On Monday, June 14th, I stepped into the Magic on air control room for show number one. I followed Kevin Dunn at 0100 hours. As customary, he set up my first half hour of songs and commercials in a neat stack. Kevin was friendly and welcoming. I later learned that he was literally two days older than me. My first song was “That Girl” by Stevie Wonder and I was underway.

Laura Leonard on the WCTC side buzzed me on the intercom and said “Welcome to The All-Night!” She was a studious type with a nice light brown perm. Laura had a chatty outgoing style and was a great counterpart on the other side of the building. WCTC was still doing a music format when I started on the Magic sister station. They played an AM band Middle of The Road format with older demographic music than we played. Sinatra, Bennett and Rosemary Clooney mixed in with other 50’s and 60’s artists along with some suitable current hits. Of course, they were very big on news and sports. Sundays were reserved for specialty ethnic shows like the Polka Hour.

WCTC was General Manager Tony Marano’s baby and he had been with the station since the late 40’s. Marano stood about six feet tall and he was clean shaven with a full head of white hair and a slim build. He always seemed to be tan with an ever present smile.

The Magic format was tedious and very structured. For every two elements that you said on the air, you had to say the call letters. In a sea of competing radio signals, they wanted Magic 98 WMGQ said a LOT. We announced the songs we played in a back sell fashion after the last song played in the set. I was comfortable doing it that way as that was how I did it in Rock radio. The breaks were carved in stone at 13 past the hour, then 28, 43 and 55. The :13 break allowed you to show a sliver of your personality, but you had to keep it brief. Liner cards, that we announced at strategic times, sold the station’s “image”, such as “Central Jersey’s Continuous Soft Hits” and “More Music And Less Talk”. Ed Spiegal, the Sales Manager, said “I can see Continuous Softits lined up as far as the eye can see.” Sometimes it came across that way.

Magic in those early days employed what programmers call a “small library” of songs that would get played in a week’s time. There are some tunes that I simply can’t listen to..even years later…because of their incessant repetition in that format. But, with that said, there were current songs that I liked on the playlist. Chicago was back on the charts with “Hard To Say I’m Sorry”. Bertie Higgins’ “Key Largo” , Denice Williams’ “It’s Gonna Take A Miracle” and Quincy Jones and James Ingram’s “100 Ways” took the edge off the well worn songs that Corporate said to play often. I even took a liking to “Even The Nights Are Better” by Air Supply. A Beatles and Motown category alternated every hour. In the format rules, you could not play two female artists back to back. I could never understand that rule. In Rock, I’d play Heart and Joan Jett together and do the “three finger hand”. So what?

On the weekends we ran a specialy themed playlist called “The Magic Million Dollar Weekend” with 60’s oldies from the Gold Vault playing twice an hour. I did 6 to 10 am on Saturdays as my 6th day. All my radio days, I could never seem to shake that morning time slot. Sunday was my one skinny day off.

After one week, just like my transition to Country from Rock 95, I began to have second thoughts about moving away from Rock radio again.

Bob was a tough Program Director and I collected memos from him in piles. It was corporate radio that I’d never experienced. I had done some sort of personality radio everywhere I’d been up to that point. I truly believed that I wouldn’t last 6 months there. Being on that station was a tough pill to swallow.