Looking for some WJJD-1160 Memories/stories

[DanStrassberg]

I remember Stan Majors very well. Didn't they have another Stan ie Stan Scott?

How well do you REALLY remember him? Isn't his name Stan MAJOR--no "s" at the end? I believe he is still around and occasionally posts on boards and lists that I read. If so, maybe he will respond to this posting.

 

[radioman148]

I remember Stan Majors very well. Didn't they have another Stan ie Stan Scott?

How well do you REALLY remember him? Isn't his name Stan MAJOR--no "s" at the end? I believe he is still around and occasionally posts on boards and lists that I read. If so, maybe he will respond to this posting.

It's been many years. I wonder if anyone has any WJJD tapes from the late 50s when they were rock & roll?
Among the DJs then were Carmen Anthony, Carl Warner, Stan Dale, & Del Clark.
Sure would love to hear those tapes if there are any.

 

[Barefootom]

I've got a tape of Ernie Simon doing the morning show, c. 1961 or 1962...the last year of Top 40. WLS had come on as a 24-hour station, so WJJD's days in the format were waning, having to sign off at sundown. Ernie's answering listeners questions as The Great Pumpkin.

Don't hold your breath to hear it, though. It's in one of those boxes, down in the basement....

 

[radioman148]

I've got a tape of Ernie Simon doing the morning show, c. 1961 or 1962...the last year of Top 40. WLS had come on as a 24-hour station, so WJJD's days in the format were waning, having to sign off at sundown. Ernie's answering listeners questions as The Great Pumpkin.

Don't hold your breath to hear it, though. It's in one of those boxes, down in the basement....

I've got an Ernie Simon 62 tape as well. I wonder if any WJJD tapes exist from the late 50s?

 

[Icangelp]

I remember Stan Majors very well. Didn't they have another Stan ie Stan Scott?

Grew up in Indianapolis and so we only listened to WJJD in the evenings. Stan Majors did the evening to signoff...59 or 60. My buddies and I always tuned him in...but then Dick Biondi came along and the rest was history.

Mel Hall programmed WJJD for a time. I think he then moved west to program KRLA for a year.

Ron Brittain, Barney Pip are a couple of other Chicago names we used to love. But that was another station and different years.

 

[radioman148]

I remember Stan Majors very well. Didn't they have another Stan ie Stan Scott?

Grew up in Indianapolis and so we only listened to WJJD in the evenings. Stan Majors did the evening to signoff...59 or 60. My buddies and I always tuned him in...but then Dick Biondi came along and the rest was history.

Mel Hall programmed WJJD for a time. I think he then moved west to program KRLA for a year.

Ron Brittain, Barney Pip are a couple of other Chicago names we used to love. But that was another station and different years.

WJJD used to countdown the Top 40 everyday in the afternoon, pre-WLS and the Silver Dollar Survey.

 

[radioman148]

I remember Stan Majors very well. Didn't they have another Stan ie Stan Scott?

Grew up in Indianapolis and so we only listened to WJJD in the evenings. Stan Majors did the evening to signoff...59 or 60. My buddies and I always tuned him in...but then Dick Biondi came along and the rest was history.

Mel Hall programmed WJJD for a time. I think he then moved west to program KRLA for a year.

Ron Brittain, Barney Pip are a couple of other Chicago names we used to love. But that was another station and different years.

Were you ever able to hear WJJD in the daytime in INDY?

 

[Icangelp]

I remember Stan Majors very well. Didn't they have another Stan ie Stan Scott?

Grew up in Indianapolis and so we only listened to WJJD in the evenings. Stan Majors did the evening to signoff...59 or 60. My buddies and I always tuned him in...but then Dick Biondi came along and the rest was history.

Mel Hall programmed WJJD for a time. I think he then moved west to program KRLA for a year.

Ron Brittain, Barney Pip are a couple of other Chicago names we used to love. But that was another station and different years.

Were you ever able to hear WJJD in the daytime in INDY?

I believe we could, but the signal was pretty weak. It was a long time ago. We mostly listened to our local stations during the day. When WLS switched to rock, we listened day and night. Of course, 670, 720, 780 were strong day signals signal, and if I recall correctly, WCFL was listenalble also, but weak.

 

[radioman148]

I remember Stan Majors very well. Didn't they have another Stan ie Stan Scott?

Grew up in Indianapolis and so we only listened to WJJD in the evenings. Stan Majors did the evening to signoff...59 or 60. My buddies and I always tuned him in...but then Dick Biondi came along and the rest was history.

Mel Hall programmed WJJD for a time. I think he then moved west to program KRLA for a year.

Ron Brittain, Barney Pip are a couple of other Chicago names we used to love. But that was another station and different years.

Were you ever able to hear WJJD in the daytime in INDY?

I believe we could, but the signal was pretty weak. It was a long time ago. We mostly listened to our local stations during the day. When WLS switched to rock, we listened day and night. Of course, 670, 720, 780 were strong day signals signal, and if I recall correctly, WCFL was listenalble also, but weak.

Yeah I was figuring that WJJD could make it to Indy during the day. Their directional pattern is southeast.

 

[billscessna]

I have a few memories of WJJD. The first is when it was dinner time at our house on the Northwest side of Chicago (early 1950), my stepfather put WJJD on and I can still hear the theme song that Randy Blake played on the suppertime frolic. What would I pay to hear that again!

The second memory was when I first got interested in radio, I built a crystal set and the only station I could get was 'JJD. I didn't know it at the time but we lived very close to the transmitter (somewhere on or near Golf road and Ballard road). I started in radio at WKRS in Waukegan and visited the transmitter while looking for a new job. I was impressed by the 50kw xmtr. WKRS was a 1kw daytimer.

Finally, I had lunch with Clark Weber and he brought with him the original license application for WJJD - how cool.

 

[radioman148]

WJJD was also the strongest station on my crystal set in the late 50s.
They were the first rock & roll station I ever listened to.

 

[cyberdad]

I still get into Indy every now and then.....and "back in the day" it was every couple of months. Anyway, my memory was that 'JD was rather weak, but definitely listenable all day as long as you weren't subject to urban noise. In my case, it probably doesn't hurt that (then and now), most of my time in Indy is spent on the north side of town.

 

[howardm]

I grew up near Peoria and in the 50's Peoria had a top 40 station daytime only. The WJJD surveys were available at a small town record store. I remember well and have the surveys except for 1957 (copies) and the disc jockeys were Carmen Anthony, Sid Roberts, Cy Nelson, Stan Major (at WIRL Peoria before) and Del Clark. What a thrill when Sid Roberts admitted me to the studio on Michigan Ave where Carmen Anthony was broadcasting. I've since collected many of the 45's that scraped the bottom of those charts. Appreciate the chance to comment.

 

[radioman148]

I grew up near Peoria and in the 50's Peoria had a top 40 station daytime only. The WJJD surveys were available at a small town record store. I remember well and have the surveys except for 1957 (copies) and the disc jockeys were Carmen Anthony, Sid Roberts, Cy Nelson, Stan Major (at WIRL Peoria before) and Del Clark. What a thrill when Sid Roberts admitted me to the studio on Michigan Ave where Carmen Anthony was broadcasting. I've since collected many of the 45's that scraped the bottom of those charts. Appreciate the chance to comment.

When you were growing up near Peoria in the 50s did you hear New York radio legend Harry Harrison on WPEO?
He did mornings there from 1956--59.

 

[howardm]

Harry Harrison came to my hometown in his Buick for record hops. He was the morning mayor, 6:30-8:30 and had the noon whistle show from 11:30-1:30. Visited station on Main Street, 2nd floor often, and remember other disc jockeys there. Knew Harry went to WMCA New York in 1959, knew Peoria couldn't hold his talent. He then went to WABC & then to WCBS FM. Have much in my memory file + 2 surveys of WPEO.

 

[radioman148]

Harry Harrison came to my hometown in his Buick for record hops. He was the morning mayor, 6:30-8:30 and had the noon whistle show from 11:30-1:30. Visited station on Main Street, 2nd floor often, and remember other disc jockeys there. Knew Harry went to WMCA New York in 1959, knew Peoria couldn't hold his talent. He then went to WABC & then to WCBS FM. Have much in my memory file + 2 surveys of WPEO.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[thebeach33445]

Hey Guys:

Speaking on memories would anybody know when in 1993 WJJD 1160 added talk to there late night programming? And who was it?

Thanks

T.J.

 

[radiotower40]

WJJD first started airing talk in mid days, they put G. Gorden Liddy on from 10AM-2PM. This followed Clark Weber who did the 5:30AM-10AM.

They did this due to the fact that Rush was getting popular at WLS, they wanted to get some younger listeners.

I am not certain on the years here, WJJD stayed with this format for a couple of years. They remained nostalgia music from 2PM-5:30AM.

They finally decided to go all talk after former Alderman Ed Vrodo(not going to try and spell the name quit his highly rated WLS afternoon show when WLS dropped the simulcast and went with a younger talk format, which lasted about a year, and was back to the simulcast due to low ratings.

WJJD, at the time was only 5kW at night and didn't cover much of the area after sundown.

Ed Vrodo and Ty Wansly took over afternoon drive, Tom Leykus from 6PM-10 PM, cant recall the overnight people at the moment. All music was dropped at that point and the station was branded "Chicago's Hottest Talk"

Bob Hale and Bob Dearborn and the others were taken off the air, yet remained with the station for a few months running the boards.

The decision was made to put fast Ed and Ty Wansley, his co host from WLS in morning drive.

The reason given was that they had a better chance to be heard in the morning while people were in their cars.

They went to 50kW at sunrise, which in the winter is as late as 7:15. They never reclaimed their former ratings from WLS.

At that time Clark Weber was out. They brought in the syndicated Don and Mike for Afternoon drive.

The station never got above a 1.2 share overall and the format was dropped.

They went back to nostalgia music with the exception of leaving Liddy on 9A-1P and Leykis from 9P-1A.

The talk of the Score moving to 1160 from 820 was already being talked about.

Eventually Howard Stern became the morning guy on WJJD when he was taken off WCKG FM, by Cox.

Howard didn't stay long on WJJD, CBS(Infinity) bought WCKG and put Stern back there mornings.

WJJD finally was a simulcast of Oldies 104.3 for a bit until The Score moved there and WJJD was gone.

If my timeline is off, please correct it, I'm doing this from memory.

I miss the "music of the stars" format of WJJD. There will never be anything else like it.

Now the signal at night is 50kW at night also, from six towers southwest of Chicago. It is a Salem teaching religious station now that rarely gets above a 0.1 share.

They are mostly brokered though, so ratings don't matter much.

Just a shame in my view that the signal is so much better now and virtually nobody listens ;(