I found some info on Bob Allen...there's an aircheck on the Famous 56 website from 1968...it's an early evening air shift...it's has a commerical in it for Cecil County Dragway...also a snipnet of a newscast mentioning President Johnson...also on the Classic Phila. Radio website, it makes mentioned that he worked at WFIL between 1966-68.
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WFIL and WiFi 92 remembered
- Thread starter SUPERCASTER
- Start date
There’s a lot in this thread on which to comment. I loved both WFIL and WIFI-92. I grew up not far from Philly (Hazleton) and listened to both stations. I’ve been in radio over 33 years now, and got into it mainly because I wanted to “do what those guys on WFIL did.” To me, it was the greatest sounding station ever, in its heyday. But that heyday was pretty much over by 1976.
One comment posted earlier in this thread is ironic. It was noted that one reason WFIL beat WIBG was it had a much lighter spotload and that WIBG was playing 22 minutes of spots. What’s ironic about that is FIL made the very same mistake not too many years later. I have an aircheck of Dan Donovan on a Saturday afternoon in November 1973, which I recorded at home on my little Channel Master cassette. The spot load! YOWZAH!! At least one of them started cold after the fade out of Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” which was new then. You’ll remember it has a cold fade end. As it starts fading, the spot break starts. So, by 1973, FIL had to be running 20-22 minutes an hour.
It was not long after that I found WIFI. By 1974, it was live. Its line-up that summer was Gary Morgan doing mornings, Bill Fox middays, Steve “Shotgun” Kelly (who came from WKAP in Allentown and left, I believe, for WMMS in Cleveland by 1975) in afternoon drive, followed by Jerry “Wild Child” Kane 6-10 PM; Steve Rivers 10 PM - 2 AM and “Brother Truckin’ Louie” overnights.
I also have an aircheck of Kelly, which I recorded at home, the day before Thanksgiving 1974. John Winters does “WIFI Total Information News” at 45. What a voice and delivery he had!!
When Kelly left, he was replaced by someone using the name Super Max. Since I knew CKLW, I thought it was the same Super Max Kinkle coming to town. It wasn’t. It was “Super Max” DeCarlo. As noted above, Al Bandeiro took after PM drive sometime in 1975.
Just as an aside, I think Dan Donovan has to go down in history as Philly’s greatest unsung jock. He worked at FIL from 1969 through 1979, then came back briefly in the “Boss Is Back” oldies period. Dangerous Dan originally did Noon-3 PM, then moved to 3-6 PM when J.J. Jeffrey left for WLS in Chicago and he stayed there until he heft for Minneapolis. To me, he was among the very greatest jocks ever. His ability to use his sharp, sarcastic wit over short intros was, I believe, unmatched. But whenever we talk about Philly’s great jocks, his name is never mentioned. I think he belongs in that category. By the way, he was still doing PM drive at Kool 108 in Minneapolis until about two years ago when he was fired along with most of the rest of the staff in a “cost cutting” bloodbath.
One comment posted earlier in this thread is ironic. It was noted that one reason WFIL beat WIBG was it had a much lighter spotload and that WIBG was playing 22 minutes of spots. What’s ironic about that is FIL made the very same mistake not too many years later. I have an aircheck of Dan Donovan on a Saturday afternoon in November 1973, which I recorded at home on my little Channel Master cassette. The spot load! YOWZAH!! At least one of them started cold after the fade out of Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” which was new then. You’ll remember it has a cold fade end. As it starts fading, the spot break starts. So, by 1973, FIL had to be running 20-22 minutes an hour.
It was not long after that I found WIFI. By 1974, it was live. Its line-up that summer was Gary Morgan doing mornings, Bill Fox middays, Steve “Shotgun” Kelly (who came from WKAP in Allentown and left, I believe, for WMMS in Cleveland by 1975) in afternoon drive, followed by Jerry “Wild Child” Kane 6-10 PM; Steve Rivers 10 PM - 2 AM and “Brother Truckin’ Louie” overnights.
I also have an aircheck of Kelly, which I recorded at home, the day before Thanksgiving 1974. John Winters does “WIFI Total Information News” at 45. What a voice and delivery he had!!
When Kelly left, he was replaced by someone using the name Super Max. Since I knew CKLW, I thought it was the same Super Max Kinkle coming to town. It wasn’t. It was “Super Max” DeCarlo. As noted above, Al Bandeiro took after PM drive sometime in 1975.
Just as an aside, I think Dan Donovan has to go down in history as Philly’s greatest unsung jock. He worked at FIL from 1969 through 1979, then came back briefly in the “Boss Is Back” oldies period. Dangerous Dan originally did Noon-3 PM, then moved to 3-6 PM when J.J. Jeffrey left for WLS in Chicago and he stayed there until he heft for Minneapolis. To me, he was among the very greatest jocks ever. His ability to use his sharp, sarcastic wit over short intros was, I believe, unmatched. But whenever we talk about Philly’s great jocks, his name is never mentioned. I think he belongs in that category. By the way, he was still doing PM drive at Kool 108 in Minneapolis until about two years ago when he was fired along with most of the rest of the staff in a “cost cutting” bloodbath.
There's two WIFI airchecks on the website Airchexx.com...one is a composite from 1977 and features Bob Hamilton, Beau Weaver, Al Bandiero and I think Jim Fox and Gary Morgan...also, the other one has Liz Kiley doing afternoon drive.
Also, I believe Steve Kelly also worked at WIBG under Bill Hennes...I think he did overnights.
Also, I believe Steve Kelly also worked at WIBG under Bill Hennes...I think he did overnights.
Whatever spot load WFIL carried in the early years, they minimized the effect of some of it in what may be a counter-intuitive way. When there was an instrumental bed at the beginning or end of a song, they often did live-read spots over them. The jocks and their engineers were amazing at hitting posts on the former. It meant that the listener got less of the song uninterrupted. However, the excitement that resulted from the extremely tight formatics seemed to make up for the interruption. From L A Tarone's comments, that apparently didn't hold true indefinitely. Mid 1970 was the last I could hear Famous 56 regularly.
Regarding the comments on Dan Donovan and J J Jeffrey, I was very impressed with the replacements and additions in the first several years. They certainly maintained the high quality and preserved the format. Donovan & Jeffrey were excellent examples. I would include Dick Heatherton and Tom Tyler (when he was called away from his excellent production to fill in). Dr. Don's studied silliness was not my cup of tea, but he did it well and successfully while maintaining the basic format.
I listened to all the Top 40 stations that could be heard in Pennsylvania along the seaboard and into the midwest. Before WFIL, I would have put WKBW or WCFL at the top of my list. I think FIL was the best there was in its early years (WABC's longer-term success notwithstanding). My ranking of WFIL did not diminish, decades later, when I got to hear the giants of the West on internet airchecks. KHJ was right up there and I sometimes wonder if they were a model for WFIL doing Drake/Boss Radio the way it was supposed to work (which required the right on-air talent and imaginative program direction).
Regarding the comments on Dan Donovan and J J Jeffrey, I was very impressed with the replacements and additions in the first several years. They certainly maintained the high quality and preserved the format. Donovan & Jeffrey were excellent examples. I would include Dick Heatherton and Tom Tyler (when he was called away from his excellent production to fill in). Dr. Don's studied silliness was not my cup of tea, but he did it well and successfully while maintaining the basic format.
I listened to all the Top 40 stations that could be heard in Pennsylvania along the seaboard and into the midwest. Before WFIL, I would have put WKBW or WCFL at the top of my list. I think FIL was the best there was in its early years (WABC's longer-term success notwithstanding). My ranking of WFIL did not diminish, decades later, when I got to hear the giants of the West on internet airchecks. KHJ was right up there and I sometimes wonder if they were a model for WFIL doing Drake/Boss Radio the way it was supposed to work (which required the right on-air talent and imaginative program direction).
Super Jock: Thanks for the direction to the Bob Allen aircheck - good voice/delivery - reminds me a little of Tom Tyler. Surprising that I still don't remember him, but weekends were not always safe for brain cells. He certainly was executing that great format, although perhaps not with the excellence of the weekday guys (unfair, of course, to judge from one short example).
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