JB105 was owned by the Providence Journal-Bulletin and was located on 10 Dorrance St. before moving in 1981, I believe. I also won several albums, t-shirts and concert tickets and made many trips to the old building. I still have many airchecks, mostly from 1979-82, and most of the music surveys that were printed weekly in the Providence Journal. Despite my user name, I am not Mike Waite, but I was a huge fan of his show and the whole station. A while back, I had written an article for a radio website (that was never launched) with a history of the station as I have remembered and researched. Hope this brings back some memories. Here it is:
On August 1, 1975, WPJB switched from classical to top 40 as JB105. The original moniker was “JB105 has Big Hits”. The switch was advertised in the Journal for about a week before it actually happened. JB105 immediately became the chief rival of WPRO-FM, which had switched to top-40 under PD Gary Berkowitz in the spring of 1974. This battle helped to give Providence listeners some great radio over the next few years.
JB105 used an early variation of Mike Joseph’s “Hot Hits” format as only current hits were played and a jingle ( the ”JB105 shouts” ) led into every song. A familiar phrase on the station was “JB105 has Big Hits”. The station also billed itself as “The Big Banger”. The JB105 Big Hit list (Top 50 hits) appeared weekly in local record stores and beginning in December 1975, in the Providence Journal, where it would be featured for the next seven years. The early lineup was as follows: Bill Silver with Mike Waite as the newsman (5am-9am), Dale Shaw (9am-12noon), Mickey Ashworth (12noon-3pm), Todd Chase (3pm-7pm), Robb Stewart (7pm-12min) and Rod West (12mid-5am). This lineup would remain intact for well over the next year. By 1977, changes were beginning to take place. Disk Jockeys could finally talk over song intros and the station no longer played all current hits. Brad Pierce came in from crosstown WGNG to take over late mornings while Mike Waite added the early afternoon shift (noon-to 3) to his news duties.
In the summer of 1978, Waite moved to evenings. His high energy show, including the “world renowned Waite’s Complaints” had Rhode Islanders both rocking and laughing for the next three years. By late 1978, the lineup was as follows: Bill Silver and Al Norman (6am-10am), Brad Pierce (10am-2pm), Todd Chase (2pm-6pm), Mike Waite (6pm-10pm), Robb Stewart (10pm-2am) and Rod West (2am-6am). As mentioned in an earlier post, the station had heavy compression and reverb at this time.
Heading into 1979, disco music was in full swing and JB105 capitalized on it as disco hits were scattered all over their charts. Early that year, Robb Stewart left for WFBL in Syracuse and was replaced by Rick Everett. In the summer that year, JB105, which once played jingles into every song, dropped them entirely. The reverb had also been toned down. The lineup was altered a bit heading into the fall of 1979 as Todd Chase relinquished his airshift to concentrate on his PD duties. Rod West finally saw daylight as he moved to middays, with Brad Pierce taking over afternoons and “Young” Johnny Dowd (aka Jay Beau Jones) replacing West on overnights. Pierce began his popular “Big 35 Countdown” show every Thursday at this time and the station billed itself as “Music Power, JB105”. As the year ended, pop and rock tunes once again dominated the charts as the disco craze was quickly fading away.
As the new decade began, the station seemed to be on a roll as teen listenership was rising. WPRO-FM, while remaining top-40, began to focus more on adults under new PD Jack O’Brien. The personalities remained intact for all of 1980, with the exception of Bill Kelly replacing Bill Silver on the Bill & Al morning show. Another Bill, Bill Davis, joined the station for weekends. In March of 1980, television commercials were advertising a compilation album by country legend Slim Whitman. These commercials were claiming that Whitman had outsold The Beatles and Elvis. This caught Mike Waite’s attention and Slim became a main focus of his show for the next three months. Waite ordered the album and began playing cuts on his show (adding animal and barnyard sound effects to the music). Listeners ate it up, despite the fact that Slim’s music was about as far from Top-40 as could possibly be. Callers started yodeling like Slim on Waite’s show and Slim Whitman fan clubs started popping up in schools all over the state. Even rival WPRO-FM jumped on the Slim bandwagon briefly. JB105 went so far as to sponsor a Slim Whitman concert featuring Slim himself in May. By June of 1980, Slim was a dead issue, but the station was still going strong, billing itself as “The Rock of the 80’s”. In July, when the spring ratings were released, Waite boasted on the air that “we kicked their (WPRO-FM) butts”. Waite was so popular at this time that Channel 12 did a short feature on him as part of their “Night People” segments on the 11:00 news. Waite also broadcasted the daily business reports on sister station WEAN. As the year ended, however, PRO-FM was quickly regaining momentum with the return of Gary Berkowitz.
The first quarter of 1981 saw a number of changes at JB105. The station started to lean a bit toward the rock side and even instituted “Album Rock Sundays” for a short time. The most requested song on the station at this time was the novelty record “Eugene” by Crazy Joe and The Variable Speed Band. The song never hit the Billboard Hot 100, but hit number one at JB105. In early February, Rod West left for WPRO-AM. He was replaced in middays by Rick Everett. Johnny Dowd moved to late nights, while Doc Holliday came in from WTIC in Hartford for overnights. Later that month the station suffered a major blow as the popular morning team of Bill & Al left for Miami (they changed the show name to Kelly & Kline and were together on various stations for over 20 years) and Waite was moved up to fill their slot in the mornings. Dr. Grady Brock replaced Waite at night. The station just didn’t have the same feel after these moves as Brock could not fill the incredible shoes of Waite at night, and even Waite just didn’t quite sound the same in the morning without his yelling, screaming and the tastefully obnoxious behavior that made him famous at night. (Note: Waite has since gone on to become one of the most popular morning show hosts in the country at WJBR in Delaware). Brock was gone after three months and was eventually replaced by “Smokin’” Willie B. Goode. Mickey O (aka Mike Olsen) joined the station for fill-ins and weekends.
In the summer of 1981, the station continued its rock lean, billing itself as “New England’s Best Rock”. For the first time in many months, a Billboard Top 10 hit (“A Woman Needs Love” by Ray Parker Jr.) was not added to the JB105 chart. Rock-leaning songs that flopped on the Billboard charts, such as “Sign Of A Gypsy Queen” by April Wine, “Tom Sawyer” by Rush, and “Pay You Back With Interest” by Gary O were huge hits on JB105. Urban-leaning hits, such as “Double-Dutch Bus” and “Ai No Corrida” were not played.
In September of 1981, WHJY became the first album rock station in Providence. Suddenly, a different sound began to emerge on JB105. A jingle package was used for the first time in two years and the “Best Rock” moniker was dropped for “Southern New England’s Best Music”. Top 40/Urban hits such as “Super Freak” and “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” were again being added and were top 10 hits on the station. Still though, there was a sense that the station was not the top 40 mainstay it once was as they were later than ever to add songs, and the songs were taking longer to leave the charts. The order of songs on the JB105 music survey seemed to be the same every week as songs rarely jumped over each other until they hit the top 10. Also, hits such as “Oh No” and “Theme From Hill Street Blues” were never added. There were also some personnel changes as Jeff Baker from WVBF in Boston joined Mike Waite for mornings to form the Mike and Jeff show. Baker impersonated celebrities as one of his main bits. Also Dowd and Everett flipped shifts.
As 1982 began, the chart had a very adult flavor to it as rock-leaning hits such as “Spirits In The Material World” and “Working For The Weekend” were passed over in favor of yawners such as “Sea Of Love” by Del Shannon and “Daddy’s Home” by Cliff Richard. The station billed itself as “Southern New England’s Exciting FM”, but with the possible exception of Willie B.’s night show, did not sound anything like that. Not a whole lot changed into the summer, although the station did add most of the current hits, with the exception of “Let It Whip”. As the fall approached, it was even more obvious that something was up. Several rock-leaning songs that were on the music survey were not played on the station during the week, and they were even skipped over with no mention on the now Sunday night countdown show. Something seemed wrong with the station’s compression and processing as songs just didn’t sound right coming out of jingles. Finally, in mid-November 1982, the top 35 music survey failed to appear in the Providence Journal and the station was now playing a majority of adult oldies and a few current adult hits, while still going by the JB105 name. I was told by one of the DJ’s that the change to an AC station was made because the station could not make money selling ads for kid’s products such as pimple medicine. Mike Waite left the station in November to join former rival Gary Berkowitz at WROR in Boston. Willie B. had left the station shortly before Waite. Vic Michaels joined the station for weekends, remaining there until June 1985.
In 1983, the station continued its adult lean, still as JB105, playing only two current songs an hour and just did not seem to have a purpose. The lineup consisted of Jeff Baker (6am-10am), Johnny Dowd (10am-230pm), Brad Pierce (230pm-700pm), John (Formerly Doc) Holliday (7pm-12mid), and Rick Everett (12mid-6am).
By the summer of 1983, Tom Hunter had become station PD. Hunter tightened things up at the station and gave it a better sound. I know for a fact that he didn’t allow visitors in the studio because I was personally kicked out of the station by Mr. Hunter while visiting a friend of mine who was on the air. Hunter changed the moniker of the station to “105 WPJB” and added a new jingle package. A couple of more currents were added per hour and the station seemed refreshed and was a decent sounding AC station. Gregg Daniels, who would later become a fixture in Boston radio, joined for weekends, along with George Allan. In late 1983, the station scored a major coup as longtime WPRO-AM personality Gary DeGraide became the new morning host. There were no changes in the lineup or in the station sound until
August of 1984. Suddenly, the station, while using the same presentation and jingles, began calling itself the “All New, All Hit 105 WPJB” and again started to play most of the current hits, except for some harder-rocking songs. One of the station promos proclaimed that this was “hit music for adults”. Dowd and Holliday’s shifts were switched, although Dowd promptly took the train up to Boston to work at WHTT. Rick Everett moved into the night slot.
The “all hit” music continued into 1985. Changes began to abound in the new year. The station was purchased by Eastern Broadcasting in March, which laid off several staffers including PD Tom Hunter. Tyler, formerly of WPRO-FM and several other stations, took over the afternoon shift. Other personalities, whose names have escaped me, also began to show up. The morning newsperson at that time was Katie O’Malley. O’Malley is actually Joan Edwardsen, longtime morning co-host at WSNE. On June 13, 1985, listeners were treated to a continuously repeated recording pronouncing that “WPJB is dead!”. The next morning, Gary DeGraide introduced the new WWLI “Lite 105”. Lite 105 played a unique blend of light adult contemporary music with little talk. There was virtually no current music in the original format. The only on-air holdovers from WPJB to the new format were DeGraide in the morning and Tyler on the “Nite Lite” show from 6pm to midnight. E.G. Williamson and Peter Doblin were other personalities that I can remember on Lite at this time. Normally a high energy top-40 personality, Tyler, (going by “Terry Tyler” for the first time in this area; he had used his first name early in his career in Ohio) seemed out of place in this format and was gone within a few months. DeGraide, meanwhile remained the morning host, bringing a familiar and friendly voice to “Lite Rock 105” listeners (until the end of 2005). The station continues to rank at or right near the top of the Providence ratings year after year. In an ironic twist, the station was acquired by Citadel Communications, which also owned former rival, WPRO-FM.
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