WMCA GoodGuys format to return maybe

[FredLeonard]

WFIL was not Drake-Chenault. Jay Cook was WFIL's PD during the years in question.

All stations with consultants also had PDs. And some stations did not hire the consultants but copied their formats.

 

[michael hagerty]

WFIL was not Drake-Chenault. Jay Cook was WFIL's PD during the years in question.

All stations with consultants also had PDs. And some stations did not hire the consultants but copied their formats.

Let me say it better:

Neither Bill Drake nor Drake-Chenault consulted WFIL. Jay Cook, the PD of WFIL for 8 years, was not before or after, an employee of RKO or Drake-Chenault.

Copying the Drake format is not the same as having a Drake-Chenault format.

Across the street at WIBG as PD in 1968, though, was Paul Drew, who worked with Drake at WAKE, Atlanta, for him as PD of CKLW before and after WIBG and also programmed KFRC and KHJ for Drake, eventually replacing Drake and becoming National PD for RKO.

 

[FredLeonard]

OK, they did a knock-off of Drake.

The bottom line is that is the sound they had. A listener driving across country would see WFIL as sounding like a station which did pay Drake.

The good guys, in their prime several years earlier, had a much looser sound. More talk. Longer playlist. More like Wibbage at the same time.

No way the two stations can be said to have identical formats.

 

[JustPastBuffalo]

Reading this thread, if you listen closely you can almost hear:

A) Dream Lover -Bobby Darin
B) All I Have to Do is Dream -Everly Brothers
C) Sweet Dream Baby -Roy Orbison
D) Dreamer -Supertramp
E) All of the Above

 

[fennessy]

I need to jump on this thread as a former WMCA employee, and, radio archivist/jock/fan. WMCA was number one in Midday all the way up to 1969, when WABC cleared out Don Mc Neil's Breakfast Club, the news block at 6PM, and went head to head with music every hour with WMCA. Late in 1968, WABC retired HOA in the morning, and took WMCA's best rated jock, Harry Harrison, and moved him into morning drive further debilitating WMCA.

At the same time, R. Peter Strauss was returning from The Johnson Administration in Washington, and inspite of the existence of WBAI, believed that New York needed a liberal talk radio station. Yes WABC was bigger slicker and pro-active, but WMCA was indigineous radio for New Yorkers, for which there has been no replacement.

 

[Mike Schwartz]

I need to jump on this thread as a former WMCA employee, and, radio archivist/jock/fan. WMCA was number one in Midday all the way up to 1969, when WABC cleared out Don Mc Neil's Breakfast Club, the news block at 6PM, and went head to head with music every hour with WMCA. Late in 1968, WABC retired HOA in the morning, and took WMCA's best rated jock, Harry Harrison, and moved him into morning drive further debilitating WMCA.

At the same time, R. Peter Strauss was returning from The Johnson Administration in Washington, and inspite of the existence of WBAI, believed that New York needed a liberal talk radio station. Yes WABC was bigger slicker and pro-active, but WMCA was indigineous radio for New Yorkers, for which there has been no replacement.

Just a couple of additions to the above. The WABC changes actually occurred in January 1968, just under three years before the format change at WMCA. When "Dial-ogue Radio" WMCA launched in Sept 1970, it featured a hybid of talkers, not just liberal voices. The early years featured Bob Grant with conservative commentary and great call in sports shows, first with Jack Spector and later John Sterling and Art Rust Jr.

 

[briancraig]

Jay Cook worked at WHBQ in Memphis before WFIL so he was a RKO employee at one time.

 

[michael hagerty]

Jay Cook worked at WHBQ in Memphis before WFIL so he was a RKO employee at one time.

You are right. But Jay left WHBQ the year before RKO added it to Drake's responsibilities. WHBQ did Top 40 as they saw fit until 1967, the year RKO gave Drake (who got KHJ in '65 and KFRC in '66) control over 'HBQ, WRKO and WOR-FM.

 

[Ai4i]

There's nothing to it when you WHBQ it!

 

[DaveArnold]

We do it for you on..WHBQ
Jay went from one 56 to another."Your little bitty buddy".

 

[radioguy39nj]

I need to jump on this thread as a former WMCA employee, and, radio archivist/jock/fan. WMCA was number one in Midday all the way up to 1969, when WABC cleared out Don Mc Neil's Breakfast Club, the news block at 6PM, and went head to head with music every hour with WMCA. Late in 1968, WABC retired HOA in the morning, and took WMCA's best rated jock, Harry Harrison, and moved him into morning drive further debilitating WMCA.

At the same time, R. Peter Strauss was returning from The Johnson Administration in Washington, and inspite of the existence of WBAI, believed that New York needed a liberal talk radio station. Yes WABC was bigger slicker and pro-active, but WMCA was indigineous radio for New Yorkers, for which there has been no replacement.

Just a couple of additions to the above. The WABC changes actually occurred in January 1968, just under three years before the format change at WMCA. When "Dial-ogue Radio" WMCA launched in Sept 1970, it featured a hybid of talkers, not just liberal voices. The early years featured Bob Grant with conservative commentary and great call in sports shows, first with Jack Spector and later John Sterling and Art Rust Jr.

The FM upstarts were making their presence felt as they fragmented the market. IMHO, WOR-FM with it's Drake adult top 40 format crippled WMCA. OR-FM with its slick formatics, clear FM sound and emphasis on 1955-63 oldies that hadn't been on NY radio in years was getting listeners over to the FM dial that weren't interested in progressive rock.

Radio professionals at the time thought the Drake format wouldn't work in NY. WOR-FM never beat WABC, but it severely damaged WMCA.