Radio: From Platter to Chatter

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When television first barged so rudely onto the U.S. entertainment scene, many radio stations flipped the keys shut on their studio mikes, set their turntables to twirling eternally, hired the disk jockey to titillate the teen-ager with pointless prattle. But there are notable signs that the clatter of the platter is gradually being muted. Its replacement: serious chatter.

A pioneer trend setter has been KMOX, CBS's St. Louis station, whose 50 kw., clear channel signal sweeps the plains and burrows into the valleys of a large part of mid-America. Last year General Manager Robert Hyland, fed up with 24 hours of music, decided on a final gamble before getting out. His novel plan: skip the disks for four prime hours daily and substitute news, interviews, listener questions and erudite conversationalists. After what Hyland recalls was "the longest pause in broadcasting," station staffers agreed to give it a try.

Soon surprised housewives found themselves listening to civic officials solemnly discussing city problems—and many picked up their telephones to prod the politicians. They became fascinated by doctors' explaining hypnosis in childbirth, psychiatrists detailing environmental and hereditary factors in mental illness. Local Announcer John McCormick soothed them by purring Robert Burns's Despondency and Christopher Marlowe's The Passionate Shepherd to His Love.

By last week KMOX could claim a resounding success. Its afternoon audience had jumped 28% above its disk-jockey days; advertising time on the all-talk program (now expanded to seven hours daily) was sold solidly. Other CBS stations in Boston, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia had picked up the same format, and officials of at least eight other stations (from Winnipeg to Mexico City) have traveled to St. Louis to listen—and, perhaps, do likewise.