The Birth and Evolution of the FM Dial “Card”!

As the Musings planned for this space hasn’t come together as anticipated … and as a gentleman recently engaged me in an in-depth discussion on this particular subject … I invite you to enjoy this Marlin’s Musings encore!

Meanwhile, in preparation for next week is an observance of a significant anniversary of a notable “high point” in my radio “love affair” journey … which is coming up on July 3rd! Oh yes, the dial card played a role.

Originally posted June 21, 2018

All evidence says that the first appearance of what was called an “FM Dial Card” appeared on the last page of “Stereo Notes,” the program guide of WHFS in Bethesda, Maryland … which began publication in the summer of 1962.

However, it was not a “card” as such, rather a listing of the FM stations serving the Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D. C. markets on a page in the guide, which was a subscription publication.

While there is a picture of the WDVR dial card and its story in my memoir … let me share the fuller story and show the cards in color and their evolution.

Whether “my cohort” Jerry Lee had seen it printed in card form somewhere, I do not know; however, it’s my belief that this promotional concept was pioneered by us at WDVR in Philadelphia.

This is the back side of our first card, which we began distributing not long after our first day of broadcasting on May 13, 1963. Month later, when it came time to print another batch of cards, the primary change was updating the list of song titles and artists. Between the two editions of the card, you are looking at the distribution of at least a quarter of a million of these cards … placed in any location in the Philadelphia/Southern New Jersey region which sold any kind of FM radio receiver.

You’ll note that both of these editions display the same address, located in the Germantown section, in the northwestern portion of Philadelphia … which was its home from sign-on in 1963 until the latter part of 1967.

One key to the effective success of the card placement was Jerry Lee having the printer design a cardboard holder which would hold 125 cards. Without such a holder, the cards would quickly get knocked off of the store counter and end up in the trash.

Neither Jerry or I have one of these original card holders, nor can we locate any photos which show the holder. So, the best I have is this artful drawing of the holder and cards, which appeared on a station promotional sheet.

Even after the station left the Germantown section of the city, moving to the City Line Avenue area where it’s still located today, albeit in different quarters, along with two of the market’s major TV stations and several other radio stations … and had gained a significant audience, making it a major factor in the ratings … it continued to print and place the cards in stores throughout the region. About the same time as the studios and offices were moved, its transmitting facility was able to re-locate to the TV antenna farm in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia, greatly improving its signal and coverage area. This meant it made sense to place cards in stores further removed from the heart of the market.

One thing you’ll note from card to card is that most owners had not yet begun to secure separate call letters for their co-owned FM stations … the only one having done so by 1968 was WIP-FM being changed to WMMR.

Here in 2018, if you were to create an FM dial card for the market, the only station outside of the two non-commercial stations, the University of Pennsylvania’s WXPN and Temple University’s WRTI, is WDAS-FM.

Yes, there is one note: WIP-FM is again an active set of call letters … however, they live at 94.1, the former address for WIBG-FM, later WYSP.

Any number of other stations around the country did print FM dial cards in the following years. But, I never saw any station beyond WDVR and what we later did at WRFM in New York City  – in both cases, printing and distributing well over a million cards – make dial cards a major on-going promotional endeavor, most not printing more than a few thousand cards.

If you haven’t read my memoir, RADIO, My Love, My Passion, which is the basis for many of these Musings … I hope you’ll do so soon. If you’ve been waiting for the Kindle Edition, it’s now finally available.

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