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WJMD SOFT AC before WLTT? Found audio clip.

T

thebeach33445

Hey Guys:

This is interesting. I found this audio clip of WJMD 94.7 in July 1981 playing a Soft AC format. I though WJMD was Beautiful Music until 1982 when it changed to Soft AC WLTT W-LITE?

Can anybody help me with this?

Thanks

T.J.
 
WJMD made the switch to soft AC before becoming W-Lite. I remember that because my dad had one of those WJMD radios at work that only played 94.7. That was the office radio station and I remember going in one Saturday to work and hearing songs with vocals. They kept the staff. I think Wells Bunyea was doing mornings for WJMD, but got moved to nights when they brought in Ron Lewis from WWDC-AM to do mornings for W-Lite.
 
WJMD switched from Beautiful Music to an ecelctic format in 1980. The music was all over the road, ranging from Judy Garland to the Fairport Convention. It had mediocre ratings. In March 1981, the station shifted to a really hip Soft Rock format with very high qualitatives. It beat WASH-FM right out of the gate. WJMD achieved its highest ratings in the Fall of 1981. The station was sold in December of 1981, and new management changed the station to WLTT "Lite Rock, Less Talk 94.7 FM W-Lite." in March 1982. The name change produced a shift to a more run of the mill AC format with much success for nearly a decade. In the mid-1990s, CBS changed the format to "WARW Arrow 94.7 - All Rock and Roll Oldies."
 
I remember Wells Bunyea did a commercial for Kemp Mill Records around 1981 or 1982. He mentioned the new hit album by "Barry Squier" featuring "The Stroke". It played for weeks.
 
If I recall Wells Bunyea was Goff Lebhar's attempt to undo one of the unlikeliest moves in Washington radio history; his hiring of Johnny Holiday for mornings on 'JMD in 1977. The late Bill Hamlin did afternoons throughout much of the lifespan of that station.

WJMD gave WGAY a real battle for Beautiful Music supremacy in the 1970s, but 'GAY had that great dial position. And of course even in the 70s call letters like theirs got noticed!
 
As a kid I had no place in my life for WGAY and WJMD. As an adult who spent most of his life in radio, I miss those stations. I was a program director at a station which included an AM Nostalgia station back when big band was still popular. The heaviest sounding song in the rotation was probably "Happy Hearts" by Andy Williams. Or even "Music To Watch Girls By" with the fuzz electric guitar. We might have even played a couple of those "rockin" Everly Brothers tunes. I had a whole new appreciation for that MOR genre of music. That made me even begin to appreciate the art of doing easy listening. Now that both formats are pretty much gone, there's something nostalgic about it. With the stress of every day life, I think I could go for a little of those "WGAY Strings".
 
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