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Aircheck: Don Geronimo WLS 1982

Great memories for many I'm sure. Talk about reverb? It makes GCI sound bland! I remember Don on air at B96 ridiculing Jungle Love by Morris Day & The Time. Good jock, wasn't a visionary at that time though.

> By this point, WLS had gone the annoying AOR/Top 40 hybrid
> route. Never understood why they didn't put Geronimo on
> full-time nights. Maybe he was a lil' too "CHR" for WLS?
> Either way, a year later he'd be doin' nights at B96--with a
> poopload o' reverb!
>
> Don Geronimo WLS Chicago, September 1982
h> ttp://s44.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=202AG71Z6H7853RZSC8NGWULQ3
>
 
> By this point, WLS had gone the annoying AOR/Top 40 hybrid
> route.

Don't know what you mean by "annoying." If you lived thru the era, you'd know that WAS top 40 in Chicago. And on top the heap for about 3 more years.

And the reason the Geronomo was not on nights is quite simply at this point in his career (as illustrated in the aircheck) he was not good enough to be in the A List at WLS. Sure he was better later, but at this point Brant Miller was much better - that's why he was night jock on WLS AM & FM.

my $.02
 
Right on point.

> > By this point, WLS had gone the annoying AOR/Top 40 hybrid
>
> > route.
>
> Don't know what you mean by "annoying." If you lived thru
> the era, you'd know that WAS top 40 in Chicago. And on top
> the heap for about 3 more years.
>
> And the reason the Geronomo was not on nights is quite
> simply at this point in his career (as illustrated in the
> aircheck) he was not good enough to be in the A List at WLS.
> Sure he was better later, but at this point Brant Miller was
> much better - that's why he was night jock on WLS AM & FM.
>
> my $.02
>
 
> Don't know what you mean by "annoying." If you lived thru
> the era, you'd know that WAS top 40 in Chicago. And on top
> the heap for about 3 more years.

"Annoying", meaning I never particularly cared for that type of format--the oldies heavy, rock based top 40 station. If I had been living in Chicago at the time (September 1982), I would've been listening to Hot Hits on 'BBM-FM. Technically they were closer to top 40 than WLS. I wanted to hear the Dazz Band next to Survivor next to Hall & Oates. Not the Byrds next to Billy Squier next to Strawberry Alarm Clock next to Jethro Tull.

> And the reason the Geronomo was not on nights is quite
> simply at this point in his career (as illustrated in the
> aircheck) he was not good enough to be in the A List at WLS.
> Sure he was better later, but at this point Brant Miller was
> much better - that's why he was night jock on WLS AM & FM.
> my $.02

Hmmm...Gotta disagree with ya there. Geronimo was 10x the jock Brant Miller ever was in 1982 or any other time. Brant seems like a nice enough fellow, but he's a better weatherman than he was a jock.

From the airchecks I've heard (and I've heard plenty, AM&FM)...Post 1979 WLS was a mess. They were running on heritage fumes alone. Were they CHR? Were they AOR? Were they a music station? Were they a personality station? And by the time they had the common sense to flip WLS-FM to Z95...it was too late. If they'd stayed Top 40 during 1980-1982 (and not played so many dog gang oldies) they could've given B96 a run for their money. God knows the jocks on WLS were 10x better (content wise) than the jocks on 'BBM in 1982!

That's why (today) B96 is B96 and 94.7 is...94.7.

Just my $.02.
 
> "Annoying", meaning I never particularly cared for that type
> of format--

No further questions. Thanks for the "critique", though.
 
Well, it is clear that Mr. WaGaGa is not from Chicago, because the "annoying" format fit the station and the audience.

I think it's also pretty obvious that this was not one of Don's better airchecs. Who knows, maybe it was shortly after he started at WLS. The bits were weak, the phoner was also too long and made little sense - no forward momentum. Maybe he was better as a music jock later in his career.
 
Don was very fortunate doing PT/Swing, overnights, on WLS-AM. Even a Part timer doing 1 shift per month had a prestegious job working at the Powerhouse "Rock of Chicago" WLS.

We have to remember, WLS-AM at the time was going into tunes dry back to back, very light on the jingles, and rock heavy. Enough to drive Landecker out of his mind, and off of the station.

It was not uncommon for them to come out of the top hour into Sympathy For The Devil by the Stones @ 7pm. Brutal for a station claiming to be CHR.

WLS took a Rock/Classic Rock approach. WABC NYC was essentialy AC at the time.

But, the main diff on WLS-AM that it did not share with other CHR's of the time frame. No Urban. They were square up against WLUP for listeners. WMET (before they went AOR) and WEFM (before they went AC) ended their CHR days as being Top40/AOR hybrids. Even "96 NOW! WBBM-FM" was lacking the Urban that its counterparts like WCAU-FM (Philly) spun.

Finally, the "Disco Sucks" backlash was severe. And remember, Stever & Gary were on WLS-AM at the time. (read again, "Disco Sucks")

The beginning of the end for WLS AM/FM was when "96 NOW!" hit the air. They were not playing the Urban, but they were NOT playing the 15 year old rock hits on WLS. Made WLS AM/FM re-evaluate after a while and taking the AM & FM on different paths.<P ID="signature">______________

"Z"
Music Coordinator/Technical Support</P>
 
The is the era of the Rock 40 sound and John Gehron made it no secret that he was gunning for The Loop.

GCI and BMX were the home of Urban then. Although when 96 Now did debut, they were pretty light on the Rhythmic stuff. The first night did feature Junior's "Mama Says" and Stevie Wonder's "That Girl." More began to show up later.

WLS did daypart a lot of the country titles that were hot then (Eddie Rabbitt, Juice Newton, some Ronnie Milsap) as well as Tommy Edwards' heavy lean on oldies. Don't forget, most of the 60's were less than 20 years out at that point. Home many 80's and 70's songs do we hear today that are almost 25-30 years old!

A lot of these songs they played, some dayparted, but most in this survey period were on WLS. Nice to see local band The Kind, which WLS supported as well!

LW TW WEEK ENDING SEPT. 4, 1982 VOL. 22, NO, 47

1 1 Hard To Say I'm Sorry/Getaway - Chicago
2 2 Abracadabra - Steve Miller Band
7 3 Jack & Diane - John Cougar
3 4 Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor
4 5 Hurts So Good - John Cougar
5 6 Hold Me - Fleetwood Mac
6 7 Vacation - Go-Go's
9 8 You Should Hear How She Talks... - Melissa Manchester
8 9 Let It Whip - Dazz Band
10 10 Even The Nights Are Better - Air Supply
13 11 Out Of Work - Gary U. S. Bonds
17 12 Love Is In Control - Donna Summer
14 13 Take It Away - Paul McCartney
18 14 Wasted On The Way - Crosby, Stills & Nash
11 15 Only The Lonely - The Motels
15 16 Think I'm In Love - Eddie Money
12 17 Don't You Want Me - The Human League
25 18 Only Time Will Tell - Asia
16 19 Rosanna - Toto
24 20 Loved By You - The Kind
21 21 Keep The Fire Burnin' - REO Speedwagon
19 22 Always On My Mind - Willie Nelson
35 23 Who Can It Be Now? - Men At Work
41 24 Somebody's Baby - Jackson Browne
20 25 Heat Of The Moment - Asia
23 26 Personally - Karla Bonoff
22 27 Love's Been A Little Bit Hard On Me - Juice Newton
26 28 Forget Me Nots - Patrice Rushen
34 29 American Music - Pointer Sisters
27 30 What Kind Of Fool Am I - Rick Springfield
33 31 Do I Do - Stevie Wonder
28 32 Going To A Go-Go - The Rolling Stones
32 33 Caught Up In You - .38 Special
30 34 The Other Woman - Ray Parker Jr.
31 35 Paperlate - Genesis
38 36 No One Like You - Scorpions
39 37 Tainted Love - Soft Cell
29 38 Ebony And Ivory - Paul McCartney w/Stevie Wonder
37 39 If You Want My Love - Cheap Trick
xx 40 I Keep Forgettin' - Michael McDonald
40 41 Play The Game Tonight - Kansas
42 42 Make Believe - Toto
36 43 Get Down On It - Kool & The Gang
xx 44 Workin' For A Livin' - Huey Lewis And The News
xx 45 Love Will Turn You Around - Kenny Rogers
Extra Don't Fight It - Kenny Loggins w/Steve Perry
Extra Athena - The Who
 
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