(courtesy Bob Gibson)
Musicradio WABC Pictures of the Week for September, 2012
Week of September 4, 2012:
New York Daily
News Advertisement for George Michael on WABC
September, 1974
(courtesy Bob Gibson)
George Michael began his tenure at WABC thirty
eight years ago this week.
Here is an aircheck of
his first WABC show from
September 9, 1974:
Mp3 Real Audio
Week of September 11, 2012:
Some WABC Logos from its music era:
(1961)
(1963)
(1966)
(1969)
(1972)
(1975)
(1977)
(1981)
Week of September 18, 2012:
The WABC "Bicentennial Car Star"
The "Twenty Five Thousand Dollar Button" is
well remembered as one of WABC's biggest promotions.
That contest ran in 1974 and 1975 and WABC partnered with McDonald's for the second
button.
For whatever reason, this 1976
contest is not as well remembered.
It didn't include a button but did include the bumper sticker you see here.
And it also included $50,000 in prizes.
The mid to late 1970's was indeed the era of
big prize giveaways by radio stations.
It became a "can you top this" in contests.
One of the biggest ever was from WABC sister station WLS in Chicago.
They gave away a house!
Week of September 25, 2012:
Ross Brittain, Rich Little, Brian Wilson
(1981)
"Ross and Wilson" did the
last morning show on WABC while it was still a music station.
In fact, they stayed on after the format change in 1982.
During the "New York's Radio
Station" era, WABC tried to evolve into
an adult radio station with more conversational talk and less of a hard hitting Top 40
format.
It was somewhat successful for its time given that the music audience was
deserting AM for FM.
Yankee Baseball was added to the the schedule and additional talk features were
slowly added.
Ross and Wilson started at WABC on March 9, 1981.
Here's an air check of their show from about 9 months later:
Mp3
Real Audio
Ross and Wilson on WABC
December 3, 1981