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WHBQ 1976-1980

I guess I was misunderstood. I'm talking about how all the stations have been cut back on with promotions and stuff the record companies could do for your station. WHBQ was so powerful ..they got what ever they wanted. They were amazing. It didn't get any better. Please don't misunderstand me. I know they worked hard and so did Mr. Long. Do you remember their sticker contest? Hot sauce and how about the q balls on the cars all over town. My dad still has a box of them he got on highland. :eek:
 
When Dees left WHBQ in Spring of 1979, McKeever went with him.

By the fall of 79, McKeever was back in Memphis at FM 100.

Does anyone know the story of his quick return?
 
rapmaster said:
I guess I was misunderstood. I'm talking about how all the stations have been cut back on with promotions and stuff the record companies could do for your station. WHBQ was so powerful ..they got what ever they wanted. They were amazing. It didn't get any better. Please don't misunderstand me. I know they worked hard and so did Mr. Long. Do you remember their sticker contest? Hot sauce and how about the q balls on the cars all over town. My dad still has a box of them he got on highland. :eek:
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Well, that's certainly true and for that part of your post thanks for the clarification. For the music business in 1976, radio stations were everything and the free promotional stuff was free-flowing. A station like Q could and did make or break a record and/or an artist's career. The music industry has a whole lot more outlets nowdays, so radio isn't as important to them. As for the Q balls, those dang things became a fad, and it was a status symbol to have them all the way up your car antenna. We did, as I recall. ;D

That was part of the magic of radio then. If Q did a promotion or a remote, it was a citywide event. I remember Birdman on the air from the Mid-South fair one year. You couldn't get near the Q van for all the fans. WHBQ MADE "Scream in The Dark", and again, the traffic was jammed for miles around at that place during Halloween.
 
27 years ago, yesterday, Bill Thomas, "The Birdman" made his debut on the Q. It is presented for your listening pleasure at:

http://www.oidar.com/whbq memories.htm

It's obvious to me, in retrospect, just why I hired him. How many jocks could be this great on their first day in a new studio (back then we "produced" everything in real time), in a new market, on a new station, and nail the GI's (old Q jocks will know what that means)? Sherry and Janis also sound fabulous.

Also, on the WHBQ Picture page, some recent submissions by Carter Davis and Rusty Black.

Enjoy!
 
Amazing first day aircheck and tribute of "The Birdman". John any chance we can get more airchecks of yourself, and Rob Grayson on the site? These are great motivators as I prepare to go on the air everyday. Thanks for the memories!
 
Interesting to hear old airchecks like this. That was when radio was radio.

Back in the late 70s, I worked a stint under Mitch Craig at WB Tanner at one of those little production houses off Union Ave. In our studio, we must have had hundreds of aircheck reels from around the country -- maybe even the world. Despite the variety, one of my favs was always the one from the Q.

Sometimes it's tough seeing what radio has become. I blame dereg.
 
Janie was perhaps the greatest take-care-of-business continuity person I had the pleasure of working with. Her material was witty, and her follow through was unparalleled. I know I've mentioned before that one of my pet peeves is hearing about a sale "this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday" running on Sunday (or worse, Monday)... with Janie, that wouldn't have happened. It was topical, it was current, and it was correct. Janie encouraged me way back then to persue production work, and 30 years later here I am doing what she said I should be doing.
 
Does anyone have pictures or information about WHBQ during the talk days of the 80s? Would love to hear some air checks from those days or see some photos...
 
robgrayson said:
And one more thing... if the "freebies" thing is implying something, your sources better have some way of cashing the check their mouth is writing... That is pretty well bordering on slander and libel territory. (At this point, I fully expect DE to drop by...)
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I was the GM at WHBQ and if I wanted to slam someone...I could post a lot on here. All I want to say for now is...don't believe everything you read on an Internet website.
 
Man this has to be the best website for the 56 WHBQ top 40 days. Walt Jackson was "The" man on the radio. I didnt care much for Dees even though he was funny at times. I worked briefly with Ron Jordan back in the 90s and was a cool person to be with. Jackson had that New York sound and I would listen every day after school to Walt jammin. The cool part was he managed the music with the jingles very well. You dont hear that in todays top 40.
 
briancraig said:
WHBQ's ratings dropped real fast after Rick Dees left. FM 100 also started sounding much better.

Around February of 1981, WHBQ switched from top 40 to an oldies based AC. In the Fall of 1982, they went on the dish except for Ken Martin in the morning and Mike Scalzi in the afternoon.

Alex Ward did a great tribute show on the last day of the music format which I have on tape. It was scheduled for 4 hours but management made him stop at 2.
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I just recently found the WHBQ tribute show on the Tennessee Radio Hall of Fame's You Tube channel and apparently has been there for about 2 years. Here are the links:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9wxQ3vq1nY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvuvlCz1hoY

I was trying to find the other 2 hours somewhere on Google and found this thread again. It sounds like they were given short notice to cut off and it goes to the sound of a ticking clock waiting for the format change to talk, even if it wasn't going to be until the next morning. In any case I thought that it was pretty sorry for the station management to cut them off like that. If they were only going to be allowed 2 hours they shouldn't have been promised 4.

Also, I checked and apparently the OIDAR site is down now. Is there any other WHBQ tribute site that anyone knows of? Thanks.




 
Same Brian and those two hours that the TRHOF posted is from the recording I made in 1983.

Alex Ward had planned a 4 hour tribute, but GM Ron Thompson decided at 6 pm that 2 hours was enough even though Alex and co host Mike Scalzi were being very respectful about the format change.

Too bad John Long’s site is down. I kept meaning to print it out for our archives, so I hope he puts it back up.
 
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