© 2002-2023
Man From Mars Productions

Reeth & King
obg logo

 

The final year of the 1950s was a difficult one at WDRC. In July station founder Franklin M. Doolittle sold the station to WNEW executives John Jaeger and Richard Buckley; they installed a new general manager, Victor Forker. In October WDRC FM was born.

During 1959 several established WDRC names left. Twenty-four-year veteran Harvey Olson was the first in February; Lou Terri jumped ship for WPOP in July; Russ Naughton departed in September; Cal Kolby left in late December.

Since CBS had put affiliates on notice that the network would discontinue most of its daytime feeds in early 1960, Buckley and Jaeger were faced with building a local schedule. WPOP had been programming pop music for several years so the new owners of WDRC decided to build a music format based on strong personalities. They were accustomed to a strong two-man morning team at WNEW in the persons of Gene Klavan and Dee Finch so one of the first decisions was to create a two-man team at WDRC.

 
  Hartford Times schedule - January 1, 1960
Hartford Times radio schedule
January 1, 1960

WDRC's Bob Bacon & Dick Fay in 1959
WDRC's Bob Bacon & Dick Fay in 1959

Management chose existing staff announcer Dick Fay, who had been at WDRC since early 1958, and newcomer Bob Bacon. Their exact starting date has been lost to time but their names first appeared in newspaper schedules August 12, 1959.

Apparently the chemistry just wasn't there. By December Buck Forker was looking for a replacement team (click on letters for enlargements).

 
  Forker letter #1 Forker letter #2 Forker letter #3  
Man From Mars site WPOP site return to top home