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Rock on WLW? (late '80s)

N

NoWayNoCC

Can somebody refresh my memory on this?

I have a vague memory of WLW actually playing rock in the evenings in the late '80s. I know it sounds crazy, but one time around 1989, I swear I stumbled on WLW one evening and they were actually playing "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" by Great White and talking about how they had a rock format.

I couldn't believe my ears, as I thought this was completely out of character for WLW. I know they were sort of block-programmed, but a rock format??? On WLW, of all places?????
 
I remember in the '70's when WLW was an Adult Top-40 and had the same PAMS jingles as WLS, although a more full--service-oriented package. Jim LaBarbara did nights. Around the same time, WKRC became more contemporary pop with Bob Roberts and Ron Britain. I loved KRC then, unfortunately, it didn't last. Anyone have any airchecks to post?
 
NoWayNoCC said:
Can somebody refresh my memory on this?

I have a vague memory of WLW actually playing rock in the evenings in the late '80s. I know it sounds crazy, but one time around 1989, I swear I stumbled on WLW one evening and they were actually playing "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" by Great White and talking about how they had a rock format.

I couldn't believe my ears, as I thought this was completely out of character for WLW. I know they were sort of block-programmed, but a rock format??? On WLW, of all places?????
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Yes. The music played on WLW at the time was kind of a "male A/C" so yes, they would have played Great White, but only when there wasn't a talk show on. They still had Sports Talk and Bill Cunningham (4 nights a week, Fridays was a "Hot Wax Weekend" but I believe they still played currents. Jim Scott played a few tunes in mornings and Gary Burbank played a couple in afternoons.
 
They would definitely play music on the weekends and it would typically be a hot wax weekend with music from the 60s. 55krc would also do the format and I hearing Casey Kasem AT40 on Sunday night in the early 80s
 
I don’t remember music on WLW in the late ‘80s except for Hot Wax Weekends. Not sure when they stopped those even. They pretty much went full-on talk in the early 80s when Randy Michaels took over. Gr8 may be right in that Scott and Burbank played one or two songs an hour but that was about it. I don’t recall hearing Great White or any of the hair bands on WLW.

Re: 55KRC….my recollection is of them sounding more Top 40 in their presentation than WLW ever did. Late 70s in particular. Very tight Top 40-like but musically avoided the harder edged stuff. Then in the early ‘80s for their Hot Wax Weekends they adopted the classic Drake jingles including that notorious news sounder, which all sounded terrific but their oldies focused a lot on late 50s into the mid-60s, which wasn’t exactly the era for the Drake jingles, which was more mid-60s into the 70s (CKLW, CHUM, KHJ, KFRC, etc).
 
keys2 said:
I don’t remember music on WLW in the late ‘80s except for Hot Wax Weekends. Not sure when they stopped those even. They pretty much went full-on talk in the early 80s when Randy Michaels took over. Gr8 may be right in that Scott and Burbank played one or two songs an hour but that was about it. I don’t recall hearing Great White or any of the hair bands on WLW.

Re: 55KRC….my recollection is of them sounding more Top 40 in their presentation than WLW ever did. Late 70s in particular. Very tight Top 40-like but musically avoided the harder edged stuff. Then in the early ‘80s for their Hot Wax Weekends they adopted the classic Drake jingles including that notorious news sounder, which all sounded terrific but their oldies focused a lot on late 50s into the mid-60s, which wasn’t exactly the era for the Drake jingles, which was more mid-60s into the 70s (CKLW, CHUM, KHJ, KFRC, etc).
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The Drake news sounder was introduced in 1969, along with the "rum-pum" jingles,
 
gr8oldies said:
The Drake news sounder was introduced in 1969, along with the "rum-pum" jingles,
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The news sounder and the “rum-pum” jingles, yes. But the other Drake jingles and format originated around 1965 with Boss Radio 93KHJ in LA. I think CKLW went Drake in about 1967. You’d know better than I since you listened to the Big 8 regularly up in west central Ohio. I could pick them up here in southwest Ohio during the day but it wasn’t a strong signal. Best Top 40 station ever, in my book.

1-2-3 WUBE here in Cincy tried the Drake boss radio thing 1968-1969, but as you said over on the DX forum, it is perhaps the only station that the Bill Drake approach didn’t succeed, hampered by their terrible signal. It sounded great though.
 
I clearly remember music on the weekends on WLW, up to and including current hits around 1990. You don't forget Madonna's Hanky Panky making it on the Big One. :LOL:
The DJ I remember hearing the most on the weekends was Dave Lee. His Harry Caray impression was tremendous.
 
keys2 said:
The news sounder and the “rum-pum” jingles, yes. But the other Drake jingles and format originated around 1965 with Boss Radio 93KHJ in LA. I think CKLW went Drake in about 1967. You’d know better than I since you listened to the Big 8 regularly up in west central Ohio. I could pick them up here in southwest Ohio during the day but it wasn’t a strong signal. Best Top 40 station ever, in my book.

1-2-3 WUBE here in Cincy tried the Drake boss radio thing 1968-1969, but as you said over on the DX forum, it is perhaps the only station that the Bill Drake approach didn’t succeed, hampered by their terrible signal. It sounded great though.
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I concur on that. CKLW went "fake Drake" under Paul Drew as "Fun Radio 8" April 1, 1967; once Drake signed a national contract with RKO July 1, 1967, Johnny Mann jingles were recorded and the full "Big 8" was born in mid-July.
 
I do remember in the early '80s when WLW played some music (generally AC), sometimes their "kwowwwww-wowwwww-wow" roar would go off during a record. (This was the sound they used whenever they talked about sports.)
 
schmave said:
I clearly remember music on the weekends on WLW, up to and including current hits around 1990. You don't forget Madonna's Hanky Panky making it on the Big One. :LOL:
The DJ I remember hearing the most on the weekends was Dave Lee. His Harry Caray impression was tremendous.
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Wow. Not doubting your memory but questioning my own. 🙃 I just don’t remember WLW playing Madonna on weekends. Not sure how she would have fit into an all oldies Hot Wax Weekend. I also don’t remember Dave Lee on WLW, but again, I could be wrong. My memories of Dave Lee are his outstanding midday show on 55KRC for many, many years. Did Randy Michaels pick him up for WLW weekends after KRC cut him loose?
 
keys2 said:
Wow. Not doubting your memory but questioning my own. 🙃 I just don’t remember WLW playing Madonna on weekends. Not sure how she would have fit into an all oldies Hot Wax Weekend. I also don’t remember Dave Lee on WLW, but again, I could be wrong. My memories of Dave Lee are his outstanding midday show on 55KRC for many, many years. Did Randy Michaels pick him up for WLW weekends after KRC cut him loose?
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WLW still had a "regular" music format (which was thought of as "Male A/C" and included weekends. I can remember hearing Heart's "All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You" on Jim Scott's show (not that there was that much room for music. This was the late 80s. The weekend weren't all oldies, they would play a good share of currents and recurrents.
 
gr8oldies said:
WLW still had a "regular" music format (which was thought of as "Male A/C" and included weekends. I can remember hearing Heart's "All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You" on Jim Scott's show (not that there was that much room for music. This was the late 80s. The weekend weren't all oldies, they would play a good share of currents and recurrents.
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Yeah, like I said, I remember the occasional song weekdays during drive times. I just don’t remember hearing currents played during the Hot Wax Weekends. My bad.
 
I was doing Hot Wax Weekends on the Biggun' in the late 80s. We did have a " current" clock call at :10 every hour. It got ignored a lot 😃.

I don't think there was any music during the week
 
schmave said:
I clearly remember music on the weekends on WLW, up to and including current hits around 1990. You don't forget Madonna's Hanky Panky making it on the Big One. :LOL:
The DJ I remember hearing the most on the weekends was Dave Lee. His Harry Caray impression was tremendous.
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Dave was never on WLW in the 80s. I think you are thinking about 55krc
 
I live in Columbus Marty and never listened to WKRC in those days or really much ever. He was definitely on WLW some weekends. Might have been into the early 90s, but I remember hearing Dave Lee with 100 percent certainty.
 
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