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Speaking of the end of an era for a great radio station......Samski are your still planning on running the entire last week of WIBG 990 (Sept. '77) with Hyski and Joe Niagra this September on Hy Lit Radio?
Re: WCAU Talkradio 1210
[/quote]
That doesn’t answer my question. I guess what I’m trying to ask is, how does a station obtain authorization for a call change, or, did 1210 call the FCC at 1:06 on 8/15/90 and say, “Hello, FCC? This is 1210 AM Phila.! We’ve flipped format! We want new calls by 2:00!”?
ixnay
TOH remained WCAU/Philadelphia until the call letter change became official. The station identity handle became Oldies 1210.Sam Lit said:
[/quote]
That doesn’t answer my question. I guess what I’m trying to ask is, how does a station obtain authorization for a call change, or, did 1210 call the FCC at 1:06 on 8/15/90 and say, “Hello, FCC? This is 1210 AM Phila.! We’ve flipped format! We want new calls by 2:00!”?
ixnay
Re: WCAU Talkradio 1210
Apparently you can apply for new call letters, get them approved, but have up to a month to impliment the changes on-air. Tribune Television's WTXX in Hartford, Connecticut was granted a call sign change to WCCT-TV on June 18th, 2010 but did not start IDing the station as such until July 15th.
ixnay said:
Apparently you can apply for new call letters, get them approved, but have up to a month to impliment the changes on-air. Tribune Television's WTXX in Hartford, Connecticut was granted a call sign change to WCCT-TV on June 18th, 2010 but did not start IDing the station as such until July 15th.
stevations said:
If I'm not consumed with 10 other projects, I'll take the time and run it. I won't be running the Joe Niagara show however because that content is controlled by Joe Niagara's estate.
ixnay said:
lol! Hello this is the FCC, call letters to date, while you wait, 4th floor janitor in charge speaking. How may I help you. Would you care to try one of our carmel macchiatos while you're waiting.......
There is an online form that you fill out and apply. After it is validated (So someone across town doesn't apply to change your call letters) you get the new calls provided they are available. That process is almost an instant 48 hour process today. In 1989 it was done by snail mail post card or Washington attorney's.
Oldies 1210 was hovering around a 0 share in 1994 when CBS decided to pull the plug on it. In March 1994 (I think it was on a Tuesday or Wednesday) around 1PM, Ron Cade played the last song and then WGMP the new 1210 debuted. It took about 15 minutes for people to start referring to it as "the GIMP." The new format featured The Fabulous Sports Babe in the middays and The Sports Attack in the afternoon. Sports Attack was a local show featuring Scott Graham, Big Daddy Graham, and Neil Hartman. It was a pretty good show, but it was up against Missenelli and Fredericks on WIP. The rest of the station was a ratings disaster. Towards the end of the sports format (1997), Dick Jerardi hosted a Phillies talk show after games. This did well because at that time WIP had an embargo against baseball talk. We had nowhere else to go to talk baseball except 1210. When 1210 dropped the sports talk, the call letters were changed to WPTS(Philadelphia's talk station), but it was too much like WPST, so it became WPHT a few days later.
rich610 said:
By mid 1992 CBS had moved Hy full time to early afternoons on the FM so naturally you had an audience shift to the FM. The AM was left with rotating fill-in hosts, Ron Cade, Bob Pantano, etc. There's no way anybody could compete with Hy on the FM so the AM faded while the FM grew. Prior to Hy moving to the FM Hy did Monday-Thursday from 10am-2pm on 1210 AM, Friday night 6-9pm and Saturday & Sunday 3-7pm on the FM. When Hy moved to the FM full time he continued doing 7 day's a week on the FM for over 6 additional years. And there was no voice tracking then.
J
Jul
Guest
Still waiting for the WCAU-AM audio from 1990.
Re: WCAU Talkradio 1210
Thanks for this sentence. I've lived most of my life thinking CBS always owned WCAU. But it was simply one of the first affiliates of the CBS network. I just assumed that Paley being from Philly would buy the station at his earliest opportunity. Yet in 1946, the Levys sold it to the Bulletin. It took another ten or so years before CBS bought the three stations. Amazing. So I guess by the 40s, CBS was more focused on TV, and when the Bulletin added Channel 10 to the package, it became more attractive to buy.
Sam Lit said:
Thanks for this sentence. I've lived most of my life thinking CBS always owned WCAU. But it was simply one of the first affiliates of the CBS network. I just assumed that Paley being from Philly would buy the station at his earliest opportunity. Yet in 1946, the Levys sold it to the Bulletin. It took another ten or so years before CBS bought the three stations. Amazing. So I guess by the 40s, CBS was more focused on TV, and when the Bulletin added Channel 10 to the package, it became more attractive to buy.
jmtillery said:
WCAU/1210 switched to all news around 1975. To promote the format they ran saturated television commercials that showed two of the same radios side by side. One radio, with KYW blazened on it the other 1210/WCAU. The KYW radio had a ticker tape coming out the front to emulate KYW, was then blown up after 10 seconds of ticker tape anatomical KYW audio reading in the background while an announcer proclaimed The New All News 1210/WCAU.
Another commercial had a mannequin head with a ticker tape extruding out of it's mouth with anatomical KYW audio reading in the background while an announcer announced The New All News 1210/WCAU. It too was blown up after 10 or 15 seconds.
In the newspaper they ran double full page ads and published their format minute by minute. So it read like this.
The New All News 1210/WCAU.
5:59am Headlines
6:00am CBS News
6:05am Weather (Weather caster name)
6:06am Traffic Walt MacDonald
6:07am Lead News story 1 Bill Burcher
6:08am News story 2 & 3 (Named Co-host anchor)
6:09am Commentary (Featured commentator name)
6:10am Commercial (Sponsors name)
6:10am Weather (Weather caster name)
6:11am Feature News (Specific subject matter)
6:12am News in review (Specific subject matter)
6:13am Commercial
6:14am Sports (Sportscaster name)
6:16am News Story
6:17am Editorial (Commentator name)
Etc...........
This was printed on a double full page ad displaying minute by minute EVERY hour in the day. And this ran every day for months and months and months updating as they modified the format. So the idea was you could go to the paper and know exactly when to tune in to hear the item of interest.
The New 1210/WCAU news delivery style was relaxed with off script comment injection from continuous news anchor co hosts and warm cross talk dialog reporter segment introductions, with live reporters and commentators, minute after minute. The parade of voices was actually rather kind of enjoyable and pleasant, particularly during prevailing winter weather conditions in Philadelphia.
CBS spent millions.
The already anemic ratings went down. In less than two years they pulled the plug and went back to insidious talk.
In the late 50's my family and I had moved to Philadelphia from Miami, my dad had taken a position with then WFIL-TV Channel 6 for an up-start Kid's TV show to air out of WFIL, The show, "Ranger Rex Morgan". On several occasions I had met HY LIT through Rex Morgan and my dad who at the time had become very good friends of HY. HY was a larger then life big radio star and had been out to our house several times while we were living in New town Square, as I remember it he was the Boss jock of Philadelphia and everybody knew of HY LIT.
I do remember listening to Hy for the few years we lived in Pa. as I recall HY was at WIBG Wibbage at that time, sometimes it seems like yesterday but it was many moons ago and after my 35 year stint in radio playing the "HITS" from coast to coast it really was many moons ago. Philadelphia had their share of the top-dog radio talents but by and large HY was the top-dog in charge..........
I do remember listening to Hy for the few years we lived in Pa. as I recall HY was at WIBG Wibbage at that time, sometimes it seems like yesterday but it was many moons ago and after my 35 year stint in radio playing the "HITS" from coast to coast it really was many moons ago. Philadelphia had their share of the top-dog radio talents but by and large HY was the top-dog in charge..........
The Bulletin stations were originally WCAU AM/1210 WCAU FM/102.9 they acquired WPEN AM/950& WPEN FM/98.1 and the construction permit for WPEN TV 10 when they bought out the Philadelphia Ledger newspapers (after Philadelphia Ledger decided to close during a work action). Philadelphia Ledger owned the WPEN 950/98.1 broadcast properties as part of their holdings. Before selling off one of the AM's and one of the FM's to comply with existing FCC rules, they switched WPEN FM/98.1 with WCAU/FM 102.9.
Then some years later after the Bulletin sold it's existing cluster WCAU AM/FM 1210/98.1 and TV10, they applied for and received a construction permit for 107.7 and put WPBS on the air. Now long after that they approached and swapped frequency's (for a tidy sum) with WSNJ/98.9 thus bringing WPBS to 98.9. It was generally programmed as beautiful music. The call letters stood for Philadelphia Bulletin Service. "This is WPBS the Philadelphia Bulletin Service"
Later when the Bulletin closed, 98.9 was sold to Lin Broadcasting who changed the calls to WUSL which stood for US1, a main interstate highway in the area.
After adult contemporary failed as US1 and they went country. That failed. They went urban and found success. B.J Johnson (acquired from WKXW FM Trenton) was selected as the morning man for the new format as KISS FM. After Lin broadcasting was challenged by WKSZ for using the KISS handle prior to WKSZ signing on the air, BJ Johnson suggested they use a handle that Hy & Sam Lit were using in Trenton at WKXW FM which was know as Kicks 101 and a half -The Power factor.
WUSL is still WUSL today as Power 99.
LIN Broadcasting sold WUSL 1987 to Shareed Tak's, TAK Communications for an, at the time, astounding and overpriced $32 million, anticipating the first waves of deregulation. TAK communication quickly went into receivership and by 1991, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The property was sold to EZ communication and through a series of merges wound up as a Clear Channel station.
Then some years later after the Bulletin sold it's existing cluster WCAU AM/FM 1210/98.1 and TV10, they applied for and received a construction permit for 107.7 and put WPBS on the air. Now long after that they approached and swapped frequency's (for a tidy sum) with WSNJ/98.9 thus bringing WPBS to 98.9. It was generally programmed as beautiful music. The call letters stood for Philadelphia Bulletin Service. "This is WPBS the Philadelphia Bulletin Service"
Later when the Bulletin closed, 98.9 was sold to Lin Broadcasting who changed the calls to WUSL which stood for US1, a main interstate highway in the area.
After adult contemporary failed as US1 and they went country. That failed. They went urban and found success. B.J Johnson (acquired from WKXW FM Trenton) was selected as the morning man for the new format as KISS FM. After Lin broadcasting was challenged by WKSZ for using the KISS handle prior to WKSZ signing on the air, BJ Johnson suggested they use a handle that Hy & Sam Lit were using in Trenton at WKXW FM which was know as Kicks 101 and a half -The Power factor.
WUSL is still WUSL today as Power 99.
LIN Broadcasting sold WUSL 1987 to Shareed Tak's, TAK Communications for an, at the time, astounding and overpriced $32 million, anticipating the first waves of deregulation. TAK communication quickly went into receivership and by 1991, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The property was sold to EZ communication and through a series of merges wound up as a Clear Channel station.
According to the FCC:
Call Sign History
Current Call Sign: WPHT
Facility ID Number: 9634
Call Sign Begin Date
WPHT 09/17/1996
WPTS 08/23/1996
WGMP 03/18/1994
WOGL 08/15/1990 <<< Wednesday
WCAU
Call sign changes had to be done well in advance, although it was slightly easier
when the company already had them on another station.
Today, it's an 8 business day process, you can "do it yourself" but typically
your FCC attorney does it online.
Gimp lasted a lot longer than Pits!
Call Sign History
Current Call Sign: WPHT
Facility ID Number: 9634
Call Sign Begin Date
WPHT 09/17/1996
WPTS 08/23/1996
WGMP 03/18/1994
WOGL 08/15/1990 <<< Wednesday
WCAU
Call sign changes had to be done well in advance, although it was slightly easier
when the company already had them on another station.
Today, it's an 8 business day process, you can "do it yourself" but typically
your FCC attorney does it online.
Gimp lasted a lot longer than Pits!
- Status