Philadelphia Radio Icon (Joe Niagara) Dies
PhillyRadioFan
http://www.kyw1060.com/news_story_detail.cfm?newsitemid=38131
Philadelphia radio legend Joe Niagara has died. Niagara passed away Friday at
the age of 76 losing a two-year battle to bladder cancer.
He died of a heart attack after surgery at a local hospital. Calling himself
"the Rockin Bird", Joe began his career here in Philadelphia in the mid-1950's.
He worked at WIBG radio in the late 50's. He went on to disc jockey at WFIL,
WCAU AM/FM, and WDAS. He wrapped up his career and retired from WPEN in the late
1990's. He's enshrined in the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
Philadelphia radio legend Joe Niagara passed away Saturday of a heart attack,
following extensive surgery.
Joe had been fighting bladder cancer for almost two years.
Janice Brooks
BUS Janice
There's one less Philidelphia lawyer in old Philidelphia tonight---Woody
Guthrie
Reno Blues Merle Haggard
Bob Smolarek
Tregembo
"PhillyRadioFan" <GrewUpIn@The1960's.com> wrote in message
news:c9siu...@drn.newsguy.com...
A great R & R era DJ, and a really nice guy. He and many others including
Hy Lit, Jerry Stevens and Bill Wright and Frank X. Feller were very
accessible to their listeners. Rumor has it that after Joe escaped charges
in the payola scandals of the late '50's, he thumbed his nose at his
detractors by releasing his first oldies album with a photo of him propped
on the from bumper of his beloved Bentley, supposedly his biggest payola
prize.
Ray Arthur
PhillyRadioFan
Smolarek says...
>
>Beat ya by 2 minutes
Your parents must be *so* proud of you.
I did my post to share the info with others. You, apparently, did it for
"bragging rights"?
How sad.
Bob Smolarek
message posted all of a sudden yours came up. I was a little young to know
Niagara, first heard him on 95 PEN in the 70's. He was a true giant, along
with Hy.news:c9sog...@drn.newsguy.com...
PhillyRadioFan
Smolarek says...
(Responding to the above *top-posted* reply) <sigh>
If you want a comment lik eyou made to be taken as anything but serious,
consider the use of a winking smiley. ;-)
I would have understood that. Instead, you came across as "in your face".
Trivia question - what did the call letters of WIBG *originally* stand for? A
true Philly AM radio fan might know! ;-)
(And please, don't top-post - is *not* accepted netiquette.)
Tregembo
"PhillyRadioFan" <GrewUpIn@The1960's.com> wrote
> Trivia question - what did the call letters of WIBG *originally* stand
for? A
> true Philly AM radio fan might know! ;-)
WithIn the Bounds of God.
Ray Arthur
PhillyRadioFan
Close! Right "church", wrong pew.
In fact, here's a clue - the initials "I-B-G" were the only letters that
represented words. The "W" was not part of their slogan....
Joe Pucillo
> Tregembo says...
> >"PhillyRadioFan" wrote
> >> Trivia question - what did the call letters of WIBG *originally* stand
> >for? A true Philly AM radio fan might know! ;-)
> >WithIn the Bounds of God.
> Close! Right "church", wrong pew.
>
> In fact, here's a clue - the initials "I-B-G" were the only letters that
> represented words. The "W" was not part of their slogan....
Now, who's in whom's face? :-)
I know that it's widely believed that Wibbage's call letters
stood for "I Believe in God" but I never knew whether that was,
in fact, the case. It would have made more sense for WZZD to
return to those call letters when they moved to a Gospel format
in the early 80s. :-)
I remember the first time I heard the IBG acronym, and
extrapolating that WIBF (Channel 29's original call sign) must
mean "I Believe in FranklinField."
As for Joe Niagara, he was a nice guy, or so it seemed. I
remember meeting him during a Gimbel's Thanksgiving Day Parade in
the early 70s, and he was very gracious to this little kid. He
signed my autograph book and everything - right next to Sally
Starr, and overleaf from Gene London and Ken Garland.
JP
PhillyRadioFan
says...
<snip>
>I know that it's widely believed that Wibbage's call letters
>stood for "I Believe in God" but I never knew whether that was,
>in fact, the case.
Bingo! It is a fact that call letters WIBG stood for "I Believe in God" when
the Philly rock-n-roll radio station previously aired religious programming.
goosi...@gmail.com
RH Draney
> Well I'm listening to cruise 1957 right now on vinyl
another volume when the Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsberg obit dropped the other
day)....
Friend of a friend prefers to listen to sixties rock in mono, because
that's how he would have first heard it, on AM radio....r