WDRC / Big D (Was Re: Censorship at WTKK)

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Howard Glazer wrote:
<snip>
>Mourning the passing of a longtime Hartford radio tradition -- WDRC-FM
>is phasing out "Big D 103" after about 20 years and calling itself
>"Oldies 102.9, DRC-FM."

        By phasing out, do you mean you know they intend to stop using it
altogether? Yes, they have gone digital lately in their liners and jingles,
but I still hear Big D used. One of the breaks is "102.9, WDRC -- Big D,
103." They seem to use both.

        Also, the use of "Big D" goes way back past about 20 years, when
the FM flipped to oldies and went heavy calling itself Big D 103. WDRC (AM)
dropped CBS and went top 40 in, for some reason I seem to recall this,
October 1958. It's my understanding that "Big D" and "the Big D" were used
to refer to the AM almost back to then, or right from that start, and
certainly by the early '60s. It was cranked up again when the FM went to
oldies to evoke that history with the AM. I think it was used on the AM
almost up to then or right up until then. They had always kept up limited
simulcasting to the extent the rules allowed it and really had the same
format on both stations through the '70s. IIRC, during times of the day
when the FM was not simulcasting, they used "Big D" back then, although it
may not have been "Big D 103".

        So, if the slogan is being dropped it is the end of a real
long-time tradition. Maybe it is being dropped as part of their overall
updating. It is very 50s-60s to have a station calling itself something
like "Big D", in an era when, especially with music formats, going heavy
with the frequency or some identifier unrelated to the calls is the norm.
It may be getting thrown out along with most of their '50s music :)  I
think the '50s section of their music library now consists of Presley's
greatest hits and Berry's greatest hits, with most cuts crossed out :)

--The Connecticut guy who would have  driven 150 miles each way for an ice
cream, but I believed my wife when she said the gun was loaded :)