WLS FM.

[cyberdad]

Re: WLS FM.

Mr. Storz......It was easy to see why he was so successful.

Yeah, well, the family's beer wasn't all that great....but at 67 cents for a sixpack, it was easy to overlook that little shortcoming!   ;D

Seriously, to this day I'm grateful that during my college years in Iowa, I had regular, if not daily, access to multiple Storz stations....
KXOK, WHB, KOMA, and WDGY.  I also got to hear WTIX a few times (which, for my money, may have been the best of an astonishingly good bunch.)

Being fortunate enough to having been able to hear these outstanding stations on a regular basis is to have experienced the absolute pinnacle of what was truly radio's second golden age.

 

[cspotrun]

Re: WLS FM.

You guys hit it on the head concerning the lack of personalities on WLS FM. Mornings are certainly hurting the station right now.

I love what The Drive is doing. Bonneville IMO is the most creative company in the country right now. Their trying some new things, new gimmicks, and its working.

Ignore you know who here. Except for on these boards, no one has ever heard of him. I've read his oldies ramblings for years.

and he won't give up will he...that's right NO-One has ever heard of him AND i found NOTHING about him from his website. although if you're a fan of Old Time Radio from the 20's-30's-40's-50's-60's and so on, it is very entertaining.
having said that i doubt if he's as accomplished as Rick Sklar-Paul Drew or the others he is demeaning in his previous posts.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: WLS FM.

That's right NO-One has ever heard of him AND i found NOTHING about him from his website.

Ah, so the "home" bar is not working? Or you don't know how to use a "home" link? Or click on an embedded text link?

although if you're a fan of Old Time Radio from the 20's-30's-40's-50's-60's and so on, it is very entertaining.

"Old Time Radio" is generally accepted to refer to the programs of radio's Golden Age... roughly about 1928 to 1950.

Part of my site consists of documents, focusing on Broadcasting Magazine and the Broadcasting Yearbook, but not OTR.

having said that i doubt if he's as accomplished as Rick Sklar-Paul Drew or the others he is demeaning in his previous posts.

Demeaning? I mentioned them among a list of a few of the icons of the first 20 to 25 years of Top 40, but corrected you when you referred to some of them as "pioneers" in the format when they were not... the pioneers were Storz, Stewart and McLendon and the early PDs and operators. Sklar, Drake, Drew, Mike Joseph, etc., were in a way the second generation (although Sklar was at early Top 40's WMGM and WINS in the mid-50s). Correcting your error is in no way critical of those who were the best and leading proponants of Top 40. But then, we'd have to mention those like Jerry Rogers, Harley Drew, Bill Tanner, Chuck Browning, Tom Rounds, Scooter Seagraves, Chuck Blore, Jim Taber, Joe Sullivan, Scott Shannon, Sis and Stan Kaplan, and so many other programmers and programming oriented operators who came out of the 60's and early 70's Top 40 environment.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: WLS FM.

KXOK, WHB, KOMA, and WDGY. I also got to hear WTIX a few times (which, for my money, may have been the best of an astonishingly good bunch.)

And WQAM with Rick Shaw in Miami was an incredible station, too. Maybe the best of all of them. And its battle with Jerry Starr at WFUN gave Miami some of America's best top 40 in the mid to late 60's.

I had the opportunity, just prior to his death, to meet Todd Storz when I went to try to visit WQAM while waiting about 15 hours for a flight to Quito. Instead of dismissing a 17-year-old who said he was building South America's first Top 40 station, he apparently saw something and devoted several hours to giving me tips and pointers about how to do the format. Of course, that experience converted a person I regarded as legendary into a major radio diety.

 

[cyberdad]

Re: WLS FM.

What an amazing experience! To me, it's just another true measure of greatness when someone the stature of a Todd Storz...or his counterpart in any other field...finds the time to give freely of themself. Especially in a "pass the torch" situation.

I never got to hear WQAM until 1978, when it was well past its prime. By that time, I was married with two kids. Teenage dreams had been replaced by young breadwinner realities. And WQAM didn't sound like anything special then...automated, IIRC, and a mishmash of ultra-safe oldies and top 40. Still...my "wish I could've heard in their prime" list would include WQAM in the top tier, along with KFRC, WIBG, KJR, and WHBQ.

So...during my college days, for my daily listening choices, I just had to "settle" for the quartet of Storz stations, along with WLS, KAAY, XERF, etc. And then there were some pretty good local choices in KSTT, KIOA, and WIRL.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: WLS FM.

I never got to hear WQAM until 1978, when it was well past its prime. By that time, I was married with two kids. Teenage dreams had been replaced by young breadwinner realities. And WQAM didn't sound like anything special then...automated, IIRC, and a mishmash of ultra-safe oldies and top 40. Still...my "wish I could've heard in their prime" list would include WQAM in the top tier, along with KFRC, WIBG, KJR, and WHBQ.

I guess I am giving agreement when I say that I had a dog named "Wibbage." But it is tough to list the really great Top 40's of the early 60's (using the rough time frame when WLS and WABC went into the format).

What was amazing was that there were some relatively small markets with great Top 40's. I think also of WCVS in Springfield, WRIT and WOKY in Milwuaukee in the nearby area and then ones like KLEO in Whichata, KQEO in Albuquerque, KRIG in Odessa-Midland, KENO in Las Vegas, KTKT in Tucson, WHHY in Montgomery, WBSR in Pensacola, WKGN in Knoxvillle, and many, many others.

So...during my college days, for my daily listening choices, I just had to "settle" for the quartet of Storz stations, along with WLS, KAAY, XERF, etc. And then there were some pretty good local choices in KSTT, KIOA, and WIRL.

Despite having three Top 40's locally (Cleveland) I enjoyed WLS immensely, although for some reason WABC which had as good a signal was not something that thrilled me.

 

[Whiplash]

Re: WLS FM.

I certainly wasn't taken about a Seacrest type of talent. Must have read my post wrong. And I'm not against adding the 80's to the format. I certainly have on my classic hits stations.

Still have no idea who you are, but impressed with your knowledge of some great smaller market top 40 stations.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: WLS FM.

Still have no idea who you are, but impressed with your knowledge of some great smaller market top 40 stations.

Well, some of the stations were actually programmed by people I worked with... WMAK (Joe and Scott), WKGN and KHHY (Bob Barron) who were with Mooney Broadcasting when I was with that company... in a post, you mentioned a station you have / had in Alabama so you may know Doug Layton, who did mornings for me at my mercifully brief stay in Birmingham (Gene Deckerhoff made me trade in my Crimson Tide shirt for a 'Noles one, though).

 

[MN Maniac]

Re: WLS FM.

Seriously, to this day I'm grateful that during my college years in Iowa, I had regular, if not daily, access to multiple Storz stations....
KXOK, WHB, KOMA, and WDGY. I also got to hear WTIX a few times (which, for my money, may have been the best of an astonishingly good bunch.)

Being fortunate enough to having been able to hear these outstanding stations on a regular basis is to have experienced the absolute pinnacle of what was truly radio's second golden age.
[/quote]


Growing up in Minneapolis during the 1970s, I was was also fortunate enough to hear three of these stations: WDGY locally, plus WHB and KOMA at night. All were tight, bright, and well-programmed. Agreed, this was radio's second golden age. What a great time to be a kid who was fascinated by radio!

 

[cyberdad]

Re: WLS FM.

mat).

What was amazing was that there were some relatively small markets with great Top 40's. I think also of WCVS in Springfield, WRIT and WOKY in Milwuaukee in the nearby area and then ones like KLEO in Whichata, KQEO in Albuquerque,

I grew up far enough north of Chicago to have regular access to WRIT and WOKY. Both were superb. I thought WRIT was the slightly better of the two. Just a tad more energy. I was just out of range of the AM on the 1340 graveyard channel, but if I fiddled enough with my mom's console unit, I could pick up the FM simulcast. Frankly I thought both stations were every bit as well-executed as WLS....and I thought WLS was great!

As for KLEO/KQEO, I never got to hear them, but IIRC, they were sister stations to KIOA Des Moines (Swanco)....another great operation. And along with the Storz stations, another mainstay of my college days in Iowa. I remember KIOA's playlist as being a little looser than the Storz stations and WLS/WCFL.

You also mentioned WBSR. It's still on 1450, but things seem to have deteriorated to a very sad degree. (I was in P-cola earlier this spring.) Lousy audio, lousy signal, and stale, boring, bird-delivered programming. Not at all likw it was when I first came across it in the mid-70s....when it was well-produced and great fun.