Re: WZIX
John,
Thanks for the fascinating, detailed history of WZIX. It's a great that you can recall the details so well ! Now, how about sharing your time at the Rock Of Harrisburg, WKBO....a legendary 1000 Watts that sounded like a million !
> This is for the couple of people who wanted background on
> 1350 WZIX York. Anyone else may as well spin on. Don’t say
> I didn’t warn you.
>
> WZIX. I could write a book about that place. I was there
> for the entire run of the Top 40 format from May 1975
> through September 1979, as morning man and for three years
> as PD. To see WZIX mentioned on this board was a surprise.
> I didn’t think anyone would remember us after all this time.
> It was a pretty hot station for a while there, but never
> really achieved its full potential. I’ll give you brief
> history.
>
> Steinman Stations, owners of WGAL-TV, sold WORK to Music
> Fair Enterprises in 1973. Music Fair, owners of large
> theatrical venues, was headed by Shelly Gross, who had at
> one time worked in radio and had “always wanted to own a
> radio station.” A series of missteps followed.
> Drake-Chennault sold them on their automated “Hit Parade”
> format, which died. The venerable WORK calls were
> jettisoned, a really boneheaded move that no one has ever
> owned up to. Those were great calls, regardless of the
> format. WZIX were…kinda boring calls which no one could
> ever remember.
>
> I came on board as morning man when the automation was
> canned and the station went full-time Top 40. I did 5-9am
> (as Paxton Quigley), followed by the late Doc Dougherty (a
> WORK holdover and one of York’s most popular air
> personalities in the 50s and 60s), John Loeper (PD and
> another WORK holdover), “Big Lou J” Castriota in afternoon
> drive (now Director of Programming for Clear Channel
> Television, Harrisburg), and “Wild” Bill Wescoe at night, an
> absolutely insane screamer. Somewhere along the line, Joe
> Columbo (formerly of WSBA and WNOW, and later FM 97) was on
> the air for us too. Doc left the air after a few months to
> concentrate on Sales, but that line-up remained intact until
> Music Fair sold the station to Greenco Communications in
> 1976.
>
> We also had a three person news team. John Kovich
> (Ostapkovich, now with KYW) was News Director, with Nancy
> Johnson (later with Channel 8 and WITF) and Mike Runkle.
> The station was located on the second floor of 13 South
> Beaver Street, downtown across from the Bon Ton. The
> studios were WORK’s original home, and the entire floor had
> been a ballroom in the 1920s.
>
> Greenco was owned by two guys from Washington, Dan Cohen and
> Jeff Greenhawt. The less said about them, the better.
> After their takeover, Wild Bill went to WFEC Harrisburg, Lou
> Castriota went over to WNOW/Q-106 as News Director, and I
> replaced John Loeper as PD. John went over to WSBA-FM. The
> first person I hired was Ray Thomas, as Music Director and
> PM drive. Ray later moved to middays. George Morgan, hired
> by John Loeper to replace Wild Bill, handled nights.
>
> Say what you will about Greenco, but at least they
> understood contemporary radio and kicked the station up a
> couple of notches. They hired a young sales team who liked
> the product. We did some good promotions and had some great
> numbers. Unfortunately, Greenco was too under funded, or
> cheap, to take the station very far. They utterly destroyed
> the news department and the station’s long-held news image,
> which was important at that time. They also moved the
> station to a new address: 2 West Market Street, 2nd floor,
> on Continental Square.
>
> I didn’t have a lot of money to work with but I did manage
> to hire some good people over the next three years. Among
> them: Brad Flick (now with Red 102.3), Vince Grande
> (co-owner of WPDC and GM of WOYK), Tom Shannon (now Ops.
> Mgr. and mornings on the Rose), and Sebastian Kane, a great
> air personality with whom I have lost contact. Ray Thomas
> (now WIOO) I've already mentioned. We had a good-sounding
> station, but the days of AM Top 40 were fading, we had two
> FM competitors and a tightly-directional nighttime signal
> that didn’t reach 75% of the county. What to do?
>
> Dan and Jeff were enamored of Metromedia’s WCBM Baltimore,
> an AC station that played a hefty shot of Oldies. We
> concurred that WZIX needed to move more adult, and I devised
> a format in the spirit of WCBM and we put it on the air in
> early 1979. We were Hot AC before there was Hot AC. For a
> number of reasons, most notably the accident at Three Mile
> Island, which happened right before the spring book, this
> approach didn’t pan out. We had no news department and a
> lot of adults went to WSBA after TMI. The expected loss of
> teens was most of the hit we took, but as PD, I got the
> blame, and it was the end of the Paxton Quigley era. I left
> and went over to WSBA, which wouldn’t allow me to be Paxton
> Quigley, so I again became John Summers. Ray came back from
> Baltimore as WZIX PD and instituted a kind of Rock Hits
> format (again, WZIX was ahead of its time), but Dan and Jeff
> showed him no more cooperation than they did me, and that
> lasted about a year. Rick Shockley was hired as PD and put
> a format similar to mine back on the air, which lasted until
> Greenco sold to Baltimore Radio Show around 1982. The WZIX
> calls were changed to WOYK, as they are today. Mark
> Daniels was mentioned by someone. I worked with him at
> WSBA. Nice guy, now with Salem in Philadelphia.
>
> And that’s the short version. Thanks for remembering us.
>
>
> > > He used to go by the airname Paxton Quigley.
> >
> > Often reduced to "PQ."
> >
> >
> > >He was one of the original WKBO crew in the early 70's,
> > >WZIX in the mid 70's. A real good guy and an excellent
> > jock.
> >
> > Thanx for that piece of the WZIX puzzle.
> >
>
