Wibbage Wake: Radio 99's demise, 30 years later

[carnyfeet]

Most of you have probably read Sam Lit's thread regarding his tapes of the final week of WIBG 990AM before they flipped formats on September 10th, 1977. Unfortunately, most of that discussion has been about the tapes itself instead of the great content contained ON the tapes: the final week of a legendary Philadelphia radio station. Jocks had the unique opportunity to gather one last time to pay tribute to an iconic Philly institution (a chance most in the business rarely have anymore, as most stations make their moves in the middle of the night and without warning.)

Knowing the draw that nostalgic events like this have on this board, I decided to compile a list of links and resources related to old WIBG - because having never listened to it myself (I'm 23) I would like to know more about it. Plus, who knows who else has got some fantastic jewels like the one Sam has in his hand?

Please enjoy the links below. If you know of any others, please contribute! If anyone is interested in starting a "Philadelphia Radio Wiki" site (to replace some of the older geocities / angelfire tribute sites here) for us to upkeep, I am interested in hosting it. Email me for more info.

http://www.philaradio.com/ - a WIBG/WFIL tribute site
http://www.philaradio.com/wibg2.htm - Album covers
http://surveys.philaradio.com/wibg.htm - WIBG Music surveys
http://www.philaradio.com/jinwibg1.htm - all the jingles we enjoy hearing on hylitradio.com

http://phillymemories.tripod.com/id15.htm - Philly Memories site with a short description of most of the stations in the Philadelphia area (AM, FM, and TV)
http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/piratejim/phillyamhistory.html - more Philly memories, this time with a lot more station logos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WIBG - the wikipedia entry (not much info about the rock station there...)

http://www.fybush.com/site-031016.html - Pictures of old broadcast towers for all of the engineer geeks on here

What are your favorite memories of Mighty 99 - WIBG?

 

[8638]

It was a great radio station. I lived in North Jersey as a young child, and, although I was glued to WMCA and WABC, always looked forward to our family trips to Philly to visit the grandparents, and aunt. The grandparents were fogies, and big on WTMR and WIP...but the aunt loved Wibbage! The Big 99 was heard wherever she was, including in her 56 Chevy, on a pocket transistor radio, as the car's radio never worked!! Later, Famous 56 signed on, and the dial swung back and forth, but my allegiance was fixed, on Wibbage. We wound up moving to South Jersey in 1971, in the middle of the "Where Your Friends Are" liners on Wibbage. My allegiance stood firm, although my friends preferred WFIL. On the school bus in the mid seventies (ours was one that had a radio, AND a cool driver) Don Cannon serenaded me to school. Loved the TOH WIBG did then....coming out of the news, they'd say, that's the way it is, September 17, 1975........then......September 17, 1966....and the Delaware Valley was listening to The Supremes, on WIBBAGE, at which time they broke into "You Can't Hurry Love." Classic stuff. I still remember it, 33 years later.