East Coast "Drake"--failure, or the biggest influence ever?

[peppertree]

Re: Next Chapter

And thank you for your history.

I moved to Philadelphia in the fall of 1977 to start college at Drexel. I was amazed to find out later that Big Ron O'Brien, a legend, was at WFIL when I hit town and I never listened to him.

What about WABC? WABC had a strong signal day and night. Did they affect any of the ratings? I certainly spent a lot of time listening to WABC.


> > Thanks for the Phila. top 40 radio history.
> >
> > I guess the next chapter started around 1972 or 1973 with
> > WIFI 92.
> >
>
> Your right, but not exactly. WIFI evolved into a top 40 hit
> oriented format from a automated assortment of pop/rock
> singles. Songs played that were big and songs that stiffed
> or bubbled under the top 100 billboard charts. Then in late
> 72, they became a live top 40 radio station. The jocks
> compared to 'FIL had a bit more energy and hypeness. Some
> even screamed bloody murder. They had a playlist of hit
> songs that were a few weeks added and played on the air
> before 'FIL added them on. Some that became big, and some
> that stiffed on or below the Top 40 billboard positions.
> There were a few former 'FIL jocks that worked during it's
> early days, but didn't stay on very long. Even the legendary
> Hy Lit did mornings at WIFI, but was fired after 2-3 weeks
> because of bad and outdated adlibs. At that time he was
> already yesterday's news with a chance of a comeback, but
> not to be heard from again in Philly radio for a very long
> time.
>
> WIFI 92 became popular not because of the jocks and
> programming. (Most people in Philly couldn't remember most
> of the jocks that worked there.) Because the times a
> changing.... It was FM. It never really dethroned 'FIL
> itself, it was a contributing combination of things. WMMR
> was coming out of the underground from the psychedelic days,
> WIOQ (former WFIL- FM ) became a wide variety low keyed TOP
> 40/ AOR ish station, WCAU-FM was already playing oldies
> before WIFI went live, WYSP the 2nd heritage AOR was around
> the corner, and by 1975 with several more to
> follow....combination of the FM stations just nibbled away
> at 'FIL's audience. Finally dethroning it from the top spot
> as Philly's contemporary No. 1 station.
>
> Legends like Dr. Don was already gone in SF., George Michael
> was lured away to WABC, and before then he was stating to
> fade. Long John Wade was on 'CAU FM, and 'FIL had to gear
> more toward adults especially in the daytime even though it
> stayed top 40.
>
> When the Magic format came out along with a few more AC
> stations starting in '76, the days looked completely over
> for "FIL. By '78 it went top 40 AC, only to throw in the
> towel like many other legends by the early 80's. WIFI
> continued to stay Top 40 through the 70's... and it had it's
> share of struggle being the only top 40 on the FM dial with
> several AOR's, Disco, and a new breed of Soft Magic type AC
> stations on the FM to contend with. By 1981 WIFI met it's
> fate with a new rejuvenated Top 40, "Mike Joeseph's Hot
> Hits" CAU-FM. By '83 it was over, WIFI was gone as we once
> knew it. (Someone want to take chapter 3.) The real last
> chapter of Philly radio.
>
> WIFI was pretty much remembered more by call letters and the
> music it played, but never carried household names like
> WIBBAGE, WFIL, WHAT, WIP, or even talk stations did. And
> many people (or the average listener) won't even remember
> that it was the first contemporary hit full time station on
> the FM dial. All it did was lure people away to hear their
> hit songs in stereo from the AM stations, which was a thrill
> like IPOD's, XM and Sirius is today.
>
>
>
>
>
> > > As both a huge KHJ fan and a Philly native, I want to
> > jump
> > > in and share some insights into Drake/Boss Radio, and
> what
> >
> > > happened in Philadelphia. Those who criticize Drake
> radio
> > > the most, do so based on having heard those who IMITATED
>
> > > Drake and KHJ...they were the people who didn't get it,
> > not
> > > Drake, Ron Jacobs and crew. Drake Top 40 extended the
> life
> >
> > > of the mass audience to Top 40, by making CHR more
> > palatible
> > > to Rock radio's first generation...blending in Oldies,
> and
> >
> > > making Top 40 cleaner and more sixties focused in
> > > presentation, rather than an extension of the fifties.
> > Drake
> > > had real personalities on KHJ...the imitators hired
> voices
> >
> > > to perform the formatics. KHJ immediately re-positioned
> > KRLA
> > > as jive and corny, and KFWB as History...which they were
>
> > in
> > > less than three years as a Top 40 station.
> > >
> > > The Philadelphia story is different.
> > >
> > > WIBG, despite having significant signal problems
> > especially
> > > at night, was the long term venerable Top 40 into
> > > 1966...basically sounding unchanged since 1957, chatty,
> a
> > 99
> > > song current playlist, jocks who were as old as the
> > parents
> > > of Top 40's target audience, and overall pretty
> lethargic.
> >
> > > WIBG had fended off a challenge in the format in 1961 by
>
> > > WIP, and following that, no one dared go near Wibbage.
> > Until
> > > September 18, 1966, when WFIL converted to top 40.
> > >
> > > Just as KHJ had done, WFIL had younger fresher jocks, a
> > fast
> > > paced presentation, and the psychological emphasis not
> on
> > > the jocks, but on the music. The Wibbage good guys were
> > > talking about their golf games, while WFIL went right
> > after
> > > the teens and 18-34. The Wibbage survey in the stores
> was
> > a
> > > plain sheet of white paper with a WIBG logo sporting a
> gas
> >
> > > lamp. The WFIL survey was loud bold and
> contemporary.WFIL
> > > introduced Philadelphia to big money cash giveaways,
> WFIL
> > > was on every cab top, billboard, newspaper ad, and may
> > have
> > > been the first radio station to use TV in Philadelphia
> to
> > > build cume.
> > >
> > > By February of 1968, it was almost all over for WIBG.
> WFIL
> >
> > > changed morning people, and hired Dr. Don Rose from
> > WQXI...a
> > > former colleague and good friend of Paul Drew. Drew, an
> > > understudy to Bill Drake, was programming CKLW...where
> > > WIBG's owner, Storer Broadcasting, had a radio station
> in
> > > Detroit, WJBK. Storer hired Drew to convert WIBG to
> modern
> >
> > > sounding top 40, driven by the sound and formatics of
> > CKLW.
> > >
> > > By this time, although sounding nothing like a Drake
> > > station, WFIL was calling itself ' Boss Radio" on the
> air.
> >
> > > When Drew was announced for WIBG, WFIL ( with a little
> > help
> > > from Rose) went to school on Drew, and what he might do
> at
> >
> > > WIBG.
> > >
> > > WFIL immediately shortened it's playlist from 56 titles
> to
> >
> > > 30, started playing more Gold, the survey became The
> Boss
> > > 30, the jocks became The Boss Jocks, the weekends became
>
> > The
> > > Million Dollar Weekend, and claimed a lot of Drew's act
> > > before he arrived.
> > >
> > > In the middle of the April-May '68 book, Drew replaced
> the
> >
> > > announcing staff, with the exception of Joe Niagara and
> > Ray
> > > Gilmore, and hired an entirely new news department for
> the
> >
> > > launch of WIBG 20/20 News.
> > >
> > > WFIL, mindful of the parade of on air contesting Drew
> did
> > at
> > > CKLW, began it's own parade of the same
> contests...before
> > > they hit the air on the Big 99. In WFIL's Beat The Bomb
> > > contest, they deliberately ran the contest, and gave
> away
> > > embarrassingly low amounts of money. Having given away
> > $5000
> > > at a pop previously in contests, I have an aircheck
> where
> > > WFIL's Dave Parks plays Beat The Bomb and awards $4.00 (
>
> > > four dollars). Making Drew look even sillier when WIBG
> ran
> >
> > > it.
> > >
> > > When WIBG ran it's weekend-long All Time Top 300, they
> > took
> > > out a full-page ad in the Bulletin afternoon newspaper
> > > listing the songs in order...and WFIL played those
> > records
> > > in order, one song ahead of WIBG the entire weekend.
> > WFIL's
> > > jocks were real personalities...WIBG's jocks were voices
>
> > > which were interchangable...and the average life
> > expectancy
> > > of a jock at WIBG under Drew was 3 months. In October
> > 1969,
> > > Storer sold WIBG and Drew and any semblence of that kind
>
> > of
> > > radio were gone.
> > >
> > > WFIL was never Drake...and WIBG was never a KHJ or even
> a
> > > CKLW, just a failed clone. Also, Jay Cook did not become
>
> > > Program Director of WFIL until after all of this. The
> > > original PD was Jim Hilliard, followed by Lee Sherwood,
> > then
> > > Cook.
> > >
> >
>
<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>

 

[Oldbones]

Re: The Boston AM Top 40 war....

> What Boston Top 40 war?
> in the mid 70s it seemed to be mostly RKO period.
>

The Top 40s wars were long over by the mid 70s not to return until the 80s (Kiss vs WHTT vs WZOU). It was WMEX vs WBZ in the early-mid 60s, and WMEX vs WRKO from about '67-72. WMEX went downhill pretty fast after the death of owner Max Richmond in 1971...WRKO was the Top 40 king after that, despite having WVBF on FM, which never really came close to WRKO's numbers...indeed, they threw in the Top 40 towel & went AC before WRKO did. The "real" action in the mid 70s was AOR (WBCN vs WCOZ) and full-service AC (WBZ vs WHDH).

 

[fennessy]

Re: Next Chapter

Actually, the following is a sort of "pre-quel" to the WIFI post here...and that's what happened to Philadelphia Top 40 Between 1970 and 1973.When Buckley Broadcasting took over WIBG in October 1969, they launched a personality-based almost free form sounding top 40, returning the brand name ' Wibbage" to the station...WIBG was now Philadelphia's Wibbage. Drew PM Driver Ed Richards ( Mike Rivers from CKLW) took over mornings, briefly Joe Niagara did middays, there was even a brief return of Hy Lit to PM Drive, followed by Joey Reynolds from 6-10PM. Late night jock Scott Walker re-launched using his given name John Records Landecker, and existing overnighter George Benson was held over.

WIBG in this incarnation, played a wide playlist of currents. There were no jingles or any semblence of tight formatics. Meantime on City Line Avenue, WFIL chugged along. Departed PM Driver Jim Nettleton, was replaced by J.J. Jeffery, and daytime jock shifts were shortened to add Dick Heatherton 12-3PM.

Joe Niagara soon "retired", Hy Lit's return was brief, and WIBG hired Frank Kingston Smith for PM Drive. Smith had been using the name Bobby Mitchell at WRKO, and WFIL then made Bobby Mitchell the "house" nme for the weekend/swing/relief jock. WIBG's PD was Jack Reynolds.

One year into the new Buckley regime, the station evolved back into a semblence of a structured Top 40. Ed Richards ascended into the PD slot, both Jack Reynolds and Joey Reynolds departed, Bill Gardiner was hired for middays, Landecker moved to 6-10PM, and WIBG debut'd the Where Your Friends Are jingle package, with long image cuts, and short stopset and sweep elements.

WFIL replaced Dick Heatherton with Dan Donovan 12-3PM, who was later moved down into PM Drive to succeed J.J. Jeffery, who left Philly for WLS. Dave Parks took over 12-3PM.

I was too young to read an Arbitron at the time, but evidently WIBG was on the move...now attempting to reposition WFIL. In 1971, if you compared the two sations, you'd agree that WIBG had a shot. Frank Smith went back to Boston, and WIBG countered by hiring veteran WFIL late night jock Long John Wade for PM Drive. WIBG was gaining in teens, and in particular, in MEN.

1972 begins, and a real dog fight in back on.

Ed Richards gets the go ahead to come off the air at WIBG, and Don Wade, who was working for Buckley at KOL in Seattle, came to Philly to do mornings. Wibbage introduced a new jingle package, the TM P&S series, which dropped the lyrics and the "friends" imaging, with male voices to give them a "rock" male-leaning edge, " 99-WIBGEEEE". WFIL had PAMS produce The Philadelphia Story jingles, with an almost identical musical signature to WIBG's.

April-May 1972, WFIL and WIBG on all cylanders.

When the book came out, WFIL maintained its strength with women and teens, while WIBG saw it's men gutted by WMMR-FM. WIBG was rarely better, and took a sizable dump. Station owner Rick Buckley declared, ' We're going after the wrong station...we're going progressive!". WIBG converted to a mix of AOR and Top 40...hits and album cuts by day, all album cuts at night, and dropped the jingles and presented it as a modern day album rock station would.

This move scattered enough cume to insure that WIBG, no matter what it did from this point forward, would NEVER come back. In March of 1973, WIBG did re-convert to top 40 under PD Jerry Del Colliano. Holdovers from the AOR format became Top 40 jocks, including AM Drive " Mc Clintock".

1973 also saw a major and earth shattering change at WFIL. The departure of Dr. Don Rose for San Francisco and KFRC. WFIL placed Jim o'Brien into AM Drive, and moved newly hired overnighter Kris Chandler into 9-12Noon. WFIL remained unfazed by WIBG, but was about to get the first competition for its teens on FM, from WIFI.

WIFI, which had been automated Drake Hit Parade, went live in Summer '72 with a sort of Top 40/Album hybrid format, and beginning in January of '73, General Cinema began converting it's FM stations chain-wide to the short playlist Buzz Bennett style of high energy Top 40. WIFI was a class B station at 92.5, with its antenna NOT located in the Roxborough antenna farm with everybody else. This gave WIFI a great signal in every county in the metro...except Philadelphia County. The station was beset by multi-path from WMMR and some areas of the city ( especially center city) where the station couldn't be heard. Hy Lit briefly resurfaced there as AM Drve, PD Steve Kelly did PM Drive, Dave Stills from WIXZ outside Pittsburgh did middays, Bill Foster ( Bill Figenshu) did 6-10PM, and Dennis John Cahill did the weekends and swing. I personally did weekends from 9/73- to 2/74 as Kevin Stone, after being laid off at WPEN across town.

Into 1974, WIBG hired Don Cannon back to Philly, from his mornings at the now-departed WWDJ.Cannon became Program Director, and a semblence of a personality Top 40 happened on Wibbage into 1975, when WIBG hired Dick Clayton from WCAU ( formerly middays at WIP), and started sounding more like an A/C station. This style of radio was WIBG until Buckley sold WIBG to Fairbanks, who took over early in 1976.

WFIL continued to evolve and freshen it's sound as a Top 40, but the beginnings of the erosion of teens and 18-24s to WIFI, WMMR and WYSP-FM led to a bizzare attempt to become an A/C station, and deliberately alienate it's traditional audience.

By 1977, with veterans like George Michael, Jim O Brien, Dave Parks long gone, WFIL did a huge weekend almost 'saying goodbye" to their top 40 format, with vignettes about the past WFIL jocks, ending with.." that was WFIL then, here's WFIL now"....right into a record like The Summer Wind by Sinatra

Sometime in 1975 or'76, WIFI beat WFIL in teens under PD Bob Hamilton. After Hamilton was hired out of the market to program KRTH in Los Angeles, WIFI went through several incarnations of Top 40.

At one point, the PD renamed all the jocks to have names that sounded like the cast of Welcome Back Kotter...after that, and anybody connected with WIFI in the late '70s knows this, there was a ton of intervention by the company president as to how WIFI sounded. At one point, they'd hired Geoff Fox from WPEN ( where he had been doing mornings), and had him opening the mike between songs saying, "WIFI-FM".

One of the last PDs at WIFI was Bill Hennes...who after a brief stay, was lured across the street by Fairbanks to convert WIBG back to a Buzz Bennett style Top 40. With holdovers from their A/C format, and the hire of Truckin Tom Cookin Kent, WIBG went CHR again for about 6 months, when it was announced that WIBG would change call letters to WZZD and finally bury Wibbage. A week-long Wibbage Wake was held, and all of Philly showed up to say goodbye. Joe Niagara and Hy Lit came back for the send-off. The New WZZD debut'd in September of '77, with an Album radio approach to CHR, which lasted about 14 months. Wizzard 100 then evolved into a dance station, before being sold to Communicom Corporation and converting to religion under the WZZD call sign.

At the end of the seventies, there was no Top 40 in Philadelphia. WIFI converted to " Rock Of The Eighties" under consultant Rick Carroll, WFIL was A/C, WIBG was now WZZD doing Religion, WCAU-FM was Urban and dance, WPEN was Nostalgia, WIP was a mix of A/C and Talk, WMMR and WYSP were AOR. Like most markets Top 40 was dead until MTV and Mike Joseph arrived to change everything in 1981.

I'm sorry...what was the question?<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by fennessy on 02/05/06 01:50 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[peppertree]

Re: Next Chapter...Hot Hits! WCAU-FM

Thank you for this history. I would hope that it is saved and sent to one of the Philadelphia Radio Gold websites.

The next chapter would be Hot Hits! WCAU-FM.

> Actually, the following is a sort of "pre-quel" to the WIFI
> post here...and that's what happened to Philadelphia Top 40
> Between 1970 and 1973.When Buckley Broadcasting took over
> WIBG in October 1969, they launched a personality-based
> almost free form sounding top 40, returning the brand name '
> Wibbage" to the station...WIBG was now Philadelphia's
> Wibbage. Drew PM Driver Ed Richards ( Mike Rivers from CKLW)
> took over mornings, briefly Joe Niagara did middays, there
> was even a brief return of Hy Lit to PM Drive, followed by
> Joey Reynolds from 6-10PM. Late night jock Scott Walker
> re-launched using his given name John Records Landecker, and
> existing overnighter George Benson was held over.
>
> WIBG in this incarnation, played a wide playlist of
> currents. There were no jingles or any semblence of tight
> formatics. Meantime on City Line Avenue, WFIL chugged along.
> Departed PM Driver Jim Nettleton, was replaced by J.J.
> Jeffery, and daytime jock shifts were shortened to add Dick
> Heatherton 12-3PM.
>
> Joe Niagara soon "retired", Hy Lit's return was brief, and
> WIBG hired Frank Kingston Smith for PM Drive. Smith had been
> using the name Bobby Mitchell at WRKO, and WFIL then made
> Bobby Mitchell the "house" nme for the weekend/swing/relief
> jock. WIBG's PD was Jack Reynolds.
>
> One year into the new Buckley regime, the station evolved
> back into a semblence of a structured Top 40. Ed Richards
> ascended into the PD slot, both Jack Reynolds and Joey
> Reynolds departed, Bill Gardiner was hired for middays,
> Landecker moved to 6-10PM, and WIBG debut'd the Where Your
> Friends Are jingle package, with long image cuts, and short
> stopset and sweep elements.
>
> WFIL replaced Dick Heatherton with Dan Donovan 12-3PM, who
> was later moved down into PM Drive to succeed J.J. Jeffery,
> who left Philly for WLS. Dave Parks took over 12-3PM.
>
> I was too young to read an Arbitron at the time, but
> evidently WIBG was on the move...now attempting to
> reposition WFIL. In 1971, if you compared the two sations,
> you'd agree that WIBG had a shot. Frank Smith went back to
> Boston, and WIBG countered by hiring veteran WFIL late night
> jock Long John Wade for PM Drive. WIBG was gaining in teens,
> and in particular, in MEN.
>
> 1972 begins, and a real dog fight in back on.
>
> Ed Richards gets the go ahead to come off the air at WIBG,
> and Don Wade, who was working for Buckley at KOL in Seattle,
> came to Philly to do mornings. Wibbage introduced a new
> jingle package, the TM P&S series, which dropped the lyrics
> and the "friends" imaging, with male voices to give them a
> "rock" male-leaning edge, " 99-WIBGEEEE". WFIL had PAMS
> produce The Philadelphia Story jingles, with an almost
> identical musical signature to WIBG's.
>
> April-May 1972, WFIL and WIBG on all cylanders.
>
> When the book came out, WFIL maintained its strength with
> women and teens, while WIBG saw it's men gutted by WMMR-FM.
> WIBG was rarely better, and took a sizable dump. Station
> owner Rick Buckley declared, ' We're going after the wrong
> station...we're going progressive!". WIBG converted to a mix
> of AOR and Top 40...hits and album cuts by day, all album
> cuts at night, and dropped the jingles and presented it as a
> modern day album rock station would.
>
> This move scattered enough cume to insure that WIBG, no
> matter what it did from this point forward, would NEVER come
> back. In March of 1973, WIBG did re-convert to top 40 under
> PD Jerry Del Colliano. Holdovers from the AOR format became
> Top 40 jocks, including AM Drive " Mc Clintock".
>
> 1973 also saw a major and earth shattering change at WFIL.
> The departure of Dr. Don Rose for San Francisco and KFRC.
> WFIL placed Jim o'Brien into AM Drive, and moved newly hired
> overnighter Kris Chandler into 9-12Noon. WFIL remained
> unfazed by WIBG, but was about to get the first competition
> for its teens on FM, from WIFI.
>
> WIFI, which had been automated Drake Hit Parade, went live
> in Summer '72 with a sort of Top 40/Album hybrid format, and
> beginning in January of '73, General Cinema began converting
> it's FM stations chain-wide to the short playlist Buzz
> Bennett style of high energy Top 40. WIFI was a class B
> station at 92.5, with its antenna NOT located in the
> Roxborough antenna farm with everybody else. This gave WIFI
> a great signal in every county in the metro...except
> Philadelphia County. The station was beset by multi-path
> from WMMR and some areas of the city ( especially center
> city) where the station couldn't be heard. Hy Lit briefly
> resurfaced there as AM Drve, PD Steve Kelly did PM Drive,
> Dave Stills from WIXZ outside Pittsburgh did middays, Bill
> Foster ( Bill Figenshu) did 6-10PM, and Dennis John Cahill
> did the weekends and swing. I personally did weekends from
> 9/73- to 2/74 as Kevin Stone, after being laid off at WPEN
> across town.
>
> Into 1974, WIBG hired Don Cannon back to Philly, from his
> mornings at the now-departed WWDJ.Cannon became Program
> Director, and a semblence of a personality Top 40 happened
> on Wibbage into 1975, when WIBG hired Dick Clayton from WCAU
> ( formerly middays at WIP), and started sounding more like
> an A/C station. This style of radio was WIBG until Buckley
> sold WIBG to Fairbanks, who took over early in 1976.
>
> WFIL continued to evolve and freshen it's sound as a Top 40,
> but the beginnings of the erosion of teens and 18-24s to
> WIFI, WMMR and WYSP-FM led to a bizzare attempt to become an
> A/C station, and deliberately alienate it's traditional
> audience.
>
> By 1977, with veterans like George Michael, Jim O Brien,
> Dave Parks long gone, WFIL did a huge weekend almost 'saying
> goodbye" to their top 40 format, with vignettes about the
> past WFIL jocks, ending with.." that was WFIL then, here's
> WFIL now"....right into a record like The Summer Wind by
> Sinatra
>
> Sometime in 1975 or'76, WIFI beat WFIL in teens under PD Bob
> Hamilton. After Hamilton was hired out of the market to
> program KRTH in Los Angeles, WIFI went through several
> incarnations of Top 40.
>
> At one point, the PD renamed all the jocks to have names
> that sounded like the cast of Welcome Back Kotter...after
> that, and anybody connected with WIFI in the late '70s knows
> this, there was a ton of intervention by the company
> president as to how WIFI sounded. At one point, they'd hired
> Geoff Fox from WPEN ( where he had been doing mornings), and
> had him opening the mike between songs saying, "WIFI-FM".
>
> One of the last PDs at WIFI was Bill Hennes...who after a
> brief stay, was lured across the street by Fairbanks to
> convert WIBG back to a Buzz Bennett style Top 40. With
> holdovers from their A/C format, and the hire of Truckin Tom
> Cookin Kent, WIBG went CHR again for about 6 months, when it
> was announced that WIBG would change call letters to WZZD
> and finally bury Wibbage. A week-long Wibbage Wake was held,
> and all of Philly showed up to say goodbye. Joe Niagara and
> Hy Lit came back for the send-off. The New WZZD debut'd in
> September of '77, with an Album radio approach to CHR, which
> lasted about 14 months. Wizzard 100 then evolved into a
> dance station, before being sold to Communicom Corporation
> and converting to religion under the WZZD call sign.
>
> At the end of the seventies, there was no Top 40 in
> Philadelphia. WIFI converted to " Rock Of The Eighties"
> under consultant Rick Carroll, WFIL was A/C, WIBG was now
> WZZD doing Religion, WCAU-FM was Urban and dance, WPEN was
> Nostalgia, WIP was a mix of A/C and Talk, WMMR and WYSP were
> AOR. Like most markets Top 40 was dead until MTV and Mike
> Joseph arrived to change everything in 1981.
>
> I'm sorry...what was the question?
>
<P ID="signature">______________
[email protected]</P>

 

[apco25]

Re: Next Chapter...Hot Hits! WCAU-FM

I'll take it from here, then Kevin can fill in the dots for both of us.
The latter part of '81, 'FIL was gone or went country, AC AMer WIP was fading into evening talk, WIBG has been WZZD Christian, WIFI was struggling with their top 40 identity and the Philly market acquired a bunch of rim shot signals from Trenton and Wilmington that also went to some type of contemporary hit/pop music formats.

And disco was dying dead gone! Which led to WCAU-FM to put back the fun in Philly radio. Out came Mike Joeseph and "Hot Hits" 98 CAU- FM. They experimented with this same format up in markets like Syracuse, NY and Harrisburg, PA. that it was successful, So...let's get it on in Philly, and a few other markets.

And yes, it was a remodeled WABC, and WFIL, and yes, it kicked ass with teens and even young adults. There was also WPST a top 40 station in Trenton, but it only covered 60% of the city limits of Philadelphia, later to have competition with WKXW up in the same market. None of those were a threat at all to 'CAU, but they never tried to be. At least in those days.

There was alot of entertaining radio by the mid 80's, and by my taste it was the last of great old days of how we use to know it.
"FIL was back to oldies, 'MMR never sounded better even in the old Morning Zoo days. Joey Reynolds was hilarious, and still if you listened to his old air checks, especially filling for the morning guy at'YSP after he was wrongly let go at 'FIL....you would p*** in your pants. Yes, that's how funny he was. Especially ragging John DeBella. I don't care what anybody says, but if it wasn't for Joey Reynolds, there would be no Howard Stern.
The word was just getting out about Howard in the Philly market as he could be easily monitored up in NY's NNNBC. I believe a year later, he became simulcast at WYSP and stayed the number one morning guy for the next two decades.

In '85 the music was at it's best in the 80's, and everybody sounded good. Especially 'CAU Hot Hits. But they did have one worry. It wasn't another top 40 station. It was the frequency next to them. When disco crashed, so did alot of the black hit crossovers, (with the exception of the Michael Jacksons, Kool & The Gang, Stevie Wonder's etc.) but in the 80's with new wave or modern and pop urban cowboy hits at that time dominating most top 40 playlists....a format called urban evolved. Power 99 (a take off of KISS in LA) became a contempory black music station with the pre-cursors of hip hop and rap, which were all suffering today from, which kinda competed with 'CAU's audience. It wasn't just programmed for blacks only, it was out to target white or interracial crowds and surburban teens. And it did successfully. Challenging away certain young demographics from 'CAU. But both were successful. It was eithier 98 or 99 on your FM dial. Power 99 was formed in '83, and it still is the hip hop/rap station today from where it started back when Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, and George Clinton ruled.

Both stations survived each other, the later thriving R&B, was "DAS FM which upped their power, and by the end of the 80's, there was no stoppin them at all. They were always at least top 3. And still today.
But they were more geared for Black adults and became one of the early quiet stormers.

Then in 85 or '86, a station called WWSH came on dumping their long beautiful music format, (they might have had something before that) and came on with a more personality hit format. Bringing in duo morning shows, along with several sidekicks to add the yuks, yuks, in the background, along with the tabloids or toilet trash humor,pretty much what we have today, and then hit music all day, is what it became.

They became WEGX (the Eagle)and one of their first attempts, was to copy "Hot Hits" called electric hits, and it was terrible. The music industry product coming out was showing signs of weakening along with what's being released as singles (which is the problem were all suffering worse still today)and it failed trying to almost exactly copy 'CAU FM. Then they went more personality in the mornings with several morning people, John Landers Nut Hut, Danny Bonaduce, and Ross Britian crew and I guess several other duos, before they exited top 40 for Jazz.
But by '86, 'CAU was showing signs of fading, and they were switching their Hot Shots around, making Jingle changes or tweaks, and one of the first moves in '87 was releasing the very talented and lovely Billy Burke. (Yes he was talented).Usually their strongest ratings guy. That was the first move of showing signs of going to a older audience. As the year went on, CAU was gradually slipping, and the Eagle was slowly gaining. And in one more book...CAU -FM beat the Eagle by only one tenth of a percentage point (only),
It was time to switch. And it did to Oldies and it became WOGL. They rushed because long time AOR/contemporary WIOQ was rumored to switch, so they beat them to it.
There was a record 4 oldies stations on the air in Philly. Two on FM and Two on AM. And finally....as the last greatest top 40 radio in Philly went down quickly.... there hasn't been another legend since.
WEGX stayed Top 40 or contemporary until I think till the early 90's. (Sorry I lost touch by then) Then there was WIOQ switching from CHR/Rythmic to CHR back and forth, and then like other markets, no top 40 at all, or at least not the way we once new it. Who cared, it all sucked by then anyway. Billboard was no longer the bible of hit music, and Corporate radio was on the rise.
So it was WIBG 56-77, WFIL 66-81, WIFI, 72-83, WCAU-FM, 81-87. WEGX 85-90 or so.

I don't know about the rest of them, and I couldn't care less. But by then 90's and now....my favorite stations became DMX, XM, Internet, Station Playlist, etc. And listening to AM for certain talk show hosts.
So if there is a chapter 5 somewhere down the road, Go to the guys on the Philly board for that. I'm done.







> Thank you for this history. I would hope that it is saved
> and sent to one of the Philadelphia Radio Gold websites.
>
> The next chapter would be Hot Hits! WCAU-FM.
>
> > Actually, the following is a sort of "pre-quel" to the
> WIFI
> > post here...and that's what happened to Philadelphia Top
> 40
> > Between 1970 and 1973.When Buckley Broadcasting took over
> > WIBG in October 1969, they launched a personality-based
> > almost free form sounding top 40, returning the brand name
> '
> > Wibbage" to the station...WIBG was now Philadelphia's
> > Wibbage. Drew PM Driver Ed Richards ( Mike Rivers from
> CKLW)
> > took over mornings, briefly Joe Niagara did middays, there
>
> > was even a brief return of Hy Lit to PM Drive, followed by
>
> > Joey Reynolds from 6-10PM. Late night jock Scott Walker
> > re-launched using his given name John Records Landecker,
> and
> > existing overnighter George Benson was held over.
> >
> > WIBG in this incarnation, played a wide playlist of
> > currents. There were no jingles or any semblence of tight
> > formatics. Meantime on City Line Avenue, WFIL chugged
> along.
> > Departed PM Driver Jim Nettleton, was replaced by J.J.
> > Jeffery, and daytime jock shifts were shortened to add
> Dick
> > Heatherton 12-3PM.
> >
> > Joe Niagara soon "retired", Hy Lit's return was brief, and
>
> > WIBG hired Frank Kingston Smith for PM Drive. Smith had
> been
> > using the name Bobby Mitchell at WRKO, and WFIL then made
> > Bobby Mitchell the "house" nme for the
> weekend/swing/relief
> > jock. WIBG's PD was Jack Reynolds.
> >
> > One year into the new Buckley regime, the station evolved
> > back into a semblence of a structured Top 40. Ed Richards
> > ascended into the PD slot, both Jack Reynolds and Joey
> > Reynolds departed, Bill Gardiner was hired for middays,
> > Landecker moved to 6-10PM, and WIBG debut'd the Where Your
>
> > Friends Are jingle package, with long image cuts, and
> short
> > stopset and sweep elements.
> >
> > WFIL replaced Dick Heatherton with Dan Donovan 12-3PM, who
>
> > was later moved down into PM Drive to succeed J.J.
> Jeffery,
> > who left Philly for WLS. Dave Parks took over 12-3PM.
> >
> > I was too young to read an Arbitron at the time, but
> > evidently WIBG was on the move...now attempting to
> > reposition WFIL. In 1971, if you compared the two sations,
>
> > you'd agree that WIBG had a shot. Frank Smith went back to
>
> > Boston, and WIBG countered by hiring veteran WFIL late
> night
> > jock Long John Wade for PM Drive. WIBG was gaining in
> teens,
> > and in particular, in MEN.
> >
> > 1972 begins, and a real dog fight in back on.
> >
> > Ed Richards gets the go ahead to come off the air at WIBG,
>
> > and Don Wade, who was working for Buckley at KOL in
> Seattle,
> > came to Philly to do mornings. Wibbage introduced a new
> > jingle package, the TM P&S series, which dropped the
> lyrics
> > and the "friends" imaging, with male voices to give them a
>
> > "rock" male-leaning edge, " 99-WIBGEEEE". WFIL had PAMS
> > produce The Philadelphia Story jingles, with an almost
> > identical musical signature to WIBG's.
> >
> > April-May 1972, WFIL and WIBG on all cylanders.
> >
> > When the book came out, WFIL maintained its strength with
> > women and teens, while WIBG saw it's men gutted by
> WMMR-FM.
> > WIBG was rarely better, and took a sizable dump. Station
> > owner Rick Buckley declared, ' We're going after the wrong
>
> > station...we're going progressive!". WIBG converted to a
> mix
> > of AOR and Top 40...hits and album cuts by day, all album
> > cuts at night, and dropped the jingles and presented it as
> a
> > modern day album rock station would.
> >
> > This move scattered enough cume to insure that WIBG, no
> > matter what it did from this point forward, would NEVER
> come
> > back. In March of 1973, WIBG did re-convert to top 40
> under
> > PD Jerry Del Colliano. Holdovers from the AOR format
> became
> > Top 40 jocks, including AM Drive " Mc Clintock".
> >
> > 1973 also saw a major and earth shattering change at WFIL.
>
> > The departure of Dr. Don Rose for San Francisco and KFRC.
> > WFIL placed Jim o'Brien into AM Drive, and moved newly
> hired
> > overnighter Kris Chandler into 9-12Noon. WFIL remained
> > unfazed by WIBG, but was about to get the first
> competition
> > for its teens on FM, from WIFI.
> >
> > WIFI, which had been automated Drake Hit Parade, went live
>
> > in Summer '72 with a sort of Top 40/Album hybrid format,
> and
> > beginning in January of '73, General Cinema began
> converting
> > it's FM stations chain-wide to the short playlist Buzz
> > Bennett style of high energy Top 40. WIFI was a class B
> > station at 92.5, with its antenna NOT located in the
> > Roxborough antenna farm with everybody else. This gave
> WIFI
> > a great signal in every county in the metro...except
> > Philadelphia County. The station was beset by multi-path
> > from WMMR and some areas of the city ( especially center
> > city) where the station couldn't be heard. Hy Lit briefly
> > resurfaced there as AM Drve, PD Steve Kelly did PM Drive,
> > Dave Stills from WIXZ outside Pittsburgh did middays, Bill
>
> > Foster ( Bill Figenshu) did 6-10PM, and Dennis John Cahill
>
> > did the weekends and swing. I personally did weekends from
>
> > 9/73- to 2/74 as Kevin Stone, after being laid off at WPEN
>
> > across town.
> >
> > Into 1974, WIBG hired Don Cannon back to Philly, from his
> > mornings at the now-departed WWDJ.Cannon became Program
> > Director, and a semblence of a personality Top 40 happened
>
> > on Wibbage into 1975, when WIBG hired Dick Clayton from
> WCAU
> > ( formerly middays at WIP), and started sounding more like
>
> > an A/C station. This style of radio was WIBG until Buckley
>
> > sold WIBG to Fairbanks, who took over early in 1976.
> >
> > WFIL continued to evolve and freshen it's sound as a Top
> 40,
> > but the beginnings of the erosion of teens and 18-24s to
> > WIFI, WMMR and WYSP-FM led to a bizzare attempt to become
> an
> > A/C station, and deliberately alienate it's traditional
> > audience.
> >
> > By 1977, with veterans like George Michael, Jim O Brien,
> > Dave Parks long gone, WFIL did a huge weekend almost
> 'saying
> > goodbye" to their top 40 format, with vignettes about the
> > past WFIL jocks, ending with.." that was WFIL then, here's
>
> > WFIL now"....right into a record like The Summer Wind by
> > Sinatra
> >
> > Sometime in 1975 or'76, WIFI beat WFIL in teens under PD
> Bob
> > Hamilton. After Hamilton was hired out of the market to
> > program KRTH in Los Angeles, WIFI went through several
> > incarnations of Top 40.
> >
> > At one point, the PD renamed all the jocks to have names
> > that sounded like the cast of Welcome Back Kotter...after
> > that, and anybody connected with WIFI in the late '70s
> knows
> > this, there was a ton of intervention by the company
> > president as to how WIFI sounded. At one point, they'd
> hired
> > Geoff Fox from WPEN ( where he had been doing mornings),
> and
> > had him opening the mike between songs saying, "WIFI-FM".
> >
> > One of the last PDs at WIFI was Bill Hennes...who after a
> > brief stay, was lured across the street by Fairbanks to
> > convert WIBG back to a Buzz Bennett style Top 40. With
> > holdovers from their A/C format, and the hire of Truckin
> Tom
> > Cookin Kent, WIBG went CHR again for about 6 months, when
> it
> > was announced that WIBG would change call letters to WZZD
> > and finally bury Wibbage. A week-long Wibbage Wake was
> held,
> > and all of Philly showed up to say goodbye. Joe Niagara
> and
> > Hy Lit came back for the send-off. The New WZZD debut'd in
>
> > September of '77, with an Album radio approach to CHR,
> which
> > lasted about 14 months. Wizzard 100 then evolved into a
> > dance station, before being sold to Communicom Corporation
>
> > and converting to religion under the WZZD call sign.
> >
> > At the end of the seventies, there was no Top 40 in
> > Philadelphia. WIFI converted to " Rock Of The Eighties"
> > under consultant Rick Carroll, WFIL was A/C, WIBG was now
> > WZZD doing Religion, WCAU-FM was Urban and dance, WPEN was
>
> > Nostalgia, WIP was a mix of A/C and Talk, WMMR and WYSP
> were
> > AOR. Like most markets Top 40 was dead until MTV and Mike
>
> > Joseph arrived to change everything in 1981.
> >
> > I'm sorry...what was the question?
> >
>
<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by apco25 on 02/06/06 07:49 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Next Chapter...Hot Hits! WCAU-FM

>
> And disco was dying dead gone! Which led to WCAU-FM to put
> back the fun in Philly radio. Out came Mike Joeseph and "Hot
> Hits" 98 CAU- FM. They experimented with this same format up
> in markets like Syracuse, NY and Harrisburg, PA. that it was
> successful, So...let's get it on in Philly, and a few other
> markets.

As a sidebar, the model for Hot Hits was WKAQ-FM in San Juan, a client of Joseph´s since 1968, which had just switched its CHR format from AM to FM. The high energy, multi-jingled format first aired in Spanish in PR, and then became Hot Hits.

 

[Oldbones]

Re: Next Chapter...Hot Hits! WCAU-FM

>
> They became WEGX (the Eagle)and one of their first attempts,
> was to copy "Hot Hits" called electric hits, and it was
> terrible. The music industry product coming out was showing
> signs of weakening along with what's being released as
> singles (which is the problem were all suffering worse still
> today)and it failed trying to almost exactly copy 'CAU FM.

Wasn't Mike Joseph also behind "Electric Hits"?


> There was a record 4 oldies stations on the air in Philly.
> Two on FM and Two on AM. And finally....as the last greatest
> top 40 radio in Philly went down quickly.... there hasn't
> been another legend since.
> WEGX stayed Top 40 or contemporary until I think till the
> early 90's. (Sorry I lost touch by then) Then there was WIOQ
> switching from CHR/Rythmic to CHR back and forth, and then
> like other markets, no top 40 at all, or at least not the
> way we once new it. Who cared, it all sucked by then anyway.
> Billboard was no longer the bible of hit music, and
> Corporate radio was on the rise.


I wonder if the demise of Top 40/CHR in the mid-late 80s had more to do with the fact that the youngest boomers & older end of Gen X had aged out of the demo? Top 40 was always a format by and for the boomer generation. To anyone born after 1970 or so, MTV was the hip new "must see" channel...radio must have seemed one-dimensional and quaint by comparison. By the mid-80s a new generation was coming of age...one with different tastes than the boomers. I also pretty much lost interest in most new music around that time.
To us, altrock and hip-hop were just as much "garbage" as the Beatles, Elvis, Led Zep, etc. were to our parents/elders.