ABC's decision in early 1979 to convert WMAL-FM (by then
WRQX) from the losing end of the album rock battle with
DC-101 to Top 40 was largely made with one primary objective:
protect
WMAL's #1 ranking in the market.
The
Back Story: NBC's move to blow up Top 40 WRC in 1975 and
place its 'News & Information Service' on the formerly
'Great 98' left Washingtonians with effectively only one
Top 40 station, that being WPGC.
True,
there were other stations in the market that did share a
portion of the contemporary audience, among them WASH and
WMOD. But neither station ever posed a serious threat,
as evidenced by the conversion of the latter to Country
formatted WMZQ in 1977.
WPGC's
unparalleled cume continued to grow to new heights as a
result. Inevitably, the gap between cume leader WMAL
and WPGC
continued to narrow so that by the Spring of 1979, WPGC's
combined AM / FM figures (633,000 cume, 11 share 12+) surpassed
the long time market leader.
Uncharacteristic
of most Top 40 stations of the era, WPGC's
Adult numbers were well above the industry norm. Whereas
many AM Top 40 giants were by then fading away, losing significant
chunks of cume to FM upstarts in their respective markets,
WPGC-FM
had successfully converted the majority of its once exclusive
teen
base
that had driven WPGC-AM in
the '60's over to the FM band, thus insulating it from other
FM competitors in the market.
Hence,
ABC's only real window of opportunity was to attack WPGC's
younger end of next generation teens, a demo historically
far more willing to sample whatever is new and of the moment
than Adults set in their ways (and listening habits).
To
that end, Q-107, supported with its massive quarter million
dollar TV campaign (featuring Chuck Blore's memorable 'Talking
Lips' spots) did indeed siphon off significant teen cume
from WPGC,
and by extension, preserve WMAL's standing as #1 in Adults.
Ironically,
WPGC's
strength with young Adults (particularly 18-34) was underestimated
by ABC management. Ultimately, whatever teenage cume
lost to Q-107 was more than replenished with additional
Adults (defecting primarily from WASH), enabling WPGC
to rebound and regain the Top 40 crown in Washington, a
position it maintained despite fierce competition until
the ill fated decision by First Media to shift the station
to Gold based AC in the Fall of 1982.
By
late Summer of 1984, I and virtually all the other holdovers
from the old WPGC
abandoned ship. Many went over to WAVA, the new CHR in town.
But having grown up in New York with 77 WABC and having
listened at night for many years to ABC's 89 WLS in Chicago,
I knew Q107 was the place for me. Program Director, Alan
Burns hired me for weekends and utility fill in air work
but insisted I use a different name (that's how bad WPGC's
reputation had become by then).
I
passed on his initial suggestion that I be 'Chris Jagger'
and offered instead to use my real first name with a different
last name to which he agreed. Hence, I became 'Lee Collins',
so named after Jim Collins, the long time afternoon man
and Program Director at WPGC
during its glory years and who now was at 66
WNBC in New York. It was he who gave me the biggest
break in my career by getting me in that station the year
before for occasional freelance fill in work as the need
arose. Little did I know I'd soon be spending a lot more
time at 66
WNBC
than Q107.
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