WILD 1950's Stunt

[A. Joseph Ross]

On 16 Dec 2005 at 6:26, Dan Strassberg wrote:

> I don't recall the stunt--but that doesn't mean it never happened. It
> would most likely have happened when WILD was sold to Bartell Family Media
> around 1958 or so--if memory serves. (This was decades before "Family" in
> the name of a station owner implied a Christian format.) At the time,
> Bartell owned top-40 ratings powerhouses WOKY Milwaukee and KCBQ San
> Diego. I think the 1090 calls were WBMS until Bartell took over and
> flipped them to WILD.

What I remember is moving back to the Boston area from Albany in May 1957 and surveying 
the AM dial to see what stations were where.  I missed 1090 the first time through because I 
did that part of the dial at night.  I didn't know about daytime-only stations at that time -- we 
didn't seem to have them in Albany.  Later, I found WBMS at 1090.

I don't remember any of the promotion of WILD, just that one day, as I was going down the dial, 
I found 1090 and was surprised to discover that the call letters were now WILD.  That was the 
first change of call letters that I experienced, and at first, I didn't quite realize that was what it 
was and was puzzled by it.

And yes, the 1150 call letters were still WCOP.  They stayed WCOP until sometime in the 
1970s.
 
-- 
A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                           617.367.0468
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