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AM 910
- Thread starter NigelWick
- Start date
C
carlvanorden
Guest
It must be something awful because I still can't hear 910 in Lake Ariel. The signal on 910 off the WEJL tower was spectacular, and the only way to hear WILK here.
Needs to be fixed!
Needs to be fixed!
A signal that was once a standard in the Scranton area has been dark for two weeks now.
Total posts - 5 (6 including mine).
Total posts wondering where it is - 3.
Not to be unkind, but is it just me? Does no one else see the inescapable and undeniable point this is making?
Total posts - 5 (6 including mine).
Total posts wondering where it is - 3.
Not to be unkind, but is it just me? Does no one else see the inescapable and undeniable point this is making?
Thanks Vince. I was just going to post a comment almost word for word but you beat me to it. At 910, WGBI was at one time a giant influence in the market. Hell, how many big country acts were they directly responsible for bringing to the Watres Armory? Today, how many people even know that it exists. I have some good friends who, upon my comment regarding a paticular AM station's rather unique programming, looked at me strangely and told me that they didn't even think their car radio received AM! They had no idea how to find it. These folks are in their mid 50's. Who does that leave out there listening?Vince Sweeney said:
If nothing else, Nairda, this gives us a chance to talk about WGBI AM-FM a bit. The strongest branding they ever did have, as you duly noted, was as Home of The Country Gentlemen. That was WGBI AM, WGBI FM never had much of anything in terms of identity that I can recall. In the 70s, the FM ran some canned format called, I think Contempo or Contempri, and it appealed to me only because it offered a fair amount of jazz. Other than that, it was really quite forgettable.
Throughout the 60s and at least some of the 70s, WGBI AM had the country corner of the market all to themselves. Their Country Caravans brought the biggest names at the time in country music to Scranton. These Country Caravans, I think, alternately played the armory and the Masonic Temple.
What needs to kept in mind is that country music back then was nowhere near what we know now as country music. It was a whole different world, country music had yet to be hybridized and gentrified to where it was largely indistinguishable from pop or a lot of light rock. C&W was all about twang, big hair, cowboy suits with string ties, and broken hearts.
I remember artists like Ferlin Husky, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubbs, and a fresh new upstart by the name of Conway Twitty. Not that I ever went to one of these Country Caravans, us "cool" kids thought they were a joke, but all these years later, I sort of wish I did, know what I mean? I'd imagine that legends-to-be like Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, and plenty of others, were here on those caravans.
I have no doubt whatsoever that you've had people tell you that their car doesn't "get" AM, and if it does, they don't know how it works. The next time anyone asks, tell them it doesn't work, hasn't in at least twenty years.
Ahh, The Masonic Temple. How could I have left that out? I remember seeing lines at the door and down the sidewalk there for some of the WGBI Country Caravans.
According to legend, Frank Magargee had the opportunity to take WGBI to 50kw at one time, but never did it.
WGBI-FM was widely known as Stereo 101 and even though it was canned to he point of being almost totally devoid of human interaction, it did quite well until WBRE-FM became KRZ and the rest as they say, is history.
FM ran the Drake Chenault Contempo 300 format where only the currents were generically (almost surgically!) announced. It was reel to reels. You are correct Vince, it did indeed have an unusually high percentage of jazz based content for a contemporary format.
According to legend, Frank Magargee had the opportunity to take WGBI to 50kw at one time, but never did it.
WGBI-FM was widely known as Stereo 101 and even though it was canned to he point of being almost totally devoid of human interaction, it did quite well until WBRE-FM became KRZ and the rest as they say, is history.
FM ran the Drake Chenault Contempo 300 format where only the currents were generically (almost surgically!) announced. It was reel to reels. You are correct Vince, it did indeed have an unusually high percentage of jazz based content for a contemporary format.
I remember 910 WGBI all too well. As a kid, I used to pick up their surveys in the local record stores. I still have them around somewhere. And the country gentlemen - Tom Reilly and the whole crew. I never listened, though, because as a kid, I didn't like country music.
In a touch of irony, years later, when WBAX went country, I was the morning man there and I put the format on the air for the very first time on that March morning in 1978. The program director was Alan Furst and he told me, Vince, when you put the format on the air, never say the word country. Just play the music, and don't answer the phones. I did what he told me, and we turned out to be fairly successful. And I went on the love country music and stayed another two years doing mornings.
Sad to hear 910 now, however. Back in the day, it was **the** country station.
In a touch of irony, years later, when WBAX went country, I was the morning man there and I put the format on the air for the very first time on that March morning in 1978. The program director was Alan Furst and he told me, Vince, when you put the format on the air, never say the word country. Just play the music, and don't answer the phones. I did what he told me, and we turned out to be fairly successful. And I went on the love country music and stayed another two years doing mornings.
Sad to hear 910 now, however. Back in the day, it was **the** country station.
Okay, Cousin Tom, what did you do at Muzak?
btw- I remember Stereo 101... and hearing a JAM jingle on "Country 91" and Monday Night Football on I-910.
btw- I remember Stereo 101... and hearing a JAM jingle on "Country 91" and Monday Night Football on I-910.
Tom Woods said:
You rewound tapes?
Vince Sweeney said:
Vince,
I have to thank you for solving a mystery for me. Back when I left WDLS and went to work for Bill Stutzman at WKXP in Benton (which was, oddly enough, the "second signal" for WDLS back in the day), Bill had liners created introducing the "Giant Country Gentlemen" that would be on the air - myself, Bill, Scottie Young (RIP), and Harry West (who did eventually join the station later). When I asked Bill why we were being termed as "country gentlemen," he gave me this long speech about how classy that sounded and told me that it had the potential to be a BIG marketing campaign for us. I thought he was insane, and we ended up dropping the "gentlemen" tag when the first air staff ended up with two females, but I always wondered why he was so adamant about using that tag for the air staff.
Now it all makes sense. You've given me quite the holiday gift, sir
Hope all is well with you. Have a great holiday!
Best,
"Rich/Mac Austin or Rick Young or Richard Anthony or Spyder McGuire or whatever else my PD's used to have me call myself on the air"
Speaking of Muzak, WGBI in the mid -1950s featured a delightful evening program called "Suppertime Serenade". It was pretty heavy on the Montovani; as a matter of fact
"Fascination" was the opening and closing theme for the show, which lasted one hour.
It was followed by "Lowell Thomas and the News", and then (believe it or not!) "Amos and Andy".
I don't know what year the country format came on, but it would have had to have been about 1961.
"Fascination" was the opening and closing theme for the show, which lasted one hour.
It was followed by "Lowell Thomas and the News", and then (believe it or not!) "Amos and Andy".
I don't know what year the country format came on, but it would have had to have been about 1961.
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