How much did radio influence your favorite artists growing up?

Indeed...I'd extend it until 72...1969 was incredible year for FM Radio...so many great albums!

 

WNEW FM was particularly adept at mixing up various genres. Not unusual to hear Gordon Lightfoot followed by Pink Floyd followed by Sabbath, then a little Sinatra just for kicks. And lots of Joni Mitchell.
But AM radio was the game to beat, especially from around '62/ '63 until '68, the playlists were dizzying. In a good way.

 

I remember AM radio being really brutal after 1973 or so. A lot of novelty numbers by Jim Stafford, one-hit wonders like Paper Lace and whoever the hell did that "Life Is a Rock" dreck. I'm sure there was dreck before that, and some good stuff thereafter, but I wasn't paying that much attention. Thank god for FM is all I can say.

 

Quiet a lot when I think of it. It is was radio & top of the pops where I heard most music as a kid.

 

In the 1980s in the Tampa Bay area, Q-105 always played the "Top 5 at 9," which I was very excited to hear--and tape!--every night! Q-105, 95 YNF and 98 Rock were the way that I got to know classic rock and the hits from the 80s. I remember that it was like the end of the world when one of the three (I can't remember which) changed their format to Country. Ugh! That's actually when I stopped listening to radio and depended on my own expanding tape (and later CD) collection.

 

The question asked in the title is different than the one in the body of the original post:

How much did radio influence your favorite artists growing up?

One of my two favorite artists is Todd Rundgren, and he was significantly influenced by Philadelphia radio, especially "Philly Soul".

 

zero

 

I get the impression the majority of this website doesn't tune into commercial radio or even college radio as a method for finding new music, title is fine.

 

Great radio station

 

During the 1980s I played FM Pop/Rock stations in my bedroom, living room and in cars all the time.
When I wasn't playing the radio I was watching Mtv.
Some successful radio acts couldn't get the extra push from Mtv, while many artists who gained a lot of success due to Mtv weren't on the radio much if at all.
Then you had those who were big on both but were more successful on one of the two.

 

AM radio in the 60s was a musically magnificent era.
Not only was it the music from that decade that you heard but also the "oldies" of the 50s.
It was a whole different world that you wanted to be part of.
It provided me with a prefect foundation from which to build on.

 

Radio has had no influence on me whatsoever. I have always loathed commercial radio. Thank god for the internet.

 

Cincinnati radio for me, somewhat. Genesis was starting to get heavy play in ‘80 -‘83; Neil Young did too. For my favorites in the ‘90s going forward, not radio at all. I got into Wilco, Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, The Decemberists, Flaming Lips and many others ... not from the radio, though

 

I drive for work and my local publics are just awesome. I'm always pulling out little pieces of paper to write the song down. Get great stuff off the radio quite frequently. Odd nowadays.

 

My circle of FRIENDS - it was their record collections that got me started. And it spiraled out from there. Radio only played a small part.

 

But, if we take the title literally, one could respond that we should ask the artists if they were influenced by radio. So, the title isn't fine.

 

If the title is the actual question:

 

Radio was everything to me. I woke up to it and went to sleep with it. And as much as possible in between. Transistor radio through the Walkman. It’s a lost lifestyle.

 

I did have a period when radio was a significant influence - KAAY-AM in Little Rock, Arkansas, the show Beeker Street. Amazing we could pick it up in Kansas City, but apparently it was one of those old "clear channels" and could be heard in Chicago.

 

Given that I pretty much grew up and became a music lover in the 80's, I have to give credit to FM radio and MTV for almost all of the favorites I had as a kid.

 

by 1968 I was heavily into FM Radio...still listened to AM on my AM radio in my car...

 

Mainstream/Commercial radio had a big impact on me musically but so did Community/College Radio. I grew up in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and think it was a eclectic market for radio.

My earliest memories of radio would be the 80s Pop/light Rock that my mom listened to when we would go places in the car. Eventually I hated that stuff, but as I got older I like much of it again.

I discovered Heavy Metal from my older brother and listened to whatever stations were playing it. The stations changed and we had nationally syndicated Z-Rock for some of the time. I enjoyed the Z-Rock 1,000 where they would play the top 1,000 requested songs at the end of the year.

Eventually Heavy Metal radio disappeared from the area for a short time. I was listening to Classic Rock, mostly KQRS, and could name every artist that was being played.

Hard Rock/Heavy Metal returned and soon bands like Nirvana and Alice in Chains were being played along side your more classic Heavy Metal and Hair Metal bands.

Soon Alternative Rock formats were appearing. We had a station called Rev 105 that was quite legendary. They were locally owned, but commercial and would play an eclectic mix. Paul Westerberg's sister was one of the DJs.

Backing up a bit, I had one of those Sony Walkmans with the digital presets. I had extra presets, other than the stations I would listen to on a regular basis, so I added some "odd" stations. One day I heard some Oriental music so I put that station in my presets because I thought it was humorous. At a later time all the commercial stations had commercials so I decided to try that station. I discovered KFAI, community radio, but at night they played Rock music. I became a regular listener. I remember one of the first times listening and heard Blue Oyster Cult, Dag Nasty and Nancy Sinatra on the same show. They also had a Metal Show at 1:00AM on Sunday morning. I stayed up late many Saturdays nights.

There was a great college radio station, KUOM, from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I had a driving job for couple years and listened to that almost exclusively on the job. I think commercial radio would have driven me crazy.

 

Radio and MTV up until around when napster came out (i was in my 20's). After that i was sort of done with radio.

 

Radio - specifically Top 40 AM radio - had a tremendous impact on my musical tastes. I started listening to music - really listening - in the mid-197o's. When I tuned my modest white transistor radio to the local AM powerhouse - Boston's WRKO - I sat in my bedroom or did my homework while feasting on the vast and incredibly diverse buffet of artists "hitting the charts" at that time. Pop, soul, funk, rock and roll, hard rock, jazz, novelty - all of it found its way to the Top 40.

For example - in July 1976 I was 9 years old and well into buying 45s (which I'd play on one of those kid-sized turntables, in a case like a typewriter with the speaker built in). Turning on my radio, I'd hear Wings' "Let 'Em In", Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back In Town", Parliament's "Tear The Roof Off The Sucker", and "A Fifth Of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy - which are only four songs from that week's Top 40. After I'd saved enough money, I'd pester my mom or dad to take me to the Mall to buy those singles (and they had to have a picture sleeve).

The lesson I learned from Top 40 Radio early on was this: what's good...is just good. I didn't have to like or follow strictly one genre or style of music - I could simply like music. When radio started stratifying itself - classic rock, alternative rock, classic soul, easy listening, etc - that's when I turned it off.

 

Yes! And don't forget Wonderful Wibbage(WIBG-AM). WMMR had the incredible Ed Sciaky along with Michael Tearson and Michael Tozzi. Really miss those guys! The segues these guys put together were genius!