WFEA Young Americans button 1971 WFEA logo WFEA Music Radio button

1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000+
Blaw Knox tower | 1938 Hurricane | 75th Anniversary | Recollections | Music Surveys

VOICES OF THE 1970s

Ron Christopher
Richard Scott Holliday
Granny Goose
Johnny Tripp
Jeff Truehart
Jason B. Goode
R.W. Churchill
Jack Diamond
Al Carp
Roger Alan Jones
Len Talbot
Rick O'Shea
Norm Hobbs
Philip James Lagios
Tom Foolery
Hap Hazard
Penrod Rideout
Tom Gates
Peter McCoy
Jay Sherwood
Lee Gordon
Warren Bailey
Doug Wornick
Dave Emerson
Bob Sommers
Norm Thibeault
Susan Wornick
Bill O'Neill
Dave Corey
Mike Harrison
Sky Stewart
Jerry Mitchell
Jerry Vaillancourt
Paul Johnson
Paul Barrette
Erik Wylde
Jim Halfyard
Neil Jackson
Bill McDermod
Vince Tyler
Gary Lee Horn
Jim Michaels
Bill Shane
Red Robin
Cynthia LaRose
Rick Ryder
April Love
Jeffrey Allen Lowe
Beau Weaver
Bob Wheeler
Jim Reed
Rich Lewis
Wayne Kurtzman

 

The turbulent sixties ended with a staff of unlikely-named deejays playing pop hits on WFEA. During the 1970s Granny Goose, Johnny Tripp, Jeff Truehart and R.W. Churchill were joined by the likes of Rick O'Shea (Bill Mundae), Tom Foolery (Beau Raines), Hap Hazard (Dominick Biello) and Penrod Rideout (Victor Pryles).

By the fall of 1970, the Century jingles no longer had the punch WFEA wanted for its Hitpower format. A custom jingle package was recorded at Boston's Berklee College of Music. It was written and arranged by senior composition student Peter Hazzard using a 9-piece band and 5 singers in the Berklee studios. The final product was further edited by Program Director Granny Goose.

Peter Hazzard, incidentally, went on to a distinguished career as a composer and educator. As of late 2021 he lived in Concord, NH.

Through its first forty years, WFEA carried many high school sports, but never aired professional sports play-by-play until the 1971 baseball season when it out-bargained WGIR for rights to the Boston Red Sox for one season.

Significant management changes occurred in the fourth quarter of 1971. Rudy Nelson resigned as vice president and general manager. After becoming a 30% stockholder in Century Broadcasting Group, Inc., H.D. "Bud" Neuwirth was elected to the company's board of directors on December 1, 1971. Upon election, Neuwirth acquired 85.5% of the stock held by several of the original minority investors and became WFEA's general manager. He had an extensive radio career and had worked for Metromedia in New York.

WFEA 40th anniversary logo

Neuwirth began leaving his imprint on Manchester's oldest radio station. In 1972 he hired Warren Bailey from WORC in Worcester to be news and program director, and the parade of disc jockeys continued as the musical sound focused on harder rock and roll.

In late December, 1973, Bud Neuwirth acquired 75% of Century's stock and held another 20% in trust for his wife and children. He became president of the company. Mitch Leigh and his partners had apparently found WFEA to be an impossible dream.

Neuwirth sold WFEA in June of 1976 to Ocean Coast Properties Inc. of Portland, Maine. The principals in the $500,000 transaction were Phil Corper, Robert J. Gold (each of whom owned 20%), and three other stockholders. Gold served as WFEA's vice president and Stu Flanders was appointed general manager.

One of his first acts was to expand WFEA's daily schedule to 24 hours a day.

WFEA's Granny Goose
Granny Goose
WFEA's Richard Scott Holliday
Richard Scott Holliday
WFEA's Len Talbot
Len Talbot
WFEA's Rick O'Shea
Rick O'Shea
WFEA's Penrod Rideout
Penrod Rideout
WFEA's basketball team
WFEA Basketball Team

WFEA bumper sticker

1976 WFEA logo

WFEA newspaper ad - May 24, 1971 1973 WFEA newspaper ad
newspaper ad - May 24, 1971 newspaper ad - 1973
WFEA's Dick Stonner and Warren Bailey
(l-r:) Dick Stonner and Warren Bailey broadcast live from the Downtown Manchester Association Christmas Parade, November 30, 1975
 

In 1978 Scott Norton replaced Stu Flanders as general manager of WFEA. He oversaw a transition to an on-air image revolving around 13 FEA Musicradio, with a mixture of 70% hits and 30% gold, targeting 18-49 year-olds.

Donn Parker dropped a bombshell on the New Hampshire broadcasting community in April 1979 when he concluded a 17-year career at WKBR to become WFEA's sales manager.

WFEA's Stu Flanders
Stu Flanders
13 FEA Musicradio logo WFEA's Donn Parker
Donn Parker
1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000+
Blaw Knox tower | 1938 Hurricane | 75th Anniversary | Recollections | Music Surveys
© 2004-2024 Man From Mars Productions