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Robert Liggett passes...

Discussion pertaining to Lansing, Jackson, Owosso, and all areas from Alma to Hillsdale
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Calvert DeForest
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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by Calvert DeForest » Wed Jul 17, 2019 11:19 am

Chris1980 wrote:
Mon Jul 15, 2019 5:24 pm
Didn't he also run 96.1 WHNN and the short-lived "Class FM" WCLS in Detroit? He had quite the Adult Contemporary fiefdom in Michigan in the mid-'80s.
Bob bought WABX in 1983 to make an entry into the Detroit market. He initially brought in the late Paul Christy to program a CHR format, replacing the legacy AOR format. It was an attempt to take on WHYT, which was programming Mike Joseph's Hot Hits at the time. The CHR format didn't fare so well and lasted less than a year, although I remember listening to it and though it was very well-executed. WABX's CHR approach was more free-form as where WHYT was tightly structured in regard to both music and air talent. Cap Cities was a bigger company with a bigger budget for promotion and giveaways, which is probably what kept WABX from picking up steam.

WCLS (Class FM) was Bob's second attempt to make 99.5 a success. He brought in Tim Moore to set up a mainstream AC format closer to what was programmed on his other stations. Detroit had two established AC stations at the time (WNIC and WMJC), making it just a tough a nut to crack. I was working for WITL in 1995 when Bob met with the staff to announce his plan to buy the station. He described the Detroit experience as "getting his nose bloodied". Medium markets were his forte.

My prayers for Bob and condolences to his family.


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Calvert DeForest
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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by Calvert DeForest » Wed Jul 17, 2019 11:20 am

(duplicate post)
Last edited by Calvert DeForest on Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:04 am, edited 1 time in total.


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CK-722
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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by CK-722 » Wed Jul 17, 2019 5:51 pm

I think you're right, Jim Harper and Lorraine Golden owned 99.5 it for a while, and Jim did Mornings. I remember meeting him and talking to him for a while when he did a Lottery Drawing at Winchester Mall. It was in the 1980s. Wasn't it Bob Liggett that built the tower near 10 Mile and Greenfield, near the WLDM/WCZY/WKQI tower? Initially, WCLS, WJZZ, and WDRQ had Main facilities on the tower. The big improvement in 99.5 is when they entered into an agreement with WUGN 99.7 Midland to both be essentially nearly full Class B and Class C facilities respectively. Before that, WABX/WCLS/WYCD was always an inferior signal. I could get it in Genesee County on my Sony Portable when 99.5 was Downtown with 36 kW, but almost no one else could, A friend of mine out on Beecher Rd. and River Rd. was always on the phone with their Engineer, asking how he could receive WABX better, back in the early 1970s. They entered into an even better agreement (99.5 and WUGN)and they both improved their signals again. It would be interesting to do a comparative timeline of the WABX...WYCD and WQDC...WUGN Owners, Studios and Facilities, from the History Cards.. Both stations were coowned by Mid States/Panax in the 1960s. Despite popular belief, WUGN IS the same facility number and station as WQDC. WQDC/WSVC/WUGN had some kind of extended off air STA between owners. Initially, when 99.5 moved to Oak Park and Royal Oak Township, it was the equivalent of 20 kW/500 feet under the old Section 73.213 Rules. When they clamped down again, it created problems like WLAV has encountered trying to change TLs. The FCC keeps changing the rules, creating al kinds of relocation problems.
Last edited by CK-722 on Wed Jul 17, 2019 6:36 pm, edited 5 times in total.


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Colonel Flagg
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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by Colonel Flagg » Wed Jul 17, 2019 10:24 pm

I did not expect to hear the news about Bob. The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago. He seemed to be doing okay. You just never know.

99.5 Class-FM was quite an adventure. When you would bring it up, Bob would usually change the subject. Ken Monicatti (the car dealer) was also involved in WCLS. There was also a Class-FM in Orlando, also consulted by Tim Moore.

As to California stations, they were in Hanford, near Fresno. Bob had an ex-wife who was from California. I believe the Fresno FM became "Z-Rock" after Bob sold it.


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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by CK-722 » Thu Jul 18, 2019 1:07 am

Ken Monicatti (the car dealer) was also involved in WCLS.
Was it the Car Dealer or the advertising family from Romeo? We met the advertising Monicattis, and they corrected us that they were not the car dealer family. I assume they are related though. As I recall, the Romeo Monicattis were part of one group that applied for 102.3 in Port Huron, now WGRT, the only commercial Port Huron station that was not owned by Bob Liggett. That group didn't win out against the eventual licensee of WGRT.


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Calvert DeForest
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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by Calvert DeForest » Thu Jul 18, 2019 9:23 am

Jeff Dugan wrote:
Wed Jul 17, 2019 3:35 pm
Didn’t Jim Harper and Lorraine Golden at some point have ownership of 99.5 before Mr. Liggett ?
It was actually afterward. Harper and Golden's group bought 99.5 from Liggett around 1986 and re-launched it as WDTX.
Colonel Flagg wrote:
Wed Jul 17, 2019 10:24 pm
I did not expect to hear the news about Bob. The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago. He seemed to be doing okay. You just never know.

99.5 Class-FM was quite an adventure. When you would bring it up, Bob would usually change the subject. Ken Monicatti (the car dealer) was also involved in WCLS. There was also a Class-FM in Orlando, also consulted by Tim Moore.

As to California stations, they were in Hanford, near Fresno. Bob had an ex-wife who was from California. I believe the Fresno FM became "Z-Rock" after Bob sold it.
I believe you and I shared the Tim Moore era at WFMK. Moore implemented a Hot AC format patterned after 106 KHQ (right down to the Fun and Games Department). WFMK was starting to make some inroads on WVIC's adult female demos. I remember Bob was in California for a time while Tim was tweaking the format. He apparently didn't care for the sound of the station upon his return and shortly replaced Moore with Mike McVay, returning WFMK to a more mainstream AC approach. Personally I loved working Moore's format. It had the energy and enthusiasm of KHQ, and we could tell the listeners were having as much fun as we were.
Last edited by Calvert DeForest on Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:06 am, edited 3 times in total.


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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by CK-722 » Thu Jul 18, 2019 9:52 am

I met Mickey Golden about the same time that I met Jim Harper. They seemed surprisingly different from each other.


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Calvert DeForest
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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by Calvert DeForest » Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:10 am

Harpers's 99.5 WDTX sounded quite similar to Liggett's CHR format on WABX. Both focused on the "new music" approach, mixing Current Hits with Alternative.


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Chris1980
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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by Chris1980 » Sun Jul 21, 2019 3:53 pm

Calvert DeForest wrote:
Wed Jul 17, 2019 11:19 am
Chris1980 wrote:
Mon Jul 15, 2019 5:24 pm
Didn't he also run 96.1 WHNN and the short-lived "Class FM" WCLS in Detroit? He had quite the Adult Contemporary fiefdom in Michigan in the mid-'80s.
Bob bought WABX in 1983 to make an entry into the Detroit market. He initially brought in the late Paul Christy to program a CHR format, replacing the legacy AOR format. It was an attempt to take on WHYT, which was programming Mike Joseph's Hot Hits at the time. The CHR format didn't fare so well and lasted less than a year, although I remember listening to it and though it was very well-executed. WABX's CHR approach was more free-form as where WHYT was tightly structured in regard to both music and air talent. Cap Cities was a bigger company with a bigger budget for promotion and giveaways, which is probably what kept WABX from picking up steam.

WCLS (Class FM) was Bob's second attempt to make 99.5 a success. He brought in Tim Moore to set up a mainstream AC format closer to what was programmed on his other stations. Detroit had two established AC stations at the time (WNIC and WMJC), making it just a tough a nut to crack. I was working for WITL in 1995 when Bob met with the staff to announce his plan to buy the station. He described the Detroit experience as "getting his nose bloodied". Medium markets were his forte.

My prayers for Bob and condolences to his family.
I've heard airchecks of WABX in '83 and they did sound good - the big mainstream hits with a splash of the KROQ-type "Rock of the '80s" acts that weren't getting airtime on WHYT.

WFMK was an excellent sounding station under Liggett's ownership. Easily one of the best sounding ACs in the state then, if not the best (mid-late '90s is the period I remember best).

Re: the Detroit AC scene in 1984-85 - WOMC was also AC at that time. Looking at the Fall 1984 Arbitron ratings, WNIC was the format leader but WOMC and WMJC were pretty competitive and made it a close race. 'CLS was (except for CKLW, which had become but a blip on the radar screen by then) dead last among Detroit's ACs not only 12+ but in the major demo rankings too. And that's despite them having some good talent including Tom Dean.



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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by CK-722 » Sun Jul 21, 2019 4:16 pm

WSWM/WFMK 99.1 was the first station in the Mid States FM network, and put WQDC 99.7, WGMZ 107.9, WABX 99.5, and WMAX AM 1480 FM 101.3 on the air in the 1960s. After Mid States/Panax began divesting, Bob Liggett bought WSWM and made it WFMK. He later acquired stations in the same markets Mid States had had stations, after WQDC (Q+DC=Dow Chemical), WGMZ (GM=General Motors+Z), WMAX, and WABX (AB=Automobile Business+X) were divested, WHNN, WFBE, WLHT, and WCLS were acquired by Bob Liggett. WFBE and WCLS were held for short periods.

In the "FM Can Be Successful" article, penned as by Bob Layne, he alluded to a "Tape Service" competitor, which was WNEM-FM, now WIOG. After Beck Ross acquired WGMZ from Metrocom, where Liggett was VP of Programming, it also became an automated "Tape Service".

Anyone know what name Bob used on WBRB? My guess is Bob Layne. Maybe Colonel Flagg or Bill Hennes know.


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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by Calvert DeForest » Wed Jul 24, 2019 7:31 am

Shortly after WABX became WCLS, Paul Christy purchased WRNN-AM/FM in Clare. The FM became WCFX (Foxy 95), and Christy parked the WABX calls on AM 990. Despite the separate calls, the AM daytimer was a full simulcast of its FM counterpart until the AM license was surrendered and the transmitter shut down in the late 80's. I later heard that Christy snagged the calls as a strategic move, as they were still relevant in the Detroit market and another station might have sought to purchase them back at some point (which never did occur).


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Re: Robert Liggett passes...

Post by CK-722 » Wed Jul 24, 2019 1:16 pm

I called Paul Christy when he was at 102.7 in Mt. Clemens (as I recall) and told him that the Canadian Treaty had been changed and that WABX 990 Clare could be upgraded to go East as well as West, which would have made it much better. He said he had no interest in doing anything like that. This was before the Ypsilanti 1520, now WDEO 990, upgraded and eliminated WABX 990 Clare. WABX 990 had to reduce to 6 watts PSSA, right toward CBW 990 Winnipeg!


Is THAT where they got the idea for the 486-SX?

Same (x, y, z), different (t)

Your bullet missed my trial balloon.

RTN Price. Not guaranteed. As of 12:30, 157.71 Down 0.22.

Artificial Intelligence is a Child that needs a Parent to guide it through.

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