• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Ohio 60s/70s Top 40 roll call

G

gr8oldies

I've seen similar threads of the Tennessee and Virginia boards and was just trying to think about Top 40s in Ohio (especially outside the bigger markets). Some that I can remember:

Toledo-WHOT and the 1230 facility
Lima-WCIT (live until the early 70s, and for a time carrying TM Stereo Rock, which could be heard on FM from Ft. Wayne). Lima had nothing on FM other than country and BM until the mid 80s
Celina-WMER (94.3). Automated with Hit Parade from 1968 through about 1971, then self-automated with a couple of live shifts, including a request show on Thursday nights. I remember them broacasting live from the Mercer County fair, bringing turntables, cart machines and even the phone).
Dayton-WONE (until 1970) and WING, WTUE until 1975
We know all about the legendary Cincy and Columbus stations
Marion-WDIF (what a little station at the time!)
Bellefontaine-WTOO AM/FM, later just Stereo TOO-98
Ottawa-WPNM when they first signed on, and daytparted at night in the early 80s
Youngstown-WHOT
Sure there were plenty more. Interesting stories, anyone?
 
Don't forget:


"High Flying" WING-That vintage PAMS jingle for "the Dayton station" still plays in my mind over forty years later! Gene "By Golly" Barry made that station for what it was...local talent with a one on one rapport...sadly missed in radio these days.

WTOO 1390 AM in Bellefontaine picked up the contemporary hits in the late 70s,then moved it over to the FM as Stereo Too 98.

92-X..it in my opinion made WNCI look lame. "Stereo Quad" Susie Waud was a hoot!

Z-93- King and Dorsey,Dr.Dave and WIld Bill,Kim Faris..what more can I say?

I also have an appreciation for WSAI although my little transistor on the farm couldn't pick it up but what can I say? Dusty Rocks!

CKLW..Although Bill Drake's 30 song playlist and repetition sometimes caused annoying boredom..it's jingles,imaging and Big 8 jocks made it tolerable...yet exciting. God rest the soul of newsman Byron McGregor.

WIZE... John Hall was the hometown boy there and is sadly missed...like Limp73 said..."it needs to come back home."

Gordy Price on WCIT,WTOO and WMVR...."how's 'yer boogaloo situation?"
(where in the dickens are you now Gord???)

WIXY-1260. Never heard of it until the 70s since it's out of my range on account of the direction pattern but the airchecks I've heard on its tribute site...Better than CK with a 60 song playlist and lots of personality to spare.

WDJX Xenia/Fairborn/Beavercreek. Cindy Spicer,Bill Lyons,Libby Fox,Chad Hunt...was excellent before Charlie Butcher dropped the F bomb on it after "Who Are You"(unedited) by The Who was aired on one Sunday evening in '81.

WAXCeee 92(later 92 Zoo now Star 92.1)- Big market jingles,big sound, local jocks from Wapak and vicinity...but John Bulmer was an arrogant self-centered jerk!
 
When were the WHOT calls in Toledo? Or did you mean 1470 WOHO?

I wasn't born until 1980 but I have heard that 1520 and 1560 in Toledo also ran Top 40 formats at one time. When was WCWA Top 40?

On FM, Cleveland also had WGCL-G98 and 106.5 WZZP in the late '70s. And there was WQIO in Canton.

There are some WDIF airchecks from 1977 up on YouTube - the station sure had a good sound for such a small market. How long was WDIF Top 40/CHR? I picked them up early one morning in suburban Detroit in about 1994 but the presentation sounded Soft AC-ish... but maybe that was just the morning show.
 
Cleveland....50s/60s/70s Top 40

WJW (Mad Daddy and Alan Freed)
WIXY
WHK
WGAR-AM
WKYC
KYW



And CKLW was often #1 in Cleveland blowing in from Windsor.
 
gr8oldies said:
I've seen similar threads of the Tennessee and Virginia boards and was just trying to think about Top 40s in Ohio (especially outside the bigger markets). Some that I can remember:

Toledo-WHOT and the 1230 facility
Lima-WCIT (live until the early 70s, and for a time carrying TM Stereo Rock, which could be heard on FM from Ft. Wayne). Lima had nothing on FM other than country and BM until the mid 80s
Celina-WMER (94.3). Automated with Hit Parade from 1968 through about 1971, then self-automated with a couple of live shifts, including a request show on Thursday nights. I remember them broacasting live from the Mercer County fair, bringing turntables, cart machines and even the phone).
Dayton-WONE (until 1970) and WING, WTUE until 1975
We know all about the legendary Cincy and Columbus stations
Marion-WDIF (what a little station at the time!)
Bellefontaine-WTOO AM/FM, later just Stereo TOO-98
Ottawa-WPNM when they first signed on, and daytparted at night in the early 80s
Youngstown-WHOT
Sure there were plenty more. Interesting stories, anyone?
Click to expand...

Gr8t:

I'm not taking you to task here, but WONE changed format from top 40 in 1967...they went "MOR" until around 1969, when they went country. WONE-FM began broadcasting, part-time as a Top 40 station around 1970 (perhaps a bit earlier) and around 1971 or 1972 became "WTUE", staying Top 40 until around August, 1975.

More on this coming soon at the Dayton Broadcasters Hall Of Fame Website.
 
I wasn't sure on the time line for WONE, thanks for the info. I've always noticed WTUE uses 1976 for their AOR anniversary, but I do remember the flip in August of '75.
 
Several more....WREO 970 in Ashtabula was Top 40 starting in the mid-sixties (albeit often more of a "chicken-rock"), WCUE 1150 in Akron (PD was ex WIXY jock Bobby Knight), WNIO 1150 Niles (with their studio in a glass booth at Niles Mall), and WWOW 1360 Conneaut, which launched as Top 40 in 1959 and remained thus until well into the '70s.
 
gr8oldies said:
Celina-WMER (94.3). Automated with Hit Parade from 1968 through about 1971, then self-automated with a couple of live shifts, including a request show on Thursday nights. I remember them broacasting live from the Mercer County fair, bringing turntables, cart machines and even the phone).
Click to expand...


Hey gr8

Who owned WMER back then? (1972-74) Remember some person named Scott Hildebrand (Scott Bradley I think) who was a personality there. Was that his father who I think was a Piqua vetrenarian who owned it then?

So how did it end up being in receiveship before being sold? Weak signal(which it had back then)weak management or no sales or what?

Who bought it and switched the format to adult standards before it became WKKI?
 
Brief history of WMER...it was Celina's first radio station (a stand-alone FM in 1960) owned by the owner of the Celina Music Store (the studios of now WKKI are there to this day). WMER was sold to guys named Lee Rutherford and Ron Rumley who later bought WDRK in Greenville. For awhile the automation equipment was located in the very back of the Music Store..my first peek at broadcast automation. They ran Drake-Chenault's Hit Parade (68, 69 and 70). I'm not clear who owned WMER during it's brief CHR era, the Scott you were thinking of went by Scott Allen on the air (whenever he acually did his 7-9am morning show.) The late Ralph Guineri also did middays and later afternoon drive (4-6pm). The homebrew automation reels sounded terrible. The recievership could have been any number of factors from low sales to bad management, and 740 watts ERP on a very low tower. I'm sure FM penetration wasn't 100% then. After WMER Inc. went bankrupt, former WCSM personalities Keith and Jackie Balfour bought the station and tried to rebuild the WCSM of the late 60s, complete with big bands from the stuttering Lonesome Ralph (NOT Guaneri). Mid-America Radio, which had stations in Michigan were the next owners, changing the calls to WKKI and flipping to Country, later a mix of A/C days and AOR nights, then straight up chainsaw rock, before Chris Cage bought it and promptly installed Transtar.

There's a little building on Rt. 703 right in front of the WSU Lake Campus that was to have been the new home of WMER in the 70s but that didn't materialize.
 
I met Keith Balfour when I was just out of high school having just back from getting my license w/bc endorsement and started looking for a job. He was very rude to me claiming he was a professional yet still running the haphazard "automation" reels at logger speed....and yes the sound quality was horrible.... Heard he was just as arrogant and mean to work for as was meeting him. Was glad that WKKI came around and took over and moved to the taller tower near the lake. I remember that vacant building near the lake....it later became a doctor's office. It was going to be WGLB (Grand Lake Broadcasting) before the Balfours got their hands on it....that according to the fellow who babysat (and lived) at the studios before the Balfour takeover..I think he came back briefly as the WKKI morning man in 79/80 during the split formats.Great fellow who showed me around and remember that monaural Sparta board and the Pepper/Tanner jingles played after every two songs. "Reaching Out Touching You...WMER"
 
Never met the guy (Balfour)...another topic might be early radio job hunting experiences. I remember being told by Mr. Triplett that I wasn't ready for WTOO (maybe I wasn't!) in 1976.

I remember the name Grand Lake Broadcasting. Would you be referencing Gary Clayton? He seemed to be sleeping there overnight and if by about 7:25am Scott Allen hadn't shown up he did the morning show as I recall (though I've slept since then). And yes, I do remember the "Reaching Out" package "WMER, Celina..Reaching Out, Touching You". WHUT in Anderson IN used that package as well. The split format was a trip..got up at 5am one Saturday morning and hear some screaming heavy metal song, into "Rockin' Easy 94-3, WKKI, Celina" into "You Decorated My Life" by Kenny Rogers.
 
That may have been Gary Clayton...it's a familiar name. Had a similar experience with 'ol man Triplett as well..since I was a newcomer with a nasal voice at the time he also gave the the 'ol "you're not cut out for this biz " line among countless others.

WHUT 1470 used a TM package siimilar to WOWO's but shorter....you were probably referring to WHBU 1240 with an adult contemporary format when they still had that tower on top of the Citizens Bank Building. I remember those jingles on that station when I worked at W-bump in the 70s.

WHUT is now WGNR-AM airing Moody Broadcasting network.

Thanks for the info and feedback gr8
 
Jason Roberts said:
gr8oldies said:
Iquote]

Gr8t:

I'm not taking you to task here, but WONE changed format from top 40 in 1967...they went "MOR" until around 1969, when they went country.
Click to expand...

Thanks for clarifying the date of the demise of WONE as a Top 40 station. I left Cincinnati just weeks before WCPO went under, so WONE still existed at that time. They put a pretty decent signal into Cincinnati as I recall too...definitely better than WING. In any case, when I paid attention to Ohio radio back in 1964 and 1965, here's what I recall listening to:

In Cincinnati, of course, I spent way too many hours listening to WSAI and WCPO. But I would also listen to the nearby markets, that were audible by day, which included WING and WONE as well as WAKY, out of Louisville, Ky. Also,
WMOH-Hamilton was at least part time Top 40, by that time, as was 1090-WMWM from Wilmington as I recall. Other than that, during trips through Ohio in those days I would regularly check out WCOL, WHLO, KYW/WKYC and WHK....
Click to expand...
 
I grew up with WING!
Not only Gene "By Golly" Barry,but also The Duke ...or "duck'' of Dayton(Ritchie Allen) Big D (Jerry Dennis) Bob Harper(who worked there all to breifly before moving on to WSAI and eventualy Atlanta) night jock Dan Clover,Bob Holiday (who did afternoons and had his very own "daily" survey in 1964)Gordy Price did graveyard shift on weekends there in the mid 70s. Kim Faris for a while did late night shift in the mid 80s between Stacy Taylor's talk program and Larry King. Terry Lafferty(Dayton's answer to Byron McGregor)along with Jim Briggs and Reetha Phillips in the news department.

Would have loved to have seen and toured the studios on West First St. downtown and met the whole airstaff....was never meant to be.(sigh!)

Would have also loved to have met John Hall at sister station WIZE.
 
WKXA-Findlay
WRQN-Bowling Green
WZZP-Zip 106-Cleveland
92.5 WMHE, Toledo
WRKG 1380 AM-Lorain
"The Great 98"-WGCL-Cleveland
 
Speaking of top-40, I just posted a message in the "Programming" area of the forum.

I'm looking to put together a list for a news story on Bill Drake.

I'm trying to think of all the stations that ran his format(s).

For example, when I grew up in Toledo, CKLW was the Drake station. WUBE-1230 in Cincinnati was as well for a while. I know of no others in the state of Ohio or Michigan.

And Hit Parade was on WSPD-FM in 1969 and 1970.

If anyone knows of more, please post something on my thread in Programming as I would like to get a good list together.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom