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WTAC, THE BIG 6
- Thread starter cingram
- Start date
A
AlGarcia
Guest
I used to love WTAC the Big 6 growing up in Flint in the 70's. Best AM rock station in Michigan at the time. Used to do a local weekly countdown of the most requested records of the week. Local record store had these little cards with the WTAC Top 10 of the week. There is some stories of the history of WTAC on www.flintexpats.com. Its a great site for people who have moved away. Also, American Top Forty was on Sunday mornings. Think it went to an all talk format in the 80's. Country a few years later and now it has different call letters and is a religious station. Ive been in Maine for 21 years now so not sure whats happening at the station.
A
AlGarcia
Guest
And they took down the beautiful four tower array in Grand Blanc. Signal is now iffy in some places.
FredRichards said:
Hardly "iffy".
Many holes in the market, due to that old 4 tower parallelagram pattern are now filled in. Midland now enjoys coverage that they never have and the station shows in their Arbitron "in tabs".
4 new, more efficient, 370 foot towers with a real ground system are doing well. You can even hear it in Fenton. The station still gets response from the north part of the Detroit market.
I remember WTAC, barely, but it was good stuff back in 1959. Well, I was just ten years old when my family moved from Bay City to the orange groves of Central California. Dubbayou Tack, as I remember it being called. I wonder, how long was that name used on air? Dubbayou Tack. WTAC was on the clock radio that woke me up every morning. At my new home, 30 miles from the nearest radio station that played Top 40, I became a DXer. Trying to pick WTAC! Hey, I was 10, I didn't realize it was a hopeless endeavor. So, eventually, I settled for KYNO, Fresno, tho at night their pattern change forced me to DX for stations from 200 miles away, LA, actually, KRLA and KFWB.
Well, in the spring of '62 one of the 'old fogey' stations in Fresno, KMAK, 1340kc, dropped the Montovani elevator music; dropped the K-mack name and became K-Make/134. WOWZER! What a sound they had!! Bing!! Bang!! THIS was something new!! Suddenly, KYNO which was easily pulling huge ratings, had some serious competition! "The Battle of Fresno" was ON. K/MAKe was programmed by a guy out of Hawaii, Ron Jacobs. The owner of KYNO hired Bill Drake. Three years later, when the smoke had cleared, Jocobs and Drake joined forces. The rest is history as they say. Boss Radio was the result. Born and perfected at KYNO. From there, Bill Drake, Ron Jacobs and a fellow named Mike Joseph dominated Top 40 radio wherever their format was put on air from coast to coast.
Why did I go off on a rant about Fresno and Boss Radio on a thread about WTAC? Well, there's been a LOT written about Bill Drake, Ron Jacobs and Boss Radio, but, I am wondering; who is Mike Joseph? I only saw mention of him as being a part of the Drake/Jacobs Boss Radio team in the book, "The Hits Just Keep Coming". The book said Joseph came to join the team from WTAC, and I am wondering if he was there as early as 1959 when I last heard WTAC. Does anybody on this board remember listening to WTAC that far back? Where could I find some online air checks of W-TAC? Could there possibly be any from the late 50s or early 60s that have survived the years to be posted online?
Well, in the spring of '62 one of the 'old fogey' stations in Fresno, KMAK, 1340kc, dropped the Montovani elevator music; dropped the K-mack name and became K-Make/134. WOWZER! What a sound they had!! Bing!! Bang!! THIS was something new!! Suddenly, KYNO which was easily pulling huge ratings, had some serious competition! "The Battle of Fresno" was ON. K/MAKe was programmed by a guy out of Hawaii, Ron Jacobs. The owner of KYNO hired Bill Drake. Three years later, when the smoke had cleared, Jocobs and Drake joined forces. The rest is history as they say. Boss Radio was the result. Born and perfected at KYNO. From there, Bill Drake, Ron Jacobs and a fellow named Mike Joseph dominated Top 40 radio wherever their format was put on air from coast to coast.
Why did I go off on a rant about Fresno and Boss Radio on a thread about WTAC? Well, there's been a LOT written about Bill Drake, Ron Jacobs and Boss Radio, but, I am wondering; who is Mike Joseph? I only saw mention of him as being a part of the Drake/Jacobs Boss Radio team in the book, "The Hits Just Keep Coming". The book said Joseph came to join the team from WTAC, and I am wondering if he was there as early as 1959 when I last heard WTAC. Does anybody on this board remember listening to WTAC that far back? Where could I find some online air checks of W-TAC? Could there possibly be any from the late 50s or early 60s that have survived the years to be posted online?
mofocat said:
Mike Joseph went to WTAC (from Fetzer's WLAV) in about '55 and took it top 50. He rose to group programming manager at the parent company, and then he went briefly to WMAX in Grand Rapids and in, roughly, 1958 on to the already legendary WKBW in Buffalo. Then came, in 1960, the format conversion of WABC in New York, followed by Keener in Detroit and WFIL in Philadelphia and then consulting, including stations like WKAQ in San Juan in 1968.
In the 70's, he developed Hot Hits, which was very successful on a bunch of FM CHR stations.
As far as I know, he never worked with Drake or his organization.
WLAV was actually owned by Leonard A. Versluis. WJEF was then owned by John E. Fetzer. They were two of the initial call stations, very popular at the time.
F
FreddyE1977
Guest
When I lived there they were scuffling along with religious programming and a
rather spotty signal.
rather spotty signal.
U
Unregistered
Guest
Wtac
I grew up in the 'thumb' and WTAC was one of our favorite stations. On the farm, I'd listen to them while doing chores in the barn (those tube radios had large speakers!). What I also loved was hearing the news, too, to catch up on current events before school. WTAC was my older brother's favorite station and he'd often change my sister's radio dial to it, just to make her mad!
I grew up in the 'thumb' and WTAC was one of our favorite stations. On the farm, I'd listen to them while doing chores in the barn (those tube radios had large speakers!). What I also loved was hearing the news, too, to catch up on current events before school. WTAC was my older brother's favorite station and he'd often change my sister's radio dial to it, just to make her mad!
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