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What was your favorite era in Providence Radio?

Z

zeke3elevn

Just as the subject says - what was your favorite era in Providence Radio?

My favorite era was the 85' to 95' My favorite memories are: Kix106, Tanya Cruise on Pro FM, BRU Playing GOOD alternative etc, B101 when it truly was "Good Times and Great Oldies" with Cruisin Bruce and Big John Bina. Not that crap they have on the air now "Hotel California" over and over again. Pop wasn't too bubble gum, Rock was fresh and hard and life was good!

I'm curious to hear everyones stories on here about the earlier days since I am probably younger than most.
 
I would go for 1980 to 1990-ish...of course, that's my bias as the years I was listening to it the most in this state, but the variety was tremendous and WBRU was a free-for-all, the way a good College station should be. I still have mix tapes from the mid-80's that has BRU following up U2 with George Thorogood back to AC/DC and then the Tubes. Sigh....

I remember the day HJY went on the air and Joan Jett / Billy Squier seemed unstoppable.

I remember winning a K-Tel album from JB105 ("Sound Waves") and the day it switched to Lite with a 24-hour spin of "You Light Up My Life"

I remember hearing "Comeback" by J Geils on PROFM and the first time I heard "Stairway..."

I remember JB105 doing something called SatCom, which was a fake-worldwide "festival" featuring live music for 3 days complete with fake play-by-play announcements from DJ's.

I remember Dr. Metal, early Redbeard syndication and BCN/AAF wafting into range now and again...and waiting in line to get Ozzy's autograph at the downcity Strawberries thanks to HJY

It was a great period when radio ruled and was more than just music and ads...it was what people talked about the next day, called each other up and said "tune to <insert station here> - they're playing a new Rush song!" and you listened together over the phone. It was the days of holding a cassette recorder up between the speakers and making those mixes.

More personalities and more PERSONALITY

I do radio now because I have to...it's the only way to hear it done the way I miss...too bad it's Internet-based (the shadows of WALE moved to 990WBOB.COM), but it's what we have unless a local market wants to take us on - or even just me :)>

Stick to the Colleges...there's still some life left there and hold on to the last vestiges of the period as HJY struggles to maintain its identity....there's more out there I'm not mentioning, but radio can still survive if the mistakes of the record industry to ignore new media don't completely infuse everything.

Stay tuned...

Terry
 
!985.

Pro-Fm with Jimmy Gray, David Simpson, Tony Bristol, Nancy Grimes, Jim Halfyard, Vic Michaels. It was an all star lineup. Nothing since then can even compare. HJY had Carolyn Fox and Rudy Cheeks. RI 104 existed, Paul Perry was here. Salty Brine was still on the dial. Mike Sands and WSNE.... One of the best. Even Joans and Joan were hot back then. The mid 80's was when Providence radio was happening. It had a lot to be proud of. Nothing like it since.
 
I think it's safe to say any period prior to de-reg. It took some stations a few years to start to suck but it eventually happened pretty much across the board. Now I can honestly say there's nothing on the radio that would make someone want to get in. The coolness is gone.
 
za-rex said:
I think it's safe to say any period prior to de-reg. It took some stations a few years to start to suck but it eventually happened pretty much across the board. Now I can honestly say there's nothing on the radio that would make someone want to get in. The coolness is gone.
Click to expand...

Yeah it really is quite difficult to make a career in radio seem appealing these days. The money sucks, the job security sucks, Girls are no longer impressed with guys in radio either. These days they just look at you as if you are some broke button pusher with no future. Sadly in most cases they are probably right. I realize that I'm negative with my attitude towards radio these days. But I'm a realist. We've all seen what has happened in radio. It's not pretty. It may be negative... But it's the TRUTH.
 
1985-1995 hands down....
Salty still on the air, Jimmy Gray, Bristol, Simpson, Bina, TM, Halfyard, Rocky Allen, Mary Ann, Arlene, Buddy, Ron St. Pierre, Rudy, Carolyn, Lou Brutus, Geoff Charles, Charlie Jefferds, Chuck Wilson, John Rooke, Gary Degraide, Jones & Joan, Paul Perry, TJ Napp, Cruisin Bruce, Daria, Steve White...the list goes on & on....
 
1985-1995 is a good era, especially when you see that list of personalities. I would pick the 70s purely for personal reasons since it's the time when I got interested in being in radio because of who & what I was hearing on the air in Providence.
 
Not being in the area prior to 1990, I would have to go with 1990-1995. A couple of weeks back, I was going through some tapes, and what I heard reminded me of why it was such a good era.

The tape was from the late Summer of 1990. It was sometime during the 6 PM hour, and TJ Napp and TM were doing a live broadcast from Rocky Point. It wasn't a remote in which the jock, once an hour, gives some pre-recorded blurb. TJ and Tony were doing a shift from the "Midway," interacting with people, doing "shout-outs," and taking requests from people in the park. The best thing about it was that it was FUN radio. The two jocks were having fun, the listener was listening to fun, and the people in the park were having fun. Nothing like this can be heard on Providence radio today.

Betwene 1990-1995, nearly no FM station had a jockless shift, even overnights. Voicetracking and automation were kept to a minimum. And as many have pointed out in this thread, Providence radio was dominated by PERSONALITY. 92 PRO-FM had an all-star lineup. So did WHJY (luckily for us, Paul and Al and Geoff Charles remain as vestiges of an earlier era). Even WSNE, WRX, and the late Kix 106 were dominated by great personalities. Sure, some people listen solely for the music. But how many people did you know, especially if you were young in the early 1990s, that listened to "Magic" Mark Anthony on 92 PRO-FM, just to hear what crazy thing he would do next? How many of you listened to "Mojo" (currently doing afternoons on WXRK/New York City) on Kix 106 the week that he locked himself in the studio and stayed on the air for an entire week, with no sleep? How many people tuned into WHJY to hear Carolyn talk about sex with Brian the Pharmacist? None of this happens in Providence radio anymore. Unfortunately, none of this happens in RADIO anymore.

2010 does not look like a good year. Citadel, which has run its stations better than Clear Channel, is looking to emulate its evil Texas rival. The AM dial aside, my hope is that PRO-FM will supply some of the voice-trakcing in other markets, and that local personalities can stay on their shifts. My biggest wish, however, is that WHJY remains unchanged. Clear Channel obviously recognizes the value of the station; otherwise, it would not have more local programming than bigger market powerhouses such as Kiss 108.

While the economy is to blame, if we ever return to an era of greater media regulation, in which local companies can once again own radio stations, the glory days can come back. Stations in the early 1990s were profitable; they were also live 24 hours a day. Here is to hope for a return to those glory days.
 
"I'd Really Love To See You Tonight," by England Dan & John Ford Coley, through a neatly-tweaked audio chain, wafting-through-the-night, on AM radio...
 
I was a student at URI from 1972-74, so I obviously can only comment on that era. AM was still dominant then and everybody in South County listened to Salty Brine on WPRO-AM. Back then 103.7 FM was WERI and was located in Westerly and also served South County. I remember it was a family owned station then with Mike Micelli doing the morning show.

Bruce
 
I think the early-to-mid 1970s was the start of the market's renaissance and it was fun to hear.


The decade started out with the market belonging to WPRO while WICE was it's only competitor for the the under 12-35s, FM in town was mostly EZ listening, WBRU, and Boston bleed-in. Both Boston and New York were pumping good AM into the state, FM out of Massachusetts was compelling, and Rhode Islanders were starting to wander away from the local stations.

MediAmerica out of Annapolis bought 1450 in West Warwick and under consultant Bill Hennes did an oldies-based Drake format, but they could do little to impact 'PRO because of poor signal. WSAR in Fall River was focused on their own market and was not a factor in Providence. That sleepy station with the amazing signal at 550 became WGNG and turned up the burn, and on the FM side The Journal switched their FM and JB-105 was born rockin'. All the while WBRU was the choice for the hippies and music freaks.

The people at Capital Cities dumped the beautiful music on PRO-FM and started cooking under Gary Berkowitz. And of course we had The Outlet Company bringing the Charlotte crew and converting WJAR into a solid adult radio station. WPRO-AM tightened up and went more adult and those two went tooth and nail.

BY the the latter years of the decade Providence was considered one of the most interesting and competitive markets in the country and ever since has been a really good radio town.
 
I'll give you an exact year when Providence radio was at it's best. 1986

Carolyn Fox and Rudy Cheeks Rockin HJY is the morning.
Jimmy Gray and the best air staff in radio on 92 Pro-FM
Good News Dept as well as Paul Perry and personality radio on HJJ with the popular Talk Net overnights.
RI 104 provided a great alternative to PRO-FM with 12 inch long versions of songs being common.
WPRO AM with Salty and a good mix of other programming the rest of the day.
WSNE had direction. They knew what they wanted to be and they were confident about it.
WLKW. Nice to have an easy going station for the older folks in the market.
102.7 in Newport had Jazz. Try to find that on your dial these days.
Kix 106 was a more rebellious version of Pro-FM and they were another good alternative with a nice variety of tunes.

To sum it all up. Radio just seemed to make more sense back then. A lot more variety and every station knew their strong points. The talent was at it's best and the market was exciting. This probably describes a lot of markets across the country. But in any event that is how I feel about this one.
 
Dusty Dale Brooks said:
I think the early-to-mid 1970s was the start of the market's renaissance and it was fun to hear.


The decade started out with the market belonging to WPRO while WICE was it's only competitor for the the under 12-35s, FM in town was mostly EZ listening, WBRU, and Boston bleed-in. Both Boston and New York were pumping good AM into the state, FM out of Massachusetts was compelling, and Rhode Islanders were starting to wander away from the local stations.

MediAmerica out of Annapolis bought 1450 in West Warwick and under consultant Bill Hennes did an oldies-based Drake format, but they could do little to impact 'PRO because of poor signal. WSAR in Fall River was focused on their own market and was not a factor in Providence. That sleepy station with the amazing signal at 550 became WGNG and turned up the burn, and on the FM side The Journal switched their FM and JB-105 was born rockin'. All the while WBRU was the choice for the hippies and music freaks.

The people at Capital Cities dumped the beautiful music on PRO-FM and started cooking under Gary Berkowitz. And of course we had The Outlet Company bringing the Charlotte crew and converting WJAR into a solid adult radio station. WPRO-AM tightened up and went more adult and those two went tooth and nail.

BY the the latter years of the decade Providence was considered one of the most interesting and competitive markets in the country and ever since has been a really good radio town.
Click to expand...

I would have to agree, when WPRO-FM (back then known as "Stereo 92", a beautiful music station) went to Top-40 in the summer 1974, it became a big phenomena.... not only for the Providence market, but people from as far as the northern Boston suburbs listened to it. That killer signal on 92.3 was on practically every kid's FM radio in my town of Randolph, MA. I remember the jingles like it was yesterday....
"FM IS, WPRO, FM Providence!", "FM P-R-O.... FM!!!". One jock I recall was "The BOOGIE MAN!!!". What ever happened to him?

When WPJB went Top-40 in July of '75, there was an all-out big Top-40 war. With only one "jingle" in the rack (acapella) "JB/105 has BIG HITS!" and balls-to-the-walls compression on both WPRO-FM and WPJB, it was very interesting. Who balked out of Top 40 first? Surprisingly, it was WPRO-FM in '78 when they went to a more adult contemporary format with oldies mixed in and Wolfman Jack on Saturday nights. This would all be turned around in a few years with WPJB dumping Top 40 and WPRO-FM (now branded as "92 PRO-FM") became THE Top-40 station of Providence. They still are!

I always got a kick out of WPRO-FM's compression back in the 70's. I looked at it on a scope and.... man, you could have a ruler at the top of the waveform and the look of the audio would never budge. Now THAT was CRUNCH with lots of reverb added in!!! ;)
 
Skynet74 said:
I'll give you an exact year when Providence radio was at it's best. 1986


102.7 in Newport had Jazz. Try to find that on your dial these days.
Click to expand...

I believe you meant that, in the day, 107.1 (WOTB), later on 100.3 would be the Jazz station from Newport (COL- Middletown). It was a very good Jazz station. 102.7 would not come to the air until several years later as the second coming of WPJB in Narragansett Pier.Now 102.7 is the non-commercial FM station of Rhode Island Public Radio. Of course 100.3 is now a brokered Spanish station, WKKB. It was a good rocker for a time until.........
 
Yes. 100.3 was Jazz. Thank you. I see that I made a post at the beginning of the thread many moons ago and said 1985 was the best year. Today I said 1986. I will revisit this topic sometime in the future to talk about how 1987 was the best year for Providence radio.
:) Either way it was definitely Mid 80's.
 
azimuth401 said:
I do radio now because I have to...it's the only way to hear it done the way I miss...too bad it's Internet-based (the shadows of WALE moved to 990WBOB.COM), but it's what we have unless a local market wants to take us on - or even just me :)> Stay tuned...

Terry
Click to expand...

Had a chance to briefly check out your website. So far....I really like what I see.

Sounds like the sort of thing that a struggling AM-er looking to shake things up would be willing to take a chance on.

BUT......since this is the Providence market....I better not hold my breath waiting for you guys to hit the local airwaves.

Too bad......
 
1974-1976

Before I got nights full-time, I was working weekends on WPRO, driving in from my full-time gig on WSPR/Springfield.

It was the summer of '74; or, as one-of-two hand-written liners said on the studio whiteboard: "THE GREATEST SUMMER OF YOUR LIFE."

The other was, of course, "THE STATION THAT REACHES THE BEACHES," a slogan written by previous PD Al Herskovitz, to rub-WICE's-nose-in-it way-back-when.

"Just keep saying those two lines, and keep the music moving, and SMILE," PD Jay Clark explained, without-removing-the-pipe-from his bearded grin.

We were playing defense, big time, against WGNG, consulted by hot hand John Rook, who'd had big success in Chicago; and WJAR, consulted by ex-WBT PD Tom McMurray. So, as chronicled in another post above, we threw WPRO-FM back-at-'em. On Saturday nights, I was simulcast from the FM studio; and raised eyebrows when I ID'd the stations by mentioning FM first ("WPRO FM AND AM, PROVIDENCE").

By the 1976, it was still a shoot-out, and JB-105 was looming. All those station request lines were, in the aggregate, pulling enough calls to threaten general phone service, so the phone company put us all on a new 224 exchange. NBC10 still uses the old WJAR Radio 224 number for its ask-the-experts call-ins. There was a meeting to hand-out phone numbers, and Jay came back grinning, again. In the Bicentennial Summer of '76, it seemed like EVERY business was branding accordingly. A local package store chain rebranded as "1776 Liquors" and their slogan was "We've got the spirit." The Director grabbed 224-1776 for WPRO AM's request line. When the red-white-and-blue boogie was over, it still spelled -- as we were instructed to say on-air -- "TWO TWO FOUR, NUMBER *ONE* P-R-O."

As Jimmy Gray would say, "now THAT'S radio."

HC
www.HollandCooke.com
 
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