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Plough Broadcasting

WOW.....this is like a class reunion with nobody young enough to remember who they are or why they came!! Well include me in the same group of murky minded oldtimers..... For the benefit of all the Wayne Hudson fans (myself included) I correspond with him via email and he is still as delightful as ever. When I reflect on my good fortune to have shared for many years in the senior management of the company with Wayne and Ed Crump, how much nicer partners could you ever find.....ever? They were the best.

I saw the Dees PD reference a couple of times but didnt bother to comment. Actually Rick was never the PD of WMPS but was given the title of National Promotions Director as the company tried to leverage his incredible talents across our other markets and also to keep him happy. That was a few months before the Disco Duck blowup. As VP of programming for the group at the time, I had not moved to Memphis (that was April '77)but oversaw the company's radio properties from my base in Chicago. My only dealings with Rick were during the short time after I assumed my position and while he was in the corporate promotions role. Unfortunately I was called the day the GM had fired him, and given the awesome task of replacing him and ultimately Roy Mack as well. The Dees decision cost the company millions. The futile attempts to replace him and set the station on course failed for many years. I know that all too well as a few years later I was appointed the GM of WMPS and K-97. By then things on the AM had turned pretty ugly....... Thanks for letting me share.....Craig Scott
 
I have only one thing to say to you Mr. Scott: We are LIVE!

Warmest regards to the gentleman who influenced me probably more than any other individual in the biz.

Bill Murray
 
To set the record straight, Rick Dees WAS program director of WMPS, albeit briefly.

In May 1976, WMPS General Manager John Rhea told Program Director Roy Mack that he was “streamlining” his duties. I’m not sure what that meant, but Roy didn’t like it. Roy and afternoon jock Ron Jordan resigned on the same day.

While it’s true that Dees had been named National Promotions Director for Plough Broadcasting (Broadcasting, February 2, 1976), he sought the vacant PD job after Mack’s departure.

Dees was named WMPS Program Director sometime in July 1976. The announcement was in the August 2, 1976 issue of Broadcasting. The next issue of the Broadcasting yearbook listed Dees as Program Director.

About the same time Dees was named WMPS PD, his novelty song Disco Duck, having been picked up by RSO Records, was debuting on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 89.

Citing concerns over plugola laws, John Rhea would not allow Disco Duck to be played at any time on WMPS. Dees openly complained on the air about not being able to play the song. He went as far as to criticize other Memphis stations for not playing it, even though doing so would have amounted to airing a three-minute promo for the competition.

John Rhea had heard enough. On September 13, 1976, he fired Dees, ostensibly for insubordination.

Rhea’s concerns over plugola, which may have had merit in July 1976, should not have been an issue in September. The day Dees was fired, Disco Duck was at number 13 on the Hot 100, in only its third week in the top 40. The song would hit #1 four weeks later.

I’m no lawyer, but the watershed question regarding plugola should have been this: if Dees was working in another city, and had no connection to WMPS, would WMPS have played the record? Of course they would have.

Within days of Dees’ dismissal, he signed on with WHBQ. After waiting out a 45-day non-compete agreement, he ruled mornings at WHBQ for the next two-and-a-half years, leaving for KHJ, Los Angeles in May 1979.

As for the fallout at WMPS, John Rhea was out as GM less than a year after the Dees debacle, replaced by Tom Kroh. Rhea went to work for Sam Phillips at WLVS.

Plough Broadcasting pulled the plug on the 23-year run of WMPS as a top 40 station, flipping to country on March 6, 1978.
 
That's the setup I remember. In the wake of the departures of Roy and Ron, jock openings were advertised for afternoons and overnights in May or June of 1976. The instructions indicated to send tapes and resumes to GM John Rhea, since there was no PD in the seat at that moment, and I did so. By the time I was knocking on the door to follow up, Rick Dees was the guy I talked to. The openings were filled with Doc Damon, as noted above, and an overnight guy who went by "Spiderman" or "Midnight Cowboy" or something, I'm sure Kenny will recall.

Missing out on the WMPS opportunities (and remember they were still ratings-wise the big dogs at that moment), by mid-August, 1976, I replaced Rick Collins as weekend-swing jock at WHBQ, when he moved up to 6-10PM to replace Stew Robb who moved to afternoons to replace Dude Walker who was leaving for DC. That was my entry point into Memphis radio. Walt Jackson and I came in at the same time. I am scratching my head trying to remember why there were two openings... maybe he was replacing Tony Maddox in middays, who left for KCBQ in San Diego right around that time.

Within a month, Rick Dees was fired, and George Klein resigned and John Long was on his way in at Q. At that point, everything shifted.
 
The overnight jock joining WMPS in August 1976 was Ronnie Todd, who called himself "The Nightcrawler." He replaced the legendary Harry Simpson, who did overnights from the WMPS transmitter for many years (since he also held an FCC First Class license and could fulfill the then-required First Class engineer on premises rule). Todd did his show from the studios at 112 Union, and I assume Harry Simpson stayed on as engineer at the transmitter, since the FCC did not relax the rule until 1977.

Mark Damon, who replaced Ron Jordan in afternoons, arrived about the same time as Todd. Both new hires were announced in the August 25, 1976 issue of Variety.
 
Kenny's facts from Memphis radio in 1976 are clearly more accurate than mine. That was the year I was hired primarily to create and launch Plough's FM division, while overseeing the entire station roster. So 1976 --for me personally--was devoted to researching, staffing (1-2 people per market) designing, naming and then ultimately launching FM formats in all of Plough's markets. We purchased automation systems for the entire group, installed them, and began creating playlists, logs and servicing the music out to the field from our production center at 112 Union. During the roughly 12 months between October 76 and the summer of 77, new stations was launched in Memphis (K97), Atlanta (V103), Boston (TK101), Baltimore (V103), Chicago (Z104) and Tampa (98 ROCK). WUBE in Cincinnati was acquired in late 1980 as I recall. Like every other company Plough was trying to maintain success with its strong group of AM's while FM's were soaring to the top with little or no effort. So 1976 was quite a year for PBC. Craig Scott
 
I need td an important historic note to this thread. There is a great,great,man who was the true programming braintrust of this lengendary radio chain. He innvented modern counntry in 1960 chicago. Natl.pgrm.director-v.p. for the plough broadcasting co. His name-lee wilder.
 
Kenny is correct. Rick was briefly the PD. I was the 7p-midnight jock from January 1973 until October 1976. Roy Mack hired me. During that time period WMPS was a great station and I loved every minute of working there. Unfortunately it all came apart with the departure of Ron Jordan, Roy and Dees. There were a lot of rumors about what happened, but only those in charge at the time know the whole story I suppose.

I know I will always have wonderful memories of working at WMPS with great talent like Dees, Ron Jordan, Mitch Craig, Brother Jon Rivers (Gary Smith) at the time, and Bill Murray. Dan Sears was a terrfic newsman and I also worked briefly with Mark Damon who was very talented. Oh by the way, I was the first jock to play Disco Duck on the air.

Dan Wilson
 
Dan "Turkey", WMPS was a legendary station during your tenure! A real Donnybrook!
 
Is John Rhey dead or alive? He did not have a reputation for staying very long at any station. His wife had cut cut his meat on his dinnerplate for him! Is he still in Mephis?
 
Dees was definitely program director. I got the "privilege" of being the first jock at WMPS to play Disco Duck. Dees told me to make a big deal out of it (recall we couldn't play it on the air and Dees never got to play it on the air). I also got to fill in for him in the mornings after he was fired. The first day, I walked through a picket line at 5:30 in the morning Fortunately, nobody was mad at me but they were at Plough.

It is great to read about all of this. Being on the air with this crew at that time was a great life experience.
 
Playing out across town in the background of all this drama, WHBQ was also without a morning show at the time Dees was fired. Bob McClain left Q for WIBG in Philadelphia, and the lowly swing guy (me) was filling in. Added to that, the week Dees was fired, the WHBQ PD, George Klein, resigned. This was still the era of 3-hour airshifts, and I wound up doubling GK's shift, noon to three, at least that first day. Like the case Rusty encountered, there were protesters, but over across the street.

When John Long took over as PD, he shifted Stew Robb to mornings, John and I split middays, Bob Landree came in from B-100 in San Diego to do afternoons, Dickie Edwards came in from WAPE for nights, Sheila did late night, and Walt Jackson was moved from afternoon to overnights. Jay Michael Davis was out, and Rick Collins (displaced by Dickie) took my weekend swing shift until they solidified the lineup when Dees came over in November.

For a kid getting a shot at "the big time," the weekend swing shift was perfect (except for the paycheck.) I did 10 to 2 middays Saturday, 7 to midnight saturday night, 7 AM to 1 PM Sunday, and 9 PM to 6 AM Sunday night to Monday morning. That's 24 hours on the air in slightly less than two days. Then I was off till Wednesday, when I came in to do production and bits with Landree.
 
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