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September 7, 1967

J

John1

On this day in 1967 at "high noon" WRCP's country music format was born, the first Philadelphia station (following suburban WEEZ, WBUX, WIBF) to program country music. The simulcast on daytimer 1540 ("50,000 watts of Real Country Power") and (at first) 18 hour a day mono "FM 104" was well done for what had been a minor player in the market, with a good lineup of "RCP Good Guys", great jingles & uptempo presentation. Country radio previously had been less slick, hanging on to the "howdy friends & neighbors" approach with jocks playing their favorite records - and their own - over & over.

The station lasted on 1540 until 1981, 14 years, with the FM splitting off to become beautiful country "Sunny 104" in 1977. The end came with competition from both WUSL and WFIL. XTU has now been in the format longer, but longtime country fans will remember the day that they finally had a full time city grade country station!
 
WRCP was a fabulous country station with Nick Reynolds and the gang. I still remember their studios on Locust Street, you could look in the window and see the setup. They also played a great variety of Classic Country from the early 50's to their present playlist. The FM used one of two 400' towers on Ridge Pike north of the Antenna Farm and the old WFLN, close to the three tower AM site. Those towers are just for microwave use now. When the FM broke away from the AM and became Beautiful Country that is when they made the move to the Antenna Farm where they remain to this day.
 
>They also played a great variety of Classic Country from the early
50's to their present playlist.>

I don't recall much early '50's, but some late '50's & '60's. They did a call-in voting "Battle of the Giants" in 1968 to determine an all-time favorite ("He'll Have to Go" by Jim Reeves). Of course we're talking 10-20 year old songs at that time, today that would be the same as XTU playing late '80's to present which they do. WRCP actually seemed to play a lot more current charted songs than stations play today. XTU & other contemporary country stations seem to play more tested familiar recurrents & '90's songs than new & current ones.

Like today, some older fans thought RCP wasn't 'country' enough, playing "pop" by Glen Campbell & "hippies" like Waylon Jennings, etc. instead of Roy Acuff, Hank Williams, the Carter Family, etc. which were still heard on WBUX with Hugh Clinton & WIBF at night with Doug Henson and WCOJ's Alec Campbell's 'Country Corner'. The "what is real country" battle will always continue.

The first few years were the high point of WRCP, with the "Rittenhouse Ranch" and "Real Country Power". They de-emphasized the jocks and played more current music, less jingles, etc. as time went on. Once it was AM only they were just cruising until someone came along to knock them off, which happened in 1981. I'm still not sure why they didn't bring back country in September of '83 when WFIL went oldies, instead Don Cannon was PD, said nobody listens to AM, and went all Beatles & Motown. RCP could have come back and segued to classic country when WXTU came on the next year.
 
9 Years & 11 Months Before Elvis Bought The Farm?

> XTU has now been in the format longer, but longtime
> country fans will remember the day that they finally had a
> full time city grade country station!
>

In honor of this >>sniff<< auspicious day, I've put on my country radio-station t-shirt; that's the one with the red around the neck. :) (Just kidding!)
 
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