Muffaraw Joe wrote:

Here is a pretty good list of what makes a Great Top 40 station and then a list of 20 of the best Top 40 radio stations...most are American, but closer to home CHUM FM got the nod, and so did Buffalo's WKBW...

Enjoy the read, and as always, feel free to comment and add your thoughts!



https://radioink.com/2017/08/21/greatest-top-40-stations-time/

They are referring to CHUM-AM, not CHUM-FM.
 

Radiowiz wrote:

It's amazing CFTR and AM 640 lasted as long as they did as hit music stations. 
With a good antenna one could easily pick up both WKSE and Magic 102 in the 80's and early 90's.

 

Funny though.  As great as Rock 102 sounded in the early 80s, I still enjoyed CKOC and CFTR to a lesser extent.
I am surprised that CFTR didn't make the list, especially towards the end of its run.  Apparently, there was a mention of the station in the New York Times, mentioning how solid its execution of the CHR format was.  This was just after the station went all-news.
 

Although I will always have a fondness for the pre-Drake CHUM, the feistiness of CKFH and the brilliance of the early CFTR, none of them would make my top spot. I’m probably the only person on the planet who would pick WNBC-AM in New York City, around 1975 or so.
 
That’s when the station went heavy personality in an all-out war with then rival WABC. This version of the “Great 66” was simply unbelievable. Names like Imus in the Morning, Vernon with a V, Dick Summer and the best of the best, Oogie Pringle, were doing things I’ve still never heard since on the radio.
 
I remember a Halloween night broadcast when Pringle did the entire show as “Oogie’s Ghoulfriend,” using a Dracula-like accent. And I mean the entire show, including all the live spots. It was mind blowingly funny. Or during the time of the Soviet Union, when they pretended that Radio Moscow took over the airwaves and they did a traffic report noting all the roads into the city were blocked because the yak died. (This was long before SCTV did something similar on television.)
 
You just never knew what they were going to do on any given day and it was must listen here as soon as the sun went down. My runner-up would be WGAR-AM Cleveland, which had a roster of “all day morning men,” including John Lanigan In The Morning, the same Vernon with a V and the absolutely amazing Real Bob James.
 
It’s no coincidence that John Lund was the P.D. of both stations. Those formats and those stations are long gone now (WNBC was sold and closed, and WFAN occupies the 660 frequency, while WGAR is now a country format on FM) but it’s been over 40 years and I still remember them with great fondness. Both are the ones you think of when they say ‘they don’t do that kind of radio anymore.’
 
I just wish they did. Because I’d still be listening.

RadioActive wrote:

I’m probably the only person on the planet who would pick WNBC-AM in New York City, around 1975 or so.
 
That’s when the station went heavy personality in an all-out war with then rival WABC. This version of the “Great 66” was simply unbelievable. Names like Imus in the Morning, Vernon with a V, Dick Summer and the best of the best, Oogie Pringle, were doing things I’ve still never heard since on the radio.

RA, you'll want to hear this...



 

I'll take WKBW during the Jeff Kaye era (1966-73) any day.

DeepTracks wrote:

Dial Twister wrote:

WNNNNNNNNNNNNNNBC 

 

Yep.