WVWA Nine Double Oh Radio

It seems branding and programming issues are a long-running problem for radio stations. This is a copy of something that was made at WALL in 1974.  It has been circulated extensively in the NY metro market, but perhaps some of you from other areas or countries have not heard of it yet. There is no WVWA 900 in Pound Ridge, it is a fictitious station:

What is hilarious is that the same exact this is still going on forty years later. How many times have programming consultants, program directors, and corporate programming gurus sat around and said “What we really need is a catchy name, like The Buzz or something.” I don’t know how many times I have heard “The X” or “The Eagle” or “fill in stupid name here.” Do the listeners really think “Oh wow, they changed their name, I will listen to this station now!” No, not likely.

The funniest part is; “After more than 100 hours of extensive research… (the programming consultant) developed, refined, molded, polished, honed, shaped and pulled out of left field a revolutions new formatic programing concept…”  Play music, say nothing, and scream “NINE!” between each song.

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4 thoughts on “WVWA Nine Double Oh Radio”

  1. Thanks! I haven’t heard this for a LONG time. If I recall, this was put together by Howard Hoffman. There’s another audio parody of radio called KB13 that’s out there on the web somewhere–are you familar with that one?

    Steve Brown
    Minneapolis

  2. I once spoke with Howard about the “Nine” tape at a Christmas party when I was in NYC and he was doing mornings on our sister station. He told me that they were inspired by 970 WWDJ in the NY area which had shortened its name to simply “97 DJ”. DJ made a huge splash at the time, and many copycats took the idea. Generally speaking, I still refer to stations by their callsigns which are the most unique thing about them although many refuse to use it.

  3. This is classic. I love it. Just FYI, the “Truck O’ Luck” in real life was the original WGLI mobile unit at one of our many Ceader Beach Long Island remotes. We were there every weekend during the summer. The person on the air was Dick Moore our P.D. who was a Ham and knew enough to handle some of the small technical problems at the station. There was no equipment in the truck or RPU equipment. The remote was done with a Shure mixer alligator clipped in to the microphone of a standard telephone because telco couldn’t get us an equalized line back to the station. Love those days!!

  4. Very funny. I grew up in Westchester County and actually worked in Pound Ridge for a time,
    so this resonates. I have also been in Radio for 30 years and have heard of this bit but never
    listened to it until now. Some things never change.

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