• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Behind the Music: Station Flips

S

spin003

Since the board is slow right now, how about some nostalgia and reminiscing to stimulate the ol' brain cells.

For those of you who have been through a station format change, please share with us what happens "behind the music".

Some stations do an unannounced flip or stunt: countdown clock, repetitive song, etc. Others go straight with new bumpers / branding / ID's with new or current staff. What happens in the station after the change is made? How soon before it begins does the staff know? What are the tell-tale clues that "change is a-coming", like a new cart rack with previously unidentified sounders?

In most cases the current staff is not part of the new regime. What is the thought behind the current staff not just picking up the new format and rolling with it? If the "format" was the problem and not the staff, why not keep the staff and let them show their talents in new ways?

When staff is not kept, how does that affect 'non-compete' clauses? Any successful challenges to those clauses by on-air talent?

The floor is open for those who'd like to share their experiences: good, bad, or other. Management is welcome to share its perspective as well.
 
One of the hardest things I ever had to do in my career was to install, startup, and test a Unistar oldies format hidden away in engineering prior to KOKY(AM) Little Rock changing formats from urban to oldies in 1988. Obviously I knew there weren't going to be any jocks, but I was threatened about secrecy. It got out a few days before the switch anyway, but not by me.

I was also the one to literally pull the plug on WKDJ 680 here in the early 80's when Viacom bought the station. It was on Herb Kneeland's show. He knew it was coming, and when I called him on the phone to give him a 5 minute warning, he was very classy and polite about it. It still didn't feel very good.



R.I.P Big Ed.
 
This is a long one…you asked…it’s about the day that WMC-AM flipped from “MOR” to Country. Most of those involved called it the longest day. It happened one day in ’72, ’73, early ’74…I just can’t remember.

Scripps had 3 radio stations at the time…2 AM/FM in Memphis and an AM, WNOX, in Knoxville. The GM at Knoxville, Peter R. Dreyer, also had the title of VP of Radio for all of them. (He was an old Maclendon guy. I never heard him, but understood that he was a terrible jock and PD.) He sold the upper management on taking WMC-AM country. WREC and WMPS were also thinking of flipping to country. (This was before Dees) None of the GMs wanted to face their friends at church, the country club, etc. and admit they ran a country station.

Very secretly, Dreyer had the guys at WNOX begin carting up country songs. When he felt the time was right, he made his move. He got the okay from top management in Cincinnati. They in turn called Dean Osmundson, the GM for both stations in Memphis and put the word on him…along with a date.

I was doing mornings on FM-100 at the time. I got in about 5:30 a.m. and noticed Dean’s light on. I stuck my head in and said hi. Dean had tears in his eyes…I hit the door.

I went too the coffee room and ran into Newsman Harry Beadle (now with CNN radio.) He said, “Do you know what’s happening?” I said no. He said, “AM is going s—t kicking country at 6:00 a.m. this morning!” I was shocked.

I went to the restroom and Dreyer, the VP, was shaving. We exchanged pleasantries and I went to get ready for my work.

What had happened that night was this…they boxed up all the country carts and some lousy jingles and drove them from Knoxville to WMC-AM. They called Jack Parnell, PD and morning Jock, in the middle of the night and told him he was needed at the station. That’s how he found out. Jack went on the air and did his usual professional job then he quit as soon as he got off the air.

Another unique quit that day was Bill Dollar. He was the afternoon guy. He also did his shift and quit. He went to WREC…just couldn’t stand the idea for working for a country station. Ironically, years later at WSOC-FM in Charlotte, Bill became one of the top Country DJ’s in America and received numerous awards.

At the end of the day we were all tipsy---drunk. The big shots from Cincinnatti and New York had come in by then and told us what a wonderful thing had happened—the flip. And it was. The numbers went through the roof. It wasn’t that they did it…it was how it was done in all the secrecy.

I have a lot more details. If your interested, send me a message or let me know on the post.

BTW...No one on the air staff knew and there were no non-competes at the time.

greg hamilton
 
On almost anything regarding 680WMPS, I defer to Kenny Bosak's recollections, but I will relate my experience in the shift from top-40 to country. The firing of Rick Dees pretty well brought WMPS's top-40 days to an end. The station soldiered on, but it would not recover. In 1978, after Michael St. John and Tommy Charles had their shots at trying to resurrect MPS, National PD Craig Scott pulled the plug. On paper, the move to country looked like a slam dunk. 680 had a superior signal to 790, 10 KW to 5 KW. Plough Broadcasting had extensive country experience with their stations in major markets. The format change was well known, at least inside the station.

The new music was on site already, since Plough's corporate music library was one floor down from the radio station. I carted most of the oldies. Some personnel changes were implemented before the switch. In particular, I remember them replacing the girl at night, and bringing in Jay Marvin to do overnights (he eventually did evenings for WLS talkradio). We would have meetings bringing the staff up to speed, and if one occurred when I was on the air, Robert E. Knight would sub for me, and I would attend the meeting. I stayed on through the transistion to country. At the time, it seems like the airshifts were 6 to 10, 10 to 1, 1 to 4, 4 to 7, and 7 to midnight. Walt Jackson and I covered the middays, Kevin Murphey did afternoons. Prior to the change, Bob Tracy did mornings, and Jennifer Fox did the night shift. K-97 was automated, and I did the all nights on FM via primative "voice tracking".

That is how I figured out that I wouldn't be staying on. One day, there was a meeting, and I wasn't included... I remained on the air. One of the engineers was in the control room fixing something, and I told him that they were about to fire me. At the end of my shift, Gm Tom Kroh called me in and "Ploughed" me under. I was told they were "staff reducing" me to make an air shift available for the new PD. I recall that to be Johnny Randolph, though my memory has been questioned on that point.

I had only been at WMPS for about 6 months. I had moved over from the late night shift at WHBQ, to middays at WMPS. Of course, looking back, I regard that as one of the biggest mistakes of my career. I am, at heart, a format jock. I was born too late for Drake, but I feel like I could have operated under that system and been happy as a clam (however happy that may be). WHBQ was a format station, and a system I was comfortable and familiar with. I never really "clicked" at MPS. As George Costanza would say, I'm sure it wasn't them; It was me! Many times over the years, I have evaluted jobs I have held as to whether they were WHBQ experiences, or WMPS experiences.

I spent not quite a month out of work. Bill Thomas had just taken over WWUN in Jackson, MS, and I went down to do fill-in for departing Holliday employees who were headed back to the coast. The PD, Mickey Coulter, was leaving, as was Funky Bobby Case (who went from Biloxi to WPLJ, NYC), and I wound up with a combat-promotion to PD. I missed Memphis, though, and pursued every chance to get back to town. My opportunity came with a midday opening at Rock103 (at that time, a "format" station, so I fit in well). And the rest is history.

Years later, I had the privilege to work with Craig Scott at Rock103, under much happier circumstances, and he was a great boss to do bidness with. And he was suprised to find out I was only 20 when I got canned at MPS.
 
> Craig Scott at Rock103, under much happier circumstances, and he was a great boss to do bidness with.

Funny thing about Craig. People either loved him, or HATED him. There was no middle ground.

He hired me to PD (is that a verb?) down in Jackson, MS when I was far too young and inexperienced to really be qualified. But, he saw I was smart enough to learn, and had no bad habits I would have to "unlearn." As an aside: that was the wierdest job interview I ever had. 4 hours in Mazzio's on County Line Road.

Working for Craig was an terrific experience. Sure, I learned about radio. But, there was so much more. I learned about having a hard work ethic, engineering, as well as other qualities that were more about life than radio. Without those, I am not sure I would have moved on, and taken my life in the direction I did.

Still, despite all the times he and I would hang out, I never learned to drink like him.

And, man, do I have some Harlan Craig stories...

DE
 
The format flip at WMC happened in early 73. I remember my mom turning on the station that day while she was taking me to school and hearing Jack Parnell (who I knew as a fellow member of the Delta Amateur Radio Club) playing country. He was professional as always but it was very strange. I wish I had rolled tape as I had a recorder but what 14 year old would waste tape on country music?

Count me as a Craig Scott lover. I interviewed for the chief engineer's job at WMPS with Craig in 1981. He had already hired someone but was gracious enough to interview me. Six months later I get a call from the Plough station in Clearwater, FL asking if I was interested in the chief's job there. Craig had given them my name.

I was at KKBQ in Houston when they switched formats from CHR to Easy Country in 1991. BIG CHANGE like previously described at WMC or WMPS. All the music dubbing was done at the PD's house. The GM (Al Law) got the axe along with the entire air staff. I did not know the new GM (who was suspcious of everyone) and was on the cut list until the corporate DOE interceded on my behalf. The new GM, Don Troutt, was actually a really great guy it was the situation. After the purchase of AMFM by Clear Channel in 2000, Don ended up as the market manager of Cumulus in Tupelo/Columbus/Starkville until a few years ago when he suffered a fatal brain aneurism.

Dr. Bob
 
Actually, there is little to add to Rob's excellent post about the WMPS flip details.

Here are a few footnotes:

The female jock brought in to do nights was Debbie Conner.

The flip took place on March 6, 1978.

The last day of top 40, the station was called "68 WMPS."

The country positioning was "680 WMPS, Country Music Radio."

The PD brought in by Craig Scott was Bob Knight, not to be confused with Robert E. Knight, who was chief engineer during the transition.
 
This is likely apocryphal and I've never taken the time to ask Jack if it were true, but I believe Jack's last words on WMC that morning were something to this effect, "Here's Johnny Paycheck on WMC...speaking of which, I'll be picking mine up in a few minutes!" If it's not true, it ought to be!

Regarding an earlier comment that WREC and WHBQ were considering flipping to country about the same time, I can say WREC was NOT cosidering such a flip. We WERE planning to flip WREC-FM and did, as I remember it. Bob Gross was consulting. We hired Art Scott as WREC-FM PD along with Mike Mitchell, Joe Byars, and another guy I never met. The legendary Everett Flagg saw the writing on the wall and left radio to buy a dump truck and help build the Mid-America Mall. Art, Mike, and Joe were put on the air playing WREC-FM's easy listening format till we made the change. Sadly it was determined the change would be to automation - Drake-Chenault's Great American Country on a Shafer 903 as WZXR! Art was ordered by GM Zack Hill to fire Mike, Joe and the other guy. To his credit, he refused and left. I was WREC-AM PD and Zack had me fire them. To my shame, I did...loaning Mike $20 so he could buy some gas! Joe stayed with us playinig easy listening till the changeover. He married our receptionist evertually. The guy I never met? I called him on the phone and fired him. I didn' know him and he didn't know me...you had to be there! I hired the late Kerry Darr and the insouchant Mike Edwards as system operators of WZXR and Great American Country was stillborn, though not for lack of effort on Drake-Chenault PD Lee Bailey's part or Mike, Kerry and me. I'll never forget those 3am runs to the Peabody basement when the Shafer would lose its memory and start playing the #1 cart in the #1 InstaCart rack...the sign-on cart! We used to joke that the "Star Spangled Banner" was in our local Top Ten Hits some weeks! Lord, what we didn't know about automation and country music would have filled a Stetson full.
 
If I remember correctly, Kerry Darr had one hell of a set of pipes.
 
If I remember correctly, Kerry Darr had one hell of a set of pipes.
Click to expand...

Kerry had a mellow, mid-range baritone voice - and you'd never find a nicer young man. He was a delight to all who knew him and his untimely death at a very young age shocked us all.
 
I found this topic by accident and since I'm referred too quite a bit I wanted to offer some clarifications, at least within the limits of my memory.

Ironically, I was interviewed and offered the job to be the first PD for WMC Country. I was considering a career move at the time and the choice was WMC in Memphis or Plough's WJJD in Chicago. I remember telling Pete Dreyer during CRS in Nashville that I really had no interest in living in Memphis and besides I grew up listening to Chicago radio, soooooo.

I was introuduced to Rick Dees via phone just after being named VP Programming for Plough in early 1976 I think. I had not transferred to Memphis at the time. The company was riding his fame and wanted to feed that as long as they could. They even gave him the title of National Promotions Manager. In the following weeks I was programming in Chicago but constantly being called about Dees issues with his "Disco Duck" record. As has been correctly stated on the board, the company took a strong stand and GM John Rhea terminated him for cause due to violation of their policies regarding promoting one's own ventures.

I got the call from Memphis that he was gone and I was charged with picking up the pieces. Shortly thereafter I relocated to Memphis headquarters and witnessed first hand the results of that decision to fire Dees. Over time I became the GM of WMPS and K97 so I could see the financial impact of Pre-Dees and Post-Dees. It was a multi million dollar swing that probably could have been avoided. Rick was the greatest talent I ever worked with...ever. Oh well.

I was also invoved with the birth of WEGR. As has been incorrectly stated, there was no association at all with Eagle as it would relate to Country. Not at all. We commissioned a research project and there was no consideration at all to going country on the second pass. Also I had been the originating GM of KIX 106 so I knew better than to even consider that move when the Rock hole was wide open for retaking. I chose the call letters and name to differentiate the station, to move away from the Z103 debacle and to set up a new future. But we also had a strategic plan, which was implemented within one year, to return the branding of the station to Rock 103.

Thanks for the memories and the opportunities to offer some input.

Craig Scott
 
Since you brought it up, I have to tell you the gradual rebirth of Rock 103 from the debacle you so correctly referred to was one of the best executed plans of that type I have ever heard. You did a great job. WZXR was great set of Rock calls, but I imagine they had been permanently tainted by Z103.

I worked with some of the Z103 air staff in later years. Great jocks and great guys...but that was the wrong place at the wrong time.
 
Craig answered some of the questions I had about the WEGR call letters. Evidently, WEGL was taken; either that or Craig was "eager" to take the station in a different direction, away from the Z-103 disaster! ;D
 
Wow. We could have quite a string here about Craig Scott stories, and I certainly could offer a few. But, I like the guy, so I'll keep 'em to myself! I won't even mention what his real first name is!

One afternoon, though, I was on the air in Jackson. As Craig walks in, I comment what a nice sunset we were having. Without cracking a smile, Craig just said, "thank you." That's our Craig.

DE
 
I went through several format changes in my 30+ year engineering career. Some where the existing staff was kept and a few that were total staff blowouts. The weirdest one I had involved adding a property to the cluster. I had clandestinely worked for about a month getting a studio-transmitter link in place to the soon to be acquired station's site. At exactly 3:00pm on the acquisition date, I moved one BNC connector and took the station from alternative to modern country during a live station ID. I knew the cat on the air and felt huge synpathy for him as his mic suddenly went dead and Clint Black appeared in his headphones. Fortunately, the same fellow found work soon after with one of the other stations in our cluster. Not all of the rest of that staff did though.
 
The answer to the question about the EGR vs EGL call sign was that yes, the EGL letters were in Dallas as I recall and the R had nothing to do with Eagerness but everything to do with Rockness. Eagles Rocks. I know it's a stretch but that was the thinking. The west coast version of that sign was used too by a consulting client of mine in Redding CA when we flipped his station to Rock using the call sign KEGR back in the mid 90's.
 
Wow! So much on this thread to which I can relate as a listener, in some cases first-hand. For instance...

WMC from AC to Country: March 23, 1973. I remember well Greg Hamilton telling me his account of the change about 20 years ago sitting in his office at Memphis Cablevision. My memory tells me that while The Late Bill Dollar quit as a result of the format change he actually gave notice prior to going to afternoons at WREC, as opposed to Jack Parnell who left that day.

WMPS from Contemporary to Country: Rob Grayson and Kenny Bozak have pretty well covered all the bases on that one. Bob Knight was imported from the Plough Country station in Boston, WCOP, in late spring-early summer of '78. Bob was only in Memphis for a year after not being able to get anything going. He was replaced by Johnny Randolph of Louisville fame in mid-late '79.

Craig Scott, I still have the WMPS promos and hour-openers you were doing in the early Country days. Man, you still have one of the best all-around voices I have heard to this day! Speaking of Craig Scott...

WZXR-to-WEGR: I still have the Z103-to-Eagle format flip on tape from '86, including the first hour of 'The Eagle! - 102.7'. Although I don't recall the exact date, an early-May timeline seems about right (all very well executed at the hand of the great Art Wander, I might add).

Thanks for the opportunity to stroll down Memphis radio's Memory Lane...

P.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom