WEEP 1080 Pittsburgh Composite
This is an interesting aircheck for a couple of reasons. First, you hear a 1980s version of the station in it’s Oldies incarnation, then it moves on to 1969 back to it’s days as a Country station.
For the jingle freaks, check out the female ‘Weep for Joy!’ cut… never heard anything like it.
From what I can gather doing a little research, WEEP began as a Top 40 station in 1961 after having been news for 7 months. They did Top 40 till 1965, then flipped to Country as you hear on this ‘check from 1969.
I can’t find any information as to when this became an Oldies station, or what the current format is - but I’d bet it’s now News Talk.
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You’d lose that bet on WEEP’s current format! Many years after splitting from the FM (now Viacom’s WDSY Y108 - and still country), WEEP is now WWNL. It’s not News/Talk, but Religious. “Radio That Changes the Way You Live.” During my 9 months in Da Burgh, I never heard a PEEP out of the former WEEP!
You might say, folks are WEEP’ing
bada-pshh
The DJ on the country portion here is none other than “Daddy” Dave Scott, formerly one of the Fun Lovin’ Five at KQV in the 60s (under PD John Rook). Dave Scott was a LONGTIME Pittsburgh radio guy, and was at KQV since the early 50s. He was part of the original airstaff when ABC took The Great 14 Top 40 in 1958. He left KQV in 1968 for Cleveland–he was a newsman at WIXY for a year–then came back to Pittsburgh in 1969 for a slot at WEEP. Dave Scott passed away in December 1996.
For what it’s worth, the “WEEP for joy!” slogan was used on WEEP jingles as far back as 1963 (with crude and tortured PAMS sonovox knockoffs), after the debut of the “In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania” jingles featured halfway through this exhibit.
WEEP- 1080 AM flipped formats from an All Business News format to the “Oldies Channel” in 1985, A Local and satellite fed Oldies format. Today 1080 AM is WWNL “New Life” a Christian talk format.
WEEP Pittsburgh was country until fall of 1986. I was the last country PD of the station. We flipped it to the Oldies channel in December of that year. First of the year in 1987 I left to program 610 KILT. The business channel thing didn’t happen for a year or two, then they went to some kind of satellite delivered country format for a short time around 1991.
It’s great to hear the old 1080 audio. The station has been owned by Wilkins since 2001, and runs a brokered Christian format. Talk to you soon!
-B.J. Forsyth
Station Manager
WWNL 1080-AM
I heard the “Weep for Joy” slogan in 1958. A fellow-student at Duquesne (I think his name was Carl Marcocy–something like that) was the Jack Armstrong at that time.With a friend, I drove out to the WEEP studios late at night and we sat in on the broadcast. It was Rock and not Country, I can tell you that.
After an internet search, I discovered that the Jack Armstrong I knew at Duquesne is Carl J. Marcocci, who started at WEEP in 1957. Today he owns radio stations in central Florida (WGUL is one of them). He had a terrific air personality in those echo friendly nineteen-fifties. Glad to see he succeeded in the business.
I was PD of WEEP from 1978-81. Was fun to hear this aircheck, especially my good friend Dave Anthony.
Nice to hear the old WEEP on 1080. When I was at the station in the late 60’s and early ’70’s it was still owned by Myron Jones out of Erie, Pa. (WJET) Roger Willoughby Ray was GM, Don Evans-PD. I was CE busy building the 50Kw AM tower site in Hampton Twp. It fired up in the summer of 1970. In addition to Daddy Dave Scott coming over from KQV …. they also had Steve Rieson (sp?) come over from KQV where he had done mornings for a while. Studios were in the Fulton Bldg. - 11th Floor. We watched 3 Rivers Stadium being built!