Bill O’Brien, the Philly “Hot 30 Countdown”, 98.1 WCAU-FM Philadelphia, Part 1 | January 8, 1984

An impressive aircheck from this date in January 1984 – the GREAT “98 Now” Hot Hits ™ format at WCAU-FM. Here’s the first part of the Philly Top 30 Countdown which we hear shortly after the start.

Plenty of mentions of schools, dedications and all the great things that classic Top 40 radio was about. Note for you format geeks – Consultant Mike Josephs had the WCAU-FM jocks talk on the OUTRO of songs and into a jingle, which is kinda reverse of the ‘forward momentum’ that most consultants have been pushing for 30 odd years now. For those who are just radio listeners, ‘forward momentum’ means that the air personality NEVER speaks over the end of songs, except the last note or two going into a commercial break, any speaking is usually done over the intro of songs. This is almost universal in radio today!

98.1 has been WOGL for a long time now, for many years was a staple CBS Oldies outlet but as most of the nation’s “Oldies” stations have gone by the wayside, WOGL is classic hits now, playing many of the hit songs you might have heard on THIS aircheck of WCAU-FM! Even some of the jingles match, which some years ago would have never been.

One has to wonder, do some program directors of Classic Hits stations come here to Airchexx to hear what classic CHR radio sounded like to get their programming ideas? Or is that just a bit presumptious on our part?

Big Apple Airchecks Matt Seinberg New York Traders
Aircheck provided as a courtesy of Big Apple Airchecks – Thank you!