One of the joys of doing this web page is meeting different people from the WWDJ past. Ken Mosier is one of those people.

Ken did an article on WWDJ 28 years ago in one of the local newspapers.  That was one of the first features of this web page[Sean Casey Interview] . Thanks to David Hinkley's write-up in the Daily News, Ken & I hooked up. Here is his story about his experiance with WWDJ.


Ken Mosier - 28 YEARS LATER


      WWDJ, how those 4 letters bring a smile to my face every time I hear them. In 1972, at 21 years old, I was a student a William Paterson College, I was working part time writing free lance "filler" articles, for a few local newspapers, when I was asked to do an article on a local AM station called WWDJ. This was a time when for the most part AM stations like WABC and WMCA, really controlled what kids were listening to. FM was just starting to emerge from the depths of "only" being listened to late at night. In fact, since most kids drove "older" cars, so they didn't even have FM radios. When I arrived at WWDJ, I was greeted by 2 people, Nick Anthony, and John Brown. John gave me the "vast" tour of the facilities, which took all of 2 minutes, and actually introduced me to "Bwana Johnny". John certainly lived up to the old adage that: "DJ's don't look like they sound". The general consensus was that he sounded like a rock star, when in fact he was just a "regular guy". I then got to sit down with the Station Manager, Nick Anthony. We sat and discussed how the station was run, and where they wanted to go in the future. Nick then started asking me questions about what I thought "kids" wanted from the station. At the time the leading FM stations that were hot were WCBS and WNEW. Oldies and Hard Rock, so I told Nick that I thought that was the type of music that most kids wanted to hear, not only top 40. Not exactly innovative but truthful. In retrospect WWDJ was innovative in their programming, often playing music that before was only heard on FM radio. Nick then introduced me to Sean Casey.I did an interview with Sean, [Sean Casey Interview], that ran about 8 months after I wrote it. Nick then asked me if I wanted a job there running the request lines. I immediately said Yes, and I started 20 minutes later. When I asked about training, John Brown told me: "pick up the phone, say WWDJ, and write down what they ask for.", I was now officially trained. As a 21 year old in college, I couldn't have asked for a better job. Wear what you want, free tickets to almost every show at the Capital Theather, talking to hundreds of girls everyday, who thought that flirting with me, would get their song on the air, and getting to work with all these great people, who always made me feel like part of the team. I stayed at DJ for about a year, and was sad to hear that it was changing formats to all religious programming. I think that DJ really had a greater share of the listening audience, than the Arbitron ratings had shown. Most of the problem came fron the fact that at the time,it just wasn't "cool" to admit that you listened to AM radio. But for this 21 year old kid and for most of the area listeners, both vocal and silent , there wasn't a better station around.

[WWDJ Cover Page]