WYSP
Encyclopedia
WIP-FM — branded Sports Radio 94 WIP — is a commercial sports
radio station licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
serving the Delaware Valley
area. Owned by CBS Radio
, the WIP-FM studios are located on the 7th floor of Two Bala Plaza in Bala Cynwyd, PA, and the station's transmitter is located in the Roxborough
section of Philadelphia. Since 1992, WIP-FM has served as the flagship station for the Philadelphia Eagles
.
On September 2, 2011, the station ended its run as classic rock station 94 WYSP.
, and basically simulcast the AM top-40 station until the mid-1960s. By this time, WIBG-FM experimented with an "underground", prerecorded type of rock music without announcers.
In 1968, Storer bought the station and shut it down while attempting to get permission for an increase in transmission power. WIBG-FM was a restricted class B station at the time, limited in range to avoid interfering with another station , WQKX 94.1 FM, in Sunbury, PA. During 1969, the WIBG-FM call was changed to WPNA, but only on paper, since the station was still dark. Having been unsuccessful in getting the Sunbury station to agree to an FCC waiver, Storer sold WPNA to SJR Communications. (SJR stood for "San Juan Racing", referring to the company's lone US holding: a racing track in San Juan)
SJR changed the call letters to WYSP ("Your Station in Philadelphia"), and quickly made a deal with the Sunbury station that allowed WYSP to increase its power. The station became a full class B, with a non-directional 550 ft. antenna resulting in 39,000 watts effective radiated power
(ERP). On August 23, 1971, WYSP went on the air. The format consisted of live announcers playing big-band and easy listening music from half-hour-long reel-to-reel tapes that were produced in-house. The WYSP studios were located in the Suburban Station Building at 16th and JFK Parkway in Philadelphia. A new RCA transmitter and circular polarized five-bay Gates antenna was installed at the transmitter site.
At 6am on Monday, August 6, 1973, WYSP abruptly stopped playing big-band music and started playing album-oriented rock (AOR). The entire announcing staff was fired (despite attempts to unionize) and five new announcers were hired, including Tom Straw and Dean Clark. The music included popular cuts from albums by artists such as Jimi Hendrix
, Chicago
, and Crosby Stills and Nash. Radio consultant Kent Burkhart was called in and along with Lee Abrams helped to develop and refine the format. The Fox & Leonard Morning Show (Sonny Fox & Bob Leonard) was the first two-man morning show on AOR radio.
In 1974, WYSP became Philadelphia's "quad" station, piping its audio through a Sony Quad encoder, which provided "ambience" effects to the rear channels of the handful of quad radios in the market. Due to a compatibility problem with regular mono radios, and a lack of interest from the listening public, the quad encoder was quietly dismantled in 1976.
In June 1979, Program Director Steve Sutton was hired to put a failing YSP back on the map. Assembling a line-up of Jerry Abear, Sean McKay and Bill Fantini (6-10a), Denny Somach (10a-2p), Randy Kotz (2-6p), Gary Bridges (6-10p), Cyndy Drue (10p-2a) and Trip Reeb (2-6a) the station broke artists like Tom Petty in Philadelphia. Sutton hired popular Eagles linebacker Frank LeMaster for mornings during football season. The station was loud, up and cutting edge. Production—outrageous spots and promos—from Jay Gilbert and later, R D Steele made YSP unique. The station was hugely creative; it generated the syndicated shows found on album rock stations around the country, NBC recognized this and pursued WYSP as its flagship affiliate for its new Source network. And YSP soon tied rival WMMR as #1 in the coveted 18-34 demographic. In 1981, Steve Sutton accepted an offer from old friend and WMMR PD Charlie Kendall to cross the street and become the MMR morning host, "Steveski."
WYSP became the nation's very first "classic rock
" station in the spring of 1981, when Frank X Feller then General Manager received a suggestion and a reel to reel tape with a sample of what the "Classic Rock" format would sound like from account executive Jim Sacony. The featured artist on the reel to reel were the Yardbirds,The Zombies, Young Rascals, Van Morrison, The Stones, The Beatles, Steppenwolf and Byrds. Frank then directed Program Director and midday jock Dick Hungate teamed up with station consultant Lee Abrams to more effectively compete with two traditionally-programmed and very entrenched competitors... WMMR
and WIOQ
. The actual on-air describer "classic rock" was thought of in a strategy session at WYSP's then One Bala Plaza offices, in which other adjectives such as "timeless" and "vintage" also were discussed by Hungate and Abrams. In this pre-PC age, it fell upon Hungate to create the universe of all-old-rock tracks based upon his previous Philly experience as MD of WMMR in 1978-79, using metal file boxes and color-coded 3 X 5 index cards to manually rotate within each age/strength category the on-air playlist.
'YSP would abandon classic rock for all new hard rock format during a period when former WMMR morning host, John DeBella
, joined the station in the mid-90's. 'YSP returned to classic rock once again a few years later but, ultimately, to switch back to a current, hard-rock format once and for all.
WYSP was ultimately purchased by Infinity Broadcasting. Infinity merged with CBS in 1996. CBS already owned WMMR, and the Infinity merger left CBS one station over the Federal Communications Commission
's ownership limit of the time. WMMR was sold to Greater Media. This left empty space at the KYW-AM
-TV
studios on Independence Mall, which served as the headquarters for CBS' broadcasting operations in Philadelphia. On April 5, 1997, WMMR and WYSP switched studios. WYSP moved downtown to 5th and Market Street near Independence Mall in Philadelphia and WMMR moved out to Bala Cynwyd. In 1977, the transmitter site was also moved to its present location in Roxborough.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the station gradually added or tried out several talk-intensive or talk-based shows during the daytime hours. The shows were a mix of locally based and nationally syndicated programs, such as Opie and Anthony
and Don and Mike
. While some shows proved successful in their time slot, the station did not retain many, with only a few incarnations of the locally produced shows still on WYSP. Shows that were dropped were usually replaced by the music format.
On October 25, 2005, the station switched to the Free FM
format. From its inception until early 2007, WYSP featured a format of straight talk from 6AM to 7PM, a mix of talk and music from 7PM to 10PM and all music from 10PM to 6AM the next day, with all music from 10PM on Fridays to 6AM on Mondays.
The station also featured the syndicated Howard Stern
morning show until his move to satellite. Philadelphia was the first city that syndicated Stern. It is also the official award winning broadcaster of Philadelphia Eagles
games. From April 2006 to October 2007, the station carried Opie and Anthony's syndicated talk show in the morning, as Stern moved to Sirius Satellite Radio
, and David Lee Roth's morning show failed to garner good ratings.
At 11:59 p.m. EDT on March 16, 2007, former WYSP D.J. Jacky Bam Bam (now with WMMR
) signed off at the station's previous 5th and Market Street studio (also shared with KYW, KYW-TV
, and WPSG-TV
) before switching over to the new studios located on the 9th floor at the new 4th and Market studio (KYW is also located in the same building, but on the 10th floor). The first all-talk broadcast (the 9 A.M. Barsky Show
) occurred on March 19, 2007 with minor, but correctable problems.
On November 20, 2006, WYSP added the Scotty and Alex Show to replace Couzin Ed
. While they continued to play music, it was obvious that the new show was brought in to be a talk-based replacement. On April 17, Scotty and Alex stopped playing music and WYSP began to carry the syndicated Loveline
and John and Jeff
shows, effectively ending music programming during weekdays.
During the week of June 18, 2007, the use of the "Free FM" title was ended during broadcasts, and new imaging was slowly rolled out which referred to the station as both "94-1 WYSP" and "94 WYSP." During the week of June 25, their "94 WYSP Talks" logo was unveiled on the station website, effectively wiping clean any trace of "Free FM" from the station's identity. On August 13, during the first "Eagles Radio" broadcast of the year, new imaging began to refer to the station as "Philadelphia's FM Talk Station," a nickname also being used by corporate sister station KLSX
in Los Angeles.
As recently as June 2007, WYSP was committed to the talk format as long time music programmer, Gil Edwards was let go. Edwards lobbied for a return to rock at that time but was rebuffed by management.
On September 11, 2007, an article was published in the Philadelphia Daily News
which stated that a format change at WYSP was imminent. Paul Barsky brushed the article off as rumor, as did Matt of the Matt and Huggy Show. Kidd Chris
ranted on the topic, and the brutal radio industry itself. Scotty and Alex somewhat referred to their show that night as their "last" show, claiming that not many radio shows get to do a final broadcast, yet hoped to return tomorrow (they would not).
On September 12, 2007, Paul Barsky stated that he had re-signed with the station, and his show continued as normal with guest Donovan McNabb
(promos for the station would later be heard featuring McNabb announcing that "the rock is back," promos recorded the day of his appearance). A rerun of the previous Wednesday's Matt and Huggy Show was played in their timeslot. At the start of Kidd Chris' broadcast, he discussed the topic of the format change, and revealed that Scotty, Alex, Matt and Huggy had been fired, the Barsky Show was no more, and that Chris himself had lost members of his show (later revealed to be co-producer Monkeyboy [Dave Eitel] and producer Brad Maybe). The night's Scotty and Alex Show' was a "Best Of." and the night's Loveline and John and Jeff broadcasts went as planned (as they are syndicated).
The following day, Opie and Anthony broadcast their show from the WYSP studios. They touted an announcement at 5pm EDT, and joked about the lack of secrecy of the topic (articles in that day's Philadelphia Daily News
and the Philadelphia Inquirer, Opie referring to Anthony's "new' "94 WYSP, The Rock Station" sweatshirt he was wearing, the tearing down of a "94 WYSP Talks" poster in the studio). After the conclusion of their broadcast, "Best of" was played until Kidd Chris' show, when at 5 PM EDT, WYSP switched back to an active rock
format (without the alternative lean from 2005-2007 during Y100's demise) leaving only Opie and Anthony for the morning drive slot and Kidd Chris for the afternoon drive. The first song on the return of rock was Welcome to the Jungle
by Guns N' Roses
.
In another effort to improve ratings, WYSP ceased airing the syndicated Opie and Anthony Show during morning drive on October 23, 2007, replacing them with music. Many speculated that Kidd Chris would move from his afternoon drive slot to take over mornings. The last day WYSP aired (and dropped) Opie and Anthony was also the last day Kidd Chris's show aired in the 3-7 PM slot. He ended his show with "Don't Stop Believin'
" by Journey
, and music took over the timeslot starting the next day. For nearly a month, he was in talks with the station for a new contract, and was expected to return in the morning slot. On Sunday, November 25, WYSP revealed on their website that Kidd Chris would be returning the following day, with his show airing from 6-10 AM.
Kidd Chris remained the morning staple for seven months until May 16, 2008. Kidd Chris and WYSP program director John Cook were terminated from WYSP due to an offensive song called "Schwoogies" which aired on March 21 originally and several times there after. The song referred to African-Americans in slang terms that station management determined to be highly offensive.
On August 25, 2008, WYSP returned to the classic rock format it shed in 1995, using the slogan "The Rock You Grew Up With From The 70s, 80s, & 90s." WYSP's version of classic rock had a harder sound than that of the market's other classic rock station, WMGK
.
Danny Bonaduce
was named the new morning drive host for WYSP, with his program beginning on November 10, 2008. The show aired from 5:30-9 AM ET.
On August 18, 2011, CBS Radio announced that sister station WIP would simulcast
its sports talk format
at 94.1 FM on September 6, thus ending music on 94.1. The change actually took place on September 2, four days earlier than announced. On its final day, Howard Stern
called into the station to discuss his time on WYSP with host, Spike Eskin. At 3:00 PM on that date, WYSP ended its music format with "Fade to Black
" by Metallica
as its final song.
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
radio station licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
serving the Delaware Valley
Delaware Valley
The Delaware Valley is a term used to refer to the valley where the Delaware River flows, along with the surrounding communities. This includes the metropolitan area centered on the city of Philadelphia. Such educational institutions as Delaware Valley Regional High School in Alexandria Township...
area. Owned 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...
, the WIP-FM studios are located on the 7th floor of Two Bala Plaza in Bala Cynwyd, PA, and the station's transmitter is located in the Roxborough
Roxborough, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Roxborough is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is bordered to the southwest, along the Schuylkill River, by the neighborhood of Manayunk, along the northeast by the Wissahickon Creek section of Fairmount Park, and to...
section of Philadelphia. Since 1992, WIP-FM has served as the flagship station for the Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
.
On September 2, 2011, the station ended its run as classic rock station 94 WYSP.
History
In Philadelphia, FM frequency 94.1 began as WIBG-FM, the sister station of WIBGWNTP
WNTP 990 is a politically conservative talk radio station which serves the Philadelphia area. It is owned by Salem Communications, along with a number of similar channels in various markets. Some of those whose programs are run by WNTP include Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, Dennis Miller, Michael...
, and basically simulcast the AM top-40 station until the mid-1960s. By this time, WIBG-FM experimented with an "underground", prerecorded type of rock music without announcers.
In 1968, Storer bought the station and shut it down while attempting to get permission for an increase in transmission power. WIBG-FM was a restricted class B station at the time, limited in range to avoid interfering with another station , WQKX 94.1 FM, in Sunbury, PA. During 1969, the WIBG-FM call was changed to WPNA, but only on paper, since the station was still dark. Having been unsuccessful in getting the Sunbury station to agree to an FCC waiver, Storer sold WPNA to SJR Communications. (SJR stood for "San Juan Racing", referring to the company's lone US holding: a racing track in San Juan)
SJR changed the call letters to WYSP ("Your Station in Philadelphia"), and quickly made a deal with the Sunbury station that allowed WYSP to increase its power. The station became a full class B, with a non-directional 550 ft. antenna resulting in 39,000 watts 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...
(ERP). On August 23, 1971, WYSP went on the air. The format consisted of live announcers playing big-band and easy listening music from half-hour-long reel-to-reel tapes that were produced in-house. The WYSP studios were located in the Suburban Station Building at 16th and JFK Parkway in Philadelphia. A new RCA transmitter and circular polarized five-bay Gates antenna was installed at the transmitter site.
At 6am on Monday, August 6, 1973, WYSP abruptly stopped playing big-band music and started playing album-oriented rock (AOR). The entire announcing staff was fired (despite attempts to unionize) and five new announcers were hired, including Tom Straw and Dean Clark. The music included popular cuts from albums by artists such as Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Chicago
Chicago (band)
Chicago is an American rock band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The self-described "rock and roll band with horns" began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had...
, and Crosby Stills and Nash. Radio consultant Kent Burkhart was called in and along with Lee Abrams helped to develop and refine the format. The Fox & Leonard Morning Show (Sonny Fox & Bob Leonard) was the first two-man morning show on AOR radio.
In 1974, WYSP became Philadelphia's "quad" station, piping its audio through a Sony Quad encoder, which provided "ambience" effects to the rear channels of the handful of quad radios in the market. Due to a compatibility problem with regular mono radios, and a lack of interest from the listening public, the quad encoder was quietly dismantled in 1976.
In June 1979, Program Director Steve Sutton was hired to put a failing YSP back on the map. Assembling a line-up of Jerry Abear, Sean McKay and Bill Fantini (6-10a), Denny Somach (10a-2p), Randy Kotz (2-6p), Gary Bridges (6-10p), Cyndy Drue (10p-2a) and Trip Reeb (2-6a) the station broke artists like Tom Petty in Philadelphia. Sutton hired popular Eagles linebacker Frank LeMaster for mornings during football season. The station was loud, up and cutting edge. Production—outrageous spots and promos—from Jay Gilbert and later, R D Steele made YSP unique. The station was hugely creative; it generated the syndicated shows found on album rock stations around the country, NBC recognized this and pursued WYSP as its flagship affiliate for its new Source network. And YSP soon tied rival WMMR as #1 in the coveted 18-34 demographic. In 1981, Steve Sutton accepted an offer from old friend and WMMR PD Charlie Kendall to cross the street and become the MMR morning host, "Steveski."
WYSP became the nation's very first "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 in the spring of 1981, when Frank X Feller then General Manager received a suggestion and a reel to reel tape with a sample of what the "Classic Rock" format would sound like from account executive Jim Sacony. The featured artist on the reel to reel were the Yardbirds,The Zombies, Young Rascals, Van Morrison, The Stones, The Beatles, Steppenwolf and Byrds. Frank then directed Program Director and midday jock Dick Hungate teamed up with station consultant Lee Abrams to more effectively compete with two traditionally-programmed and very entrenched competitors... WMMR
WMMR
WMMR is an active rock radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting at 93.3 MHz FM. The station is owned by Greater Media....
and 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...
. The actual on-air describer "classic rock" was thought of in a strategy session at WYSP's then One Bala Plaza offices, in which other adjectives such as "timeless" and "vintage" also were discussed by Hungate and Abrams. In this pre-PC age, it fell upon Hungate to create the universe of all-old-rock tracks based upon his previous Philly experience as MD of WMMR in 1978-79, using metal file boxes and color-coded 3 X 5 index cards to manually rotate within each age/strength category the on-air playlist.
'YSP would abandon classic rock for all new hard rock format during a period when former WMMR morning host, John DeBella
John Debella
John DeBella is an American DJ in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 102.9 WMGK-FM. He was born in Queens, New York.-Career:Before arriving in Philadelphia, DeBella did a stint at WLIR-FM Garden City. In the early '80s he hosted The DeBella Travesty and helped to introduce the Dare to be Different new...
, joined the station in the mid-90's. 'YSP returned to classic rock once again a few years later but, ultimately, to switch back to a current, hard-rock format once and for all.
WYSP was ultimately purchased by Infinity Broadcasting. Infinity merged with CBS in 1996. CBS already owned WMMR, and the Infinity merger left CBS one station over 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...
's ownership limit of the time. WMMR was sold to Greater Media. This left empty space at the KYW-AM
KYW (AM)
KYW is a class A AM radio station on 1060 kHz licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW is owned by the CBS Radio unit of CBS Corporation, and has broadcasted an all-news format since 1965. The station's studios are located on Market Street in Center City Philadelphia, and it transmitters...
-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
studios on Independence Mall, which served as the headquarters for CBS' broadcasting operations in Philadelphia. On April 5, 1997, WMMR and WYSP switched studios. WYSP moved downtown to 5th and Market Street near Independence Mall in Philadelphia and WMMR moved out to Bala Cynwyd. In 1977, the transmitter site was also moved to its present location in Roxborough.
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the station gradually added or tried out several talk-intensive or talk-based shows during the daytime hours. The shows were a mix of locally based and nationally syndicated programs, such 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...
and 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...
. While some shows proved successful in their time slot, the station did not retain many, with only a few incarnations of the locally produced shows still on WYSP. Shows that were dropped were usually replaced by the music format.
On October 25, 2005, the station switched to the Free FM
Free FM
Free FM was a short-lived, mostly-talk-radio format and brand name for eleven FM CBS Radio stations in the United States, and was created because of Howard Stern's departure to Sirius Satellite Radio in January 2006. Free FM was given its name to highlight that its stations broadcast free-to-air,...
format. From its inception until early 2007, WYSP featured a format of straight talk from 6AM to 7PM, a mix of talk and music from 7PM to 10PM and all music from 10PM to 6AM the next day, with all music from 10PM on Fridays to 6AM on Mondays.
The station also featured the syndicated Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
morning show until his move to satellite. Philadelphia was the first city that syndicated Stern. It is also the official award winning broadcaster of Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
games. From April 2006 to October 2007, the station carried Opie and Anthony's syndicated talk show in the morning, as Stern moved to Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
, and David Lee Roth's morning show failed to garner good ratings.
At 11:59 p.m. EDT on March 16, 2007, former WYSP D.J. Jacky Bam Bam (now with WMMR
WMMR
WMMR is an active rock radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting at 93.3 MHz FM. The station is owned by Greater Media....
) signed off at the station's previous 5th and Market Street studio (also shared with KYW, KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
, and WPSG-TV
WPSG
WPSG, channel 57, is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WPSG is owned by the CBS Corporation and is the east coast flagship station for the CW Television Network, which is owned jointly by CBS and Time Warner...
) before switching over to the new studios located on the 9th floor at the new 4th and Market studio (KYW is also located in the same building, but on the 10th floor). The first all-talk broadcast (the 9 A.M. Barsky Show
Paul Barsky
Paul Barsky was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania talk radio personality. Last featured on WYSP, Barsky has previously been a fixture on other Philadelphia radio stations, including the now defunct Y100....
) occurred on March 19, 2007 with minor, but correctable problems.
On November 20, 2006, WYSP added the Scotty and Alex Show to replace Couzin Ed
Couzin Ed
Couzin Ed is a bar manager and former radio disc jockey who resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2002 he received a Billboard/Airplay Monitor Radio Award as local air personality of the year at a mainstream rock station.-Career:...
. While they continued to play music, it was obvious that the new show was brought in to be a talk-based replacement. On April 17, Scotty and Alex stopped playing music and WYSP began to carry the syndicated Loveline
Loveline
Loveline is a syndicated radio call-in program in North America, offering medical and relationship advice to listeners, often with the assistance of guests, typically actors and musicians. Its flagship station is KROQ-FM in Los Angeles....
and John and Jeff
John and Jeff
John and Jeff are the hosts of the nationally syndicated John & Jeff Show based in Los Angeles, California, United States. As of 2011, the program is in its 12th year of syndication, and broadcasts live Monday - Friday from 10pm - 2am , 1am - 5am on radio stations across America...
shows, effectively ending music programming during weekdays.
During the week of June 18, 2007, the use of the "Free FM" title was ended during broadcasts, and new imaging was slowly rolled out which referred to the station as both "94-1 WYSP" and "94 WYSP." During the week of June 25, their "94 WYSP Talks" logo was unveiled on the station website, effectively wiping clean any trace of "Free FM" from the station's identity. On August 13, during the first "Eagles Radio" broadcast of the year, new imaging began to refer to the station as "Philadelphia's FM Talk Station," a nickname also being used by corporate sister station KLSX
KLSX
KAMP-FM 97.1 FM, known on-air as 97.1 AMP Radio, is a Rhythmic Contemporary radio station in Los Angeles, California. The station is owned by CBS Radio.The station had long been known as KLSX before the call sign changed on June 30, 2009....
in Los Angeles.
As recently as June 2007, WYSP was committed to the talk format as long time music programmer, Gil Edwards was let go. Edwards lobbied for a return to rock at that time but was rebuffed by management.
On September 11, 2007, an article was published in the Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The newspaper is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Daily News began publishing on March 31, 1925, under...
which stated that a format change at WYSP was imminent. Paul Barsky brushed the article off as rumor, as did Matt of the Matt and Huggy Show. Kidd Chris
Kidd Chris
Chris Foley, most commonly known by his nickname KiddChris, is an American shock jock. He hosted a radio show airing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 2005 until 2008....
ranted on the topic, and the brutal radio industry itself. Scotty and Alex somewhat referred to their show that night as their "last" show, claiming that not many radio shows get to do a final broadcast, yet hoped to return tomorrow (they would not).
Donovan McNabb
Donovan Jamal McNabb is an American football quarterback who is currently a free agent. He was the Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback from 1999 to 2009 and spent the 2010 season with the Washington Redskins and a portion of the 2011 season with the Minnesota Vikings. In college, McNabb played...
(promos for the station would later be heard featuring McNabb announcing that "the rock is back," promos recorded the day of his appearance). A rerun of the previous Wednesday's Matt and Huggy Show was played in their timeslot. At the start of Kidd Chris' broadcast, he discussed the topic of the format change, and revealed that Scotty, Alex, Matt and Huggy had been fired, the Barsky Show was no more, and that Chris himself had lost members of his show (later revealed to be co-producer Monkeyboy [Dave Eitel] and producer Brad Maybe). The night's Scotty and Alex Show' was a "Best Of." and the night's Loveline and John and Jeff broadcasts went as planned (as they are syndicated).
The following day, Opie and Anthony broadcast their show from the WYSP studios. They touted an announcement at 5pm EDT, and joked about the lack of secrecy of the topic (articles in that day's Philadelphia Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News
The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The newspaper is owned by Philadelphia Media Holdings which also owns Philadelphia's other major newspaper The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Daily News began publishing on March 31, 1925, under...
and the Philadelphia Inquirer, Opie referring to Anthony's "new' "94 WYSP, The Rock Station" sweatshirt he was wearing, the tearing down of a "94 WYSP Talks" poster in the studio). After the conclusion of their broadcast, "Best of" was played until Kidd Chris' show, when at 5 PM EDT, WYSP switched back to an active rock
Active rock
Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock plays contemporary rock artists with a mix of songs common in the classic rock radio format.-Format background:...
format (without the alternative lean from 2005-2007 during Y100's demise) leaving only Opie and Anthony for the morning drive slot and Kidd Chris for the afternoon drive. The first song on the return of rock was Welcome to the Jungle
Welcome to the Jungle
"Welcome to the Jungle" is a song by American rock band Guns N' Roses, featured on its 1987 debut studio album, Appetite for Destruction. It was released as the band's second single on October 3, 1987, and reached number #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number #24 on the UK Singles Chart...
by Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
.
In another effort to improve ratings, WYSP ceased airing the syndicated Opie and Anthony Show during morning drive on October 23, 2007, replacing them with music. Many speculated that Kidd Chris would move from his afternoon drive slot to take over mornings. The last day WYSP aired (and dropped) Opie and Anthony was also the last day Kidd Chris's show aired in the 3-7 PM slot. He ended his show with "Don't Stop Believin'
Don't Stop Believin'
"Don't Stop Believin is a popular song by the American rock band Journey, originally released as a single from their 1981 album Escape, which became a #9 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on its original release. It re-entered the UK Singles Chart in 2009 as a result of increased prominence of digital...
" by Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
, and music took over the timeslot starting the next day. For nearly a month, he was in talks with the station for a new contract, and was expected to return in the morning slot. On Sunday, November 25, WYSP revealed on their website that Kidd Chris would be returning the following day, with his show airing from 6-10 AM.
Kidd Chris remained the morning staple for seven months until May 16, 2008. Kidd Chris and WYSP program director John Cook were terminated from WYSP due to an offensive song called "Schwoogies" which aired on March 21 originally and several times there after. The song referred to African-Americans in slang terms that station management determined to be highly offensive.
On August 25, 2008, WYSP returned to the classic rock format it shed in 1995, using the slogan "The Rock You Grew Up With From The 70s, 80s, & 90s." WYSP's version of classic rock had a harder sound than that of the market's other classic rock station, WMGK
WMGK
WMGK, known as "Classic Rock 102.9 MGK" or "Philadelphia's Classic Rock: 102.9 MGK", is a Classic rock formatted radio station which is broadcast in the Philadelphia area. The station features popular Philadelphia radio personality John DeBella and former Howard Stern Show censor Andre Gardner. ...
.
Danny Bonaduce
Danny Bonaduce
Dante Daniel "Danny" Bonaduce is an American radio/television personality, comedian, professional wrestler, and former child actor...
was named the new morning drive host for WYSP, with his program beginning on November 10, 2008. The show aired from 5:30-9 AM ET.
On August 18, 2011, CBS Radio announced that sister station WIP would 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...
its sports talk format
Sports radio
Sports radio is a radio format devoted entirely to discussion and broadcasting of sporting events. A popular format with an almost exclusively male demographic in most areas, sports radio is characterized by an often-boisterous on-air style and extensive debate and analysis by both hosts and...
at 94.1 FM on September 6, thus ending music on 94.1. The change actually took place on September 2, four days earlier than announced. On its final day, Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
called into the station to discuss his time on WYSP with host, Spike Eskin. At 3:00 PM on that date, WYSP ended its music format with "Fade to Black
Fade to Black (song)
"Fade to Black" is a song by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released as the first promotional single from its second studio album, Ride the Lightning...
" by Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
as its final song.