FM
Developed in 1933 by Edwin Armstrong, frequency modulation broadcasting offered the possibility of better sound quality than the established amplitude modulation radio which had been in use since the turn of the century, the very high frequency bands required by FM radio soon becoming the medium of choice for high-fidelity stereo music while sports, news and talk radio remained the province of AM.
It was in the year 1978 that the listening figures for FM radio overtook that of AM radio in North America for the first time, and by coincidence that was also the year which saw the release of a film celebrating the medium called simply FM, the feature directorial debut of John A Alonzo whose work as a cinematographer encompassed such diverse works as Chinatown, Blue Thunder, Scarface, Steel Magnolias and Star Trek Generations.
Set at Q-SKY, 71.1 on the FM band, broadcasting to Los Angeles and the surrounding area with the promise “we never come down to Earth,” station manager and programme director Jeff Dugan (Michael Brandon, years before he found fame in Britain as the transatlantic half of Dempsey and Makepeace) has the morning drivetime shift starting at six sharp, regardless of how late he got to bed the night before.
An assortment of personalities making up his team, each has a unique style, sensual ex-hippie Mother (Private Benjamin’s Eileen Brennan), country man Doc (Victor/Victoria’s Alex Karras), new-age ladies’ man Eric Swan (comedian Martin Mull in his film debut) and the through-the-night sensation of the Prince of Darkness (Blazing Saddles’ Cleavon Little, a friend of Brandon from Manhattan’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts), but changes are coming in the shape of new marketing manager Regis Lamar (9 to 5’s Tom Tarpey).
Written by Ezra Sacks, formerly employed at Los Angeles FM station KMET in the early seventies, Dugan’s character was apparently loosely based around the programme director he worked under, but on release the film struggled with distribution and underperformed, and now released on Blu-ray by Arrow the reasons are clear to see despite Alonzo’s technical achievement, the studio and the music venues always alive and buzzing with movement.
Essentially set inside the bubble of the Q-SKY, the characters never expand beyond that awareness, a microcosm within the distant sunny land of California where the music they play is all that defines then, unable to change even when faced with dropping ratings as demonstrated when Doc’s refusal to compromise his outdated country playlist costs him his slot, the crisis set around a commercial rather than moral compromise, Dugan refusing to play army recruitment advertisements because they do not suit the station format rather than a conscientious ethical objection.
Brandon, Brennan and Mull the standouts of the cast, the latter two could not be more different from their roles as Mrs Peacock and Colonel Mustard when they reunited almost a decade later for Clue, but the rest of the roles are underwritten, though in his accompanying interview the affable Brandon explains that the final edit of the film pushed the soundtrack over the plot, and sales of the double album far eclipsed the limited success of film.
From Steely Dan’s opening track to brief guest appearances from Foreigner and Tom Petty, the music is curated to evoke a time and place, with featured performances by Jimmy Buffett and Linda Ronstadt, the latter incredulously performing three covers, and music critic Glenn Kenny’s accompanying video appreciation unironically comments that the contributors are “conspicuously white,” but other than the enjoyment of the nostalgia for an era when musicians rather than producers were the stars, there is little reason to tune the dial to this station.
FM is available on Blu-ray from Arrow Films now
