became the key to the success of the radio format itself. Not only were the same records played on different stations across America, but so were the same jingle music beds whose lyrics were resung repetitively for each station to create individual station identity. To this basic mix were added contests, games and disc jockey patter. Various groups (including Bartell Broadcasters) emphasized local variations on their top 40 stations. Gordon McLendon would operate approximately a dozen and a half AM, FM and TV stations at various times, experimenting with formats other than top 40 (including beautiful music and all-news). Rick Sklar In the early 1960s Rick Sklar also developed the Top 40 format for radio station WABC in New York City which was then copied by stations in the eastern and mid-western United States such as WKBW and WLS. Bill Drake Bill Drake built upon the foundation established by Storz and McLendon to create a variation called "Boss Radio". This format began in California in early 1961 at KSTN in Stockton, then expanded in 1962–63 to KYNO in Fresno, in 1964 to KGB in San Diego, and finally to KHJ in Los Angeles in May 1965; it was further adapted to stations across the western US. Boss Radio was later broadcast by American disc jockeys as a hybrid format on pirate radio station Swinging Radio England, broadcasting from on board a ship anchored off the coast of southern England in international waters. At that time there were no commercial radio stations in the UK, and BBC radio offered only sporadic top 40 programming. Other noteworthy North American top 40 stations that used the Drake approach included KFRC in San Francisco; CKLW in Windsor, Ontario; WRKO in Boston; WHBQ in Memphis; WOLF in Syracuse, New York; and WOR-FM in New York City. Most listeners identified Boss Radio with less talk, shorter jingles and more music. Mike Joseph and hot hits Mike Joseph's "hot hits" stations of the late 1970s and early 1980s attempted to revitalize the format by refocusing listeners' attention on current, active "box-office" music. Thus, hot hits stations played only current hit songs—no oldies unless they were on current chart albums—in a fast, furious and repetitive fashion, with fast-talking personalities and loud, pounding jingles. In 1977, WTIC-FM in Hartford, CT, dropped its long-running classical format for Joseph's format as "96 Tics" and immediately became one of the top radio