Elliott & Woodside's defection for big dollars & big disappointment at Q107 early in January 1982 put a series of events into motion at WPGC. Midday man, Dave Foxx moved to mornings and was paired up with the Redskins' Joe Theismann who had been doing pre and post game reports on Mondays & Fridays. Loo Katz took over the morning news duties.

Concurrent with this, late night guy, Max Wolf moved to middays, Lisa Kay shifted from overnights to late nights, weekender Scott Tony Jenkins covered overnights and Lee Chambers rejoined the station for weekends.

Displaced by the change in mornings at Q107, Dude Walker joined WPGC in the Spring initially for afternoons but was quickly teamed up by Program Director, Steve Kingston with Dave Foxx when Joe Theismann left for training camp. Hence the birth of 'Dude & Dave', a morning show that represented the last real hope for WPGC as a Top 40 station.

First Media management however made the decision to change the format that Fall in a vain effort to commandeer the Adult Contemporary crown soon to be relinquished by WASH. 'Dude & Dave' which had shown so much promise in it's brief existence was disbanded with Dave returning to middays and Dude paired up with J. Robert Howe, morning news guy at WPGC's sister station KYAK in Provo, Utah.

Provo is not Washington, D.C. however, and that fact was painfully apparent to anyone who heard him on the air. Not even a talent as strong as Dude could save an obviously dying morning show and equally decaying radio station. Early in 1983, Dude left WPGC and ironically was replaced in mornings by none other than Dave Foxx. Even further irony ensued as Dude would soon resurface doing mornings at WASH . Meanwhile, in the absence of a direct format competitor, Q107 shot straight to #1, justifying to ABC management the then unheard of salaries commanded by Elliott & Woodside.

This aircheck from less than 95 days before the change in format found Dave Foxx on vacation with Loo shifting roles and filling in for him (Loo's presence on the morning show had been continuous as morning news guy since Elliott & Woodside had left).

Elliott & Woodside may have left but the features of their show remained, among them 'Day Off With Pay' and the award winning, 'Chooz Yer Nooz'. An example of the latter is contained herein with Dude doing a story of a chain reaction at a railroad crossing. Another morning show feature was psychic Bill O'Hara's nutty predictions on what was supposedly about to happen in the future.

Dude also took the role of news guy while Dave was away. His newscasts are sprinkled throughout the show. Of note were stories on the debut of the DC Lottery and the possibility the Capitals might leave the Nation's Capital. At the end of one of the newscasts is the weekly Soundoff winner of a whopping $30. Why the winning Soundoff was never played when the winner was announced is unknown.

You'll also notice portions of network newscasts from ABC on this tape. 1982 saw Watermark, the production company behind 'American Top 40' acquired by the ABC Radio Network. As a condition of carrying the show, the network forced affiliates to carry ABC News. The ultimate slap in the face came the following year when they stripped the program from WPGC (one of the original seven stations to carry the show at its onset on July 4, 1970) and gave it to Q107, an ABC Owned & Operated station.

But the highlight of this aircheck in terms of entertainment value had to be Dude's character voice of Miss Lilly, the little old lady with a sharp sense of wit. Listen for various bits about real men, a Mafia man and E.T., The Extraterrestrial which had recently opened in theaters The voice of E.T. was done by Howard Hoffman (of NINE! fame) who happened to be the morning man at WPGC sister station, KOPA in Phoenix.

The success of the film led to a topical contest on the station in which listeners helped E.T. 'Phone Home' by guessing his number (836-0211). The winner got to fly home himself on Eastern Airlines along with $500 cash. Other contesting at the time included tickets to another film, 'The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas' as well as to see new Country crossover act, Alabama at Laurel Raceway.

A couple of sales related promos are also on this tape. JJ McKay who inherited afternoons after Dude moved to mornings voices the one for the upcoming 5th Annual Ramblin' Raft Race and a client tie-in for a Ford Ranger pickup while Max Wolf is heard on the 'why we're better than newspapers' one.

Several station positioning statements were in use at the time including 'Washingtons' Radio Station' (what else would it be, a toaster?!), 'A Better Variety Of Washington's Favorite Songs' and 'Famous For Washington's Best Music' (or, 'Favorite Oldies'). Jingles were from a TM package ordered in 1981. The equally famous (((reverb))) on the station audio processing was still present but had already been toned down to the point of almost being inaudible. That same plate reverb unit would eventually resurface itself on WAVA's audio chain in the mid '80's!

Today Dude is a successful commercial voice over actor while Loo went on to work at WAVA, WMZQ, MIX 107, and WASH where he did mornings for many years and presently operates Hound Radio.

Special thanks to Dude Walker for providing this tape.

 

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