WIBG

WIBG was best known for its wildly popular top 40 format that began in the mid 1950s when DJ Joe Niagara began slipping rock and roll songs into the station's pop standards format.

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By 1958, the station was playing rock and roll 24 hours a day, the only station in Philly to do so well into the 1960s. WIBG, known as "Wibbage," ruled Philadelphia radio, especially among teenagers.

The station hosted local "record hops" and was the first to publish weekly "Top 99" surveys of the most popular music that could be found at local record stores, and the jocks were known as the WIBG "Good Guys".

Jerry Stevens 1961

WIBG jocks basketball team

WIBG included songs with a "Philly" edge (such as R&B) that were not heard on similarly formatted stations in other cities. Some hits, such as Chubby Checker's "The Twist" and Martha and the Vandellas' "Heat Wave" actually got their early airplay in Philadelphia and then became hits nationwide.

1966 Macy's
Thanksgiving parade

In September 1966 WFIL flipped to a top 40 format attempting to dethrone WIBG. WFIL had a similar playlist but played 3-4 more songs per hour. WFIL soon passed WIBG in the ratings with their tighter, slicker presentation of the hits, and their superior signal, especially in the suburbs where young listeners were flocking. WIBG spent most of the 1970s trying to regain their former ratings success but was hobbled by their "staid" image and the gradual shift of music listeners from the AM to the FM band.

THE WIBBAGE REPORT: A Semi-Monthly Publication of WIBG

THE TOP 300: Through a listener poll WIBG published their Top 300 all-time songs in June of 1968. Here are the Top 10 of that 300.

Last day September 9, 1977

January 1967

Ed Richards 1969

Don Wade
January 1972

In 1969 Buckley Broadcasting bought WIBG from Storer, brought in all new airstaff, and tried a newer, lighter take on top 40. Eventually, they experimented with "progressive rock" in the evenings. A brief and disasterous foray into album oriented rock was attempted in '72.

Several other approaches on top 40 were tried as the station evolved into an adult contemporary format in 1975. More sports and sports talk was added into the mix, and WIBG was even the flagship station for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1975-76. On April, 1, 1976, Fairbanks Broadcasting purchased the station and switched to a "Hot AC" format.

In the spring of 1977, the station was back to top 40. In September 1977, it was decided that the WIBG name was no longer an asset, so the station held a week-long "Wibbage Wake," with guest jocks from the past and old jingles. The final hour of WIBG was hosted by Hy Lit and Joe Niagara on September 10, 1977.

Some of the many personalities heard on the station in the 1970s included Long John Wade, Don Cannon, Tom Rivers, Gary Brooks, Cat Martin, Doug James, Sean Casey, "Giant Gene" Arnold with his "Giant Gene's Electric Scene" program, Dick Clayton, Dennis John Cahill, Steve Hatley, Crazy Bob, Bill Gardner, Chuck Knapp, and J.J. Kennedy.

The station began to call itself "Wizzard 100", and adopted a heavily researched Top 40 format. Listeners did not respond, and the format was changed to disco, which did not fare much better. In 1980 the station was sold to Christian broadcaster Communicom, which began airing contemporary Christian music and Christian teaching and features similar to sister station 970 WWDJ in Hackensack, New Jersey. But by then, the call letters WIBG had already been reassigned and the WZZD calls were retained. WZZD played music about half the day and Christian programs and features during the other half of the day.

Communicom got out of the radio business in the mid 1990s and in 1994 WZZD was sold to Salem Media. Under Salem, WZZD kept the Christian music and teaching format initially. But by the late 1990s Music was cut back to a couple hours a day. By 2002 WZZD ran nearly all teaching and almost no music at all.

In 2004 WZZD and WFIL's features and programs were merged onto WFIL as WZZD dropped the Christian format in favor of conservative talk and news and changed its call letters to WNTP. Beginning in 2006, WNTP became the flagship station for the Saint Joseph's University Hawks college basketball radio network, and the Salem network occasionally airs Penn State and Drexel University sports broadcasts for a Philadelphia audience.

WHO WORKED AT WIBG? Here is the list: Don L. Brink, Chris Charles, Dick Clayton, Ed Coyle, Tom Donahue, Bob Foster, Bob Hamilton, Bob Houck, Happy Jack, Truckin Tom Cookin Kent, Chuck Knapp, John Records Landecker, Hy Lit, Ken Matz, Bob McLain, Humble Heavy Harvey Miller, Charlie Mills, Joe Niagara, Dave Parks, Joey Reynolds, Chuck Richards, Jim Rivers, Tom Rivers, Duke Roberts, John Roberts, Frank Kingston Smith Jr., Bob Todd, Dean Tyler, Jerry Williams, Johnny Williams, Jim Wood, Bill Winters, and Bill Wright Sr.