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WGRF To Alter Format This Weekend Only In Tribute To Jim Santella
The veteran DJ, who passed away last week, was the morning man for five years at what was then WGRQ, and while he worked at many other Buffalo stations (spending his entire career in the Queen City) he may be best remembered for that gig.
Now the station where he ruled the roost is paying tribute to the progressive rock pioneer by temporarily changing format on the weekend to honour him. The station says they will take listeners back to the days when it had what it calls a "Q-FM" format, before it took on its present persona.
"Back in the Q-FM-97 days, Jim was the only DJ to work every year that the station was Q-FM and made his impact each and every year as a friend to all on and off the radio."
I'm not entirely sure what the "Q-FM" format was, because I wasn't listening to the station by that time. But this is certainly a nice tribute in honour of a Buffalo radio pioneer. And I'll be tuning in to hear what they do.
97 Rock: Remembering The Father of Progressive Radio
The Buffalo News has published his official obit, which details his many trips around the Buffalo radio dial, along with a few surprises - including that he was fired from WYSL-FM after he pranked a fellow DJ, played drums in a jazz band, and quit WPHD on his birthday over lack of freedom in playlist issues.
You can read it here.
- Jody Thornton
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Re: WGRF To Alter Format This Weekend Only In Tribute To Jim Santella
Sort of related, but this reminds me of when 103.3 WPHD became "97 Rock" for a single weekend. I believe it was in 1987. At the time on 96.9 MHz was WGR-FM, which was the AC station. Of course 97 Rock did eventually return.
Cheers,
Jody Thornton
- Fitz
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Re: WGRF To Alter Format This Weekend Only In Tribute To Jim Santella
I would say that there's a bit of revisionism going on here. I remember that Jim Santella quit WPHD because of format tightening but I was surprised when he turned up on Q -FM 97 as that was a much tighter station and in fact was an example of early AOR masterminded by Lee Abrams. Buffalo's WBUF FM was a much better option for me during that era as they still retained a free form ethic.
I do have some Jim Santella from the relatively free form WUWUFM that I recorded on a really bad tape on slow speed and that reel to reel tape for some reason recorded on the shiny side. I have the entire hour that I recorded on the web site but here is a little snip from that:
Jim Santella WUWU
Last edited by Fitz (May 15, 2024 12:08 pm)
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- mace
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Re: WGRF To Alter Format This Weekend Only In Tribute To Jim Santella
Jody Thornton wrote:
Sort of related, but this reminds me of when 103.3 WPHD became "97 Rock" for a single weekend. I believe it was in 1987. At the time on 96.9 MHz was WGR-FM, which was the AC station. Of course 97 Rock did eventually return.
Actually during the station's AC era from 1985-88, the call letters were WRLT.
- Jody Thornton
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Re: WGRF To Alter Format This Weekend Only In Tribute To Jim Santella
Actually during the station's AC era from 1985-88, the call letters were WRLT.
Thanks Mace. Hmmm, why do I distinctively remember hearing WGR as calls on that station during the period? I remember an imaging voice that reminded me of Robert W Morgan, but he was used on Channel 2 in Buffalo as well.
Anyway, maybe my memory is foggier than I feared ...lol
Cheers,
Jody Thornton
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Re: WGRF To Alter Format This Weekend Only In Tribute To Jim Santella
I'm not sure what years you're referring to, but it was WGR-FM for many years, as an automated oldies station. I remember listening to it before it became WGRQ, a full fledged Top 40 outlet with actual on-air announcers starting in 1973.
You can hear the official sign-on, including the final ever WGR-FM jingle, that happened at exactly midnight on New Year's Eve of that year, here.
(Thanks to Dale Patterson's Rock Radio Scrapbook for the clip.)
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Thread Starter- mace
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Re: WGRF To Alter Format This Weekend Only In Tribute To Jim Santella
I'm not sure what years you're referring to, but it was WGR-FM for many years, as an automated oldies station. I remember listening to it before it became WGRQ, a full fledged Top 40 outlet with actual on-air announcers starting in 1973.
You can hear the official sign-on, including the final ever WGR-FM jingle, that happened at exactly midnight on New Year's Eve of that year, here.
(Thanks to Dale Patterson's Rock Radio Scrapbook for the clip.)
Yes I remember that oldies format. I listened to it, when I could receive it on my parent's first AM/FM table radio. The SuperQ Top 40 format began in in early 1973, as I recall. The AC WRLT information is from Wikipedia.