Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent but underrated film

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A film with a great soundtrack of the late 70's rock era although it belies the lyrics from the title song where Steely Dan sings about setting the mood for getting it on with a girl with funk and reggae because there is no funk or reggae in the movie. The film has a simple premise in the radio station staff rebels over the commercialization of what is a commercialized business to begin with. This is not a public or college station but regular commercial station but they take on the corporate world in a strike against the stations plans to be top 40 rock rather than free-form album rock with non-stop music and enlist their listeners help in their fight against the man. Despite this most of the songs in the movie aren't deep album cut album rock but mostly top 40 rock single releases. It does feature a great soundtrack in music by Steely Dan, The Eagles, Boston, Steve Miller, Boz Scaggs, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, Joe Walsh, The Doobie Brothers, Queen, Billy Joel, Walter Egan, Foreigner, Reo Speedwagon, and concert footage of Jimmy Buffett and Linda Ronstadt. A good cast which includes Eileen Brenna, Martin Mull, Clevon Little, Michael Brandon, Alex Karas and James Keach. There are some moments of good satirical comedy but kind of weak as a story but that's OK because it's fun ride in a rambling sort of way. David Myers is the film's cinematographer who compiled quite a resume in the 70's in music films and documentaries photographing Woodstock, Mads Dogs & Englishmen, The Grateful Dead, Soul to soul, Wattstax, Elvis on Tour and Renaldo & Clara. John Alonzo directs in his first and only theatrical film. He did go on to direct a couple of made-for TV movies but he had been a cinematographer and returned to photographing films. He had been a cinematographer on such films as Vanishing Point, Harold & Maude, sounder, Lady Sings the Blues and Chinatown and continued filming up until his death with such films as Scarface, Star Trek: Generations, Steel Magnolias and Cool World. although not a great film, this movie is worth a look. It debuted on screens in the spring of 1978 and is a great snapshot and soundtrack of the late 70's rock radio. I would give it a 7.0 out of 10.

This movie, and its soundtrack is the history of late 70's classic rock 101. Taylor, Walsh, Steely Dan, Rondstat. They are all there. And behind the music portrayed a Los Angles radio station with a band of misfits, and its eccentric station manager who wanted to run the station with a college style and no commercials. Martin Mull in his movie debut takes the cheese with his portrayal of Eric Swan, an egotistical babe magnet with the heart of 10 year old child. The movie even shows some excellent concert footage from Linda Rondstat, and Jimmy Buffett.This movie has been playing a lot on the Sundance Channel because this really was an indie movie. The movie did look a little low budget. It took a while for the VHS to come out, and now it is on DVD. This is truly one of my favorite movies of all time.

Bottom line: FM was a mediocre movie with a great soundtrack. I enjoyed all of the concert footage in the film (mostly Linda Ronstadt and Jimmy Buffet), but the comedy wasn't good, and the story was just plain awful.You've probably already read the synopsis so I'll spare you the details. The setting and situation were ripe for big laughs, but they never came. In fact, WKRP (which was being created at the same time as the movie FM) made much better comedy from virtually the same raw material.As for the premise, I found it patently hypocritical that FM station employees would be so offended at the idea of commercializing their station with ads, when that's in fact exactly what they do for a living. Radio exists because it sells records and concerts. It is by nature a commercial enterprise. DJs are the basically used car salesmen of the recording industry.Now I don't think there's anything wrong with this arrangement. In fact, I think it's a great deal for the radio audience; we get to sample the songs, and even fall in love with them before we decide to buy the recording.But the holier-than-thou attitude displayed in this movie is very disappointing. At one point in the film, Tom Petty (whom I love) is brought into the booth to be interviewed by the DJ while they play tracks from his latest album, "Damn the Torpedoes." Meanwhile, the station manager is trying his hardest to prevent commercials from airing on "his" radio station.I wanted to shout, "Hey, dude! There's a commercial for Tom Petty's album playing on your station right now! Hello! Kids are going to pay $10 for the record and Tom's going to get $1. The rest goes to some giant recording industry mega-corp." Basically, the screenwriters wrote the DJ's as self-indulgent children, the station manager as a self-centered prick, and the owners as pure evil assholes. This made it hard for me to root for anyone.The movie would have been sharper if the screenwriters had made the station manager more reasonable to contrast with the owners. Instead of objecting to all advertising, for example, the manager could have told the owners he was willing to do 20% more ads at 10% higher rates. Then have the owners shoot back at him with something like "you'll do it our way or you're out on your ass." Then I would have rooted for the station manager a lot more.Of course, I would have forgiven any flaws in the premise if the movie had just been funnier.By the way, if you want to read a contemporary review, there still one available at the NY Times website written by veteran critic Jane Maslin (http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=16493).

If you lived in Los Angeles during the 60's and 70's, you'll definitely understand and relate to this wonderful "un-official" send-up of what happened to shut down real rock 'n roll at radio station KMET-FM, the last surviving "underground" FM radio station of the 70's.Conglomerate KLOS-FM and independent KMET-FM were in a ratings and cultural battle that pushed the envelope of radio decency and the right to free speech unlike no other.The radio personalities: B. Mitchell Reid, Mary "Mounds" Turner, etc.Situations like "Champagne PayDays" where the DJ's would drink while spinning records, as well as "suspected" pot-smoking while on-the-air, along with playing as few commercials as possible, helped to bring down the station at the middle of the seventies. If you were there and want to reminisce, or, if you wanna see what it was like during a time when 'the people' REALLY controlled the airwaves, FM is the movie for you.Plus... you can't beat the music and the performances by artists and stars of the era.IF YOU LIKE ROCK 'N ROLL and YOU BELIEVE THAT IT WILL LIVE ON FOREVER, then, "FM" IS THE MOVIE FOR YOU!