WSBA MYTHS AND LEGENDS

[Scott Time]

I listened to WSBA in the early 70s, followed their charts like crazy.  I used to win record race and bloopers more than I was allowed.  heh

Something I've always wondered about..

3 straight Billboard #1 songs, Gypsys Tramps and Thieves, Theme from Shaft, and Family Affair seemed to not be on the station.  I know they never made the charts.  Anybody have any idea what was going on with that ?

[bossjock 56]

Did WSBA still put out charts in the early 70's?  I can't imagine those three songs NOT being played on WSBA...but then again, I was out of the area at that time.  By 1971 and '72, WSBA had shed alot of it's quirks from the late 60's and was sounding more like a mainstream Top 40.  They were playing more Gold....and the "stiffs" were....for the most part....gone.

[Scott Time]

Yes they had charts then.  I can still remember what a lot of the number ones were.  Some made it that didn't get to the top of the national charts, like Precious and Few and Peace Train.  Now it was sometime after that point that I became aware of Casey Kasem so I became more interested in the national countdown but can still remember anomalies like Have You Seen Her going from number 20 to number 4.

[bossjock 56]

WSBA was known to pick and choose what they would or would not play....kind of like today's radio.  If it was a top national hit....they'd usually play it.  They did do alot of dayparting and were usually very conservative.  I heard some stories from the early 70's about programming oddities.  I was told that Rod Stewart's "Maggie Mae" was played...but only from 7-MID.  I also was once told that a WSBA staff member protested the playing of John Lennon's "Imagine", calling it the Communist Manifesto.  That protest resulted in "Imagine" also being dayparted to nights.  These may be myths and legends....if anyone can back them up..or dispute them....feel free.  Even though things at The Mighty 910 were kind of odd at times....The Good Guys were the best and the station made lots of money.

[John-Summers]

I heard that WSBA never played "Honky Tonk Women," presumably due to subject matter.  As for those other three songs, anything is possible.  Perhaps "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves" with its unwed mother theme was considered too dicey.  The movie "Shaft" contained some Black Power posturing, and York had experienced racial disturbances only a couple years before.  And "Family Affair' was maybe too Urban-themed for the Whitey 910.  Who knows what they were thinking.  All three were great songs and WSBA's conservatism was a loss for their audience. 

A station that would pick and choose songs in that way was hardly a credible Top 40 station.  How many songs could you throw out if you started to pick them apart?  "Go All the Way" by the Raspberries wouldn't make the cut, nor would "A Whiter Shade of Pale" by Procol Harum, as the word "virgin" was in the lyrics. 

The only songs I ever recall WFEC in Harrisburg shunning were "Ohio" by CSNY and "The Ballad of John and Yoko" by the Beatles.  They did play the last one but with the word "Christ" played in reverse! 

[Scott Time]

Now that you mention it, Go All The Way wasn't played either.  So it was mores, eh?

Imagine was played, debuted highly.  Maggie Mae I remember being played a lot too.

It was a good station, I think the songs handpicked not to be played weren't that common but that's unfortunate.  Here I thought it might have been some kind of backlash against payola or something stoic like that.

[bossjock 56]

It was more common than you would think.  In WSBA'a case, I think it had more to do with advertising clients.  York County was always somewhat conservative.  A client would hear song lyrics or a certain sound of a song that would offend them and guess what.....they'd have the sales rep on the phone.  The sales rep runs to the sales manager, who in turn runs to the GM....who runs to the PD.  This continues to happen to this day as music changes.  Rap and Hip Hop often have client problems.  My guess is that in addition to all of this....the WSBA brass started having problems with the evolution of contemporary music starting around 1967 or 68 when Top 40 music wasn't very innocent anymore.  If they had their way...instead of Steppenwolf, Cream, Hendrix, and the new direction of The Beatles, the available music would still be Lesley Gore and Bobby Vinton.

[bossjock 56]

Something I actually heard on WSBA back around '68.  Jimi Hendrix had a hit with "All Along The Watchtower"  WSBA did play it.  One day during afternoon drive, the on air jock decided to interupt Jimi's guitar solo to do the weather!  I don't recall who the jock was but he said something to the effect of..."We'll Jimi, if you're gonna full around on the guitar....I might as well use the time to do the weather"......I actually remember this happening...believe it or not.  It almost sounds like a Dan Donovan bit....but he could have been gone by then.

[John-Summers]

That guitar solo is one of the greatest in rock & roll history. Interrupting it to read the weather? Heresy! It was probably supposed to be "funny."  Ha-ha.  Boy, was that jock out of touch.

One of the rules in the early Top 40 days on WSBA was that the personality was never to say anything negative about the music, no matter what they thought.  My wife told me that she heard one of the WSBA guys play "Time Has Come Today" by the Chambers Brothers and comment on how "stupid and idiotic" he thought the song was.  That was the last time she listened to WSBA.  It might even have been that guy's last day on the air too.   

[bossjock 56]

That's funny because my sister once told me that she heard an on air jock on WSBA make a comment about The Kinks "Lola", saying that he didn't like that song.