Hot Hits! WFBL “Fire 14″ Syracuse | 1980 Scoped
Courtesy of Mike Josephs fan Steve McVie, this scope of WFBL came to us about 2 years ago.
Now, close your eyes and remember back when 1390 was a graveyard station - on one of those frequencies that limited a station’s power to about 1000 watts, and maybe a post-sunrise authority of 500 watts. Ok. Now you see what WFBL Syracuse had to deal with.
For a time, this station was the hottest thing coming from anyone’s radio. For you Mike Josephs fans, you know what the Hot Hits! CHR format was - some of the tightest formatics in radio anywhere. This format was mainly used on major market stations, but correct me if I’m wrong, but WFBL was the format ‘trial’ station. Not completely sure about that one, since WTIC-FM launched out of Classical into Top 40 with this format in 1977. Later, Hot Hits would appear on such great stations as WCAU-FM Philadelphia, WNVZ “Z104″ Norfolk VA and WZOU “Z94″ Boston, among others.
There’s a great explanation about this aircheck at Steve McVie’s website which in essence says, he discovered WFBL just flipping around the dial one evening in Massachusetts. Remember, everything was against picking up this station. It was on a graveyard frequency, and he was hundreds of miles away. Still, with many AMs of the time giving up on music, this format did cut right through.
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Todd Parker sounds familiar what other stations was he at,or is he still on the air.
a very cheesy format sounds way too simple
Actually, WZOU Boston was called “Hot Hits” but only licensed the slogan. They never adapted the Mike Joseph formula. And their original jingles were more like mini songs, and went on sometimes for 30 seconds. I never heard that package anywhere again.
As for Hot Hits being cheesy, perhaps. But if you grew up with the format you’d “get it”!
I was born the year this aircheck was recorded (would make me 25 now) but I’ve learned a lot about “Hot Hits!” and have come to love the format and enjoy listening to airchecks of it. I live not far from Detroit, which had its own “Hot Hits” station in the early ’80s in WHYT 96.3 “96Now,” the former WJR-FM which went from Beautiful Music to “Hot Hits” in September 1982. WHYT actually had the Joseph formula for a little less than a year - they soon replaced some of the original TM “Fusion” jingles with new ones which, in my opinion, STUNK - but they still used the “Hot Hits” slogan on the air until around 1985 or ‘86. They continued to be a highly-rated station in Detroit into the ’90s. Seems to me it was also WHYT which helped to sink the mothership “Big 8″ CKLW, which went from Top 40 to Music of Your Life in 1984. Truthfully, I don’t remember WHYT during the Joseph era personally (when I started paying attention to the station, I believe they had changed their name to “Power 96″ which happened around 1985), but I have heard airchecks. They’re now low-rated Hot AC station WDVD, only a shell of their former glory.
Back to ‘FBL now… I didn’t grow up with this format, and I still “get it”! It was obviously formulaic (all “Hot Hits” stations had the same jingles, the same contest giveaways i.e. “The Name Game” which was also called “Family Fortune” in some markets), but still lots of fun and very energetic. And I have to admit that I’m also biased because I enjoy the music from that era (the late ’70s and the early- to mid-’80s) much more than that of other eras, because I grew up with it! And I’ll even admit to liking disco. And I like the Fusion jingles too, although many find them annoying.
Actually, from what I understand, WFBL was the first Joseph-consulted station to use the term “Hot Hits” on the air. WTIC-FM used the same formatics in the late ’70s, but they were called “96 Tix” and “Your Music Connection” instead of “Hot Hits.” “Hot Hits” didn’t really take off, however, until WCAU-FM adopted the formula in the fall of ‘81 and was instantly a huge success. Within a year of that, “Hot Hits” had surfaced in Chicago on WBBM-FM and Detroit on WHYT, and would later come to Baltimore, Norfolk/Virginia Beach, and San Francisco (on future alternative-rock legend KITS).
BTW, Steve - I love your site, and the “Flashback Channel” is slammin’!
Just listened to the aircheck again, and I have to comment on how the station kept rockin’ right up to the end (the “end” being the format change to MoYL). Listening to that station on the last day, you’d never have known that was the last day if you didn’t already know. They kept the energy level high right up to the end, determined to go out with a bang. I’m sure this station would have done better had it been on the FM dial - after the demise of Fire 14, its AM top 40 competitor WOLF 1490 would itself not last much longer before flipping to Country.
I also have to comment on the VARIETY of music that “Hot Hits” stations played. Playing Barbra Streisand, Waylon Jennings, “Turning Japanese” and the SOS Band all on the same station would be akin to playing Celine Dion, Toby Keith, the All American Rejects and Beyonce all on the same station today… it just wouldn’t work nowadays. “Hot Hits” stations were really gutsy to do that even in 1980, since Top 40 was splintering so much at the time after the death of disco.
And in Detroit, Mike Joseph is also known as the man responsible for putting Top 40 legend WKNR “Keener 13″ on the air in 1963. Listen to old “Keener” airchecks and you hear flashes of what would become the genesis of the “Hot Hits” concept. Great stuff!
More of one of our favorite formats, Hot Hits. One gentle correction: 1390 was not one of the frequencies we oldtimers called ‘graveyard’. Those were 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450 and 1490. They were reserved for stations intended to serve only ‘local’ areas and were at first limited to 250 watts, day and night. In the 1960’s, these Class IV stations were mostly allowed to go up to a maximum of 1kw day, still with 250 at night, and in the late 70’s or early 80’s, they were mostly allowed to raise night power to 1kw. 1390 stations in those days could run up to 5kw, although often it would be directional, and many of them reduced power or changed patterns at night…hence WFBL being heard in Massachusetts. Syracuse competitor WOLF was on 1490 and suffered as did most 1490’s. Class IV’s would often be shoehorned into regions very tightly. Look at 1340: a station in Reading,PA, one in Philadelphia, about 50-55 miles from Reading, and another one in Atlantic City, NJ, not far south and east of Philadelphia. Some were so tightly-spaced that directional patterns were used. Many Class IV’s had a transmitter in the center of town, sometimes on the roof of a building, and a shortened or modified ground system. Thanks again for Fire 14.
Actually, 1390 was not and is not a “graveyard” frequency. 1390 is a “regional” frequency, with maximum allowable power of 5,000 watts, day or night. The graveyard frequencies are: 1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, and 1490.
I grew up in Syracuse and was about 15-16 years old when Hot Hits WFBL was on the air. Just wanted to mention a couple of things that may be of interest. First, it did a format/moniker change a few months (possibly even 6 or so months) before it went off the air. I don’t remember exactly how that changed but I remember distinctly there was some kind of moniker change (having to do with “Fire 14″) which coincided with a change in the music they played. I don’t think it was called “Fire 14″ in the beginning, or maybe they stopped referring to themselves as that so much…I don’t remember exactly. Before that change, it was essentially a disco station, they did not play much, if any, rock music. After that change is when they started mixing in rock music, and I remember thinking it was a very bad change. I am sure there are people who remember or know more than I do, just wanted to bring that to light. I do remember this station used to be great. I used to listen to it all night long.