...of 1966, 1967, &
1968. Johnny Devereaux was on from 6pm to 10pm weekdays, and
Craig Baker was his engineer. Ron Joseph was on the air from
10pm to 2am weekdays. "Giant Gene" Arnold who substituted for
Ron Joseph and was also one of the popular jocks at this time.
Rick McClain was RJ's engineer on WIFI. RJ Ron Joseph had his
own remote live broadcast from the Groove Night club at Broad
and Locust Sts., at that time. The Buzz Allen Big Band Show was
also on WIFI. RJ brought in Genardi Supermarkets as his sponsor
to his radio show on there. T. Morgan was also with the station.
In the mid to late 1960's, Ron Diamond hosted a popular evening
Doo-Wop show. In 1970, the station dropped local programs for a
full-time syndicated, jockless MOR format, "Hit Parade '70" and
"Hit Parade '71". In the early 1970's, the station started the
area's first high-energy Top 40 format as "WIFI 92, Stereo
Rock." Don Cannon (from WIBG, WFIL and WOGL) hosted mornings for
a time. Some other popular DJ's at the time, as part of the "WIFI
Crew" were "Machine Gun" Kelly and "Wild Child" Kane. By the
early 1980's, with Top 40 competition from WCAU, WIFI evolved
into an adult contemporary format. Geoff Fox (formerly of WPEN)
hosted mornings. In 1982, consultant Rick Carroll from Los
Angeles was hired, and he switched WIFI to a new Modern Rock
format, "I-92 - The Rock Of The 80's", playing music popular on
the then-new MTV channel. Jocks included "Bill E." (Mike Brophey),
"Moe Hawk" (Andre Gardner), Mel "Toxic" Taylor, and Lee Paris.
In 1983, the station was sold to Beasley Broadcasting, who
brought in new program director, Doug Weldon, and changed the
call letters to WXTU (a variation of New York's popular WKTU)
and started up a short-lived urban format as "92X". Besides
Weldon, the jocks were popular WDAS jock Dr. Perri Johnson,
Steve Brown, Mike Brophey, Steve Ross and Glen Holtzer. The
station failed to compete with WDAS and WUSL, and concluded the
format with a "Sadie Hawkins Day" live dance party on February
29, 1984. On March 1, 1984 at 1pm, the station switched to
country, after a 6 month absence of the format in Philadelphia
(abandoned by WFIL the past September). The first song played
was "Are You Ready For The Country" by Waylon Jennings. The
format was initally 3-in-a-row "Continuous Country", but soon
became personality-oriented "Country 92" under new morning host
and program director Larry Coates. Local veteran country jock
Leigh Richards (from WRCP, WFIL and WTTM) took over evenings.
The station enrolled listeners in a "Country Club" to reward
them with prizes and special offers. A succession of morning
hosts included Bob Burshay, Judy Michaels, Gina Preston, Jeff
Collins, Jack Wilensky, Ruth Weisberg, John Lodge, Steve Harmon,
Scott Evans and Andie Sommers. Mike Brophey, a WIFI survivor,
hosted afternoons for many years. The station experimented with
Sunday morning shows: bluegrass, hosted by Gene Shay, and
country classics, hosted by Bill Quinn. They started their own
country music nightclub, "Club 92.5" in King Of Prussia. The
station eventually changed their identity to "Today's Country
92.5 WXTU", then to the current "92.5XTU". In March 2002, Pam
Merly (formerly of WYSP and WMMR, and a WXTU weekend jock in the
1990's) returned to host "CrossTrax", a weekday evening show
mixing country, alt-country, and country-rock songs. The WIFI
call letters are now on 1460 AM in Florence NJ. RJ Ron Joseph
now has a disco radio show on WVLT 92.1 in Vineland, N.J. on
Friday nights from 7pm to 9pm. (Thanks to Alan Constantine, Gene
Arnold and John Hendricks for some of this information also
Thanks to Pirate Jim for posting some info for me to "borrow"
you can visit his great site at
Pirate Jim.com. )