April 18, 2011 - RKO Radio Chain

Not all great radio stations emanated from such cities as Los Angeles, New York or Chicago. WRKO, the flagship station of the RKO General radio chain, was the red-hot Top 40 radio station in Boston, Massachusetts. WRKO went on the air as a Top 40 station on March 17, 1967, having switched from WNAC, which had been a talk station, but playing oldies to segue into the new WRKO.

WRKO spent its beginning years as a Bill Drake-formatted station, as its co-owned stations including KHJ, KFRC, and CKLW. But WRKO was more personality-driven than most Drake operations. With the perfect combination of more music and fabulous jocks, WRKO's ratings skyrocketed within only a few weeks! In fact, WRKO was such a hot station, that at one time it even out-rated every other station in its own RKO General chain of Drake-formatted stations.

WRKO became known as "The Big 68" in 1968, to match other Drake-formatted stations in the RKO General chain with similar nicknames, like CKLW which was called "The Big 8."

The format brought WRKO so much income, that in September of 1968, the stations - AM, FM and TV - moved out ofo their old 21 Brookline Avenue studios, and into the new Government Center, on Bullfinch Place.

As FM stations became popular in the early 1970s, WRKO's FM (WROR) had its own Bill Drake "Hit Parade" oldies format. WROR's ratings were no match for WRKO's. In fact, the station was a money-loser. While one might believe it would had made every bit of sense to move WRKO's successful format to its FM station, RKO General's corporate thinking was similar to that of most companies who had both an AM and FM station in the same market: "If we do that, we'll be competing against our own station!" So the decision was made to leave things alone.

In late 1971, in order to attempt to head off the competition of FMs, Bill Drake decided to WRKO began to play more album cuts and modified its jocks' delivery: less hype, more mellow, as if to imitate the now-successful AOR station in Boston, WBCN.  That the station That the format included 40 album cuts, shows that WRKO was taking that new direction very seriously. WVBF wasn't so mellow, but it featured album cuts within its Top 40 mix of music, all with a unique Top 40 jock presentation, jingles and all. It was at that time that WRKO added a short list of top-selling albums to its "WRKO Thirty" surveys.

  Drake wanted the same format for KHJ, but since jocks like "The Real" Don Steel and Robert W. Morgan couldn't change their style to the new format, Johnny Williams was sent to KHJ to work evenings (as Cat Simon), to show the rest of the staff the style Drake wanted.

In the autumn of 1973, consultant Paul Drew was promoted to Vice President of RKO Radio. He recommended WAVZ/New Haven, CT Program Director, John Long, to program WROR. At that time, a company could own just two stations per market. In what is today considered a suicidal decision, RKO General decided to sell off its FM stations in the markets where they had combos in order to get into more markets. They sold WHBQ-FM in Memphis, and KFRC-FM in San Francisco. They tried to sell WROR, but the sale was hindered when a minority group filed a petition to deny the sale to Cecil Heftel.  Heftel and RKO General agreed to withdraw the offer. Paul Drew indeed wanted John Long to come to Boston and "make it a winner." But "the tire people," as RKO General's management was known sarcastically, was apparently too conservative a group to budge.

In mid-1973, Bill Drake had a fallout with RKO General left the company, and was replaced by Paul Drew.  Scotty Brink, "AOR" Program Director, was replaced by KFRC/San Francisco's Gerry Peterson. WRKO "re-birthed" itself by spending a weekend of playing oldies, and when the weekend was over, there was a new high-energy on-air staff in place, complete with TM Shotgun jingles, and a return to a straight Top 40 format, even while the WRKO music surveys still listed albums as well as the top singles.

In 1975, WRKO's on-air delivery returned to a more "mature" approach, with less hype; more one-to-one communication. At the same time, the national Top 40 music charts were reflecting more-mellow music selections, hallmarks of the mid 1970s, until disco music began to make a showing in 1976. WRKO's sound was a straight blend of the day's typical Top 40 station; while the emphasis was not on disco music, the hottest disco hits were added to the standard, mellow Top 40 offerings.

In 1978, under new Program Director Harry Nelson (who had returned from KFRC after being one of WRKO's high-energy jocks from 1973 to 1976), the station took a more "Adult Contemporary" approach, turning down the general tempo of its music and presentation. Mistakenly believing long-time, exceptionally-popular morning man Dale Dorman would always be identified as a Top 40 jock, Dale was terminated. He went on to Framingham-Boston's Top 40 WVBF/105.7, and shortly thereafter to Medford-Boston's "Kiss 108" (WXKS 107.9) where he remains on the air to this day. As the curse of Babe Ruth, I believe that particular decision marked the beginning of the end for WRKO.

From March 5, 1979 to the end of WRKO in 1981, Charlie Van Dyke was brought in from KLIF in Dallas to see what magic, if any, he could perform in keeping WRKO alive. Charlie was known as a turnaround specialist. Knowing his AM station had lost most of its younger audience to FMs, he made the decision to turn WRKO into an Adult Contemporary station, emphasizing more of a "personality" presentation. Special programming was added in the evening, as well as a talk show. In September of 1980, WHDH's Norm Nathan (probably the most laid-back air personality in Boston) to be the station's "Morning Magazine" jock. The show was heavy on personality, heavy on features, and light on music. Norm stayed on until May 25th of that year. WRKO's air talent began to come and go very quickly, as the station tried to hold any ground it could.

Charlie Van Dyke was summoned to a high-level RKO General meeting in New York, where he revealed that the station ad little choice than to move to a News-Talk format. The executives agreed, and asked Charlie what the call letters of the "new" station should be. Charlie replied that WRKO was by now a heritage station, and that the call letters should remain the same. Yes, Charlie Van Dyke saved WRKO — at least its name.  Ironically, to make the transition from music to talk, former WMEX Good Guy Mel Miller became interim Program Director. And the deed was done. (Miller was named Program Director of WROR in April, 1982.  Previously, he'd had a similar position at WEEI for he past 13 years.)

The day the music died on WRKO was at 6 PM on September 26, 1981, when the station became Talkradio 68. Today, WRKO is very successful as a talk station. But there was nothing — nothing at all — like WRKO, when it was New England's highest-rated Top-40 station. In fact, at one time it even out-rated every other sister station in its RKO General chain — including the great KHJ and CKLW! Like the Curse of Babe Ruth in Red Sox baseball, when WRKO terminated its own Babe, Dale Dorman, the station became and remained a perennial loser when he left. Whether warm memories of WNAC, WRKO, and WRKO-FM are still fresh in your mind as they are in mine, or you have only heard about The BIG 68

Here are a few of the famous "Drake Jingles"