Ken Gilbert, 1360 WDRC Hartford | January 1983

I asked Mr. Gilbert what WDRC-AM sounded like before the flip to Oldies, and so here’s a 9 minute high-quality scope from 1983. While Ken didn’t say so, it sure seems like Buckley did more of a slow format turn towards oldies from Top 40 during ‘83. Listen to this, then the aircheck from later in 1983 to get a feel for where the station was going.

Glen ‘FM’ Stevens; Ken Gilbert, WAQY “Wacky 102″ Springfield | Summer, 1980

Thanks to Wacky jock Ken Gilbert, here’s about 10 minutes of he and Glen “FM” Stevens on one of the northeast’s greatest FM Top 40 outlets ever (in your webmaster’s humble opinion), Wacky 102!

WAQY was about a year away from flipping to AOR, and still using the late-70s era Wacky jingles – of which I can’t figure out who produced them (TM maybe?). Wacky 102 still sounds like the powerhouse Top 40 outlet we remember, with lots of personality, a wide VARIETY playlist (and that’s really what Top 40 was all about), mixing everything from soft pop to hard rock – everything that was a hit got played.

Many years ago, site friend Rick Kelly (Northeastairchecks.com) described the downfall of Wacky 102 this way… (paraphrasing here, because I can’t remember the exact original wording)

…tight rotation, 12 units per hour and a teen demographic did this station in…

That said, my perception of Wacky 102, and specifically, these two jocks from memories of my youth are filtered somewhat from the passage of time, but I remember this very summer, and WAQY being the most awesome-sounding station on the planet. Perhaps it was hard to sell in Springfield… that and an inability to penetrate the Hartford market due to powerhouse WTIC-FM (Mike Josephs “Hot Hits”(tm)) owning the Top 40 market there. Still, this window into the glorious reign of Wacky 102 reminds us that almost 30 years ago, talented jocks could talk in between every record and not chase away an audience.

Take THAT you consultants and knowitall PDs out there. 50 minutes of continuous music with 2 jock breaks to say the same thing every hour stinks… and wouldn’t have stood a chance against a station like this in 1980. So there.