WARM-AM

[RK]

Just when did Cumulus purchase WARM-AM ???

I was just looking at the ratings for our market. (Now down to #69) Allentown/Bethlehem finally passed us out - no surprise there!

 

[scmidlapp]

It's been mentioned here before---they are comfusing it with another station in another market. Citadel still has WARM in their clutches.

 

[MACK184]

Citadel WB routinely gets spots emailed to them that are for WARM-FM. No matter how many times the agencies or clients are told, the spots just keep on coming. Maybe that speaks for the power that WARM-AM once had.

 

[crmc]

Yes, it does speak volumes for what WARM once had.I believe , in the 60s and early 70s, it actually had shares in total audience of over 50.While there were other stations of similiar legendary status that enjoyed such prowess in other markets,too,many Broadcasters were inspired to make a career out of radio by the sounds of The Mighty 590.
No offense to the other stations on in NEPA at that time,but in my opinion, from my transistor to God's ears, WARM was in a league of it's own.

 

[ceaser]

Indeed warm was in a league of it's own.It's a shame citadel really doesn't give a hoot to put time and money into fixing the towers in falls.They need thousands of dollars worth of work.I also noticed the ratings are up a little bit dispite the dying format (mabye) and the lousy signal.Same wattage as wilk and not even half the ratings.Go figure.

 

[masterg]

Yes, it does speak volumes for what WARM once had.I believe , in the 60s and early 70s, it actually had shares in total audience of over 50.

Most are under the impression that WARM's halcyon days ended with The Sensational Seven, which is most assuredly not the case. Up through the late 70s and early 80s(at least)WARM continued to pull huge numbers. For over twenty years, there was WARM...then there was everyone else.

 

[crmc]

yes..WARM was never not # 1 in 12+ AQH share until 1980 when WKRZ signed on # 1.At that time my observations were that they buried their heads in the sand and began to sell # 1 in cume, which was the beginning on their end , in my opinion.
I always felt that if they moved it all to 92.9 then, harry, news,accuweather, etc and made it WARM FM( or WRRM,etc if they wanted the WARM-FM calls in York, despite it being market # 100) and began to re-image 590 as W-A-R-M 590, a news/talk station and gave up on full service, modern mor, chicken rock, blah-blah....they would have had # 1 and maybe # 2 or 3 with the two frequencies.
But, it's easy to look back and say what they should have done.
And yes, while the sensational seven was a special " warm and fuzzy" time in that stations timeline, they had a long successful run long after.

 

[warmland]

yes..WARM was never not # 1 in 12+ AQH share until 1980 when WKRZ signed on # 1.At that time my observations were that they buried their heads in the sand and began to sell # 1 in cume, which was the beginning on their end , in my opinion.

When KRZ became #1, it shook WARM in their boots. They never expected that any station would become bigger than they had been for years. I remember George Gilbert saying he was never concerned with FM and that was years before KRZ hit the air.
Gilbert was long gone by the time KRZ came to town, but many of the old WARM management including Ron Allen was still there. Then Susquehanna brought in Bill Kimble. He convinced them that talk was the answer with Larry King and all the Mutual network features that had to be taken to get King. WARM hired people like Philly's Nick Seneca (WIP) also as PD and he could not pull them back up in the ratings.
Back in those days, WARM still had a great signal also.

 

[yonkstur]

When KRZ became #1, it shook WARM in their boots. They never expected that any station would become bigger than they had been for years. I remember George Gilbert saying he was never concerned with FM and that was years before KRZ hit the air.

While KRZ was the one that ultimately toppled WARM, one station that began to chew into its dominance was WGBI FM. In early 1976, WBGI FM ran a beautiful muzak music format. In June of that year, the station went to an automated top 40 stereo format. People in this market were starving for a format like that. Instantly, people who were tuning in to WARM, WILK and WBAX for their hits, now got it on FM. WBAX shortly thereafter started carrying the Yankees and WILK and WARM just kept keeping on. But WGBI made inroads in the ratings, the sales reps, Jerry Petrilla and Bill Chesick made tons of money (Petrilla who left WARM bought a plane) and this was all despite hearing "Lowdown" by Boz Scaggs, "Let Em In" by McCartney and "Shannon" (the song about the dead dog) fifty times a day and the ops there rewinding the tapes backwards on the air whenever the reel ran out.
I was working the overnights at WVIA FM that whole year so I fell asleep to both formats and remember it like it was yesterday. As I said, despite the glitches (and there were many) WGBI FM portended things to come. With the dominance of KRZ, sometimes WGBI FM's place in FM Rock history is forgotten.

Yonkstur

 

[crmc]

Funny you mention WGBI FM in reference to their place in the history of rock. Your observations are correct. The format was the brainchild of the father of TOP 40 and FM rock, Bill Drake. It was the Drake-Chenault Contempo 300.It showed us all that pure product together with great signal can do well, no matter how terrible the execution.The rewinding tapes is a distinct memory. Also, a Tommy Van Scoy spot that didn't have the proper trip tone at the end that looped all evening once.Urban legend says it ran 12 hours until the cart wore out. I heard it repeated times that night in the late 70s.
A quick mention on the late Bill Drake:he recorded a 52 hour special called the History of Rock that is great. It is still aired on 60s and 70s type Oldies Stations. they buy the rights and insert local commercials-not a barter show. I think it's syndicated by Jones or someone like that. Stations either run it over a long summer Holiday weekend ( a particular major market station I know rotates it, Memorial day,July 4, Labor day)or once a week all year.Each hour is freestanding. He has a rich delivery and the show is great.Truly timeless.If I remember, I will post when it's on again (if I'm not chased away by the
"Dark Side" of this board)

 

[masterg]

In early 1976, WBGI FM ran a beautiful muzak music format.

Didn't WGBI/WDAU(aka the Megargees)actually own the Muzak franchise in NE PA? In the early 70s WGBI-FM was running what sounded like some homegrown version of MOR automation, where you'd hear all kind of oddball music. To tell you the truth, I kind of liked it, whoever created this thing included a lot of jazz in it, and I loved jazz. I'd guess that WGBI-AM was still the moneymaker, still being The Home of The Country Gentleman.

A few assorted thoughts...WARM suits used to refer to the rising popularity of FM as FM Intrusion, indicating that they somehow felt FM had no right to even exist, but was rather forcing itself upon the American public. As in awe as I was of GG, even this then neophyte knew that brand of thinking was flawed and dangerous. GG, however, had undergone some sort of an epiphany. By the time KRZ took the lead, GG was in Williamsport making WKSB-FM a huge success. The simplest thing for WARM to have done, perhaps, was to grab hold of an FM and just put WARM on it. They did briefly give it a try, but one of the most glaring shortcomings was how crappy it sounded. I was out of there by that time, but my guess is that WARM had so much processing on its signal that it easily covered all its warts and pimples. With the processing gone, it sounded just awful.

Kimble's been discussed here before, so let me repeat what's been said as simply as possible; Bill Kimble destroyed WARM. But in his defense, he didn't do it in a vacuum. He did it with the full blessing of corporate, in the person of one Arthur Carlson, VP of Susquehanna's Radio Division.

 

[masterg]

But WGBI made inroads in the ratings, the sales reps, Jerry Petrilla and Bill Chesick made tons of money (Petrilla who left WARM bought a plane)

Meant to mention in my previous post that Jerry Petrilla was rumored to be the most successful radio sales rep in the market. Huge bucks. Buying a plane would seem to confirm that...

 

[yonkstur]

A quick mention on the late Bill Drake:he recorded a 52 hour special called the History of Rock that is great.

WARM ran something like that in the early 70s, summer of '71 i believe. Was that the same one?

Yonkstur

 

[warmland]

But WGBI made inroads in the ratings, the sales reps, Jerry Petrilla and Bill Chesick made tons of money (Petrilla who left WARM bought a plane)

Meant to mention in my previous post that Jerry Petrilla was rumored to be the most successful radio sales rep in the market. Huge bucks. Buying a plane would seem to confirm that...

Didn't Petrilla work for Bob Coradro at WWAX for a short time?

 

[crmc]

To Yonk's question: Perhaps so...but my memory is not as sharp as yours. More anecdotal and less specific.But the era is right. Last time it aired at one particular major market station people called and actually tried to buy copies of it.

 

[crmc]

To Masterg's comments: on Muzac- maybe it was the northern end of NEPA or perhaps it shifted because I recall specifically sitting in the WYZZ studios for a 7 hour job interview/brainwashing session with Dick Evans ,Sr who changed the Muzac tapes several times during his WYZZ Hitparade show and after, while Charley Brown was on the air. While it was a unique experience, the place freaked me out( the cats, the records in their dining room, Mrs. Evans serving tea,however the Quad board and tandem Electrovoice RE-20 mics were quite exciting for a young broadcaster in 1979.

 

[masterg]

who changed the Muzac tapes several times during his WYZZ Hitparade show

Now you've really knocked a few thoughts loose. Thanks! Okay, I could swear that WGBI-FM early 70s automation programming was called Hitparade, it's what WGBI-FM ran before they bought the Drake-Chenault package. It would be pretty typical if Evans bought the Hitparade package from the Megargees, because that thing was so crappy that they either A) Paid pennies for it, B) Made it themselves, C)Whoever created it went out of business, freeing up the license.

Your WYZZ story is hysterical, I never had the pleasure myself. My strongest memory of WYZZ was of Frank LaBar being on the air all the time. And it wasn't voice-tracked - when I got to know Frank(a lovely man)in the early/mid 80s, he told me that he indeed worked 8+hour shifts on the air.

 

[crmc]

I recall the Hitparade name on WGBI before Contempo-300, but I think it didn't really hit until it picked up the Drake format, and of course WGBI cheaped out and got the back announced version( no talent in the mix)so every time it played you heard the same pre-recorded delivery " that's Boz Scaggs" then a click " on Stereo 101".
However...the WYZZ format was his "patented"WYZZ hit parade. "It's the nine o'clock hour, so we'll play a song from a year ending in nine...from 1959 here's LLoyd Price, up next from 1939, on the WYZZ hit parade, it's Glenn Miller with... "
That was the format. He claimed it was copyright protected.A real character, which made listening to 92.9 unpredictable, which was what drew me in. Certainly not the music when I was 18 years old.

 

[warmland]

I recall the Hitparade name on WGBI before Contempo-300, but I think it didn't really hit until it picked up the Drake format

Hitpardae was originally on WEJL FM before it went to EZX. Their FM came on the air with the Hitparde format for a few years.

 

[yonkstur]

Your WYZZ story is hysterical, I never had the pleasure myself.

I did. When I was 19, right after getting back from Career Academy and then starting King's, I too went to WYZZ for a job interview. As a teenager, on our few family vacations I had visited CKLW, WXYZ, (Windsor-Detroit) WFIL, (Philadelphia), WKBW (Buffalo) and WWWE (Cleveland). I mean these were powerhouses. In Washington D.C. I visited WRC (the NBC affiliate where Willard Scott was) and Harv Moore's station plus the Westinghouse TV show Panorama which featured a very young Maury Povich. I'm telling you this not to brag but to set up the story. So after seeing all these places, I went to WYZZ. (Ironically when I first got married, we lived in an apartment above a grocery store right down the street (Prospect) from WYZZ. ) So imagine my shock when I visited the 50,000 watt powerhouse in a, well, house resembling that of my grandfather! I went in (it was March) and the place was like a blast furnace. The entire first floor were offices but with thousands of albums stacked up everywhere. I then went down to observe the board op, a college grad named Leonard Brozena who was running the board. I sat on a stool as Leonard ran the show. The big event of the afternoon was going to be the Metropolitan Opera Broadcasat at 2pm. Leonard explained to me the music system of playing one instrumental, one Longines symphony, everything was so convoluted I lost interest halfway through it. Anyway, at 12:45 Mrs. Evans comes down the steps with a tray with a huge glass of milk, a turkey and cheese sandwich on rye, a few crackers and a candy bar. "Here's your lunch Leonard" she said setting the tray down. Then she looked at me and said, "Do you work here yet?" And I answered "No, I was just observing". She smiled and went back up the steps. No "wanna drink of water?" Nuthin!!!!!! In the meantime, these cats start crawlin' around and Leonard introduces one of the felines as Spike. At around 145pm, Leonard says, "Watch this!" And he puts on Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" which was peaking at that time in March of 1973. A minute into the song, the door at the top of the stairs opens up and Mr. Evans says, "I hope that record is in cue and not on my radio station!" And Leonard says, "Yes Mr. Evans!" in his best Eddie Haskell voice.
I did a demo and was offered weekend work but I got a better offer from WVIA FM which ironically now carries The Metropolotican Opera.
Leonard went into teaching but some of the staff there were Frank LaBarr, Jones Evans, Chuck Whittier, (these were old time WBAX guys from the late 50s and early 60s) a guy named Tillman Smith who ran a high school bands program, and a few others. But when they opened the mike, there was a pause and you could always hear the click. One of the main sponsors was Harry Hollock's Trucksville Pharmancy. It was a unique part of broadcast history in our region.

Yonkstur

Yonkstur