Photo Source: Radio Memories, Bill Halvorsen
WGAY 99.5 FM was a pioneering Washington-based easy-listening radio station known for its instrumental "beautiful music" format, innovative programs like Matinee at One, and dominant ratings in its heyday.
The Man Behind the Sound
Bob Chandler was the programming director whose curated musical taste, custom recordings, and iconic persona defined WGAY’s warm and tranquil brand.
Chandler joined WGAY in 1965 and by the next year had become its music programmer. His programming instincts and refined curation were central to WGAY’s polished, relaxing sound that appealed broadly across the D.C. region.
Facing a shortage of suitable orchestral tracks, Chandler commissioned custom recordings—traveling as far as London—to produce unique covers of songs like “I Remember You,” “Everyday,” and “Go Home.” These bespoke tracks formed up to 20% of WGAY’s playlist The Washington Post.
He’s best remembered for his relaxed, approachable persona—often featured in TV spots lounging in a recliner listening to the station he shaped. Chandler passed away in 1995, leaving behind a legacy as the laid-back pioneer who helped define easy listening radio in Washington.
Excerpted from The Rise and Fall of the Beautiful Music Format by Dennis R. Ciapura
By 1979 SRP was old to Cox Broadcasting, but even as the big syndicators fought it out in the major markets,
scores of independent Beautiful formatted stations sprang up all over the country. These smaller operators, often individual stations, formed the Independent Beautiful Music Association, IBMA. As the format continued to mature all Beautiful operators shared one problem: lack of its most important component – new Music. The very success of the format virtually ensured that all existing product would be consumed in a few years and suitable new product simply wasn’t being produced. Now everyone was having redundancy problems. The larger syndicators began to produce new music, mostly in Great Britain where the costs were lower and suitable talent more available. The IBMA found help in form of a pioneering Beautiful station in Silver Springs, Maryland, just outside Washington, DC – WGAY.
WGAY was owned and operated by Greater Media, Inc. In addition to the Beautiful format on WGAY, Greater Media had several other stations running a company proprietary adult contemporary format called “Magic”. The Magic format was produced and duplicated at Greater Media’s headquarters in East Brunswick New Jersey. Peter Bordes, Greater Media’s Chairman, was a great visionary and gave his programming and engineering executives free reign to pursue the best technology and methods. Greater Media even had an audio R&D lab at its corporate headquarters. A custom mastering and duplicating facility had been built featuring the latest Sony phase compensated tape decks in a 1:1 duplication system. Extreme attention was paid to audio purity in the design and operation of the system and the accompanying mastering studio. By this time Bob Chandler, WGAY’s Program Director, was producing custom music with John Gregory in England with the intent of recovering the cost of the operation by selling the product to independent Beautiful Music stations, primarily IBMA members. The very high fidelity 1:1 duplication system at the East Brunswick HQ was ideal for duplicating WGAY’s custom product, which was marketed as Beautiful Hits.
John Gregory was, and is
, a brilliant composer, conductor and arranger. John was one of a few arranger/conductors chosen to produce BBC orchestra performances. There was no BBC Orchestra per se. Whichever conductor was selected for a given performance would assemble an orchestra from among the many very talented union musicians working in the London area and put a program together. John was ideal for the Beautiful Hits project. The mission was to create lush orchestral renditions of contemporary pop tunes. This ensured a constant flow of format compatible new music. John knew all of the very best musicians and they enjoyed working for him. He was in his element in the recording studio. The Beautiful Hits sessions were done at some of the best studios in London, including PI and Olympic. The orchestras were usually comprised of between 33 and 38 musicians. The earlier sessions were 16 track, but soon transitioned to 24 track. Beautiful Hits production peaked in the summers of 1977-78 with as many as 80 new selections being recorded in a season.
