16 years ago today: WCAU-AM goes off the air after 68 years

[apco25]

Your also forgetting WIOQ. They were oldies.

 

[Those RRRRs]

Nope. WIOQ had made the switch to Q102 by the time Oldies 1210 premiered.

 

[odomski]

BigOlBooty: there is nothing wrong with Mr. May requesting airchecks of stations...especially a station with a rich history like WCAU-AM. I applaud Mr. May's interest in what stations sounded like years ago. However, I find it very unnecessary that Julius finds the need to make the same request twice, in two different posts in the same thread, within a 20 minute span.

George: I'm glad to hear that you feel anything that your boy Julius says is more intelligent than what any of us say. The compliment is much appreciated. :

Now, on to the real purpose of this thread: Thanks to "Those RRRs" for providing a programming history of WCAU-AM, before the changeover to WOGL-AM. Also, thanks to others who discussed the history of the station. I enjoyed reading all of that information. Posts like that is what this board is about...and not posts from a message board troll talking about how 920 AM's signal sucks, Penn Quakers play by play, and pestering us for airchecks that probably nobody has or would even give to the aforementioned troll.

 

[apco25]

Also you forgot to mention that WE must start rolling tape right now because Sunny can become spanish any minute. And I want to know everyone's thoughts on that.
This board has become diagnosed as INSANITY......LOL

 

[fred flintstone]

OK, let's call it "Scrapple"

The similarity is that Sam turns threads to Hy (no matter how tenuous the link) and RJ turns them to RJ. They differ in degree, more than in kind. As I recall, this same item about Hy has been posted before.

In 1990, much of the industry had still not accepted talk radio syndication. I think you are a couple of years early in your timeline. Granted, Tisch-CBS was doing it's best to run the company into the ground on many fronts. I wouldn't call the last competitor to KYW an example of "bloat," however.

WCAU had been on the skids since 1976, when the real damage had been done (and that was Paley's brainstorm). Had WCAU been left alone, it would hold a position comparable to KMOX.

Hy was working the FM side in 1990 (as the original post makes clear). I realize people around here have a certain hometown loyalty to Wibbage (but - what the heck - they liked the Phillies in that era, too). Storer Broadcasting was a second-rate outfit (and people call Clear Channel "cheap) and Wibbage does not rank with the great AM Top 40 stations. Then, as now, Philly was a dead market in many ways and Wibbage only thrived as long as it did due to a lack of any real competition. IMHO: Hy Lit was a "journeyman" jock and he had a good run. But I can't in good concience place him with the legendary nighttime Top 40 personalities of the era.

In fact, I would limit "class acts" in Philly radio to:
WCAU 60s and early 70s.
KYW pre-Shapiro
Oldies WPEN mid-70s
MOR WIP 60s and 70s
Underground WMMR late 60s and early 70s

However, I think your most recent comment equating Sam and Hy Lit with SPAM is terribly shortsighted.

The Lit post above regarding what happened at City & Monument 16 years ago today was a trillion times more informative and relevant to this discussion than at least a half-dozen of the posts in this very thread. And to compare anything from Hy Lit on his worst day to RJ is nonsensical bunkum.


The biggest problem for WCAU was overspending, and a complete lack of vision for the direction in which AM radio was going. By mid-1990, most radio companies (and there obviously were a lot more of them then) realized the importance of syndication to major market AM radio-- quality syndication, that is (Rush Limbaugh) -- as well as a need to move away from non-political talk. The CRD saw none of this, and New York refused to listen to what more prophetic voices in Bala Cynwyd had to say.

Not to mention, there was no need for the bloated news staff at WCAU considering the station was airing just a few minutes an hour of local headlines toward the end.

As great as it was to hear Hyski on-the-air fulltime again in 1990, I think we can all agree "Oldies 1210" was perhaps the stupidest idea in the history of Delaware Valley radio at the time (The State of Delaware's takeover of WAMS to broadcast outdated road closures at taxpayer expense now wears that crown, in my opinion.)

While it was still rather misguided, WCAU was definitely headed in the right direction on the morning of August 15, 1990. Or at least, "righter" direction. It could have been salvaged, and had it been, WPHT would be a much more valuable property today.

 

[Jul]

Is it true that 1210 AM made a profit on the new oldies format for the first time in years?

 

[odomski]

Julius: place a phone call or send an e-mail to the CBS Corporate Stiff Necks over in Bala Cynwyd and ask them.

Now that I mentioned a station in town outside the city, I'm taking bets now to see how long it will take Julius to demand that WPHT move out of Bala Cynwyd into Philadelphia...since it's not a station within the City limits.

 

[fred flintstone]

Now that I mentioned a station in town outside the city, I'm taking bets now to see how long it will take Julius to demand that WPHT move out of Bala Cynwyd into Philadelphia...since it's not a station within the City limits.

Transmitter's not even in Pennsylvania: Maple Shade, NJ.
I wonder how well ESPN 920 comes in over there?

 

[Jul]

When did the WCAU-AM calls officially disappeared from 1210 AM forever? Was it that day or a few weeks later?

 

[chuckydoll]

Fallout from the death of WCAU-1210

CBS corporate picked a poor time to change the format at 1210. Iraq invaded Kuwait 2 weeks earlier and the ensuing crisis prompted the US to go to war against Iraq in January 1991.

An international crisis always means more listeners for a news/talk station -- a fact CBS management in Philly never understood.

Frank Rizzo, love him or hate him, was an icon in Philly. After CBS blew up WCAU-1210 he entered the 1991 Republican Party primary for mayor . . . and won! Unfortunately he died of a heart attack before the general election.

Back then, we had FOUR oldies stations in Philadelphia!

1) "Philadelphias' Only Oldies Station on FM...Oldies 98"
2) 560 WFIL had returned to the airwaves as Famous 56.
3) The Geator and gang on 1540 WPGR.
4) And of course, Oldies 1210 WCAU.

WFIL dropped oldies in 1989 to simulcast Easy 101 (WEAZ-FM), a satellite-format soft AC. The WFIL call letters returned when Salem purchased AM 560 and flipped it to religion.

 

[Jul]

CBS is to blame for WCAU's sign off?

I noticed that most of you are upset that CBS Radio blew up WCAU, why? CBS says I think that they were losing a million dollars a year I don't know if it’s true or not, the format was too costly to maintain operations and the ratings I guess was not good. You don't believe that? BTW Can anyone help me find the press release so I can post parts of it by CBS, if they issued one about the format change on 1210 AM back in 1990. I would really like to see that.

 

[odomski]

Two things:

First, I fail to see why this thread was dug up and rekindled.

Second, there is no reason to post a press release from over 15 years ago...also, if someone already has it. If you want to read it for yourself, that's fine. I applaud your interest in the history of the station. However, for those who want the information already have it...considering this format and call letter change happened over 15 years ago.

 

[wprt949]

And this weeks was Julius mays first call to the radio radio show

 

[Jul]

Two things:

First, I fail to see why this thread was dug up and rekindled.

Second, there is no reason to post a press release from over 15 years ago...also, if someone already has it. If you want to read it for yourself, that's fine. I applaud your interest in the history of the station. However, for those who want the information already have it...considering this format and call letter change happened over 15 years ago.

first of all did CBS issue a press release about this and second I want to know for sure what really happened. Why did WCAU go off the air.

 

[fred flintstone]

first of all did CBS issue a press release about this and second I want to know for sure what really happened. Why did WCAU go off the air.

First of all, WCAU did not "go off the air." It changed format and call letters.

Second, a press release will not tell you "what really happened." Press releases are lies and spin put together by PR people in an attempt to deceive or deflect criticism.

You have already posted much of what happened. If you are interested further: (1) Go to main branch of the Free Library and look up newspaper articles. (2) Find somebody who worked there and ask. In any case, do your own damn homework and stop asking people to do things for you.

 

[Jul]

first of all did CBS issue a press release about this and second I want to know for sure what really happened. Why did WCAU go off the air.

First of all, WCAU did not "go off the air." It changed format and call letters.

Second, a press release will not tell you "what really happened." Press releases are lies and spin put together by PR people in an attempt to deceive or deflect criticism.

You have already posted much of what happened. If you are interested further: (1) Go to main branch of the Free Library and look up newspaper articles. (2) Find somebody who worked there and ask. In any case, do your own damn homework and stop asking people to do things for you.

Sorry/

 

[Jul]

Re: Hy Lit Flips WCAU-AM to WOGL Oldies 1210

On the aforementioned day at 1210/WCAU-AM, Steve Carver, the new GM for CBS Philadelphia called me early that morning and instructed to be at the station at 12:55pm. He said, I can’t tell you why, just be there and be ready for anything. I show up at the station and they inform me at that time that I was going on the air with a new format in 5 minutes, I had better hurry. He informs me that 1210 is going oldies as 'Oldies 1210' at 1 pm, and that my FM duties now include the AM. I hit the air waves at 1:00, not even CBS news aired on the top of the hour. We jumped out of the gate with 'Let the good times roll', by Shirley and Lee. I said "Hello everybody, we’re here to let the good times roll". I notice all the CBS brass from New York is in the hall. This was a mile stone because of the signal reach of the frequency and this was the first time that a lot of the Sound of Philadelphia flavor would be broadcast and heard beyond the Delaware valley.
The phones lit up. The press showed up. Radio was changing. I still have that air check.

-Hy Lit

Can you e-mail me that audio Sam?

 

[Stuart]

Ah! more memories of my youth. That was Grandma's station. She would refer to the hosts as Mr. Meltzer, Mr. Gross,
Mr. Spivak, etc... I think Grandma cried when they changed formats (from News/Talk). :'( It was sort of "The Day The Music Died" thing, only not as dramatic!!!! I liked that little "sound" they played at the top of each hour.

Thanks for another trip down memory lane with WCAU (We Care About U)

just a little note, my father went to school with Hy Lit (West Phila.) I met him several times. Hyski...a legend in Philadelphia Radio!!!!

Stuart

 

[oaktree]

I remember when Ronn Owens did nights at 'CAU in the early '70s. He's doing just fine now, making $2-mill a year doing mid-days at KGO in SF...Number One for 27 years in a row. Every book. Ronn's not just an icon. He's the equivalent of Radio God here. I miss the old WCAU and agree with Fred's last post completely. I have a master of the old 'CAU "image" series done in the early 70s by Larry Greene. In addition to that then new-fangled Moog synthesizer, a second voice of God (John Facenda owned that distinction, in my opinion,) said in most measured (deep...very deep) tones ... "W-C-A-U ... Radio One Two One ... Philadelphia."
I was a fan, too, of Joel A. Spivak, "Big Al" Melzer, Quinn, Harvey and others ... particularly the night guy, who's name (other than "Bill") escapes me who I thought was tremendous. I remember that after he left 'CAU, he had a heart attack on the air at then WTTM in Trenton, I believe. And Loren Owens doing mornings at 95/PEN was awesome. Not Dr. Don, maybe, and certainly not Ken Garland, but I thought as good as Don Cannon and many others. Exceptional posts, gentlemen. You guys, alone, with a handful of Arbitron diaries or airchecks picked up by a Personal People Meter could wreak some real havoc in Philly radio, sorely in need of a transfusion, it seems. Keep up the great work. It's a kick watching the Philly board on R-I from here in California. It's like being home again. And about Ron Joseph...please, don't get me started... I remember when he had black plastic hair when he worked at WEEZ in Chester in the early 70s... "Geator, Jr." we called him... Truly a legend, even then! Just ask him... (wink... ;D LOL)