 (March 30, 1981-May 3, 1985) The format at WIIN-AM in Atlantic City (formerly WFPG) was "News Plus 1450", featuring news and information 24 hours a day. There was sports play-by-play but, until March 30, 1981, very little local sports coverage. On that day, The Sports Team began the first of its series of sports talk shows. The March 30th date was selected for a reason, because it was the night of the NCAA Final Four championship game at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Butch Gleason was there to provide live reports, previews and interviews from the game. The date of March 30, 1981, became historically significant, however, when John Hinckley shot President Reagan and three other men that afternoon. During our first program that night, Gleason provided an exclusive interview with NBC's Bryant Gumbel, criticizing his own network for broadcasting a basketball game while the president was in serious condition. On WIIN, The Sports Team provided six nightly shows (Monday-Saturday) in the early evening - called Sports Plus - most of them from The Sands Hotel-Casino, that previewed the night's sports action. Then, from 11pm until midnight, it was Sports Final, with all the results, summaries and post-game interviews. In addition, Tom Williams did updates every weekday morning. In addition to The Sports Team, the lineup of news, talk and music hosts at WIIN included Howard Berger, Ed Davis, John Frazier, Bill Jacobs, Red Karr, Mike Kinslow, Annette Porter, Jim Knight, Bob Lewis, Andrea Ramsey, Joe Satta, Allen Segal, Soundra Usry and Bill Voigt. |