El Double O joined the station in 1980 as the utility fill in guy, often substituting for Scott Woodside in morning news. When Elliott & Woodside departed early in 1982 for Q107 he did morning news for an extended period of time.

He later became the Promotions Director for WPGC before departing in 1983 for a PD gig in New Haven. Returning a year later he became the Asst. PD but left again in 1984 for WAVA where he did middays for several years. Eventually he spent 10 years in PM drive at MIX107, followed by many years doing mornings at WASH-FM. Today, he runs Hound Radio on the Internet.

Heard here during the Summer of 1981, the more music battle with Q107 is evident with streamlined breaks, short & sweet and to the point (or as Program Director, Steve Kingston put it, 'eight words or less!'). The Top 40 titans had been squaring off against one another for two years by the time of this aircheck.

And then a curious thing happened; Q107 launched its ill-fated repositioning campaign, 'Q Phase 2' which left WPGC comfortably ahead in the ratings race. Inspired by the success of Howard Stern on DC-101, Q107 began jettisoning Top 40 mechanics like talking up song vocals, did away with jingles, let songs fade out to oblivion and toned it's jocks way down.

In reaction, WPGC stuck to the basics, kept the promotional pressure on, played the hits and took no prisoners. A true Top 40 battle if ever there was one and perhaps the best remembered in DC radio history.

It didn't take long for ABC management to realize the mistake it had made. But by then it was too late. WPGC clinched the Top 40 crown and did not relinquish it for another year's time until First Media's disasterous decision to change the station's format after 30 years to Adult Contemporary.

Said mentioned promotional activity included a STYX Paradise Unlimited prize pack with a tour jersey, tickets to their show locally and a Grand Prize of tickets to see the band in London, Paris or elsewhere around the world. Movie tickets to Heavy Metal and the Chevy Chase flick, Under The Rainbow (which undoubtedly was indeed showing in Chevy Chase) were also being given away at this time. And on the promotional horizon, teases for the 4th Annual Ramblin' Raft Race were already being heard a month ahead of time.

WPGC had recently introduced a new innovation of the era; an 800 number request line - but only for Maryland! At the time, multi-state 800 lines were cost prohibitive, particularly considering the vast number of calls the station received. It was cutting edge for its day but cost cutting led to its removal the following year. Listen for Loo soliciting requests at 800-492-0832.

That's his voice too on the local spot for Town & Country Buick. But it's the only local commercial heard during the entire 2PM hour on this tape. Every single other spot was of National or Regional origin and agency produced. Among them, listen for spots for the box office blockbuster, 'Arthur' and the box office bomb, 'Wolfen'. Others include Perrier, Delta Airlines, 7-Eleven and Toyota. Stopsets never exceeded 3:30 but could occur as often as four times an hour to accomodate 30 minute music sweeps in adjacent hours.

Early on in this tape don't miss WPGC's custom mention in Jim Steinman's only hit without partner, Meat Loaf on 'Rock & Roll Dreams Come Through'. Having Jim sing WPGC's call letters could only have led to Q107 having a really bad day everytime it was played!

And speaking of call letters, jingles heard on this tape were from a TM package, 'Radio Express' in 1981.

 

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