Buftex Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 The big "greatest song" thread got me thinking back, does anyone remember the amazing, but very short lived (maybe a little over a year) WIZARD FM in Buffalo? It was completely free-form, commercial radio. You might hear a Frank Zappa song, followed by Bing Crosby, and then George Jones. It was an awesome radio station (I think it was around 1981 or 1982). Deos anyone else remember? Anyone know what happened to Gary Storm? He was the overnight guy, and program director of the station, if I remember correctly. His overnight show was called "Oil Of Dog", the theme for which, was a Kim Foley song called "I Hate You". I remember he moved elsewhere after they pulled the plug on the station, but I was wondering if anyone else knows where he is these days? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark from Albany Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 Yes! I was an intern at WZIR-FM/WHLD-AM in 1981, and later worked there part-time until the end of 1982. You're right, they were on the air as a free-form station from the spring of 1980 through the fall of 1981. They were a wild, creative group to work with, constantly pushing the edge. It was a lot of fun. Although it had wonderful programming, they consistently finished at or near the bottom in the Arbitron ratings. Anyway, the investors were getting upset, so management brought in a consultant. He changed the format to classic-rock radio, and most of the staff either were fired or quit. I remember Bob MacRae storming out of Paul Butler's office in a rage and we never saw him again. Same with Jeff Gordon. Bill Nichols was fired. Dean Matella was brought in from WPHD to replace him. Tony Florentino, Janet Merriam, and Jim Nowicki held on for a while but soon became disenchanted and left. Anne Leighton went into print journalism. Bob Kramerik stayed on for a long time. George Prentice became a TV producer and almost married my cousin. In protest, during the final week of the old format, the DJs kept playing "Personality Crisis" by the NY Dolls over and over again. But yeah, Storm was the star. he was an odd man, but very intelligent and very likable. I seem to remember that he joined Bob Allen and a couple of the old Wizard people at WUWU for a while. Then I moved out of town and lost track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted November 14, 2006 Author Share Posted November 14, 2006 Yes! I was an intern at WZIR-FM/WHLD-AM in 1981, and later worked there part-time until the end of 1982. You're right, they were on the air as a free-form station from the spring of 1980 through the fall of 1981. They were a wild, creative group to work with, constantly pushing the edge. It was a lot of fun. Although it had wonderful programming, they consistently finished at or near the bottom in the Arbitron ratings. Anyway, the investors were getting upset, so management brought in a consultant. He changed the format to classic-rock radio, and most of the staff either were fired or quit. I remember Bob MacRae storming out of Paul Butler's office in a rage and we never saw him again. Same with Jeff Gordon. Bill Nichols was fired. Dean Matella was brought in from WPHD to replace him. Tony Florentino, Janet Merriam, and Jim Nowicki held on for a while but soon became disenchanted and left. Anne Leighton went into print journalism. Bob Kramerik stayed on for a long time. George Prentice became a TV producer and almost married my cousin. In protest, during the final week of the old format, the DJs kept playing "Personality Crisis" by the NY Dolls over and over again. But yeah, Storm was the star. he was an odd man, but very intelligent and very likable. I seem to remember that he joined Bob Allen and a couple of the old Wizard people at WUWU for a while. Then I moved out of town and lost track. 836653[/snapback] Wow, thanks for the info. I remember, being a little drunk once, and seeing Gary Storm in Tops supermarket. It was right after the station ceased to exist...he was with his daughter. I went up and thanked him for giving us such a great station for a short period...I think I made him a little uncomfotable...I almost forgot about WUWU...that was like a slightly more commercialized attempt at WIZARD, if I remember? I also remember, I think, the weekend they went on the air (WIZARD) they played nothing but "The Bird" for like forty-eight hours straight...good times! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark from Albany Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 Yeah. WUWU was started by Bob Allen, after he left Wizard. He still wanted the market to have a truly progressive station. WUWU went through its phases. It started out as freeform as Wizard, then, when it started failing, tried to be a mix of everything, Striesand, Marley, soul, etc. Didn't work as far as I remembered. By then I'd moved east. And yes, the first song they played on Wizard, for 24 hours straight, was "Psycho Chicken" by the Fools. They'd play it frequently afterward. The last song was by Gong as part of Jeff Grodon's "Sounds from Space" show. They also produced a very funny mini-radio show called "Leave it to Teddy," a parody of the Beev. It was topical and it was often dirty. Everybody at the station got in on it, from salesmen to office staff. The best stuff didn't make it on the air. "Wizard," by the way, was the name of the station's cat. He'd often wander into the broadcast booth and jump on the turntables. One time he dropped a mouse in front of Claire Rhoney while she was on the air doing the news and she screamed. And the station wasn't supposed to be named "Wizard," anyway. The management had originally applied to the FCC to have the call letters "HSPT," for "Hotspot." But the FCC said "no," the call letters had to start with a "W." In fact the theme of station's early promotion was "98+, Your Hotspot." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted November 15, 2006 Author Share Posted November 15, 2006 Yeah. WUWU was started by Bob Allen, after he left Wizard. He still wanted the market to have a truly progressive station. WUWU went through its phases. It started out as freeform as Wizard, then, when it started failing, tried to be a mix of everything, Striesand, Marley, soul, etc. Didn't work as far as I remembered. By then I'd moved east. And yes, the first song they played on Wizard, for 24 hours straight, was "Psycho Chicken" by the Fools. They'd play it frequently afterward. The last song was by Gong as part of Jeff Grodon's "Sounds from Space" show. They also produced a very funny mini-radio show called "Leave it to Teddy," a parody of the Beev. It was topical and it was often dirty. Everybody at the station got in on it, from salesmen to office staff. The best stuff didn't make it on the air. "Wizard," by the way, was the name of the station's cat. He'd often wander into the broadcast booth and jump on the turntables. One time he dropped a mouse in front of Claire Rhoney while she was on the air doing the news and she screamed. And the station wasn't supposed to be named "Wizard," anyway. The management had originally applied to the FCC to have the call letters "HSPT," for "Hotspot." But the FCC said "no," the call letters had to start with a "W." In fact the theme of station's early promotion was "98+, Your Hotspot." 837126[/snapback] Jeez, now I feel bad for calling it Wizard! And of course, now that you mention it, it was "Psycho Chicken" they played, by the Fools. For some reason though, I remember "The Bird" having some significance as well...was that maybe WUWU's arrival song? Wow, all of those names are starting to come back to me. I remember the "Leave It to Teddy" thing...I used to stay platered to that station. I think, between Wizard, and Chum FM out of Toronto, I got really spoiled by good radio. I heard so many things on those stations that "changed my life". Storm wold play something, the next day, I would be riding my Takara down to Play It Again Sams, for my latest "discovery". I am sure I drove those people nuts! Even though it was short lived, I give a lot of credit to Bob Allen and Gary Storm for helping me develop stellar taste in music! I wish radio was that fun now. I remember, too, they didn't have a ton of commercials. Probably couldn't get advertisers, but it was great for the handful of us listening. I remember they used to have a lot of commercials for Starseed Enterprise, and Mighty Taco, before it was mainstream...used to refer to it as "head food"...all of us little dope smokers knew what they meant. I vaugely remember one of the Mighty Taco commercials proclaiming the Mighty Taco was tastier than Cheryl Tieges' pants!!! Pretty bold claim, but they were damn good! I am glad there is somebody else on the board that remembers this stuff. What are the chances that one person would have been an intern there? As the president might say "small internets, isn't it?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jester43 Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 i dug this up looking for info on bob allen, the wuwu station manager. does anyone else remember when he hijacked the signal by locking himself in the transmission tower with like 10 albums because they wanted to tighten up and restrict the format? iirc, they called the cops to get him out of there and he was fired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 Bob Allen was the driving force behind progressive rock radio in Buffalo from the days of WBUF, to WZIR and WUWU. It was also rumored that Bob had an unhealthy interest in, ahem, young men, but I digress. He also had the worst acne I've ever seen on a grown man. I don't know if the Bob Allen "hijacking" was for real. Could have just been a stunt. I mean really, if someone really hijacks your station, you cut the power, duh. Problem solved. Gary Storm actually started Oil of Dog on now-NPR station WBFO 88.7. The Kim Foley theme was there too. Gary was an odd duck who was uncomfortable with fame, such as it was for him. What was amazing about Bob was that he was able to talk people into doing things, like buying radio stations for him to play with. He convinced dentist Ron Chmeil to buy WBIV, the CBN Christian FM for $500K and turn it into WUWU. (Seemed crazy at the time, but when 107.7 was last sold to Entercomm it went for $10M!!) He even convinced seminal Buffalo rock jock Jim Santella to join him. (Who remembers Jim getting fired from WGRQ for appearing bottomless in Playgirl?) PTR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philly McButterpants Posted June 18, 2008 Share Posted June 18, 2008 I also remember, I think, the weekend they went on the air (WIZARD) they played nothing but "The Bird" for like forty-eight hours straight...good times! They played "Psycho Chicken" by the Fools for the entire weekend. The song is a parody of "Psycho Killer" by the talking heads. Good times . . . goood times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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