WNDE and WFBQ INDIANAPOLIS 1974-1976

[hipporadio]

I was told that the reason for Chris Bailey's demise was that he insisted on renting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway & presenting a free concert featuring Chicago. Management said no & Bailey said yes. Bailey lost...

I took a brief break from WNAP when Bailey launched Cincy's Super-Q in fall ’72, and was in mourning for a year after Taft pulled the plug and brought in Cat Simon with his “litter box” the following spring... GEEZE, C.B. seemed to have had rotten luck with the “suits” at Midwest Top-40 stations! I heard the same free Chicago concert story [nearly a decade later] from a former Top-40 station-owner who was knee-deep in the hoopla during that era.

...does anyone know if he really had a heart attack while screaming over an intro on G98 in Cleveland?

Now there’s a new dose of Chris Bailey trivia! I once became really dizzy while trying to imitate one of his wilder intros on the-Q... The Tremeloes’ “Here Comes My Baby Again” IIRC :

...at last check he's a PI...

I wonder if he’s busy investigating corporate radio culprits?

 

[bigtime]

believe chris bailey died years ago

 

[bigtime]

Walkout was prompted by the firing of the very popular p.d. Chris Bailey.

I was told that the reason for Chris Bailey's demise was that he insisted on renting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway & presenting a free concert featuring Chicago. Management said no & Bailey said yes. Bailey lost...and what a shame. Can anyone confirm or deny that story?

The IMS management would not allow a concert or anything else at the Speedway except the Indy 500 in those days. WNDE's new gm dumped Bailey to bring in his own pd.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Walkout was prompted by the firing of the very popular p.d. Chris Bailey.

I was told that the reason for Chris Bailey's demise was that he insisted on renting the Indianapolis Motor Speedway & presenting a free concert featuring Chicago. Management said no & Bailey said yes. Bailey lost...and what a shame. Can anyone confirm or deny that story?

The IMS management would not allow a concert or anything else at the Speedway except the Indy 500 in those days. WNDE's new gm dumped Bailey to bring in his own pd.

Sorry to hear that...had to be one of the grossest displays of stupidity to date in those days.

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

Like Bob, I too remember the wonderful signal WNDE once had. Half way to Chicago, at night,
it came in like WLS. In central Ohio it came in almost like a local. I remeber just outside
Cleveland, when WIXY changed to it's night time pattern. In came WNDE. I was in Northern
Ontario Canada in 1974. More than 1,000 miles from Indianapolis. WNDE came through a
thunderstorm.

About 20 years ago, I heard WNDE fixed their antenna system. It's fixed alright!

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Like Bob, I too remember the wonderful signal WNDE once had. Half way to Chicago, at night,
it came in like WLS. In central Ohio it came in almost like a local. I remeber just outside
Cleveland, when WIXY changed to it's night time pattern. In came WNDE. I was in Northern
Ontario Canada in 1974. More than 1,000 miles from Indianapolis. WNDE came through a
thunderstorm.

About 20 years ago, I heard WNDE fixed their antenna system. It's fixed alright!

WNDE had a tower fall maybe 15 years ago. They CLAIM that the new (new in 92 or so) DA proof showed identical coverage to what pre-existed. If that's true, it's possibly a combination of lax AM enforcement (we all know of a DA or two that isn't doing what it should) and PSSA/night powers that didn't exist in 1977. Plus...how many stations simply don't reduce power at night? Whatever the reason...WNDE's killer night signal is long gone.

Dutch...please email me at [email protected] regarding your 94.3 study.

 

[ten_four]

WNDE's old antenna system had two tall towers and a short tower, all stand alone girder type. The short tower fell and was replaced by a tower supported by cables. One possible reason for a tuning differrential today is the digital tuned, narrow band car radios. I prefer a tuneable, wideband radio where you cand fine tune the signal you receive, either to the left or right of center of the signal at night.
An interesting thing about Indy's 1260 is that it is licensed for 5K during the day, and 5.4K at night. That's where the old power really came through. I remember coming out of Dayton, OH at night with my mom and dad during the WFBM days and getting 1260 as clear as a bell. Even driving north on 31 at night used to be better through Kokomo than it was after the tower change.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

WNDE's old antenna system had two tall towers and a short tower, all stand alone girder type. The short tower fell and was replaced by a tower supported by cables. One possible reason for a tuning differrential today is the digital tuned, narrow band car radios. I prefer a tuneable, wideband radio where you cand fine tune the signal you receive, either to the left or right of center of the signal at night.
An interesting thing about Indy's 1260 is that it is licensed for 5K during the day, and 5.4K at night. That's where the old power really came through. I remember coming out of Dayton, OH at night with my mom and dad during the WFBM days and getting 1260 as clear as a bell. Even driving north on 31 at night used to be better through Kokomo than it was after the tower change.

I think if you look at the present facility, you'll see that it was the middle tower (one of the tall ones) that was toppled and replaced with a guyed tower. The 5.4KW night power is to compensate for the loss inherent in a phasor system. An extra 8% power is authorized on all DA's below a certain power level. The higher power DA's have an added % but it's less than 8% due to the larger components used which have lower loss. As far as that amount of power making any audible difference, it won't. It takes a quadrupling of power (400%) to double signal strength. Even if that 8% did make it into the air, the resulting change would be inaudible and barely measurable with a Field Intensity meter.

 

[ocala500]

Re: So...

As someone who wasn't around Indy at the time, what was WFBM doing that prompted the identity switch (to WNDE)?

There was a change in ownership at WFBM around 1974. Rahall Communications bought WFBM-AM and FM and changed them to WNDE and WFBQ. They brought in Mike Hankins (aka Mike McCormick), the former PD at WLS in Chicago to be GM and Jim Davis, the PD at WDAI-FM (WLS-FM) to be PD. Bill Parke, another ex ABC guy was GSM. Hankins told me that WFBM-AM was a dying radio station and that each day you could see the WFBM listeners who had died by looking at the Obituary Section in the morning paper. Although WNDE sounded a lot like WLS, it was slightly different in that we didn't just play just current rock songs but some oldies as well in order to get a slightly older audience. Joe Pickett was the morning man at WFBM-AM and Hankins let him go, shortly after he got to the station. Pickett had been in the market for a long time and I remember we had some problems getting some of Pickett's cronies who had ad budgets to advertise on the station.
As far as the loss of WIFE's license, they apparently had a contest to give away a water filter and never gave it to the winner. I think they also falsified affidavits and gave free advertising to Vance Hartke. I remember one Christmas in 74 or 75 where WIFE must have run 25 mintues of commericals an hour. They had no limits on commerical loads and just crammed that station with tons of commercials. I assumed they knew the end was near and they taking as much money as they could get before the FCC dropped the final hammer on them. Bob Kiley was the GM of WIFE at the time and Jack Marsella was the Sales Manager. Interestingly, when the fall book came out WIFE had not lost any appreciable audience despite the heavy load of commericals in November. In fact, they may have even gone UP in the ratings.

 

[radiowannab]

What was WFBQ like in terms of playing requests back then? I know today whenever I call to make one they don't seem to have much interest in playing them. I assume when they were smaller they were a little more listener friendly?

 

[Ur-A-Dawg]

If you've got 50,000 or 100,000 listeners can you let one guy change the direction of your show
with a request?

 

[MacOConnor]

When WFBQ was automated (pre-Feb 14, 1978) you could NEVER get them to play requests...

 

[radiowannab]

If you've got 50,000 or 100,000 listeners can you let one guy change the direction of your show
with a request?

I wasn't asking as a commentary on WFBQ. None of the stations in this town do it, even the ones that say they do. I was simply asking as a question. It seems like when I listened to radio 20 years ago I could call up and someone would play a song. Maybe not that second or anything but eventually they found a way to sneak it in. It just seems like that never happens any more. As a listener it is a little disappointing. That's why I almost all cds and ipod these days. Radio got so bad even an old guy like me learned technology.

 

[bigtime]

If you were listening to a chr station 20 years ago the chances of hearing your request were very good, assuming you requested a popular song. They turned those songs over every 90 minutes. The same is true today with that format. They play the popular songs often. That's the nature of the format. Most stations do factor requests into their decisions about how often to play a song, so requests can have an impact. Radio stations do occasionally play requests, especially if the caller is good and will add some extra entertainment value to the station when their call is aired. If it's a station in a small town (that's actually live & local) the odds of getting a request played go up. The same is true with high school stations and others with small audiences. Even nationally syndicated songs play requests, but they often time shift them, so your request may play 4 days after you make it.

 

[INDMAknowitall]

Excellent comments by bigtime and dead on correct.

To those making posting comments regarding requests...and a particular comment
about a point made by radiowannab: "disappointing" you don't get your
request on? Really? You do understand you're one of about 200,000 to 300,000
listeners at any one time.

Radio is called broadcasting for a reason...we're attempting to reach a broad area,
therefore a large amount of people, at one time. This isn't two-way radio. This
isn't "Billy Radio playing the hits for Bill when Bill wants to hear the hits!"
Commercial radio was developed to reach a large number of people at one time
(then we sell that audience to advertisers to make money...we WANT a large
audience). We understand listeners want to hear the most popular songs as often
as possible. We understand it and use it to our advantage. Today's
stations...all formats...have in rotation an average of 250 songs in any
given week (currents faster than gold categories, CHR's less than Classic Rock
station). In context to what's available to play...that's not very many
songs! So, in the mind of the PD, we've already cut down the playlist so
much...we're sure to play the most popular songs more often.

The technique of airing a listener making a request for a poupular song is OLD
thinking...out of style and totally unneeded today. The "listener request" was a
device used to HYPE new songs...to justify the airing of songs...to create artificial
excitment for a new song. Unfortantely, like most all things in radio, someone
heard it on an LA or NY radio station back in the day and thought it was "the right
thing to do since they're doing it in LA and New York." Same thing goes for
screaming jocks, on-air-reverb and talking over the intros of songs...all were done
for other reasons than the obvious (great when in context, back in the day, but out
of step today.)

 

[Tired-Old-Dog]

A jock who is new to the business thinks phones ringing off the hook means you're hot.
If someone loves your show, they are listening to your show. They are not on the phone.
1. Most who call in requests, think your selections suck and they are trying to help you.
2. Those who want to cling on the telephone are looking for you to solve their problems.
They need a head doctor and you are not trained in that field. Danger!
3. If you are on the phone while doing a live show, I will know it, by listening to your
show because it will make you suck.
4 That phone is not your friend!

 

[AndTheLambGoesBAA]

4 That phone is not your friend!

Great wisdom borne of experience. Read and learn from the Dog.

 

[radiowannab]

Sorry. Guess as a simple listener and not a radio insider I wouldn't know all the info. But when there are stations in this city that openly claim to play requests and don't, it's a little disappointing. Maybe if stations in this city were more concerned with giving people what they actually want and not just a bunch of phrases and slogans, radio wouldn't be in the trouble it appears to be in. Again, you guys are the pros. But based on everything I'm reading in magazines and newspapers, sales, listenership, profitability is all down. I realize you can not cater to every request. But it seems to me occassionally giving people what they want might keep them from perminantely going to the ipod or cd player.

 

[INDMAknowitall]

no apologies needed radiowannab...this is a good place to learn. If you bring up a point, be prepared for an comment/answer, you may be surprised who's reading this board! Yes, some stations do say one thing and do another...and shame of them as they give the rest of us a bad name.

To Tired-Old-Dog's comments regarding the request line. EXCELLENT points! I agree 100% with T.O.D. and can't stress enough how distracting and unimportant the request lines are to a live jock.

By the way, to get on point with this threads' topic. I remember listening to Ron Jordan and Bruce Eric Smallwood while in high school while driving to school. Great fun!

 

[ocala500]

What was WFBQ like in terms of playing requests back then? I know today whenever I call to make one they don't seem to have much interest in playing them. I assume when they were smaller they were a little more listener friendly?

In the 70's WFBQ was playing a syndicated format....TM STEREO ROCK. WFBQ had no live announcers and was actually a 7 foot tall rack of tape decks and some kind of computerized way of inserting local taped produced commericals. If you called the station, you probaby got the receptionist at WNDE to take your request, since there wasn't a single live person ever on the air. The request probably ended up in the trash can since there was no way to insert a song into what TM sent us from their Dallas studios on each reel of tape. WFBQ may have sounded live to some, but the whole programming end of the station was in what looked like a.....linen closet. Unfortunately one day, WFBQ fell over and permanently dented itself.