To this writer, the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s tend to blend into a single period of building and refinement of what came to be from the ’60s. It would not be until the mid ’70s when talk at AIMS meetings began to center around FM. The medium was finding more formats to benefit from stereo. True-lifestyle formats were further diversified, AOR emerged from “underground” to a stable format; Country Music came up town for success; the talk formats became an industry and Top 40 (now CHR), the first radio format to be claimed by teens as “their” music, continued to successfully serve the same demographics so important a catalyst to radio’s reinvention in the ’50s. AIMS members had ringside seats to format performance and development throughout the US and across Canada, as various members would choose among available formats.
Notable in the ’70s was the membership of Dick Chapin, an operator in markets previously too small for AIMS, who became chairman of the group for 25 years. Following the death of Harold Krelstein, the nationally known and highly respected head of the Plough, Inc. group of radio stations (first group to become a member), his successor, Wayne Hudson, was named a member. (Plough operated stations in Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Baltimore and Memphis.) The ’70s saw Stan Kaplan, well known for his Mars Syndicated Productions, invited to AIMS. Stan and wife, Sis Atlas Kaplan (of the Chicago Atlas radio family) owned Top 40 WAYS (AM); AOR WROQ (FM) and WAPE (AM) The “Ape”, Jacksonville. Other members were Ambert Dale, Norfolk, VA and Bob Keive, San Jose, CA. Thereafter came the prolific Kerby Confer, Keymarket, later to become River City Broadcasting and Sinclair Communications, respectively. Kerby remains connected to AIMS with his Forever Broadcasting group, with Carol Logan VP and operating head.
Other notable members of the period were Paul Rothfuss, now Saber Communications; Barry Baker, St. Louis’ River City Broadcasting and Sinclair Communications (certainly among AIMS’ most dynamic and successful members; Roland Johnson, Chicago’s Duchossois Communications, WHFS Washington DC, among others; Paul Palmer, news/talk; Jerry Lee WBEB, formerly WDVR and WEAZ Philadelphia (highly inventive…only individual operator of successful stand alone FM in Top 10 market); Michael O’Shea, KUBE Seattle (among the intuitive programmers in the industry); and Steve Goldstein, former WCCO manager with short run owner success in Minneapolis and Washington DC. AIMS was a great aid to Steve’s success and subsequent, highly advantageous sale.
Over the decades, AIMS upgraded its standards and established ground rules for acceptable presentations, requiring they be in book form describing sales promotion ideas in sufficient detail and explanation to be duplicated among the membership. Pre-visits for new applicants became a requirement for higher recruiting standards. Beginning with the 90’s, the creativity of smaller market broadcasters was sampled and found most useful. The red carpet remained out for larger operators, as well. These were the years when Keymarket grew from small and medium to large markets, including WWL New Orleans, with AIMS member Johnny Andrews as manager. Saga Communications, a public company headed by Ed Christian (one of the truly avid scholars of the broadcasting industry) came to AIMS for a second time, embracing highly successful medium (Springfield, MA) and several important large markets, including Columbus, OH and Milwaukee, WI.
In the ’80s a great presenter, Jim Tazarak, entered AIMS with KTAR and KLIT Phoenix, the Pulitzer radio stations. A two time member who returned to KTAR and AIMS after running a Kansas City business publication, Jim left again in 1994 to operate his own company, Taz Media. A purveyor of seminars for sales enhancements, Taz consults a group of stations in Europe; Poland.
In the early ’90s, AIMS had its first-ever Pittsburgh meeting. Legend has it that Pittsburgh’s WWSW, a pre-World War II traditional independent, was a member at some point in the late ’40s-early ’50s. Among other AIMS members crossing from the ’80s to the ’90s were Bernie Mann, Mann Media, WGLD Greensburg, NC; and Larry Levit, WBEN Buffalo, NY.
Beginning in the mid ’90s, members would see more changes in the fabric of broadcast ownership than in all of radio’s modern history. FCC ownership rules now allowed multiple AM and FM stations in virtually every size market to come under common ownership, forming what came to be known as “clusters”. Station groups expanded in virtually unlimited numbers throughout the nation. The decade saw a feeding frenzy among buyers, of which there is no comparable event in radio’s long history. Stations brought extravagant prices, forcing a great many sales among older, well-established stations and more recent, marginal operators alike. Consolidation placed a strain on AIMS bylaws and in many instances blurred the focus from operating competitively to simply buying the competition.
Among the late ’90s bright spots was the membership of a half dozen members; Lawrence Amaturo, son of Joe Amaturo, a former, highly successful AIMS member; John Dille, a prominent Indiana broadcaster known nationally for his work with NAB and RAB; Elmer Hildebrand, a small market expert, owner of Golden West Broadcasting servicing small markets in three western provinces; Carol Logan, VP of PA based Forever Broadcasting (with some of the thickest presentations) and most recently Mark Olson, a highly regarded group operator based in Calgary, Alberta.
AIMS is a unique organization in that its only dues are a member’s attendance and exchange of ideas, advice and camaraderie so useful to their bottom line and ultimate wealth. Though the fabric of AIMS may be stretched, with appropriate modification there remains every prospect for a bright future.
And so we bid a fond farewell to the first 50 years of AIMS, an exceptional organization that has held this writer’s interest and devotion for some 38 years.
— Myron Jones