Redundant and unnecessary.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Jeff (Michael Brandon) is the manager for a very popular radio station in Los Angeles. He has an arsenal of great disc jockeys: Mother (Eileen Brennan), Swan (Martin Mull), Prince (Cleavon Little) and Doc (Alex Karras). In addition, the station's motto is as little advertising as possible, resulting in more songs played. But, the middle management may be out to change this. They want Jeff to honor a proposal with the US Army to run quite a few recruitment spots. Also, the station endures personal problems in breakups, breakdowns, agent loss, and rival attacks. For his part, Jeff pulls off quite a feat by airing a Linda Ronstadt concert live which was sponsored by a different radio station! Finally, push comes to shove. If Jeff doesn't cooperate, he's gone. Will his loyal staff take this sitting down? This obviously dated but nice flick from 1978 has a sensational cast, a great soundtrack, and live performances by Ronstadt and Buffet. What a treat! Yes, the hair styles, costumes, and sets look "lost in the seventies" but the script has universal truths which never grow old. The direction is capable, too. FM is a fine curiosity piece especially given the musical appearances. Sound good?

FM is kind of silly and broad... the characters are two-dimensional weirdos out of a TV sitcom, and the plot feels paint-by-numbers. Despite this, the movie is quite charming and for me, poignant, because it manages to capture something about the now-departed era when rock music and FM radio were a cultural force to be reckoned with. In a time when music listeners are far more likely to be isolated in their iPod headphones, it's somewhat painful to realize what has been lost in music in terms of the communal listening experience that a locally-run, idiosyncratic radio station provided. When the plot briefly passes through the Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard --- now as lost to the ages as the library at Alexandria --- you are confronted with the fact that the entire culture of rock n' roll that many of us grew up with at the center of our lives -- radio, record stores, and arena concerts -- is essentially a thing of the past. Even though this isn't a great movie, it does a great job of taking you back in time to that era.The soundtrack is pretty middle of the road, but it's good to hear songs that the years have ground into mush briefly re-contextualized into their natural habitat. I can't think of a better way to hear a lot of late 70's radio fodder ("Baby Come Back"; Billy Joel) than within the confines of this movie.

I just watched FM for the first time in almost 29 years, and while I certainly can't say it's a bad movie, there surely is a reason I hadn't revisited it since The Jimmy Carter Era. It just doesn't entertain like a movie should.The main story with Michael Brandon as a "stick-to-your-guns" radio station GM was OK, but other than the scene with the dope-smokin' army pitchmen, there weren't many attempts at laughter. And this sure looks like it's presented as a comedy.Alongside a low-key Eileen Brennan's smoky voiced hippy DJ and Alex Karras' woefully miscast "country rebel", there was no way I could believe these were the main jocks at the top-rated rock station in LA. Only Martin Mull's Eric Swan (and his over-inflated, fragile ego) seemed to ring true.So look at it on face value...if you care to see what bland, mainstream FM radio looked and sounded like in the late 70's (Eagles, Foreigner, Boston---god, they're still in heavy rotation in Chicago in 2007!), give FM a viewing. Just don't expect to enjoy it..

I was in radio in the area the movie took place in the late 1970's, most of my friends felt the movie was molded after 94.7 KMET, "The Mighty Met" which at the time was king, with KLOS always nipping at their heels. Sadly, corporate money won out, the MET went "NEW AGE" and KLOS survived. Remember Paraquat, Ace "Space" Young, "The Gonzer" and Jim Ladd to mention a few Met Cats! None of us even thought about "WKRP in Cincinnatti" as a off shoot to "FM" although it was a great show. Myself and many others worked at a station much like "WKRP" at one time or another! "FM" was excellent and reflected a wild time in radio, when there was some pretty weird music out there and some great ones too!