“Nine out of ten prizes have been won in the Win 10 Bin…”
This runs just over 5 minutes. But in those 5 minutes, think back to how AM radio sounded like right in the middle of the 70s. AM was still KING. And WGNG is fondly remembered by many as the best hit music station in Providence, pre-dating the reign of FM powerhouse 92.1 WPRO-FM by a few years.
Best remembered is probably Brad Pierce. While there were many, Pierce seemed to be the smooth talking favorite. Even once featured in a radio publication called “Programmer’s Digest”.
WGNG is right in the middle of a contest called the “Win 10 Bin”. Listeners had to write down each prize as they heard it on WGNG, then be the 13th caller in, and read back the list of prizes from one to 10… or, up to whatever number prize was next. In this case, listen at the four minute mark for Kim McFall of Providence, who was the correct caller and read back the first nine prizes correctly. You’ll have to listen in to find out if she got number 10 right for ten thousand dollars!
This is tight, well processed AM radio, which would have sounded fantastic except for the condition of the source tape, which was a little worn, but otherwise provides us with another glorious glimpse into the storied past of Top 40 radio broadcasting!
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Thanks for the aircheck! This recording is within a month of the first time I heard WGNG. I listened to them at my grandparents’ home in eastern Long Island. That summer (June) was the first time I was interested in looking for stations as far away as possible during daylight hours. Providence was the outer limit. Unfortunately, Boston was too far, but was able to dx Boston at night.
hi i remember hearing brad pierce on one of those automated stations back in the day great pipes
I think I worked briefly with Brad Pierce under another Brad-something name at WSVP West Warwick. WGNG (originally GoldeN Greats…oldies) was a great top 40 station that I wished I had worked for. WSVP was a dump LOL.
Tony M. (“Charlie Morgan”). From there I was off to WNHC, WAVZ and a a good 20 years of commercial production on Long Island.
The condition of the source tape gives it character of the times. Just classic 70s radio.
You remember the all-night creature — from Radio G-N-G.
I worked at ‘GNG for one overnight. the all-night guy needed a night off and they had no fill-in people so I did it “off the books” as a favor. the station had so much compression that if you stopped talking for one second, it would jack up the room noise to the point that you could hear a fly buzzing in the corner. I think it was 1000 watts days, 500 watts at night at 550 on the dial. sounded incredible at the time Providence had 3 CHRs…WGNG-AM, WPRO-FM, and JB 105 (WPJB 105.1.)
I would have loved to hear WGNG in it’s prime on a good car radio. The reason so many stations were compressed like that was for what it did to the overall sound. Not only did it make the station sound louder than the competition, the music itself leapt out of the speakers. Each drum beat sounded like a cannon shot! Add reverb and you had a station that sounded larger than life… think back to 77 WABC New York around 1975 – at that point the reverb was set so high it sounded like the jocks were in a long dark tunnel!!