Remembering old radio

[Retro]

I want to go back further than recent discussions about WHTT and WZOU and head for the 70's instead. I am thinking of the following:

WVBF "F-105", a good FM Top 40 station at the time, although I preferred "68 RKO" myself.

92.9 WBOS "The Rock Boss!" Even before their most recent format flip, I've heard my mother still refer to them as BOSS even though they haven't called themselves that since 1983.

And while we're at it WCOZ "kick ass rock & roll!"

WEEI Soft Rock

WJIB (forget what moniker that they used, but always remembered the lighthouse bell.)

99 1/2 WSSH Wishhhhhhh FM

WLYN (FM) before The Phoenix bought them and became WFNX instead.

I know that there were very many others, but that is what immediately comes to mind.

And finally, how about Kiss 108 when they were in fact a disco station? Like the very first year when they only played parts of songs like what was done in the clubs.

Oh the memories!

 

[davect]

I remember listening to WVBF during the summer of 1979. Were they automated? I don't recall hearing any jocks at night. I liked Dale Dorman on WRKO. Occasionally sampled the original WBZ-FM at 106.7. I recall my parent's listening to WWEL at 107.9 before "Kiss 108". But mostly they had their radio locked to WJIB. I can still hear those damned bells to this very day! lol.

 

[raccoonradio]

It wasn't necessarily a lighthouse bell but a the bells of a ship's clock. As my dad had taught me, 8 bells is noon,
4 pm, 8 pm, etc. 12:30 pm= 1 bell, 1 pm=2 bells, etc

For a time WLYN alt. rock (with Rich Anzalone etc.) was also on AM 1360. You could hear Mission of Burma's "That's When I Reach For My Revolver" on AM radio... (then again there was/is a time
when Dartmouth College's AM station would run alt. rock...)

Boston Rock magazine described WBOS' flip from rock to country as "The day the Boss became
The Hoss"

WCOZ put out a couple local rock compilation albums; I think one had a giant bear with a guitar
in front of the Pru building or something.

 

[Andy Taylor]

I remember listening to WVBF during the summer of 1979. Were they automated?

I remember Mighty Mike Osborne,Pete Falconi & Jo Jo Kincaid on evenings in the late seventies.I think there was a 6pm to 9pm shift and a 9pm to midnight.I think it was 9pm they used to play Stairway to Heaven.

 

[MarcB]

Speaking if old stations I was watching a rerun of Family Guy last night and Chris was on a date with Connie and he turned on the radio in her car and they station that came on was a Classic Rock station on 103.7 and they mentioned the calls were WHTT. 103.7 in Rhode Island used to be Classic Rock. And WHTT were calls in Boston.

 

[CatCall]

I have one of the old WCOZ compilation albums that features the Stompers, the Atlantics, etc. Sounds great even today!

I also have a couple of old WBCN compilation albums and the Mission Of Burma song mentioned appears on theirs.

 

[CAPECRUSADER]

I betcha NO-ONE remembers TK 101

it was on 100.7 for a short time in the late 70's - early 80's??

 

[Eli Polonsky]

I betcha NO-ONE remembers TK 101

it was on 100.7 for a short time in the late 70's - early 80's??

It was WTKK, with an automated country-rock/southern rock-leaning AOR format. (AOR, with heavy play on the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels, etc...)

It was in the late '70s, maybe 1977 to 1979. Then it flipped to WHUE-FM, a "beautiful music" instrumental easy listening format.

 

[pqgeorge]

I betcha NO-ONE remembers TK 101

it was on 100.7 for a short time in the late 70's - early 80's??

It was WTKK, with an automated country-rock/southern rock-leaning AOR format. (AOR, with heavy play on the Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlie Daniels, etc...)

It was in the late '70s, maybe 1977 to 1979. Then it flipped to WHUE-FM, a "beautiful music" instrumental easy listening format.

WTTK ("TK101") debuted at 6:00 AM on Monday, October 4th, 1976. The week prior to the switch to WTTK, 100.7 was temporarily a simulcast of 1150/WCOP. Over the weekend, prior to the switch, the station was being retrofitted for a new automation system located at the Lexington transmitter site. The Country based/AOR format that debuted on 10/4/76 eventually morphed into a straight forward AOR format about a year later. All automated of course. Plough wanted to divorce itself from the country format on both AM and FM to make the stations more sale-able as both were on the chopping block. To insure the sale of the stations, Plough decided underwrite the country format on another station until the deal was done. WDLW/1330 did well as Boston's new country station and the Plough stations were allowed to divest from Boston.

 

[JIBGUY]

And wasn't 100.7 WKKT (the Cat) for about 4 days back around 1980? They actually had a sales staff with WKKT business cards (I have one somewhere her, from a WKKT female salesperson), and then before the ink was dry on those cards, the calls and format changed. Forget what the format was.... probably some form of contempo rock. Or was what I just wrote about really a dream?-and it never happened?

 

[Retro]

I only discovered WKKT "The Cat" back in January of 1985. They were kinda a lighter version of CHR, more like a Hot AC of sorts at the time. Near the end before becoming WZLX, they ran a continuous 90 loop of music with DJ's that sounded like they were speaking in a telemarketing type of route of something.

 

[pqgeorge]

And wasn't 100.7 WKKT (the Cat) for about 4 days back around 1980? They actually had a sales staff with WKKT business cards (I have one somewhere her, from a WKKT female salesperson), and then before the ink was dry on those cards, the calls and format changed. Forget what the format was.... probably some form of contempo rock. Or was what I just wrote about really a dream?-and it never happened?

WKKT ("The Cat"), like anything else on 100.7 was short lived. Prior to 'KKT, for about a week in late in December '84, 100.7 became WCOZ ("Cozy 101"). Same beautiful music format all with new calls. For that short time, the station went "dead air", except for the legal ID at the top of the hour. People in the business knew, something was about to happen to 100.7. Just what, no one knew. First week of January 1985, 100.7 came alive again with a very uptempo AC with more Top 40 hits mixed in. Word has it that it was a "stepping stone" for things yet to come. "The Cat' was not meant to last. Somehow it did get ratings. Then the station finally morphed in late September 1985 to "Classic Hits 100.7", a modern day oldies format, the likes of which no one had ever heard before in Boston, or anywhere else. Boston was the spark. The WZLX call-letters came a couple of weeks later. People loved it! You just didn't know what to expect next. People would wait for the commercial break to end just to hear some music they haven't heard in years. I was one of those 'ZLX listeners who listened all the time.

 

[FPB]

Three good AM's that are long gone:
WNTN/1550 when they played AOR rock.
WCAS/740 -folk music
and the more recent WADN/1120 - folk as well.

 

[davalvideo]

My dad always used to listen to the old WWEL back in the 70s, before KISS 108 took that spot on the FM dial. It was similar to the old WJIB and was famous for broadcasting in "four channel quadraphonic" stereo. the announcer always made a point of saying that if you wanted to hear it in four channel, you had to have the right four channel equipment. I remember Radio shack used to sell quadraphonic receivers at the time, along with some other manufacturers. If i'm not mistaken, WWEL also carried the Red Sox for a season or two. It was great to hear the broadcasts in high fidelity FM for a change. I sure miss that. ;D

 

[pqgeorge]

My dad always used to listen to the old WWEL back in the 70s, before KISS 108 took that spot on the FM dial. It was similar to the old WJIB and was famous for broadcasting in "four channel quadraphonic" stereo. the announcer always made a point of saying that if you wanted to hear it in four channel, you had to have the right four channel equipment. I remember Radio shack used to sell quadraphonic receivers at the time, along with some other manufacturers. If i'm not mistaken, WWEL also carried the Red Sox for a season or two. It was great to hear the broadcasts in high fidelity FM for a change. I sure miss that. ;D

WWEL/107.9 also did Quad for a while as well. Other stations in the market also experimented with Quad. Namely, WAAF, WBCN, WCRB and Mount Washington's WMTQ (now WHOM) did 4-channel Stereo as well. It pretty much faded after '77 or so.

 

[Dusty Dale Brooks]

Back to the 70s? WRKO was in a steady decline as was 'MEX and the FMs were grabbing hold. Yet WBZ held on and 'HDH was really good. Tom Kennedy went over there to follow Jess Cain, but I can't remember who did PM Drive. That was a good battle and you could still hear music on AM.

WBCN was pouring the concrete that has lasted all these years. WVBF had those great jingles in the early 70s and sounded so good in stereo. And WROR in the 80s was terrific, especially when Larry Justice was there.

Oh and I liked Cliff (Keane) and Claf (Larry Claflin) on (I believe) WEEI.Those two guys were great if you were a Sox fan. Even if you weren't the back and forth was entertaining.

 

[thirdendorsed]

WBZ held on and 'HDH was really good. Tom Kennedy went over there to follow Jess Cain, but I can't remember who did PM Drive.

Blair took over WHDH from the remnants of Herald-Traveler Corp (the AM, WCOZ and the tower were the only remaining assets). It changed formats in a measured march going from MOR to more modern AC. The station that had been the home of Alan Dary, Fred B Cole, Jim Runyan and Stan Roberts hired much younger joks, some with a Top 40 background, such as Rolle Ferreira, who had been theoriginal Bob Raleigh -- the house name at the Richmond Bros. station in DC. Raleigh was the midday bridge from the cupped ear 40s style announcers to the modern era, so he was followed in 1975 by Kennedy in middays and Sean Casey for PM drive.

Recognizing their signal problems, they went after Boston and the inner suburbs, aligning the station with Boston's anti-busing movement (calling the news as being from the WHDH Information Center to follow the South Boston Information Center and Charlestown Information Center that were at the forefront of the anti-busing efforts, and put on Avi Nelson's right wing anti-busing talk at night.)

They added a brilliantly simple promotion, the WHDH Pay Phone (later cash call) that was intended to prompt diary keepers to make their entries -- the jok repeated the calls several times while giving short shrift to the "amount" and timed the mentions to :14, :29, :44 and :59 -- the specific times that diary keepers were supposed to write down where they listened that quarter hour. As Dave Supple did masterfully: "WRITE IT DOWN WHDH!! cash call, 421 dollars WRITE IT DOWN, Supple making another WHDH cash call soon make sure you WRITE IT DOWN ... 4:14 at WHDH." Supple was Subtle as a ton of bricks but it passed.

The strategy was to win big in city, and minimize the losses in the places that couldn't hear We Haul Dead Haddock's out-to-sea signal. Thus the alignment with the anti-busing forces and aggressive diary maintenance would a) deliver Boston and conservative inner suburb listeners and b) get credit for all of them.

They added Accu-weather instead of the national weather service and actually took a full page Globe and Herald American ads a few days after the blizzard of 78 to tout that they were correct in forecasting that the region would NOT get hit with another blizzard as other forecasters feared.

WHDH was a solid No. 1 around this time, and Group W fired its GM and brought in Bill Hartman who launched a reign of terror intended to remind the staff that they weren't No 1 any longer.

Blair eventually sold to Sconnix, which sold the stations and kept the stick, which, after the simultaneous decline of WHDH and WZOU, was the most profitable part of the operation.

 

[Don Juan]

Back to the 70s? WRKO was in a steady decline as was 'MEX and the FMs were grabbing hold.

Ummmmm...noooooo..... Maybe the LATE 70's.

WRKO had one of it's best books in 1974.

WMEX never "grabbed hold" after that....and that was pretty much the end of MEX as a music station. MEX never recovered.

Yet WBZ held on and 'HDH was really good. Tom Kennedy went over there to follow Jess Cain, but I can't remember who did PM Drive.

Dave Supple followed Tom Kennedy...and Sean Casey did afternoons (4-8PM.)

Recognizing their signal problems, they went after Boston and the inner suburbs, aligning the station with Boston's anti-busing movement (calling the news as being from the WHDH Information Center to follow the South Boston Information Center and Charlestown Information Center that were at the forefront of the anti-busing efforts, and put on Avi Nelson's right wing anti-busing talk at night.)

I don't believe they "aligned the station" with the anti-busing movement. They had one talk show host, who was conservative, and that was his stance. I hardly think it had anything to do with it's signal. And WHDH was branded your "news and Information" station had nothing to do with the efforts in So. Boston OR Charlestown.

The strategy was to win big in city, and minimize the losses in the places that couldn't hear We Haul Dead Haddock's out-to-sea signal. Thus the alignment with the anti-busing forces and aggressive diary maintenance would a) deliver Boston and conservative inner suburb listeners and b) get credit for all of them.

No, that was not the "strategy". WHDH can be heard in almost all of the Boston metro. They did not "align themselves with anti-busing forces"...and the Cashcall contest was not some insidious secret plan...it was just a good radio promotion.

 

[Dusty Dale Brooks]

I think it is fair to say WRKO and WMEX were steadily declining throughout the 70s. Especially if you consider WRKO's apex the late 1960s. I give people like Gerry Peterson and J.J. Jordan a lot of credit for keeping 'RKO decent, but the outcome was inevitable.

Thanks for the answer on Sean Casey at WHDH. Jess, Kennedy and Casey was a great daytime lineup--and they had they still had the Red Sox up until when?

'HDH did have a tough directional pattern. They had to protect other 850s in MOntreal, Johnstown (PA) and Raliegh. I think when you consider that signal was the least of 'BZ's problems WHDH's success is all the more impressive.

 

[Don Juan]

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