-- 77 WABC, or: 'Seventy-Seven, W-A-B-Ceeeee!' billing itself:
'Musicradio WABC' was a big 'Top 40' sound that usually led the ratings battles.
(Check the history reports and jingles; it's a great website!) They had a loud, fast-paced format, with lots of jingle and live commercials, as well as distinctive ID jingles.
Their best asset, of course, was their collection of 'All American' DJs / 'personalities' -- round the clock: Ron Lundy, Harry Harrison, Bruce Morrow, Dan Ingram (who was there for the entire 22 years!), Charlie Greer, Herb Oscar Anderson, et al. 'H-O-A' owned the mornings with a busy 6-10 a.m. shift, while 'Cousin Brucie' worked the 7-11 pm time. He had organized a club of card-carrying 'Cousins,' where membership reached into the thousands; they were eligible for free passes to a whole series of events, and discounts to exciting music events for teenagers at 'Palisades Park' in New Jersey. (Yes, it gained even more fame from the hit record by Freddie 'Boom-Boom' Cannon.)
One of their DJs, Chuck Leonard, broke the colour barrier for all who followed; he became the first African American to cross over from R&B radio to mass appeal on a major market 'Top 40' station. He did a beautiful all-night show -- which was / is the shift where you had to start.
I can remember such features as: 'WABC Silver Dollar Survey' of the highest-rated records each week, 'The Music's on Us,' when they increased their number of plays per hour, and, especially on weekends, 'Solid Gold from the Goldmine.'
All Top 40 radio also presented a five-minute newscast each hour. WABC (the flagship station for ABC News, who later featured Peter Jennings) set up to get the jump on everybody. 'Action Central News' began at five minutes BEFORE the hour, so they could hit the music at the top of the clock while all the other stations were doing the news. Later, other stations borrowed the concept as: 'First, Fast, Five Minutes Sooner!'
On the air, the DJs were busy: The station averaged 6 short commercial breaks per hour but they were short, and no more than 3 ads in a row. Voiceovers / tags by the live air personality on the air were often part of the commercial.
Their control room operators were busy, too, but they had one big advantage over others, who had to 'cue' the opening sound of each disc. At WABC, all the records were not played as records at all: the 'Top 40' and others were recorded on a cartridge or 'cart,' designed for 30- or 60- second commercials.
'Carts' were a time-saving invention, especially if you were 'mixing the board' yourself. They contained an endless or loop tape of required length, on which a high-frequency tone signal had been placed when the operator had originally hit the 'record' button. When the part with the tone came around, the tape stopped, all cued and ready to be played back when required after being inserted in a 'playback' machine slot.
Some machines that I worked with in control rooms years later had three slots, with two or even three machines placed side by side. To present some commercial breaks, or 'islands,' all the slots were loaded with carts, which had to be placed in the correct order! When you pushed 'Play,' a digital clock would start rolling. (At one station, we had a 12-minute / hour commercial time maximum, and I remember on one program playing TWENTY-FOUR 30-second commercial carts in one 30-minute period! The following program was commercial-free.)
When you visited a control room -- or traffic director office -- in those days, you would see racks and racks of hundred of carts, all around the walls, mostly of commercials -- especially at Christmas! Each had a tag with a number, the title of the contents, the length (usually 30 seconds), sometimes the name of the announcer (to avoid having the same voice on two adjacent messages), and the final four words of the message.
When played, each message had to be logged (time on and time off) for CRTC regulations that contained maximum commercial limits, hourly, daily, weekly. Furthermore, you signed your log at the end of your shift.
-- You may ask, Dear Reader, how did they check this activity? Every Canadian station had to record a 'logger tape' of everything that went on the air all the time, and had to produce it if a question or complaint was received from a competing station or a citizen / listener.
For me the WABC highlight was the annual 'Top 100 of the Year,' presented during Christmas week. As indicated, they played the Top 100, ONLY the Top 100, IN ORDER, round-the-clock, for two weeks! I would listen each evening and try to copy the name and rank of each song, my listening depending on signal quality, subject to the atmospheric conditions.
Today, sadly, all the music is gone from 77-WABC; it's a right-wing All Talk station.
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