2473: A Very Brief History of Rocktober

So, uh, I set myself at a task to find out what is the origin of the term Rocktober.

Now, I do know, uh, that when I was in, uh, just maybe one year out of high school, around 1985 or in 1986, making a mixtape called Rocktober.

So I know that the term was in circulation, pretty wide circulation by then.

But I did some research, and I gotta say, there's not a whole lot of history about this, because as a term, you know, a term is a term.

It's not, uh, an event that started at some point.

But all sources point to Australia for the origin, uh, the real foundation, the real documented foundation of the term Rocktober.

Now, somebody might have said it many years ago, uh, you know, in the, uh, 1400s even, back before, uh, rock and roll was even invented.

It could've been...

But what we're talking about here is a book, uh, that I found sourced on the internet.

It's called For the Record, Volume Three, and it details, uh, the year 1974 in Melbourne, Australia, Sydney, Australia, Brisbane, Perth, Newcastle, and Canberra, Canberra.

Um, John, or Jaan, J-A-A-N, quote, John, his nickname was John, Torv, T-O-R-V.

And he came up with, he was an employee of, uh, the radio station 3XY in Melbourne, and he came up with an idea, uh, to put together a month-long series of live concerts that would be broadcast, specials, competitions, and giveaways.

And one of the reasons for this was, and I found some, uh, later 1970s c- uh, corroboration in this from stations in the Midwest, including Chicago's WLS-FM and Los Angeles' KMET.

And one of the reasons they focused on October was the fact that this is when the Arbitron ratings, uh, were often measured.

The autumn sweeps were, were very, very important going into the holiday season and all that.

So they came up with this idea of Rocktober.

And, um, it was a perfect marketing tool.

It also worked, obviously, really well with the month.

Uh, Oct and rock sort of rhyme, and that was enough.

And, you know, Rockvember doesn't really work.

This really just sort of fell into place as a perfect, um, coalition of different things that people were trying to achieve.

And so you take all this together, and it was a brilliant idea, and it really sort of caught on in rock, in rock and roll in Australia.

And Australia's a pretty rock and roll country.

Now, the thing that really caught my eye here was the big event during this month-long promotion, the capper, was a simulcast concert held on the steps of the iconic Sydney Opera House that drew around 100,000 people, was broadcast on all these different stations across Australia.

So if you turned on the rock radio in Australia near the end of October at the cap of this Rocktober month, you were going to hear this live concert.

So, uh, I set myself at a task to find out what is the origin of the term Rocktober.

Now, I do know, uh, that when I was in, uh, just maybe one year out of high school, around 1985 or in 1986, making a mixtape called Rocktober.

So I know that the term was in circulation, pretty wide circulation by then.

But I did some research, and I gotta say, there's not a whole lot of history about this, because as a term, you know, a term is a term.

It's not, uh, an event that started at some point.

But all sources point to Australia for the origin, uh, the real foundation, the real documented foundation of the term Rocktober.

Now, somebody might have said it many years ago, uh, you know, in the, uh, 1400s even, back before, uh, rock and roll was even invented.

It could've been...

But what we're talking about here is a book, uh, that I found sourced on the internet.

It's called For the Record, Volume Three, and it details, uh, the year 1974 in Melbourne, Australia, Sydney, Australia, Brisbane, Perth, Newcastle, and Canberra, Canberra.

Um, John, or Jaan, J-A-A-N, quote, John, his nickname was John, Torv, T-O-R-V.

And he came up with, he was an employee of, uh, the radio station 3XY in Melbourne, and he came up with an idea, uh, to put together a month-long series of live concerts that would be broadcast, specials, competitions, and giveaways.

And one of the reasons for this was, and I found some, uh, later 1970s c- uh, corroboration in this from stations in the Midwest, including Chicago's WLS-FM and Los Angeles' KMET.

And one of the reasons they focused on October was the fact that this is when the Arbitron ratings, uh, were often measured.

The autumn sweeps were, were very, very important going into the holiday season and all that.

So they came up with this idea of Rocktober.

And, um, it was a perfect marketing tool.

It also worked, obviously, really well with the month.

Uh, Oct and rock sort of rhyme, and that was enough.

And, you know, Rockvember doesn't really work.

This really just sort of fell into place as a perfect, um, coalition of different things that people were trying to achieve.

And so you take all this together, and it was a brilliant idea, and it really sort of caught on in rock, in rock and roll in Australia.

And Australia's a pretty rock and roll country.

Now, the thing that really caught my eye here was the big event during this month-long promotion, the capper, was a simulcast concert held on the steps of the iconic Sydney Opera House that drew around 100,000 people, was broadcast on all these different stations across Australia.

So if you turned on the rock radio in Australia near the end of October at the cap of this Rocktober month, you were going to hear this live concert.