WMGK 102.9 FM Adult Contemporary format from 1975 to 1994: your thoughts

[Jul]

Does anyone remember the Adult Contemporary format on WMGK from 1975 to 1994 called Magic 103 and then Magic 102.9 before they changed the format in 1994 to 70s music and then classic rock? If so, which DJ's did you like during that era and what did you like about MGK's AC format during that 19 year period in Philadelphia radio.

 

[Betrayed]

John Harvey, alias Harvey In The Morning. A transplant to MGK from the heyday of WIOQ. Laidback, intelligent, witty. Enjoyed Harvey's Almanac. Vastly superior to the crap that is on every commercial radio station during morning drive nowadays. There are a few exceptions, WJJZ, WJBR. But the rest of them would actually have to improve to qualify as crap.

 

[WTUX]

Magic 103 was great. Of the djs, I liked Harvey and actually everyone who was on the air.

 

[rdcuffpa1]

John Harvey, alias Harvey In The Morning. A transplant to MGK from the heyday of WIOQ. Laidback, intelligent, witty.

Harvey is the only DJ I remember, and I split my morning listening between him and KYW.

Richard in Allentown

 

[amfmsw]

It was the era of the FM revolution. FM radios were standard in VW and Japanese cars, as well as better American Cruisers. With WIFI 92, there was now something besides wallpaper, classical and aor to listen to on our receivers.

It was stereo. It was hi-fi. It was relatively static free. And it was programmed well enough to knock off the last king of AM music radio, 610 WIP, which had the best talent lineup on the Eastern Seaboard.

 

[oaktree]

I thought that Magic 103 from 74 to early 80s was great. Liked the Jam jingles a lot. You're right about WIP, though ... the king of AM radio back then and before. Garland, Weber, St. James, Nat "The Night Rat" Wright, "Milkman's Matinee", Joe Simone, so many others. Classy Metromedia sound unequalled anywhere. Sure miss that sound. MOR/Personality to the max. Thanks for the memories...

 

[crmc]

I know this thread is about WMGK two formats back, but regarding 610 WIP as a Full Service MOR...it was the best. Perhaps anywhere. So tight, so bright.You could set your watch by it, it was so well timed. I often wondered what that type of Full service presentation with 6 or 8 chicken-rock soft AC songs an hour would do on a full market FM in this day and age.5 minutes of news on the top of the hour, 2 minutes on the bottom, weather/traffic on the 15's...perhaps an HD 2 format possibility in a few years...when multi-casting kicks in.

 

[yocco]

Although the model for an FM Adult Contemporary station in Philadelphia really goes back to WFIL-FM, Popular 102 in the early 70s, it was WMGK that launched the A/C FM format that was copied around the country on both Greater Media and non Greater Media stations. During the first 5 or 6 years of its existence, there were many album cuts in the mix. Around 81 or so, the music mix moved toward a more mainstream direction..what was mainstream at the time. This was also around the time that the first WSNI hit the air. WMGK was probably the station that got me interested in the A/C format.

WIP..on the other hand..in the mid to late 70s..had great personalities around the clock. Great news department and info..a bright music mix for it's time..it didn't sound stodgy like many MOR stations as it wasn't afraid to play Top 40 crossover songs..It was far more brighter than its New York cousin..WNEW.

 

[8638]

Agree with all the comments on WIP. It was the station that your parents listened to in the 70's, but by no means was it dull or boring a la WNEW. They would play current top 40 tunes, intermingled with classic standards, and the news department was first rate. A really relaxed presentation.

Instead of this female oriented dreck (Philly's...er My 106.1) or Hispanic that maybe .05% of the market is listening to, why doesn't someone step out of the box and do a WIP format on FM? It would have broad appeal, I think. I'm down to a handful of philly stations that I can tolerate (WPHT, KYW, WOGL). Pretty pitiful.

 

[rich610]

I also miss the old WIP. It was the BEST station in Philadelphia in the '60s and '70s. WIP was pulling in 12s and 13 shares for many years. I loved the music they played. Yes, my parents listened all day, but I loved it, too. What a line-up: Garland, Webber, Clayton (later Bill St. James and Bill Neil), Tom Moran, Tom Lamaine, and Nat Wright. Can't forget the '60s era DJ's like Jim Tate,Tom Brown, and the great Joe McCauley. If we had a Philadelphia DJ Hall of Fame, all of the WIP DJ's would be enshrined.

With regards to WMGK, I think they benefitted from being an FM station. Technology-wise, yes they sounded superior to WIP, but the DJ's on WMGK were dull. David Lankford in the morning, Chris McCoy, Mike Bowe, etc. They were perfect for background in an office, but they lacked the personality of the WIP crew. Magic 103 was a station you listened to for the music, not the DJ's. Even though WMGK passed WIP in 1978, both stations were still the two most-listened to music stations in town until 1981.

 

[oaktree]

Rich610...and everyone posting on this page, thanks for a ton of great memories about 610/WIP...Metromedia Radio in Philadelphia. You are all correct about the differences with WNEW, but their personalities, if not the music, were top rate, too, with William B. Williams, Julius LaRosa and Jim 'The Green Door' Lowe ... and a history of legends and near ones. Great recall; you're the best. WCBM in Baltimore was even brighter that WIP and KLAC in LA was about as close to WIP as you could get, but no one really came close, in my opinion. Would like to see a thread about 95/PEN in its first oldies try under Julian Breene, when Magic was just getting started in the mid-70s. I liked 'PEN as an oldies station then, and as Adult Standards under legendary WIPer, Dean Tyler, too. But as Breene said for oldies 95/PEN back then, "WPEN had its fans ... just not enough of them." I miss Philly radio of then. Great posts, guys.

 

[amfmsw]

Wow, I can't believe the name recogniotion and recall y'all have. A WIP personality format would excell in the 35-64 catagory, IF you could get pros like Jim Nettleton, Tom Moran, Wee Willie (now on WVLT), Larry Glick, Bill Corsair, and well, who would be your fantasy line-up? I'm tired of being yelled at when I listen to the radio. But radio is now run mostlty by cheap bastards who's only thought is "but that would cost money!" It would have to do be done for the love of the community and radio itself.

And not to correct, but I THINK it was Nat Wright's "Dawn Partol". I would spin the dial back and forth between him and Dave "The Rave" Parks on WFIL at night...even though I was only 12, I loved WIP...and the parents wouldn't yell..."Turn that crap down!"

 

[Betrayed]

Indeed. It is interesting that so many of us who were pre-teens and teens that listened to WIBBAGE, 'FIL and WIFI 92, seem to have been able to listen to mom and dad's WIP. On the air, they had the cream of the crop around the clock. Jocks and news staff.

Professionals. Broadcasters. Communicators. Turn on almost every commercial FM in Philly and try to find just one. Well I guess everybody who flunks out of journalism and communications needs a job too. I suppose that's what Philly FMs are for. From 92.5 to 106.1. For too many of them, next stop - the golden arches.

 

[rdcuffpa1]

Indeed. It is interesting that so many of us who were pre-teens and teens that listened to WIBBAGE, 'FIL and WIFI 92, seem to have been able to listen to mom and dad's WIP. On the air, they had the cream of the crop around the clock. Jocks and news staff.

I grew up in Buffalo, land of "KB" (WKBW / 1520) ... and we pre-teens and teens listened to MOR WBEN (the "real" WBEN...not this Philly imitator...).

One of the reasons I listened to WBEN and not KB was that radio was somewhat of a shared activity, just like TV was, especially in the mornings. WBEN had the school closings, weather, and news, and we listened on the kitchen radio while eating breakfast & getting ready for school.

Richard in Allentown

 

[imhomerjay]

I was one of those kids who grew up with WIP—heck, until my early teens, I thought the radio universe consisted of WIP (on our kitchen and car radios) and Easy 101 (on the big ol’ cabinet stereo in the living room). I loved it and miss the full service format. I went to the radiothons faithfully, would listen with my transistor radio outside in the summer….heck, I was still a listener during the WIPeopleTalk and “Midday Infotainment” eras near the end. (And to the list of great personalities already mentioned, I would add the underrated or underappreciated Stevens & Seneca, who took over afternoon drive near the end.) Heck, up until a couple of years ago, I would try to catch WEEU on evenings or weekends for those rare times without sports just for the nostalgia factor.

But just because there’s a few of us around who would welcome that kind of format back to the air, that doesn’t mean it’s viable now. It had its place in a world without the Internet, without 24-hour news channels and much more robust local TV news offerings. Before people grew more accustomed to the “I want what I want, when I want it, with no interruptions or delays” model of entertainment. Much as it may be lamented, going back to a programming style that worked two decades ago makes little more sense than having gone back to soap operas, variety shows and comedies once television became a mass-market commodity. There’s clearly still a market for strong, personality-driven entertainment and talk shows, but the economic reality is the majority of those shows will be national or regional. An all-day, personality-based music format isn’t sustainable in most cases as the audience shrinks.

WIP’s news operation was great. But how much of a need do you really think exists now for 10-minute newscasts every half hour in morning drive? Most news junkies will be tuned to their outlet(s) of choice, be it Fox, CNN, local, online, whatever. Music fans aren’t going to wait through that kind of interruption to get back to their songs

WIP and its fellow stations were great in their time, but that time is long over.

 

[deepstblu]

Indeed. It is interesting that so many of us who were pre-teens and teens that listened to WIBBAGE, 'FIL and WIFI 92, seem to have been able to listen to mom and dad's WIP.

The music was actually not bad--they played a lot of the hits, and often they were on a record weeks before WFIL started playing it. By the '70s the Jerry Vale and Vic Damone records were pretty much gone; nights and weekends you might hear album cuts from people like Jimmy Buffett or Janis Ian, or not-exactly-MOR singles like "Boogie Bands and One-Night Stands" by Kathy Dalton, "Pinball" by Brian Protheroe or "He Did Me Wrong, But He Did It Right" by Patti Dahlstrom. A station so huge with so little direct competition could have started to sound fat and lazy, but I don't think that ever happened.

 

[oaktree]

Me bad. You're right...it was the "Dawn Patrol" with Nat Wright on WIP. "Milkman's Matinee" was on WNEW. Sometimes it was called the "Yawn Patrol" on WIP. And the names just keep on comin' ... great thread.

 

[oaktree]

Anyone think, now, that GMedia blew it taking 950 'PEN out of "Standards" when it was still quite viable, at least numbers-wise? Or was it because everybody was retiring that made the switch a neccesity. I think that format, done well, would be a good choice IF programmers stopped homogenizing format radio, found great personalities and allowed communication and, most of all, relevancy. I saw Clear Channel destroy KLAC in LA, moving it to the Mighty 690 and still flipped it to an Mexican LMA months later. Tried to be a KMPC re-born and didn't do well at that, though it did have Gary Owens voice tracking afternoons which lost the spontanaity of a great MOR talent. I think there's a market, but it's got to be nurtured song-for-song and not be bored burnout like the satellite syndicators or Satcasters, IMHO. I love that format, still and I'm far from ancient old.

 

[rdcuffpa1]

found great personalities

I think that's probably an issue... there are likely few of those "personalities" left, and it would make more sense (I would believe) to deliver that format via satellite or voice tracked. Witness your own comment regarding Gary Owens.

Even the 1960s rock 'n roll personalities are reaching retirement age now.

Richard in Allentown

 

[Nick Seneca]

And to the list of great personalities already mentioned, I would add the underrated or underappreciated Stevens & Seneca, who took over afternoon drive near the end.

Wow, I can't believe anyone actually remembers Bruce Stevens and me, our tenure at WIP was so brief. It was around '83, I believe. Thank you imhomerjay for your kind words.

A little background on WIP at that time (based on what I was told, since I wasn't a Philadelphian and hadn't listened to the station before coming there). The station had, for at least the preceding 5 or 6 years, been playing adult contemporary music in a effort to compete with the growing FM's. I was told that the music wasn't working - the ratings were in a decline. Today, with the advantage of 25-year hindsight we all see, of course, that the problem wasn't WIP or its choice of music, it was just part of the inevitable on-going decline of AM stations playing music.

Cary Pahigian, the PD who hired Bruce Stevens and me, was attempting to craft a new music format for this heritage AM station, combining the current AC artists with the giants of the standards. James Taylor and Sinatra. Lionel Richie and Tony Bennett. This music was complemented with high-profile guys on the air and a huge, credible news department. Evenings and overnights were telephone talk with Jack Ellery and Steve Martorano.

I thought it was a pretty decent sounding station with an excellent workable formula for an early 1980's heritage AM. Bruce and I had come down from Maine, and although we hadn't grown up listening to WIP, we were certainly aware of the extraordinary market heritage of Ken Garland and Wee Willie Webber. In fact, we were probably a little bit in awe of them! (Two wonderful gentlemen, I must say and superb old school broadcasters! Ken, by the way, had had his first on-air job in Portland).

But, things change and people move on. Pahigian got a career offer he couldn't refuse as PD of WBZ in his hometown. When he left, Metromedia, in its infinite wisdom, replaced him with a guy named Mikel Hunter Herrington as PD. Mikel had had success as a "progressive rock FM" PD in California and to this day is spoken of as a near-deity among those who worked with him in that format. Unfortunately, those skills left him absolutely ill-equipped to run a full-service AM gasping it's final breaths. I left, and Bruce did too shortly thereafter.

I've always thought that Cary Pahigian's format for WIP would've worked given more time and some promotional heft. I don't know what the numbers were back then, but I know the station and it's personalities still had a high-profile in Philadelphia. It certainly would've evolved into a talk station eventually, but given the opportunity and a good hand on the tiller, WIP's music and personality format might have lingered a few years longer.

I've got great memories of the place and treasure that small part of my career at 19th and Walnut.

Nick Seneca