Tony Pigg on WPLJ New York | 1977 (4:49)
Here’s another ‘QuickCheck’ - one of those short clips that you gotta pay attention to or it’ll play out on ya.
Tony Pigg is heard here on WPLJ - I believe this was recorded sometime around the same time period as the big 1977 blackout - probably afterward. My guess is that contributor Matt Seinberg would know exactly when.
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95.5 wplj was new york’s top album oriented rock radio station. they adopted programming consultant lee abrams “superstars of rock” format which placed emphasis on familiarity with rock artists and several tracks from their albums as oppossed to hearing just the initial single in a repetitive manner. a typical radio listener who listened to wplj fm at that time would already be familiarized with several cuts off the albums of the artists like the eagles, fleetwood mac, pink floyd, and boston.in this particular aircheck,tony pigg mixes the stones angie,with traffic’s low spark and you will also hear a smidge of the title track from boston’s follow up to their debut album “don’t look back.” tony pigg also was an on air talent on wxrk (k-rock) when it was still a classic rock station and then he moved to wnew fm and played music in the evening. tony pigg, pat st.john and carol miller are just a few of the legendary rock radio personalities that migrated to wnew- fm after wplj instituted a contemporary hit radio format. arguably, wplj and wnew fm were the two best rock stations in the new york market. ironically, neither of these stations play any classic rock today but, they paved the way for other rock stations to follow.by listening to either of these radio stations you could easily determine whether or not you wanted to purchase an album or not.
Based on the Styx song Renegade, the mention of Billy Joel’s 52nd street and the weather report, this probably was first aired in Sept/Oct 1978 or March/April 1979. I came of age to WPLJ when it was at it’s height of AOR superiority, just before The Apple (WAPP) decided to crash the party, then Z-100 killed off AOR. This short aircheck brought back a lot of memories, though I don’t remember ‘PLJ jocks or format being this bland though, nonethless WPLJ was the best of the best, and it was great to hear it again.
Listening to KPIG from Freedom, CA tonight, they’re playing Won’t Get Fooled Again by the Who takes me back when that song was played in 1971 by Tony Pigg DJ on KQV FM Pittsburgh. Thanks Tony.
I grew up at Wplj, literally. Spent most of my time after school with the on-air dj’s in the booth, at concerts, and industry events for almost all of the 70’s. My step-father(ex) was head of promotion and advertising at ‘plj from roughly 69-80. Needless to say I was blessed by this exposure to so many characters and so much good music. I have a wealth of stories(from the eyes of a child/young teen) of this marvelous radio station whose free form playlist allowed dj’s to concentrate on the artist rather than having to behave like an automaton by following a program director’s playlist. As we all know it eventually morphed and disintegrated into another clear channel-like robot station, but I am entirely greatful I was there for the best years. More frequently than not, Pat St. John, Tony Pigg and Zacherly let me say the stations id as well as the last song/lp side played. Another advantage of being the daughter of a promotion god, was that I got to hand out lp’s, t-shirts, buttons, stickers and other promotional material to folks attending concerts that ‘plj broadcasted live. My experiences growing up on Ave of the Americas lead me to singing, and I have been performing with a variety of bands since I was 15. Most recently I’ve toured, the world with a California roots reggae band as their one and only back-up singer. I also do session work as a vocalist and some voice-over. In undergrad school in South Jersey from 91-95, I finally got to get my dj fix by having my own on air show on WLFR 91.7 fm entitled Alphabet City. Being at Wplj through most of my formative years truly helped inform my deep abiding respect and love for music and radio culture and radio personalities. Thanks universe.
I happened to be watching Live with Regis and Kelly today. Tony Pigg is the announcer for the show and I wondered whether Tony was DJing anymore. I searched for Tony and I happened to find your site. Listening to these sound bites has brought me back to my early teen years listening to Tony and the other DJ’s on “PLJ” and WNEW in the mornings before school and then after school as well.
Thanks for memories Airchexx.
Jim V