WNAP

WNAP's actual origin was when WIBC-FM signed on December 5th, 1960. It aired a classical music format, and had a nice run for about 7 to 8 years.

THE WNAP RAFT RACE

It involved an outdoor rock show in Broad Ripple Park, with beer and shag haircuts and cut-off jeans, with tens of thousands of people and what was then called "reefer."

At the center of the day was a farcical competition that was more about self-expression and ingenuity than triumphing over others: the WNAP Raft Race.

Thousands of young people moving two-plus miles down the White River on imaginative but not really seaworthy craft of their own design — rafts you paddled, rafts you pedaled, fish-shaped rafts, a raft shaped like a sneaker, one that looked like a pirate ship.

At least three times, actual Volkwagen Beetles were floated down the White River. The rafters landed at Broad Ripple Park, where tens of thousands of other people just like them had gathered to hear rock music and throw Frisbees and dance. The whole thing was free.

The inaugural WNAP raft race/rock show was July 28, 1974.

Then on July 1, 1968, the station was re-launched as WNAP. It was the first FM station in the Indianapolis market to broadcast a mix of Album Oriented Rock and Top 40 hits, better known as "Rock 40," and was in direct competition with Top 40 leader 1310 WIFE.

In 1970, WNAP began broadcasting in stereo. According to the documentary film Naptown Rock Radio Wars[6], station and program managers from across the United States came to Indianapolis to listen to WNAP in order to figure out the unique style of "The Buzzard" so they could emulate its success at their own stations.

Buster Bodine working the turntable.

The classic, top-of-hour station identification from this era featured the sound of two thunderbolts and the distinctive voice of WIBC's Chuck Riley (brother of WNAP DJ "Buster Bodine") intoning, "The wrath, of the Buzzard... WNAP, Indianapolis."

WNAP bookmark surveys.

Later in the 1970s and into early 1980s, the station was branded as "Stereo 93 FM WNAP The Buzzard".

On March 4, 1986, suffering from a fall in ratings due to competition from WFBQ (Q-95), the format of 93.1 was changed to a rock-driven hot adult contemporary sound, and the call letters became WEAG with branding as "Eagle 93." The format was later changed to classic hits with the call letters WKLR on August 14, 1987.

On April 1, 1988 (April Fools' Day), WKLR changed from classic hits to oldies. Among WKLR's disc jockeys was current WIBC newsman Steve Simpson.

Michael Griffin on a morning shift, followed by Cris "Moto" Conner in 1973.

WNAP returned at 5 p.m. on September 9, 1994, when WKLR was changed back to a classic hits station with a strong focus on the "greatest hits of the 70s." This incarnation of WNAP later moved in a more classic rock direction playing "classic rock that really rocks", with the syndicated Howard Stern Show carried in the morning in what was a futile attempt to compete with WFBQ's locally-dominant Bob and Tom Show. Despite on-air boasts that WNAP was going to "kick Q-95's ass," the classic rock format was a failure.

In 1963, WIFE-310 AM signed on air with a rock-heavy playlist. The station rapidly surged to the top of the ratings race, bringing an end to radio colossus WIBC-1070 AM's longstanding reign as the king of Indianapolis' airwaves.

Circa 1970s. Heller produced jingles on WNAP-FM in Indianapolis IN, titled "I Am Sound", "Electronic Mama", and "Flying Machine".

Circa 1974. More Heller produced jingles on WNAP-FM.

The time is October 21^st 2093. The place is WNAP-FM.

Aircheck segments from WNAP-FM featuring wind moog, jetstream, and more in August, 1974 and February, 1975.

After struggling through five years of heavy ratings losses to WIFE, WIBC decided to strike back - and hard. In 1968, WIBC owner Richard Fairbanks converted the classical music-formatted WIBC-FM 93.1 into WNAP, the city's first FM rock and roll station.

WNAP was not a typical rock and roll radio station. While programming on WIFE largely focused on top 40 hits and bubblegum rock, WNAP ventured deep into the underground acid rock sound of the late '60s, adopting a free-form style that gave the station's DJs - a scraggly crew of freshly graduated 20-somethings - the freedom to play whatever music they wanted.

"We would get hundreds of records in at the station every week and we'd sit down and listen to them all and play what we liked. We broke a lot of songs that later went on to become big hits,” said Al Stone, WNAP program director and “Naptown Rock Radio Wars” co-producer.

"They gave us free reign, there were very few limits. The motivation was to take the young audience away from WIFE and get WIBC's ratings back up. That happened pretty quickly," Stone said.

This unorthodox broadcasting style quickly earned WNAP attention, both locally and nationally. The station became a testing ground for new releases.

"In the first year, we had all the major label reps coming to us,” said Stone. "We got the first Crosby, Stills and Nash album before any other station in the country. We had the Beatles' 'White Album' before any other station in the country and we played every cut on the album. Management hammered us for that, because some of the material was considered risque at the time."

Fairbanks' plan succeeded. WNAP took a huge bite out of WIFE's ratings and, by 1980, the station was gone.

"The credit goes to Fairbanks for being the type of owner to say, 'Here's my goal and I'm going to step out of the way.' We were a just a bunch of 24-year-olds trying to figure out how to be professional radio guys."

NAPTOWN ROCK RADIO TRIVIA: The name of Bouncin’ Bill Baker’s phenomenally popular morning radio show on WIBC in the late fifties and early sixties was called “Toast and Coffee.”

Bill Baker would occasionally get a personal call from Elvis Presley asking him what he thought of the new single.

When Don Burden bought WISH-AM in 1963, the sellers thought so little of the value of their FM radio station that they threw the FM station into the deal for free.

“The Emperor” Joe Light’s evening show on WIFE-AM is said to have had 99% of the listening audience.

When the Beatles played the Indiana State Fair in September of 1964, WIFE sponsored the show in the Coliseum, and WIBC sponsored the show in the grandstand.

The sales staff at WIFE would have eleven sales meetings per week – one every morning, one at the end of every day, and one on Saturday at 9am. Sports coats were required for each meeting, including the meeting on Saturday.

World of Oz

The first song played on WNAP was “(I Am The) Muffin Man” by World of Oz.

Robert W. Morgan was a Los Angeles disk jockey who was so unique that Don Burden cloned the character and created “Roger W. Morgan” for his stations. At one time he had a “Roger W. Morgan” at his stations in Portland, Omaha, and Indianapolis. There were two different “R.W.M.s” in Indianapolis. We interviewed the second one, who has since legally changed his name to Roger W. Morgan.

The nickname “Naptown”, aside from suggesting the residents weren’t very exciting, was derived from IndiaNAPolis.”

The first songs played on WNAP when they went stereo in 1970 were the first two tracks from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

THE BUZZARD

The growley voice on the “Wrath of the Buzzard” station ID is that of Buster Bodine’s brother, the late Chuck Riley. WNAP’s mascot, The Buzzard, was inspired by a popular poster at the time which shows two vultures sitting on a branch, one saying to the other “Patience my ass, I’m gonna kill something.”

The WNAP Buzzard was originally drawn with the remains of a WIFE banner in it’s beak. It had eaten the competition.

David Letterman would contribute to WNAP with phone-ins on a regular basis. He asked for a full time job, but station management didn’t want to pay him the $85/week he was asking at the time.

Some materials found on this page were originally published by the following: The Indy Star.