Re: Inquiry: 1st with Rock

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 12:29 PM 5/4/97 +0000, you wrote:

>Being from the Albany, NY area, I recall folks stating that the old
>WOKO (1460) were the first to play rock for some part of the day in that
>area, that they were the first.  Anyone have any info?

I was in the Tri-Cities during the time that rock came in. And I'd have to
say that the first station to play rock-and-roll in Albany-Schenectady-Troy
was WTRY (980). WTRY had been the CBS Radio affiliate, but in a complicated
switch involving several radio stations and network-affiliation agreements
for as-yet-unbuilt UHF stations (that later moved to VHF), the radio
affiliations moved around. WTRY (which had always been tremendously
successful) was sold to a group from Providence (they owned what was then
WEAN-790). This group dropped the CBS affiliation, which went to WROW (590).

WTRY brought in a DJ who had allegedly been very big in Cleveland--Ernie
Anderson (or Andersen). I don't know if he was the same Ernie Anderson whose
death was reported within the last month. WTRY also had the Capital
District's top personality, Paul Flanagan, who moved to AM drive (he had
been in PM drive while WTRY was a CBS affiliate) but continued his wildly
successful Saturday evening show. I forget the name of that program, but he
had a theme that you may have heard (Everybody's invited to Paul's party).
Paul would play a number of records that were high up in the ratings and
would invite the audience to call in and vote for which one should be #1. He
got _thousands_ of calls every Saturday. Volunteers from local high schools
would come to the WTRY studios in the Proctor's Theater Building on Fourth
St in Troy, where they would answer the phones and record the votes.

WTRY became the Capital District's top rock station, and I believe it was
also the first. In those days, WOKO was owned by an eccentric old guy, "Col"
Jim Healy. In a cost-cutting move, Healy arranged with WRPI (then a
campus-limited, carrier-current AM) to provide programming during the
evening hours. That arrangement lasted for one semester, at the end of which
Healy unceremoniously had the phone line from WRPI to WOKO disconnected. At
that time, WOKO had no format that I could discern. It was Healy's toy. He
fancied himself another Paul Harvey, and did daily commentaries on whatever
subject he thought of.

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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