WNDE and WFBQ INDIANAPOLIS 1974-1976

[gr8oldies]

Ouch! Back then, it was probably a manner of loading carts manually into "carousels" and using thumbwheels to select the source. Those were fun. .

 

[work]

Re: WNDE and WFBQ INDIANAPOLIS 1974-1976- Chris Baily Death

Nope. Very much alive and well. He's an old friend and we spoke almost 2 hours on the phone last nite and believe me, he was and is very much alive. And so am I. (http://wrko.org)

 

[KeithE4]

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

I'm sure someone could elaborate better but here is what I know. 1260/94.7/Channel 6 were under common ownership as WFBM/WFBM-FM/WFBM-TV and Time-Life owned the combo at one time. The combo was split up an at the time call letters couldn't cross ownership lines like they do today. Channel 6 changed their calls to WRTV and radio initially kept the WFBM calls. The AM was MOR but changed to Top 40 with new calls WNDE and the FM changed the "M" to "Q" and became WFBQ and did automated rock for a few years before live rock.

The ownership split occured sometime in the late summer or early fall of 1972 - I forget the exact date. Channel 6 became WRTV immediately (still NBC then), but IIRC, the WFBQ and WNDE call letters came a bit later. WFBQ was an automated oldies station for its first year or two.

I'm sure there are holes in the above; feel free to add subtract or multiply. Oh by the way, WXLW originally had 94.7.

Yes, WXLW-FM was on the air in the early '50s but it went the way of many early FMs - quite a few didn't make it. 94.7 was vacant for a few years before WFBM-FM came on the air in, I believe, 1959.

 

[bigtime]

WFBQ moved to the automated "rock in stereo" and stayed with that until February of 1978. That's when OM Dave Parks (working with Burkhart/Abrams) put the live AOR format on.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Re: WNDE and WFBQ INDIANAPOLIS 1974-1976- Chris Baily Death

Nope. Very much alive and well. He's an old friend and we spoke almost 2 hours on the phone last nite and believe me, he was and is very much alive. And so am I. (http://wrko.org)

If you speak with Chris again, please thank him for supplying some of the best top 40 radio I ever had the pleasure of cranking up...both on the Super Q in Cincinnati and at Windy 1260 in Indy. My admiration for the man goes back a long ways...

 

[skippertthomas]

What a GREAT era, with these two stations and Shirk's WXLW and 13/WIFE in their waining glory days...

Bill Hennes was one of the biggest influences on my radio career, along with Bob Marquants(?), or should I say Jim Wood, as well as Buddy Scott (Kinser).... Bob Richards would lecture our R-T classes down in Mt.Carmel at Wabash Valley and I loved the promotions... More winners with small prizes, that had a chance at the big prize... Chris Conner.... Super Coop.....Reb in his tiger suit, in the window at WIFE on Meridian... Live from the State Fair..... Great top-40 in a town that had a great MOR/AC in WIBC and urban on the original 'TLC..... Wow! What an era!!! ;D