WMCA - Who's left from the Golden Years

[stillhere69]

Yup ..I'm a newbie.
That being said , I wish to note with sadness the passing of Ruth Meyer.
She was a great radio ladio and fun to work with.
I started working at WMCA as an engineer in August of 1960.
at the tender age of 18 and worked there on and off through out the 60's.
I am looking for any remaining folks with whom I worked over the years.
And yes you can pick my brain for stories.

Michael Kaye
[email protected]

 

[Bob E. Nelson]

I started working at WMCA as an engineer in August of 1960.
at the tender age of 18 and worked there on and off through out the 60's.

And yes you can pick my brain for stories.

I'll take you up on that offer with a few questions about the WMCA of the 60's that might be right up your alley:

1). Did WMCA use reverb in its heydey (I was out of the market during that time so I didn't hear it).

2). What was the airchain like? Anything exotic or was it the Audimax/Volumax duo that was widely used during that era?

3). I've heard that WMCA bested WABC in the 5 boroughs in the ratings but 770's emerged as the victor because of its strength in Jersey and Westchester. True or not?

4). What are your thoughts about Barry Gray's nightly program? Would WMCA performed better had his nightly show at 11 PM not been present?

 

[BruceS8852]

Harry Harrison, Dan Daniel, Ed Baer, and Gary Stevens who worked at WMCA during their golden years are still living.

Bruce

 

[mary]

and Thank God Bruce the pleasure of meeting these guys in my grown up days was great!!! Legends I love!!!

 

[radioguy39nj]

I've heard that WMCA bested WABC in the 5 boroughs in the ratings but 770's emerged as the victor because of its strength in Jersey and Westchester. True or not?

IMHO, not entirely. The NYC ratings picture during the 60s was like a donut, the center of which was the five boroughs, where WMCA was king. The rest of the donut was the distant suburbs that WMCA couldn't reach, where WABC won with its 50 kW blaster signal.

The downfall of WMCA, IMHO started when WOR-FM flipped from free-form rock to a Drake sounding Adult Top 40. Then came the summer of '68, when Ruth Meyer left as did many of the Good Guys. Joe O'Brien, Gary Stevens, Jack Spector and Harry Harrison all left that summer. Harrison left for archrival WABC. Spector returned in 1969. The format was evenly split between talk and top 40. It wasn't the same WMCA any more. Perhaps it was an over-reaction to WOR-FM, but the damage had been done.

WMCA was David and WABC was Goliath, but David did quite well for a long time. If WMCA had 50 kW rather than 5 kW, history would've been very different.

 

[BruceS8852]

In 1969 WMCA called itself Power Radio 57 with half of its programming devoted to talk and the rest to music. Alex Bennett was a popular talk host back then. Sometime in the early 1970s there was a big protest when Alex was let go from WMCA who needed evening hours for Yankee baseball.

Bruce

 

[radioguy39nj]

In 1969 WMCA called itself Power Radio 57 with half of its programming devoted to talk and the rest to music. Alex Bennett was a popular talk host back then. Sometime in the early 1970s there was a big protest when Alex was let go from WMCA who needed evening hours for Yankee baseball.

Bruce

In a desperation move in the fall of 1969, the "Good Guys" handle was restored and talk was dropped in AM drive for Dan Daniel, putting him on opposite Harry Harrison on WABC. It was too late. A year later, WMCA went all-talk.

In 1971, WMCA's first year with the Yankees, West Coast games were not broadcast because of sponsor commitments to Barry Gray. The Steinbrenners did not yet own the team. No way would they have accepted that!

 

[oldiesfan6479]

In 1971, WMCA's first year with the Yankees, West Coast games were not broadcast because of
sponsor commitments to Barry Gray.

Were those left coast games "farmed out" to another local freq., or did one have to
try and pull in an out-of-town affiliate to hear them?

 

[radioguy39nj]

In 1971, WMCA's first year with the Yankees, West Coast games were not broadcast because of
sponsor commitments to Barry Gray.

Were those left coast games "farmed out" to another local freq., or did one have to
try and pull in an out-of-town affiliate to hear them?

Those games were blacked out completely! No TV and no radio! Before cross ownership, no games were "farmed out" to another local frequency.

For the 1971 season, Yankee fans had to wait until the following morning to find out what their team did on the West Coast the night before. This situation was remedied for the 1972 season, as WMCA broadcast all Yankee games.