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!
I’d have to say my two favorite stations were NYC’s WHN and WEEP. I listened to WHN(when I could get it) from ‘79 to ‘87. WEEP was probably my favorite, owing to the fact that I lived(and still do) in West Virginia. I’d positively DIG it if WEEP and WHN could come back as classic country stations. Something to think about, huh?
Thank you, Gary.
I appreciate your good words about WEEP and WHN.
What a lot of folks are missing is that the original WEEP (for joy!~) had as it’s on-air staff Perry Marshall, Tony Graham (later PD at KDKA) John Christian (Sir Walter Raleigh). It was largely owned by one John Kluge who went on to found MetroMedia. It was also the first real Top-40 radio station in Pittsburgh, in very late 1957 or very early 1958, predating the ABC-owned incarnation of Top-40 KQV. WEEP’s main problem is tht it was only a daytime AM at the time. Myron Jones purchased the station in,I believe, 1969 with the intent of getting it on the air full-time. His plan had been to change the city of license from Pittsburgh to Mt. Oliver PA, and change frequency from 1080 to 1070 AM KHZ, with 500 watts daytime and 1,000 nightime directional pattern. The FCC would not approve the application. Thereafter, Mr. Jones applied for daytime directional 50,000 watts at 1080AM, with provsion for 25,000-wattts-critical hours. This application was approved. Eventually, the station added FM. Finally, ownership of the station was decided in courts with the apparent final decision forcing Jones to sell the station to Joseph Fields. Many knowledgable folks think that, if WEEP had become a 24-hour AM operation in the early 1960’s, it would have taken KQV for quite a ride. Myron Jones also owned top-40 stations WHOT in Youngstown, Ohio and WJET in Erie PA. Both stations dominated their markets.
Would really like to get in touch with Bob Brandon who posted here earlier. I worked briefly at WEEP in the Fulton Building shortly after the 50 KW went on the air, was one of the guys who came down from Youngstown temporarily when the station underwent a change in format. I worked for Myron at WHOT in Youngstown for 40 years, retiring a few years ago.
I was born in Pittsburgh in 1949. While I grew up listening to KDKA on crystal sets, the first real rock and roll station I remember was WEEP. I heard several of Mother’s friends had asked technicians to fix table radios so they wouldn’t receive WEEP and apparently a few actually managed the trick. (Though Mother had been a professor of voice at Georgia State Womens’ College and Pittsburgh’s PMI, she encouraged me to listen to rock and roll, hoping it would make me fit in better in school. Father dismissed rock and roll as junk till he became a bigger Beatle fan than I was, but that’s another story.)
Summer nights, I’d listen to WEEP on my red Travelr transistor radio till the station signed off. I was a loyal fan till I discovered the 24 hour KQV in mid-summer, 1961.
In 1987 or so I was job hunting and I stopped in at the studios of WEEP. To me, it felt like a visit to a shrine, but the young staff, mostly in their twenties, were surprised to learn WEEP had once been Pittsburgh’s premier rock and roll station. I suddenly felt very old. It was enough to make me weep.
Now this is a total throwback. My father was a big listener to WEEP and I was forced to go along in the car as he wouldn’t go anywhere near KQV. I’ve heard all the airchexx of Dave Scott and Steve Reisen on KQV but had no idea they moved across the street. WEEP for JOY! I didn’t realize how good the station sounded back then. Thanks!
I grew up in Plum Borough east of Pittsburgh in the 1950’s. I still remember the first day WEEP went top 40. They played “Just Born” by Perry Como EVERY record for the entire 1st day! It was quite a station. The best jingle…”In Pittsburgh Pennsylvania WEEP, where the music speaks for itself” At sign off each night…..”From now until 6am tomorrow morning, you won’t hear a peep out of WEEP!