Posted by Fred Woskoff on May 11, 1999 at 21:57:56:
In Reply to: Additions to why WRTI went jazz. posted by Mike Biel on July 22, 1998 at 12:00:39:
Since I was one of the last people to work at WRTI who had started in Thomas
Hall, I thought you might be interested in a couple of stories. First, how
WRTI managed to go "all Jazz". One day during late spring in 1969, Bob
Kassi, the Station Manager (Grad Assistant guy), got a call from one of the
local radio station (might have been WIBF) asking "what did you guys have on
Saturday nights". Evidently we showed up with a nice rating on Saturday.
Kassi immediatly told the guy we had "jazz", which was scheduled. Only
trouble was, all during the rating book we had basketball games on Saturday,
usually double headers (we did over 60 games that year), including the final
night of the February book, when we had the only coverage, radio or TV, of
the Temple vs. St. Joseph's ECC Championship game. So, Kassi decides we
ought to go all Jazz, not bothering to check on things. What a dope he was.
The other one was a couple of years ago. I went to some advertising media
event in Philadelphia, and WRTI had a booth display. They were celebrating
the "whatever" anniversary of "all Jazz" on WRTI". Only trouble was athe
celebration was the wrong year. I told the guy, I was there when the station
went all Jazz, and it was during the summer of 1969, so it couldn't be the
anniversary they said it was. Of course he sluffed me off, but having lived
through it.
Oh well.
Best wishes,
Fred Woskoff