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WHO REMEMBERS THE SHORT-LIVED WACQ-AM 1150?

E

Early Byrd

I recall the following individuals on WACQ (1150 AM) in the late 70s:

BOB KNIGHT (Program Director)--went on to take Al Brady Law's place as PD at WHDH.

DAVE MICHAELS--was there for a short while after being canned by WRKO.

JACK DIAMOND (later programmed WLLH, Lowell, and was air talent on WRK0).

MARION ROSE (LaPlante)--married JACK DIAMOND, and later died after childbirth in California?

MARCIA KNICELY

BILL DANIELS

BOB CANNAWAY ( Part -timer; came from WCAP, Lowell)

Anybody else remember air talent or other things about this short-lived Top-40 formatted station?
 
Boston's New "Q"!

(And the PSA's were introduced as "Here's a Q-Tip...!")

What year was this? Did they ever stand a chance against RKO & VBF?

> DAVE MICHAELS--was there for a short while after being canned by WRKO.

Who exactly was this?
 
> DAVE MICHAELS--was there for a short while after being canned by WRKO.

Who exactly was this?


He was the WRKO mid-day guy who came up from WGNG, Providence in 1976. Had a deep voice. Used to use the phrase to "Lordy, (or Lordy, Lordy) I like that song" quite a bit. His real name was Richard E. Smith, Jr., and he lived in Billerica while he was on WRKO.
 
Don Juan said:
Boston's New "Q"!

(And the PSA's were introduced as "Here's a Q-Tip...!")

What year was this? Did they ever stand a chance against RKO & VBF?
Click to expand...

Late '70s/early '80s? This was the station that WCOP became after it dropped country, right? I remember the liner: "WACQ, the station you asked for!" It was more of an uptempo AC than a Top 40 competitor for RKO and VBF, if my memory is accurate. With that dreadful nighttime signal, it was uncompetitive from day one.
 
It was a shame that WACQ/1150 did not survive all that long. It was well programmed and the personalities were just right. What really hurt them was that the signal was not very strong in the suburbs. When 1150 (WCOP) originally was built, the majority of the population was near the City. But when the suburbanites moved further west from Lexington, that made the signal less competitive than most of the other AM'ers. It was too bad that the WACQ format could have not been moved to the sister FM 100.7 (WTTK). It would have had a good chance of competing with WRKO, WVBF (105.7) and even WROR (98.5). But, WACQ and WTTK were only meant as stop gaps for Plough Broadcasting. They were already were planning to sell WACQ and WTTK. But back then, selling stations were a big deal and it took forever to do so. Today, you basically can sell a station almost immediately, as we all well know. To avoid another "WNCN Listeners Guild" issue, they quickly dumped the WCOP country format. WTTK (TK/101) was already slowly edging away from a country/album rock hybrid to and all rock (automated) format. Since selling stations took some time, they did what they could do to put something other than country on either station.

I liked WACQ. It sounded great with great jingles as well.
 
I started out in 1972 at URI's WRIU; Marion-Rose Laplante(M-R)was manager. She was also known as Marion Rose on WHIM AM/FM not too much later.
 
The station was owned by Memphis based Plough broadcasting and I served at its VP Operations and Programming during the late 70's and early 80's. Boston was Plough's worst nightmare as we struggled and stumbled through format changes on both the WCOP AM and FM stations for a few years. We elected to divest of it around the time we decided to purchase WUBE in Cincinnati, which was late 1980. Q was programmed by Bob Knight (Adams) and certainly sounded good, but made little progress in the ratings. Our efforts with the FM werent successful either, as we flipped to progressive country some time in the late 70's using the branding as TK101. While we had lots of startup success with Urban FM's such as WHRK in Memphis and WVEE in Atlanta, as well as a full complement of successful stations all over the country, Boston was a chronic failure for Plough, which is why it was sold.
 
cscott said:
The station was owned by Memphis based Plough broadcasting and I served at its VP Operations and Programming during the late 70's and early 80's. Boston was Plough's worst nightmare as we struggled and stumbled through format changes on both the WCOP AM and FM stations for a few years. We elected to divest of it around the time we decided to purchase WUBE in Cincinnati, which was late 1980. Q was programmed by Bob Knight (Adams) and certainly sounded good, but made little progress in the ratings. Our efforts with the FM werent successful either, as we flipped to progressive country some time in the late 70's using the branding as TK101. While we had lots of startup success with Urban FM's such as WHRK in Memphis and WVEE in Atlanta, as well as a full complement of successful stations all over the country, Boston was a chronic failure for Plough, which is why it was sold.
Click to expand...

I liked the TK101 music mix, but what I recall most about it were the numerous glitches of its primitive automation system -- announcers' voices coming in midway through songs, Crystal Gayle and Waylon Jennings in a two-song simultaneous mash-up, etc. It probably wasn't right for Boston even if it was done well, though.
 
cscott said:
The station was owned by Memphis based Plough broadcasting and I served
Boston was a chronic failure for Plough, which is why it was sold.
Click to expand...

Plough is the pharmaceutical company now know as Plough-Shering(sp?)" now, right?

Was Boston the biggest market Plough was in?

What year did Plough purchase WCOP?

Do they own any radio properties anymore?
 
Schering and Plough merged in the 70's so yes that is correct. We owned radio in Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Memphis, Tampa and Cincinnati. The broadcast division was formed first with Memphis as the flagship during the 50s as I recall with Tampa acquired in 73 and Cincinnati in 1980; and the company divested its entire portfolio around 1984.
 
Plough (the Coppertone people?) owned WCOP* during its country days and I believe they were part of a lawsuit that forced country music back on the airwaves--they bought time on WDLW 1330
(Anthony Martin-Trinoga) since some people complained Boston was without a C&W outlet when
WCOP flipped format. I remember it was on weekends only at first, "Boston Country". Later WBOS
went country, too. See below for dates when 1150 was WACQ...I remember the lawsuit stuff
from radio columns posted in the Globe at the time.

http://bostonradio.org/stations/25051
(WWDJ 1150:"By the early 1970s, WCOP had become one of New England's first country stations. That lasted until May 20, 1977, and a brief attempt at a hit radio format as WACQ, followed on January 1, 1979 by a change in calls to WHUE and a change in format to beautiful music.")

http://bostonradio.org/stations/60695
(WRCA 1330: "WDLW spent the rest of the 1980s as a country station.")

*WCOP: the call letters went back to the 30s and stood as shorthand for COPley Square.
Had nothing to do with COPpertone :)
 
I do ! I do ! It was a blip on my illustrious (some say infamous) resume. And, the only reason i got the overnight gig was because, at that time (late Fall '78), J. William Charles (Bill Heizer ?, late of Chicago's 'FYR, I think) was the PD. He and I worked over at the "Electronic Mama" some years before. He was reason I had to change my air name at the "Mama" - ours were too similar and he had seniority. 'ACQ was cool little backwater in which i could get my air-feet wet again after some time in rehab. Yep, Bob Stuart now at 'XRV was there, and helped me back in the water. Many thanks to him for that ! Also, yes, Dave Michaels (of 'GNG...which I served some time at under the clueless Hysko Bros.) was at 'ACQ briefly. Did you ever see the weird photograph he had ? If he's still above ground, email him about it. I was there for the transition to 'HUE AM and FM (the old 'TTK which was automated country rock)...boy, was that transition a CF ! Bob S. remembers my snide suggestion that 'HUE pioneer a Hot Air Traffic Balloon to set 'HUE apart from the competition. As I remember, there was complete silence in the room at the suggestion and I thought I might be tossed out of the meeting...but, finally, someone laughed and the absurdity of this "beautiful" music incarnation was realized. I think we all knew it was a format whose time had not come and its arrival was somewhat premature ! And, in the end - it was true ! Ah, such machinations some of us have to go thru in kissing the frog ! Toodles...
 
cscott said:
Schering and Plough merged in the 70's so yes that is correct. We owned radio in Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta, Memphis, Tampa and Cincinnati. The broadcast division was formed first with Memphis as the flagship during the 50s as I recall with Tampa acquired in 73 and Cincinnati in 1980; and the company divested its entire portfolio around 1984.
Click to expand...

I was living in eastern Arkansas in the late '70s and still remember the morning I pushed the WMPS (Memphis) button on the car radio only to find it had flipped from Top 40 to country. I know the station was doing poorly in its Top 40 war with WHBQ (and WMC-FM would soon force WHBQ out of the format as well), but I don't think challenging an entrenched heritage country signal like WMC(AM) was such a great idea either. I guess Boston wasn't the only market Plough was flailing about in during those years.
 
Yes CT the case could be made for Plough having problems in other markets....but to be clear, these were the years when FM was taking over every format in every market, and certainly that was true in Memphis. The decision to flip WMPS was no dumber than hundreds of others around the country as AM stations struggled to find cover from the onslaught of FM momentum. The last bastion of music radio on AM was in fact country, not matter how good the competition. And remember that there were no syndicated NT personalities back then and markets the size of Memphis did not have the resources to program news talk. The country flip was frankly based on doing what was the only other option. And to be even more candid, my focus was on launching the new FM division.
 
Don Juan said:

BOB KNIGHT (Program Director)--went on to take Al Brady Law's place as PD at WHDH.
Was this "Bob Adams Knight"? Anyone know where he ended up?
Click to expand...

Bob Knight Adams or Bob Adams Knight was a brilliant programmer. I applied for a job with him as PD of WROC-1280 in Rochester NY in the 1970's. WROC was a hip-sounding oldies station that didn't last too long. I remember that I was given a "music test" by Bob at WROC. I failed, because I couldn't name the FOLLOW-UP attempted hit by The Cascades, after "Rhythm of the Rain". Later I looked it up and see that it peaked #93 on the charts. They weren't airing songs THAT deep into the non-hit-zone.

And re: Jack Diamond..... there must be two Jack Diamonds in the Boston area at one time or another.... The one who lived in the Worcester area did a top-40 show on WUNR-1600 in the late 60's, and worked for WNEB-1230-Worcester, and he was also on WNTN (oldies format- 1980) for a short time. I think I still have an album he had made of great 60's hits with the WUNR logo on it.
 
And re: Jack Diamond..... there must be two Jack Diamonds in the Boston area at one time or another.... The one who lived in the Worcester area did a top-40 show on WUNR-1600 in the late 60's, and worked for WNEB-1230-Worcester, and he was also on WNTN (oldies format- 1980) for a short time. I think I still have an album he had made of great 60's hits with the WUNR logo on it.


Yes. The Worcester area, formerly WUNR, Jack Diamond's real name is Steve Oreto. I think he is an Arlington native, and may be related (cousin?) to Ron Robin, but I'm not sure about that.

The Jack Diamond who was on WACQ (later PD at WLLH, and air talent at WRKO) is Harvey Fischer. I believe he grew up in the Washington, DC area.
 
First, who is Halibut. I will figure it out sometime, probably on 128 at quarter to two in the morning,but if someone wants go jog the aging memory I will appreciate it.

WACQ was the best iteration of Top 40 in Boston, despite all people like to go all nostalgic over the Dan Donovan of the Month at WMEX and the Drake revolving door at WRKO. It was tight, well programmed, lots of forward momentum and a really awful signal.

A sign of the times, I guess, that they spent money on talent for the AM and used La Machine for the FM -- and this was after RKO General, Blair, Fairbanks and CBS awakened their sleepy automated FMs with live formats aimed at a demographic younger than those who had been listening to their FM signals in the late 60s and early 70s (average age: dead) and did relatively well. I do recall hearing the tale that The New Q was intended to make it possible to eventually dump the properties without having some transplanted hillbilly file against the transfer on the ground that the buyer would dump the fiddlin' banjo crap. There had been a challenge elsewhere over a country music format, in the back of my hed I think it was Chicago (and no, I'm not confusing it with WNCN.) IF I recall correctly, right before the switch to TTK, WCOP-FM had been either oldies or a really sappy happy music format they tried for a while that was targeted at (and delivered) nobody in particular.

Plough was a pretlty good broadcasting company, even when they did country, "WCOP Rado Boston" had a very effective presentation and used some top drawer talent who, but for the unexplainable permutations of the industry, might just as easily have been on one of the 50kw signals.

Any airchecks of WACQ around?

As for WHUE, the hot air balloon idea wasn't so nutty when you consider that when the Tangers took the station all-news they actually used something they called the Newscenter 1150 WHUE Skyview Telescope to "zero in" on breaking news from their perch in the Hancock. The promo for this was an alltime classic ("Where there's smoke, there could be fire...").

Do it Nicely!
 
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