One man's take on WABC and Saturday Night Oldies
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/510729/saturday_night_oldies_on_wabc.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/510729/saturday_night_oldies_on_wabc.html
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WABC then...and now
- Thread starter MORE RADIO TRUTH
- Start date
D
Dave DuBrow
Guest
There's simply no other way to say it.....WABC radio is in a class by itself. Its storied history as Musicradio WABC and now News/Talk radio WABC is remarkable.
It's generally rare in which a major market station such as WABC, can change its format back in 1982 to the opposite of what it was known for, and yet, remain a Superpower in broadcasting circles.
The ultimate mind of Phil Boyce has continued to make WABC radio essential listening.
Dave DuBrow
It's generally rare in which a major market station such as WABC, can change its format back in 1982 to the opposite of what it was known for, and yet, remain a Superpower in broadcasting circles.
The ultimate mind of Phil Boyce has continued to make WABC radio essential listening.
Dave DuBrow
There's simply no other way to say it, another groupie testimonial.
W
WTUX
Guest
Although they made the switch before they really had to (which is probably why the success is so pronounced) they knew the direction the AM listener was going.
The AM Top 40 DJ was sensing the day of personality Top 40 was ending. On WNBC it was Imus in the Morning, Stern in the afternoon, doing mostly talk with the music becoming more rare. Then Rush came on the scene.
These personalities are Top 40 jocks without music. Its the "Top 40 Topics" rather than the "Top 40 records".
WABC became the best in the genre in keeping 77 as the station you grew up with. Johnny Donovan developed liners that helped keep us comfortable with the station of our youth being the favorite of today. And the audience base keeps growing because of the way the talk format is run. Listening to Imus on WABC, he sounds better than he has in years. The show is tighter, livier and funny again. The show matches Rush and Hannity.
The greatest radio station ever retains its title.
The AM Top 40 DJ was sensing the day of personality Top 40 was ending. On WNBC it was Imus in the Morning, Stern in the afternoon, doing mostly talk with the music becoming more rare. Then Rush came on the scene.
These personalities are Top 40 jocks without music. Its the "Top 40 Topics" rather than the "Top 40 records".
WABC became the best in the genre in keeping 77 as the station you grew up with. Johnny Donovan developed liners that helped keep us comfortable with the station of our youth being the favorite of today. And the audience base keeps growing because of the way the talk format is run. Listening to Imus on WABC, he sounds better than he has in years. The show is tighter, livier and funny again. The show matches Rush and Hannity.
The greatest radio station ever retains its title.
A
adma
Guest
fortmill said:
That's probably a more common sentiment than a lot of "radio types" realize. That is, there *isn't* that believed listener continuum between 77 of old and 77 of new--or at least, those listeners who "stuck around" were already the lowest cultural specimens in the first place. And it's a bit insulting when upholders of the Musicradio myth uncritically embrace the talk station as a natural extension of the ethos...
I
Indielover
Guest
As far as I'm concerned, WABC ceased to exist as a radio station a long time ago. I'd rather remember 77 as the wonderful hit music station that served as the (nighttime) soundtrack of my teenaged years than the mean, far right-wing, racist, know-nothing garbage that is on 77 today.
Exactly...Musicradio WABC was the antithesis of this hateful, horrible station.
Exactly...Musicradio WABC was the antithesis of this hateful, horrible station.
TalkRadio, MusicRadio, Radio is still Radio along with generally, 18 minutes of commercial interruptions every hour. However, with that being said, there is something that remains strangely magical about listening to an AM station from several hundred miles away. And at least WLS still plays their old original music radio jingles in their talk format. That’s more than can be said of WABC.
Imagine if WABC had hung on another year or two and was around as MTV revitalized the music business, hyper charging the next generation(Z100 came into the picture to fill the gap left by WABC,which had morphed into an anti youth, antii rock MOR horror in it's last few years anyway, they dropped "Jessie's Girl" by Rick Springfield one week because it was 'too rock"; merciful heavens, no wonder they had a nervous breakdown when Howard Hoffman was forced to play an edited version of "Death To Disco" by Jimi LaLumia & the Psychotic Frogs...lol)
but a revitalized WABC Music Radio during the first MTV era might have been very interesting,..
but a revitalized WABC Music Radio during the first MTV era might have been very interesting,..
B
bub
Guest
Let's not forget that in the heyday of MusicRadio 77, WABC was the flagship radio station of the New York Jets the year they became the first American Football League team to win the Super Bowl! Merle Harmon and Sam Deluca calling the games. Anybody here remember that?Indielover said:
As Merle Harmon used to say: "Your dial is Jet-Set." Those were the days. We had the best football team on the planet on the greatest
radio station in the world. Unfortunately, the last 39 years have not been as kind to us Jets fans. Hard to believe that since 1/12/69, even
Roby Yonge had a better run that the Jets.
radio station in the world. Unfortunately, the last 39 years have not been as kind to us Jets fans. Hard to believe that since 1/12/69, even
Roby Yonge had a better run that the Jets.
barthgimble said:
LOL!!!!! ;D ;D
Or Les Marshak
Oh I remember those days too!
F
Froggy
Guest
Wow,What a great topic.This brings to mind many a discussion I've had with people over my short 28 years in radio not WABC but radio in general.You can take almost any HERITAGE STATION of ANY FORMAT in ANY MARKET.
SAY that in 1980 I have a Station Targetting 12 Year Olds.Do I grow up with that 12 Year Old and continue targetting that NOW 40 Year Old-Do I continue to Program to this 40 year Old or do I go back to my old plan & Re-Format to target these 40 Year Olds Children???
In a way you might say WABC grew up WITH their Audience (as did WNBC) as both stations before their flips were in fact playing "Oldies".I do believe either WABC or WNBC could've become VERY,VERY SUCCESSFUL as "OLDIES" Stations.I have to wonder (Probably always will) IF WABC could've survived keeping it's oldsters happy & content while attracting younger listeneres doing a HOT A/C Presentation (going after a more mass appeal music format thru the 80's)
with emphesis on PERSONALITY And LOCAL NEWS/CONTESTS-an AM Version of a WYNY-WXLOish A/C.
John B.
SAY that in 1980 I have a Station Targetting 12 Year Olds.Do I grow up with that 12 Year Old and continue targetting that NOW 40 Year Old-Do I continue to Program to this 40 year Old or do I go back to my old plan & Re-Format to target these 40 Year Olds Children???
In a way you might say WABC grew up WITH their Audience (as did WNBC) as both stations before their flips were in fact playing "Oldies".I do believe either WABC or WNBC could've become VERY,VERY SUCCESSFUL as "OLDIES" Stations.I have to wonder (Probably always will) IF WABC could've survived keeping it's oldsters happy & content while attracting younger listeneres doing a HOT A/C Presentation (going after a more mass appeal music format thru the 80's)
with emphesis on PERSONALITY And LOCAL NEWS/CONTESTS-an AM Version of a WYNY-WXLOish A/C.
John B.
WABC could have evolved as a successful Top 40 station through the decades,in the same way that Z100 continues to do so, after almost 25 years on the air, by reflecting the actual hits...WABC became a conservatively programmed nightmare by the disco era,chased away any guitar oriented rock hits,and tried to remake Top 40 in an MOR mish mash..if it had stayed true to it's origins, it could STILL be ruling TODAY!
A
adma
Guest
I'm not sure if I agree with that precisely (at least, not unless WABC migrated to FM). But I do agree that a MOR/Hot AC direction isn't necessarily the most desirable (at least, from an aesthetic/cultural point of view) form of "growing up with the audience" while "attracting young listeners"--it's like assuming the same about WABC's morph into We Always Broadcast Conservatives.
What kinds of 12 year olds would have been avidly listening to WABC in 1980, anyway? In hindsight, it would seem that the station's audience mean was already more "parental", and of a frightened-wrong-end-of-a-generation-and-cultural-gap sort at that...
What kinds of 12 year olds would have been avidly listening to WABC in 1980, anyway? In hindsight, it would seem that the station's audience mean was already more "parental", and of a frightened-wrong-end-of-a-generation-and-cultural-gap sort at that...
WABC could have migrated to 95.5 FM,as WABC FM, no problem...but their reactionary music programming choices would not have won the hearts of the MTV generation...the 60s sounding WABC would have been right at home with Adam ant,Toni Basil,Go Gos,Stray Cats,etc,it would have been a beautiful thing...
A
adma
Guest
If anything, the "reactionary music programming choices" go further to explain where WABC went after it ditched the music. And re "the MTV generation", you know how Mr. Sleepy Hollow Stepford Dentist feels about MTV, "the absolute worst thing that happened to music and radio"--uh, yeah, like he thinks there's a critical mass of under-50s that agree with his sentiment. (Well, maybe there are, but it isn't like they're devoted to a pre-MTV "mass appeal pop" ideal any longer. He might as well be speaking of Lawrence Welk fans.)
In a way, it all reflects a cultural sensibility that was spooked by whatever the 1977 blackout riots ushered in, and presumably still gets the willies to this day over whatever's too openly "ethnic" or "queer" or just plain "post-1977" about NYC...
In a way, it all reflects a cultural sensibility that was spooked by whatever the 1977 blackout riots ushered in, and presumably still gets the willies to this day over whatever's too openly "ethnic" or "queer" or just plain "post-1977" about NYC...
L
LinoNYC
Guest
adma said:
Please, enough of the "stepford dentist" no one really cares what he thinks, they read the board for gossip, just as they do here.
1977? I don't know where you live but I suspect it's not New York. In my case, except for the first three months which were in Mexico City I have been a Manhattanite since early 1957.
New York City's real pit came in 1975 when after a decades long influx of poor blacks from the south and caribean Hispanics along with a mayor aquiescent to pressure groups, labor unions and corrupt vendors, the city was bankrupt.
By that fall we were under the supervision of the Financial Control Board headed by Felix Rohatyn. The City fired some 64.000 municipal workers while getting tens of billions in bond purchases from their unions. There were cutbacks in social programs, many of which had been the drawing force for the aforementioned influx.
By 1976 New York was the center of the Nation's Bicetennial and it was clear that we had turned a corner.
The summer of 1977 was a setback, in particular the violence of the July 13th blackout stood in stark contrast to the 1965 event, but in a realistic appraisal, it was a familiar case of slum dwellers looting and burning their neighborhoods and speeding the process by which they are tuned into "landbanks" for future redevelopement. It may be a callous way to put it, but that's the process.
This one really shows that you don't live in or understand this city:
New York is the international capitol of Culture and finance. We are also the prime target for islamic and other terrorism yet the constantly rising cost of real estate is just one indicator that we do not get the "willies". Don't mistake the machinations of a declining AM radio station as representitive of New Yorkers.
As for that station (WABC) it's programming decisions of the last 30 years have been mostly dominated by the survival instinct.
Several years ago I read an interview with AL Brady who became PD in Q-3 of 1979, he quoted the late Rick Sklar as saying that he could make changes but must maintain the stations "teen base". By 1979 that was more sentiment than reality.
AS I have read, the decision to go to talk was driven by company-wide assesment that AM was losing it's music audience. ABC launched a talk network and internal considerations dictated the need for NY clearance.
The early talk shows carried by WABC were not overtly political, they weren't very sucessful either. Along came Limbaugh, Hannity etc things appeared to turn around, however, this approach has saddled the station with the oldest listeners in the market, a declining listenership and no apparent way out. The slowly increasing use of paid access to maintain cash flow is indicative of what's ahead.
Lino
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