WMGK 102.9 FM

Grew up listening to rock and roll and #wmgk plays my favorites all the time! #John Debella, #Debbi Calton and the whole crew rock out!

Like so many radio stations especially oldies and classic rock stations, WMGK Fm often plays a lot of the same limited selection of songs and sticks to a marketing format for ratings and doesn’t play a lot of other good songs and this is often songs by the same artists, unless someone calls to request it.

I’m honestly not really into classic rock but if I’m around my dad, this is what I go to. MGK is a pretty good classic rock station. I don’t really know what else there is for classic rock in Philly… I guess that’s why they reserved the slogan «Philly’s Classic rock station.»

Andy S. nailed it! MGK is for whatever reason hooked on soft rock and the same songs by the same artists over and over again. If I hear one more song by Elton John, Supertramp, or Genesis again, I’m going to blow my brains out. MMR doesn’t even claim to be a classic rock station, yet plays more good classic rock then the garbage you hear on MGK. Only a few things throughout the day save them from complete failure: Get the Led Out, Jonesin’ for the Stones, and the Underground Garage on Sunday nights. Other then that, it’s pretty bad…

I worked in an office where the Boss insisted upon MGK everyday for three years.
As much as I really used to like a lot of classic rock listening to this station kind of ruined it for me as their play list is so tight and rigid.
Koob is a supposedly a Stones guy and while I am too, if it’s not one of the warhorses he for the most part doesn’t play it. He apparently thinks that if the song is not on the first disc from 40 Licks it can’t be played.
Gardner is annoying beyond belief and his foaming homer shtick with the Beatles is old.
While I give him credit for actually playing deep cuts, when one out of every three songs is a Beatles, McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, or Ringo song all I can say is My Sweet Lord play some variety.
Calton has it together the best out of the four.
(I won’t even touch on that dope DeBella.)
But even still her shtick is to play more of the softer songs and the «chick rockers» more like Benatar or Heart. And just like the rest of the DJ’s you might hear Heart but anything past Barracuda and Straight On is apparently a «deep track» reserved for those special weekends when they go into the «vault».
It’s tired formats and even more tired playlists from stations like this that make people move to satellite.

MGK is pretty much all I listen to — with occaional tune-​ins to MMR & YSP. DiBella does the AM show and I love Andre Gardner and Breakfast with the Beatles.
It seems like MGK now is like YSP or MMR were in the late ’80’s.
Classic rock at its comforting best — plus they have «Get the Led Out» at 7 PM and Jones for the Stones.
All good stuff.

In Philly you really aren’t going to get much more than this for Rock radio, alas. Its ok, not awful, but not even close to good.
Sure, he was destroyed by Howard Stern years ago, but John DeBella is a Philly icon, want to admit it or not. And yes, he seems like a guy who has spent too much time locked in a radio station and not doing something else, but it comes across in a charming, don’t-he-mean-well kinda way. At least he plays music.
And overall, the music errs to far on the «soft» side, as if they don’t want to hurt WMMR’s feelings or something. If they stuck to the classics and tried just a little to rock some more, they’d really have something. But its the same small selection of songs from a small selection of artists that you’ve heard a billion times and get scared if you hear anything else. There is a wealth of material out there and they don’t touch it. But I’m sure its the Internet’s fault nobody listens.
Yikes, uh… oh yea, Alice Cooper’s show was really cool, and they got rid of it. Here was one guy who would play stuff you should have been playing all along (Tommy Bolin), but you get rid of his show. For more Ray Koob. More. Oh, please god, let him play «Start Me Up» by The Stones. Its been so long since I’ve heard that song, it would just mean the world to me now. Oh wait… its «I Can’t Get No Satisfaction»! Such a surprise! Never saw this coming! This reaffirms my desire to both listen to this station and also to live! Yea!
I hope I made my point clearly enough. Do not want.