WHYL 960

[GATESYARD]

I am looking for any station/personalities photos, music surveys, info. or anything related to WHYL 960/Channel 96 days from the 60's or 70's to add to a collection that I had started years back. Any good thoughts or memories to share from that time? (I know, I know too many years ago) but what a great time for AM radio and the business.

Thanks

 

[bossjock 56]

Wow...this will be fun....so let's get started. If you go to WHYL's current website www.whylradio.com and click on "morning show", you'll find a WHYL "fabulous 50" survey from August 1967. It includes pictures of the "WHYL SMILE GUYS". The playlist itself has a few Harrisburg and Central PA favorites included in the mix. That should get us started. Ben Barber is still there. Let's see...I'm trying to remember some of the late 60's/early 70's jocks....there was J.J. Jefferson, Mike Kurtis, Del Leonard, Kirk Wilson, John Smith...to name a few. Actually...other than Ben and Kirk, it was kinf of a revolving door once the 70's hit. In the late 70's...Lou Rogers, Craig Senior, and Paul DeMire are a couple of names that come to mind. Any others? Feel free to jog our memories.

 

[John-Summers]

Mid-60s "WHYL Smile Guys" were Phil Potter, Jack Simmons, Johnny King, Carl Kuehn, Big Ed Madden and Jack O. Lantern. I recall 960 as very MOR in the early 60s but they gradually brightened-up to being pretty close to Top 40, and did a hybrid Oldies/Top 40 format in the late 60s and early 70s. In those days and with that big signal that shot right across Harrisburg, WHYL was a popular choice with young adults in their 20s and 30s.

 

[bossjock 56]

I remember that hybrid/oldies format. They called it "Total Gold Radio" and the "Smile Guys" became the "Goldminers" as I recall. This was the format that would later give birth to Hot AC. It was geared toward young adults, as John mentioned...but was uptempo and never stodgey(sp). They were more of an AC station as the 70's progressed. In 1978, they became Y96, with a very tight...high rotating CHR format.

 

[bossjock 56]

Almost forgot....in 68 they hooked up with the ABC Entertainment network and went back to old style MOR music. Ben was a bit more uptempo in afternoon drive. It must not have worked...because they went back to top 40 that same summer with the "Silver Dollar Survey" Some of the chart numbers they gave on the air were rather high. I think they were just giving the numbers from Billboard's Hot 100...I checked a couple of the numbers out and they matched. I lot of small top 40 stations couldn't afford to compile and put out a weekly list...so what you would find in the studio was a copy of the Hot 100....with the songs they were playing circled. In some cases....it was the songs they HAD that were circled.

 

[jhguthlac]

WHYL was one of the first oldies stations I ever ran across. Really enjoyed it.

 

[bossjock 56]

There is a new WHYL "Silver Dollar Survey" posted on the ARSA survey site for April 23, 1971. The link is www.las-solanas.com. Click on "surveys" or "stations" and type in WHYL. Being a small market station, they played a wider playlist of songs. Some of these will jog your memory. Enjoy!

 

[John-Summers]

A few of them I don't remember at all, and there are a bunch that I do remember but haven't heard since 1971. Many of them were hits but rarely (or never) got played on Oldies stations, back when they were Oldies stations, that is.

And then there's the song at #2, "Timothy" by the Buoys. Great song. Huge around here. Strangely, it was also popular in Western Kentucky, where I jocked for a year in 1974-75. We used to play it as an Oldie all the time on 570 WKYX. And that's not the Blue Grass State's coal mining region either. I don't remember if the original version of the song was played or the version with the lyrical change. It's interesting how regional hits were common back then.

Speaking of the Buoys, I think Rupert Holmes of "Pina Colada Song" fame wrote that song or was a member of the group, or both.

 

[DaveWilliams]

The promo copy of Timothy by the Bouys has an edited 'clean' version on one side, regular version on the other. Rupert wrote the song. Weren't the Buoys from the Scranton area?

 

[bossjock 56]

Yes they were from that area. Ruppert Holmes was not a member. First heard that song on WEPN in Elizabethtown (106.7/1600) when they were in their MOR/Top 40/Progressive hybrid format in the spring of 1970. I'll never forget listening to Dusty Rees one morning on WLAN backselling the song by saying "a little Timmy in your tummy this morning." People would have been eating breakfast at that time. Such a different time in radio history.

 

[TODDMAYOR]

wow lucky dusty never worked a major market???
but must do decent work.

 

[pdgreatness]

Holmes personally chose them to do that song and he played piano on the recording according to several accounts.

 

[bossjock 56]

Actually Dusty Rees went on to be production director for WSBA. He did those memorable York US 30 dragway commercials that were also heard on WFIL and WABC during nationals. Rumor has it that he was close to a deal with WFIL for a similar position, but turned it down in favor of WSBA for a five day week and no airshift. He was a little edgy from time to time on WLAN...but then again, he could get away with it there. One of the best voices in the market, he later opened his own agency.

 

[benale]

I worked at WHYL in 1974 and at that time it was a hybrid country-AC station. Strange mix. They were just about to switch 102.3 to country. I remember playing Conway Twitty's "I'm Not Through Loving You Yet" into Johnny Bristol's "Hang On In There Baby". Same sentiment,but what a fun trainwreck!

 

[jhguthlac]

Hybrid Country/AC can work in certain markets at certain times. When you are going through a phase with a lot of country cross over material, it works to through in a bit more straight ahead country. Right now, I wouldn't try it!