WRDW-FM
Encyclopedia
WRDW-FM, also known as Wired 96.5, is a Philadelphia 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 by Beasley Broadcast Group
Beasley Broadcast Group
Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc. , based in Naples, Florida, is an owner/operator of radio stations in the United States. As of January 2011, the company owned 17 AM stations and 28 FM stations. -History:...
that plays a Rhythmic Top 40 musical format. Although they lean towards R&B/Hip-Hop
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...
, Wired also adds Rhythmic Pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
tracks to their playlist. Its transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
.
The station was briefly known as "Wild 96.5" with the callsign WLDW (WILD W), but was changed early on due to 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...
, who are owners of the copyrighted 'Wild' moniker. When 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...
threatened Beasley with a lawsuit for copyright infringement, 'Wild' then segued into 'Wired' in order to avoid any potential legal action.
96.5 Philadelphia history
For several years in the 1940s and 1950s, the frequency was known as WHAT-FM and was simulcastSimulcast
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...
with its sister station on the AM dial. In 1956, a young 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...
known as Sid Mark took the airwaves for the first time in Philadelphia, beginning a nearly 50 year career in the market as a 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...
. WHAT-FM became a full-time jazz station in 1958, the first of its kind on the FM
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"...
spectrum.
In the late 1960s, the call letters were changed to WWDB, after the owners of the station, William and Dolly Banks. In the early 1970s, WWDB experimented with playing adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music
Adult contemporary music is a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1950s and 1960s vocal music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence, as well as a radio format that plays such music....
, but eventually went back to jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. In 1975, the station's format was changed to talk, and WWDB became the first FM
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"...
talk station in the United States. On-air talk personalities included Irv Homer, Bernie McCade, Frank Ford and Bernie Herman.
From Dolly Banks' retirement in 1985 until 1997, WWDB changed hands several times, ending up with Beasley Broadcasting. Beasley tried tweaking the talk format by adding Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio talk show host, conservative political commentator, and an opinion leader in American conservatism. He hosts The Rush Limbaugh Show which is aired throughout the U.S. on Premiere Radio Networks and is the highest-rated talk-radio program in the United...
, Dr. Laura and an all-news morning show, but Limbaugh's show defected to competitor WPHT
WPHT
WPHT is a CBS Radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting on 1210 kHz. A 50,000-watt clear-channel station, it broadcasts in an omnidirectional pattern that allows it to cover most of the eastern half of North America at night. It uses the nickname "Talk Radio 1210 WPHT." The...
and other moves (including the launch of a companion AM station
WWDB
WWDB, 860 AM, is a daytime-only radio station based in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania that broadcasts brokered programming and the satellite feed of ESPN Deportes Radio....
) proved ineffective. Finally, the day before the U.S. Presidential Election on November 6, 2000, WWDB's format was changed by its current owner to '80s Hits, known as "The Point". The callsign was soon switched to WPTP. WPTP shifted to hot AC in early 2003. After the hot AC format on WPTP failed, on November 17, 2003, WPTP flipped to its current format as "Wild 96.5" (with callsign changing to WLDW). After the Clear Channel injunction, WLDW became Wired 96.5 and the callsign changed to WRDW-FM (the -FM tag is necessary because of the existence of AM station WRDW
WRDW (AM)
WRDW is a radio station broadcasting a Talk radio format. Licensed to Augusta, Georgia, USA, the station is owned by Beasley Broadcast Group....
in Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
, which is also owned by Beasley).
Personalities
From the beginning in the format, Wired 96.5 had some personnel changes in their airstaff. From the start, the original lineup included "Rocco the Janitor", Janita Applebaum, Dakota, Angel Garcia, and Kannon. By January 2006, Rocco was forced out of the morning slot to make room for the short-lived "Big Mama and the Wild Bunch" morning show. Dakota, who did 10PM - 2AM, transferred to a Beasley sister station in Fort Myers, Florida to do mornings. Immediately following, Hawaiian Morning Show Duo "Sam & Ryan" handled on-air duties until a contract conflict & poor ratings gave way to another morning show exchange in early 2006. On March 20, 2006, Wired 96.5 acquired CHR Pop radio station Q102WIOQ
WIOQ, known as "Q102", is a CHR/Pop radio station which is broadcast in the Philadelphia area. The station appeals to a generally young demographic. WIOQ is owned by Clear Channel Communications. Its transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.-WFIL-FM/Popular 102:The...
's former morning host, Chio (who had briefly relocated to San Diego, CA to do a morning show there), to replace Big Mama. On October 12, 2006, it was announced that morning show member Casey was leaving that show to fill the Mid-Day slot (10am-3pm) after Applebaum left the station. In 2007, Wired began airing television commercials featuring Chio promoting the radio station and "Chio In The Morning".
During the 2007 season of "American Idol
American Idol
American Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
", Justice, the executive producer of "Chio In the Morning", staged a protest of the continued presence of Sanjaya Malakar
Sanjaya Malakar
Sanjaya Joseph Malakar is an American singer of Indian origin, who was a finalist on the sixth season of American Idol. He gained national attention on the series, controversially advancing to 7th place with public votes, despite being poorly received by the show's judges, particularly Simon...
. He lived in a tent on the roof of a local car dealership for three weeks until Malakar was voted off. He continued to be a part of the show, however, via internet link and a special remote set-up.
Music direction
When WRDW debuted, it used the slogan "18 in a row" to promote its direction and distinguish itself from the competition. Around the beginning of the third quarter 2005, Wired 96.5 introduced podcastPodcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
programming, where listeners could send in their top 18 songs to be aired together at once. This led to rumors of a shift in Wired 96.5's direction. In January 2006, Wired 96.5's began a gradual switch from being categorized as CHR Rhythmic to CHR Pop, when the station changed its slogan to "Where Hit Music Lives" (which they revived in 2011) indicating a more Top 40/Pop playlist, but after a brief flirtation it did not evolve and stayed Rhythmic. As of today, they are still listed in 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...
as a Rhythmic reporter because its playlist still favors Rhythmic hits even with the pop content thrown in. It is also billing themselves as "Hits & Hip-Hop" to reflect their current direction. In 2008, they began to start following the same direction as sister station WPOW/Miami by adding some Dance product to the playlist, like "Mr. Saxobeat
Mr. Saxobeat
"Mr. Saxobeat" is an eurodance —Hi-NRG song by Romanian recording artist Alexandra Stan taken off her debut studio album Saxobeats . "Mr. Saxobeat" is an up-tempo Eurodance song with house elements. The song contains a love message, where Stan speaks of a man she is attracted to and the way he...
" by Alexandra Stan
Alexandra Stan
Alexandra Stan is a Romanian singer-songwriter. She released her debut single in late 2009. The song impacted Romanian mainstream radios in early 2010, peaking at number-eighteen. Her sophomore release, "Mr...
.
Hot Wired (WRDW-HD2)
In 2007, WRDW added an HD2 subcarrier to its lineup to carry non-stop Dance music 24/7 under the title "Hot Wired." The music and imaging is similar to sister station WPOW's HD2 subcarrier channel.Ties with Open House Party
WRDW afternoon DJ Kannon is also the host of the Sunday night edition of Open House PartyOpen House Party
Open House Party is an American radio show hosted on Saturday nights by John Garabedian that promotes itself as "the biggest party on the planet". It focuses on playing contemporary hit radio music, also known as Top 40. The show differentiates itself from most Top 40 stations because it plays a...
, effective the weekend of December 1 and 2nd, 2007.
Competition
On the Rhythmic side, which was influenced by the Urban Top 40 format, WRDW competes with WPHI and WUSLWUSL
WUSL, known as "Power 99 FM", is a mainstream urban radio station, owned by Clear Channel Communications and licensed to Philadelphia...
, while on the Top 40 Pop side it competes with WIOQ
WIOQ
WIOQ, known as "Q102", is a CHR/Pop radio station which is broadcast in the Philadelphia area. The station appeals to a generally young demographic. WIOQ is owned by Clear Channel Communications. Its transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.-WFIL-FM/Popular 102:The...
, WAEB-FM
WAEB-FM
WAEB-FM, commonly known as "B104", is a CHR/Pop radio station located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States and owned by Clear Channel Communications. WAEB-FM broadcasts at 104.1 MHz FM.-History:...
and WPST
WPST
WPST is a radio station broadcasting a Top 40 format. Licensed to Trenton, New Jersey, USA, the station serves the Philadelphia, Central Jersey area. The station is currently owned by Nassau Broadcasting Ii, LLC and features programing from Westwood One...
.
Frequency
WRDW's signal can be heard as far north as Pottsville, PennsylvaniaPottsville, Pennsylvania
Pottsville is the only city in and the county seat of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 15,549 at the 2000 census. The city lies along the west bank of the Schuylkill River, north-west of Philadelphia...
, Walnutport, Pennsylvania
Walnutport, Pennsylvania
Walnutport is a borough in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. Incorporated in 1909, Walnutport is located in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania along the Lehigh River.The population of Walnutport was 2,043 at the 2000 census. The U.S...
, Frackville, Pennsylvania
Frackville, Pennsylvania
Frackville is a borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. Frackville is located near the intersection of Interstate 81 and Pennsylvania State Route 61, approximately northeast of Harrisburg and southwest of Wilkes-Barre.-History:...
and Maplewood, New Jersey, despite there being a pirate radio station called Streetz 96 in Newark, New Jersey (Streetz 96 moved from 96.5 to 106.5 on the FM dial). This is rather unusual as WRDW operates with on a class B frequency with an Effective radiated power
Effective radiated power
In radio telecommunications, effective radiated power or equivalent radiated power is a standardized theoretical measurement of radio frequency energy using the SI unit watts, and is determined by subtracting system losses and adding system gains...
of 17,000 watts.
Weekdays
- Chio in the Morning: 5:30am - 10am
- Host: Chio
- Co-Host: Shila
- Co-Host: Joey B
- Casey: 10am - 3pm
- Kannon: 3pm - 7pm
- Kobi: 7pm - 10pm
- JC: 10pm - 2am