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wmod best oldies ever

O

oasisrulz

Guest
I dont know how old everyone is on this board or will even remember but I was in the Army and stationed at AP Hill in Virginia after returning from Nam....It was the summer of 74 and WMOD was the oldies station in the DC area....I just uncovered some tapes of them Murphy in the Morning, Mike Fitzgerald but I forgot who the midday jock was or the jock until 10pm, dont have those times on tape....they were automated from 10 to 6. Being a Philly guy I was used to WCAU-FM but when I heard WMOD it was like a new world opened up....the oldies were the best in the nation, so many "oh wow" tunes, great jingles and fantastic jocks....I left the area in Dec-74 so I lost touch with them, and heard later they went Country....I still have the jingles "your listening to classic rock and roll"..wmod 987 stereo..just had to share that with you for what its worth....
 
WMOD was the best oldies station ever. I was a kid at the time and I listened to them. I remember the line-up being Freddy Figinshu in mornings, Mike Fitzgerald in middays, Jeff Leonard did afternoons and it was J.J. Randall at night. I have a tape of J.J. Randall whaling over three songs in a row, James Gang "Walk Away", Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" and The Who "Won't Get Fooled Again". Obviously a very heavily dayparted oldies station because you would hear doo-wop during mid-days. Before going country they tried their hand at Top 40 becoming FM98 and then Music 98. Even then they were a good station but they eventually became 98MZQ and the rest is history.
 
I only know them as MZQ but I didnt start listening to radio till the mid 80s so... Checking wiki, not much info other than the Country music format started in '77. Interesting though that they are 50 thousand watts. I dont know of any other dc station that powerfull. Even Mix 107.3, which I used to be able to hear in the jersey side of the Philly area, an as far south as Richmond, are less than 20 thousand.

edit: after checking, PGC & Big100 are the other 50k'ers
 
stevewillett said:
WMOD was the best oldies station ever. I was a kid at the time and I listened to them. I remember the line-up being Freddy Figinshu in mornings, Mike Fitzgerald in middays, Jeff Leonard did afternoons and it was J.J. Randall at night. I have a tape of J.J. Randall whaling over three songs in a row, James Gang "Walk Away", Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" and The Who "Won't Get Fooled Again". Obviously a very heavily dayparted oldies station because you would hear doo-wop during mid-days. Before going country they tried their hand at Top 40 becoming FM98 and then Music 98. Even then they were a good station but they eventually became 98MZQ and the rest is history.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info thats the guy Jeff Leonard, but when I was there in 74, it was Murphy in the Morning, Leonard, then Fitzgerald and Randall and the rest of the time it was automated. I was just listening to the tapes and where else can you hear....For You - Nelson, Wind - Jesters, Lemon Tree - Lopez, Nobody I Know - Peter and Gordon, Blue Blue Day - Don Gibson, Its a Happening - Magic Mushrooms, Glory of Love - Roommates, Dear One - Larry Finigan, Mystic Eyes - Them and I can go on and on I have hours of them on tape....I also kinda remember WASH being a solid gold station, "The Station with a Heart of Gold", and using Neil Young Heart of Gold as there jingle....
 
I remember WMOD in the very early 70's when they first went on the air. For the first year or so it was automated. How many remember the single automated jingle sing. " Double You M O D Ninety Ay Ay-t Sev- ennn.......... That was it.

98.7FM was first known as WOL , a Rhythm & Blues format in the 1960's. Then in 1970 it changed to the oldies station we remember as WMOD, the brainchild of PD Marv Brooks and owned by Sonderling Broadcasting. Later sold to Viacom and flipped to WMZQ country. The last song to be played just prior to 12 noon was Mama Cass's New World Coming...followed by what sounded like a telephone operator giving the exact 12:00 time followed by the Waylon Jennings song "Are You Ready For The Country" and Jerry Paxton, WMZQ's new program director doing the first show. Fred Figgenshu stayed a while doing morning's as did J J Randall in the afternoon drive.
Anyone remember an announcer by the name of Davy Jones at WMOD ? And whatever happened to Dave Kellogg ?
 
what ever became of jeff leonard didn't he move over to wkys in the late 80's to early to mid 80's. he had some of the best pipes i have ever heard in the industry.
 
It may not be really relevant to the conversation, but Albany, NY had an amazing but short lived FM Oldies simulcast back in 1990-1991. The stations were WSHZ/WSHQ known as "SHO-FM". Apparently like WMOD, just an amazingly huge playlist with lots of "oh wow" tunes. It is really unfortunate how these stations have been systematically replaced by stations with ultra tight redundant playlists by so called "greatest hits" formats instead...
 
That was the lineup I remember Summer of 74, Murphy in the Morning, Mike Fitzgerald, Jeff Leonard and Davy Jones....after 10pm the computer took over....approaching the 4pm hour, High on a Hill by Scott English, I Can't Stop by the Honeycombs and I'm Cryin the Animals, now how can you beat that playlist.......times have really changed...
 
Oasisrulz- It sounds like you've got some great WMOD tapes. If you're considering sharing them with other lovers of vintage oldies radio, I suggest you consider contributing a copy of the tapes to this fantastic website - www.reelradio.com . Precise instructions for submitting the material to Reel Radio are at this address - http://www.reelradio.com/reasons.html . One of the more popular audio exhibits at Reel Radio (and there are several thousand exhibits at the site in total) is a lengthy excerpt from Jeff Leonard's Jan 24, 1973 show at WMOD. Based on your descriptions, you are in a position to expand the WMOD collection substantially, for all of us to enjoy. Please check it out !!
 
>>but when I was there in 74, it was Murphy in the Morning>>

Is that the same "Murphy in the Morning" who worked in Chicago in the 80s & 90s?
 
No. The WMOD Murphy in the Morning is Pat Murphy. I worked with him in Norfolk, VA
in the 90s. He's a talk show host and still may be in the Norfolk market. Talented man.
Was great 70s style morning man at 'MOD!
 
WMOD was an oldies station ahead of its time. It came on in 1968 after having been WOL-FM. Who had heard of an oldies station in 1968? It never really got ratings, as good of a station as it was.

As someone mentioned, WMOD tried to go after WPGC with top 40 before going country. In the top 40 days, Fred Figenshu did mornings. I read that Fred Figenshu is really Bill Figenshu, who rose to the top at Viacom's radio division and then, after Viacom was sold, was in top management at CBS Radio until getting fired a few years ago.

I saw Bill Figenshu speak at a luncheon, and he had kind of a New York accent; sounded nothing like Fred Figenshu as I remember him. But supposedly they are one and the same.
 
stevewillett said:
Here's an aircheck of J.J. Randall on WMOD when they were oldies. Not sure of the date, but it's at night and it's rockin'. Sorry about the quality. It was recorded into a portable Panasonic Cassette deck through a condensor mic. I tried to clean it up the best I could.

http://www.stevethatdjguy.com/home/wmod_aircheck_with_j.htm
Click to expand...

Steve,

You "da man". Thanks for sharing the a/c of a great old station I had all but forgotten. That's the kind of energy that drew me into this biz all those years ago. Oh how fun were the days of WINX "Dial 16" with Barry Richards and WHMC-AM Gaithersberg rockin' out with their 250 watts at night! We've got to re-capture that energy and translate it to today's more sophisticated (far more choices for entertainment) audience. Got to give them something that their iPod and cell phone can't.
 
Pat Murphy is still around. He is a shortwave pirate radio operator who operates many pirate stations on 6925 like WBNY, Radio Free Speech and many more. The most famous one is most likely WBNY where he voices the ever so popular Commander Bunny. (Thats My Favorite Anyway.) Here are some of the WBNY recordings. click on Pat Murphy for classic WMOD airchecks and more: http://shortwavepirate.info/wordpress/?page_id=12.
 
I agree that WMOD was the greatest. I was from the Philly area and loved WCAU FM (check out northeastairchecks.com) but WMOD blew the socks off of them. The comment about The Station with a Heart of Gold with Neil Young playing in the background was actually WWDC 101.1 which was an excellent oldies/soft rock station in the early 70s. Anyone want to swap airchecks?
 
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