It was 40 years ago today that Philadelphia got its first full market country music station, as WRCP AM & FM switched from MOR to Country. As a teenage kid into radio and country music, I couldn't wait for the switch to happen after reading teaser ads in the Inquirer for a week hinting at a change to country. It was before I had a tape recorder and was in school at noon, so my Mom listened and wrote down the format switch (not quite as good as an audio aircheck) "It is 60 seconds and counting…all systems are go…you will now hear the last station break on the old WRCP…the next voice you hear will be that of Gene McCurdy, General Manager of WRCP…"In less than 1 minute WRCP will become 50,000 watts of Real Country Power…It is High Noon in WRCP Country…Welcome Aboard, Pardner!" (into "Tiger By the Tail" by Buck Owens).
For the first time, Philadelphia had a full-time country station staffed by major market personalities, not the 'howdy friends and neighbors' jocks on suburban stations like WEEZ, WBUX and WIBF. I talked to WEEZ PD Lowell Howard years ago, and he knew that the start of WRCP meant the end of WEEZ. The original "Good Guys" lineup was a holdover in style from the MOR format - Joe Moran, Johnny Craft, Brad Bradley, Don Rodney, Skip Clayton with sports (now on WBCB), and Austin Culmer (probably one of the first major market African-American country jocks), who did Sunday afternoons on WRCP and an hour after that shift did a talk show on WCAU! Allen Dean - who had worked at both top 40 WIBG and easy listening WDVR - also came to WRCP. The station sent out 'Country Club' cards and 'RCP Bumper Banners' that week with a letter still on their old MOR stationery "The Sound of Wonderful Music Over Philadelphia - Rust Craft Stations AM 50,000 Watts 1540 KC. FM 20,000 Watts 104.5 MC". It was a few months until the FM stayed on 24/7 (from a midnight signoff) and several years before they went stereo (with several false attempts).
The original 1967 jingles had a 'western' sound based on the 'The Magnificent Seven'/Marlboro Man theme song. Country was considered more of a 'male' format in those days. And there was a pile of weekly WRCP "Country Power Music Guide" sheets on the record store counter next to the WIBG and WFIL survey sheets! There was a lot of promotion that first year - like free pancake breakfasts at car showrooms featuring the "Good Guys", and bringing Eddy Arnold to Sears in Norristown for an autograph session. In June of 1968 they had the "Battle of the Giants", where listeners picked the top 200 classics of all time. "Call the Battle No. CO3-8860"! (#1 'He'll Have to Go' - Jim Reeves, #2 'Your Cheatin' Heart' - Hank Williams…#200 'Hello Vietnam' Johnny Wright).
Sometime in 1968-1969 the dust settled, the original 'Good Guys' were replaced by more uptempo country jocks with new modern jingles and a top 40-style format under new PD Don Paul from country WNYR in Rochester, NY. The new jocks included Shelly Davis, Jack Gillen (now in Ocean City, Md.), Jerry Klein, Mike Millard (from WDRC, WUBE, WWOK and many more), Nick Reynolds, Dave Stanley (later a Ch. 3 anchor), Bob Rose, Lee Masters (later head of E!), Bob Lockwood (from WJRZ/WWDJ), Neil Howard, Alan Swan (later on disco WZZD and WRCP's oldies format in the 1980's), veteran engineer Mike Vinditti, and Bob Steele. Taking on a 'patriotic' theme, they wore gaudy red, white and blue outfits to appearances and published a newsletter "Freedom Country Flag". It would be many years until the first female jock Trish Hennessy (now at WSMJ, Baltimore) joined in the mid-1970's, followed by Sarah Louise (later Leigh Richards, the only RCP jock that went to WTTM, WFIL & WXTU). The station played mostly the current playlist hits with an occasional 'country classic' after that. Many jocks came and went over the next decade.
The station's decline began in October of 1977 when the FM became WSNI 'beautiful country' and daytimer 1540 was left on its own. Saturday mornings became all-Elvis in 1968 when Ron Cade debuted "Elvis and Friends". Competition came from WTTM in Trenton in 1980, then WUSL switched to 'Continuous Country FM 99" in early July 1981, followed by sister station WFIL "Philly 56 Country" Labor Day weekend 1981. WRCP had begun playing oldies on Sunday afternoons, and a few weeks later WRCP ended its 14 year run with "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" by Barbara Mandrell, and the next day "Philadelphia Gold Radio" was born on 1540 with Rockin' Ron Cade as PD. WUSL switched to urban in October, 1982 and WFIL to oldies Labor Day weekend 1983. Why didn't WRCP switch back to country? Instead, to counter WFIL they went to an "all Beatles & Motown" format, and Philadelphia proper had no country station for 6 months until WXTU went country on March 1, 1984.
Does anyone have any airchecks from that first year? I do have an aircheck posted on Airchexx.com (click on Philadelphia link) of Shelly Davis on January 1, 1970 counting down the 1969 top 40 complete with the 2nd generation of WRCP jingles if you want to hear what WRCP sounded like. (I just got my first tape recorder that Christmas.) I don't know where those original jocks ended up, other than Johnny Craft, who became the morning man at WMMR from about 1969 until the Zoo era pushed him out. There are some other airchecks on other websites of Jerry Klein and Shelly Davis from 1969.
Thanks to the WRCP "Good Guys" for many happy radio memories 40 years later!
For the first time, Philadelphia had a full-time country station staffed by major market personalities, not the 'howdy friends and neighbors' jocks on suburban stations like WEEZ, WBUX and WIBF. I talked to WEEZ PD Lowell Howard years ago, and he knew that the start of WRCP meant the end of WEEZ. The original "Good Guys" lineup was a holdover in style from the MOR format - Joe Moran, Johnny Craft, Brad Bradley, Don Rodney, Skip Clayton with sports (now on WBCB), and Austin Culmer (probably one of the first major market African-American country jocks), who did Sunday afternoons on WRCP and an hour after that shift did a talk show on WCAU! Allen Dean - who had worked at both top 40 WIBG and easy listening WDVR - also came to WRCP. The station sent out 'Country Club' cards and 'RCP Bumper Banners' that week with a letter still on their old MOR stationery "The Sound of Wonderful Music Over Philadelphia - Rust Craft Stations AM 50,000 Watts 1540 KC. FM 20,000 Watts 104.5 MC". It was a few months until the FM stayed on 24/7 (from a midnight signoff) and several years before they went stereo (with several false attempts).
The original 1967 jingles had a 'western' sound based on the 'The Magnificent Seven'/Marlboro Man theme song. Country was considered more of a 'male' format in those days. And there was a pile of weekly WRCP "Country Power Music Guide" sheets on the record store counter next to the WIBG and WFIL survey sheets! There was a lot of promotion that first year - like free pancake breakfasts at car showrooms featuring the "Good Guys", and bringing Eddy Arnold to Sears in Norristown for an autograph session. In June of 1968 they had the "Battle of the Giants", where listeners picked the top 200 classics of all time. "Call the Battle No. CO3-8860"! (#1 'He'll Have to Go' - Jim Reeves, #2 'Your Cheatin' Heart' - Hank Williams…#200 'Hello Vietnam' Johnny Wright).
Sometime in 1968-1969 the dust settled, the original 'Good Guys' were replaced by more uptempo country jocks with new modern jingles and a top 40-style format under new PD Don Paul from country WNYR in Rochester, NY. The new jocks included Shelly Davis, Jack Gillen (now in Ocean City, Md.), Jerry Klein, Mike Millard (from WDRC, WUBE, WWOK and many more), Nick Reynolds, Dave Stanley (later a Ch. 3 anchor), Bob Rose, Lee Masters (later head of E!), Bob Lockwood (from WJRZ/WWDJ), Neil Howard, Alan Swan (later on disco WZZD and WRCP's oldies format in the 1980's), veteran engineer Mike Vinditti, and Bob Steele. Taking on a 'patriotic' theme, they wore gaudy red, white and blue outfits to appearances and published a newsletter "Freedom Country Flag". It would be many years until the first female jock Trish Hennessy (now at WSMJ, Baltimore) joined in the mid-1970's, followed by Sarah Louise (later Leigh Richards, the only RCP jock that went to WTTM, WFIL & WXTU). The station played mostly the current playlist hits with an occasional 'country classic' after that. Many jocks came and went over the next decade.
The station's decline began in October of 1977 when the FM became WSNI 'beautiful country' and daytimer 1540 was left on its own. Saturday mornings became all-Elvis in 1968 when Ron Cade debuted "Elvis and Friends". Competition came from WTTM in Trenton in 1980, then WUSL switched to 'Continuous Country FM 99" in early July 1981, followed by sister station WFIL "Philly 56 Country" Labor Day weekend 1981. WRCP had begun playing oldies on Sunday afternoons, and a few weeks later WRCP ended its 14 year run with "I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool" by Barbara Mandrell, and the next day "Philadelphia Gold Radio" was born on 1540 with Rockin' Ron Cade as PD. WUSL switched to urban in October, 1982 and WFIL to oldies Labor Day weekend 1983. Why didn't WRCP switch back to country? Instead, to counter WFIL they went to an "all Beatles & Motown" format, and Philadelphia proper had no country station for 6 months until WXTU went country on March 1, 1984.
Does anyone have any airchecks from that first year? I do have an aircheck posted on Airchexx.com (click on Philadelphia link) of Shelly Davis on January 1, 1970 counting down the 1969 top 40 complete with the 2nd generation of WRCP jingles if you want to hear what WRCP sounded like. (I just got my first tape recorder that Christmas.) I don't know where those original jocks ended up, other than Johnny Craft, who became the morning man at WMMR from about 1969 until the Zoo era pushed him out. There are some other airchecks on other websites of Jerry Klein and Shelly Davis from 1969.
Thanks to the WRCP "Good Guys" for many happy radio memories 40 years later!