Radio Flashback: My Brief Disco Heyday

It was June 1979. The Ayatollah had just taken over in Iran, the long gas lines were back and my still young radio career had taken me to Springfield, Massachusetts and WMAS 94.7 FM. This was at the height of the disco craze. A new station owner was determined to transform a perennial also-ran into a serious ratings contender. They figured if an all disco station could have killer numbers in New York, why not Greater Springfield? It sounded like fun, so I took the midday slot. Even with the star power of Donna Summer, the Bee Gees and the Village People - who were aired hourly - Springfield was not supporting a 24/7 disco format. The superstars had their share of duds that never crossed into the pop mainstream, so many of the B or C list artists were just plain forgettable. Some of the cuts were over ten minutes. I'd leave the show with a splitting disco headache! When they wanted to move my shift to nights I should have felt flattered, since that was the only time slot with ratings, but a month was enough of that relentless thump, thump, thump. Two songs I did like were Patrick Hernandez's "Born to be Alive" and McFadden & Whitehead's "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now." Within a year, WMAS-FM wisely jettisoned disco, increased their power and went with a more "mass" appeal format that continues its remarkable success to this day. I did return to WMAS to do fill-ins in 1988. The brief disco era is recreated each Saturday night on WMAS, hosted by a truly nice guy named Brett Provo. He plays the hits and leaves out the filler. One moral of the story: what works in one place may bomb in another. No, I did not wear polyester there. And yes, it's disco week on American Idol. Yay!