(The Other) Big John said:
For those like myself who are old enough to remember, 550 was an all news station between the WPAW and WGNG years under the WXTR callsign (Extra News). Those call have resided most recently in the Washington, DC area, but are now currently available.
Correctly stated. At the time, however, there was very little networked news available and the emphasis was on local (meaning statewide) coverage. Thing is, there was little enough news happening in Rhode Island that the newscasts quickly became repetitions. The equipment was good and the staffing was all that could reasonably afforded but without the network stuff that's available today it just did not fly.
The call letters persisted through two additional formats:
"Demand Radio" which was a package of syndicated format bits and pieces and a formula for music. The music was all on cartridges and rotation was through having several categories with different numbers of cartridges in each category so you took from the front and put on the back. This ensured that, with a library of only about 2,000 (yes that many cartridges) it was almost impossible for any pattern to repeat. That is, you'd never hear the same two pieces of music back to back. The theory was that people mildly remember hearing one piece of music but always remember if they heard the same two back to back another day.
Part of the "Demand Radio" deal was talent recorded bits and pieces for other stations using the format. Mel Burns was the PD (he had done news previously at several stations in the market) and his incredibly deep voice was very popular with the other stations.
When that format wore out (and Mel passed away suddenly) WXTR went with "The Wonderful World of Music" which, to RI listeners, was vaguely similar to the original WLKW Beautiful Music format but with some definite kinks and tongue-in-cheek at times. Some things that sounded like paid commercials weren't. There were, for example, spots allegedly recruiting "pushers". That is, people to work in Tokyo subway stations force-squeezing people onto the trains (actual job on the Tokyo subway at the time). One called "You'll Get Yours" which offered a free pad of WXTR panic buttons (decals) for when your world got too crazy and you needed to summon up some nice music to calm things down. The deal was you'd send a stamped, self addressed envelope to the station and......"You'll Get YOURS". Damn things were everywhere. On buildings, lamp posts, RIPTA buses.....the bane of the city's existence for a short time.
That format lasted about 3 years and when it went away the station became WGNG (Gold 'n Great).
