Todd Storz

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Robert Todd Storz (May 8, 1924 – April 13, 1964) is credited with being the father of the Top 40 radio format, which Gordon McLendon then went on to perfect with great commercial success during the 1950s and 1960s.

[edit] Biography

Todd Storz was the grandson of Omaha brewing legend Gottlieb Storz. Growing up in the family mansion in Omaha Todd grew to love ham radio while living there.^[1] In 1949 Todd, along with his father Robert, purchased radio station KOWH-AM in Omaha, Nebraska; Todd became the station's general manager. At the time, typical AM radio programming consisted largely of blocks of pre-scheduled, sponsored programs of a wide variety, including radio dramas and variety shows. Local popular music hits, if they made it on the air at all, had to be worked in between these segments. Storz noted the great response certain songs got from the record-buying public and compared it to the way certain selections on jukeboxes were played over and over.

Storz expanded his stable of radio stations in 1953, purchasing WTIX-AM in New Orleans, Louisiana, gradually converted his stations to an all-hits format, and pioneered the practice of surveying record stores to determine which singles were popular each week. It was at WTIX where he counter-programmed market rival WDSU's Top 20 at 1280 program with the Top 40 at 1450 on WTIX. Later that year he purchased WLAF-AM in Lafayette Indiana and built the first Top 40 FM in the country at 96.7 which became WAZY-FM. In 1954, Storz purchased WHB-AM, a high-powered station in Kansas City, Missouri, which could be heard throughout the Midwest and the Great Plains. He converted it to an all-hits format, and dubbed the result "Top 40". Within a few years, Top 40 stations appeared all over the country to great success, spurred by the burgeoning popularity of rock and roll music, especially that of Elvis Presley.

At his peak, Storz owned WTIX, WAZY A/F, WHB, KXOK (AM) in St. Louis, WDGY in Minneapolis, Minnesota, WQAM in Miami, Florida, and KOMA in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Storz died of a stroke in 1964 at the age of 39.