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WNEW (FM)
Encyclopedia
WWFS is a New York City
hot adult contemporary radio station
owned and operated by CBS Radio
, currently programmed by Jim Ryan, who previously was the program director of rival station WLTW
.
It was previously WNEW-FM for many years, after sister AM station WNEW (1130 kHz) and television station WNEW-TV, with all being owned by Metromedia
. After WNEW-TV was sold to the News Corporation
in 1986 (and became WNYW
), and the AM station was sold to Bloomberg L.P.
in 1992 (and became WBBR
), 102.7 FM retained the WNEW callsign until it was changed in 2007.
On April 12, 2008, after an almost 9 year hiatus, the WNEW Rock format returned on WWFS's 102.7 HD2 subchannel and wnew.com.
. WNEW-FM came on the air on August 25, 1958, with a pop music format that at one time included a short-lived automated MOR format followed quickly by a period from July 4, 1966 to September 1967 in which as a gimmick they had an all-female broadcasting staff playing a popular music
format. Nothing like this had ever been done on the radio in New York City before and, to say the least, it was definitely new and unique. The original female staff of disc jockeys included Margaret Draper, Alison Steele
(who stayed on to become the "Night Bird" on the AOR format), Rita Sands, Ann Clements, Arlene Kieta, Pam McKissick and Nell Bassett. The music format was a pale copy of the AM's adult standards format and only Steele, Sands and Bassett had broadcast radio experience.
radio format, one that it became famous for and that influenced the rock listenership as well as the rock industry. The original disc jockeys were Rosko, who started on October 30, 1967, Jonathan Schwartz who made his debut on November 16, 1967 and "the Professor" Scott Muni, who first appears on November 18, 1967. Alison Steele would stay on from the female staff and eventually take over the overnight shift on January 1, 1968. Disc jockey
s would broadcast in ways that bore out their personalities:
Other well-known disc jockeys who worked at the station included Rosko
, Dennis Elsas
, Pete Larkin, Richard Neer
, Dan Neer, Jim Monaghan, Pam Merly, Meg Griffin
, and John Zacherle
WNEW-FM was among the first stations to give Bruce Springsteen
significant airplay, and conducted live broadcasts of key Springsteen concerts in 1975 and 1978; Springsteen would sometimes call up the DJs during records. Later, Dave Herman featured a "Bruce Juice" segment each morning. John Lennon
once stopped by to guest-DJ along with Dennis Elsas and appeared on-air several other times during his friend Scott Muni's afternoon slot. Members of the Grateful Dead
and other groups would hang out in the studio; Emerson, Lake & Palmer
's visit to Muni's show is often credited for popularizing the group in America. In addition to music, youth-oriented comedy recordings such as from Monty Python
would also be aired.
The station sponsored a benefit concert
at Madison Square Garden
each holiday season that drew reasonably big-name acts.
The station thrived during the late 1970s when it helped boost the transition of the Punk rock
/New Wave music
movement into the mainstream. During this era, the station hosted many live broadcasts from the legendary Greenwich Village night club, the Bottom Line
. Among the bands featured live from the club were The Police
, Joe Jackson
, Squeeze, The Records, Rachel Sweet, David Johansen
, Rockpile, Mink DeVille
and the Tom Robinson Band. Many of these bands were being spotlighted during their debut New York City performance.
At the same time, the station began to feel the threat of disco. They hired Gianettino and Meredith Advertising to come up with a way to communicate with the New York area. The pitch by creative director George Meredith to station manager Mel Karmazin
: "You can't tell them what you want to say, which is 'Disco Sucks,' but you can tell them that 'Rock Lives.'" That became their battle cry, and it could fairly be said that WNEW-FM earned that slogan "Where Rock Lives". The station's television commercials during these years featured the song "Layla
" by Derek and the Dominos
and was considered one of the station's anthems.
Beginning in the mid '70s and extending into the 1980s, WNEW fielded a successful softball team, the WNEW All-Stars, playing in and around the New York metropolitan area and competing in the New York Sports and Entertainment League. Among the All-Stars were DJs Thom Morrera, Jim Monaghan, Richard Neer, Dan Neer and Pat Dawson, along with Crawdaddy
editor Peter Knobler
at shortstop, music business regulars Jack Hopke, Ed Vitale, Matt Birkbeck, Ralph Cuccurullo and John "Boots" Boulos in the outfield, and Michael "Chopper" Boulos at second base. The team consistently won deep into the playoffs, playing against teams led by Meat Loaf
, among others.
In the 1980s, the station gradually adopted a more conventional album-oriented rock
format, and sometimes seemed stodgy compared to college radio
stations playing alternative rock
. When long-time competitor WPLJ
switched away from rock in 1983, WNEW-FM picked up some of its most popular DJs, such as Carol Miller and years later Pat St. John
who would take over the morning show and programming duties.
From 1988 to 1992, a series of transactions involving WNEW-FM and its sister radio and television stations, resulted in ownership of WNEW-FM passing from Metromedia to Westinghouse and adopting the shorter WNEW call sign (former sister stations WNEW-TV became WNYW-TV under Fox, and WNEW-AM became WBBR
under Bloomberg).
By the 1990s, the station was further losing relevance in the face of the popularity of grunge rock
and so became more of a classic rock
station. It spent its remaining music days flip flopping between a variety of classic, adult album and alternative rock.
format. The station, which now had the slogan of "New York's Rock Alternative", evolved to an eclectic mix of adult rock by the end of 1995. Longtime listeners were alienated when Jerry Garcia
's death on August 9, 1995 was virtually ignored by the station.
In January 1996, the station declined to switch to classic rock when WXRK
, which had a classic rock format for several years, decided to adopt an alternative rock format. In July 1996, WAXQ
adopted a classic rock format. By the beginning of 1997, the station reverted to a classic rock station, becoming the second choice for the format when earlier they could have been first. At this point, many long-time fans felt WNEW-FM had completely lost its focus.
Throughout the 1990s, many of WNEW-FM's DJs defected to classic rock competitors WXRK and later WAXQ or to smaller but more freeform WFUV
. Ratings remained dismal. In 1996, Westinghouse merged with CBS. Infinity Broadcasting would then merge with CBS in 1997, and CBS retained the Infinity name for its radio division. Thus ownership of this station would go from one network owner to another.
In 1998, WNEW moved to a harder-edged rock format and continued to slump in the ratings. The remaining classic DJs left on the station departed one by one during 1998. Later that year, ex-Boston shock jock
s Opie and Anthony
arrived from WAAF
to do afternoons on WNEW. They played several songs an hour, but for the most part, the show was a typical shock-jock talk show. Opie and Anthony immediately got attention from the station by interrupting their annual "Evolution of Rock and Roll" event by refusing to play the music, or destroying the CDs. They were confronted by WNEW peer Carol Miller a few times on the air, until they were forbidden by management to make eye contact.
With Opie and Anthony's ratings soaring, the station dropped its 32-year rock format for a "hot talk" format. The final moments of the old WNEW-FM came on September 12, 1999; sole remaining long-time jock Richard Neer signed off his Sunday morning show by playing Bruce Springsteen's elegiac dirge "Racing in the Street
", and identifying the station one last time, changing the slogan to "Where Rock Lived".
On September 13, 1999, the station abandoned music during the week and tried an extreme "hot talk" format. For the first few months of this new format, the station was known on-air as "FM Talk @ 102.7". This new format consisted of shock jocks, such as Opie and Anthony
, Don and Mike
, The Radio Chick, and Ron and Fez
, as well as a morning "guy talk" show that revolved around sports, called The Sports Guys. On weekends, the station retained a hard rock format, as Opie and Anthony
gradually stopped playing music by July 2000. Also in 2000, Viacom
acquired CBS/Infinity Broadcasting, but kept the radio division under the "Infinity" banner. By 2001, WNEW added infomercial
s on weekends and stopped playing music altogether, with the exception of Eddie Trunk
's Friday and Saturday night hard rock-oriented shows.
On September 11, 2001 Opie and Anthony
did their show live from the WLIR-FM Studios because of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center
, which caused The City of New York to close all roads going in to Manhattan
. The Don and Mike Show started their midday show a little earlier than usual, and stayed on for most of the morning and mid-afternoon. Ron and Fez
did their show at WNEW at the regular time. All three shows opened the airways and let the listeners speak their minds and let other listeners who were looking for loved ones search for them by descriptions.
As was the case during this period, ratings were horrible at the station outside of Opie and Anthony
. Then, bad news came for WNEW: the Opie and Anthony
show was cancelled in August 2002 for encouraging a stunt involving two people allegedly engaging in sexual intercourse in a vestibule within St. Patrick's Cathedral
. The FCC eventually fined Infinity $357,000—the maximum fine allowed by law, and the third largest indecency fine in American radio history at the time. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps
dissented, claiming the FCC should have taken steps to revoke WNEW's license. A few months earlier, the FCC had fined Infinity $21,000 for three "patently offensive" Opie and Anthony broadcasts, including one referring to incest
.
The station's ratings plummeted even further—at one point, it only netted a 0.7 rating, an unprecedented level for a major-market FM station. With the cancellation of the only show that generated any ratings for the station, management decided that the station needed to take a new direction.
music, using a limited playlist of approximately 50 songs from artists like Pink, Eminem
, Bowling for Soup
, and Avril Lavigne
, as well as nightly simulcasts of CBS
's Late Show with David Letterman
.
Sounders during that period teased listeners about how "a new station" would soon be coming to the 102.7 frequency, and it arrived in April, when WNEW became "102.7 Blink" (keeping the WNEW call letters) and adopted an unusual "Entertainment AC" format. The station mixed old and contemporary pop hits with talk shows and entertainment news from sources such as E!
; on-air personalities during this period included the morning team of Chris Booker
and Lynda Lopez
(who were also dating during this time) and game show host Todd Newton
doing afternoon drive live from Los Angeles
. Other personalities included now-MSNBC Anchor Alison Stewart
, Tim Virgin, Rick Stacy, Maze
, and reporters Matt Wolfe and Lisa Chase, who provided hourly entertainment updates. The station also used AOL Instant Messenger
to take requests, and 24
star Kiefer Sutherland
did the station IDs ("It is physically impossible not to Blink", etc.).
However, the station's ratings sank further. The station's pink logo led to the derisive nickname "Barbie Radio", and Booker & Lopez did little more on the air than talk about Jennifer Lopez
, Lynda's older sister. After less than six months, the station fired most of the staff and changed its branding to "102.7 Blink FM: Music Women Love" with an (again, unusual) explicit appeal to a female audience. This format also failed to draw audiences. By October, it adopted a more mainstream adult contemporary format and ratings began to go up slightly. That November, the station (like many AC stations) adopted the increasingly popular "all Christmas music, all the time" format.
The day after Christmas in 2003, the station became "Mix 102.7", making the switch to a more Rhythmic-leaning Adult Contemporary at 10:27AM. The station played a range of hits from the 1970s to the 2000s. The slogan was "Mix 102.7 FM The Station that Picks You Up and Makes You Feel Good". The original Program Director was the Smokey Rivers and Music Director was Rick Martini. WNEW initially was mainstream AC but began to focus on dance hits, mainly from the 1970s and 1980s by the end of January. In the succeeding months, the "mix" tended to skew towards dance hits (during this time, program director Frankie Blue was fired for drunken on-air behavior, not only saying "fuck
" on-air, but also misidentifying the station as rival "103.5 KTU
"), with this all culminating in a change with Rick Martini as the new Program Director and an official "classic dance" or Rhythmic AC format in early 2005 under the slogan "Move to the Mix" and in the later months adopted "New York's Classic Dance Mix". However, the "Mix 102.7" moniker and the WNEW call letters remained. Ratings continued to be among the lowest of any major station in New York City.http://www.radioandrecords.com/RRRatings/DetailsPage.aspx?MID=184&RY=2006&RQ=4&MP=2&OTHER=2&MN=New%20York&MS=NY&MR=1&12P=15332000&UP=12/11/2006&SU=CM&BPER=17.7&HPER=21.2&OPER=&NSD=1/9/2007&CE=0
On December 31, 2005, the station underwent another ownership change after Viacom and CBS Corporation
organized a split that saw the Infinity Broadcasting division go under CBS ownership, which resulted in a corporate name change to CBS Radio
.
In December 2006 the station began increasing the amount of Christmas music but at the same time saw Michelle Visage
being let go and Joe Causi being reduced to weekend duties, relegating him to his Sunday night Studio 54
classic Disco program. As of December 22, 2006, Paco Lopez, Efren Sifuentes, Carol Ford and Yvonne Velázquez had also been released in anticipation of an expected format change.
In 2006, WNEW launched WNEW2, an HD Radio
subchannel, broadcasting 1010 WINS
.
At 5AM on January 2, 2007, after playing Kool and the Gang's song "Fresh
", WNEW flipped from Classic Dance hits to an adult contemporary format with a verge towards hot adult contemporary known as Fresh 102.7, with How To Save A Life
by The Fray
being the first song played. Program Director Rick Martini remained in charge of programming the new format, targeted to a younger (age 25-44) female audience, with claims of a playlist "without the kid stuff or tired, old and boring music like the lite station" (though the former is no longer mentioned), an obvious shot at competitor WLTW
(in response, the station briefly dropped its Lite FM moniker and was referred to on-air as simply "106.7" during that time). The current logo resembles that of the Food Network
. The station features music from the 1990s, current hits, and recent hits. Around 2009
, the station began to add more 1980s hits (most of them which couldn't be played on its WCBS-FM
sister classic hits
station).
The WWFS calls were approved on January 9, 2007 by the Federal Communications Commission
, resulting in the retirement of the WNEW call letters in the New York Radio/Television spectrum for the first time since 1934. Ironically (because former sister station WNYW
is owned by the Fox Television Stations Group
), the legendary WNEW call letters
were transferred to a CBS-owned station in South Florida during the second week of January 2007, reportedly to keep another New York station from claiming the historic calls. This station is known on the air as B106.3 and has an Urban AC format.
Until the birth of Fresh 102.7, Clear Channel's WLTW had gone unchallenged as the only adult contemporary station in New York City (along with New Brunswick, New Jersey
's WMGQ
, a Greater Media
-owned AC station that is a New York City rimshot and Hempstead, New York
's WKJY
, another rimshot, although both stations are on 98.3), and was the most listened to station in the city for years. WWFS's ratings improved after switching to the adult contemporary format, with increases in both the Winter 2007 and Spring 2007 ratings periods. After a peak 3.1 rating in the Spring 2007 period, WWFS settled down to a 2.5 rating in the Summer 2007 period. Some speculate that WWFS has drawn listeners from WLTW, causing that station's ratings to decline.
As a result of the station's success, CBS Radio cloned the format and branding in Chicago
on WCFS-FM and Washington, D.C.
on WIAD, although the Washington station is Hot AC. On October 12, 2011
, the adult contemporary format was officially retired along with its Today's Fresh Music slogan and changed to the current slogan as WWFS was moved to the Nielsen BDS hot adult contemporary panel from the adult contemporary panel with Mediabase
following suit as of October 28, 2011. However CBS Radio
still reports the station as an AC.
WWFS-HD2 (originally WNEW-HD2) was launched in 2006
as a simulcast of all-news sister station 1010 WINS
. On April 12, 2008, WWFS-HD2 flipped to a rock format, under the branding of "102.7 WNEW" Where Rock Lives and wnew.com (The website and audio stream being launched on April 14, 2008) with WXRT
's Norm Winer as Program Director. In early October 2008, the WINS simulcast returned to 102.7 on WWFS-HD3.
In 2009, the rock format on WWFS-HD2 switched to an alternative format from internet radio website last.fm
known as "Last FM Discover" which airs on several CBS owned HD side channels including WXRT HD-3 in Chicago. The WNEW rock format is web exclusive at wnew.com
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...
hot adult contemporary radio station
Radio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
owned and operated by CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
, currently programmed by Jim Ryan, who previously was the program director of rival station 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...
.
It was previously WNEW-FM for many years, after sister AM station WNEW (1130 kHz) and television station WNEW-TV, with all being owned by Metromedia
Metromedia
Metromedia was a media company that owned radio and television stations in the United States from 1956 to 1986 and owned Orion Pictures from 1986-1997.- Overview :...
. After WNEW-TV was sold to the News Corporation
News Corporation
News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...
in 1986 (and became WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
), and the AM station was sold to Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
in 1992 (and became WBBR
WBBR
WBBR is a radio station broadcasting at 1130 AM in New York City. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P. WBBR's format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives,...
), 102.7 FM retained the WNEW callsign until it was changed in 2007.
On April 12, 2008, after an almost 9 year hiatus, the WNEW Rock format returned on WWFS's 102.7 HD2 subchannel and wnew.com.
Early years
This frequency was first occupied by WNJR in 1949, broadcasting from Newark, New JerseyNewark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
. WNEW-FM came on the air on August 25, 1958, with a pop music format that at one time included a short-lived automated MOR format followed quickly by a period from July 4, 1966 to September 1967 in which as a gimmick they had an all-female broadcasting staff playing a popular music
Popular music
Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres "having wide appeal" and is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional music, which are typically disseminated academically or orally to smaller, local...
format. Nothing like this had ever been done on the radio in New York City before and, to say the least, it was definitely new and unique. The original female staff of disc jockeys included Margaret Draper, Alison Steele
Alison Steele
Alison Steele was a pioneering American disc jockey in Manhattan at what would become the archetypal progressive rock radio station in the United States, WNEW-FM. She was commonly known as "The Nightbird"...
(who stayed on to become the "Night Bird" on the AOR format), Rita Sands, Ann Clements, Arlene Kieta, Pam McKissick and Nell Bassett. The music format was a pale copy of the AM's adult standards format and only Steele, Sands and Bassett had broadcast radio experience.
"Where Rock Lives"
On October 30, 1967, WNEW-FM adopted a progressive rockProgressive rock (radio format)
Progressive rock is a radio station programming format that prospered in the late 1960s and 1970s, in which the disc jockeys are given wide latitude in what they may play, similar to the freeform format but with the proviso that some kind of rock music is almost always what is played...
radio format, one that it became famous for and that influenced the rock listenership as well as the rock industry. The original disc jockeys were Rosko, who started on October 30, 1967, Jonathan Schwartz who made his debut on November 16, 1967 and "the Professor" Scott Muni, who first appears on November 18, 1967. Alison Steele would stay on from the female staff and eventually take over the overnight shift on January 1, 1968. Disc jockey
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
s would broadcast in ways that bore out their personalities:
- morning fixture Dave Herman was not afraid to mix Erik SatieErik SatieÉric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
or Donna SummerDonna SummerLaDonna 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...
into the playlist; - noontime stalwart Pete FornatalePete FornatalePeter Fornatale is a New York City disc jockey who played an important role in the progressive rock era of FM broadcasting....
promoted The Beach BoysThe Beach BoysThe 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...
when it was not fashionable and later started his eclectic weekend Mixed Bag program; - afternoon legend Scott MuniScott MuniScott Muni was an American disc jockey, who worked at the heyday of the AM Top 40 format and then was a pioneer of FM progressive rock radio.-Biography:...
would use his gravelly voice to introduce largely unknown BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
artists on his "Things From England" segments; - nighttime host Jonathan SchwartzJonathan Schwartz (radio)Jonathan Schwartz is an American radio personality, known for his devotion to traditional pop music.Schwartz worked at New York's WNEW-FM from 1967 to 1976, followed by stints at WNEW-AM, WQEW, and currently WNYC-FM...
was a raconteur who would sneak in the SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis 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...
pop standards that he not-so-secretly liked better than rock; - overnight presence Alison "The Nightbird" SteeleAlison SteeleAlison Steele was a pioneering American disc jockey in Manhattan at what would become the archetypal progressive rock radio station in the United States, WNEW-FM. She was commonly known as "The Nightbird"...
would play space rockSpace rockSpace rock is a subgenre of rock music; the term originally referred to a group of early, mostly British, 1970s progressive and psychedelic rock bands such as Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by electric organs, synthesizers, experimental...
groups in between readings of her equally spacey poems; - weekend personality Vin ScelsaVin ScelsaVincent Anthony Scelsa, better known as "Vin," was born on December 12, 1947 in Bayonne, New Jersey. He is the host of a freeform radio show known as Idiot's Delight....
started his idiosyncratic Idiots' Delight program, which soon gained a devoted following.
Other well-known disc jockeys who worked at the station included Rosko
William (Rosko) Mercer
William Roscoe Mercer , better known to millions of radio listeners simply as Rosko, was an American news announcer and disc jockey. He is best known for his stints on New York's WOR-FM and WNEW-FM in the 1960s...
, Dennis Elsas
Dennis Elsas
Dennis Elsas is a New York City disc jockey whose radio career has spanned well over thirty years. He currently hosts an afternoon show on WFUV and a morning show on Sirius XM Satellite Radio's Classic Vinyl channel....
, Pete Larkin, Richard Neer
Richard Neer
Richard Neer is an American disc jockey and sports radio personality who has been involved in, and has chronicled, key changes in both music and sports radio.- Biography :...
, Dan Neer, Jim Monaghan, Pam Merly, Meg Griffin
Meg Griffin (radio personality)
Meg Griffin is an American DJ, currently heard on the Sirius XM Satellite Radio channels The Loft, Classic Rewind, and Deep Tracks....
, and John Zacherle
John Zacherle
John Zacherle is an American television host, radio personality and voice actor known for his long career as a television horror host broadcasting horror movies in Philadelphia and New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. Best known for his character "Roland/Zacherley," he also did voice work for...
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
significant airplay, and conducted live broadcasts of key Springsteen concerts in 1975 and 1978; Springsteen would sometimes call up the DJs during records. Later, Dave Herman featured a "Bruce Juice" segment each morning. John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
once stopped by to guest-DJ along with Dennis Elsas and appeared on-air several other times during his friend Scott Muni's afternoon slot. Members of the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
and other groups would hang out in the studio; Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also known as ELP, are an English progressive rock supergroup. They found success in the 1970s and sold over forty million albums and headlined large stadium concerts. The band consists of Keith Emerson , Greg Lake and Carl Palmer...
's visit to Muni's show is often credited for popularizing the group in America. In addition to music, youth-oriented comedy recordings such as from Monty Python
Monty Python
Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
would also be aired.
The station sponsored a benefit concert
Benefit concert
A benefit concert or charity concert is a concert, show or gala featuring musicians, comedians, or other performers that is held for a charitable purpose, often directed at a specific and immediate humanitarian crisis. Such events raise both funds and public awareness to address the cause at...
at Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
each holiday season that drew reasonably big-name acts.
The station thrived during the late 1970s when it helped boost the transition of the Punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
/New Wave music
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
movement into the mainstream. During this era, the station hosted many live broadcasts from the legendary Greenwich Village night club, the Bottom Line
Bottom Line
The Bottom Line was a music venue at 15 West Fourth Street between Mercer Street and Greene Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City...
. Among the bands featured live from the club were The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, Joe Jackson
Joe Jackson (musician)
Joe Jackson is an English musician and singer-songwriter now living in Berlin, whose five Grammy Award nominations span from 1979 to 2001...
, Squeeze, The Records, Rachel Sweet, David Johansen
David Johansen
David Roger Johansen is an American rock, protopunk, blues, and pop singer, as well as a songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal protopunk band The New York Dolls and also achieved commercial success under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter.-Early life:Johansen was born in...
, Rockpile, Mink DeVille
Mink DeVille
Mink DeVille was a rock band known for its association with early punk rock bands at New York’s CBGB nightclub and for being a showcase for the music of Willy DeVille. The band recorded six albums in the years 1977 to 1985. Except for frontman Willy DeVille, the original members of the band played...
and the Tom Robinson Band. Many of these bands were being spotlighted during their debut New York City performance.
At the same time, the station began to feel the threat of disco. They hired Gianettino and Meredith Advertising to come up with a way to communicate with the New York area. The pitch by creative director George Meredith to station manager Mel Karmazin
Mel Karmazin
Melvin Alan "Mel" Karmazin is an American executive. He co-founded and was the president of Infinity Broadcasting and eventually became the president and chief executive officer of CBS. As of 2008, he is the CEO of Sirius XM Radio....
: "You can't tell them what you want to say, which is 'Disco Sucks,' but you can tell them that 'Rock Lives.'" That became their battle cry, and it could fairly be said that WNEW-FM earned that slogan "Where Rock Lives". The station's television commercials during these years featured the song "Layla
Layla
"Layla" is a song written by Eric Clapton and Jim Gordon, originally released by their blues-rock band, Derek and the Dominos, as the thirteenth track from their album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs...
" by Derek and the Dominos
Derek and the Dominos
Derek and the Dominos were a blues rock band formed in the spring of 1970 by guitarist and singer Eric Clapton with keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, bassist Carl Radle and drummer Jim Gordon, who had all played with Clapton in Delaney, Bonnie & Friends...
and was considered one of the station's anthems.
Beginning in the mid '70s and extending into the 1980s, WNEW fielded a successful softball team, the WNEW All-Stars, playing in and around the New York metropolitan area and competing in the New York Sports and Entertainment League. Among the All-Stars were DJs Thom Morrera, Jim Monaghan, Richard Neer, Dan Neer and Pat Dawson, along with Crawdaddy
Crawdaddy!
Crawdaddy! was the first U.S. magazine of rock and roll music criticism. Created in 1966 by college student Paul Williams in response to the increasing sophistication and cultural influence of popular music, Crawdaddy! was self-described as "the first magazine to take rock and roll...
editor Peter Knobler
Peter Knobler
Peter Knobler is an American writer living in New York City. He has collaborated on several national best sellers and was the editor-in-chief of Crawdaddy magazine from 1972 to 1979.- Writing :...
at shortstop, music business regulars Jack Hopke, Ed Vitale, Matt Birkbeck, Ralph Cuccurullo and John "Boots" Boulos in the outfield, and Michael "Chopper" Boulos at second base. The team consistently won deep into the playoffs, playing against teams led by Meat Loaf
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...
, among others.
In the 1980s, the station gradually adopted a more conventional 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, and sometimes seemed stodgy compared to college radio
Campus radio
Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...
stations playing alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
. When long-time competitor 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...
switched away from rock in 1983, WNEW-FM picked up some of its most popular DJs, such as Carol Miller and years later Pat St. John
Pat St. John
Pat St. John is one of the U.S.'s preeminent and longest serving radio personalities and voice artists. Known as The Dee-Jay’s DJ, he began his radio career on Windsor, Canada's CKLW in 1969, but is best known for his work in the New York City market on WPLJ, WNEW-FM, WCBS-FM and WAXQ...
who would take over the morning show and programming duties.
From 1988 to 1992, a series of transactions involving WNEW-FM and its sister radio and television stations, resulted in ownership of WNEW-FM passing from Metromedia to Westinghouse and adopting the shorter WNEW call sign (former sister stations WNEW-TV became WNYW-TV under Fox, and WNEW-AM became WBBR
WBBR
WBBR is a radio station broadcasting at 1130 AM in New York City. It airs Bloomberg Radio, a service of Bloomberg L.P. WBBR's format is general and financial news, offering local, national and international news reports along with financial market updates and interviews with corporate executives,...
under Bloomberg).
By the 1990s, the station was further losing relevance in the face of the popularity of grunge rock
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
and so became more of a 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...
station. It spent its remaining music days flip flopping between a variety of classic, adult album and alternative rock.
Changes
In 1995 the radio station adopted an adult album alternativeAdult album alternative
Adult album alternative is a radio format. A spinoff from the album-oriented rock format, its roots trace to the 1960s and 1970s from the earlier freeform and progressive formats....
format. The station, which now had the slogan of "New York's Rock Alternative", evolved to an eclectic mix of adult rock by the end of 1995. Longtime listeners were alienated when Jerry Garcia
Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
's death on August 9, 1995 was virtually ignored by the station.
In January 1996, the station declined to switch to classic rock when WXRK
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...
, which had a classic rock format for several years, decided to adopt an alternative rock format. In July 1996, 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:...
adopted a classic rock format. By the beginning of 1997, the station reverted to a classic rock station, becoming the second choice for the format when earlier they could have been first. At this point, many long-time fans felt WNEW-FM had completely lost its focus.
Throughout the 1990s, many of WNEW-FM's DJs defected to classic rock competitors WXRK and later WAXQ or to smaller but more freeform WFUV
WFUV
WFUV, 90.7 FM in New York City, is Fordham University's 50,000-watt, non-commercial radio station, with studios on campus and its antenna atop nearby Montefiore Medical Center. First broadcast in 1947, WFUV has an airstaff which includes such New York radio veterans as Pete Fornatale , Dennis...
. Ratings remained dismal. In 1996, Westinghouse merged with CBS. Infinity Broadcasting would then merge with CBS in 1997, and CBS retained the Infinity name for its radio division. Thus ownership of this station would go from one network owner to another.
In 1998, WNEW moved to a harder-edged rock format and continued to slump in the ratings. The remaining classic DJs left on the station departed one by one during 1998. Later that year, ex-Boston shock jock
Shock jock
Shock jock is a slang term used to describe a type of any radio broadcaster who attracts attention using humor that a significant portion of the listening audience may find offensive. The term is usually used pejoratively to describe provocative or irreverent broadcasters whose mannerisms,...
s Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...
arrived from WAAF
WAAF (FM)
WAAF is a Boston, Massachusetts, area commercial Album Oriented Rock/Active rock radio station that mixes music that is popular in the modern rock, heavy metal and classic rock genres....
to do afternoons on WNEW. They played several songs an hour, but for the most part, the show was a typical shock-jock talk show. Opie and Anthony immediately got attention from the station by interrupting their annual "Evolution of Rock and Roll" event by refusing to play the music, or destroying the CDs. They were confronted by WNEW peer Carol Miller a few times on the air, until they were forbidden by management to make eye contact.
With Opie and Anthony's ratings soaring, the station dropped its 32-year rock format for a "hot talk" format. The final moments of the old WNEW-FM came on September 12, 1999; sole remaining long-time jock Richard Neer signed off his Sunday morning show by playing Bruce Springsteen's elegiac dirge "Racing in the Street
Racing in the Street
"Racing in the Street" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town. In the original vinyl format, it was the last song of side one of the album...
", and identifying the station one last time, changing the slogan to "Where Rock Lived".
"Hot Talk" era
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...
, Don and Mike
Don and Mike
The Don and Mike Show was an American nationally syndicated radio talk show hosted by the shock jocks Don Geronimo and Mike O'Meara, which aired from December 1985 through April 2008, when Geronimo retired in order to focus on his personal life. After Geronimo's retirement, the remaining cast...
, The Radio Chick, and Ron and Fez
Ron and Fez
The Ron and Fez Show is an American radio talk show hosted by Ron Bennington and Fez "Marie" Whatley.After long popular runs in Tampa, Florida, New York City, and Washington, D.C., Ron and Fez are now heard on Sirius XM Radio's the Opie and Anthony Channel, located on XM channel 105, and Sirius...
, as well as a morning "guy talk" show that revolved around sports, called The Sports Guys. On weekends, the station retained a hard rock format, as Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...
gradually stopped playing music by July 2000. Also in 2000, Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
acquired CBS/Infinity Broadcasting, but kept the radio division under the "Infinity" banner. By 2001, WNEW added infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s on weekends and stopped playing music altogether, with the exception of Eddie Trunk
Eddie Trunk
Eddie Trunk is an American music historian, radio personality, talk show host, and author best known as the host of several hard rock and heavy metal themed radio and television shows.- Current work :...
's Friday and Saturday night hard rock-oriented shows.
On September 11, 2001 Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...
did their show live from the WLIR-FM Studios because of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
, which caused The City of New York to close all roads going in to 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...
. The Don and Mike Show started their midday show a little earlier than usual, and stayed on for most of the morning and mid-afternoon. Ron and Fez
Ron and Fez
The Ron and Fez Show is an American radio talk show hosted by Ron Bennington and Fez "Marie" Whatley.After long popular runs in Tampa, Florida, New York City, and Washington, D.C., Ron and Fez are now heard on Sirius XM Radio's the Opie and Anthony Channel, located on XM channel 105, and Sirius...
did their show at WNEW at the regular time. All three shows opened the airways and let the listeners speak their minds and let other listeners who were looking for loved ones search for them by descriptions.
As was the case during this period, ratings were horrible at the station outside of Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...
. Then, bad news came for WNEW: the Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony
Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...
show was cancelled in August 2002 for encouraging a stunt involving two people allegedly engaging in sexual intercourse in a vestibule within St. Patrick's Cathedral
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
The Cathedral of St. Patrick is a decorated Neo-Gothic-style Roman Catholic cathedral church in the United States...
. The FCC eventually fined Infinity $357,000—the maximum fine allowed by law, and the third largest indecency fine in American radio history at the time. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps
Michael Copps
Michael Joseph Copps is a Commissioner on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission , an independent agency of the United States government. He has served as one of the commissioners of the FCC since May 31, 2001, and took on the additional role of acting chairman on January 20, 2009...
dissented, claiming the FCC should have taken steps to revoke WNEW's license. A few months earlier, the FCC had fined Infinity $21,000 for three "patently offensive" Opie and Anthony broadcasts, including one referring to incest
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
.
The station's ratings plummeted even further—at one point, it only netted a 0.7 rating, an unprecedented level for a major-market FM station. With the cancellation of the only show that generated any ratings for the station, management decided that the station needed to take a new direction.
"Blink 102.7"
In January 2003, the station dropped this blend of talk and infomercials and stunted for the next couple of months with Contemporary hit radioContemporary 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...
music, using a limited playlist of approximately 50 songs from artists like Pink, Eminem
Eminem
Marshall Bruce Mathers III , better known by his stage name Eminem or his alter ego Slim Shady, is an American rapper, record producer, songwriter and actor. Eminem's popularity brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition...
, Bowling for Soup
Bowling for Soup
Bowling for Soup is an American pop-punk band which originally formed in Wichita Falls, Texas in 1994...
, and Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne
Avril Ramona Lavigne is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, but spent most of her youth in the small town of Napanee. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain; by 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more...
, as well as nightly simulcasts of CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
's Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
.
Sounders during that period teased listeners about how "a new station" would soon be coming to the 102.7 frequency, and it arrived in April, when WNEW became "102.7 Blink" (keeping the WNEW call letters) and adopted an unusual "Entertainment AC" format. The station mixed old and contemporary pop hits with talk shows and entertainment news from sources such as E!
E!
E! Entertainment Television is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by NBCUniversal. It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films and occasionally series and specials unrelated to the entertainment industry.E! has an audience reach of...
; on-air personalities during this period included the morning team of Chris Booker
Chris Booker
Chris Booker is an American radio and TV personality.-Career:Chris Booker is a TV/radio personality. He has worked as a correspondent for TV Guide Channel covering red carpet events such as "Live at the Grammys with Joan and Melissa Rivers," and "Live at the Kids Choice Awards." He also served as...
and Lynda Lopez
Lynda Lopez
Lynda López is an Emmy Award-winning Puerto Rican American journalist and the youngest sister of actress and singer Jennifer Lopez.-Early years:...
(who were also dating during this time) and game show host Todd Newton
Todd Newton
Todd Newton is an entertainment personality and a three-time game show host.Newton has hosted Hollywood Showdown and Whammy! The All-New Press Your Luck, both on Game Show Network; and Coming Attractions on E!, as well as occasional episodes of Wild On... He is known for occasionally wearing a...
doing afternoon drive live from Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. Other personalities included now-MSNBC Anchor Alison Stewart
Alison Stewart
Alison Stewart is an American radio and television journalist. She was one of the hosts of the Bryant Park Project, a morning drive news program from NPR...
, Tim Virgin, Rick Stacy, Maze
Maze (band)
Maze a soul / quiet storm band, also known alternately as Maze featuring Frankie Beverly and Frankie Beverly and Maze, was established in San Francisco, California in the early 1970s.-Career:...
, and reporters Matt Wolfe and Lisa Chase, who provided hourly entertainment updates. The station also used AOL Instant Messenger
AOL Instant Messenger
AOL Instant Messenger is an instant messaging and presence computer program which uses the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time. It was released by AOL in May 1997...
to take requests, and 24
24 (TV series)
24 is an American television series produced for the Fox Network and syndicated worldwide, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter Terrorist Unit agent Jack Bauer. Each 24-episode season covers 24 hours in the life of Bauer, using the real time method of narration...
star Kiefer Sutherland
Kiefer Sutherland
Kiefer Sutherland is an English-born Canadian actor, producer and director, best known for his portrayal of Jack Bauer on the Fox thriller drama series 24 for which he has won an Emmy Award , a Golden Globe award , two Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Satellite...
did the station IDs ("It is physically impossible not to Blink", etc.).
However, the station's ratings sank further. The station's pink logo led to the derisive nickname "Barbie Radio", and Booker & Lopez did little more on the air than talk about Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez is an American actress, singer, record producer, dancer, television personality, and fashion designer. Lopez began her career as a dancer on the television comedy program In Living Color. Subsequently venturing into acting, she gained recognition in the 1995 action-thriller...
, Lynda's older sister. After less than six months, the station fired most of the staff and changed its branding to "102.7 Blink FM: Music Women Love" with an (again, unusual) explicit appeal to a female audience. This format also failed to draw audiences. By October, it adopted a more mainstream adult contemporary format and ratings began to go up slightly. That November, the station (like many AC stations) adopted the increasingly popular "all Christmas music, all the time" format.
"Mix 102.7"
Fuck
"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
" on-air, but also misidentifying the station as rival "103.5 KTU
WKTU
WKTU is a radio station based in New York City that plays an upbeat, gold-based CHR format. The station's broadcast transmitter is located on the top of the Empire State Building and its city of license is Lake Success, New York, with offices formerly in the "Newport" section of Jersey City, New...
"), with this all culminating in a change with Rick Martini as the new Program Director and an official "classic dance" or Rhythmic AC format in early 2005 under the slogan "Move to the Mix" and in the later months adopted "New York's Classic Dance Mix". However, the "Mix 102.7" moniker and the WNEW call letters remained. Ratings continued to be among the lowest of any major station in New York City.http://www.radioandrecords.com/RRRatings/DetailsPage.aspx?MID=184&RY=2006&RQ=4&MP=2&OTHER=2&MN=New%20York&MS=NY&MR=1&12P=15332000&UP=12/11/2006&SU=CM&BPER=17.7&HPER=21.2&OPER=&NSD=1/9/2007&CE=0
On December 31, 2005, the station underwent another ownership change after Viacom and CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation
CBS Corporation is an American media conglomerate focused on commercial broadcasting, publishing, billboards and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. The President and CEO of the company is Leslie Moonves. Sumner Redstone, owner of National Amusements, is CBS's...
organized a split that saw the Infinity Broadcasting division go under CBS ownership, which resulted in a corporate name change to CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
.
In December 2006 the station began increasing the amount of Christmas music but at the same time saw 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...
being let go and Joe Causi being reduced to weekend duties, relegating him to his Sunday night Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
classic Disco program. As of December 22, 2006, Paco Lopez, Efren Sifuentes, Carol Ford and Yvonne Velázquez had also been released in anticipation of an expected format change.
In 2006, WNEW launched WNEW2, 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...
subchannel, broadcasting 1010 WINS
WINS (AM)
WINS , known on-air as "Ten-Ten Wins", is a radio station in New York City, owned by CBS Radio. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.WINS is one of the nation's oldest...
.
Fresh 102.7, and the end of the WNEW calls
Fresh (song)
"Fresh" is a song by the R&B funk group Kool & the Gang. Released as a single in 1985 from the group's album of the previous year, Emergency, the song peaked at #11 on the UK chart, #9 on the U.S. Hot 100 charts, and was number one on both the U.S. R&B and dance charts...
", WNEW flipped from Classic Dance hits to an adult contemporary format with a verge towards hot adult contemporary known as Fresh 102.7, with How To Save A Life
How to Save a Life (song)
"How to Save a Life" is a song by American rock band The Fray. It is the title track from their debut album and was released as the second single from it. The song is one of their most popular airplay songs and peaked in the top 3 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States...
by The Fray
The Fray (band)
The Fray is an American rock band from Denver, Colorado. Formed in 2002 by schoolmates Isaac Slade and Joe King, they achieved success with the release of their debut album, How to Save a Life in 2005, which was certified double platinum by the RIAA and platinum in Australia, Canada, New Zealand...
being the first song played. Program Director Rick Martini remained in charge of programming the new format, targeted to a younger (age 25-44) female audience, with claims of a playlist "without the kid stuff or tired, old and boring music like the lite station" (though the former is no longer mentioned), an obvious shot at competitor 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...
(in response, the station briefly dropped its Lite FM moniker and was referred to on-air as simply "106.7" during that time). The current logo resembles that of the Food Network
Food Network
Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
. The station features music from the 1990s, current hits, and recent hits. Around 2009
2009 in radio
The following events occurred in radio in 2009.- Events :* January 1: Kurdish TV starts broadcasting in Turkey.* January: Michael Smerconish, morning host at talk radio WPHT Philadelphia, begins syndication of his morning show to WHFS in Washington and WOR in New York City.* January 17: Two well...
, the station began to add more 1980s hits (most of them which couldn't be played on its WCBS-FM
WCBS-FM
WCBS-FM is a CBS-owned radio station in New York City. The station's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in Manhattan, and its transmitter is located on the Empire State Building....
sister classic hits
Classic hits
Classic hits is a radio format which generally includes rock and pop music from 1964 to 1989. The term is sometimes erroneously used as a synonym for the adult hits format, but is more accurately characterized as a contemporary style of the oldies format...
station).
The WWFS calls were approved on January 9, 2007 by the 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...
, resulting in the retirement of the WNEW call letters in the New York Radio/Television spectrum for the first time since 1934. Ironically (because former sister station WNYW
WNYW
WNYW, virtual channel 5 , is the flagship television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in New York City. The station's transmitter is atop the Empire State Building and its studio facilities are located in the Yorkville section of Manhattan...
is owned by the Fox Television Stations Group
Fox Television Stations Group
Fox Television Stations, Inc. is a group of television stations located within the United States which are owned-and-operated by the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the Fox Entertainment Group, part of News Corporation...
), the legendary WNEW call letters
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
were transferred to a CBS-owned station in South Florida during the second week of January 2007, reportedly to keep another New York station from claiming the historic calls. This station is known on the air as B106.3 and has an Urban AC format.
Until the birth of Fresh 102.7, Clear Channel's WLTW had gone unchallenged as the only adult contemporary station in New York City (along with New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...
's WMGQ
WMGQ
WMGQ, known on-air as Magic 98.3, is a radio station broadcasting from Somerset, New Jersey and licensed in New Brunswick . It is located at 98.3 FM. The station can be heard in Monmouth, Middlesex, Somerset, Mercer, Union, and Hunterdon counties...
, a Greater Media
Greater Media
Greater Media, Inc., known as Greater Media, is an American media company that specializes in radio stations. The markets where they own radio stations include Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Charlotte, and the state of New Jersey...
-owned AC station that is a New York City rimshot and Hempstead, New York
Hempstead, New York
Hempstead is the name of some places in the State of New York, in the United States of America:*Hempstead , New York , a township that encompasses the village...
's WKJY
WKJY
WKJY, known on-air as KJOY 98.3, is a U.S. radio station, based on Long Island, with an adult contemporary format. Located at 98.3 and 96.1 MHz FM, the station is licensed to Hempstead, New York. The station, whose studios are located in Farmingdale, New York, is owned by the Long Island Radio...
, another rimshot, although both stations are on 98.3), and was the most listened to station in the city for years. WWFS's ratings improved after switching to the adult contemporary format, with increases in both the Winter 2007 and Spring 2007 ratings periods. After a peak 3.1 rating in the Spring 2007 period, WWFS settled down to a 2.5 rating in the Summer 2007 period. Some speculate that WWFS has drawn listeners from WLTW, causing that station's ratings to decline.
As a result of the station's success, CBS Radio cloned the format and branding in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
on WCFS-FM and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
on WIAD, although the Washington station is Hot AC. On October 12, 2011
2011 in radio
The following events occurred in radio broadcasting in 2011.-Events:*January 1: 2 Knoxville stations change formats as WDLF and WYLV flip to K-LOVE and Air 1 , and a few Pittsburgh station change formats, as ESPN Radio moves from WEAE to WBGG, and Radio Disney moves from WWCS to the renamed WDDZ,...
, the adult contemporary format was officially retired along with its Today's Fresh Music slogan and changed to the current slogan as WWFS was moved to the Nielsen BDS hot adult contemporary panel from the adult contemporary panel with 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...
following suit as of October 28, 2011. However CBS Radio
CBS Radio
CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, third behind main rival Clear Channel Communications and Cumulus Media. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country...
still reports the station as an AC.
HD Radio Operations
In April 2003, WNEW-FM launched the "Blink" format by saying "The first FM station in New York to broadcast in high definition radio."WWFS-HD2 (originally WNEW-HD2) was launched in 2006
2006 in radio
The year 2006 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting.-Events:*January 3 - The BJ Shea Morning Experience switches to KISW in Seattle, Washington, from the former FM Talk station KKWF....
as a simulcast of all-news sister station 1010 WINS
WINS (AM)
WINS , known on-air as "Ten-Ten Wins", is a radio station in New York City, owned by CBS Radio. WINS's studios are in the combined CBS Radio facility at 345 Hudson Street in the TriBeCa section of Manhattan, and transmitting towers in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.WINS is one of the nation's oldest...
. On April 12, 2008, WWFS-HD2 flipped to a rock format, under the branding of "102.7 WNEW" Where Rock Lives and wnew.com (The website and audio stream being launched on April 14, 2008) with WXRT
WXRT
WXRT, also known as WXRT 93.1, XRT, and 93-XRT is a AAA radio station in Chicago, Illinois. For many years their slogan has been "Chicago's Finest Rock". WXRT is a primary sponsor of the Chicago nonprofit Rock For Kids.-History:...
's Norm Winer as Program Director. In early October 2008, the WINS simulcast returned to 102.7 on WWFS-HD3.
In 2009, the rock format on WWFS-HD2 switched to an alternative format from internet radio website last.fm
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
known as "Last FM Discover" which airs on several CBS owned HD side channels including WXRT HD-3 in Chicago. The WNEW rock format is web exclusive at wnew.com
External links
- Neer, Richard. FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio. Villard, 2001. ISBN 0-679-46295-3.
- WNEW News Department Historical Profile (1978)
- How to Kill a Radio Station: A Cautionary Tale (CNN, 2003)