If
you lived in Rhode Island in the 70s, or if you're in radio, note these details:
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The
very first voice you'll hear is PD Jay Clark. Those-who-know-him-best
will recognize real Jay Clark copy ("WE WANT YOU TO WIN!"); and another
technique of his that I've shamelessly borrowed elsewhere, using multiple
voices, sometimes cutting from voice-to-voice mid-sentence. Following
Jay, you'll hear, in this order: midday host Jimmy Gray, mid-morning host
Larry Kruger, Jay again, then longtime WPRO production director Austin
"Jake" Paquin, before yours truly tags it live.
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Even
though nobody talks in this next break, I included it, a jingle segue,
because I just LOVE these jingles. This was a custom package that
Jay conceived, and it became PAMS Series 41. It replaced some very
classy WFIL jingles we played for several years. And the WFIL jingles
replaced some WKBW jingles we'd played previously. Because "WKBW"
(our sister station in Buffalo) had more syllables than "WPRO," the singers
sang the "O" as a down note, and held it. In the replacement
WFIL package, the "O" was lavishly layered voices singing an up
note. One year, at the big Bristol RI 4th of July parade, Jay noticed
something. Even though the slick WFIL jingles we were then airing
ended with an up note, folks in the parade crowd sang-out "WPRO"
to us as our float passed by, mimicking the previous WKBW package, which
ended with a down note. Jay, himself a musician, observed
that "unless you're a professional singer, you can't sing that up note;"
and he made a point of returning to the old WKBW logo when PAMS wrote the
Series 41 music. Though 3-second shotguns were in vogue at the time,
this package included some :30 and :60 length lyrics; and was themed
"EVERYTHING WE DO IS FOR YOU." The unadorned segue you'll hear in
this break is me aping the elegant simplicity of WABC, then still New York's
music radio ratings gorilla.
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Yep,
that's legendary 50+ year WPRO morning host Salty Brine leading off the
4th of July Parade promo, joined by Larry Kruger and afternoon host Gary
DeGraide, and (reading the fine print, as he did so anonymously), Jake...
Then, a spot announcing that former horse track Lincoln Downs
would re-open as Lincoln Greyhound Park. Newport Jai Alai -- now
Newport Grand, a slot and simulcast casino no longer actually playing Jai
Alai games -- had just opened, and was sucking-in the pari mutuel revenue
that formerly flowed into Lincoln Downs and now-defunct Narragansett Raceway.
Thus the copy line in the Lincoln Greyhound spot about "NO TOWNS TO GO
THROUGH, NO HASSLE," since Lincoln Greyhound was right off a highway, and
Newport Jai Alai was a trek from Providence. Voicing the Lincoln
Downs spot: Sherm Strickhouser, a long-time Providence radio host
who passed away several years ago. The pups still run in Lincoln, now known as slot palace Twin River.
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Next
break, first spot, Midland Mall, which has changed names twice since (now
it's Rhode Island Mall). The spot is voiced by Mike Sands, affable
and popular midday host for years on WJAR (now Clear Channel's WHJJ AM)
and later on WSNE (FM), which I programmed 1982-84. We were all stunned
when Mike died suddenly in terrible car crash in the late 80s. Listen
to that lithe Midland Mall jingle. The lyrics seem quaint today,
with identity theft such a concern. Back in '77, the mall wanted
to assure you that "WE'VE SEEN YOU AND THE THINGS YOU DO, QUITE
A WHILE...WE'VE COME TO KNOW YOU."
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Same
break, Gary DeGraide voices a spot for the Emerson Lake & Palmer concert
at The Providence Civic Center (now The Dunkin Donuts Center). In
the 70s, this was the 5th biggest concert venue in America, even with ELP
tickets as pricey as a whopping $7.50 and $8.50. Then, into "Ariel"
by Dean Friedman, the jingle I often played after concert spots.
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Next
break: Live on-hour ID, WPRO's perennial summertime moniker, "THE STATION
THAT REACHES THE BEACHES!" Back then, you could walk up and down
Scarborough Beach in Narragansett without a radio and hear WPRO.
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Next
break: Jingle segue to oldie. My clock featured
back-to-back top ten titles across the hour, then an oldie, in this case
"Saturday Night" by The Bay City Rollers.
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The
talk-in to the next stopset demonstrates what Jay called "the subliminal."
I'd never heard that word before I knew it as the name of a jingle.
Jay had us hit that moog logo underneath the temperature as we said the
call letters at the end of the AccuWeather forecast to subliminally
underline that you heard the forecast on WPRO.
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Next
break, a call-in contest. WPRO's call-in number is different now,
but a year before this show, when the USA's Bicentennial was such a big
deal, our having 224-1776 was a coup. A year later, in '77, we used
that short "PRO!" sing to exploit the fact that 224-1776 was also 224-number-one-P-R-O.
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Same
break: WPRO's "utility infielder" Brother Bill Goodman, who did weekends
and filled-in for everyone, voicing a promo for an appearance at Crescent
Park. At the time, Rhode Island had two classic amusement parks,
Crescent Park and Rocky Point Park, now both are closed.
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Next
break, the contest winner. WPRO-FM, by then 3 years into its CHR
format, was snowballing, so we started emphasizing that we were WPRO-AM.
As you'll hear from the contest winner, the repetition worked.
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Last
break: My all-time favorite sweeper jingle, WPRO's half-hour sing.
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