POLL: In which decade was radio the most enjoyable?*

I changed my vote from 80s to 70s.
Mtv was too much a part of the music scene in the 80s for me to say radio was most fun in that decade.
I loved Mtv but I was in front of the tv a lot.

 

The 70's were great.

I remember them playing entire albums commercial free..

 

Though I was still an egg, I went with 60s radio. I spent lots of hours listening to Dick Biondi in the early 80's, and he played tons of it, along with lots of 50s. Can I call it fixties?
I eventually discovered all genres of Metal, but I still love to spin Buddy Holly, Everly Brothers, and many of those one hit wonders from the 60's.

 

The greatest age of radio was easily the growth of FM in the early 70's. Independently owned stations programing content how ever they felt like it. Individual DJs each with distinct and different personalities, free to choose what they played and talk about what they felt like talking about. Listen for any prolonged length of time and the wide mix of type of music that could be heard just on one station was astounding. The music you heard on one DJs show would rarely be the same thing you heard on the previous or following shows. Variety was the name of the game, and a more well-rounded music education of the times was the outcome. Think of the most eclectic original college radio station playlist you've ever heard, that's closer to what early FM radio was always like only presented more professionally.

As mentioned in another posting about sometimes whole albums being played without commercials breaking them up, even more often it would be whole album sides played that way. Sometimes those album sides could be just one track, like side one of Tubular Bells I heard several times on the stations I listened to back then. Live concerts would sometimes be broadcast. It was a time of innovation, experimentation, rules-breaking freedom. Those early days were clearly done for the love of music over business. But as the years rolled on and FM radio continued to grow, business took over and everything that was really great about radio was killed off with it.

 

If I had the option, I would vote as follows:

The great popular rock radio stations era: 1965-1975

The great college radio stations era: 1975-1985

 

I dunno, to me the word "radio" in the thread title seems pretty clear. The OP did not make a distinction between the two technologies.

Depends what you mean by incredible. Don't forget, lots of radio air time would have been taken up the kinds of programs that had largely moved over to television by the end of the 1960s. Things like dramas, documentaries, comedy shows, quiz shows, and the like. Also there were a lot fewer radio stations than there are now. So if we are answering the question from a musical perspective, you would not have had nearly the variety of choice that was available in the 1960s and 1970s.

My memories of listening to the radio only go back as far as the late 50s of course, but I don't remember it being that great if it was music you were wanting.

 

Oh yes indeed, i agree, from a musical perspective absolutely. Then that would come much later.
Imagine having AM/FM radio now with those you mentioned on all the time: documentaries, comedy shows, quiz shows,
cowboy shows, murder/mystery. Great era for the use of the imagination.

 

50s thru 60s

The BBC Light Programme - Pick Of The Pops (Alan Freeman) - Saturday Club (Brian Matthew) - Two Way Family Favourites - Housewives' Choice - Music While You Work
The BBC Third Programme - classical music
The BBC Home Service - Desert Island Discs - Gardeners Question Time with Fred Loads, Bill Sowerbutts & Professor Alan Gemmell
Radio Luxembourg
Radio Caroline
Radio London

 

I always laugh at the distinction between AM radio and FM radio. As I'm sure everyone here knows, the terms simply refer to two different types of transmission technology, but for some reason broadcasters and the listening public have decided that different kinds of music should be represented on the two media.

This probably made sense in the early days of FM; the superior reception quality encouraged the playing of music that took advantage of this, such as classical music and the more classically influenced progressive rock. Commercial FM stations would be where you might hear the DJ play one whole side of Foxtrot just because he felt like it. These days I think the distinction is between commercial radio and public (government or community) radio rather than transmission technology.

 

When portable transistor radios began to appear in the 1960s, my grandfather was of the belief that they were only capable of picking up the pop music stations, not the ABC stations which broadcast news, documentaries, classical music etc., because pop music was all he ever heard coming out of them.

 

I feel there is a strong correlation to ones formative years as to what era they favor.It is for me.I liked the late 70s early 80s.There was so much more diverse programming that one could tape.Radio has been dead to me for close to thirty years except for two fantastic classical stations and classical music is so cheap and easily available of youtube I have no desire to record off the radio.

 

Radio is still great. Lots of great local stations, with creative interesting programing. You're missing lots of decades in your poll where radio was much more listened to. Where people would sit around and listen to it together. Before tv radio was the thing. Lots of cool stuff from then. Only the shadow knows......

 

THIS

 

If you are talking AM/Top 40 Radio - then it’s the 1960s

 

That's basically what I said. The Sixventies.

 

No decade. The radio here has always been appalling.

Free form FM radio never happened.
The first FM station 1977 was a college station that had limited coverage (poor in my area) & a limited music content especially during the day.
The next FM station 1980 was similar to any other syndicated station. The stations that followed were much the same except for the national station that very much embodied "alternative"

 

I dunno...
I've heard some of my dad's R2R radio stuff from the mid 60's, the deejays sounded great.
In the day when they back announced the songs, the artist, and even the record label it was on.
It was all AM mono and mostly recorded at 3 3/4 speed.
Wish he had more of those recordings but as he said, tape was really expensive in those days.
(Ha! it still is!)

 

‘80s but given that I was born in ‘68, that makes sense.

However, based on my music tastes I think I would have enjoyed ‘70s radio more had I been born earlier.

 

The 60's but with very definitive inroads into the 70's. As The Weavers sang "Wasn't That A Time!"

 

The 70s.

 

Reflecting on my experiences as a child becoming ever more entranced with music, I often cite the more inclusive nature of radio as central expanding my musical tastes. I vividly recall riding in the backseat of my parent's car in the mid sixties wanting to hear some rock and roll and hearing Papa's Got a Brand New Bag. It changed my life, and I can still vividly picture the car, the AM radio, and the environment. I've often wondered if my musical taste would be as diverse given the more specialized nature of media today.

 

a toss-up between the 60's and 70's, but since i listened to most 60's music on a device with only 1 speaker (transistor radio, AM car radio) i choose 70's for the much better sound quality.

 

70s

 

Up until the early to mid-70s, that distinction was a very real one. Top 40 radio was heard virtually exclusively on the AM band, and didn't start moving over to FM in significant measure until around 1973 or so.

Prior to that, FM was entirely devoted to "beautiful music," jazz, classical, and then starting around 1968 "underground," free-form rock.

As for the latter, as an earlier poster correctly pointed out, in the early days of "underground," the DJs picked their own music. But within a few years, underground mutated into AOR (Album Oriented Rock), which became every bit as formatted and controlled from a playlist perspective as Top 40 had always been.

So I don't know that listeners or anyone else "decided" this — it was simply the way it was in that era.

 

For me, the '80s.