I don’t recall what WCMF’s format was before 1970, but there sure were a lot of classical music LP’s there. Perhaps it was classical before the arrival of WBFB-FM (950's FM-side) doing classical in the early 70's and before. (By the way, WBFB dropped classical and changed format to NBC’s all news format around 1975, probably in anticipation that it would fail, and then they were free to do anything they wanted. It did fail, and then WNWS(FM) (ex-WBFB) changed to WMGQ with its ‘Magic Music.’ You see, back in those days, the FCC actually DID have a say in formats... it was difficult for any station to “drop classical”, unless a station were to do another 'serious' format like all-news. Or could only be done if another station were to pick up a classical format. Well, WCMF was no longer classical, so the WBFB music library was donated to WXXI-FM, which began expanding their classical music segments greatly.)
ANYway, back to WCMF... I rambled.... - By the time October 1970 came around, I joined WCMF as an on-air weekender, and I did sales; my first radio job. Soon, I did overnights 5 nights a week which didn’t help me get thru my last year at R.I.T., but I squeaked by.
The 1970 line-up was: 6 AM to 10 AM Herb Hamlett (The Soul Ranger). He was a DJ, likely buying the time; programming to the black community of Rochester. Remember, there was no WDKX at the time, and no other black programming that I can recall.
Mid-days 10 AM to 3 PM was Bill Rund (program name: “The Mod Scene”), who was a stockholder in the company who owned WCMF, “Community Music Service”. He was also the music librarian. Bill’s show consisted of quite a mixture of music....non-hit-oriented, but on the easier side. We’re not talking Percy Faith here, but rather a lot of light jazz mixed in with a Mama Cass B-side bomb, along with some folk and light album-rock.
The company consisted of about 10 local people, some of who were directly active in the station. Jacob Zanker was a stockholder and the station’s engineer. George Malmgrem was the company President, and he did a one-hour program every Sunday evening since the station’s inception. That program featured a different Broadway play or film, where he’d play every cut from the play’s/film’s LP with his commentary in between each cut.
Afternoon drive (3-7PM) was done by Pete Burrell and then 7 to 12 Mid was done by Bill Ardis. Pete was a former booking agent with the Jefferson Airplane and a former R.I.T. student. Bill Ardis was the famous fellow who used to grace the overnight airwaves of WHAM with ihs very distinctive smooth voice on his program called “Ardis Against The Night,” where he played a lot of jazz and blues. In the previous year, Bill fell out of graces with WHAM, and then landed quickly at little ol’ WCMF. I say little-ol’ because WCMF at that time was a tiny 1,350 watts, with the short tower on top of the 14-story Lincoln-Rochester building on East Main Street, which was torn down several years later, to make room for that Lincoln-First skyscraper that’s there now. In 1970, WCMF was at the put of the ratings, but starting to show some real promise. Constant rises come 1971 and 1972 on afterward.
From 3 PM to 6 AM, WCMF by late 1970, was “progressive rock” and termed “The Sound of Underground”. Typical artists featured: The Fugs, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Moody Blues, Blind Faith, Uriah Heep, James Gang
Overnights were done by either myself or Jim Hutton (real name Jim Huntoon) into 1971.
Previously-mentioned Bill Ardis uttered on the air one evening that “Something is going to happen tonight” (or something to that effect). No one took notice of that until dynamite (stolen from Brockport 3 days earlier) went off at or near the Federal Building in Rochester (7 blocks to the west of WCMF) around 11:45 PM that same evening. Bill had nothing to do with that bombing, but the FBI sure was interested in finding out what Bill knew. Remember that 1970 was around the height of the Vietnam War protests all across America. - I’m not sure why Bill Ardis departed WCMF, but it was real soon after that on-air comment.
This was also the height of the hippie movement. That and the anti-war protests is what launched progressive rock radio in those days. Everything was a protest... and WCMF was the focal point for such protests. Hippies were numerous, and they had strange hours. WCMF’s hottest day-parts could be better described as “Night-parts”; 5 PM to 4 AM was “drive-time”. WCMF’s advertisers were a unique array of “head shops” many of which were located in the block from East Main Street, from Clinton Avenue South to the next parallel street to the west..... The black that used to house some old stores like Woolworth’s. That large 3-story building encompassing the whole block was also taken down to make way for the current Lincoln-First building (its probably called something different now). But that block had so many head shops selling smoking paraphenalia, incense, beads and other hippie-supplies. The other concentration of WCMF head-shop advertisers was in the East Avenue-to-Monroe Avenue area about a mile east of the city center.
Having mentioned the West Main Street building being taken down... it was at that time (1972), that WCMF moved its tower off of the Lincoln-First Bank building, and re-located to (I believe) the WBFB tower out of 5-Mile-Line Road, east of the city. AND WCMF was granted 20,000 watts with that move. WCMF had asked for 50,000 watts, but the FCC reminded them that WPEL-FM in Montrose Penna was billowing out it’s own 96.5 signal, so WCMF would have to be happy with 20k. Prior to the power increase, WCMF moved their long-time West Main St studios to an address called 129 Leighton Avenue, southeast of city-center. ‘Twas on the second floor of a 2-story small building, where the first floor was a tire dealer. Yup, the smell of tires, every time someone entered the stairway to WCMF. But it was quite an improvement space-wise over the very cramped West Main Street studios. It was also quite neat and clean.
Back to 1970..... Weekends on WCMF.... In the fall, live play-by-play Syracuse University football. Sundays: Joe Capogreco’s “Italian Carousel” 10 AM to 2 PM. (Joe’s show is still heard in Rochester on 950, on Sundays! Congratulate him! He’s been on the Rochester airwaves, weekly for about 40 years now!!!) Other programs included a Lithuanian Hour (NOT Lutheran Hour) as Rochester has a sizable Lithuanian community, who followed that program heavily since Lithuania was occupied by the USSR at the time. Also there was the Broadway program I mentioned, and a 5-hour Classical show. All of those, I ran the board for and/or was on-air as a sidekick or host. Oh yes, there was also a Sunday Spanish show hosted by a fellow named “Domingo”.
The summer of 1969 saw Woodstock happen, where AM radio programmers were scratching their heads saying: “How did this place draw half a million people to a concert whose artists there.... we don’t even play?”
Realizing that this “progressive rock thing” was really working, Community Music Service decided to hire a real radio type manager, to really get the new-promising format in high gear, taking it to the next level... from head-shop sponsors to more traditional ones.... And that they did, as new GM Jim Trayhern joined in late 1970 or early 1971. Also in as new PD was Tom Teuber, who did 3-7 PM. Tom was previously at a station in Joliet Illinois, and was very familiar with album-rock music, along with blues and folk. The WCMF Sunday ethnic shows, and the weekday morning black program gradually went by the wayside as the main format was (in 1971-72) in full swing.
Come mid-1971, I was no longer doing the overnight show, but still there part-time, while I went to WADD full-time. (A step down you say?
Not really, in some ways. Later in January 1974, I joined WVOR, became PD, and someday I’ll write about that era.
What kind of WCMF listener-callers did I get doing overnights? Since I want to be polite, I’ll move on to the next topic.
Later in either 1971 or 1972, joining WCMF was John McGhan and Bernie Kimball. (Strangely, there were 3 different spellings of his name including Kimble and Kimple). I think John & Bernie later became MD and PD of WCMF. He was no relation to the Canadaigua radio brothers.
WCMF programmed to a very distinct and growing audience. Forbidden were the excess airing of top-40 hits along with any kind of jingles. A great example of how a tiny station found its niche and grew with it. -part of which was fueled by the protests of the Viet-Nam War, which was reflected in some of the music that WCMF played (I Feel Like I’m Fixin To Die; Country Joe & the Fish), and the general evolution away from music-repetitive Top-40 high-energy stations. Music changed in the late 60's and so did FM radio. Had it not been for that war, FM may not have gotten that quick start in the early 70's, since it had been laying dormant for the 30 years before. Every sizable city had an FM “progressive rock station”. For Rochester, it was clearly WCMF, and they did it well.
-----Bob Bittner, Owner WJIB(Boston) & WJTO (Coastal Maine)
ANYway, back to WCMF... I rambled.... - By the time October 1970 came around, I joined WCMF as an on-air weekender, and I did sales; my first radio job. Soon, I did overnights 5 nights a week which didn’t help me get thru my last year at R.I.T., but I squeaked by.
The 1970 line-up was: 6 AM to 10 AM Herb Hamlett (The Soul Ranger). He was a DJ, likely buying the time; programming to the black community of Rochester. Remember, there was no WDKX at the time, and no other black programming that I can recall.
Mid-days 10 AM to 3 PM was Bill Rund (program name: “The Mod Scene”), who was a stockholder in the company who owned WCMF, “Community Music Service”. He was also the music librarian. Bill’s show consisted of quite a mixture of music....non-hit-oriented, but on the easier side. We’re not talking Percy Faith here, but rather a lot of light jazz mixed in with a Mama Cass B-side bomb, along with some folk and light album-rock.
The company consisted of about 10 local people, some of who were directly active in the station. Jacob Zanker was a stockholder and the station’s engineer. George Malmgrem was the company President, and he did a one-hour program every Sunday evening since the station’s inception. That program featured a different Broadway play or film, where he’d play every cut from the play’s/film’s LP with his commentary in between each cut.
Afternoon drive (3-7PM) was done by Pete Burrell and then 7 to 12 Mid was done by Bill Ardis. Pete was a former booking agent with the Jefferson Airplane and a former R.I.T. student. Bill Ardis was the famous fellow who used to grace the overnight airwaves of WHAM with ihs very distinctive smooth voice on his program called “Ardis Against The Night,” where he played a lot of jazz and blues. In the previous year, Bill fell out of graces with WHAM, and then landed quickly at little ol’ WCMF. I say little-ol’ because WCMF at that time was a tiny 1,350 watts, with the short tower on top of the 14-story Lincoln-Rochester building on East Main Street, which was torn down several years later, to make room for that Lincoln-First skyscraper that’s there now. In 1970, WCMF was at the put of the ratings, but starting to show some real promise. Constant rises come 1971 and 1972 on afterward.
From 3 PM to 6 AM, WCMF by late 1970, was “progressive rock” and termed “The Sound of Underground”. Typical artists featured: The Fugs, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Moody Blues, Blind Faith, Uriah Heep, James Gang
Overnights were done by either myself or Jim Hutton (real name Jim Huntoon) into 1971.
Previously-mentioned Bill Ardis uttered on the air one evening that “Something is going to happen tonight” (or something to that effect). No one took notice of that until dynamite (stolen from Brockport 3 days earlier) went off at or near the Federal Building in Rochester (7 blocks to the west of WCMF) around 11:45 PM that same evening. Bill had nothing to do with that bombing, but the FBI sure was interested in finding out what Bill knew. Remember that 1970 was around the height of the Vietnam War protests all across America. - I’m not sure why Bill Ardis departed WCMF, but it was real soon after that on-air comment.
This was also the height of the hippie movement. That and the anti-war protests is what launched progressive rock radio in those days. Everything was a protest... and WCMF was the focal point for such protests. Hippies were numerous, and they had strange hours. WCMF’s hottest day-parts could be better described as “Night-parts”; 5 PM to 4 AM was “drive-time”. WCMF’s advertisers were a unique array of “head shops” many of which were located in the block from East Main Street, from Clinton Avenue South to the next parallel street to the west..... The black that used to house some old stores like Woolworth’s. That large 3-story building encompassing the whole block was also taken down to make way for the current Lincoln-First building (its probably called something different now). But that block had so many head shops selling smoking paraphenalia, incense, beads and other hippie-supplies. The other concentration of WCMF head-shop advertisers was in the East Avenue-to-Monroe Avenue area about a mile east of the city center.
Having mentioned the West Main Street building being taken down... it was at that time (1972), that WCMF moved its tower off of the Lincoln-First Bank building, and re-located to (I believe) the WBFB tower out of 5-Mile-Line Road, east of the city. AND WCMF was granted 20,000 watts with that move. WCMF had asked for 50,000 watts, but the FCC reminded them that WPEL-FM in Montrose Penna was billowing out it’s own 96.5 signal, so WCMF would have to be happy with 20k. Prior to the power increase, WCMF moved their long-time West Main St studios to an address called 129 Leighton Avenue, southeast of city-center. ‘Twas on the second floor of a 2-story small building, where the first floor was a tire dealer. Yup, the smell of tires, every time someone entered the stairway to WCMF. But it was quite an improvement space-wise over the very cramped West Main Street studios. It was also quite neat and clean.
Back to 1970..... Weekends on WCMF.... In the fall, live play-by-play Syracuse University football. Sundays: Joe Capogreco’s “Italian Carousel” 10 AM to 2 PM. (Joe’s show is still heard in Rochester on 950, on Sundays! Congratulate him! He’s been on the Rochester airwaves, weekly for about 40 years now!!!) Other programs included a Lithuanian Hour (NOT Lutheran Hour) as Rochester has a sizable Lithuanian community, who followed that program heavily since Lithuania was occupied by the USSR at the time. Also there was the Broadway program I mentioned, and a 5-hour Classical show. All of those, I ran the board for and/or was on-air as a sidekick or host. Oh yes, there was also a Sunday Spanish show hosted by a fellow named “Domingo”.
The summer of 1969 saw Woodstock happen, where AM radio programmers were scratching their heads saying: “How did this place draw half a million people to a concert whose artists there.... we don’t even play?”
Realizing that this “progressive rock thing” was really working, Community Music Service decided to hire a real radio type manager, to really get the new-promising format in high gear, taking it to the next level... from head-shop sponsors to more traditional ones.... And that they did, as new GM Jim Trayhern joined in late 1970 or early 1971. Also in as new PD was Tom Teuber, who did 3-7 PM. Tom was previously at a station in Joliet Illinois, and was very familiar with album-rock music, along with blues and folk. The WCMF Sunday ethnic shows, and the weekday morning black program gradually went by the wayside as the main format was (in 1971-72) in full swing.
Come mid-1971, I was no longer doing the overnight show, but still there part-time, while I went to WADD full-time. (A step down you say?
Not really, in some ways. Later in January 1974, I joined WVOR, became PD, and someday I’ll write about that era.What kind of WCMF listener-callers did I get doing overnights? Since I want to be polite, I’ll move on to the next topic.
Later in either 1971 or 1972, joining WCMF was John McGhan and Bernie Kimball. (Strangely, there were 3 different spellings of his name including Kimble and Kimple). I think John & Bernie later became MD and PD of WCMF. He was no relation to the Canadaigua radio brothers.
WCMF programmed to a very distinct and growing audience. Forbidden were the excess airing of top-40 hits along with any kind of jingles. A great example of how a tiny station found its niche and grew with it. -part of which was fueled by the protests of the Viet-Nam War, which was reflected in some of the music that WCMF played (I Feel Like I’m Fixin To Die; Country Joe & the Fish), and the general evolution away from music-repetitive Top-40 high-energy stations. Music changed in the late 60's and so did FM radio. Had it not been for that war, FM may not have gotten that quick start in the early 70's, since it had been laying dormant for the 30 years before. Every sizable city had an FM “progressive rock station”. For Rochester, it was clearly WCMF, and they did it well.
-----Bob Bittner, Owner WJIB(Boston) & WJTO (Coastal Maine)
