QUESTION ABOUT WPXN 1280 AM/ROCHESTER

[danbarry]

I wonder if anyone can help me. I'm doing research for a book, and I am trying to find someone named Howie, who used to do overnight production at WPXN-AM in Rochester around 1981. Thanks very much.
Dan Barry

 

[JakeLongwell]

I'm afraid you have the wrong call letters. 1280 was WPXY during most of the 1980s, and spent much of that time simulcasting CHR/Top 40 sister station WPXY-FM (97.9). I don't think 1280 was ever "WPXN".

 

[heydaybegone]

Jake took the high road. I thought the same, but maybe I missed something. Let's see where this goes.

 

[fybush]

I'm afraid you have the wrong call letters. 1280 was WPXY during most of the 1980s, and spent much of that time simulcasting CHR/Top 40 sister station WPXY-FM (97.9). I don't think 1280 was ever "WPXN".

Ah, youth

WROC 1280 became WPXN in 1978 or thereabouts, when Rust Craft sold off the radio stations and kept WROC-TV 8. (WROC-FM 97.9 had already become WPXY in 1974.)

It was doing an all-news format for a couple of years, and a pretty good one at that, then went to standards for a while after that. If memory serves, WPXN 1280 became WPXY(AM) in 1984, doing a "shadow simulcast" of the FM to meet the FCC's simulcast rules at the time. It eventually became an all-out simulcast for a few years, then Spanish, then back to a simulcast briefly, and then I think it was standards again, and then oldies WKQG "Kool Gold," and eventually WHTK circa 1993-ish.

 

[Savage]

Scottso, was 1280 not also "WRTK" somewhere in there around 1980 or so? Didn't it carry ABC Talkradio and/or NBC's TalkNet? I was out of the market at the time and I seem to recall coming home to see my parents and hearing that programming as WRTK.

 

[fybush]

Scottso, was 1280 not also "WRTK" somewhere in there around 1980 or so? Didn't it carry ABC Talkradio and/or NBC's TalkNet? I was out of the market at the time and I seem to recall coming home to see my parents and hearing that programming as WRTK.

Right calls, right format, wrong frequency. WRTK was 1370 from 1982-84, in the last years of Dickey ownership, as they tried to bury any association with the tainted WSAY call letters. It was carrying ABC Talkradio, then switched to Transtar country in its final year before being sold in 1984. I've lost track of what happened to the frequency after that...

 

[Savage]

Phooey: Bobheimer's strikes again. Could have sworn I heard the WNYR Country Gentlemen saying "Be Big, Be A Builder" right before The Ol' Perfesser Nick Nickson opened up Bandstand Number Thirteen for All-Tradio Sunday mornings and....then Jerry Carr put on his ChromaKey makeup for Chiller Theatre... and....um....jeez.....ahem.

Think I need a nap. It's almost time for Judge Wapner....

 

[danbarry]

Thanks for the travel on my original question about WPXN 1280.
Just so we're clear, it did exist for a brief while, and for a brief while it broadcast Rochester Red Wing baseball games. During the longest baseball game between Rochester and the Pawtucket Red Sox, Bob Drew was the broadcaster in Pawtucket, and a man named Howie was the production person at the station. I'm trying to find Howie. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Bob1370]

"I've lost track of what happened to the (1370) frequency after that..."

Oh, we're doing something with it... ;-)

Keeps us off the streets.

But I keep feeling this urge every afternoon, just before Dave turns off the mike at 2, to tell everyone. "be big, be a builder"...or was it "be big, be a building"? Is the ghost of Gordon Brown haunting us?

 

[Ed Trefzger]

... and/or NBC's TalkNet?

TalkNet was on WBBF right around that same era with (the retiring once again) Bruce Williams and Sally Jessy Raphael both on weeknights.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

"I've lost track of what happened to the (1370) frequency after that..." Oh, we're doing something with it... ;-) Keeps us off the streets. But I keep feeling this urge every afternoon, just before Dave turns off the mike at 2, to tell everyone. "be big, be a builder"...or was it "be big, be a building"? Is the ghost of Gordon Brown haunting us?

There was a bar security guy (bouncer) whose last name was Builder. Every radio geek in town used the "Be Big, Be A Builder" line on him. He was a younger fellow who at first didn't know about the WNIA-WSAY mantra. After it was explained to him, he dug it and came to understand that the guys who used the line were (ahem) "seasoned radio types." The guy also was a very good bowler, so a few of us changed the line to "Be Big, Be A Bowler." I kinda liked "Be Big, Be A Belcher (brrrrrraappppppppppp)" especially after lunch.