Top 40 Radio Icon Ron Lundy Passes

[ixnay]

At one time, WABC was number 13 in Pittsburg!

Wow, its signal reached Kansas?

Forget Kansas - how 'bout the northeast side of the Bay Area in California (where the Sacto and San Joaquin meet)?

ixnay

Did WABC really make it that far nights?? What a killer signal back in the I-a clear days!

 

[Starbucks]

WABC can reach as far as Northeastern/eastern Kansas at night. WCAU AM Philly back then, I picked up as far as Bartlesville, OK at night when I traveled into Tulsa for the evening. By then you pick up a station on the OK panhandle.

 

[Starbucks]

I agree with Sam, while living in north central Jersey (Eatontown), in 1969 WABC could be hesrd everywhere, but I listened to WABC, it just reminded me of WFIL, in fact I believe the late Chuck Browning (Morning man) left WFIL to go against Cousin Brucie.

I believe Chuck Browning left 'FIL left with alot of bad habits. I believe he came out to the FIL' reunion to party instead of being on the air back in 86'. Quietly disgraceful. It's hard to go up against Cousin Brucie sober, so he wasn't going anywhere except where he is now.

 

[Starbucks]

WIBG ruled from '57 to '66....

>>>>Sam , wasn't WIBBAGE's last year being number 1 (in some demo) in 68. I was in grade school, as I started listening to WIBG until someone told me at camp in the Pocono mountains ( he kept referring it WIFFLE) was the station to listen to. So I tried it out when I got back, and I got hooked. I was switching back in between commercials between your father and George Michael....but back then, my young taste found King George to overpowering. I got hooked ...and when i went back to WIBBAGE to see if it still existed...end of 68, winter of 69', I noticed it was all different. Happy Jack, and the rest I can't remember took over from the original cast. Just Joe Niagra was still there. But both were great legends. It was like deciding between Brett Favre and Tom Brady on who is gonna start if they were on the same team. As far as my remembrance...after the summer of 68' it seemed like it was over for WIBBAGE"S dominance.Actually, it was the daytime that began failing first in 1967, mostly due to the commercial overload. WIBG played 22 minutes of commercials per hour, plus five minutes of news at the top and headlines at the bottom. WFIL ran with practically no commercials. When WIBG was playing commercials WFIL was playing music. At night Hy Lit still had a 51 share as late as the fall of 1967. Even when he quit in late 1968 to become the program director and General Manager of WDAS FM, and work the 1-4pm soul patrol on WDAS AM at the same time, he had a 46 share on WIBG.

Hy told me the story many times of WIBG's demise. Hy begged management to raise the rates and cut back on the commercial load. They refused. They were making millions. Then when Paul Drew was hired and walked into the station and said to Hy, just read these 12 cue cards over and over and I'm going to make you a star. Hy said to Paul, I quit. I'm already a star. And he was.

George B. Storer himself flew up from Miami and begged Hy to stay. Hy said no because Paul Drew was not the way to go, and cue card radio will probably fail on WIBG.

When Hy left the bottom fell out of WIBG. Paul Drew killed whatever was left. Paul was gone in less than a year.

Storer would also sell WIBG less than 1 year later to Buckley Broadcasting. Buckley cut a deal with Hy that would bring him back to WIBG in the spring of 1970. While Hy worked early afternoons on WIBG he programmed and jocked on WDAS FM late inthe afternoons for about a year. But by 1971 FM radio was starting to gain major audience attention and WDAS FM required Hy full time. Hy would leave WIBG again in 1971.

As a strange footnote old man Buckley died in the early 70's and his son took over Buckley Broadcasting. One of the first thing Jr. did was return 94.1 WIBG FM's license to the FCC saying FM would never make it.

Buckley sold to Fairbanks Broadcasting by 1974-5. Fairbanks tried everything. Big name jocks, big talent, big promotions, everything. Nothing worked. In the end they would bring Hy back September 5-10 1977 to put the 'Old Girl' WIBG to sleep and change the calls to WZZD and usher in Wizzard 100. (Still at 990kc when digital tuners were just being introduced). The Final Week of WIBG was an instant smash. It was instant, overnight the city was abuzz. Every television station, every newspaper, everyone was talking about it and glued to their radio. The most astounding and amazing strike of lightning probably ever to strike radio. I was there. I engineered and ran the board during the final week of Hy's show. It was magic. Hy was magic. I had never seen anything like it. There were literally crowds at the front door to the station. And press from all over.

All Fairbanks had to do was keep what they had just discovered, in place. Hy Lit in the afternoon noon-6, and Joe Niagara in the morning 6-noon. But no. They were going to do WIZZARD 100 anyway thinking they could parlay the lighting in a bottle to a new format with a young hot shot program director Kevin Metheny. I remember Kevin walking around the station just before he took over holding up this printout on IBM computer paper. Y'know, the kind with the holes on the side. He said these are the cards and the 200 researched songs that will make this station legendary. It failed in less than 8 months and he was gone. And so was WIBG.

I have and I will run the final week of WIBG as it happened in it's chronological order (scoped) September 5-10 2010 on HyLitRadio.com.

 

[qtpieislit]

WIBG daytime was loosing ground by late 1968. You can't play 30 minutes of music per hour and compete with the competitor playing much more music, among other reasons. But when Hy left the bottom fell out completely.

 

[bossjock 56]

Who was the PD of WIBG prior to Paul Drew. Was this PD at the helm during much or all of the heyday of WIBBAGE? Sam? Anybody? Also....who were some of the WFIL personalities prior to The Pop explosion in '66? I remember Phil Sheridan...but that's about it? I once heard a rumor that WIP tried top 40 for a brief period...or maybe tried to become more comtemporary. Any truth to this?