Random Record Reviews: Volume 7

CAP-FM: What’s In-Store For You 

In previous posts I’ve mentioned how much I enjoy what was known as “progressive freeform” FM rock radio, the history of which was recounted in WNEW-FM DJ Richard Neer’s FM: The Rise And Fall Of Rock Radio. I’ve also mentioned Javed Jefri’s wonderful Let The Universe Answer, in which you can hear airchecks of the actual freeform era. 

I started wondering if any records of the day followed the FM format of seguing tracks with a DJ patter between the songs…and somehow stumbled upon that very thing! This is CAP-FM, aka the FM radio station that never was. The brainchild of Capitol Records’s national manager for Album Oriented Rock, Ray Tusken, the CAP-FM: What’s In-Store For You promo-only records followed the format of an FM broadcast of the day, the idea being that stores would play the records over the stereo system and interested shoppers might scan the bins for the albums the DJ talked about. Also a nice play on words in the title – “what’s in store for you” referring not only to new music out from Capitol, but also literally referring to the albums shoppers could find in the store. 

A pretty brilliant idea, I think, but I’m guessing the CAP-FM: What’s In-Store For You albums were too expensive to make, or provided too little ROI, thus there were only four of them…all released over a period of 2 years. There also seems to have been some behind-the-scenes wrangling, as Ray Tusken is not listed as “executive producer” on the back of What’s In-Store For You #4. That volume also sees a female “announcer” (uncredited, same as the male one was on volumes 1-3), as well as more of a focus on guitar rock than the first three volumes, which could indicate more shake-uppery. 

I recently came across a contemporary feature on the first CAP-FM release, in an industry journal called Cash Box. There Ray Tusken was interviewed, where he stated that the album was specifically put together like a radio set, with the songs seguing into one another in a cohesive block, “like a good [radio] jock would do.” He also noted that something called a “limiter” had been applied to the album, meaning that it “sounded like a tuner,” not like a regular record. I can say that these records sound incredible and are some of the best-sounding records in my 2,000+ collection. Capitol clearly put some effort into the production, engineering, and mastering…which could be another indication why there were only 4 of them. 

First a note on the DJs, merely credited as “Announcer” on the back cover. (We know from the feature story mentioned above that the male announcer on #1-3 was someone named Mike Harrison, but I don’t know who the female Announcer on #4 was.) One main difference between these faux-FM broadcasts and real ones is that the CAP-FM announcer(s) have zero personality. The male Announcer on #1-3 and the female Announcer on #4 just indicate the songs about to be played, or that were just played, and might occasionally provide a few brief asides about the group. But there’s no attempt at “connecting” with the audience. Also worth noting is that there’s no hard selling on the records, no “You can find this album right here in the store!” sort of stuff. In fact they try to make it sound like a legitimate radio broadcast…the first What’s In-Store For You record even carries the conceit so far as to identify the faux-station as “WCAP-FM,” ie adding a “W” like real stations on the East Coast would have. Also worth noting that the Announcers do not say “Cap-FM;” the station call letters are spelled out, again like a real station: “C-A-P-FM.” 

There’s also no intro or outro on any of the records. The idea was likely for the store employees to just keep flipping the record over, so that customers coming in would have no idea they weren’t hearing a real FM radio broadcast. Each record in the series opens with the Announcer’s blank statement “This is CAP-FM,” then it goes straight into a song. Each side ends with the Announcer stating, “This is CAP-FM. We’ll be back.” Another thing to note is they didn’t go all the way with the “real radio station” conceit; there are no fake advertisements, a la The Who’s The Who Sell Out. 

Other than that old Cash Box feature, there’s not much info out there about the CAP-FM: What’s In-Store For You LP series. Also there were no uploads on Youtube prior to the ones I’ve listed below. On the plus side, the records are not pricey at all; the first one cost me the most, at six bucks. I picked up #2-4 for about $2 each, in VG+ condition! Anyway, on to looking at each release… 

CAP-FM: What’s In-Store For You #1 

Capitol Records, 1976 

The first CAP-FM is certainly the best. It’s also the one that might cost you the most, as only a thousand copies were pressed. But of all 4 records, this one most replicates an FM broadcast of the day, with some cool seques between tracks and some obscure artists being featured. The segues are also very well done, nowhere more notably than on side 2, in which the “space sounds” outro of Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like An Eagle” seamlessly melds into the “space sounds” intro of obscure German prog outfit Triumvirat’s “I Believe:” 

Side 2 also demonstrates Ray Tusken’s note that the songs would form “blocks…like a good jock would do;” the theme on this side is centered around lost time and the travails of being a rocker. Obscure singer-songwriter Tom Snow’s “Rock And Roll Widow,” with its focus on a groupie who wonders if she’s wasted her life, is played before The Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like An Eagle” (with it’s “time keeps on slipping” lyrics). That track segues into Triumvirat’s “I Believe,” a song that’s all about the frustrations of being a famous rockstar. (Surely the members of Triumvirat* indulging in some wishful thinking!!) So in other words, a complete “block” of songs that all follow the same general theme. Speaking of Tom Snow, he also appears on side 1, with “Hurry Boy,” featuring backing vocals by Stevie Nicks (thanks to the Announcer for letting us know…though of course her vocals are pretty distinctive anyway). 

Otherwise on #1 we have rockers Starz, Australia’s Little River Band (another thanks to the Announcer – I’d seen their name but had no idea they were Australians), and on another obscure tip we have HUB, a group comprised of former members of Rare Earth. Overall What’s In-Store For You #1 was my intro to the series and I played it a bunch when I got it, and likely this will be the one in the series I play the most in the future. 

CAP-FM: What’s In-Store For You #2 

Capitol Records, 1977 

Full disclosure: this is my least favorite in the series, to the extent that I didn’t even make a video recording of any of the songs on it. There’s none of the variety of #1 and the segues aren’t as well done. For that matter, “Fly Like An Eagle” appears again, for some reason, but whereas the spacey outro section was expertly used as a segue into the next song on the first LP, this time “Fly Like An Eagle” just ends cold and the next track, Cockney Rebel’s Beatles cover “Here Comes The Sun,” starts right up. Otherwise the aim this time appears to have been to play it safe: we have Sammy Hagar and Bob Seger on both sides, each time their tracks unimaginatively seguing into each other. The obscure artists as seen on the previous release have been replaced by better-known MOR types, though we do get prog rock again in the form of Gentle Giant’s “Just The Same.” But it’s a cut from their live album and isn’t very proggy at all. A group called Maze also takes us into an unwanted Soul detour at the end of the album (“Happy Feelin’s”); they will return for the final CAP-FM release. 

Also of note is that the Announcer, an uncredited Mike Harrison once again, has dropped the “W” from the name of his pseudo-station; it will remain just “CAP-FM” for the rest of the series. He also adds a little more color commentary between tracks, for example telling us that we should catch certain acts in concert where possible. But otherwise there is a bland, “safe” vibe to What’s In-Store For You #2, so I wouldn’t suggest this as the one to check out first if you want to listen to this series. 

CAP-FM: What’s In-Store For You #3 

Capitol Records, 1977 

Things improve with the third release. Mike Harrison is still our uncredited “Announcer,” and he shows more personality this time than on the previous records. Still nothing on the level of a real-life jock, though. I just mean he’ll have these periodic asides like “Good stuff” after a track is played…which actually comes off as so facile that it’s funny. But once again his main purpose is to introduce each track, tell us where the band’s from, and give us the name of the album. And luckily there’s more variety here, getting away from the Middle of the Road vibe of #2. 

Little River Band and Gentle Giant are back, but we also get Be-Bop Deluxe (“Shine,” from their live LP), the unsung Bob Welch (who had just started his solo career), and a Lou Reed-type called Mink DeVille. On the prog side we have none other than Klaatu, whose “Around The Universe In Eighty Days” segues so perfectly into Gentle Giant’s “I’m Turning Around” that you’d think it was all one long song: 

The thematic work behind the segues still isn’t as on-point as in #1, but this one’s a definite improvement over its predecessor. Oh and I forgot – no mention is made over the Klaatu flap of the year before, where everyone thought Klaatu was really the Beatles. What you hear in my Youtube upload above is all that is said about Klaatu…just a generic intro with a mention they’d done “a rather unique space opera” with the London Symphony Orchestra. The LP, by the way, is Hope, which I don’t like nearly as much as Klaatu’s first album. But still, there is a bit of a bland sound to What’s In-Store For You #3, with not as much variety as in the first record…which makes the following LP come as quite a shock.

CAP-FM: What’s In-Store For You #4 

Capitol Records, 1978 

We immediately notice two things about this fourth (and final) CAP-FM release: Executive Producer Ray Tusken is not listed on the back cover, as he was for the previous three records, and our uncredited Announcer is now…a woman!! No idea who she was, but I detect a slight Southern twang in her delivery, as heard in the upload below. Otherwise Ms. Announcer is much the same as her male counterpart, introducing each track without much personality. She interjects the same sort of tidbits on each act, leading me to believe that the same person handled the scripts for all four records in the series. 

As mentioned above, another big change with #4 is the sudden focus on guitar rock. This is by far the most head-nodding CAP-FM record, featuring such glammy hard rockers as The Sweet, Status Quo, Starz and Be-Bop Deluxe. The latter’s “Panic In The World” was new to me (I prefer my rock from earlier in the ‘70s), but by gum if it didn’t have me ready to pick up a copy of the album it came from. It segues into a non-album track by the obscure Tom Robinson Band (sorry, maybe not so obscure…the Announcer says they’re one of the hottest new acts in England!!): 

Damn that “Panic In The World” can get stuck in your head. Crazy how it sounds like something from a few years later – this track would’ve been huge if it had been released in 1982. Also you might notice that the song here is an edit, same as are most of the other songs featured in the series (something I neglected to mention). For example, The Sweet’s excellent, ELO-ish “Love Is Like Oxygen” is half the length of the album version, cutting out a groovy second half. Speaking of which, the second half of What’s In-Store For You #4 loses the guitar-rocking vibe of side 1 and slows way down with the 1-2 finale of Crane and Maze, two acts that go in more of a Soul direction…the Maze song in particular, “Golden Time Of Day,” seems like it’s never going to friggin’ end. 

But it finally does end, after which our Announcer says, “CAP-FM. We’ll be back,” and with that the stylus reaches the runoff groove and the record comes to a close – thus ending the CAP-FM: What’s In-Store For You series. These records are certainly recommended if you like ‘70s rock in general and ‘70s FM rock radio in particular, with the caveat that #2 isn’t too great and the “fake radio station” conceit only goes so far. But as stated the records sound phenomenal, with a wide stage presence that likely sounded great pounding out of the stereo systems in record stores of yore. 

*I discovered Triumvirat in 1996, when I bought a cassette of their 1975 album Spartacus from the clearance section of a Camelot Records store in Dallas. I’d never heard of the group but the album title caught my eye, given that I had been obsessed with historical epics as a kid. I would play this progressive, ELP-style album on the tape deck of my buddy Ken’s 1980s Saab as we’d drive around Dallas. Ken’s tape deck had this weird gimmick where, if you pressed two buttons at once (I think it was Eject and Power), the tape would instantly flip over and play the same spot on the other side. Somehow Ken managed to discover a possibly intentional fluke on the Spartacus tape. There was a song on Side 1 where the vocals went, “The sun is shining.” Ken discovered that if he hit that “auto flip” function at that moment, it would flip over to Side 2, where you’d hear the line, “Time to die,” with the vocals in the same key. In other words, “The sun is shining/Time to die,” which became a running joke in those carefree, unmarried days of my youth, where I had the time to waste on such trivialities. Speaking of which, next week I’ll be celebrating twenty-one years of wedded bliss, so it’s likely I will not have a post up.