Remembering Mike Joseph
• The radio industry owes a debt of gratitude to legendary programmer and consultant Mike Joseph, the architect of the revolutionary “Hot Hits” format, who died in Los Angeles on April 14 at the age of 90. The “Hot Hits” concept involved played the Top 5 hits every hour, with powers turning over at a dizzying 45 minutes to an hour, thus guaranteeing listeners were more likely to hear a hit.
According to a treasure trove of info posted on Wikipedia, the genesis of what became “Hot Hits” began in 1972, when Joseph was hired to program WMVM/Milwaukee, at the time a struggling Beautiful Music station. Joseph changed the calls to WZUU, and installed a tight Top 40 playlist of 30 currents (no recurrents or gold), which he dubbed “Super Hits.” Further success came in 1975 at WPJB (JB105)/Providence, with a similarly styled format known as “Big Hits.”
Joseph’s first high-profile success story with the Hot Hits approach came in the spring of 1977, when he flipped WTIC-FM/Hartford, CT from Classical to hit radio as “96 TICS.” The move paid off big, as station was in the Top 5 by the end of that year. The first Joseph-consulted station to use the term “Hot Hits” on the air was WFBL-AM/Syracuse, NY, which Joseph originally programmed in 1956 as national PD of the Founders Group. From June 1979 through November 1980 WFBL was “Fire 14,” playing its top 14 hits in heavy rotation.
The “Hot Hits” concept debuted on WCAU/Philadelphia on September 22, 1981, featuring personalities Christy Springfield, Terry “The Motormouth” Young, Scott Walker, Rich Hawkins, Bob Garrett, Todd Parkerand Billy Burke. Paul Barsky joined for mornings a year later. “Hot Hits” later spread to WBBM-FM/Chicago, where the original staff included Steve Davis, Joe Dawson, Gary Spears, Dave Robbins, Bob Lewis, Frank Foster and Tony Taylor; and WHYT/Detroit, both of which used the slogan “96 Now.” Other stations in the early ’80s that utilized Joseph’s “Hot Hits” concept included KITS/San Francisco (pre-Live 105), WMAR-FM/Baltimore and WNVZ (Z104)/Norfolk.
