Naptown Rock Radio Wars (Images of America)

It was a fight to the death . . . well, maybe not to the death, but it was definitely a battle that would change not only the listening habits of tens of thousands of Hoosiers but also the entire culture of the Indiana state capital city. It had repercussions throughout the nation as the first major war of AM radio versus FM radio. It was Forty-fives versus album cuts and the “good guys” versus the “bad boys”―and Naptown would never be the same. Two brilliant and fierce broadcasting competitors went head to head: Richard Fairbanks, who for almost two decades owned WIBC-AM 1070, the 50,000-watt radio behemoth, versus Don Burden, the young upstart broadcasting impresario who swaggered into town and launched the glitzy, promotion-oriented though relatively low-powered WIFE-AM 1310. How was the war fought? What were the strategies? Who were the personalities both in the limelight and behind the scenes? And who, in the end, would win Naptown’s rock radio wars?