Re: WBOS Formats

[Rob Landry <umar@wcrb.com>]

> Vinny Peruzzi (sp?) had WBOS dancing to disco in the fall of '78,
> but they dumped the format just as KISS (WXKS-FM) went on the air.

No, "Disco 93" was the brainchild of Ron Robin.  It started in February
1978 as a Sunday night time-brokered show (he was working at WVBF at the
time).  The success of the Sunday show attracted the attention of WBOS
general manager Alan Temple, who offered Ron the job of program director. 

I joined the WBOS staff in 1980 just a few months after Temple's
departure and the end of disco.  What I was told was that Kiss hired
away Peruzzi and WBOS morning host J.J. Wright, and that Kiss spent
millions of dollars on promotion in 1979 to lure away WBOS listeners.
Wright's replacement in morning drive was John Kosian.  WBOS continued as
a disco station until the end of 1979 when Alan Temple was fired.
Temple's successor, Allan Johnson, changed the format to adult
contemporary but kept Ron Robin as PD.  The new format wasn't very
successful. 
 
> WBOS went to an AOR format in Jan 1982 as "92.9FM" not mentioning the
> calls except for legal ID's

In the fall of 1981, Ron Robin left WBOS to join WBZ.  Johnson decided to
dump the format and hired Jack O'Brien from WPRO-FM to do AOR.  The result
was a virtual clone of number-one ranked WCOZ.  O'Brien canned most of the
programming staff and hired, among others, Mike DiMambro, Terrence "Tyler" 
Reinsmith, and Dan Justin. 

> Then they morphed to a "soft-rock" format,

On July 14, 1982 station owner Herbert Hoffman fired both Johnson and
O'Brien for causes not clear to me.  He made Jane Duncklee (station
manager of WUNR) also general manager of WBOS, and hired Clark Smidt to
program the station. Clark Smidt's new format sounded a lot like what
would now be called adult album alternative, but he was ten years before
his time. 

> and then actually went "Modern Rock" up against the then new 'FNX in
> spring of 1983. 

In the spring of 1983, Mr. Hoffman hired Barry Skidelsky as station
manager of WBOS.  Maxanne Satori, formerly of WBCN, was hired as PD.  It
was she who launched the modern rock format.

My assessment of Ms. Satori was that she was excellent in her choice of
music but her choice of people left a lot to be desired.  Except for Bob
Slavin, who had come to WBOS after having been let go by the now imploding
WCOZ, most of them acted, dressed, and sounded like college kids.  Their
microphone skills were abysmal.

> Then on 7/14/83 (don't ask me why, but I remember) the swiched to
> country without ANY warning, where they would stay until April 1989

Well, at the time I thought it was because Mr. Hoffman was unimpressed by
the lack of professionalism displayed by too many of Ms. Satori's staff
members.  I also got the impression that Jane Duncklee, who was still
running WUNR, wanted to reclaim the job of general mansger of WBOS. 

Dean James, who was program director of WDLW (now WRCA), was brought in as
morning man and PD for "America's Country" WBOS.  He and his staff showed
up unannounced on the morning of Thursday, July 14, 1983.  All hell broke
loose.

The air studio had a huge picture window that looked out into the sales
offices.  One can only imagine what "Rockin' Bob" Slavin must have thought
during his last midday show. Panicked staffers were running about, pulling
their hear and bursting into tears as Mr. Hoffman tore the punk rock
posters off the walls.  An army of strange people belonging to Dean James
emerged from the freight elevator behind the WUNR master control room
bearing armfuls of country albums.  Skidelsky and Ms. Satori were nowhere
to be seen; they had already been given the bad news.  The remaining staff
were told to get themselves and their rock records off station property by
the end of the day.

At 3pm Dean James entered the air studio, relieved Bob Slavin, and put on
the first country record ("Ghost Riders in the Sky", as I recall).  The
phones lit up as irate listeners called in to complain.  Mr. Hoffman took
many of the calls himself.

> (Remeber they played "Take this job and shove it" by Johnny Paycheck
> over and over the last day (to purge listeners, I guess))went they went
> to soft-rock. 

Ah, but that was after my time.  I left WBOS/WUNR in December, 1983,
and moved to California. The decision had been made to sell WBOS, budgets
were being cut, and I thought it was time to move on.  In 1984 WBOS was
bought by Sconnix.  It was eventually sold to Ackerley Communications, who
did the Johnny Paycheck thing, and they sold it at a great loss to Granum,
which became part of Infinity, which became part of CBStingfinity, or CBS
as they like to call themselves.  And they've just sold the station to
Greater Media, although I'm not sure whether the transfer of ownership has
actually happened yet.

> My guess if it wasn't for the "BOS" calls, each switch would have been done
> with a Call switch as well (I'd assume the "WBOS" calls will be on 92.9 no
> matter what format they play)

When Jane Duncklee told me about the forthcoming switch to country a
couple of weeks before the Bastille Day massacre, I suggested she switch
the WBOS call letters to the AM and get something new for 92.9. I'd heard
stories from some of the salespeople that the call letters had become
something of a joke among advertisers, and suggested that new calls would
give us the opportunity to present ourselves as a brand new station
instead of just another incarnation of WBOS. 

Among the programming people I knew at WBOS there was one survivor of the
Jack O'Brien era who lasted all the way to Granum: Bruce Werner, alias
"Captain Zemo", alias "Ed Wood", alias "Ed Zemo Wood", alias "Ed Zemo." He
was also the "Stompin' Zemo" who did the Saturday night doo-wop show on
WHRB for several years. 


Rob Landry
umar@wcrb.com

------------------------------