Musicradio WABC Pictures of the Week for April, 2011

Week of April 5, 2011:

Gene McFadden (l) and John Whitehead (with hat) of "McFadden and Whitehead" in the WABC Studio.
PD Glenn Morgan (with beard) and Dan Ingram (in front of mic).
Record promoter Ray Free with the mustache
(1977)
(photo courtesy Glenn Morgan)

Dan Ingram Show Closing, April 1, 1977
(April Fools Day)

             
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Week of April 12, 2011:

Ron Lundy from his St. Louis days at WIL! 

Before Ron Lundy arrived at WABC, he was a big star on WIL in St. Louis.
The above picture of Ron (standing and laughing) was taken at
an event to support St. Jude Children's Hospital.

Here's Ron on WIL
February 28, 1962:
(courtesy Larry Ware) 

            
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On this aircheck, you'll hear references to two other New York DJ's to come;
Gary Stevens would become a star on New York's WMCA and
Robin Scott would go by his real name, Bob Dayton, on...  WABC.
In an interesting twist of radio irony, Ron would replace Bob Dayton on WABC three years later.

Want more WABC/WIL trivia?
At the very beginning of  WIL "Action Central News" (at 05:55 into this aircheck) you'll hear Dan Ingram's voice in the news intro.
Dan had been at WIL until 1961 and the station was still using this small bit of production he previously recorded.
(Where else but Musicradio77.com do you get this kind of info? ).

Week of April 19, 2011:

"Queen Kong" and Charlie Greer
(courtesy Mike Riccio)

Charlie Greer is best remembered by WABC listeners from his overnight show.
Yes, he was the one who read all of those Dennison's commercials...
("Where money talks and nobody walks").

I'm not sure of the history behind the above picture but it's likely
from Charlie's time doing middays on WABC given the housewife reference.
Charlie was called the "Happy Huggy Bear" so I suspect this picture tied it all together.

Here's an aircheck of Charlie on overnights...
And, yes, it includes Dennison's commercials!

Charlie Greer on WABC
August 2, 1969
(courtesy Don Tandler)

        
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Week of April 26. 2011:

"The Big Ticket"
(1976)

(pictures courtesy Frank Raffa)

After the huge success of the "WABC 25,000 Button"
WABC was in search of a new big contest.
Times had changed since WABC gave away just kitchen appliances in
the mid sixties as competition with other stations pushed
prize limits (and prize expectations) higher and higher.

"The Big Ticket" was Rick Sklar's last big contest for WABC
prior to his promotion to the network.
In his book "Rocking America" he described the contest this way:

"The last of the great promotions I saw launched at WABC was called "the Big Ticket."
It made the fullest possible use of the data processing and of ABC's Mainframe computers in Hackensack.

"The idea was simple enough.  On a certain Sunday, every major newspaper in the area
would include a four-color cardboard supplementary insert.  It would contain
numbered tickets and would show fantastic prizes, ranging from automobiles to
fabulous vacations to color television sets and appliances of every type.
If your ticket number was announced over the radio, you would win a gigantic prize.
If only the first three digits of your number were called, you would still win a prize,
albeit a smaller one, admission to a movie perhaps.  All you had to do when you heard your
number was to call WABC and claim your prize.  To verify your claim we would ask you
to read back the winning number from your ticket and also a second or verification code number
that was on the ticket and unique to it.  Our computer operators would punch up the
verifying numbers on a screen and if your winning number accompanied it,
we knew we had a legitimate winner.

"Tens of millions of tickets were dropped on the marketplace at the same moment.
We gave away prizes for three months.  The ratings jumped two entire share points.
"The Big Ticket,", under other names, was seized on by stations everywhere.
In Chicago, a station mailed tickets to listeners instead of including it in the Sunday papers.
Houston, Detroit, Boston, and other markets saw ratings leap when
tickets went out just before a rating period."

Here is a Bob Cruz aircheck from March 13, 1976.
This show was recorded the Friday night/Saturday morning
just before the Sunday papers were to have the "Big Ticket" insert included.

As a side note, this aircheck of Bob features him just
after he started at WABC on March 1, 1976.

Bob Cruz on WABC
3-13-76

           
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