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Greater Media's Rock station WMMR in Philadelphia turns 45 this year. A great accomplishment for any radio station. Radio Ink will profile WMMR's 45th in an upcoming issue. Along the way the station has had some big names program that station, including Jeff Pollack, Charlie Kendall and current PD Bill Weston. WMMR has become "part of the fabric" of that city according to Market Manager John Fullam. Kendall was there from 1980 to 1983 before he was shipped to New York to take over WNEW. We asked Kendall what it was like to program a radio station that has become a nationally recognized set of call letters and a totally dominating rock station.
"Programming WMMR was a fabulous experience for me. The stations was owned by people who empowered their Program Directors to actually ?program? the radio station. A proud tradition that continues under the ownership of Greater Media. Jeff Pollack was my predecessor and he had done a good job of giving the station good formatics. My job was to move the average age from 19 to about 27. Quite simply, we removed the ?teen? focus of the station 
and targeted ?young adults?. We made WMMR ubiquitous at every concert, stadium, club and bus stop in Philadelphia. We took the station live on location as much as possible. Lots of live concert broadcasts and even when we weren?t live, a WMMR DJ introduced the band and our promotion team put something with out logo in the hands of every person there. We embraced the local music scene and supported them whenever possible. This gave us the opportunity to do live Block Parties on Chestnut street, at the shore and elsewhere and drew tens of thousands of people at virtually no cost. We were the party. None of this would have been possible without the blessing of our General Manager, Hal Smith. He let us try and succeed at some stunts many would have said no to. It would also not have been possible without some truly exceptional talent. I was lucky enough to find Piere Robert and John Debella to add to Joe Bonadonna, Bubba John Stevens, Anitia Gevenson, Steve Sutton, Michael Tearson, Steve Lushbaugh, John Bloodwell, Kevin Gunn, Tom Sheehey and more my ancient brain can?t remember right now."
Reach out to Charlie Kendall HERE
We'll have more from Kendall, Weston and John Fullam in an upcoming issue of Radio Ink as WMMR celebrates 45 years.
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Listen to WMMR HERE
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