Jody Thornton wrote:

Davester wrote:

Great thread!
Growing up in Toronto in the late 70's and early 80's listening to Rock 102 with Roger Christian.  
It was great when they were automated because it didn't take you long to figure out what song was coming next so that you could tape it.
Good times.

I would stick BASF 90 minute Chrome tapes in my deck and hit record.  The sound quality was stellar for the time.

I noticed that in the morning Roger Christian would cut in between the automation reels.  Sounded almost out of place ...lol
 

Jody this is probably a bit early for you. I have preserved some FM top 40 type tapes and you may have heard them before. I was more into free form  in 1973 and it's a shame that I don't have any tape of WGRQ at the time but they would play things that were getting a lot of air play on FM along with the top 40 hits. I think Top 40 radio as heard on FM was a bit of a renaissance during 1972-1974 and Top 40 generally in this area got a nice boost from the punk and new wave from 1978  to the early 80's 

I have a bunch of tapes from WVBF FM and WBZ FM Boston from 1973 that come closest to what WGRQ was doing at the time. The three examples below are among the best and generally not many problems with the tapes. WVBF's ID's are a highlight.

WBZ 1973

Second clip:
WVBF 1973

Second clip:
More WVBF 1973


 

Last edited by Fitz (January 1, 2019 2:17 pm)

Chuck99 wrote:

My comment was not meant to be derogatory toward the Top 40 format at WGRQ.  In fact, I agree, it would be cool to hear an air check since it basically followed the legendary Drake format.  Its just that Top 40 kind of fell out of favor with myself and my teenage friends in the mid to late 70s. 

And you are correct that WGRQ did occasionally play some longer tracks such as Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.

Actually Chuck I did not take you comment as derogatory towards WGRQ . I would say in fact that in 1973 they were quite beyond Drake as I remember them playing stuff that did not make the top 40 or the obvious album track hits by Pink Floyd and Led Zep. Was a rather short window and not everyone might have caught it and that's why it would be great to hear some air checks because as Top 40 it was more creative than anything else I can remember in this area and that includes the AM stations from Toronto and Buffalo. That format was actually better than what they had when they converted to album rock but thankfully WBUF came along and restored the true progressive banner in Buffalo after the demise of WPHD.

In terms of true progressive commercial stations in Buffalo it would be WYSL/WPHD, WBUF and later WZIR and WUWU. I was able to save tape from these stations and one of the best examples is this one from 1980. The ad for Dr Labotomy and Signals from Space at around the 12:00 mark and other gonzoisms make it an interesting listen.:
John Farrel WZIR renegade Radio @ it's Best

 

Last edited by Fitz (January 2, 2019 8:31 am)

RadioActive wrote:

Not sure how many remember when WGRQ was just WGR-FM - and they were an automated oldies station. This would have been just prior to 1973. There were no announcers, just a voice over I.D. that said, "WGR-FM Buffalo" followed by a simple jingle that sang "Solid Gold!"

Dale Patterson's Rock Radio Scrapbook has the actual birth of WGRQ, which began at exactly midnight Jan. 1, 1973, with J.J. Jordan doing the honours.



      

That was very nice to hear and I don't recall the disco format but I think it was during their oldies tenure that one night I remember them playing more obscure garage rock. Also this was a bit later, maybe around 1975. I recall  automated oldies at the frequency that became WHTT. I don't remember the exact dates but I think the frequency was a bit weaker and they played off what sounded like very thin tape. Just sounded different than any other radio station.
 

Chuck99 wrote:

After some thought, it is puzzling that the WGRQ format with live DJs did not last very long.  Rock 102 was voice-tracked for years, yet was more successful.  Go figure!

Like I said, I loved Rock 102 in the late 70s and 80s.  The sound was unbelievable (for the time).  They also had unique custom radio edits and song versions (or at least TM Stereo Rock did - the outfit that they used).  I remember the service biting the dust on 102.5 in late August 1984.

There was a station in Jamestown which was WWSE (SE93), and between 1987 and 1992 I heard a very similar automated format, which was mostly AC formatted.  It was a different voice than John Borders, and he only backsold a single current.  John Borders would backsell two of them.

I wonder if SE93 was also using Stereo Rock.
 

Jody Thornton wrote:

I remember Rock 102 breaking format in October or November 1980 for that faux live concert (Satcon One).  They just used records, added echo and audience cheers, and made it sound like a worldwide concert.  One odd this was hearing Supertramp's "Dreamer" on "Live from Paris, already being a live recording, and then mixed in like it was a concert with the other records.

Now there was an entertainment new segment added on the weekends here and there on Rock 102.  I thought it might've been hosted/voiced by the late Robert W. Morgan, but I might be incorrect there.  does anyone remember it?

This is a terrific thread.
 

I remember when I was still an AM listener just post woodstock and during the festival fever. Either CHUM or CKFH had a weekend devoted to a fake festival. I was disappointed because there was very little actual live content and it felt a bit like when acts lip sync during supposed live performances. They had all kinds of extra stuff to make it sound live like the acts walking up to the stage and such. I have an air check which I have not listened to in ages maybe from the mid 1980's where WNEW FM did something similar and I think they called it Fantasy Island.
 

Last edited by Fitz (January 2, 2019 7:39 pm)

Just read the reelradio write up on Rufus Coyote. Wow you learn something everyday. I was a regular WPHD  listener and had no idea they were a Maclendon station. I recorded a tape of an announcer named Ken Weir on WPHD in Nov 1972 when their format was being watered down. Later I got a tape made of KNUS FM  Dallas ( a Maclendon station) where one of the announcers sounded very much like Ken Weir ( he did not say his name) and I always wondered if it was him. That seems more likely now.

Last edited by Fitz (January 2, 2019 10:45 pm)

Fitz wrote:

Jody Thornton wrote:

I remember Rock 102 breaking format in October or November 1980 for that faux live concert (Satcon One).  They just used records, added echo and audience cheers, and made it sound like a worldwide concert.  One odd this was hearing Supertramp's "Dreamer" on "Live from Paris, already being a live recording, and then mixed in like it was a concert with the other records.

Now there was an entertainment new segment added on the weekends here and there on Rock 102.  I thought it might've been hosted/voiced by the late Robert W. Morgan, but I might be incorrect there.  does anyone remember it?

This is a terrific thread.
 

I remember when I was still an AM listener just post woodstock and during the festival fever. Either CHUM or CKFH had a weekend devoted to a fake festival. I was disappointed because there was very little actual live content and it felt a bit like when acts lip sync during supposed live performances. They had all kinds of extra stuff to make it sound live like the acts walking up to the stage and such. I have an air check which I have not listened to in ages maybe from the mid 1980's where WNEW FM did something similar and I think they called it Fantasy Island.
 

Some background on Fantasy Park, and a demo:

http://reelradio.com/bw/index.html#fpdemo75
 

Speaking of Buffalo radio, it turns out one of the true greats absolutely hated the Top 40 format. That's what led George "Hound Dog" Lorenz to start WBLK-FM, which is still considered one of the radio pioneers in the U.S. even today. 

I found this fun little article in the Buffalo News about Lorenz. It's from last August but because it talks about Buffalo radio history, it can't really be called dated. My favourite story in it relates what happened when the Hound was working at WKBW-AM and they switched to a Top 40 format - which he despised. 

"Lorenz wanted nothing to do with a Top-40 format, and was known to give the time and temperature at the beginning of his show, and told listeners to "set their clocks and thermometers, because that was the last time they were going to hear that for the next four hours."

No wonder he wasn't there very long!

Buffalo in the 50s: The Hound's rock 'n' roll memory time 

The author, by the way, is longtime broadcast veteran Steve Cichon, who has a wonderful site about Buffalo radio and the city itself. If you've never seen it and you love the radio that came out of that city, it's worth a look here. The story about the history of WNIA ("never more than 60 seconds without music!") is worth the (free) price of admission.