Re: WAXC & WBBF, Them Was The Days
>> Good background points.
>
> Yet, I'd like to read more from Rochester posters who can
> elaborate on the legendary Top 40 battles between once
> market dominant, yet signal deficient WBBF and more the
> powerful challenger WAXC.
For a while between 1972 and 1975, WAXC was actually getting the upper hand. It was crisp, fresh, had a better sound and some of the most dynamic personalities in the area (Greaseman, Tom Birch). BBF really only had Jack Palvino's morning show as an ace to play back in the early 1970s; a lot of its other great personalities from earlier days (Nick Nickson, Joe Deane, Ferdinand J., Lanny Frattare, Tom George) had left the local airwaves and either moved on to other business interests or moved to other markets.
What got WBBF back in the game, and made it a winner once more after mid-1975, was a combination of 'BBF remaking itself, and WAXC's ownership falling into turmoil.
First the BBF change; ex-top 40 jock Dan Clayton became general manager (he was the first 'BBF general manager who'd ever actually worked the format) and brought in Mark Driscoll as PD. Driscoll was cutting-edge in terms of formatics, personalities (Jack Palvino was the only holdover from prior lineups by the time Driscoll had remade the place) and music selection, and he got the town talking and listening again for the first time in years.
They then tied up the promo rights for major concerts other than the hard rock and metal acts WCMF was backing; concert promotion was something WAXC had never been all that serious about.
But WAXC's ownership turmoil probably hurt that station more than anything. Co-owner Paul Dean, a local securities trader, got himself in some very hot water over some municipal bond trades, wound up indicted, and ultimately went to jail. While that case was making its way through the courts WAXC's ownership group just about had to sell---the license might have been endangered if they had not found a new owner before a final verdict. It took a while, leaving everything at WAXC pretty much frozen right at the moment WBBF was retooling itself and fighting back. To make matters worse, the station actually softened its music mix and formatics in response to 'BBF's challenge and went more in a hot AC direction in 1976 and early 1977, blowing off much of its 12-24 strength without picking up much 25+. Then came the sale to Brandon Radio. I was on WAXC's news staff at the time PD Greg Schaeffer, who was brought in from WNDE in Indianapolis, made one last try to bring the station back to its old top 40 glory with yet another newer and younger staff. It actually began to work. The fall '77 book indicated we were making progress, and some private research we'd commissioned indicated our spring '78 book would have been quite strong if we'd stayed the course. But GM Tony Brandon's dad, who was bankrolling the whole thing, hated CHR and said to Tony, if he wanted continued financial backing, he'd have to soften it up, change the callsign and go directly after WHAM. So, before the 1978 spring book, WAXC died, 3WG was born, and it spent two years in a futile chase of WHAM's audience before giving up the fight and finding the Lord.
I was already gone by the time WWWG was officially born, though we all knew it was coming; when we all got word that the format change was coming, the news crew joined the jocks in moving on, even though they asked the news staff to stay on (Ann Kellan went to Channel 13, Forest Lewis stayed a little while but soon moved to channel 8, and I went down the Thruway to join Jeff Kaye's morning show at WBEN).
Would we have had long term success if WAXC had stayed alive as a personality uptempo CHR station? I don't know. I think we'd have hung in there as a viable player in the market for another four or five years. Once we were gone, WBBF didn't have another serious CHR challenger until 98PXY emerged on the FM band in 1982. We were starting to do some damage to 'BBF once again in late 1977 and if the trend had continued in the same direction, we might have regained format dominance by the end of 1978 and kept it through the early 1980s. But the writing was on the wall for AM CHR stations. The moment a strong FM challenger with full market coverage emerged, we'd have been a goner, just as 'BBF turned out to be (it went to talk within 18 months of 'PXY's arrival). That's how the times were everywhere. Hell, even the mighty WABC was packing it in during the spring of 1982. 'KB in Buffalo and WLS in Chicago lasted into the late 1980s as hit music stations, but they were aberrations in the broadcasting business by the time they finally shut their turntables down in 1988-89.
> Curious, isn't it, that 30-35 years after these stations
> went after each other tooth and nail, they're combining
> their transmitter plants. That wouldn't have happened back
> in the day. But then again... WGR and WKBW share(d) a
> transmitter site when they were flailing away at each other
> when the Buffalo AM band was still vibrant and attracted
> more than 50% of the available listeners.
Those were the days, my friend...we thought they'd never end...
