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AM Top 40 stations from the 60’s and 70’s in D.C.

K

Kevin

Guest
I’m familiar with WPGC 1580 being a Top 40 station from back in the day, but were there others from the D.C. area? or did near by Baltimore stations play a role serving the Washington D.C area with Top 40? And which stations were they?
 
The only Baltimore station that got any kind of signal into NE DC was WCAO in Baltimore, but it was not a factor as its directional pattern aimed to the Southeast, skirting the DC metro.

WPGC was a daytimer; it upped power and focused on the FM in 1969. Before that, and for many years, WEAM on 1390 had been a Top 40 leader. Richard Eaton's WINX in the northern suburbs on 1600 was also Top 40 in that era.
 
DavidEduardo said:
The only Baltimore station that got any kind of signal into NE DC was WCAO in Baltimore, but it was not a factor as its directional pattern aimed to the Southeast, skirting the DC metro.

WPGC was a daytimer; it upped power and focused on the FM in 1969. Before that, and for many years, WEAM on 1390 had been a Top 40 leader. Richard Eaton's WINX in the northern suburbs on 1600 was also Top 40 in that era.
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Thanks, for the information David. It is much appreciated.
 
There were several. WWDC was the first station to play The Beatles in 1964:

www.beatlesbible.com

Live: Washington Coliseum, Washington, DC

The Beatles' first US concert was watched by a crowd of 8,092 fans at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, DC. The band had traveled from New York to Washington, DC early in the day by rail, as an East Coast snowstorm had caused all flights to be cancelled. A special sleeper carriage was...
www.beatlesbible.com www.beatlesbible.com

So as a result, that was the station that promoted the Beatles concert at the Coliseum.
 
So apparently WWDC 1260 was also Top 40 in that era. Thanks Big A for the great read.
 
TheBigA said:
WEAM1390 in Falls Church was another popular Top 40 in the 60s.

Here's a link to an aircheck in 1965:

The Terry Knight Show on WEAM 1390 Arlington VA | January 24, 1965 – Airchexx
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WEAM was licensed to Arlington. Among the stories about dictatorial GM Harry Averil is one where he called the night jock on the hotline... which had red flashing lights in the four corners of the ceiling... and said, "Son, you know you f---ed up. Stop f--ing up or you are fired". The jock played the next song and walked out of the studio and never went back.
 
Kevin said:
Is this the same Terry Knight from Michigan of Terry Knight and the Pack? Who was also producer for Grand Funk and Bloodrock.
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That's a really good question. Terry's bio says he left radio in 1964 to pursue his music career. There are several records by Terry from 1965, so I doubt they're the same person. I don't see any references to him in radio after he left Michigan.

I also found this story from a DJ named Jack Fisher who says he was told to use the air name Terry Knight when he was at WEAM.

Jack Fisher (patrickwgarrett.com)

"Harry announced at a staff meeting that starting next Monday I was to change my air name to Terry Knight. "
 
This is all very interesting, I love the history of all these great Top 40 stations from all over the country from that great era of radio. I’m 65 years old and grew up listening to radio’s best days. We will never hear radio like that again. I grew up in the Detroit area and this area has a great radio history from the greatest era of broadcasting ever.
 
I'd like to add a little context to the excellent information above.

In the early 60's, WPGC and WEAM both got excellent ratings. WPGC was 10KW but highly directional from southeast of the District. WEAM had 5KW from just over the Falls Church line but did not have the best signal. At night WEAM had a lot of background in the northeast segment of the market. WINX ("Winks"), with 1KW day and 500 watts at night, had a following in Montgomery County north of the District.

The reason WPGC and WEAM did so well is because Washington did not have a Top-40 station with a good signal. In fact, the market had little in the way of big signals. The best signals were WMAL, WRC, WTOP and WWDC.

WWDC: Yes, Carroll James is said to have played the first Beatles record. But I didn't consider WWDC to be a Top-40 station; they played Top 40 music but within an adult, full-service framework.

Because the market had so many poor signals, FM took off early here. WPGC-FM simulcasted its daytime AM. In 1966, WPGC hired popular DC personality Jack Alix for evenings and started going all out to get people over to the FM dial. At AM sign-off, they would tell listeners to move to 95.5. Around 1971, WPGC-FM increased from 15,700 to 50,000 watts and became a ratings juggernaut, eventually burying WEAM. By the mid-70's, WPGC was challenging WMAL-AM for #1 and beat WMAL in some books.

DC Top-40 radio sounded really good in the 60's and 70's despite 3 reputedly crazy GM's. Someone mentioned Harry Averill. Every WEAM jock had one thing in common: Harry would eventually fire them. He embraced the jock du jour plan. I've heard from a former WEAM employee that Harry had mics buried in the ceiling in order to hear what employees were saying. I also heard Harry kept secret where he would be buried because he knew what former employees would do.

WPGC's GM, Bob Howard (aka Mr. Soundoff) was said to monitor jocks, and call up and scream at them. He decided to use house names. He fired Bob Raleigh when Raleigh asked for a raise, and Raleigh went over to WWDC. Bob Howard then kept the Bob Raleigh name at WPGC, and there were several Bob Raleigh's after that. He named Dean Griffith, who later went to WMCA as Dean Anthony, after Griffith Stadium, where the Washington Senators played. And of course when Dino left, Howard brought in the next Dean Griffith. Richard Eaton, GM at WINX, was mercurial and cheap according to his reputation.

As a major Top-40 FM, WPGC could have survived for many more years than it did. After original owner Max Richmond died in the 70's, WPGC was purchased by First Media, owned by members of the Marriott family. They preferred an AC station like WASH, but WPGC had huge ratings and was printing money in the 70's. I'm told that then PD Scott Shannon had to hold them off at one point in order to keep the station Top 40. I was also told the Marriotts incorrectly thought, "Look at all the 35-54's we're getting with Top 40. Just think how many we could get if we were AC." Eventually in the 80's, First Media changed the format, one of the worst moves in radio history, and WPGC as a Top 40 station was gone.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I'd like to add a little context to the excellent information above.

In the early 60's, WPGC and WEAM both got excellent ratings. WPGC was 10KW but highly directional from southeast of the District. WEAM had 5KW from just over the Falls Church line but did not have the best signal. At night WEAM had a lot of background in the northeast segment of the market. WINX ("Winks"), with 1KW day and 500 watts at night, had a following in Montgomery County north of the District.

The reason WPGC and WEAM did so well is because Washington did not have a Top-40 station with a good signal. In fact, the market had little in the way of big signals. The best signals were WMAL, WRC, WTOP and WWDC.

WWDC: Yes, Carroll James is said to have played the first Beatles record. But I didn't consider WWDC to be a Top-40 station; they played Top 40 music but within an adult, full-service framework.

Because the market had so many poor signals, FM took off early here. WPGC-FM simulcasted its daytime AM. In 1966, WPGC hired popular DC personality Jack Alix for evenings and started going all out to get people over to the FM dial. At AM sign-off, they would tell listeners to move to 95.5. Around 1971, WPGC-FM increased from 15,700 to 50,000 watts and became a ratings juggernaut, eventually burying WEAM. By the mid-70's, WPGC was challenging WMAL-AM for #1 and beat WMAL in some books.

DC Top-40 radio sounded really good in the 60's and 70's despite 3 reputedly crazy GM's. Someone mentioned Harry Averill. Every WEAM jock had one thing in common: Harry would eventually fire them. He embraced the jock du jour plan. I've heard from a former WEAM employee that Harry had mics buried in the ceiling in order to hear what employees were saying. I also heard Harry kept secret where he would be buried because he knew what former employees would do.

WPGC's GM, Bob Howard (aka Mr. Soundoff) was said to monitor jocks, and call up and scream at them. He decided to use house names. He fired Bob Raleigh when Raleigh asked for a raise, and Raleigh went over to WWDC. Bob Howard then kept the Bob Raleigh name at WPGC, and there were several Bob Raleigh's after that. He named Dean Griffith, who later went to WMCA as Dean Anthony, after Griffith Stadium, where the Washington Senators played. And of course when Dino left, Howard brought in the next Dean Griffith. Richard Eaton, GM at WINX, was mercurial and cheap according to his reputation.
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Good memories. I was briefly with Art Kellar, as I thought I could get enough money out of Ecuador to buy 25% of what became EZ Communications. I did some work with WEEL, including firing Jack Alix. And I was the first GM of the new Richmond station. A lot of the WEEL jocks when it was oldies as "Million Dollar Music WEEL" were former Harry Averill employees. And yes, the idea of watering his grave would be very appealing to many.

The GM of WiNX was Pierre Eaton. Ricard was the owner, and also owned the first stations I worked for, WJMO and WCUY in Cleveland Heights, OH. There, the AM was R&B and the FM was jazz and I was the token white guy who went for coffee and cleaned the place on occasion. Eaton was another who might have wished for an undisclosed gravesite... and of course, he lost several of his licenses due to nastiness the FCC took an enormous distaste to, including WOOK in DC and WFAB in Miami. Another of the real "piece of work" owners of that era who make today's groups seem like real princes by comparison.

WPGC's big move was 1969, when the upped the tower height and increased power, putting a good signal into the whole market. I was living in NW on Newark and the signal went from marginal to as good as the ones right down the street in the NW antenna farm area.

And, yes, WWDC was really a forerunner of what became "chicken rock" which, in turn, evolved into modern Adult Contemporary in the mid-70's.
 
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You are indeed correct that Richard was the father, head of UBC, and Pierre was the GM of WINX. Pierre was also the GM of WLPL-FM in Baltimore, an upstart Top 40.

I did a term paper at the University of Maryland about the WOOK case that ultimately led to their license forfeiture. I made multiple trips to the FCC to read through the numerous reams of documents about the case.

WOOK aired a Sunday paid program on which a preacher ostensibly referred to bible verses, such as chapter 14, verse 7. The "verses" turned out to be bookie numbers for betting purposes. But I recall reading in the documents that WOOK was forced into modernizing equipment over time by virtue of many violations.

In 1969 a friend from the college radio station and I visited every radio station in the Washington market. I remember being in the WOOK control room and noticing the jock looked nervous. My friend theorized he thought we might be from the FCC.
 
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