Before "Lite FM" There Was "Easy Listening"

This was the stuff you heard in doctors' offices, and which many of our parents often had on the radio. "Easy Listening" radio was big in the Sixties and early Seventies, and at the time there were actually four stations in our town that played it: WPAT AM, WPAT FM, WRFM and WTFM. The music was so schmaltzy and corny that no self-respecting teen would be caught dead listening to such stuff.

What exactly composed "Easy Listening?" There seemed to be two kinds of music, with most stations playing a mix of both. The first was simply very mellow material by performers like The Carpenters or the Ray Conniff Singers. (BTW: remember in 1972 when one of Conniff's singers, while doing a gig at the White House, told Nixon what to do with his war?). Then there was the real schlock: covers of the aforementioned material by anonymous orchestras and singers - heavy on the "dee-dee-dees" and "la-la-las." Stations played songs in blocks lasting about 20 minutes, and announcers showed no personality.

With changing tastes and demographics, the Easy Listening market dried up. WPAT AM, WRFM and WTFM all changed both call letters and formats. I believe one of the two FM stations is the present "Lite FM." WPAT FM, as most of us know, continues to play somewhat mellow music - in Spanish.