Drake came up with the formula of homogenized Top 30, with robot DJs. In the 60s, George Carlin and others could satirized weird [think Wolfman Jack] or just mindless Fab Good Guys, [think Murray the K and Cousin Brucie] Top 40 radio chatter, but they hadn't the notion of where things were going once Drake became the God of Radio success and the Arbitron of what ran on AM. And FM too. Drake was a 'ruthless, detail-minded operator.' Drake took Top 40 down to Top 30. Worse, he ensured what was heard in Itica was the same as Atlanta. Like a Rolling Stone, or Maybelline, or even The Eggplant that Ate Chicago - these were not going were not going to happen. Nixonian to a t.

Hard to realize who alive radio and music was in America once. You don’t hear it on oldies staions, which play a Draconian formula too. {THey are even in a more perplexing state in 2018 as [Recommened : Yesterday's Memories and other shows on weekends on WATD from Marshfield, MA http://www.959watd.com/Streaming.asp]

The formula, was no personality, no stray from playlist, tight narrow play list, everything by the numbers. Draconian syndication. Seldom do we point out such a despot at his passing. This is such a time. R.I.P. He took the DJ down a notch, which worked for the stations, but killed the art. And that death dripped out into the music itself. He is not a guy who would program Charlie Rich's Don’t Put No Headstone on My Grave.

As related by William Grimes in NYTimes we hear author Marc Fisher's take on Drake: "He took Top 40 Radio and turned into a machine."

And then Drake's own words in 1990 to LA Times: "We cleaned up AM radio. We put everything in its place."

Web beware: No personality, no stray from playlist, tight narrow play list, everything by the numbers, machine like. Forumula: Maximize mechanicals - ensure endless repeatability. - Jack Vaughan, Boston