If memory serves correctly - and that's a real stretch for me - Robert W. Morgan was brought in to WIND as a replacement for Howard Miller - Which today would be sort of like replacing Rush Limbaugh with Fred Winston.
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How about a WCFL rewind?
- Thread starter radioray
- Start date
H
hammondo
Guest
Boog, Not bad. You have some apples and oranges.
Rush and Fred? are Different animals.
Howard Miller had something over 20% of morning drive in Chicago - for years. He was KING! Miller was a strong union supporter, and when the riots resulting from the assasination of Dr. King (1968) occurred, Miller suggested that the city mismanaged the situation.
Miller was FIRED with little forethought.
After his dismissal, WIND floundered for about a year with lots of subs. Some good, some not so good.
About a year later Chuck Bernson and Kurt Russell got the job. These guys were great. Imagiine this!!!!THEY could make you LAUGH without ever using the words stinky butt odor, and without EVER a stripper in the studio, and without ANY loser laughing in the background!!!!
During this time, WIND's middle of the road music audience had seriously dropped. They were exploring new directions. It was about 1969.
Then, Westingouse management hired Bob Moomey, a pd from Los Angeles. Robert W Morgan was a longtime bud of Moomey's and Morgan agreed to "try Chicago" for a year.
Meanwhile, WIND changed to "#1 music" - essentially oldies. The FIRST oldies station in Chicagol They were KILLER for about 2 years, then RKO bought WKFM and changed it to WFYR - AUTOMATED OLDIES on FM Stereo - and WIND fell like a rock.
They later changed to talk, all news, talk again, Spanish, and now WIND is owned by Salem, and sounds quite good with lots of advertisers.
I put all of their 2000 oldies on cart, during the Summer when I was employed there. When they went talk, those carts wound up at WOWO, Ft. Wayne.
Rush and Fred? are Different animals.
Howard Miller had something over 20% of morning drive in Chicago - for years. He was KING! Miller was a strong union supporter, and when the riots resulting from the assasination of Dr. King (1968) occurred, Miller suggested that the city mismanaged the situation.
Miller was FIRED with little forethought.
After his dismissal, WIND floundered for about a year with lots of subs. Some good, some not so good.
About a year later Chuck Bernson and Kurt Russell got the job. These guys were great. Imagiine this!!!!THEY could make you LAUGH without ever using the words stinky butt odor, and without EVER a stripper in the studio, and without ANY loser laughing in the background!!!!
During this time, WIND's middle of the road music audience had seriously dropped. They were exploring new directions. It was about 1969.
Then, Westingouse management hired Bob Moomey, a pd from Los Angeles. Robert W Morgan was a longtime bud of Moomey's and Morgan agreed to "try Chicago" for a year.
Meanwhile, WIND changed to "#1 music" - essentially oldies. The FIRST oldies station in Chicagol They were KILLER for about 2 years, then RKO bought WKFM and changed it to WFYR - AUTOMATED OLDIES on FM Stereo - and WIND fell like a rock.
They later changed to talk, all news, talk again, Spanish, and now WIND is owned by Salem, and sounds quite good with lots of advertisers.
I put all of their 2000 oldies on cart, during the Summer when I was employed there. When they went talk, those carts wound up at WOWO, Ft. Wayne.
This is a fantastic thread and after reading it, I can't help add that WCFL was an inspiration to me in the late 60's and 70's. I checked in on WLS as well, but thought WCFL was an astounding station with amazing production, jocks that were tight and topical, concise, funny and most definitely personalities who were razor sharp, especially working the intros AND doing their quick schtick. Somewhere in my archives, also known as the boxes of radio junk in the basement, is a cassette full of WCFL jocks, like Big Ron O'Brien and others from the late 60's and 70's, Buffalo native Tim Kelly may also be in there as well.
I grew up listening to WKBW Buffalo and worked there doing overnights and summer relief for the legendary Jeff Kaye for a few years in the early 70's; but WCFL and the Chicago AM radio wars hold a special place in my personal radio archives. For the record, I was also hooked on CKLW and CHUM Toronto for inspiration and motivation.
Over the years, I've worked on the air and production at CHR, Classic Rock, Classic Hits, Oldies and even programmed News Talk. These days, I do middays at WHTT Buffalo, which morphed from Oldies to 80s-90s based AC. We're not as energized as WCFL, but there are occasions when "the spirit of 'CFL" briefly emerges for 12 to 15 seconds while talking up The Romantics "Talking in Your Sleep" or the classic "Heard It Through the Grapevine." If you're a seasoned jock (i.e., over 45), you may have had a similar "inspirational experience" regardless of the format you're working today.
"Ten o'clock at the Voice of Labor... WCFL, Chicago..."
My thanks for a terrific thread.
Best regards,
Jim Pastrick
I grew up listening to WKBW Buffalo and worked there doing overnights and summer relief for the legendary Jeff Kaye for a few years in the early 70's; but WCFL and the Chicago AM radio wars hold a special place in my personal radio archives. For the record, I was also hooked on CKLW and CHUM Toronto for inspiration and motivation.
Over the years, I've worked on the air and production at CHR, Classic Rock, Classic Hits, Oldies and even programmed News Talk. These days, I do middays at WHTT Buffalo, which morphed from Oldies to 80s-90s based AC. We're not as energized as WCFL, but there are occasions when "the spirit of 'CFL" briefly emerges for 12 to 15 seconds while talking up The Romantics "Talking in Your Sleep" or the classic "Heard It Through the Grapevine." If you're a seasoned jock (i.e., over 45), you may have had a similar "inspirational experience" regardless of the format you're working today.
"Ten o'clock at the Voice of Labor... WCFL, Chicago..."
My thanks for a terrific thread.
Best regards,
Jim Pastrick
Ah yes, WIND "Number 1 Music", which started out with Dick Williamson post WCFL among its personalities. Chuck Benson later moved to mid-days for something like 5 years. And who can forget "Del Giorno, Chicago!!" when Bob D himself started with evenings. Nights also brought us Connie Szerzsen (sp??), a pioneer as the first female "rock jock". (Yes, we have Yvonne Daniels and Mary Dee on WSDM, but Connie was the rock pioneer.) Connie starting every show with an Elvis song. WIND used to occasionally do the "champ vs. challenger" and play the same song over and over again when one would keep winning, sometimes 10 or more times within a 90 minute period.
And, while WFYR came along, it actually was not the first FM oldies station. Can't forget WGLD Oak Park at 102.7 which was stereo oldies all the time until Morgan Moore and "Fem Forum" started a talk radio revolution for its day. Nights on WGLD with the "Boss hoss, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrother Ross" were totally awesome. WGLD preceded WBMX "The Black Music Xperience" on 102.7, but made its mark at the time, only to give way to WFYR. But Jack Miller and Tony "from the FYR station atop McCormick Place" on the weekends never did bring the same level personality to WFYR that WGLD had. Well, other than Fred Winston and Lyle Dean around 1976.
And, while WFYR came along, it actually was not the first FM oldies station. Can't forget WGLD Oak Park at 102.7 which was stereo oldies all the time until Morgan Moore and "Fem Forum" started a talk radio revolution for its day. Nights on WGLD with the "Boss hoss, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrother Ross" were totally awesome. WGLD preceded WBMX "The Black Music Xperience" on 102.7, but made its mark at the time, only to give way to WFYR. But Jack Miller and Tony "from the FYR station atop McCormick Place" on the weekends never did bring the same level personality to WFYR that WGLD had. Well, other than Fred Winston and Lyle Dean around 1976.
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hammondo
Guest
"Bob Del" was awesome at WOWO, too.
OOOPS! YES - WGLD was oldies. They had a great signal but only 2 turntables and a Sparta board and 1 cart machine in their pitiful studio (about as big as a closet in my home) in the Oak Park Arms hotel. They also only played "oldies but Goodies albums" (the art Laboe collection). Those albums were the entire music library.
WOPA am(1490)-foreign language- made all the money there, and Egmont Sonderling, the owner, was a REAL cheapskate.
WGLD never made much of a dent in WIND. It was great to listen to because I could hear "oldies on fm."
In a year or so, when WGLD started to fail, is when WIND Changed,and THEN WFYR happened (an expensive Schafer automation system and Drake "Solid Gold reel to reel tapes, with the Drake Jingles, and eventually the night club, "The FYR station" with a live Saturday night broadcast, and every 20-something for 9000 miles.)
WFYR played the Drake tapes with alot of "West Coast hit songs". I also remember lots of flutter (from very worn tapes) but the stereo was phenominal.
If memory serves, I believe WGLD did quite well for a while until they changed to "HARD ROCK" - as they were when Jimi Hendrix died.
They played solid Jimi for about 3 or 4 days. I believe they did the same when Janis Joplin died.
OOOPS! YES - WGLD was oldies. They had a great signal but only 2 turntables and a Sparta board and 1 cart machine in their pitiful studio (about as big as a closet in my home) in the Oak Park Arms hotel. They also only played "oldies but Goodies albums" (the art Laboe collection). Those albums were the entire music library.
WOPA am(1490)-foreign language- made all the money there, and Egmont Sonderling, the owner, was a REAL cheapskate.
WGLD never made much of a dent in WIND. It was great to listen to because I could hear "oldies on fm."
In a year or so, when WGLD started to fail, is when WIND Changed,and THEN WFYR happened (an expensive Schafer automation system and Drake "Solid Gold reel to reel tapes, with the Drake Jingles, and eventually the night club, "The FYR station" with a live Saturday night broadcast, and every 20-something for 9000 miles.)
WFYR played the Drake tapes with alot of "West Coast hit songs". I also remember lots of flutter (from very worn tapes) but the stereo was phenominal.
If memory serves, I believe WGLD did quite well for a while until they changed to "HARD ROCK" - as they were when Jimi Hendrix died.
They played solid Jimi for about 3 or 4 days. I believe they did the same when Janis Joplin died.
chgodave said:
...you may have forgotten, but Szerszen was also on WSDM. She started out as the jocks' assistant at WCFL, then was brought aboard for on-air duties at WSDM and then grabbed a weekend position at WIND that developed into the weeknightly thing. And the bit about starting each show with Elvis was kinda lifted from another Westinghouse employee -- when he did his nightly "Swingin' Soiree" on WINS New York, Murray The K always started every show with a Frank Sinatra side (even during the Beatles craze of his last year-plus there)...
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hammondo
Guest
WSDM, 3350 S. Kedzie. What a GREAT station. "smack dab in the middle" AND "The station with the girls and allllllll that jazz!"
I can still hear Sy Zentner and "Up Lazy River" and LOTS of Ramsey Lewis stuff.
I can still hear Sy Zentner and "Up Lazy River" and LOTS of Ramsey Lewis stuff.
S
searadiofreak
Guest
A couple of posters mentioned WIND above. I loved their jingles! What a great melodic hook. Maybe not quite up to the standards of 'LS or 'CFL, but 'IND's musical signature was great! I am somewhat saddened that this station has gone from a pretty major player to basically a syndicated radio station. I guess that is the financial reality, but still sad.
This thread, as most on here, has much missing information and a good deal of mistakes. This poster's opinion is that the height of greatness for WCFL was around 1966-67 (the Ken Draper era). Starting in 1968, after Draper got fired, the station was never the same again. Unfortunately, in this era, as good as the station sounded, it still was losing an average of $90,000 per month for the year of 1967. Part of the problem was that because the Chicago Federation Of Labor owned them, they had to have three separate unions with three separate employees
for each shift. The dj was a menber of AFTRA. The board engineer was a member of NABET and there was a separate union for the guys who cued up the records on the turntables. WCFL had two big, expensive promotions in 1967 (Think Green and the WCFL Sunset). The station did have some good books especially in the evening with teens. After Draper got fired (1968) until Super CFL, the station did worse in the ratings and revenue wise.
for each shift. The dj was a menber of AFTRA. The board engineer was a member of NABET and there was a separate union for the guys who cued up the records on the turntables. WCFL had two big, expensive promotions in 1967 (Think Green and the WCFL Sunset). The station did have some good books especially in the evening with teens. After Draper got fired (1968) until Super CFL, the station did worse in the ratings and revenue wise.
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hammondo
Guest
"there was a separate union for the guys who cued up the records on the turntables."
AARG The musicians union headed by Mr. James Petrillo, (for whom the band shell is named) quite a pirate in his own right. All the big grossing Chicago radio stations had musicians union members cuing up records - even stations with everything on cart - HAD to have a musician on duty.
WCFL was a real money loser, and the CFL through most of it's ownership, could never figure out exactly what to do with this tool of commumication.
AARG The musicians union headed by Mr. James Petrillo, (for whom the band shell is named) quite a pirate in his own right. All the big grossing Chicago radio stations had musicians union members cuing up records - even stations with everything on cart - HAD to have a musician on duty.
WCFL was a real money loser, and the CFL through most of it's ownership, could never figure out exactly what to do with this tool of commumication.
Also make sure to give Lew Witz, 'CFL GM credit for ordering the 45s to be played at 48 - to make the station sound faster paced. None other than Gary Deeb revealed that in one of his columns - when he still had an impact in radio & TV (Remember the Jack Brickhouse incident?) and before he started recently selling his memorabilia on e-bay.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane folks; I will ALWAYS cherish having grown up and having lived for all of my 55 years here in LA, and for having been able to listen to top-notch air personalities who made their marks in both LA & Chicago.
Another personality worth acknowledging would be Ken Cooper, aka CK Cooper, who was a SCREAM doing PM drive at then top-40 KFI LA in the late seventies at a time when John Rook MIGHT have been the PD.
Cooper later worked morning drive at country KZLA here in LA before going to WFYR for morning drive (I think) according to an article in the LA Times some 20+ years ago.
Someone mentioned Scotty Brink, who later went on to El Paso and did quite well, who I recall listening to when he worked at KHJ in the early seventies, alongside Charlie Van Dyke, Barry Kaye (later a star in Houston & Austin), Mark Elliott, 'Humble Harve' Miller, Walt 'Baby' Love and TONS of others.
Now for a few questions to refresh my memory.
1)---Was the 'Big Ron O'Brien' previously mentioned the same gentleman who also worked at KIIS here in LA during its glory days as a CHR/Pop powerhouse in the mid-to-late-eighties?
2)---Was WCFL really THAT handicapped in its operations by the unions????????
3)---Could you please shed some light on that air personality whose 'career was marred by continuing to play music while Nixon was giving his resignation speech?' That doesn't make any sense.
4)---I thought that Chicago had a flamethrowin' Drake-Chennault top 40 powerhouse a la KHJ & KFRC once upon a time, but since RKO didn't own WCFL, that wasn't the case.
Another personality worth acknowledging would be Ken Cooper, aka CK Cooper, who was a SCREAM doing PM drive at then top-40 KFI LA in the late seventies at a time when John Rook MIGHT have been the PD.
Cooper later worked morning drive at country KZLA here in LA before going to WFYR for morning drive (I think) according to an article in the LA Times some 20+ years ago.
Someone mentioned Scotty Brink, who later went on to El Paso and did quite well, who I recall listening to when he worked at KHJ in the early seventies, alongside Charlie Van Dyke, Barry Kaye (later a star in Houston & Austin), Mark Elliott, 'Humble Harve' Miller, Walt 'Baby' Love and TONS of others.
Now for a few questions to refresh my memory.
1)---Was the 'Big Ron O'Brien' previously mentioned the same gentleman who also worked at KIIS here in LA during its glory days as a CHR/Pop powerhouse in the mid-to-late-eighties?
2)---Was WCFL really THAT handicapped in its operations by the unions????????
3)---Could you please shed some light on that air personality whose 'career was marred by continuing to play music while Nixon was giving his resignation speech?' That doesn't make any sense.
4)---I thought that Chicago had a flamethrowin' Drake-Chennault top 40 powerhouse a la KHJ & KFRC once upon a time, but since RKO didn't own WCFL, that wasn't the case.
WFYR on the FM was to be that style of CHR and it did 'ok' for awhile... 8)
WCFL, being owned by the Chicago Federation Of Labor, was very handicapped by union problems which caused them to have many unnecessary employees working every air shift. This was addressed in a previous post. Another thing that cost WCFL money was the salary and quality of the djs during the Draper era. The salaries were much higher for Ron Britain, Barney Pip, Joel Sebastian, Jim Stagg and Jim Runyon. They even paid to bring Dick Biondi back to Chicago from KRLA, Los Angeles. From 1968, to the end of the top forty format, they paid the djs less money and had many no name djs pass through the station, with the exception of Larry Lujack. One example of a no name dj who worked there was Steve York who worked under the name Jeff Stevens in Milwaukee. He was also known as Steve Clark in New York and had been previously fired from both WOR-FM and
WWDJ before he ever worked at WCFL circa 1970.
WWDJ before he ever worked at WCFL circa 1970.
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hammondo
Guest
WFYR (with jocks) was more of a WIND clone, a lot more laid back than KHJ. Somer of the dj's were WIND alums.
'FYR used Drake Solid Gold oldies programming during their initial outing as (automated) oldies (with a Schaefer automation system) right after RKKO bought them from Kovas for a million dollars. Lot's of left coast hits unfamiliar to Chicago people in their oldies mix.
'FYR used Drake Solid Gold oldies programming during their initial outing as (automated) oldies (with a Schaefer automation system) right after RKKO bought them from Kovas for a million dollars. Lot's of left coast hits unfamiliar to Chicago people in their oldies mix.
Jock approach, you are exactly right.... Just thought, as west coast hits and even with WIND announcer style, the tightness and limited promos and yak remind me of a 'marshmellow' version of a Drake... 
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