Re: (Pushing) The Envelope Please

[dan.Strassberg@att.net]

The most remarkable thing about that story is that it 
refers to a fictitious station called WILD. But when 
Boston's _real_ WILD debuted in the late 50s, it did so 
in a manner not all that dissimilar from the stunt the 
article describes. The debut of WILD (ex-WBMS, then just 
purchased and renamed by Bartell Family Media of WOKY 
and KCBQ fame) was preceded by a two- or three-day 
saturation spot campaign that ran on probably half a 
dozen other Boston stations. What was being advertised 
was never made clear in the spots. Had it been, the 
stations that ran the spots would, of course, never have 
accepted them. The spots simply said, in a very sultry 
famale voice "Everyone in OLD Boston is going 
wild|wild|wild|wild." The Monday morning after the 
campaign ended, the new calls, a new top-40 format, and 
an air-staff that had never before been heard in Boston 
debuted at 1090.

I have no idea how effective the campaign was. Bartell 
didn't own WILD all that long. The next owner was Nelson 
Noble, who brought in Bill Marlowe, Stan Richards, and 
Joe Smith. When that ended, I believe what followed was 
the forerunner of the current urban programming.
> Essay on Radio Promotion in the New Millennium:
> 
> http://www.gavin.com/industry/promo/0002/envelope.shtml