In 1924, the station was sold to law partners Ike Levy and Daniel Murphy for $25,000. When Murphy became disinterested in the venture, Levy persuaded his brother Leon, a dentist, to take his place. Although many regarded radio as a fad, the brothers had a keen sense of the medium's potential.
In 1928, the men convinced their brother-in-law William Paley, who was working in his father's cigar business, to buy a financially troubled 16 station network called United Independent Broadcasters. In 1928, Paley, 27, used $500,000 of his family's money to purchase the network which he renamed Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). WCAU was the network's flagship station.
After a short stay at 39th and Chestnut Streets, the studios were moved to 1321 Arch Street, and then in 1933 to a state-of-the-art-facility at 1622 Chestnut Street. The new facility was the first ever constructed especially for radio broadcasting, and included eight studios (including one large enough to hold the entire Philadelphia Orchestra), and a special technical research laboratory. After a progression of power boosts, the station finally attained its 50,000 watt clear channel status.
The 1930s and 1940s were generally regarded as the "Golden Age of Radio", and the Levys contributed much to this period through the style and manner in which they ran their station. Commercial spots were closely scrutinized for content and offensiveness, and never ran back-to-back. For entertainment, there were two in-house bands, while the news department tackled the city's tough issues. Through affiliation with the CBS network, listeners were treated to the talents of Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Edgar Bergen, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Kate Smith, Red Skelton, Guy Lombardo, the Dorsey Brothers, Will Rogers, Arthur Godfrey, Burns and Allen, Fred Allen, and Edward R. Murrow, to name a few.
WCAU also featured a number of local personalities, including Bill Dyer, Taylor Grant, Norman Brokenshire, Alan Scott, Bob Menefree, and columnist Jack McKinney. The station's longest running show was The Horn & Hardart's Children's Hour, hosted by program director Stan Lee Broza.
In 1946, The Levys sold WCAU to David Stern, publisher of the Philadelphia Record. However, the brothers continued to run the station until It was sold a year later to the Bulletin. In 1952, the newspaper moved the station to a new facility on City Avenue, which was built to house WCAU TV as well. The station was eventually sold back to CBS.
Even as television ate away at radio's audience in the 1950s and 1960s, WCAU continued to remain a strong news organization, undertaking some popular and ambitious programs. One of these programs was Evening Edition, hosted by Taylor Grant and airing at drive time. This newspaper-style show contained numerous features delivered by a variety of reporters, critics, and experts.
Many radio insiders agree that the 1970s started a period of decline at WCAU. After orders from Paley to go all news, the station did poorly against an entrenched KYW. By the end of the 1970s, the station began losing money. In the early 80s, WCAU lost its focus flipping between all-news and news-talk. By the late 80s, the station settled into a mostly talk format. Well-known hosts during this period included former Mayor Frank Rizzo, whom callers would regularly urge to run again for public office. There was also Steve Fredericks with sports, Harry Gross' financial show as well as Tony Bruno, Dominic Quinn, and Clark DeLeon.
On August 15, 1990 at 1:05 p.m., the 68 year history of WCAU came to an end. CBS, citing massive losses, fired over 30 of the station's employees, including most of the talk-show hosts and the entire news department. The format was changed to oldies, with half of the broadcast day simulcasting sister station WOGL-FM. The sudden switch stunned radio analysts across the country, many of whom felt that the station could have been salvaged. Known as WOGL-AM, the station retained much of its evening sports programming.
On March 18, 1994, WOGL became all sports WGMP. Much of the station's programming was provided by a syndicated network service. Remaining in the lineup were the Phillies and Villanova and Temple basketball. Instead of going head-to-head with all-sports stalwart WIP, WGMP aimed for a more in-depth approach, featuring longer listener calls and more interviews.
With the exception of sports play-by-play coverage, WGMP's ratings were often quite low. By the summer of 1996, CBS, now with the resources of new parent Westinghouse Broadcasting, began rebuilding the station into a mainstream talk format. A new program director was hired, and local hosts began replacing the syndicated sports programming. In August, the call letters were changed to WPTS, which stood for "We're Philadelphia's Talk Station." A few weeks later, the calls were changed again to WPHT, reportedly to avoid confusion with Trenton's WPST-FM.
For the next two years, WPHT experimented with a number of local hosts and programs. Some of these hosts included Dr. Judith Sills, "Scoot", Jay and Hilarie, Amy and Morima, Nancy Glass, Don Lancer, and combinations thereof. In August, 1998, with continued low ratings, the station decided to eliminate most local hosts in favor of syndicated talk programming, such as the G. Gordon Liddy Show, and Dr. Toni Grant.
(c) The Philadelphia Radio Archives