Monday, June 29, 2009

WOWO history


Early in my career, I had the great fortune to work for Group W - the old Westinghouse Broadcasting in Philadelphia and Fort Wayne.

Fort Wayne's WOWO, at 50,000 watts, clear channel was the most fantastic place to work in the mid-1970s. DJs with great pipes and great personalities like Ron Gregory, Chris Roberts, Calvin Richards and Bob Sievers. And a great newsroom with folks like Dugan Fry, Jerry Hoffman, Bill Fisher, Ed Kasuba, Debbie Lowe and Art Salzberg -- and immediate on-air access to the famed Group W network.

Now, Randy Meyer has put together a wonderful tribute site to the old "WOWO 1190." He's done it up right at http://historyofwowo.com. It's got airchecks (the 1973-75 one of Calvin Richards and Ron Gregory (MP3) was the beginning of my stint there - a snippet of one of my newscasts is very near the end - 43 minutes in), some of the great old jingle packages (MP3), photos, etc.

If you really want a taste of what music-news radio in its heyday was like, head on over to the site. I've got to go rooting through the attic to see if I have anything left to send Randy. Anyone else out there with old WOWO mementos, consider contacting him as well.

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4 Comments:

At 7/9/09, 1:50 PM, Blogger advany said...

Does any one know what happened to Bill Fisher from the early seventies?

 
At 7/9/09, 1:55 PM, Blogger Doug said...

I don't and wish I did. Bill and I worked together on the night shift, then used to go out drinking at the Mad Anthony (and if you know Bill and me, you know how that was tempting fate in the 1970s) ...

Last I heard, Bill was working at Wayne Township, but then I lost track.

 
At 9/21/10, 10:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi, Doug. I am so glad you are teaching. I bet your students love you. I was very glad to see the WOWO page. I still listen whan I can. Take care. Suzanne Katt

 
At 9/21/10, 11:13 AM, Blogger Doug said...

Suzanne:
Great to hear from you.

Oh, they don't love me so much in copy editing -- until they get out in the real world. I keep a file of what I call my "two year" letters - the ones I get back from folks out one or two years saying it was the best course they ever took once they got out there and had to do it. {grin}

Chrs,
Doug

 

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