What was the first radio station you grew up listening as a kid?

[Bongwater]

1300 KOL Seattle, 1973-1975

 

[michael hagerty]

That was on a tape circulated around radio stations years ago!

True. I had a copy within days of it being produced back in 1974. Howard Hoffman was one of the guys involved, along with Pete Salant, Amos B. Moses and Randy West.

Howard tells Dan O'Day the story of how it happened:

Okay, so clearly, Howard and Dan are having some fun. Howard did tell REELRADIO the full story in 1996, in writing, and here's that:

"I returned to WALL/Middletown NY in August 1974 after a lengthy 3-month gig as production director at WDRQ/Detroit, so I was primed to do anything that could shoot down formatted index-card radio. Radio itself presented the ammo.

Randy West (also at WALL at the time) and I were driving around greater Middletown listening to WWDJ through the static shortly after Mark Driscoll took over the reigns. They had already shortened their moniker from 97/WWDJ to 97/DJ - but for reasons known only to Driscoll, they started calling it "9/J" (using the slogan Pass the J - the formatic lasted about 9 hours before they went back to "97/DJ"). Randy and I stopped the car, looked at each other and simultaneously yelled, "What's NEXT?! They're just gonna open the mikes and yell 'NINE'!?! Epiphany.

A few weeks later, we were joined by Pete Salant and Amos B Moses in the production studio at WALL, and created the Nine tape under the influence of some refreshments which sure made the whole thing seem a lot funnier. (We were later pleased to find we still laughed after the "refreshments" wore off.)

We were supposed to write an ending to it, but Jim Brownold (then-production director at WPLJ/New York) got a copy of the work in progress from me. The ABC engineers heard it, dubbed off a trillion copies and Ninewas out there. The version they spawned was before all the processing and post-production which I quickly performed due to demand. We never did make an ending for NINE, and as it turned out, we never really needed it... the whole thing is one big payoff.

So for the record, here is the cast of NINE in order of appearance:

Pete Salant - Narrator
Howard Hoffman - "Nine-Double-O Radio Good Guy"; 2d NINE jock
Amos B Moses - "Johnny West"
Randy West - "Bob Roberts"; THE NINE jock
Rene Tetro - NINE Newsman
A real WALL listener - Excited "phrase that pays" caller
The NINE jingle came from a WABC "Old Gold 1969" jingle.
For authenticity, the NINE news sounder was WWDJ's news sounder. Don't Ask.

And to Mark Driscoll, who now knows he unwittingly inspired this masterpiece... thanks."

 

[Mike Sheridan]

For me, it was WABC 770. It was NYC's premiere Top 40 station. It was so strong in the ratings, when a car went past you, chances are you'd hear it playing on the car's radio. Walk in a store where the radio was controlled by young people and it was on there too. I was amazed that as a kid, when I got into some of my friends' parent's cars, it was playing there as well. I guess the parent either wanted to keep up with the current hits or played it as a favor to the kids in the car. And where I lived, the tower in Lodi NJ was visible every night from my family's picture window in the living room.

My Aunt and Uncle listened to WABC when they lived in the NYC area in the mid '60's too. My cousins listened of course but the music was true top 40. Hello Dolly by Louis Armstrong was a big hit in '64, Herb Alpert, Sinatra, and Dean Martin also had hits. The rock and roll of the Beatles, and even the Stones was palatable to most adults if they had kids.

Stations like WKBW and WABC had a lock on teens, they were always reaching for young adults and adults. This got them buys from banks, finance companies, etc.