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ROR-FM, Summer 1983, Hit After Hit!

R

Retro

It doesn't seem that many people remember the 4 to 6 month period back in the Summer of '83 when WROR went Top 40. They had commercials saying how they were taking over radio. The music was a blend of contemporary CHR, mixed with Dance R&B plus with 12" versions of songs, along with some classics mixed in.

The short-lived CHR ended Labor Day when they announced that they would become a thing of the past, and did an oldies weekend. When the holiday weekend was over, they were back to traditional mainstream AC instead.

I was just wondering how many others remembered when 'ROR did this and if you were a regular listener at all? They competied with WHTT and Kiss 108 at the time. WZOU was not on the scene yet, but had switched to its AC blend of music at the time.
 
I remember it well, programmed by Gary Berkowitz, who came up from PRO-FM in Providence. It was a great sounding top 40 station, cool jingles and great presentation. Too bad it wasn't around very long.
 
At that time, ROR, XKS, and HTT were all playing the hits. After a dead time for Top 40 in the very late 70s and early 80s, All Hits were back in 1983. I believe WZOU came into play a short time later.
 
Retro said:
It doesn't seem that many people remember the 4 to 6 month period back in the Summer of '83 when WROR went Top 40. They had commercials saying how they were taking over radio. The music was a blend of contemporary CHR, mixed with Dance R&B plus with 12" versions of songs, along with some classics mixed in.

The short-lived CHR ended Labor Day when they announced that they would become a thing of the past, and did an oldies weekend. When the holiday weekend was over, they were back to traditional mainstream AC instead.

I was just wondering how many others remembered when 'ROR did this and if you were a regular listener at all? They competied with WHTT and Kiss 108 at the time. WZOU was not on the scene yet, but had switched to its AC blend of music at the time.
Click to expand...

I do!
Those "OH NO, ITS ROR!" spots lingered after they went back to AC, and truth be told, what ROR was calling "HITS" didn't seem like hits to me, at least not as a kid.
 
Retro said:
It doesn't seem that many people remember the 4 to 6 month period back in the Summer of '83 when WROR went Top 40. They had commercials saying how they were taking over radio. The music was a blend of contemporary CHR, mixed with Dance R&B plus with 12" versions of songs, along with some classics mixed in.

The short-lived CHR ended Labor Day when they announced that they would become a thing of the past, and did an oldies weekend. When the holiday weekend was over, they were back to traditional mainstream AC instead.

I was just wondering how many others remembered when 'ROR did this and if you were a regular listener at all? They competied with WHTT and Kiss 108 at the time. WZOU was not on the scene yet, but had switched to its AC blend of music at the time.
Click to expand...

I remember hearing Joe And Andy playing the 12" version of "Our House" by Madness, and also the 12" of "Keep Feeling Fascination" by The Human League
 
Anyone else recall their CHR-leaning period back in '89-90? I remember heaing stuff on there that Kiss and 'ZOU weren't touching yet. I suppose at this point, you could consider that the Mix 98.5 days were coming fast.
 
I only remember their Hot AC like format that they were doing near that time. Then there was the announcement in the newspaper that a "new" format was going to debut. WBMX signed on without much fan-fare. It had within a year come into its own though.
 
radiocop said:
I remember it well, programmed by Gary Berkowitz, who came up from PRO-FM in Providence. It was a great sounding top 40 station, cool jingles and great presentation. Too bad it wasn't around very long.
Click to expand...

ROR-FM was my favorite station during their CHR format. They were quick to jump into new music, whereas WHTT stuck more with a tested and approved playlist instead. ROR was also trying to skewer away listeners from Kiss 108 as well, while 'HTT was focused on only mainstream hits instead.
 
Retro said:
radiocop said:
I remember it well, programmed by Gary Berkowitz, who came up from PRO-FM in Providence. It was a great sounding top 40 station, cool jingles and great presentation. Too bad it wasn't around very long.
Click to expand...

ROR-FM was my favorite station during their CHR format. They were quick to jump into new music, whereas WHTT stuck more with a tested and approved playlist instead. ROR was also trying to skewer away listeners from Kiss 108 as well, while 'HTT was focused on only mainstream hits instead.
Click to expand...

That's probably what HTT was aiming to do a little later on when they switched from "Hit Radio" to "Power 103" and cut back on the New Wave and threw in more rhythmic and uncharted music, they were trying to cut into Kiss 108's audience. But boy did it blow up in their face. Big Time.
 
"Hit Radio" had a niche, they shouldn't have tried to change it. After all, the people (such as myself) who were listening to 'HTT loathed Kiss 108 at the time.
 
Retro said:
ROR-FM was my favorite station during their CHR format. They were quick to jump into new music, whereas WHTT stuck more with a tested and approved playlist instead. ROR was also trying to skewer away listeners from Kiss 108 as well, while 'HTT was focused on only mainstream hits instead.
Click to expand...

The summer of '83 was a good time for CHR. All 3 stations had their unique approach to playing the hits...Kiss was more dance/rhythmic leaning with strong personalities, ignoring most rock; WHTT tended more toward rock/new wave with a tight (albeit somewhat generic) presentation and WROR was somewhere in the middle. I liked all 3 about equally.
Alas, something had to give...even though CHR was really hot back then, 3 stations in the format was a bit much. WROR was last on the bus and the first to fold.

Someone else mentioned WHTT's re-imaging to "Power 103" in late '85. I don't know if the intent was to lean more rhythmic (like many other stations using the "Power" handle), but I somehow associate them with drifting more in an AC/Hot AC direction before they blew it up. I suppose "Hitradio" had become a bit dated-sounding, but I agree that the whole "Power 103" thing didn't fly at all.
 
Oldbones said:
The summer of '83 was a good time for CHR. All 3 stations had their unique approach to playing the hits...Kiss was more dance/rhythmic leaning with strong personalities, ignoring most rock; WHTT tended more toward rock/new wave with a tight (albeit somewhat generic) presentation and WROR was somewhere in the middle. I liked all 3 about equally.
Alas, something had to give...even though CHR was really hot back then, 3 stations in the format was a bit much. WROR was last on the bus and the first to fold.
Click to expand...

Didn't 94.5 also jump into CHR as WZOU "The Zoo" shortly after that, competing with Kiss? And, 100.7 also briefly tried generic CHR as WKKT "The Cat" in the mid-'80s before flipping to WZLX.
 
Eli Polonsky said:
Oldbones said:
The summer of '83 was a good time for CHR. All 3 stations had their unique approach to playing the hits...Kiss was more dance/rhythmic leaning with strong personalities, ignoring most rock; WHTT tended more toward rock/new wave with a tight (albeit somewhat generic) presentation and WROR was somewhere in the middle. I liked all 3 about equally.
Alas, something had to give...even though CHR was really hot back then, 3 stations in the format was a bit much. WROR was last on the bus and the first to fold.
Click to expand...

Didn't 94.5 also jump into CHR as WZOU "The Zoo" shortly after that, competing with Kiss? And, 100.7 also briefly tried generic CHR as WKKT "The Cat" in the mid-'80s before flipping to WZLX.
Click to expand...

1984 for 'ZOU and 1985 for 'KTT as well. KTT wasn't a real CHR even though they technically were by format. They would be a forerunner of a Hot AC station instead, with the exception of the automated loop that they played just before becoming WZLX.
 
Interesting side note, I was reading about American Top 40 on Wikipedia and noticed this tid-bit:

During one week in 1983, with guest host Keri Tombazian filling in, American Top 40 accidentally had played the #38 song as "Pieces of Ice" by Diana Ross (which had fallen out of the Top 40 that week) instead of playing the correct #38 song that week, "It's Inevitable" by the British group, Charlie. This is the only known case of AT40 playing an incorrect countdown song. Casey Kasem acknowledged and apologized for the slip-up on the following week's countdown.

I only mention this because I only knew of WROR having that song "Its Inevitable" by Charlie on their playlist. 'HTT did not play it at all, and I do not know if 'XKS ever played it or not.
 
How could that mistake happen?
I thought Casey just read the liners for the countdown first, and that the songs were mixed in during post production?
 
Retro said:
I only mention this because I only knew of WROR having that song "Its Inevitable" by Charlie on their playlist. 'HTT did not play it at all, and I do not know if 'XKS ever played it or not.
Click to expand...

Don't know about Kiss, but WHTT did play it (or at least listed it on their survey). It debuted at #48 on July 3, spent at least 5 weeks in the lower reaches of the survey then re-debuted on Sept. 4. I don't have anything close to a complete run of surveys so I can't be any more specific, but they did play it. Kiss didn't (to my knowledge) publish a survey, so I don't know if they played it or not...probably not...they didn't play much rock back then.
 
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