1 of 1- RadioActive
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Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
Can a one lung independently owned AM radio station on one of the worst frequencies make a go of it in 2017? The answer may be "yes" as far as WECK 1230 AM is concerned. The Cheektowaga outlet has been around for a long time, but it's getting what can only be called a legendary line-up.
As the format shifts from standards to Adult Favourites (whatever that means) the talent on display is, frankly, amazing. Consider:
Tom Donahue does mornings,
Jon Summers, another former WKBW jock, will fill 9 AM-noon.
Harv Moore, the one-time morning man at WYSL, takes over until 3.
Mike Jacobs, a veteran boasting call letters like WHTT and WYRK, does afternoon drive.
And Buddy Shula takes on evenings. What's remarkable about that last name is that he owns the station and is putting himself on during one of its lowest listening periods. Not only that, but every Friday afternoon, Danny Neaverth joins the fray.
John Zach is coming out of retirement to be WECK's main newscaster.
And to finish it off, Robert W. Taylor, who once co-hosted the WYSL-WPHD morning show with Moore, is the station voice.
That's a pretty powerful line-up for a station whose signal doesn't really go anywhere. Hopefully, its reputation will. I just wish they came in better over-the-air here.
Changes At WECK
Listen online
- Dale Patterson
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Re: Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
RadioActive wrote:
Can a one lung independently owned AM radio station on one of the worst frequencies make a go of it in 2017? The answer may be "yes" as far as WECK 1230 AM is concerned. The Cheektowaga outlet has been around for a long time, but it's getting what can only be called a legendary line-up.
As the format shifts from standards to Adult Favourites (whatever that means) the talent on display is, frankly, amazing. Consider:
Tom Donahue does mornings,
Jon Summers, another former WKBW jock, will fill 9 AM-noon.
Harv Moore, the one-time morning man at WYSL, takes over until 3.
Mike Jacobs, a veteran boasting call letters like WHTT and WYRK, does afternoon drive.
And Buddy Shula takes on evenings. What's remarkable about that last name is that he owns the station and is putting himself on during one of its lowest listening periods. Not only that, but every Friday afternoon, Danny Neaverth joins the fray.
John Zach is coming out of retirement to be WECK's main newscaster.
And to finish it off, Robert W. Taylor, who once co-hosted the WYSL-WPHD morning show with Moore, is the station voice.
That's a pretty powerful line-up for a station whose signal doesn't really go anywhere. Hopefully, its reputation will. I just wish they came in better over-the-air here.
Changes At WECK
Listen online
Live and local lives!
But surprisingly, there's nothing on the web site promoting this.
Last edited by Dale Patterson (June 10, 2017 8:09 am)
"Life without echo is really no life at all." - Dan Ingram
- mace
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Re: Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
I believe these changes are to take effect July 10th. A little history for you. The station signed on in Aug 1956 as WNIA for Niagara Falls. Call letters were changed much later to WECK to tie in with the Buffalo food favourite "Beef on Weck" Since 1981, the station's format has been of the Easy Listening/MOR/Adult Standards variety. There was a short failed attempt at talk radio. Throughout most of the 80's, this 1000 watt almost unheard of station in Cheektowaga was averaging a 7 share and beating everyone in the Buffalo market except for then king WBEN. Personally, I will check the station out. I loved Taylor & Moore when they did AM Drive on WPHD. While WECK has a "fair" daytime signal in some parts of the GTA, it will be nice to hear the station on line. It would be nice if one could do the same thing with WJJL. Now there is a station with an extremely deep oldies catalogue.
- Old Codger
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Re: Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
Live and local lives!
I believe that YOU are right sir. They just need to give it a reasonable amount of time. Even live and local does not necessarily grab everything it's going to end up with over night. Hopefully they've all signed 'on' for a minimum of 3 years. By then? They should be kickin' some keester.
- RadioActive
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Re: Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
I believe these changes are to take effect July 10th. A little history for you. The station signed on in Aug 1956 as WNIA for Niagara Falls.
Ah yes, WNIA. What I remember most about that incarnation of the station at 1230 is that their afternoon guy was named “Mike Melody.”
In fact, ALL their afternoon drive guys were named “Mike Melody.”
The station had a rather odious policy of forcing whoever occupied that air slot to use that name. That way, if there was ever a dispute with the on-air talent and he either quit or was fired, someone else would take his place, with the supposed notion that the listener would never notice there was a “new “Mike Melody” on the air there. I believe they also did this with several other shifts.
I’m not sure how many other stations used this method of fake consistency (as well as obviously trying to intimidate the talent - "You can be replaced with another Mike Melody!"), but to my mind it’s highly unethical and I’m pretty sure that practice has long since died out.
Good thing, too.
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Thread Starter- Peter the K
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Re: Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
Live and local lives!
I believe that YOU are right sir. They just need to give it a reasonable amount of time. Even live and local does not necessarily grab everything it's going to end up with over night. Hopefully they've all signed 'on' for a minimum of 3 years. By then? They should be kickin' some keester.
I'll second that. What's going to be really neat about this is that the old guard are flocking to WECK not to have a gig, but to have some fun and enjoy doing what they love.
It sort of reminds me of when CFCA in Kitchener flipped from beautiful music to KOOL-FM. The very popular on-air staff just walked over to community radio station CKWR and did their thing there for a while until they were actually ready to retire. It was actually so popular that the new proprietors of KOOL-FM were threatening to sue the old staff.
But back to WECK, it's going to be radio by people who love the craft and not just reading liners. I'll have to listen in.
- Old Codger
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Re: Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
Ah yes, WNIA. What I remember most about that incarnation of the station at 1230 is that their afternoon guy was named “Mike Melody.”
In fact, ALL their afternoon drive guys were named “Mike Melody.”
The station had a rather odious policy of forcing whoever occupied that air slot to use that name. That way, if there was ever a dispute with the on-air talent and he either quit or was fired, someone else would take his place, with the supposed notion that the listener would never notice there was a “new “Mike Melody” on the air there.
So when 'Mike' went away on vacation or took a sick day and, subsequently, the mid-day guy stayed later and the evening guy started earlier in order to cover off the shift...we're they both Mike for the hour[s], for the day...or for the week[s] in question? Seems beyond stupid.
Did they have singing jingles which included the 'jocks' names and ownership was TOO cheap to get new ones recorded? That HAD to have been why...no?
- RadioActive
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Re: Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
I doubt that scenario of name changing extended to vacations, but frankly my exposure to this kind of thing was admittedly limited. However I believe the reason was simply to make it easier to get rid of people without seemingly affecting the consistency of the station's perceived "personalities." It was a low powered station at 1230 on the dial, one of the worst propagating spots on the AM radio spectrum. (One of the so-called "graveyard" frequencies that also includes 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490.)
So my guess is it didn't pay all that much and the place may well have been a revolving door as far as talent was concerned. Rather than have a "new" afternoon jock every few months, "Mike Melody" was assigned to whoever was hired to work that shift - and to the uninformed listener, it sounded like he was there for years. And it stopped anyone who might be great enough to move on to one of the bigger stations in the market from taking his audience with him.
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Thread Starter- Old Codger
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Re: Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
So then this guy/these guys were never gonna make it to 'To Tell the Truth.'
Would the REAL Mike Melody please stand up... ... ...after much shuffling... ... ...they ALL stand up.
[along with half the people in the audience and 2 people on the panel.]
- RadioActive
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Re: Small AM Station Becoming Unlikely Home To Buffalo Radio All-Stars
From Alan Pergament's Buffalo News column:
"WECK's new owner William Ostrander, who goes by the radio name Buddy Shula, had an answer when asked how he is going to pay all the old-timers – including John Zach, Jon Summers, Harv Moore and Danny Neaverth – that he has hired to work starting on July 10. "I'm going to pay them by selling more advertising," said Shula. Love the optimism."
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