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Dedicated in memory
of Jim
Collins
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On the Front Cover:
Caption reads: Workin' at the car wash for Muscular Dystrophy....Liz Kiley, Nancy, Waylon Richards, Dan
Mason, Brant Miller.
Liz Kiley joined WPGC for overnights in 1977 after 'The Great Strike (That Struck Out)' from WLAV in Lansing. 'Nancy', was Nancy
Burgess who worked in the office staff but became a WPGC Money Girl during the strike. She later married GM, Bill Prettyman. The two are now retired in Florida.
Waylon Richards also joined the station for 9p-1a after the strike from WGCL in Cleveland. He and Dan
Mason had worked together previously at KBEQ in Kansas City. Dan arrived from sister station, Z93 in Atlanta as PD when Jim Collins resigned, refusing to cross the picket line.
Brant Miller was another post-strike addition to the staff who briefly did afternoons, coming in from KIMN in Denver. Within months, he left for WLS in Chicago. He was replaced by Scott Carpenter in PM Drive, arriving from CHUM in Toronto.
Coinciding with Scott's arrival, Dan was named National PD for First Media and became the first off-air PD at WPGC. Waylon moved up 6-10p and Steve Michaels was hired for 10p-2a after coming in from WMZQ.
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Note:
Her name misspelled below, Debby Boone's, 'You Light Up My
Life' would go on to be the #1 song of the year on the WPGC
Top 100 of 1977 as well as the #1 song of the '70's on the
WPGC Top 50 Hits of
the Decade.
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#1 on WPGC Today in 1977
The list of motion picture scores composer John Williams has been responsible for is staggering, from 'Jaws' to 'Star Wars' to 'E.T.'. Nor was it coincidental that many of those themes were covered by Producer and musician, Meco Monardo. By far his greatest success was with his Disco treatment of 'Star Wars Theme / Cantina Band', an instrumental that sold over two million copies and the only one that went Platinum. In fact, to date it is the biggest selling instrumental single in the history of recorded music, hitting #1 for two weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 and spent its first of three consecutive weeks at #1 on the WPGC Musicradio survey on 09/03/77. See enlargement.
Meco was no stranger to hits, having done the arrangement for the horns on Tommy James & The Shondells, 'Crystal Blue Persuasion'in 1969 as well as the arrangements for Neil Diamond's Coke commercials in the '60's. He went on to produce Gloria Gaynor's cover version of, 'Never Can Say Goodbye' in the mid '70's and played the trombone solo on Diana Ross', 'I'm Coming Out' in 1980. Being a science fiction fan, he had seen 'Star Wars' the day it came out and within one day had the premise of what became his first hit record of his own. In addition to the single doing so, the parent album, 'Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk' also went Platinum. In an ironic twist of fate, though Meco was nominated as 'Best Instrumental Pop Performer' at the Grammy Awards that year, he lost out to (wait for it...), John Williams! Read more on Meco.
For a while, a touring band using the name, 'Meco' but not featuring him personally performed at venues in support of the album, though none of the musicians had participated in the recording of it. In perfect synergy, the enormity of the film and the song played off one another to such an extent that for a short time, WPGC also played the original version by John Williams. Hoping lightning would strike twice (or more), Meco later would follow the same formula of Disco-izing other Williams themes including, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', 'Love Theme From 'Superman'' and 'The Empire Strikes Back'. Tiring with the music industry, he left it in 1985 and eventually became a commodity broker in Florida. Hear the full 15 minute version of the song.
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