Just fleshing out Lee's excellently detailed posts re: WHFM's format switch to Top 40:
My friend and mentor in getting started in radio from 1966 to his death in 1974 was Bill Givens, longtime PD, program director and voice of the Rochester Americans (Bill was a consummate hockey and big-band music fan.)
Bill confided to me in one of my periodic visits to WHAM in the fall of '67 that there was a plan to upgrade 98.9 from its then partial beautiful music, part WHAM simulcast 8300 watts ERP to full Class B status and go automated Top 40. The idea was to flank WBBF which even with its piddly 1kw directional signal had boxcar numbers and was a serious competitor to WHAM revenue-wise. Recall that this was the heyday of AM radio and Top 40 was king of a youth-dominated demographic.
The switch to Top 40 was made in March 1968. The new automation system consisting of reel machines and two Gates 55 automatic cart players, along with a rudimentary "computer" (really a logic switcher using pegs for programming) was located in a new studio carved out of part of the former huge WHAM record library at 350 East Avenue, right down the hall from Givens' office. WHFM's first jingles were PAMS Series 31, "Music is Our Middle Name." The format was not "progressive rock" as that term is commonly understood but pretty much Top 40, directly competitive with WBBF. Initially Grobe was the sole (automated) voice on the station. Tuning in the new 98.9 at my parents' home in Livonia, I recall making a congratulatory call to Givens about the new stereo signal and programming. I asked him how it was going; he proudly told me "it's right down the hall, running like a little clock."
I stayed in touch with Bill throughout various career moves while I was at Ithaca College 1968-72; I would stop by WHAM and visit at Christmas or other holidays. On snowy occasions I would give him rides home to Pittsford so Connie wouldn't have to come pick him up. Curiously, Bill Givens never learned to drive.
Bill Givens' death at age 50 in late '74 was a great loss to WHAM, and to Rochester radio. It was his plan to upgrade WHFM and take it Top 40. The project was always a nakedly one-objective plan to pull down WBBF's shares and enhance WHAM competitively. Perhaps the raison d'etre evolved post-1968, but that was the initial goal.
My friend and mentor in getting started in radio from 1966 to his death in 1974 was Bill Givens, longtime PD, program director and voice of the Rochester Americans (Bill was a consummate hockey and big-band music fan.)
Bill confided to me in one of my periodic visits to WHAM in the fall of '67 that there was a plan to upgrade 98.9 from its then partial beautiful music, part WHAM simulcast 8300 watts ERP to full Class B status and go automated Top 40. The idea was to flank WBBF which even with its piddly 1kw directional signal had boxcar numbers and was a serious competitor to WHAM revenue-wise. Recall that this was the heyday of AM radio and Top 40 was king of a youth-dominated demographic.
The switch to Top 40 was made in March 1968. The new automation system consisting of reel machines and two Gates 55 automatic cart players, along with a rudimentary "computer" (really a logic switcher using pegs for programming) was located in a new studio carved out of part of the former huge WHAM record library at 350 East Avenue, right down the hall from Givens' office. WHFM's first jingles were PAMS Series 31, "Music is Our Middle Name." The format was not "progressive rock" as that term is commonly understood but pretty much Top 40, directly competitive with WBBF. Initially Grobe was the sole (automated) voice on the station. Tuning in the new 98.9 at my parents' home in Livonia, I recall making a congratulatory call to Givens about the new stereo signal and programming. I asked him how it was going; he proudly told me "it's right down the hall, running like a little clock."
I stayed in touch with Bill throughout various career moves while I was at Ithaca College 1968-72; I would stop by WHAM and visit at Christmas or other holidays. On snowy occasions I would give him rides home to Pittsford so Connie wouldn't have to come pick him up. Curiously, Bill Givens never learned to drive.
Bill Givens' death at age 50 in late '74 was a great loss to WHAM, and to Rochester radio. It was his plan to upgrade WHFM and take it Top 40. The project was always a nakedly one-objective plan to pull down WBBF's shares and enhance WHAM competitively. Perhaps the raison d'etre evolved post-1968, but that was the initial goal.
