On May 2nd, 1977, at 11:59:59PM, the Air Personalities, News Guys & Money Girls walked out on strike over objections to the company's plans to run voice tracks on the AM while the same jock was live on the FM.  The union's threats to advertising agencies in town to pull spots with WPGC air talent on them from other stations was deemed by the National Labor Relations Board to be illegal, constituting a secondary boycott, outlawed by the Taft-Hartley Act.  First Media subsequently replaced the entire air staff (but for one person who crossed the picket line) with staffers from other stations in the chain.

Here's the real strike story: The Marriott brothers owned WPGC... it was the only union company owned by the Marriotts anywhere, and they wanted the union gone. The union minimum in '77 was around 18k. We where hopeful of maybe 20k. The company negotiated everything but salaries, refusing to do so till 11pm on the final day of the contract. Then with 1 hour to go they offered 7k immediately, 7k more at the start of year 2 and 5k more at the start of year 3. Thus we would go from 18k to 37k in 2 years. Wow!

Only one catch.... we had to give up the 'deem to be live clause'. What? We didn't know what that was. So in the hour left on the contract Evelyn Freeman (DC Union chief) explained to us how it was the clause on which AFTRA was founded. Seems jocks in New York were being paid for 5 day weeks, but had to record shows for air on the 6th and 7th days. The clause said, that if you record a show, and it airs out of shift, you get paid for the time it takes to record it, and the time it airs.

And as they left the room, they told us that with or WITHOUT the union, the offer was on the table... HINT HINT HINT. Well, we spent the rest of our hour trying to figure out just how the company planned to use this. I mean it must be a big deal if it's worth 19k a year per jock. What were they up to?

Well it turns out we were missing the forest for the trees. The only reason the company wanted this clause gone, is because National AFTRA would not approve the contract without it. They figured we'd see the light, decertify the union, and take the deal. They get no union, we get big bucks.

Evelyn must have known that was what the Marriotts wanted, but she never said so. She just kept telling us all the awful stuff that might happen without 'deem to be live'.... and pretty soon our hour was up... and we were on strike. Oh and once you're on strike... it's illegal to decertify a union. So to talk the deal then, we had to cross a picket line, and give up union work forever. As a result Jim Elliott, who figured this was his last radio job anyway, took the deal... the rest of us found new employers.

This strike was not about raises or benefits or clauses. It was about union busting on the Marriott's part, and a bunch of DJ's who didn't see the light till too late.

Jim Elliott writes:

On the crossing the picket line

The strike was the major stumbling block to the deal with Q107. Of course, having crossed the line in 1977 resulted in my being tossed from the union. They brought me up on charges and I had the head of the National Right to Work Foundation as my attorney. Let's remember that the union used the jocks in 1977 as sacrificial lambs to protect their own interests....

AFTRA never gave a shit about the folks at the 'little station in Bladensburg' as AFTRA's Evelyn Freeman spent much of her time (and gained her power) by dealing with the three network O+O's. I was shop steward at WPGC and the Marriotts actually offered us more money that we asked Evelyn to get us...and she said we could never get what we asked for!! She scared the rest of the crew and they supported her. Could go on for hours on that one.

Dave Foxx remembers:

On meeting with Jim Collins

I guess I was pretty naive when I got to WPGC. I had no concept of how nasty the Strike was until a few years later when I first met the local AFTRA representative and she wanted me put in jail...literally. After I did my first shift, the late Jim Collins met me across the street to offer me a full time job after the strike was over. After I picked my jaw up off the ground, I said yes of course. Neither of us knew what the outcome of the strike would be, but he said that there were a couple of people he'd be happy to replace anyway, once the dust settled. Of course now we know that I would be replacing Jim Elliott who moved to morning drive.

 

Shelby Austin wrote:

On driving the WPGC Money Car during the Strike

My most vivid memory has to be the Strike in May of 1977. Truckers trying to run the Lincoln (WPGC Money Car) off the road while I was driving it, watching the picketers out of my apartment window, picking up non-union jocks at the airport...and yes I was on the air doing the Sunday morning news...it was AWFUL.

 

Dan Mason writes:

On the Strike and its aftermath in 1977

In the beginning it was total chaos...I got into town about midnight just as the strike began...I did morning drive the first morning and Bill Prettyman was reading the news believe it or not.....He sounded pretty good by the way...Little by little we hired new people...Dave Foxx came from our Provo station...we hired Brandt Miller to do afternoons...Waylon Richards had worked with me a few years before in Kansas City and finally Liz Kiley came from Grand Rapids,. I believe she was a former school teacher.....Within 4 months, the staff began to gel and within a year, WPGC had tied WMAL for the number one position in the market....It was quite an accomplishment...I left to take a VP/GM job at KTSA / KTFM in San Antonio and Scott Shannon came in and even made it a better station.

 

 

Epilogue:

Did the Marriotts ever get their come-uppance?

Yes. Ironically, when Jim Elliott returned to the station to do mornings he was never offered a contract; it was simply done on a handshake. Little did the Marriotts know that single mistake would ultimately lead to the demise of the station five years later which began when Elliott & Woodside left WPGC in 1982 to go to Q107. With no contract in place to enforce, First Media had no legal ground in preventing their departure.

 

Miscellaneous

Click on image below to see enlargement.

 

Sound Files

Hear the Strikebound Sound of WPGC, May 1977:

Click on daypart to hear audio or on that person's name to visit their page.

 

Airchecks

	May 1977	Afternoon- 1:43	Don Bishop
	May 1977	Morning - 2:26	Don Bishop
	May 1977	Montage - 1:09	Don Bishop
	May 1977	Unknown - :08	Dan Mason
	May 1977	Night - :24	Bill Travis

Special thanks to contributor Steve Willett for the above.

 

Newscasts

	May 1977	Tease @ 5:53AM - :11	Bill Prettyman
	May 1977	Tease @ 6:20AM - :17	Bill Prettyman

Special thanks to contributor Steve Willett for the above.

 

Sound Off

May 1977

Supermarket Doors - :35

Bill Prettyman

Special thanks to contributor Steve Willett for the above.

 

Promos

May 1977

Win A Country Home - :44

Bill Prettyman

Special thanks to contributor Steve Willett for the above.

Miscellaneous Audio

	May 1977	'The Great Strike (That Struck Out)' Parody produced by Dave Foxx	1:57
	05/30/12	Don Bishop on: the above parody	3:15
	05/30/12	Don Bishop on: The Great Strike That Struck Out	2:39
	09/25/13	Dan Mason on: The Great Strike & Jim Collins	1:02
	09/25/13	Dan Mason on: The Great Strike & AT 40	:58
	09/25/13	Dan Mason on: Post-Strike Air Staff	1:18

 

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