The musical changes that had begun the year before were fully realized with the release of the Beatles' landmark work, 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' in June of 1967. No longer would albums be merely a collection of singles and filler material. The notion of an LP as a creative piece of art akin to a book forever changed the audio landscape in popular music.

The influence of the album was profound; other artists followed suit with wild experimentation and soon the Psychedelic Era was in full swing. Jefferson Airplane, the Strawberry Alarm Clock and others pushed the envelope of what was a Top 40 hit and enjoyed significant airplay, much of it on FM.

Pure Pop pleasure was hardly forgotten by the record buying public though. The Monkees, Turtles, Rascals and so forth pumped out two and a half minute gems at a rapid fire pace. DC's own, the British Walkers made the survey at #74 with, 'Shake'. The group was led by Bobby Howard (no relation to WPGC GM, Bob Howard) and was managed by the Poe Cat, Bobby Poe until they broke up in 1968.

Another American group with a British sounding name, the Buckinghams placed three hits in the survey while acts that were actually from the UK such as the Stones, Herman's Hermits and the Hollies charted multiple times throughout the year, the year of the Summer of Love. Scott McKenzie's ode to San Francisco and the Monterey Pop Festival confirmed undeniably that change (among other things) was in the air (what's that strange smell?).

 

Listen to the WPGC year end countdown for 1967:

	01/01/68	Part 1 - Bob Peyton - (Bob Burian) & Jack Alix	39:46
	01/01/68	Bob Peyton - (Bob Burian)	3:57

 

'Bob Peyton' was a house name used at WPGC. This was the third one (Bob Burian) who was hired by Program Director, 'Cousin Duffy' and took the name from TV's "Peyton Place". In this brief excerpt, he counts down #10 - #6 of the Top 100 hits of 1967 on January 1st, 1968.

Other things to listen for:

- A promo by morning man, Harv Moore & someone else for the 'Lucky Birthday Game' on the 'Big PG'.

- The Top 100 list Bob refers to that listeners could mail away for is seen above.

- Repeated "68's gonna be great" liners and jingles. Little could they have known the ensuing year would be filled with unparalleled turmoil & upheaval.

- Jingles are most likely from PAMS of Dallas.

- Harv Moore's spot for a local car dealership. The 'Ken Dixon riddle time' was obscure trivia in a question & answer format which opened and closed the commercial.

- The 'more music' battles typifying the era is evident in Bob's pledge of great things to come from the station in the coming year with 'more minutes of what you listen for'.

- Bob's obvious attempt to wrap up the countdown by 5:15 PM, the sign off time in January for the AM (which was 100% simulcast with the FM that this aircheck originates from).

Special thanks to Walt Bailey of oldradioshows.com for the audio above.

 

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