WKBO was The Voice of the
Capitol around 1968 and 1969. Gary Brooks was WKBO's Production Director
during this period. These are Gary's comments. "The voice of the capitol
... capital K B O is Harrisburg." "The voice of the capitol ... Capital
K B O is T. Y. Toby Young." That jingle package was quite good for the
time and the cost. We got to customize it the way we wanted."
1
- 2 - 3 Radio KB . . .
Michael Rea and Al Dame
purchased WKBO from Steinman in 1971. Al sold his State College,
PA stations and moved to Harrisburg. It was quite obvious changes were
to be made if WKBO were to have a chance. The choice was to jettison the
old-line MOR music and many of the old program elements, including NBC
News, in favor of an upbeat adult pop format and the American Entertainment
Network from ABC News. The station was re-imaged as 1-2-3 Radio KB. With
more, John Summers who was on air at WKBO from 1971-1973:
Click above for the ABC
Entertainment News Sounder
"Yes, "1-2-3 Radio KB."
That was it. "Happy Day Radio." We even had a little song about
it. I have a copy of it somewhere and a dub of the sales presentation
tape they used for it. It's a hoot. Radio KB had excellent
full-time air personalities, but the format itself was just a little too
wide musically. We were playing everything from the Who to Vicki
Carr. Old stuffy WHP had the older adults; WCMB had the younger ones.
WHYL had a big chunk of adults at that time too. There was just no
room for another middle-of-the-road station. The kind of ball the
Phillies were playing that season didn't help either. And then there
was the signal, which barely crossed the river at night."
"Al Dame and his partner
Michael Rea bought it in 1971 and with great fanfare launched a lively
AC format with Drake's "History of Rock and Roll" over the Memorial Day
weekend. PD Wendy (Wendell) Williams was morning man, followed by
Charlie Adams, Larry Hall and Gary Brooks. Charlie and Larry are
now deceased. Gary, who had an enormous voice and went to WIBG from
WKBO, now runs Brooks Creative Services out of Philadelphia. Wendy
Williams abruptly exited, and Larry became PD and morning man. He
had worked at WSBA in York and WCBM in Baltimore and was a really funny
guy on the air. I was going to HACC at the time and Larry hired me
to do the all night show until Dave Edwards arrived in September, and I
went to weekends. Larry also hired Dan Steele for part-time."
Radio KB Presentation
Master (courtesy of Captain Dave)
1-2-3 Radio KB never got
off the ground and was hampered by an announcer walkout shortly before
Christmas 1971. Soon, the decision was made to go Top 40 head on against
WFEC.
