Big Apple Airchecks sent the original of this mono, but high-fidelity (and we refuse to say ‘HD’) recording of the Adult Contemporary version of WIFI 92! By this time, WIFI had morphed into a more Adult station, but was by no means a sleepy AC. You’ll even hear Eddie Money’s “Baby Hold On” about halfway through this, but this is SOLID AC, starting with the first song, Barry Manilow’s “The Old Songs”, and continuing with scoped portions of songs from Sheena Easton, Air Supply and Darryl Hall & John Oates. Man, there was some really GOOD music in 1981! Remember Joey Scarbury’s “Believe It Or Not”? Aka, theme from the TV show “The Greatest American Hero” – where the ‘hero’ puts on a red suit and flies backward… into walls, etc? Yea, memories abound on this aircheck.
Your featured jock is Liz Kiley. Not sure where else she worked, but in this she’s holding down Afternoon Drive. Walt McDonald is in the WIFI “Eye In The Sky”… helicopter. And the traffic is horrible as this is the evening before Thanksgiving!
There is a description, written on the History of Philadelphia Radio website, which says that the Adult Contemporary format at WIFI, essentially didn’t have a chance. The station had competition in the market from WMGK, WSNI and WWSH. WSNI also had market icon, Hy Lit. Still, this really sounds GOOD, and with a female jock on Afternoon drive, news, information and traffic reports and great music, this format SHOULD have worked. And probably would have just about anywhere else.
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Liz Kiley was program director and DJ at KOST 103 in LA. She had a stroke, and took some time off. I remember her return. I was listening to KOST’s sister station 64 KFI in the middle of the night, and there she was…still struggling with her speech, but it was great to hear her again.
Hi there–just want to clarify. Jan Marie was the air personality at KOST 103 that was in a terrible car accident. She was in a coma for months and has recovered. I understand living happily in the OC.
Neither Jan Marie or I had a stroke. Thanks and Best!
Holy cats!!! I cannot believe I got that confused! Curses to me! After I wrote that, I looked it up and saw that I was wrong and did get confused between the two. I have no idea what my brain was thinking. I’m NOT getting old! Sorry about that.
Liz Kiley was the only female jock to work at WABC around 1979.. Prior to that she worked at WPGC in D.C.
Liz worked at WPGC and if memory serves was the 1st female jock at WABC. Later she did nights at KFI and KOST before programming The beat in Los Angeles. She’s currently an exec at MTV.
I believe that Maverick has confused Liz with Jan Marie. Jan was in a terrible auto accident and a coma for 3 months. She had a head injury and struggled when she tried to return, but did eventually make a comeback in Christian radio. Liz took her place on KOST, temporarily at first then permanently until leaving for the Beat. Liz never had a stroke.
I think its important to remind our visitors, be absolutely certain of facts surrounding people you talk about. The last thing anyone wants to find out is that they died… and nobody told them.
In all seriousness, I hope Liz isn’t upset with us for allowing that comment to pass through. There are tens of thousands of comments here on the site and sometimes things slip through unnoticed.
Steve, not to worry, I totally understand!
As an Adult Contemporary station, WIFI also had competition from WIP. The latter had been Adult Contemporary for a decade or less (after having been MOR for about as long prior) at the time of this air check. Maybe WIP’s ratings were **ALREADY**?? lower than any of the Philly FM soft rockers you mentioned above, *including* WIFI???