[BC] retiredmediaman

[michael murray]

>From 1963 to 1976 I lived, ate , and breathed radio. In 1971 WGOE Richmond made the fifth station in or chain...Grewe Radio Wheeling WV. At the right place and at the right time WGOE became the first free form Station in Virginia. Going from dead last to number three in our first rating period WGOE gave our audience credit for intelligence we played album cuts selected by DJ' in the disquise of radio poets. Our success became legendary. Like any great radio station success gave way to corporate greed and our empire collapsed around us. All the money WGOE made was used to try to keep the company afloat. I went to work for a major corporation where they wanted me to wear a tie and portray the corporate image. I took the job as GM for WKLX in Portsmouth Va in 1974. Our national program director said we would program  a tight playlist and had the staff write down the top twenty albums they would take to a desert island. I put Greetings from Ashbury Park at the top of my list. He said Who is Bruce Springfield. After the first arb he was fired and many of my staff from WGOE had gone to work for Norfolk's WOWI. The owner called and asked to buy his station on two conditions{one, make his FM sound finacially, and two, lose fifty pounds} he and his male lover had purchased a station in New Orleans and were anxious to make the move.For the summer of 74 WOWI dominated the Tidewater market with only 70% fm penetration. We promoted the largest concert ever held in Tidewater. CSNY, Elvin Bishop, Jesse Colin Young at Foreman field with 65,000 people. At the end of September he sold the station out from under me to Bishop LE Willis, the first black man to ever own a radio station. I took a stab at the Bishop with a new format that I called Rainbow Radio. The Bishop was a close friend of Jesse Jackson!  more later