Plus Pages

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Saturday Aircheck: Hot Hits WCAU-FM Philly From May 1983

WCAU FM, Hot Hits 98. May 1983. Scoped Aircheck of Overnight (Christy Springfield), Mornings (Barsky, new to CAU), and Richard Hawkins.


Program consultant Mike Joseph was brought into WCAU-FM in April 1981 to develop a new format to replace the struggling "Mellow Rhythm." Joseph recommended that the station go Top 40. On September 22, 1981, at Midnight, the new format at WCAU-FM debuted: an all-current-hits, high-energy, jingle-intensive Top 40 sound dubbed "Hot Hits" (a format first used by Joseph at WTIC-FM/Hartford, Connecticut in 1977), using the on-air name "98 Now." WCAU-FM's ratings showed an immediate improvement, and subsequently, FM stations in major markets such as Chicago, Detroit and San Francisco picked up the "Hot Hits" format.

WCAU-FM found a great deal of success with this programming for much of the mid-1980s, although the original "Fusion" jingles were dropped in the summer of 1982 and replaced with a package from JAM to increase appeal to older listeners. Some notable jocks on the station in this period included Paul Barsky, Terry Young and Christy Springfield. CBS soon developed a variation on "Hot Hits" called "Hitradio," and switched all their FM stations except WCBS-FM - including WCAU-FM - to it.

In 1987, WCAU-FM found itself with stiff competition in the CHR format from WEGX, "Eagle 106". CBS decided that their station could be more profitable appealing to an older, more desirable demographic of 25-54 year olds. On November 9, 1987, WCAU-FM flipped to an oldies format as WOGL (which stood for "Old Gold"). On the same day, WIOQ shifted to oldies as well. For the next year, the stations competed for Philadelphia's FM oldies audience, until WIOQ dropped the format early in 1989.

98 WOGL-FM was a clone of 101 WCBS-FM in New York at the time. Glenn Kalina hosts the midday show, shortly after WCAU-FM dropped Hot Hits, and became Oldies 98 WOGL-FM. Jan 1988.

1 comment:

  1. November Ninth 1987 - The Final Day Of 98 'CAU-FM in Philly.

    ReplyDelete