WCLZ (was Re: NorthEast Radio Watch 3/5)

[Dib9@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/7/99 3:40:38 PM Eastern Standard Time,  Bill O'Neill
writes:

<< 'CLZ used to be one heck of a juke box of great tunes.  Even back to the
 early 80s, whenever camping under the Maine stars, WCLZ was always a
 good fit.>>

Actually WCLZ was insipid Soft AC until February of 1986 when they switched to
a format designed and consulted by John Sebastian that was then called "New
AC."  (I started out at WCLZ and worked there part-time for a few years when I
was in high school.  I left the station for the first time in January 1986,
about a month before the format change.)  I like to think that WCLZ's peak was
the period that I did afternoon drive from July 1988 to February 1990.  ;-)
(Actually that was one of the best ratings periods for the station.)  Since
then, accept for a short period as all jazz, the station has had a similar
format with some lurches back and forth towards more mainstream fare.  I've
listened to WCLZ a little bit since Scott's article and they have certainly
added more modern AC cuts, but there is still plenty of stuff that you would
not hear on most modern AC stations.  I'm not sure how big of a change has
been made because I have not listened to the station much since they fired me
in 1997 and I do not know what most AAA stations are playing these days.  I'm
not surprised that Fuller/Jeffrey has made changes since WCLZ has never been
consistently successful, though I would attribute a lot of that to
inconsistent management, programming and promotion.  It's interesting to note
that when Fuller/Jeffrey first put WCYY and WCYI together they tried a AAA
lite format for about a year before dumping it for Alternative.  Interesting
enough, when WCYY/WCYI was trying to compete with WCLZ by being a more
mainstream alternative, WCLZ did better in the ratings and in sales.

Dan Billings
Bowdoinham, Maine

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