J
Jul
Guest
The WMGK call letters debuted at 102.9 FM.
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Riveting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFaeVyWQwmc
Actually, the first song debuted at about 4 minutes before the hour of 6 AM, and it was "No Regrets" by Tom Rush. They then went into a legal ID and then went into "Do You Believe In Magic".
Actually, the first song debuted at about 4 minutes before the hour of 6 AM, and it was "No Regrets" by Tom Rush. They then went into a legal ID and then went into "Do You Believe In Magic".
itsunclejoe said:
102.9/WPEN FM never had multiplexed oscilation. It other words it was in mono. Even after they split off the simulcat of the AM, the FM was still mono.
102.9/WPEN FM transmitter photo here.
Stereo was not heard on 102.9/Philadelphia until WMGK.
WPEN Radio was an engineer assisted, board-op operation, as well as an on duty engineer at the AM transmitter site and quite possibly an enginneer at the FM transmitter site. Therefore it took at least 4-5 individuals on duty for every operational broadcast hour.
In this picture we see WPEN master control (engineer) and the AM studio for the announcer through the glass here.
So when Greater Media Purchased WPEN AM/FM the first thing they did was sign it off, (off the air for four months) move it and rebuild everything from scratch for single operator operation for both the AM & FM side. And change the call letters of the FM to WMGK.
S
SilverTonicFree
Guest
Sam Lit said:
Riveting.
Sam Lit said:
Some of the 'facts' here are correct - a couple are somewhat off. When Greater Media signed back on in March of 1975 (it was off for two-and-a-half months), it was indeed WPEN-AM that signed on with oldies 95PEN. That same day, they resumed the simulcast on the FM (102.9), but for the first time ever lit up those stereo lights on anyone's radio that happened to be tuned in. The source signal was mono, but the stereo pilot was on, and the result on 102.9 was a fake-stereo version of WPEN-AM with higher-frequency sounds on one channel and lower stuff on the other. Everything was a simulcast for six months until the WMGK sign-on when true stereo was heard for the first time on the station.
Peter Booker was the first DJ on the new Magic station back in 1975. His voice also graced the top-of-hour ID "The Magic...is the music. WMGK Philadelphia." He later left the station to head up the syndicated "Magic" station that Greater Media set up in Detroit. After a stint there, he returned to Philly and worked at WUSL in their "US1" days.
Here's one of the early legal top-of-hour ID's used by WMGK. It was voiced by Peter Booker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwccLfCODk8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwccLfCODk8
Yes, the clip of the equipment test included DJ Geoff Fox. They used Light My Fire by the Doors to test the stereo. He is now a meteorologist on Ch 8 in New Haven, CT. Still a nice guy, I wonder if he still has his ham license. I would be interested to get more info on the Detroit Magic station someone mentioned. What were the calls and frequency? Was the format exactly the same?
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