Does Anyone Remember When WMGX was "Magic 93"?

[noflufftampa]

Re: Does Anyone Remember When WMGX was \

Back in the 70s or early 80s I worked with a guy named Jay Michaels. A bit of a puker who relied heavily on prep service artist tidbits for most of his breaks. I think I heard him in Providence in the mid-late 80s. Same guy?

Jay Michael wasn't he the one that crank called WGME's Bruce Berlinger @ home and told his wife that he was Portland Police Chief Mike Chitwood? Saying PPD was investigating the break in of WCSH's Jenn Fox's apartment Live on his morning show!

 

[RSKaz]

Re: Does Anyone Remember When WMGX was \

Back in the 70s or early 80s I worked with a guy named Jay Michaels. A bit of a puker who relied heavily on prep service artist tidbits for most of his breaks. I think I heard him in Providence in the mid-late 80s. Same guy?

Jay Michael wasn't he the one that crank called WGME's Bruce Berlinger @ home and told his wife that he was Portland Police Chief Mike Chitwood? Saying PPD was investigating the break in of WCSH's Jenn Fox's apartment Live on his morning show!

Your memory is better than mine. At least, until all Statutes of Limitation are reviewed.

 

[RSKaz]

Re: Does Anyone Remember When WMGX was \

The first annual WMGX reunion lunch was held Thursday 1/15/10 at Sea Dog Brewing in South Portland.

All went well with no fist fights or trash talk. G.V. Rapp, Bennie Green (former Face magazine publisher), and myself from the air; Jon Farley, Steve Ettelman, Paul Viney from sales; a sales woman (Ruth) from when they moved to High Street; radio God, RJ Hanson from the early 'BLM; Portland ad agency icon, Bob Benson; production wiz Jerry Cobb from CBC (Jolly John's former ad agency).

Of the entire crew, only G.V. is still working in radio. There's a message there somewhere.

 

[RSKaz]

Re: Does Anyone Remember When WMGX was \

Back in the 70s or early 80s I worked with a guy named Jay Michaels. A bit of a puker who relied heavily on prep service artist tidbits for most of his breaks. I think I heard him in Providence in the mid-late 80s. Same guy?

Jay Michael wasn't he the one that crank called WGME's Bruce Berlinger @ home and told his wife that he was Portland Police Chief Mike Chitwood? Saying PPD was investigating the break in of WCSH's Jenn Fox's apartment Live on his morning show!

As it was relayed to me by Jay:

Jay was doing mornings at WGAN FM, the old FM 103 - in the same building as channel 13 WGME-TV. WGME's meteorologist, Steve Adamson use to walk down the hall and do the weather with Jay. There was a story in the Portland Press Herald about a brake-in into Jan Fox's (from WCHS-TV) apartment, and stolen a microwave oven (a big-time crime in Portland). Adamson was good friends with Berlinger and thought it would be funny to crank call him, so he gave Jay Bruce's home phone number which he called, hoping to reach him. Instead, his wife answered. Jay identified himself as the Portland police chief Mike Chitwood, said that Jan Fox's microwave oven had been stolen and did she know anything about it. She was incredulous. Jay then told her they got a search warrant and checked the trunk of Bruce's car, finding the microwave oven, a waffle iron, 2 TVs, a VCR, and a Hoover upright vacuum cleaner. She was flabbergasted, pissed off, this must be a mistake, etc. Adamson finally got on the phone to say it was a prank. It was a really funny bit that she didn't find very amusing although Bruce Berlinger thought it was a riot.

 

[noflufftampa]

Re: Does Anyone Remember When WMGX was \

.....3 or 4 days later didn't Jay resign or get fired for it?

 

[likeafish]

Re: Does Anyone Remember When WMGX was \

.....3 or 4 days later didn't Jay resign or get fired for it?

Not exactly…but he knew the writing was on the wall and hooked up with the former WGAN PD and went to work at a "station" in NH. Made it into another great bit...little juvenile, but funny!

 

[RSKaz]

Re: Does Anyone Remember When WMGX was \

.....3 or 4 days later didn't Jay resign or get fired for it?

Not exactly…but he knew the writing was on the wall and hooked up with the former WGAN PD and went to work at a "station" in NH. Made it into another great bit...little juvenile, but funny!

One thing about Jay, (and let this be a lesson to all the youngsters in the audience who want to grow up to be DJs) he was always prepped going in and prepped going. No rugs pulled on that kid.

 

[ssetta]

Re: Does Anyone Remember When WMGX was \

When exactly did they stop being called Magic? I first heard WMGX back in 1996. Believe it or not, I was actually on Cape Cod when I first heard it, and I believe that at that point they were called "Mix." Two songs I remember hearing on there were "A Matter of Trust" by Billy Joel, and "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits (maybe it was "Walk of Life," I don't remember). I even remember hearing this station in the Worcester area once, and it overlapped with 93 WHYN from Springfield, which now is ALSO called mix. It's funny, because I do remember WHYN used to be a lot softer, while competitor 94.7 WMAS used to play a much bigger variety with lots of "oh wow"-type songs.

 

[Unregistered]

Young At Heart News on WMGX

I was on that show - I was one of the High School teenagers that became the recording engineer for that show that aired Sunday Mornings at 8:15 AM! We would tape the show the day before. Sue Sterling, Jenny Sawtell, Adriana Connertasey, Mike Chandler, Alyson Dimick and Jody Hanson were the 'reporters and I used to do the man on the street Question of the Week segment in the show.
It was a 15 Minute show and when I joined it became 45 Minutes. We had some cool guests that would seek us out too. Walter Mondale, Pat & Debbie Boon were among some of the folks who appeared on our show. I remember that was when Public Affairs meant something and I remember rhow thrilled George Silverman was that our show was the number 1 Public Affairs show in New England - beating out even WBZ in the time slot.

I still have years of these shows on tape. I know where Jody Hanson is but have yet to locate any of the other cast members. If anyone knows the status of the other folks I'd love to reconnect.

If there is ever an anniversary party for WMGX I'd like to know.

Mike Leonard

WMGX Magic 93 was my first job out of UMaine in 1978. Nan Leavitt was my in, as I knew her from WMEB at Orono. Started overnights on weekends, then during the week, then did mornings with "Christina Blake". I'm Terry Lombard. Dave "Dean" Dulac gave me my start, which I'm eternally grateful for. The studio was on the 10th floor of the time & temp building with a tremendous view of Casco Bay and sunrises... "Here Comes The Sun"!!

The format was soft rock/jazz/americana, and dj's picked out every song making sure that something current and recurrent was played to stay with the format. It was all albums, with ads and jingles on 8 track carts. We had about 8 jingles we'd play depending upon what song was cued up next. My big wake up call was being paired with the one and only Dean Steeves, who had some experience as a jock at WBLM. We were a team for a couple of years and have been close friends ever since. I was Public Affairs Director also, and produced two Sunday morning shows, one was political with the late Roger Snow of USM, and the other was a high school oriented show with select area teens called Young At Heart. We worked 6 days a week for 3 weeks and got the 4th weekend off........what a freakin grind. Anyhow, I got to meet lots of chicks...which was why I existed at the time.

A highlight was when I took a plane load of listeners on a trip to Aruba in 1980, when the island was still rather virgin. The 50,000 watt signal was monstrous, so much so that the audio overran the WCSH TV 6 audio, and Dean would have to go to pissed off TV viewers' houses to install a filter on their TV. You'd see Jane Pauley on the tube and hear my voice! What a laugh!

Rich Kazimer took my place mornings after I was called to owner George Silverman's office one afternoon and was fired due to so-so arbitron numbers. There was no real promotion of our station or shows, which had something to do with it. That day I put my stuff in a Shaw's bag and went home. 5 weeks later I landed a job with Blue Cross and am still in the employee benefits business 30 years later.

It was the best job I ever had, topping out at $125 per week. If I distributed bumper stickers to area businesses I could make another $20. I'm wondering where Nan Leavitt and Kenny Rupp, and Gary Bowden are these days?