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WBMJ and WRAI - History After 1974

P

Phil Karlips

Guest
Hello Radio People - Karl Phillips here -formerly on air at WBMJ (as Scott Brady) and WRAI and WIAC-FM from the early 70's.

Tryin to catch up on the history of WBMJ and WRAI after 1974 - - -I left WBMJ when it became Spanish Radio Rock in about 1973 and went to WRAI and left there in 1974 and went back to the mainland.

Can anyone give me some history on those two stations after that ???? Preferably any format changes - management changes and who the jocks were that followed me on WBMJ and WRAI after leaving the island in 74 ???

Thanks
Karl
 
Phil Karlips said:
Hello Radio People - Karl Phillips here -formerly on air at WBMJ (as Scott Brady) and WRAI and WIAC-FM from the early 70's.

Tryin to catch up on the history of WBMJ and WRAI after 1974 - - -I left WBMJ when it became Spanish Radio Rock in about 1973 and went to WRAI and left there in 1974 and went back to the mainland.

Can anyone give me some history on those two stations after that ???? Preferably any format changes - management changes and who the jocks were that followed me on WBMJ and WRAI after leaving the island in 74 ???
Click to expand...

WBMJ stayed as Radio Rock with CHR (mostly English music) until it was changed to Exitos 11-90, classic salsa, in about 1982. Almost till the end, it was managed by Bob Bennett, with the assistance of June Bennett. GSM for quite a few years was Amaury Santiago. Moonshadow and the Gufeo Matutino started around 1976 and went to WZNT in 1982, also. DJ Pedro Miranda went to 11-Q as AM drive, then sales and eventually GSM. Peter Porratta got his law degree and went into private practice. Marianito Artau went to Salsoul 98 as mid-days and production. Former WUNO PM Driver Hector Ortiz went into voice work.

WRAI lasted only a couple of years, and then changed to a Spanish language format of some kind... I don't remember it at all. English language radio began to have a very hard time in the 70's as the continentals gradually declined in number as all the PRIDCO sponsored industry had found local managers and technical people to replace them as they either retired or moved elsewhere in their companies.

http://www.davidgleason.com/Archive PR Pueblo/Pulse 1976.pdf has a 1976 San Juan Pulse book in its entirety that may be of interest.
 
Thanks David. Moonshadow and I are in contact with each other. We were friends at WBMJ - I have a lot of airchecks (all scoped) of me there and one of me doing Bob Bennett's morning shift with my newsman - George McDougall. I hear he is still on air in San Juan.
 
Wasn't WRAI calls due to they calling themselves Radio Aeropuerto International?

I also remember listening from time to time to WRSJ - Radio San Juan "Emisora Capital de Puerto Rico".

Whatever happened to Marianito Artau?
 
thathoustonradiogeek said:
Wasn't WRAI calls due to they calling themselves Radio Aeropuerto International?

I also remember listening from time to time to WRSJ - Radio San Juan "Emisora Capital de Puerto Rico".

Whatever happened to Marianito Artau?
Click to expand...

Yes, when Pepín Navarro became manager of WWWW, "La Cuatro Dobleu" he copied YVRQ, Maiquetia, Venezuela, which was called Radio Aeropuerto and served Caracas from the international airport.

The format was insturmental, with the slogan, "cositas que nadie tiene" and effectively called Radio Aeropuerto Internacional.

The format pretty much died when beautiful music came to FM.
 
Hi,

My film conpany did business with WBMJ in the 1970's and our salesman was " Radio Man ", Bob Norman. I specifically placed advestising and many promotions with Bob and it was a pleasure to do business with WBMJ.
 
I used to listen to WRAI pretty much every day in the early 70s when I lived in Trinidad and had a big AM antenna hooked up to an orange tree. Great music, and it did play the AT40 a whole week before the local station. Whatever happened to Rodney the Radio Man...and 'Let it rip, Rodney!'
 
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