A Brief History of WTMR

[Tommy Roberts Jr]

WTMR - 800 AM, Camden
800 signed on November 1, 1948.
Originally WKDN, featuring an MOR format, race track announcer Tommy Roberts purchased the 5000 watt station, to turn it into a player in Philadelphia's MOR battleground.
Calls changed to WTMR, and the cornerstone of the new personality-driven MOR station was morning jock Bill Bircher, exiled from WCAU-AM when that station converted to talk.
Beginning in July 1968, Bircher was on the air from 6-9am and 4-6pm.
Other jocks included Dan Taylor, Art Andrews.. and as time marched on, WTMR became a haven for jocks exiled from other Philadelphia stations, such as Bon Meneffec, Dean Tyler, Chuck Daugherty and Tom Franklin.
In September 1975, WTMR changed formats to a commercial Religious format - and through ownership changes, first to Gore Broadcasting and then to Beasley Broadcasting - continues the Religious format to this day.

 

[Pirate_Jim]

Thanks for the credit, Tommy ..

 

[Tommy Roberts Jr]

WTMR information is from Radio-History.com over at PirateJims Radio Site.

 

[tom]

Tommy -

I used to live across the street from your grandmother on Dawn Drive in Mount Holly
(Eastampton Township) when I was in High School. I met your Dad during a visit,
not sure if I ran into you or not. That would have been in the heyday of WTMR,
"Radio 8-oh-oh" Too bad he didn't keep the FM.

... tom

 

[Tommy Roberts Jr]

On April 16th 2012 when WKDN FM became WWIQ Camden-Philadelphia. With this WTMR now has the oldest Call Letters in Camden which date back to 1968 when WKDN AM became WTMR.

 

[kenneykop]

I got my first paying job at WTMR in the summer of 1976. I was the weekend board operator making sure the tapes of the recorded shows played on time. Also ran the board for the people who hosted the Irish and Greek music shows. It was a great learning experience. And kudos to the owners who paid above minimum wage back then.

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

I'm hoping this will not be too far off-topic, but back in the late-Sixties Long Island days WTMR was quite the well-adjusted MoR format -- meaning terrific -- that so many stations were back then. WTMR and others like it always came across as sort of a AA baseball team, by which to work onward and upward on one's skills (presuming that one HAD radio skills, lol).

(Oddly, the toughest to pull in from Philadelphia to 'complete' the DX collection was WHAT, not WDAS).

WKDN, and WTEL 860, WVCH 740, WNAR 1110, WCAM 1310, plus so many others, really had that community/full-service thing cinched. Even for a rock-n-rolling punk like me, they could be a solid listen for a few AQH's.

Other cozy, hometown MoR stations that came into Long Island on a regular basis were WHTG 1410, WNLK 1350 from CT, WKER from Pompton Lakes, WCTC New Brunswick, and too many lamented others. But those are even further O/T. Thanks for the ear and the memories!

 

[ixnay]

Calls changed to WTMR, and the cornerstone of the new personality-driven MOR station was morning jock Bill Bircher, exiled from WCAU-AM when that station converted to talk.

Twelve-ten played music???? This 50-yo (turning 51 this summer) has always known it as some flavor of talker (sometimes news/talker). When did 'CAU-AM play music? Was it what would now be called MOYL?

ixnay

 

[deepstblu]

Calls changed to WTMR, and the cornerstone of the new personality-driven MOR station was morning jock Bill Bircher, exiled from WCAU-AM when that station converted to talk.

Twelve-ten played music???? This 50-yo (turning 51 this summer) has always known it as some flavor of talker (sometimes news/talker). When did 'CAU-AM play music? Was it what would now be called MOYL?

I'm pretty sure that 1210 was all talk by '67. In 1964 Billboard described WCAU's music as "'standard pop' featuring music primarily from current and stock LPs with some programming of current non-rock singles." The description of WFIL at this time was about the same; WIP was said to be somewhat more singles-oriented. WRCV played mostly big bands and WPEN was featuring mostly instrumentals. Estimates of the stations' influence on record sales had WCAU a distant second to WIP and slightly ahead of WFIL in both pop LPs and middle-of-the-road singles.

 

[badjef]

Calls changed to WTMR, and the cornerstone of the new personality-driven MOR station was morning jock Bill Bircher, exiled from WCAU-AM when that station converted to talk.

Twelve-ten played music???? This 50-yo (turning 51 this summer) has always known it as some flavor of talker (sometimes news/talker). When did 'CAU-AM play music? Was it what would now be called MOYL?

ixnay

1210 was simulcasting 98.1 around 1990, after they dropped news. It had a signal here in Florida at night.

Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!

 

[ixnay]

1210 was simulcasting 98.1 around 1990, after they dropped news.

How could I have forgotten? :-[ Probably because I hardly listened to WOGL on AM except for the Phils.

ixnay