I vaguely remember getting distant stations at night that you couldn't pick up in the day; they played R&R, plus R&B.
Like you said Pryso, Dick Clark changed everything for teenagers; it came on about the same time most of us got home from school, and we couldn't wait to catch the latest steps.
It's funny how we all shared the same sentimental songs; "girls", at least the ones we had a crush on, seemed more complex than geometry, but we were determined to figure them out, which always seemed to involve heartbreak; that brought us to these sentimental songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZh6ZSRoYg