Call this “Diary of a Confused CHR Station”.
WCAU-FM is in the waning days of its contemporary music format, and obviously at a crossroads as to which way to go, musically. The station leans very rhythmic, and while the jocks are now calling this “98 The Hot FM” in their live banter, all the imaging still says 98 WCAU-FM. In editing this for presentation, I had to wonder, if CBS had not decided to take the station Oldies in November ’87, would WCAU-FM have simply gone Urban or Dance oriented in order to separate itself from its closest format competitor, WEGX “Eagle 106? A moot point, to be sure but it brings up some interesting questions for discussion (below).
Here is Mike Frasier (Frazier?) has studio jock duties while Glen Colina is on location at Veterans Stadium at the (David) Bowie BBQ this particular hot Philly afternoon. There are a few minor connection glitches with their remote broadcast, but they eventually get worked out. Jingles, while used more infrequently than WCAU-FM did in previous years, are still in use but again there are none that mention “The Hot FM”.
WCAU-FM would flip to Oldies WOGL on November 9, ending whatever format confusion there was as the end of 1987 drew near. Thanks to Big Apple Airchecks, this recording tells a story of how to wreck a format in a few easy steps… without trying.
