'The WPGC Money Plane Rains Cash On Metro Washington'...

Jim Collins began his radio career at 15 in Lawrence, Kansas. "It was a small operation out in the middle of a cow pasture. I had to water the cows before signing on the station each morning".

He first came to the Washington area in 1969 while stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital. While an announcer with the Armed Forces Network, he also did weekends & swing as "Mark West" at WPGC, a name he shed by the time he joined the station full time late in 1972, briefly doing late nights before moving to afternoons. Early in 1975 he became Program Director, a position he held until the 'Great Strike That Struck Out' in May of 1977.

Following the strike, Jim became Vice President of Pop Promotion for Polydor Records in New York.  He returned to radio in the early '80's as Asst. Program Director of 66 WNBC, which was then the most listened to station in the nation.  There he also produced the weekly 'Music Magazine' feature and was the regular fill in host for the 'Imus in the Morning' program.

Jim passed away in the early '90's. This site is dedicated in his memory.

Heard on this aircheck about a year after he took over the afternoon show from 'big' Wilson, listen for Jim's mention of that day's winner of $100 cash with the WPGC Money Plane which appeared over the nightime skies of Metro DC with an electronic message spelled out beneath it. Listeners had to spot the plane, read the message then be the right caller to recite it the following morning with Harv Moore.

The plane was an extension of the hugely successful WPGC on-going bumpersticker campaign (available at all 7-Eleven stores). Paired up with the WPGC Money Girls driving the WPGC Money Car, it became the longest running and most widely circulated promotion of its kind in Washington.

Though not heard on this tape, other contesting at the time consisted of the 'Cash Kick Off' with $50 up for grabs, coinciding with the resumption of football in the fall. Contestants had to correctly predict the pre-determined outcome of what a fictious ball carrier would gain on the play. Voiced by Harv Moore impersonating Howard Cosell, the pre-recorded play-by-play had possible outcomes of 25, 50, 75, 100 or no yards at all.

 

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