The Influence of the Limited Playlist at the Storz Broadcasting Company during the Payola Era


Steven Robert Scherer, 

M.A., Purdue University, August 2002

 

Major Professor: Robert M. Ogles.
Committee members: Glenn G. Sparks and Randy Roberts (History)

116 pages

 

THESIS ABSTRACT

            The function of the disc jockey at the innovative Storz chain of radio stations during the years 1958-1960 is analyzed through oral histories with Richard A. Braun, Charles K. Murdock, and Lan Roberts.  During this period, when music-and-news programming was characterized by record-promoter enticements, the Storz organization promoted a creative environment for talent while emphasizing the strict enforcement of a limited playlist of recordings.  Because talent at Storz stations did not debut records, they were not primary candidates for payola during the nationwide diffusion of the Top-40 format developed by Storz.

This study reveals the importance of the disc jockey as a component of the Storz programming formula, and the impact of the Storz experience on the later careers of three men who worked with Todd Storz during the years in which his ideas emerged as the dominant management philosophy of the post-war radio industry.

Todd Storz Dickie Braun Charlie Murdock Lan Roberts
Todd Storz
1924-1964
Dickie Braun
1928-2006
Charlie Murdock
1932-2011
Lan Roberts
1938-2005
 
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