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WRDU IS BACK!
- Thread starter DToTheJ
- Start date
H
Hourly
Guest
Dead on donicus. If you were not able to hear WRDU in the late 80s and early 90s...you really don't know the radio station. Reynolds and Silva, Kitty Kinnin, Brian Macfadden, Blade, Tom Gongaware, Tom Guild, Ron Phillips, Bob Walton. You talk about a superstar lineup. The station was so dominant. Bob Edwards started the dumbing down process in the mid 90's and we all know what happened under Robbins and now Shebel. There were a couple of other geniuses around 2002-2003 but I forget their names.
M
MaskMan
Guest
Yes it is. All under the Phil Zachary helm. They were really somthing in those days. CC always thought just anybody could run a radio station, but they let more talent walk out of their buildings! Just criminal what they did. Criminal and STOOPID! And full of phony arrogance in the process.
In it's hey day under that group RDU not only dominated ratings but was the top billing radio station in the state..beating out Power houses like WTQR and WSOC.
Not only could Zachary chase skirts...but he and his staff sold the hell out of that station.
RDU was a spectacular radio station all around......and then, well we all know the story.
Not only could Zachary chase skirts...but he and his staff sold the hell out of that station.
RDU was a spectacular radio station all around......and then, well we all know the story.
M
MaskMan
Guest
Yes, we all know the sordid story. :'(
Hourly said:
Edwards, now OM at Entercom Kansas City and PD of rock KQRC, programmed in Raleigh for almost 9 years at WZZU, and then WRDU. Edwards left WRDU March 2003. When he left WRDU was #1 M25-54, all dayparts. Impressive for a "dumbing down".
'RDU faltered Summer 2001 when it went mainstream, at the behest of them GM Mark Kopelman to increase M18-34 numbers. Edwards didn't want to do it... but he wasn't in charge. 'RDU didn't die numbers wise, but it didn't grow as expected. Thus, late Sept 2002 'RDU flipped back to classic rock. When the Fall book came out WRDU was #1 M25-54. Including Bob and Tom. When Edwards left RDU was left to OM Bob Bronson and the station did ok. Chris Shebel's first tour of Smoketree was to replace Edwards. He and Bronson were co-OM's.
July 2003 Jimmy Tidwell, then MD at WKLS/Atlanta, became RDU's new PD. August '03 new Mkt Manager Ken Spitzer entered Smoketree. Spitzer was also the regional VP for sales.
October 03 OM Bob Bronson (also PD of WRSN, Sunny 939) was left go and replaced by Charleston OM Jon Robbins, who also programmed (poorly) Q104 in Charleston (funny, Edwards had once been Robbins RVPP). Shebel saw the writing on the wall and decided to leave of his own accord December 2003 for San Francisco to be PD of the new Energy station there.
Robbins and Spitzer then set out to f*ck up two heritage stations, WRDU & WTRG. And severely weakened WRSN, which had been #1 P25-54 under Bronson. The cluster has faltered since.
Bronson now of course doing AM Drive at NYC's #1 station, WLTW/Lite FM. I guess he made out.
R
RDU4EVER
Guest
I would like to drop my $.02 in on this.
I worked at WRDU before and after the Capstar/Clear Channel era and for my money there was no comparison to the station after Capstar came in. The old RDU (under Voyager) was very active in the market and had a street team that was out almost every day. The music was an interesting mix of classic rock, active rock and early alternative that was unlike anything I heard before or since. You could hear James Taylor, David Bowie, Nirvanna, Zep and Robert Cray in the same sweep. Lee Abrams himself was very involved with the station and came to Raleigh once or twice a year.
The strength of the personalities has already been discussed here, but the whole package was dominant in ratings and sales for six or seven years. WRDU was almost always number one with 25-54 adults and just about everything else....not just men. I remember we had a couple of books where we were #1 in women too. Now if that station came back, it would give fits to anyone with a transmitter in Raleigh. It was was live 24/7 and had a well tuned strategy that was executed to perfection.
Not to take anything away from what happened under the Capstar and later Clear Channel management....but those stations happened to be on the same dial position as "WRDU." No one in radio around here ever thought of them as "WRDU." If VODood and the rest had been around in 1992 they would know the difference. It was magic and that is what is missing today from most radio stations.
I worked at WRDU before and after the Capstar/Clear Channel era and for my money there was no comparison to the station after Capstar came in. The old RDU (under Voyager) was very active in the market and had a street team that was out almost every day. The music was an interesting mix of classic rock, active rock and early alternative that was unlike anything I heard before or since. You could hear James Taylor, David Bowie, Nirvanna, Zep and Robert Cray in the same sweep. Lee Abrams himself was very involved with the station and came to Raleigh once or twice a year.
The strength of the personalities has already been discussed here, but the whole package was dominant in ratings and sales for six or seven years. WRDU was almost always number one with 25-54 adults and just about everything else....not just men. I remember we had a couple of books where we were #1 in women too. Now if that station came back, it would give fits to anyone with a transmitter in Raleigh. It was was live 24/7 and had a well tuned strategy that was executed to perfection.
Not to take anything away from what happened under the Capstar and later Clear Channel management....but those stations happened to be on the same dial position as "WRDU." No one in radio around here ever thought of them as "WRDU." If VODood and the rest had been around in 1992 they would know the difference. It was magic and that is what is missing today from most radio stations.
As bad as that story is, remember that it was now GM Dick Harlow whose first move was to install John Boy and Billy on WRDU and go Country, not Spitzer. He wanted a piece of the QDR pie, but so far has only managed to "grow" the station to 14th. That's a fairly significant fall from where the station was when it was perceived to be broken.
In addition, Harlow moved WRSN to WKSL and the Movin' format with Whoopi Goldberg in January of 2007 after their last decent Christmas book as soft AC. Now, they have given up the heritage Christmas station and are now flirting with WRDU as the lowest rated station in the cluster.
In addition, Harlow moved WRSN to WKSL and the Movin' format with Whoopi Goldberg in January of 2007 after their last decent Christmas book as soft AC. Now, they have given up the heritage Christmas station and are now flirting with WRDU as the lowest rated station in the cluster.
RDU4EVER said:
Lee Abrams? Ack. I'm sure WRDU was something back in the day, with less signals and competition. A more diverse playlist was possible due to less competition. There are many heritage rock stations that did the same thing. One example is WMMS/Cleveland. It broke Rush, Bowie, Springsteen and more. By the early 90s it was a shadow of what it once was. However, WMMS is now once again back on top.
jaybo said:
Harlow may have pulled the trigger to country, but Robbins and Spitzer are at fault for trying to make RDU a classic hits station... classic rock lite, which failed. Thus, Harlow could have tried to go back to classic rock, or country. IMO he should've re-booted the brand. RDU=Classic rock in the Triangle.
Less signals? Remember--RDU (along with WZZU and WTRG) was a move-in Arizona waiver station itself. From the mid-80s on, the Raleigh/Durham market's signal saturation was pretty much mature. The only new signals since then are lower power stations. No other big-ass Class Cs have come on the air here since about 1986.
Less competition? WRDU was sandwiched in, format-wise, between a decent all-classic rock station (WZZU) who were also running J B & B back when those guys didn't suck. On the other side was a pretty good heritage CHR (G105) that became a monster after Brian Burns came to town and gave it an edgier modern rock bent. In the midst of all this, WRDU still pulled numbers (and revenue) that no station in the market can claim today...(well, adjusted revenue dollars, that is).
WRDU played plenty of Zep, Pink Floyd, AC/DC etc. We just made sure to mix it up with new music, new artists, and a number of deeper tracks from the core artists. But the format was a kind of sleight of hand...making less sound like more. Now, don't get me wrong--we STILL rotated more tunes than virtually any standard main-stream rock station today. And we still caught a lot of grief from some people who thought we were just a commercial piece of crap. But the whole package was much greater than the sum of its parts. It also didn't hurt that we were live 24/7/365...speaking as someone who pulled shifts on Christmas, New Years, 3am, etc.
As one former 'RDU PD famously put it..."It's showbiz, babe". You don't need "less competition" for a more diverse playlist. You just need to know the market.
Sorry, I just had to defend the original 'RDU from people who weren't here back then.
-Tom Guild (WRDU MD/PD/DJ, 1984-1996)
Hey VODood! Are you the same guy as fM~3&x\g on another board? If not you have a twin who is almost always wrong and always p----d....just like you! WRDU = nothing anymore and one might argue it hasn't meant much since well before the turn of the millenium.
Adult Rank 25-54
Spring 2001 WRDU #8 WBBB #10
Spring 2002 WRDU #8 WBBB #10
Spring 2003 WRDU #8 WBBB #7
Spring 2004 WRDU #11 WBBB #8
Spring 2005 WRDU #9 WBBB #12
Spring 2006 WRDU #8 WBBB #10
Maybe Robbins and Spitzer weren't so wrong after all.
And well said Mr. Guild. Most of these guys have no idea....
Adult Rank 25-54
Spring 2001 WRDU #8 WBBB #10
Spring 2002 WRDU #8 WBBB #10
Spring 2003 WRDU #8 WBBB #7
Spring 2004 WRDU #11 WBBB #8
Spring 2005 WRDU #9 WBBB #12
Spring 2006 WRDU #8 WBBB #10
Maybe Robbins and Spitzer weren't so wrong after all.
And well said Mr. Guild. Most of these guys have no idea....
My favorite Charlotte station was on 106.1, but especially in the morning, even as late as 10, I got to hear "106-1 ARRRR DEEE YOUUU".
I remember actually liking the guitar solo on "December" by Collective Soul. I remember thinking "Fly Like an Eagle" sounded very strange on a station that played loud, mostly new rock. I actually see what was so great about Nirvana, and it's a good thing, since I heard a lot of their stuff. The best thing about AC/DC's "Back in Black" was the time Audrey Hepburn danced to it in a commercial.
I remember hearing "FM" by Steely Dan and finding out WRDU was playing something else. That's when I knew for sure a chimp had taken over MY station, and I proceeded to send that station the first email I ever sent. I typed "chimpanzee" on the subject line but made a typo. Guess what that was. From that day forward, I decided that should be my email address. Less than a week later the off-the-wall stuff was gone and Glenn Miller was back. But I could still hear WRDU a lot of the time.
I remember actually liking the guitar solo on "December" by Collective Soul. I remember thinking "Fly Like an Eagle" sounded very strange on a station that played loud, mostly new rock. I actually see what was so great about Nirvana, and it's a good thing, since I heard a lot of their stuff. The best thing about AC/DC's "Back in Black" was the time Audrey Hepburn danced to it in a commercial.
I remember hearing "FM" by Steely Dan and finding out WRDU was playing something else. That's when I knew for sure a chimp had taken over MY station, and I proceeded to send that station the first email I ever sent. I typed "chimpanzee" on the subject line but made a typo. Guess what that was. From that day forward, I decided that should be my email address. Less than a week later the off-the-wall stuff was gone and Glenn Miller was back. But I could still hear WRDU a lot of the time.
I was there... and it was a great radio station for many years. As listener I was quite upset when WQDR switched to Country but more than satisfied when WRDU hit the air. As a jock I always wish I could have worked there, especially during the Voyager years.
Great comments Tom!
As far as Harlow goes, I would be surprised if he or ANY OTHER CC GM is calling those shots.
Great comments Tom!
As far as Harlow goes, I would be surprised if he or ANY OTHER CC GM is calling those shots.
I am so sick of all of the re-hashing of WRDU and WTRG on these boards....they're gone, folks :
So history don't mean nothing?
How we gonna know what worked in the past if we don't figure it into the future choices?
How we gonna know what worked in the past if we don't figure it into the future choices?
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