Captain Whammo, WMET Chicago | April 1978

95.5 Chicago WMET
Jim Channel, aka “Captain Whammo”

DESCRIPTION

WCFL on 1000 AM was a 50,000 watt radio station owned by the Chicago Federation of Labor. WCFL aired a Top 40 format from 1962 to 1976, when the station changed formats to Beautiful Music. BM was a format featuring mainly instrumental background music and it was mainly a format heard on FM stations. WCFL aired that format for two years following it’s heated Top 40 battle with 89 WLS.  On FM, the main competition after WCFL’s demise was WMET.  At 95.5, this station retained a top 40 format for several  years during the disco era.

Featured Air Personality: Jim Channel (“Captain Whammo”) (WDHF, WMET, WCFL, others)

“I Feel like a little screamin’ and yellin’ tonight!”

Comments:

Jim Channel, aka “Capt. Whammo” is heard here on 95 1/2 WMET. Note the disco music and the WCFL-style jingle package in use at the time which kinda sounds out of place considering the year. They sound good at this point, but I’m at a loss as to why WMET had some of the worst jingles ever heard prior to ’78… low budget, maybe? And, in your humble webmaster’s opinion, the imaging voice is and was horrible, but that’s made up for the fact that the format itself slams, and Whammo is in top form on this aircheck… lively and energetic.

This is a good quality recording, one you’ll enjoy as an alternative to samples of WLS around the same timeframe.