A quixotic CBS management decision in 1990 did in one of America's greatest and oldest stations, 50,000-watt WCAU (1210 AM), which abruptly switched from news-talk to "oldies" music under the call letters WOGL. WCAU's entire eleven-member news team was fired en masse. Founded in 1922, WCAU boasted an illustrious broadcast history. But no more. It exists today as WPHT-AM, which programs right-wing babble and cheesy high-decibel commercials hawking products no one needs or wants, and which listeners should avoid. When the far right-wingers aren't blathering nonsense, WPHT carries dreary, canned-sounding Frank Sinatra songs, as though taped in someone's basement, and blocks of time bought by hucksters pitching real estate, vitamin supplements, gold, more gold, even more gold, credit-card consolidation, etc. A sad death for a historic station that deserved better. One hopes it never goes back to its original call letters, which would be even more of a disgrace. Under the FCC's lax regulation rules, CBS currently owns five radio stations in Philadelphia, and WPHT is just one of them. Below is a detailed article about the station's demise by W. Speers in the Philadelphia Inquirer of Aug. 16, 1990.
