Where is Mike Joseph's idea?

[gethigh]

Ok ok, so whenever someone goes to airchexx.com or whatever aircheck archive website and trips back in time to hot hits 98 WCAU FM's PAMS library. They all rave about it. Hell I do too, I love listening to the old air checks of Barsky and Terry Motormouth Young and Glenn Klauna and the gang. I notice though in today's radio landscape , there exists NO OTHER radio station that seems to set the world on fire quite like Hot Hits WCAU FM. I wonder why that is?

 

[John1]

Hot Hots was just the last version of the old foreground top 40 stations, much like Wibbage, WFIL, and WIFI before it. The industry long ago decided people don't want in your face presentation of jocks & jingles and went to more of a jukebox style of mostly music and liner reading jocks, except morning drive, which becomes mostly talk. Would personality top 40 work today - maybe, but nobody wants to try it, easier to play it safe like everyone else. Also, with music listening so fragmented, the whole top 40 concept has been replaced by specialized formats. People seem to want one station, one genre. The people who love the old airchecks grew up with it - would a teen or 20-something today enjoy it, or do they just want more music?

 

[gethigh]

> Hot Hots was just the last version of the old foreground top
> 40 stations, much like Wibbage, WFIL, and WIFI before it.
> The industry long ago decided people don't want in your face
> presentation of jocks & jingles and went to more of a
> jukebox style of mostly music and liner reading jocks,
> except morning drive, which becomes mostly talk. Would
> personality top 40 work today - maybe, but nobody wants to
> try it, easier to play it safe like everyone else. Also,
> with music listening so fragmented, the whole top 40 concept
> has been replaced by specialized formats. People seem to
> want one station, one genre. The people who love the old
> airchecks grew up with it - would a teen or 20-something
> today enjoy it, or do they just want more music?
>

To add to my own comment. WCAU-FM seemed so fresh and non-stale. the top 40 sound was a landscape of artists and songs. I am trying hard not to compare yesterday & today, but I can't think of a station that WCAU compares to from back-in-the-day. today for example WIOQ sounds like WIRED 96.5
in fact WIOQ sounds like it's Clear Channel counterpart up in Lancaster, FM97 WLAN. anyone who was old enough to know, did WCAU have similar problems back in it's day, were stations so stale that they resembled each other with similar production and playlists.

 

[rich610]

> did WCAU have similar problems back in it's day, were
> stations so stale that they resembled each other with
> similar production and playlists.
>

The radio landscape was a bit different when Hot Hits WCAU debuted on September 22, 1981. The top music stations in town were WIP-AM and WMGK-FM. Both were doing Adult Contemporary, which was lots of Barbara Streisand, Kenny Rogers, Billy Joel, Barry Manilow, etc., but WIP was more personality driven-Ken Garland, Bill Webber, Bill Neil, Tom Moran, and Tom Lamaine. They had the adults, who loved those DJ's and listened to them for years. "Magic 103" was perfect for an office-lots of music and very little DJ chatter. Most of the songs on the Billboard charts in 1981 leaned AC then.

Elsewhere, WMMR and WYSP both played AOR, which in those days was Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, Rolling Stones, Bob Seger, Bruce, Led Zep, etc. WMMR was the better of the two, but the music was identical.

WIFI was in its waning days of top-40. They had jingles and contests, but 'CAU blew them away.

There were actually two country stations in 1981, both owned by the same company-WFIL and WUSL.

WCAU was a breath of fresh air because we hadn't had that type of station since WFIL in the mid-1970s. WCAU worked because it was fast, fresh, and exciting. No one else was doing this at that time. I don't think this would work today because the music is too fragmented. Q102 claims to be "All the Hits," but they don't play the variety that WCAU did. I have lots of the old WCAU hit surveys and you wouldn't believe the variety of songs they played. Here is an example:

June 1984:
Ghostbusters-Ray Parker, Jr.
The Reflex-Duran Duran
Time After Time-Cyndi Lauper
Sister Christian-Night Ranger
Dancing in the Dark-Bruce Springsteen
When Doves Cry-Prince
Self Control-Laura Branigan
Borderline-Madonna
Hello-Lionel Richie

There's pop, rock, R&B, AC in that rotation. I don't think that would happen today.

I'm sorry for the long post, but I love discussions about WCAU-FM.

 

[John1]

Re: Country 1981

> The radio landscape was a bit different when Hot Hits WCAU
debuted on September 22, 1981. There were actually two country stations in 1981, both owned by the same company-WFIL and WUSL. >>

Actually, there were many country stations in the area in 1981. WFIL 'Philly 56 Country' debuted Labor Day weekend 1981, sister "Continuous Country' WUSL had switched on July 3rd. And 1540 WRCP, in the format since 1967, ended it's 14 year run on September 23, 1981, becoming "Philadelphia Gold" programmed by holdover jock Ron Cade. There was also WTTM 920 in Trenton, "Double T-93" country, and WAMS 1380 in Wilmington was also country around that time.

Two years later WUSL was Kiss/Power 99, WFIL was oldies, WRCP was all Beatles & Motown, and only WTTM and WAMS were country until WXTU came along in 1984.