wpwt 91.7

[oasisrulz]

Was listening to some old tapes I had and found WPWT recordings....For all us older dudes, does anyone remember this little station located on 1422 Pine streets in the 60's....They shared time with WKDU which was on until 7pm then WPWT took over until midnight....they had that little loope antenna on the roof of the four story building of the Philadelphia Wireless Building and the students did shows....They were mostly oldies and Progressive and Psychedelic Rock and had a dynamite oldies show on Friday evenings, took requests, etc., very live/local and had some loyal followers, it was the Flower Power era and Hard Rock and they were in the middle of it all and played it all...just was curious....what ever happened to them....

 

[DanStrassberg]

Was listening to some old tapes I had and found WPWT recordings....For all us older dudes, does anyone remember this little station located on 1422 Pine streets in the 60's....

I did a co-op assignment at the old General Electric Switchgear Works at 69th St and Elmwood Ave in Southwest Philadelphia during the summer of 1955. I rented a room in a house around the corner at 7022 Paschal Ave. I would sometimes listen to WPWT in the evenings. I was active in the campus radio station at my own college in upstate New York and I visited the WPWT studios downtown at Philadelphia Wireless Technical Institute on one occasion. I was not impressed with the programming. Very ameteurish. I can't recall what kind of music WPWT was playing in 1955.

For me, the biggest radio thrill of that horrendously hot summer 54 years ago was being allowed into the studio at KYW to watch "Big" Wilson (later of WNEW (AM) in New York) do his late-night music show. Besides spinning records, he played the grand piano in the studio, sang and accompanied himself on the piano, and kibitzed a bit with the studio audience. Just in case you doubted it, KYW has not ALWAYS been a 24/7 news station! On the night I was in the audience, Wilson did a live in-studio interview with a vocalist, Gloria Van, who, I guess, was appearing at a nightclub in the Philly area.

 

[radiogagme]

91.7 WPWT was as crazy as it sounds very cool as I was growing up! In the 80's like 85-89 they would broadcast from 2:15pm - 10pm Monday - Friday. It was one of the first dance music stations in the country....Very focused on South Philly and Cherry Hill. I remember having them on at the corner on the boombox where every body was hanging out. They we're almost if not as popular in the streets as Power 99 and 98CaAU at the time. Good stuff miss them alot!!!

 

[rtetro]

WOW! Big Wilson. I didn't remember him being on WNEW; but I vividly remember his years on WNBC - again with his Grand Piano. I know that when he left NYC he went to WIOD in Miami. There were some greats on WNBC in those days; of course with the large pool of talent that NBC had to call on, it would hard to imagine that they wouldn't. My father was a regular listener to Brad Crandall at about the same time. In the 70s, I remember Bob Fitzsimmons and the "Fem Forum" midday program; which was an interesting departure. I later worked with Bob at WNEW. He was a tremendous talent and a fun person to be around.

It would be interesting to see a list of those who daily graced the 2nd floor studios of WNBC at 30 Rock over the years.

 

[Bruce Scott]

Wpwt

I was on both WKDU and WPWT from 1978-80. The two stations shared time. WPWT had the frequency from 2:15 pm to 9:55 pm, Monday through Friday, and WKDU the rest of the time. There were occasional 'swaps,' such as when WKDU needed to air Drexel basketball games. (WKDU was/is owned by Drexel University and debuted, as an on-air station, as I recall, c. 1969. [It was a campus carrier-current station prior, as WXDT, if memory serves correct.]
WPWT was owned by the Philadelphia Wireless Technical Institute (at 1533 Pine st., Phila. - [address given above is incorrect]) came on in 1950 and had the frequency exclusively prior to WKDU coming on. WPWT had a 250-watt transmitter, but a negative-gain antenna (shaped like the ring of a basketball hoop!) that brought its effective radiated power down to 180 watts. Because WPWT's tower wasn't very high at all, the signal was blocked by the tall Center City buildings to the North, so reception was pretty much limited to West, South and East. WKDU was only 10 (yes, a mere ten) watts at the time, but because its tower was atop a tall building in University City (Powelton Village) its coverage area was much greater.
Bill Barthe was our Program Director at WPWT and revamped programming in 1978. We started with a Top 40/Rhythm mix (plus one jazz show and my oldies show) and then we converted to an all-disco format (the first and only non-commercial disco station in the country at the time), which proved immensely popular. I also continued my oldies show on Friday nights which drew tremendous response and song requests galore. (According to P.D, Bill Barthe, WCAU-FM, which at the time was one of two big disco stations in the city [the other being WZZD] used to call him to find out what kind of response we were getting on certain songs to advise if they should add them to their playlist! A few of the jocks from those stations even came to visit us.) [For more details on our air personalities, etc., check out the website, http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/piratejim/phillyfmhistory.html; it has a few minor errors, but is a pretty good summary.]
At the beginning of 1980, as disco was quickly fading, we went to a Top 40 Format (plus my oldies show). Again, we received numerous, numerous calls that people loved us!
Callers were saying that we even far better than WIFI, 92.5, the powerhouse local Top 40 station at the time, right next to us on the dial. People would discover us by accident, while looking for WIFI, and said they liked us better!
Getting back to WKDU for a second, 'KDU also had great Top 40 programming on Saturdays in 1978, owing to Program Director, Santo Cannone, and I am thankful and grateful to have been a part of that lineup.(I was partnered with Sab ["Supersab"] Michael. We were originally on Saturday Mornings, 6-10, and then moved to "Prime Time," Saturday Nights from 6-10.) [Sab and I both broadcasted, concurrently, on WPWT, as well, but with separate shows.]
Thanks for reading this. - Bruce Scott

 

[atrainradio]

I tell ya what, I love WKDU a lot! It is without a doubt, my favorite philly station besides WRTI. THe music is so varied and always introduces me to songs and bands I would have never heard of.