Max Wolf was hired by Program Director, Steve Kingston in 1981 from WYRE in Annapolis where they had both worked together previously. If anyone knows of his whereabouts today, please email the webmaster.

By the time of this aircheck, roughly nine months after the format change, both listeners and advertisers alike had abandoned the station like a puddle evaporating in the summertime. The devastating loss of 50% of its cumulative audience the previous ratings period in the Fall of 1982 haunted the station in the Spring 1983 book. Numbers hadn't been this low since the station was an AM daytimer only!

Advertiser support was lean and mean to say the least. In this tape which covers approximately an hour, only a total of three commercials are heard! In the middle of the day no less! One of these for the 'New Diaper Baby Service' sadly reveals what the station had been reduced to running ads for.

In what passed for a station promotion by this point, WPGC presented the 'Great Baby Race'at Laurel Center and Tyson's Corner in which as could be guessed, infants crawled to untold riches and prizes (probably diaper service from you know who!).

After Work Parties had become a staple on the station but with fewer listeners than in recent memory, one has to wonder how low the turnout was to see the morning show of Dave Foxx & news guy, J. Robert Howe at Teddy's Lounge in the Ramada Hotel in Tyson's Corner. One might also ponder how WPGC's (Marriott family) owners felt about their station doing an appearance at a competing hotel chain. If they so believed in the Adult Contemporary format, wouldn't doing events of this nature at one of the numerous Marriott facilities instead be a no-brainer?

Station promos on this aircheck consist of two 'People Promos'. The same management who had made the disastrous decision to change the format insisted on running promos in which listeners allegedly laud praise on the station, perhaps only to convince management that there was still hope for the new format. In truth, they were completely and totally contrived. Listen as listeners are pathetically prompted, word for word what to say on these.

Jingles were from JAM's 'Double Plus' package created originally for WYNY in New York. It was to be the final package ever ordered from them.

In short, the most profoundly stupid change in format at that time in Washington radio history was well underway and had crippled the station to the point of being an embarrassment, scorned by market watchers and industry insiders while ABC & Q107 laughed all the way to the bank!

 

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