Hey George! Heckuva lineup I had at 'KGN.
The day Kerry Lambert resigned to launch WIMZ, I drove over to Alcoa Highway and asked for an audience with the new GM, Ted DelaCourt. Having nothing to lose at the time, I told Ted that he would never make a penny playing disco. He agreed. When I outlined a plan to change to an Adult Contemporary format, he hired me on the spot as PD and I moved into my office the same afternoon.
Trouble is, owner Neighborhood Communications in Richmond didn't buy it. They were a theatre business. Kent Burkhart had told them that disco was the way to the Promised Land and that he was The Messiah. Home office dictated we stick with disco, so we battled for a few months with Kent and home office. Burkhart-Abrams was finally given the pink slip and we made the switch.
Jim Byrd came to WKGN with the promise that we would be A/C within 30 days. He had to play that crap for about 3 months before we made the switch. He didn't speak to me for years afterward.
Sadly, WKGN was already over the hill and bathing in the sunset. The 1340 signal no longer covered a significant part of the market and FM was starting to kick butt by 1979. Neighborhood was a neophyte in the radio business and just couldn't grasp it. Everyone was disenchanted for one reason or another, so one by one we sauntered off to live the rest of our lives.
The great on-air staff you named doubled the 12+ ratings in one book - .7 to 1.4. A small but satisfying triumph. : )
Within a year or so, George Mooney's U-102 swept in like a hurricane with a great AC format. U-102 made 5 Class C FM's. The great AM stations -WNOX, WKGN, WRJZ, WBIR, WROL - were dead as market leaders. But look what great histories they left behind!
Keep up the good work!
Your friend, Bill Miller (I Am Still Suitcase Simpson)