The "Drake Format"?

[RJC]

Can someone explain to me what exactly a "Drake format" is? Is it the style the DJ's at WKLO used in the 70's? I grew up on WKLO in the 70's, and thought the DJ's were the greatest, I loved their style, and wanted to become a jock because of them, imo. Had I pursued that dream, I would have defenatly used the same style as the 1970's WKLO DJ.

[Travis]

Bill Drake & Gene Chenault produced many of the jingles, which were heard on radio stations around the country (including WKLO) and produced radio specials and automated formats as well. You can learn more about them at:

www.drakechenault.org/special.html

[John Quincy]

In the mid 60s, a programming guy by the name of Bill Drake revolutionized Top 40 radio in Southern California by doing away with long station jingles, limiting DJs to breaks that were under 10 seconds, adding tight formatics, and getting rid of a lot of on-air "clutter" (like jingles and short promos between commercials).

Drake's new approach to Top 40 became known as "The Drake Format." Many stations who copied Drake's approach used the same jingles Drake used, which were sung by the Johnny Mann Singers in Los Angeles. When the format started, the jingles were all acapellas. Years later, short jingles with instrumental backing were done.

If you listened to WKLO in the early 70s when Bill Henness was Program Director, you pretty much heard "The Drake Format" complete with Johnny Mann jingles.

[RJC]

Thanks fellas for setting me straight, I had never heard of the "Drake Format", until I came here.

[Travis]

In Sarasota, Florida, there is an 'oldies' FM station that plays at least two of the jingles that can be heard in the Drake Package (on the jingles page of this site). The station is Clear Channel owned (aren't they all?) and features one of the jingles at the top of every hour and uses the news jingle (or news sounder/intro) during morning & afternoon drive. Of course, the jingles do not say "WKLO" in any way, but are certainly the same jingles which can be heard within the Drake Package and on several of the WKLO airchecks from 30 years ago.

WSRZ Sarasota (Oldies 108) features streaming audio, so if you tune in around the top and/or bottom of the hour you just may hear the jingles.

www.wsrz.com