Station: 103.3 WEEI-FM (WEEI-FM/WHTT/WMRQ/WODS) Boston (Wikipedia)
Format: CHR
Branding: “HitRadio 103”
Featured Air Personalities: Doug Alling, Alex Stone, Dick Guntin, Hillary Stevens
Contributor: Steve McVie (Website)
Total Time: 7:29 (Telescoped)
Airchexx Entry: 1,546
HitRadio 103 WEEI-FM with Dick Guntin lookin’ down at the Prudential Christmas Tree all lit up and lookin’ GOOD!…
Curator’s Notes:
At the time of this aircheck, WEEI-FM had begun and was well into the transition from Soft Rock to HitRadio. As an avid listener at the time, I remember this all too well. The change in formats was gradual, with one Monday in November 1982, the station playing new jingles (they hadn’t been for at least a year prior to this) and adding in some music that wasn’t “Soft Rock”. By gradual, I mean that it sounded very much like over the course of three weeks, WEEI-FM shifted from a sleepy AC to what we’d consider a Hot AC today. By the time of this recording, a full month into it, the station is clearly a full-blown Top 40 station.
This recording is of various quality. It begins clean and crisp, then about midway through, there’s a bit of static. After that, the tape sounded a bit muffled (most likely because this was one broadcast day represented by separate recordings), but is back to nearly HD quality by the end.
WEEI-FM as “HitRadio 103 FM” already had formed it’s core announcers. Dick Guntin was a holdover from the old Soft Rock format. Alex Stone and Hillary Stevens were new. Doug Alling was not only new, but would be probably the most frequently heard voice on WEEI-FM and WHTT up until it’s demise in 1986.
More to come from WEEI-FM and WHTT HitRadio 103 FM!
Great memories. Good period for diverse music styles on hit radio. The Hit Radio 103 days were fun, often heard the station at bars.
Actually Hilary Stevens was also a holdout from the old soft rock format. These were recorded during my sophomore year at Bryant College in Rhode Island in my dorm room.
Gosh this was a surprise. Not much remains on tape/digital of the former WEEI-FM. The station had been running on NON-live automation till fall of 1972. Then CBS flipped it to partial-live with automation assist, voice tracking done daily to SOUND live, live newscasts. Dave Klahr programmed a MOR music sound. Later Clark Smidt became PD for a “softrock” phase. Dick Gunton who you hear on this aircheck was brought in from NJ to be morning man in 1972. He sounds so diff in this shotgun fast format I can hardly believe its the same fella. The original quasi-live air team put on in 1972 was Dick Gunton, Dick Provost (a great staff announcer held over form the CBS Young Sound days), and me, Craig Lundquist. I left in 1976. … 1977-78 I helped the great broadcaster George Silverman launch WMGX in Portland ME. Then I went out west and worked at KNBR-AM, KMPX-FM, KBAY-FM, and KGO-TV in San Francisco. Returned to east in 82, worked on air for NBC Network Radio news, and later at legendary (then) talker WMCA in NYC. Currently writing film scripts and doing freelance news feature reporting/writing for an international news service.
Craig, I definitely have heard of you and I could swear our paths crossed somewhere. You are spot on. I thought Dick Gunton sounded out of place in this format. But in his defense, I remember when this was recorded. It was VERY shortly after WEEI-FM went to a contemporary hit radio format. They had been Soft Rock without the jingle package right through Thanksgiving of 1982, and he is so fresh into the format he wasn’t sure how to do it. As I recall, he lasted a short time into the WHTT phase and then left… I wanna say early ’84? Perhaps it was earlier.
Dick Provost! Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I only remember hearing him on airchecks of the Young Sound from CBS, as you mentioned. Wasn’t he also a staff announcer for WEEI 590? Or WHDH? I simply can’t remember anymore.