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.

John O’Brien Counts Down the Rock & Roll 500 on 102.1 WAQY Springfield | May 30, 1987

21 Years ago this week, John O’Brien was still a weekend and daytime jock at WAQY. Having come from WCCC and WMAS-FM (and, as WJDF PD Jay Deane says, ‘one of the nicest guy’s you’ll ever meet’, O’Brien is counting down the bottom half of the “Rock & Roll 500. The source tape this came from actually starts about 5 minutes earlier, with former night guy from the Top 40 era at this station, Jim Kaye, ending his Sunday Morning Gold Rush oldies show… which woulda been cool to feature but really doesn’t fit this presentation.

WAQY flipped from Top 40 to AOR in August 1981, and has been classic rock ever since the late 80s. During this time period, around 1987, WAQY is till playing a huge variety of Rock with occasional currents… it’s on air slogan was “New England’s Finest Rock, 102.1 AQY”. We think that was a great time for the station… it certainly was great to listen to. Today, just standard Classic Rock fare but John O’Brien is and has been part of the “Bax & O’Brien” morning show for over a decade now.

It’s Memorial Day Weekend… now sit down for a while and enjoy this Nascar(tm) formatted countdown just perfect for steaks on the grill!