[BC] Formatics

[Rich Wood]

------ At 02:23 AM 4/1/2008, Robert Orban wrote: -------

>When I worked at WPAT (serving the New York metro area from 
>beautiful Paterson, NJ) in the summer of '68, I found it fascinating 
>that their music was played out from single tapes that had a 
>half-hour worth of programming (less time for commercial breaks). 
>They had a professional musician in-house who sequenced the reels in 
>their production studio, matching cuts by key, mood and flow, very 
>much like Muzak. As I recall, they had excellent ratings. (This may 
>have been pre-Schulke; I don't recall when he first started syndicating.)

It was pre "official" Schulke. Jim was the music half of QMI (Quality 
Music, Inc.). It was a sales rep firm that provided music that was 
better than most stations programmed and made sales easier. Jim and 
Bob Richer (the sales guy) split the company and Jim took the music 
part. The rest is history. As I recall, that was around 1968 or 69. I 
was programming WJIB, Boston, and KFOG, San Francisco, when it 
happened and there was enormous pressure for us to use the service. 
That didn't happen for several years when the record library finally wore out.

WPAT was unique. The AM and FM were at 93 on both dials. Any receiver 
that matched dial positions could receive the AM or FM just by 
switching bands. From what I understand, the station made the most 
sophisticated use of "big iron" automation of any station.

For most of its high rated period it was programmed by Ralph 
Sanabria. I think it was owned by Cap Cities before Park bought it.

I remember talking about WOR buying it when Park put the entire chain 
up for sale. The price was much too high and I think they originally 
wanted to sell the radio division as a whole.

Rich