WKTU
Encyclopedia
WKTU is a radio station based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 that plays an upbeat, gold-based CHR
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...

 format. The station's broadcast transmitter is located on the top of the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...

 and its city of license is Lake Success, New York
Lake Success, New York
Lake Success is a village in Nassau County, New York in the United States. The population was 2,934 at the 2010 census.Lake Success is in the Town of North Hempstead on northwest Long Island. Lake Success was the temporary home of the United Nations from 1946 to 1951, occupying the headquarters of...

, with offices formerly in the "Newport" section of Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...

. As of February 2008, the studios and offices were moved to the AT&T Building in the TriBeCa
TriBeCa
Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...

 section of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

 along with sister stations WHTZ
WHTZ
WHTZ — branded Z100 — is a commercial pop/contemporary hit radio radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey serving the New York metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications...

, WWPR-FM
WWPR-FM
WWPR-FM, also known as "Power 105.1", is an urban contemporary radio station that features hip hop and R&B licensed to New York City that serves the Greater New York area....

, WAXQ
WAXQ
WAXQ is a radio station with a classic rock format in New York City. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications.-WFDR:...

, and WLTW
WLTW
WLTW is a radio station with an Adult Contemporary format in New York City.The station is often number one or close to it in Arbitron ratings for New York City. From 2002 to 2004, the station generated more revenue than any other radio station in the New York market...

.

WNNJ and pre-move WPAT-FM

The 103.5 frequency first went on the air in 1948, as WNNJ, which then changed its name to WPAT-FM
WPAT-FM
WPAT-FM, known on-air as "93.1 Amor", is a radio station with a Spanish-language Rhythmic AC format. Located on 93.1 FM, the station, which is licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, serves the New York City Metropolitan area.-History:...

. FM listenership was very light in those early days of FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...

, and during the 1950s the station would sometimes be off the air for long stretches.

By 1957 WPAT-FM had relocated to its much better-known frequency of 93.1.

WTFM

In 1958, the 103.5 FM frequency in New York City went back on the air as WTFM. They played an instrumental-based easy listening
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...

 format until 1978, when the old WKTU (on 92.3) went from an adult contemporary format to a disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 music format. As an easy listening station, WTFM's ratings were low, as WRFM
WWPR-FM
WWPR-FM, also known as "Power 105.1", is an urban contemporary radio station that features hip hop and R&B licensed to New York City that serves the Greater New York area....

 and WPAT
WPAT-FM
WPAT-FM, known on-air as "93.1 Amor", is a radio station with a Spanish-language Rhythmic AC format. Located on 93.1 FM, the station, which is licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, serves the New York City Metropolitan area.-History:...

 had higher ratings with the same format. So in the fall of 1978, WTFM switched to an adult contemporary format, even though ratings would remain low with the new format.

WAPP

In 1982, Doubleday bought the station, and that June, the station switched to an Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock
Album-oriented rock is an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock artists.-Music played:Most radio formats are based on a select, tight rotation of hit singles...

 format similar to WPLJ
WPLJ
WPLJ is a radio station in New York City owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media. WPLJ shares studio facilities with sister station WABC inside 2 Penn Plaza in midtown Manhattan, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building. The station currently plays a Hot Adult...

 and WNEW-FM down the dial. The station was renamed "The Apple 103.5", with the call letters WAPP. The station went commercial-free for the duration of that summer, and as a result, it became the highest-rated radio station in New York City. Then, when the station added commercials, listeners switched back to WPLJ and WNEW-FM, and so ratings went down. In 1983, when WPLJ switched to a CHR
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...

 format, the station's ratings got a slight boost.

In 1983, a then-unknown Bon Jovi visited WAPP 103.5FM "The Apple" and wrote and sung the jingles for WAPP "The Apple" 103.5. He spoke with the D.J., Chip Hobart, who suggested Bon Jovi let WAPP include the song "Runaway" on the station's compilation album of local homegrown talent. Bon Jovi was reluctant but eventually gave them the song, on which Bon Jovi had used studio musicians to play on the track "Runaway" (which was written in 1980). WAPP worked with WOR-TV (now WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV
WWOR-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey and serving the Tri-State metropolitan area. WWOR is owned by Fox Television Stations, a division of the News Corporation, and is a sister station to Fox network flagship...

) in nearby Secaucus, NJ on a music video show, Rock 9 Videos, for a short time in 1984.

Additional/Supplanting information to the above. In 1983, as part of its marketing effort, WAPP-FM launched a contest called "New York Rocks 1983." Local music acts were encouraged to submit demo tapes to this competition. Among the tapes submitted to this contest was "Runaway" by John Bongiovi, aka Bon Jovi. But it didn't win the competition. Another act called the "Frankie Carr Band" won the honors over Bon Jovi and "Runaway." This competition was repeated in 1984.

As 1984 progressed, WAPP's ratings were on the upswing. However, the station's owners decided to change the station's format to CHR
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...

 that fall. They felt that if stations that they owned in Washington, D.C.
WAVA
WAVA and WAVA-FM are Religious formatted broadcast radio stations. Both stations are licensed to Arlington, Virginia and serve the Washington, D.C. Metro Area. Both WAVA and WAVA-FM, as well as sister station WWRC, are owned and operated by Salem Communications.-External links:*...

 and Minnesota
KDWB
KDWB-FM is an American commercial radio station broadcasting in the Twin Cities region of Minnesota, the radio format was known for over fifty years as a major contemporary hit radio Top 40 pop music outlet. Its transmitter is located in Shoreview, Minnesota. It broadcasts in 5.1 cinema-quality...

 could do well with the format, then this station could as well. This would not be the case, as the station could not compete with WPLJ or Z-100
WHTZ
WHTZ — branded Z100 — is a commercial pop/contemporary hit radio radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey serving the New York metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications...

, and their ratings fell. Not even a change back to a rock format in the summer of 1985 could solve the station's ratings woes.

The original WKTU

See WXRK section on WKTU for the original WKTU that existed from 1975-1985 and achieved great fame as a disco station known as "Disco 92" in the late 1970s.

WNBC-FM and variants

The history of the 97.1 frequency goes back to 1940, when station W2XWG came on the air. After several frequency and call letters changes, WNBC-FM was established at 97.1 by 1948. It usually simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...

 WNBC
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...

's AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...

 programming. In 1954 it changed its call letters to WRCA-FM (Reflecting NBC's then-parent company, RCA), but reverted to WNBC-FM in 1960.

WNBC-FM played classical music in the 1950s; it later switched to pop music. It ran network programming for some time, such as the NBC Monitor
Monitor (NBC Radio)
NBC Monitor was an American weekend radio program broadcast from June 12, 1955, until January 26, 1975. Airing live and nationwide on the NBC Radio Network, it originally aired beginning Saturday morning at 8am and continuing through the weekend until 12 midnight on Sunday...

 weekend series. By the 1970s it was playing a pop/rock format
Radio format
A radio format or programming format not to be confused with broadcast programming describes the overall content broadcast on a radio station. Radio formats are frequently employed as a marketing tool, and constantly evolve...

. Beginning on June 4, 1973, it experimented with a fully automated programming scheme with local inserts known as "The Rock Pile" -- a forerunner of today's DJ-free Bob FM and Frank FM formats with a wide diversity of pop, rock and R&B that proved to be 30 years ahead of its time—but technical glitches were frequent and listenership dropped. For a brief period starting in late 1974, the station attempted a fully automated beautiful music
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...

 format for a younger demographic
Demographic profile
A demographic or demographic profile is a term used in marketing and broadcasting, to describe a demographic grouping or a market segment...

, called "The Love of New York".

NBC Radio then launched the NBC News and Information Service (NIS), a network service providing up to 50 minutes an hour of news programming to local stations that wanted to adopt an all-news
All-news radio
All-news radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcast of news.All-news radio is available in both local and syndicated forms, and is carried in some form on both major US satellite radio networks...

 format without the high costs of producing large quantities of local news content. WNBC-FM's small audience was deemed expendable to allow the NIS to have a New York outlet. Thus on June 18, 1975, the station became WNWS and branded itself "NewsCenter 97," an allusion to WNBC-TV's "NewsCenter 4" local newscasts. Ratings were low, and the service did not attract enough stations to allow NBC to project that it could ever become profitable (At the network's peak, only 57 stations across the country carried NIS, most of them already NBC Radio News affiliates). On January 1, 1977, NBC shut down NIS and 97.1 adopted an "Adult Contemporary" (AC) format with a rock lean (to compete against WKTU
WFNY-FM
WXRK , known on-air as "92.3 Now", is a radio station in New York City. Owned by CBS Radio, WXRK broadcasts a Contemporary Hit Radio format with a rhythmic lean...

), under the moniker "Y-97". The call letters WNWS were still in use at the time but shortly afterward the station became known as WYNY
WYNY (New York)
WYNY was the call letters of radio stations on three different FM frequencies in or around New York City. The stations on the first two frequencies, 97.1 and 103.5, were closely related while the last one, 107.1 on an FM Quadcast, was not....

.

WYNY

Ratings were fair at best and by the end of 1978, after toying briefly with an all-Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

 format, WYNY evolved to an MOR format featuring Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...

, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....

, Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow
Barry Manilow is an American singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, producer, conductor, and performer, best known for such recordings as "Could It Be Magic", "Mandy", "Can't Smile Without You", and "Copacabana ."...

, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....

, Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....

, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...

, Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...

, and Billy Joel
Billy Joel
William Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...

 among others. They were an easy listening station without all the elevator music heard on WRFM
WWPR-FM
WWPR-FM, also known as "Power 105.1", is an urban contemporary radio station that features hip hop and R&B licensed to New York City that serves the Greater New York area....

 or WPAT-AM
WPAT (AM)
WPAT is the callsign of a radio station licensed to Paterson, New Jersey. Located at 930 kHz in the medium-wave AM band, the station runs paid ethnic programming....

-FM
WPAT-FM
WPAT-FM, known on-air as "93.1 Amor", is a radio station with a Spanish-language Rhythmic AC format. Located on 93.1 FM, the station, which is licensed to Paterson, New Jersey, serves the New York City Metropolitan area.-History:...

. Ratings went up gradually.

By 1980, WYNY moved away from Frank Sinatra and The Lettermen
The Lettermen
The Lettermen are an American male pop music vocal trio. The Lettermen's trademark is close-harmony pop songs with light arrangements. The group started in 1959...

 though they continued running "Saturday with Sinatra" hosted by Sid Mark. Musically they added Motown
Motown Records
Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...

 songs, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

, The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in 1961 in Hawthorne, California. The group was initially composed of brothers Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Managed by the Wilsons' father Murry, The Beach Boys signed to Capitol Records in 1962...

, Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British–American rock band formed in 1967 in London.The only original member present in the band is its eponymous drummer, Mick Fleetwood...

, The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. The group has sold over 40 million units worldwide throughout their career. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.-Original incarnation:...

, Donna Summer
Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines , known by her stage name, Donna Summer, is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach...

, and soft hits by hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...

ers.

By 1981, the station format was that of pop hits from 1964 to what was then current music, with an occasional pre-64 rock & roll song. Ratings went up from 1981 through 1983. By 1982, WYNY trimmed the '60s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

 music slightly. Some of the air personalities included Dan Daniel, Bill St. James, Bruce Bradley, Randy Davis, Carol Mason, Mike McCann, Floyd Wright, Steve O'Brien, Bill Rock, Margaret Jones, Paulie, and Ed Baer. On Sunday evenings, the station aired a pioneering advice show, Sexually Speaking, which made its host, Dr. Ruth Westheimer
Ruth Westheimer
Ruth Westheimer is an American sex therapist, media personality, and author. Best known as Dr. Ruth, the New York Times described her as a "Sorbonne-trained psychologist who became a kind of cultural icon in the 1980s...

, a national celebrity. The station was also a pioneer of Contemporary Christian Music
Contemporary Christian music
Contemporary Christian music is a genre of modern popular music which is lyrically focused on matters concerned with the Christian faith...

 in the city, airing the weekly show Masterpeace, hosted by Steven Joseph. Sid Mark continued hosting a Frank Sinatra show. On weekend evenings call-in talk shows such as "Mouth Versus Ear" with Dick Summers was an alternative to other station's mundane public service shows.

In 1983, rival stations Z-100
WHTZ
WHTZ — branded Z100 — is a commercial pop/contemporary hit radio radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey serving the New York metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications...

 and WPLJ
WPLJ
WPLJ is a radio station in New York City owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media. WPLJ shares studio facilities with sister station WABC inside 2 Penn Plaza in midtown Manhattan, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building. The station currently plays a Hot Adult...

 adopted a "Contemporary Hit Radio
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...

" (CHR) format, attracting younger listeners. WYNY continued with its AC format. Then in January 1984, Lite FM 106.7 WLTW
WLTW
WLTW is a radio station with an Adult Contemporary format in New York City.The station is often number one or close to it in Arbitron ratings for New York City. From 2002 to 2004, the station generated more revenue than any other radio station in the New York market...

 signed on, taking away older listeners. WYNY ratings plummeted, and in 1986 the station was revamped with the music staying "Hot AC" but marketed as a "Z-100 for Yuppies". The station had new jingles and imaging, and became known as "The NEW 97.1 WYNY". The format, however, was that of the same pop hits from 1964 to the then-present. The station continued to rate low. NBC had problems with sister station WNBC
WNBC (AM)
WNBC was a radio station that operated in New York City from 1922 to 1988. For most of its history, it was the flagship station of the NBC Radio Network...

 as well. Then in April 1987, a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 station, WHN
WEPN
WEPN is a 24-hour sports talk formatted radio station in New York City featuring national and local sports talk programs and live broadcasts of sports matches. It is the New York affiliate for ESPN Radio...

, announced plans to go sports full-time on July 1, to become all-sports WFAN
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...

. In response, WYNY announced it would change to country music on July 1.

This format change was announced to the press in advance but not over the air except on Saturday With Sinatra. At 12:01 a.m. July 1, WYNY ended its AC format with "Hello, Goodbye" by The Beatles and went country, playing "Think About Love" by Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...

. The airstaff all remained, though some gradually left later in the year.

Dan Daniel (who had left WYNY in the mid-1980s and returned), Randy Davis, Carol Mason, Lisa Taylor, Floyd Wright, and others survived the format change and remained with WYNY's country unit long after it would leave 97.1 FM and move to 103.5, where it remained until its 1996 demise. The WYNY call letters resurfaced on the suburban 107.1 frequency in late 1998 at a country station that had started up later in 1996; the format lasted until 2002. As of 2006, the WYNY call letters reside on a station in Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...

.

In 1987 Emmis agreed to buy NBC's New York radio stations, which gave Emmis superior signals for use by WFAN and WQHT. Emmis sold its 103.5 license and the rights to WYNY's intellectual property to Westwood One, and the WYNY call sign and format moved to that frequency while WQHT shifted to 97.1.

The pre-move WQHT

In 1986, Emmis Communications
Emmis Communications
Emmis Communications is a media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The company owns radio stations and magazines in the United States, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria.-History:...

 would buy the station from Doubleday, as Doubleday was in the process getting out of the radio business. That August, after stunting with classic rock
Classic rock
Classic rock is a radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on the hard rock genre that peaked in popularity in the...

 for a 36 hour period, the station relaunched as "HOT 103", with the call letters WQHT. The new station, which played a mix of pop hits, dance songs, rap
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 songs and r&b
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 songs, was an instant ratings success.

The post-move WYNY

On September 22, 1988, WQHT would change frequencies, as Emmis acquired NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's radio stations. Since Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...

 regulations at the time required that a company can only own one FM radio station in a market, Emmis sold the 103.5 frequency to Westwood One
Westwood One
Westwood One was an American radio network and was based in New York City. At one time, it was managed by CBS Radio, the radio arm of CBS Corporation, and Viacom and was later purchased by the private equity firm The Gores Group...

 (which, coincidentally, had also acquired the remnants of the NBC Radio Network). At the same time, they moved the format at 103.5 FM to the 97.1 FM frequency which they acquired from NBC, with WQHT becoming "Hot 97." As a result, WYNY
WYNY (New York)
WYNY was the call letters of radio stations on three different FM frequencies in or around New York City. The stations on the first two frequencies, 97.1 and 103.5, were closely related while the last one, 107.1 on an FM Quadcast, was not....

, which was running a country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 format at the 97.1 frequency prior to the sale, would move from 97.1 FM to 103.5 FM.

The station, now known as "Country 103.5", had mediocre ratings in their first few months at its new frequency. Even though rumors of a format change were always existent at the station, the country format remained. In 1993, the station would be sold to Broadcast Partners, whom were committed to keeping Country on WYNY. As a country station, Jim Kerr would be the station's morning show host from 1990 to 1993, while their airstaff included Dan Daniel, Randy Davis, Ray Rossi, Lisa Taylor and Charlie Berger.

Meanwhile, Hot 97 began to move away from Dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...

 in 1993 and toward hip hop. By 1994 they played almost no dance music. After Hot 97 changed to an Urban Contemporary
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...

 format in 1994, New Yorkers demanded a Dance music
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...

 station.

In the spring of 1995, Broadcast Partners opted to sell to Evergreen Media, and after a lot of speculation about the station's future, Evergreen confirmed in January 1996 that the station would be changing formats. On the final weekend that the station would play country music (which would be from February 2 to February 4, 1996), the entire airstaff said goodbye. After airing the syndicated After Midnight show in the early morning hours of February 5, the country music format was gone from the station. Later that year country would resurface on several suburban stations, one of which would get the WYNY calls, resurfacing in late 1998. Beginning at 6 a.m. the next morning, immediately after the syndicated country music show ended, the station simulcast then rock station WRCX (now WKSC-FM and playing CHR) based in Chicago until February 6 at 6 a.m. That day they simulcast KKBT
KKBT
KSWD is a Bonneville International-owned radio station licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. The station currently broadcasts a wide-ranging classic rock format...

 out of Los Angeles playing an Urban Format until 6 a.m. on February 7. That day they simulcast WLUP
WLUP
WLUP-FM is a commercial classic rock radio station serving the Chicago metropolitan area. Owned and operated by Merlin Media, LLC, WLUP transmits its signal from an antenna located the top of the Willis Tower in Downtown Chicago at a height of with an effective radiated power of 4,000 watts...

 based in Chicago which had a Talk format (now a Rock station). Beginning at 6 a.m. on February 8, WYNY simulcast KIOI
KIOI
KIOI FM is a radio station licensed to San Francisco, California. The Clear Channel Communications-owned station programs a Hot Adult Contemporary format.- KPEN :...

 based in San Francisco offering an Adult Contemporary format (now a Hot AC). On February 9 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., WYNY simulcast WXKS-FM
WXKS-FM
WXKS-FM, better known as Kiss 108, is a radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, licensed to nearby Medford broadcasting a Top 40 format...

 in Boston, playing a CHR format that at that time leaned slightly Alternative. At 6 PM, the simulcasting of sister stations ended.

The new WKTU

At 6 p.m. on February 9, 1996 the station started airing a tape loop of sounds of a heart beating and liners about a new radio station coming. Then, the next day at Noon, WKTU was relaunched at 103.5 FM as The Beat of New York 103.5 KTU with a dance-based CHR format. Its first song played in the re-launch was "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now!)" by C&C Music Factory. The station instantly skyrocketed to number one in the Arbitron
Arbitron
Arbitron is a consumer research company in the United States that collects listener data on radio audiences. It was founded as American Research Bureau by Jim Seiler in 1949 and became national by merging with L.A. based Coffin, Cooper and Clay in the early 1950s...

 ratings, although in the decade since they have cooled down considerably. Drag performer RuPaul
RuPaul
RuPaul Andre Charles , best known as simply RuPaul, is an American actor, drag queen, model, author, and singer-songwriter, who first became widely known in the 1990s when he appeared in a wide variety of television programs, films, and musical albums. Previously, he was a fixture on the Atlanta...

 co-hosted mornings with Michelle Visage
Michelle Visage
Michelle Visage is a singer and TV/radio host.-Career:Michelle was discovered in 1989 when she was asked to join Seduction, an R&B and dance vocal trio assembled by Robert Clivilles and David Cole of C&C Music Factory fame...

 and Freddie Colon around this period, further helping their ratings. Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton
Sean Hamilton
Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton is an American radio personality. He is the host of the Weekend Top30 Countdown and the Remix Top40 Countdown heard in over 280 cities in the United States and throughout the world. He can also be heard live weekday afternoons on WKTU in New York City...

 and Goumba Johnny followed in mornings from 1998-1999. By 2002, the moderate amount of rap played on the station was gone and the station evolved into more of a Hot Rhythmic AC.

On May 31, 2006, WKTU announced that actress/comedian Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg is an American comedian, actress, singer-songwriter, political activist, author and talk show host.Goldberg made her film debut in The Color Purple playing Celie, a mistreated black woman in the Deep South. She received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress and won...

 would become the station's new morning host, and that KTU would serve as the flagship station for her syndicated morning show. Her show, which airs mostly on AC and Rhythmic outlets in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, especially those owned by WKTU's parent company Clear Channel, began on July 31, 2006. The news of Goldberg being named 'KTU's new morning star, and the departures of popular afternoon drive DJ "Broadway" Bill Lee and late night hostess Jewelz in June 2006, led to talk that KTU might switch formats (some suspected an upbeat female targeted Hot AC-type direction similar to sister station KBIG/Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

) with Goldberg's arrival. KTU management insisted that there were no plans to flip formats, even with Goldberg in mornings. Another surprise move was the reunion of former KTU morning hosts Sean "Hollywood" Hamilton and Goumba Johnny, who hosted afternoons for the station from September 5, 2006. Hamilton continues to host his popular syndicated shows the Weekend Top 30 and the Remix Top 30 heard in over 250 cites across America and around the world.

However, on September 9, 2006, after many format flips by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...

 of other radio stations throughout the country, 'KTU took on the upbeat Rhythmic AC direction by playing only popular current rhythmic material, as well as increasing the airplay of older rhythmic sounds such as soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

, disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...

 and freestyle
Freestyle music
Freestyle or Latin freestyle, sometimes referred to as Latin hip hop, is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 1980s. Mostly popular during the mid 80s to the early 90s...

.

On November 28, 2007, WKTU announced that it had dropped Whoopi's morning show. According to station management, the reason was due to Goldberg's duties on The View, although it may also have to do with the show's ratings. Her show continued to air in syndication through Premiere Radio Networks until April 18, 2008, when she called it quits. Cubby Bryant
Cubby Bryant
Paul "Cubby" Bryant is a radio personality, currently working as the morning host at WKTU in New York City 106.7 The Beat Of Detroit WDTW and as of Monday, September 12th, 2011 he can be heard weekday afternoons on Movin' 107.7 WMOV-FM in Norfolk/ Virginia Beach, VA...

, who served as Goldberg's sidekick, left the syndicated show and returned to WKTU in January 2008 to host his own morning show.

Around 2009, WKTU did another tweak in their Rhythmic AC format, dropping the older elements of dance music (disco and freestyle, including Judy Torres' "Freestyle Free For All" Sunday show) and focusing mainly on a current direction, with mainstream dance and rhythmic sounds. That has helped increase the ratings of the station. In September 2010, the station returned to a Rhythmic Top 40 direction, as WKTU was added to the Mediabase
Mediabase
Mediabase is a music industry service that monitors radio station airplay in 180 US and Canadian markets. Mediabase publishes music charts and data based on the most played songs on terrestrial and satellite radio, and provides in-depth analytical tools for radio and record industry professionals...

 Rhythmic panel joining rival WQHT. On December 15, 2010, Goumba Johnny left WKTU after 15 years, leaving Hamilton solo in afternoons.

On April 4, 2011, WKTU was moved from the Rhythmic CHR panel on Mediabase to CHR (Top 40)
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary hit radio is a radio format that is common in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia that focuses on playing current and recurrent popular music as determined by the Top 40 music charts...

, reflecting the recent evolution of the station's music to a more rhythmic adult contemporary
Rhythmic Adult Contemporary
Rhythmic adult contemporary is a format used on stations in the United States and Canada. It usually gears toward an older audience, ages 25 to 54. Stations using this format play disco from the 1970s and early 1980s, dance/pop music, adult-friendly hip hop/old school tracks, R&B, dance/freestyle...

 sound again without the disco titles At the same time, Nielsen BDS
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, better known as BDS, is a service that tracks monitored radio, television and internet airplay of songs based on the number of spins and detections...

 will not include WKTU on its Top 40/CHR panel because of its direction and having sister station WHTZ as a reporter. Clear Channel still describes WKTU as a rhythmic.

WKTU's ownership

As a result of a series of transactions from Evergreen Media, SFX Communications, and Clear Channel Communications in the late 1990s and early 2000s, WKTU is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications
Clear Channel Communications, Inc. is an American media conglomerate company headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It was founded in 1972 by Lowry Mays and Red McCombs, and was taken private by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP in a leveraged buyout in 2008...


HD2 Operation

Like other Clear Channel stations WKTU began Multicasting in the late winter of 2005. On WKTU HD-1, the Rhythmic Top-40 format is heard on the original analog station, while WKTU HD-2 has played Country Music similar to the previous Country station occupying 103.5. HD stations can only be received with an HD Radio
HD Radio
HD Radio, which originally stood for "Hybrid Digital", is the trademark for iBiquity's in-band on-channel digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data via a digital signal in conjunction with their analog signals...

. HD Radios receive both the primary analog station, the duplicate HD Feed, and the Multicasting feeds. Stations can put as many as three sets of HD programming on one dial position plus their original analog broadcast. On July 23, 2009, the Country music format was dropped in favor of Pride Radio, a dance station catering to the LGBT community. The Country format has since moved to 106.7 HD-2.

The WKTU subcarrier also airs Catholic programming in Italian from Radio Maria New York, the local unit of Radio Maria
Radio Maria
Radio Maria is an international Catholic radio broadcasting service founded in Erba, province of Como, in the diocese of Milan in 1983. The World Family of Radio Maria was formed in 1998 and today has branches in 55 countries around the world...

 USA.

Signal

Due to its antenna on top of the Empire State Building, WKTU's signal can reach as far as Clinton, NJ. It can reach even as far as the Philadelphia area, particularly South Jersey, in certain areas, and has been heard as far south as Gloucester County.

It is short spaced due to 103.3 WPRB
WPRB
WPRB is a commercial broadcasting, non-profit 14,000 watt college radio station, once part of Princeton University, broadcasting from Princeton, New Jersey. The majority of on-air and management staff consists of Princeton University students, in addition to a board of trustees comprising...

 cutting into WKTU's reception in central Jersey and 103.7 WNNJ
WNNJ
WNNJ is a Class B FM radio station licensed to Newton, New Jersey broadcasting on 103.7 FM. They serve the Sussex County, New Jersey radio market while also reaching northeastern Pennsylvania and Orange County, New York. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications. WNNJ offers a Rock...

 cutting into its signal in Eastern Sussex County and Morris County, NJ.

Beatstock

Every August, WKTU holds an annual event called Beatstock. The event, which began in 1997 showcases artists from every dance genre from Disco to Electronica, is held at two locations in the New York area, most notably at Jones Beach and The Garden State Arts Center in New Jersey. The original KTU Beatstock concert which took place in 1997 was an all-day event held at Floyd Bennett Airfield in Brooklyn, NY. It featured over 50 acts from various genres of dance music, all performing on one stage. For 2011, WKTU had decided to no longer sponsor the event, probably due to its new CHR format; however, Beatstock will continue for the year in Long Island at the Brookhaven Amphitheater on August 20. Plans for 2012 are currently unknown.

External links



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