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Boston CHR Wars History

Dale H. Cook said:
In the early '70s WMEX made a run against WRKO with John Garabedian as PD and afternoon drive. John introduced some innovations such as a commercial free 5-6 PM hour on weekdays (introduced with a clip from "Silence is Golden" by the Tremeloes). At the time Bill Drake was consulting WRKO, and I was once told that Drake came to Boston to personally tweak WRKO to prevent erosion of listeners to WMEX.
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Garabedian embellishes the story a bit, but WMEX did very well under his reign, coming very close to and maybe even beating WRKO is some dayparts for a couple of books. Then Max Richmond died and Garabedian got fired shortly thereafter.
I don't remember any commercial free hours, but it could have happened. The "Silence Is Golden" segment (actually it was the 4 Seasons' version used as a bumper) was 3 oldies back-to-back with no DJ talk.
TOH ID was pretty dramatic...crescendo from Also sprach Zarathustra followed with John G saying "changes...and you have found the new music" into a jingle ID.

Garabedian was/is an interesting fellow...his autobiography "Harmony Of Parts" is worth the read.
 
ssetta said:
Does anyone know the history of American Top 40 airing in the Boston area?
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When Casey returned to AT40 in 1998, Kiss 108's Ed McMann became Casey's regular fill-in host. He would go on to host more than 30 times between 1998-2003, with a few more appearances that were exclusive to Casey's AC spinoffs in 2004 and a final appearance in 2006.
 
The original WROR on 98.5 stepped into CHR for a Summer in the early 80s. It didn't last long. By fall they were back to playing Roger Whittaker.
WVBF (F-105) was CHR in the last 70s into 1980 or so.
 
Magnaradio said:
The original WROR on 98.5 stepped into CHR for a Summer in the early 80s. It didn't last long. By fall they were back to playing Roger Whittaker.
WVBF (F-105) was CHR in the last 70s into 1980 or so.
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Yes, and it was my favorite station when they flipped to CHR too! Then on Labor Day weekend, they announced that they were becoming "A thing of the past!" They went all oldies for the long weekend, then was back to AC on Tuesday.
 
Retro said:
Yes, and it was my favorite station when they flipped to CHR too! Then on Labor Day weekend, they announced that they were becoming "A thing of the past!" They went all oldies for the long weekend, then was back to AC on Tuesday.
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Sort of off topic, but when was Delilah on WVBF? Was it during its time as an AC?
 
Magnaradio said:
The original WROR on 98.5 stepped into CHR for a Summer in the early 80s. It didn't last long. By fall they were back to playing Roger Whittaker.
WVBF (F-105) was CHR in the last 70s into 1980 or so.
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Yes, it was 1983, and I was a fervent listener to ‘ROR. Pi$$ed me off when they had to flip to MOR when summer ended. Obvious, not everyone liked what I did and vice versa.
 
nowradioguy said:
Yes, it was 1983, and I was a fervent listener to ‘ROR. Pi$$ed me off when they had to flip to MOR when summer ended. Obvious, not everyone liked what I did and vice versa.
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Tyler's "caller graffiti" (or whatever he called it), every night at 7 (8?)pm. Also remember JB-105's Mike Waite on weekends.
 
Looking at the ARSA surveys with regard to WVBF-FM and WXKS:

1) The first year-end survey for WVBF-FM they show is from 1975, and it leads me to conclude that the station may have been top-40 that far back. The problem with that thinking, though, is that the first weekly top-40 survey from comes from May of 1979. The last available survey from WVVF-FM is that of 06/05/1981 and it was a definite top-40 at that time.

2) The first surveys for WXKS are from early 1979 and that station is listed as a disco station. By January 1980 (I was only spot checking so I don't know the exact date), WXKS was listed as a top-40 outlet. What is interesting is that like KFRC in San Francisco (and few other top 40 outlets elsewhere), WXKS was very heavily on R&B crossovers on its playlist through at least 1982.
 
AM-FM-DXer said:
How long was Sunny Joe White at WZOU? I don't remember him there in the early 1990s. The first jocks I can remember on WZOU were Karen Blake, Human Numan, and Tom Jefferies. I think the legendary JoJo Kincaid was the last afternoon driver on WZOU before it became Jamn. JoJo stayed on with Jamn for a while after the flip.
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JoJo "Cookin'" Kincaid did nights on Kiss 108, he left for Q106 in SanDiego. I don't recall him ever being on WZOU or WJMN
 
New said:
JoJo "Cookin'" Kincaid did nights on Kiss 108, he left for Q106 in SanDiego. I don't recall him ever being on WZOU or WJMN
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I have a tape of him on WJMN (afternoon drive) from January 1995. His 440 Satisfaction page also says he was with Jamn in 1994. He must have left some time in 1995.

If I am not mistaken, Jo Jo also "cooked" at the Eagle and WVBF, both briefly.
 
AM-FM-DXer said:
I have a tape of him on WJMN (afternoon drive) from January 1995. His 440 Satisfaction page also says he was with Jamn in 1994. He must have left some time in 1995.

If I am not mistaken, Jo Jo also "cooked" at the Eagle and WVBF, both briefly.
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Not sure about the Eagle, but definitely was at VBF for a while.
 


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