n the 60's, nothing was mightier than WIFE. They had it all, great DJ's, music, contests, and a signal we could get 40 miles away! AM at it's finest.INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA!
This "jingle" mentions a few of the highlights of Indianapolis circa 1963:
Clowes Hall, Garfield Park, James Whitcomb Riley, and of course the Indianapolis 500!
I recall DJ's: Lee Masters, Bruce Hunter, Jay Reynolds, and of course the legendary "Reb Porter".
What do you remember?
5 comments:
Can't believe this has no comments! I remember WIFE arriving shortly after I discovered there was radio outside my hometown... I must have found WISH-AM initially, because I remember a short interim when the call was WAWE before it became WIFE.
WIBC had been the big dog in Indy radio until WIFE shook completely changed the game. But not too many years later, Fairbanks returned the favor when they allowed co-PDs "Jasen" (Jim Hansen) and Al Stone to metamorphose WIBC-FM into WNAP.
The launches of WIFE and WNAP, in my mind anyway, were the two events with the greatest impact in Indianapolis radio since the initial launch of broadcasting in the '20s. (No. 3 might have been the launch of WTLC in its AM heyday...)
Tangential note: both Jim and Al are still in Indy, and both spent some time working at WIFE prior to the 'N-A-P launch.
I wondered if anyone even read the post, but I know that's not true!
Great info on the evolution of the Indy radio szene. Look forward to hearing more from you.
Steve and vinylfool, you guys are so right about WIFE. As a student at Ben Davis I wanted to become a DJ. We had a radio staion, WBDG,(still there) Jay Reynolds helped me with project by giving me a terrific interview; I got an A. The Jaybird and the Emperor, Joe Light, and Roger W were always my favorites.
Just found this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-sBMjmfj_0
Rock 'n' Roll Death Match!
Joe Light read a couple of my letters on the air - what a blast!
Thanks mainly to Wife, I was in radio for 40 years. Not a lot of money, but more fun than anything else in the world.
Bruce, if you're still around, buzz me at danhughesmail@gmail.com. I went to Ben Davis too. But I graduated in '65, the year before they got the new school and the radio station.
Wife went on the air on Halloween 1963, less than a month before the Kennedy assassination. Wife had no national news affiliate yet, so Jay Reynolds called a buddy at a Dallas radio station and relayed the Dallas radio news THROUGH A TELEPHONE onto the air at Wife.
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