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WPEN (AM)
Encyclopedia
WPEN is an AM radio station broadcast on 950 kHz. The station is licensed to Philadelphia
and serves that market. WPEN is owned and operated by Greater Media
and offers a Sports Talk format. The station is known as "950 ESPN"
, Frank Sinatra
, Doris Day
, Mills Brothers
, Tommy Dorsey
, Bing Crosby
, Peggy Lee
, Nat King Cole
, Pat Boone
, Tony Bennett
, and many others. At this time a show called the 950 Club began as well.
In the early 1950s WPEN became one of the pioneers of late night live audience talk radio. Steve Allison, formerly of Boston, was host of a five or six nights a week radio show from 11:30PM-2:00AM. This show was broadcast from the "Ranch Room" restaurant on the station's ground floor building on Walnut Street between 22nd and 23rd streets. WPEN was one of the first broadcasters in the country to use a live seven-second delay tape system. In addition to live guests, Steve Allison took telephone calls from listeners. Teddy Reinhart was the producer. Allison had guests such as Eddie Fisher, Billy Eckstein and numerous local politicians at the Ranch Room. Many evenings Allison showed up for work in a tuxedo. In the late 1950's Frank Ford hosted the late evening talk show from the restaurant studio. Jim Reeves could be seen doing newscasts from a second floor studio.
Before the Steve Allison show, radio personality Art Raymond ("The Man in the Black Sombrero") hosted a live Latin music dance program from the Ranch Room. Years later Raymond hosted Jewish music programs featuring Klezmer music on radio stations in New York City, Philadelphia and Florida.
In the late 1950s rock and roll began to dominate the chart. WPEN opted though to remain a non-rock station but played some of the softer songs by artists like The Platters
, Elvis Presley
, Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee
, and others. By the mid 1960s WPEN was also playing softer songs by The Beatles
, The Association
, The 5th Dimension, Tom Jones
, The Mamas & the Papas
, Righteous Brothers, and others. In the early 1970s artists like The Carpenters
, Barbra Streisand
, Neil Diamond
, James Taylor
, and others became core artists. Still all along artists like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole as well as Big Bands were heard on WPEN. The station was a news intensive MOR format. Also, during the 1960s, an evening interview show hosted by Frank Ford was broadcast on weekdays. It was held in a converted night club near 22rd and Walnut Streets, so the public was allowed to sit in on all broadcasts.
Around 1967 WPEN became an affiliate of the NBC Radio Network
. Around 1969 the station left NBC, and management decided to seriously challenge WIP, Philadelphia's dominant MOR music station. Some WIP personalities were lured to WPEN, and an extensive promotional campaign was launched. However, listeners did not respond in large numbers and the station went into a gradual decline. By about 1973 the station's financial condition was so poor that it began signing off at midnight to save money, and ownership began to actively market the operation to potential buyers.
). When the deal closed in January 1975 Greater Media immediately took the stations off the air for some badly needed engineering upgrades. In the spring WPEN returned to the air as "95PEN" with an oldies format under program director Julian Breen and later, Peter Mokover. Mike St. John made his Philly debut at this time along with Geoff Fox
, Paul Cassidy, Loren Owens, Mike Landry, Rick Harris and Bobby "Dashboard" Dark. Legend Joe Niagara soon joined the station with an afternoon drive show. The revived station originally played rock and roll hits from about 1955 to 1963, but newer music was added to the playlist over time; by the late '70s the music mix was really closer to Adult Contemporary than oldies. Ratings were never spectacular, and WPEN opted to change formats in 1979.
In 1979, WPEN dumped the Oldies based format and became Nostalgia, featuring big bands hits and adult standards. The station became known as 950 WPEN "The Station Of The Stars". The station featured adult standards of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s along with some big bands of the 1930s and 1940s. The station also mixed in some softer rock hits of the 1950s through the 1970s known as "baby boomer pop" by some. The airstaff from the oldies format remained. Over the years, many other legends came to WPEN, like Ken Garland, Bill Webber, Dick Clayton, Bill Wright, Sr, Tom Moran, Andy Hopkins, Kim Martin, Joe Grady and Ed Hurst returned to host a new version of the 950 Club on weekday afternoons. Ed Hurst would later revive the Steel Pier Show for weekend afternoons. The station was an original concept of Julian Breen, and later programmed by Peter Mokover, Joe Taylor, Dean Tyler, Stan Martin, Charlie Mills and Bob Craig.
The station also had an emphasis on news and information. The format was adjusted at various times. In the 1980s WPEN played more soft rock during the day and more big bands in the evening hours. But the Sinatra type music was always the focus of the station. WPEN for many years was the top rated radio station of its type anywhere.
In the late 1990s WPEN began airing some paid programming during the day on weekends. Ratings were still decent but demographics were making it difficult to sell advertising. The weekend paid programming would be used to raise revenue for the station to be able to be profitable. While the station did not ever strictly play standards and featured some soft rock mixed in during much of the day, they changed focus in 2001. At that point WPEN cut back on big bands and added more 50's and 60's rock and roll to the playlist. While there was no hard rock, there were a decent amount of pop/rock oldies one would not expect to find on an adult standards station. In 2003, WPEN became the radio home of Jerry Blavat. He would host a 50's and 60's rock and roll oldies show playing a lot of rock and roll cuts WPEN still normally did not play at that point. Still even in 2003 WPEN was still focused on the standards vocalists. WPEN had been also mixing in contemporary standards artists like Michael Bublé
, Nora Jones, Harry Connick Jr., and others since the mid 1990s.
In late 2001 WPEN agreed to become the flagship radio station of the Philadelphia Phillies
for the 2002 through 2004 seasons. This led to increased attention for the station, but not all of it was favorable. Many listeners in outlying suburbs complained that they could not pick up the games, which had previously been on the stronger signal of WPHT
(the weak signal also was a favorite of pundits and jokesters, one of which quipped that WPEN stands for "We Practically Emit Nothing"). Although Greater Media had plans to improve WPEN's signal, they could not be implemented during the term of the contract. The Phillies returned to WPHT for the 2005 season.
later that year. WOGL had moved away from pre-1964 oldies, and Greater Media sought to win away listeners who preferred music of that era. Artists featured on WPEN included Sam Cooke
, Elvis Presley
, Billy Stewart
, Bill Haley
, Fats Domino
, Ricky Nelson
, Billy & The Essentials, Marvelettes, Everly Brothers, Jerry Butler
, Beach Boys, The Four Seasons
, Jackie Wilson
, Bobby Vee
, and others.
Unfortunately, ratings declined even more. The station also continued its paid programming during the day on Saturdays and Sundays. There were plans to end these infomercials and specialty talk shows once advertising grew but this never happened. By November 2004 WPEN began to add more late 1960s music by the Beatles
, Four Tops
, The 5th Dimension, Young Rascals, The Hollies
, along with many one hit wonders. The station also added a lot of '60s Philadelphia-based soul. The station's long-awaited signal upgrade partially became reality in 2005, as its nighttime power was increased from 5,000 to 21,000 watts and the Montgomery County towers of daytimer WWDB
became WPEN's new nighttime transmitter site. The station began to gain some ratings, but the growth was not fast enough.
In early 2007 WPEN was able to increase its daytime power from 5,000 to 25,000 watts. Previously nondirectional during daylight hours, it switched to directional operation, using the three towers it had previously used for nighttime broadcasting at its longtime transmitter site in the Overbrook Park section of Philadelphia. In June, 2008, WPEN was granted a construction permit for a second daytime power increase, this time to 43,000 watts.
On March 2, 2007 a blogger, Internet Gnome Diamond Joe, reported the possibility that the station could change their slogan to "Sports Radio 950", after discovering the registrations of the domains mysportsradio950.com and sportsradio950online.com. On March 12th 2007, WPEN started calling itself "Sports Radio 950" or "Philly's Sports Radio 950". On April 1, 2008, WPEN became the new home of ESPN Radio in Philadelphia, replacing the former WPHY (now WCHR 920 AM in Trenton, New Jersey
which dropped the ESPN Radio format January 7th of that year), with the new tagline being "950 ESPN Philadelphia" and carries ESPN Radio programming including Major League Baseball with the State Farm Home Run Derby
, the All-Star Game
and World Series
(the latter two coming over from WPHT
), the NBA, the Bowl Championship Series
and Mike and Mike in the Morning
(simulcast with ESPN2). Their current on- air lineup also includes Dan Schwartzman, Harry Mayes and Mike Missanelli. DeBlois pointed out on the official announcement of ESPN Radio adding WPEN to the lineup three months after the demise of WPHY that "when you have the opportunity to partner with the biggest name in sports, ESPN, you don't pass it up."
WPEN is also the home of Westwood One's NFL Sunday Night and Monday night football broadcasts, the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl and the NCAA Final Four as well as Villanova Wildcats football and men's basketball, select University of Pennsylvania men's basketball games, and served as the flagship station for the Arena Football League Philadelphia Soul
until the league's dissolving in 2009.
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,...
and serves that market. WPEN is owned and operated by 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...
and offers a Sports Talk format. The station is known as "950 ESPN"
The Early Years
WPEN 950 AM went on the air in 1929. It was a locally owned and independent radio station carrying a general entertainment format of radio comedies, dramas, talk and variety shows, news, and sports. Most of its programming consisted of reruns of old network radio shows. Gradually popular music shows became a large part of WPEN, as by the 1950s entertainment radio shows were moving to television, with music and news were becoming the prime use for radio. WPEN evolved into a popular music format full time in the early 1950s. The music at that time consisted of artists such Perry ComoPerry Como
Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como was an American singer and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century he recorded exclusively for the RCA Victor label after signing with them in 1943. "Mr...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
, Mills Brothers
Mills Brothers
The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed as The Four Mills Brothers, were an American jazz and pop vocal quartet of the 20th century who made more than 2,000 recordings that combined sold more than 50 million copies, and garnered at least three dozen gold records...
, Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey
Thomas Francis "Tommy" Dorsey, Jr. was an American jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big Band era. He was known as "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing", due to his smooth-toned trombone playing. He was the younger brother of bandleader Jimmy Dorsey...
, Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....
, Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
, Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
, Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett is an American singer of popular music, standards, show tunes, and jazz....
, and many others. At this time a show called the 950 Club began as well.
In the early 1950s WPEN became one of the pioneers of late night live audience talk radio. Steve Allison, formerly of Boston, was host of a five or six nights a week radio show from 11:30PM-2:00AM. This show was broadcast from the "Ranch Room" restaurant on the station's ground floor building on Walnut Street between 22nd and 23rd streets. WPEN was one of the first broadcasters in the country to use a live seven-second delay tape system. In addition to live guests, Steve Allison took telephone calls from listeners. Teddy Reinhart was the producer. Allison had guests such as Eddie Fisher, Billy Eckstein and numerous local politicians at the Ranch Room. Many evenings Allison showed up for work in a tuxedo. In the late 1950's Frank Ford hosted the late evening talk show from the restaurant studio. Jim Reeves could be seen doing newscasts from a second floor studio.
Before the Steve Allison show, radio personality Art Raymond ("The Man in the Black Sombrero") hosted a live Latin music dance program from the Ranch Room. Years later Raymond hosted Jewish music programs featuring Klezmer music on radio stations in New York City, Philadelphia and Florida.
In the late 1950s rock and roll began to dominate the chart. WPEN opted though to remain a non-rock station but played some of the softer songs by artists like The Platters
The Platters
The Platters were a vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre...
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley , known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis...
, and others. By the mid 1960s WPEN was also playing softer songs by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, The Association
The Association
The Association is a pop music band from California in the folk rock or soft rock genre. During the 1960s, they had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival...
, The 5th Dimension, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
, The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
, Righteous Brothers, and others. In the early 1970s artists like The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond
Neil Leslie Diamond is an American singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades from the 1960s until the present....
, James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, and others became core artists. Still all along artists like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole as well as Big Bands were heard on WPEN. The station was a news intensive MOR format. Also, during the 1960s, an evening interview show hosted by Frank Ford was broadcast on weekdays. It was held in a converted night club near 22rd and Walnut Streets, so the public was allowed to sit in on all broadcasts.
Around 1967 WPEN became an affiliate of the NBC Radio Network
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. Around 1969 the station left NBC, and management decided to seriously challenge WIP, Philadelphia's dominant MOR music station. Some WIP personalities were lured to WPEN, and an extensive promotional campaign was launched. However, listeners did not respond in large numbers and the station went into a gradual decline. By about 1973 the station's financial condition was so poor that it began signing off at midnight to save money, and ownership began to actively market the operation to potential buyers.
Greater Media Takes Over
At the end of 1974 WPEN was sold to Greater Media, along with co-owned WPEN-FM (now known as WMGKWMGK
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. ...
). When the deal closed in January 1975 Greater Media immediately took the stations off the air for some badly needed engineering upgrades. In the spring WPEN returned to the air as "95PEN" with an oldies format under program director Julian Breen and later, Peter Mokover. Mike St. John made his Philly debut at this time along with Geoff Fox
Geoff Fox
Geoff Fox is a television meteorologist with WTIC-TV who reports science and technology stories for the 4 P.M. newscast and is the 11 P.M. weather anchor.Fox was born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Flushing, NY...
, Paul Cassidy, Loren Owens, Mike Landry, Rick Harris and Bobby "Dashboard" Dark. Legend Joe Niagara soon joined the station with an afternoon drive show. The revived station originally played rock and roll hits from about 1955 to 1963, but newer music was added to the playlist over time; by the late '70s the music mix was really closer to Adult Contemporary than oldies. Ratings were never spectacular, and WPEN opted to change formats in 1979.
In 1979, WPEN dumped the Oldies based format and became Nostalgia, featuring big bands hits and adult standards. The station became known as 950 WPEN "The Station Of The Stars". The station featured adult standards of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s along with some big bands of the 1930s and 1940s. The station also mixed in some softer rock hits of the 1950s through the 1970s known as "baby boomer pop" by some. The airstaff from the oldies format remained. Over the years, many other legends came to WPEN, like Ken Garland, Bill Webber, Dick Clayton, Bill Wright, Sr, Tom Moran, Andy Hopkins, Kim Martin, Joe Grady and Ed Hurst returned to host a new version of the 950 Club on weekday afternoons. Ed Hurst would later revive the Steel Pier Show for weekend afternoons. The station was an original concept of Julian Breen, and later programmed by Peter Mokover, Joe Taylor, Dean Tyler, Stan Martin, Charlie Mills and Bob Craig.
The station also had an emphasis on news and information. The format was adjusted at various times. In the 1980s WPEN played more soft rock during the day and more big bands in the evening hours. But the Sinatra type music was always the focus of the station. WPEN for many years was the top rated radio station of its type anywhere.
In the late 1990s WPEN began airing some paid programming during the day on weekends. Ratings were still decent but demographics were making it difficult to sell advertising. The weekend paid programming would be used to raise revenue for the station to be able to be profitable. While the station did not ever strictly play standards and featured some soft rock mixed in during much of the day, they changed focus in 2001. At that point WPEN cut back on big bands and added more 50's and 60's rock and roll to the playlist. While there was no hard rock, there were a decent amount of pop/rock oldies one would not expect to find on an adult standards station. In 2003, WPEN became the radio home of Jerry Blavat. He would host a 50's and 60's rock and roll oldies show playing a lot of rock and roll cuts WPEN still normally did not play at that point. Still even in 2003 WPEN was still focused on the standards vocalists. WPEN had been also mixing in contemporary standards artists like Michael Bublé
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...
, Nora Jones, Harry Connick Jr., and others since the mid 1990s.
In late 2001 WPEN agreed to become the flagship radio station of the Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
for the 2002 through 2004 seasons. This led to increased attention for the station, but not all of it was favorable. Many listeners in outlying suburbs complained that they could not pick up the games, which had previously been on the stronger signal of 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...
(the weak signal also was a favorite of pundits and jokesters, one of which quipped that WPEN stands for "We Practically Emit Nothing"). Although Greater Media had plans to improve WPEN's signal, they could not be implemented during the term of the contract. The Phillies returned to WPHT for the 2005 season.
Back to Golden Oldies
On September 1, 2004, due to declining advertising, WPEN dropped Adult Standards abruptly in favor of an oldies format, playing only music from 1954-1965. Some of the airstaff remained. Jim Nettleton and Christy Springfield came over from WOGLWOGL
WOGL is an FM radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.The station plays mostly post 1964 pop leaning Oldies positioned Classic Hits music, including Motown, soul and rock and roll spanning roughly 1964–1985. An occasional pre-1964 song is played. WOGL is owned by CBS Radio...
later that year. WOGL had moved away from pre-1964 oldies, and Greater Media sought to win away listeners who preferred music of that era. Artists featured on WPEN included Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Billy Stewart
Billy Stewart
Billy Stewart was an American musical artist, with a highly distinctive scat-singing style, who enjoyed popularity in the 1960s.-Biography:...
, Bill Haley
Bill Haley
Bill Haley was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".-Early life and career:...
, Fats Domino
Fats Domino
Antoine Dominique "Fats" Domino, Jr. is an American R&B and rock and roll pianist and singer-songwriter. He was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Creole was his first language....
, Ricky Nelson
Ricky Nelson
Eric Hilliard Nelson , better known as Ricky Nelson or Rick Nelson, was an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and actor...
, Billy & The Essentials, Marvelettes, Everly Brothers, Jerry Butler
Jerry Butler (singer)
Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...
, Beach Boys, The Four Seasons
The Four Seasons (group)
The Four Seasons are an American rock and pop band who became internationally successful in the mid-1960s. The Vocal Group Hall of Fame has stated that the group was the most popular rock band before The Beatles...
, Jackie Wilson
Jackie Wilson
Jack Leroy "Jackie" Wilson, Jr. was an American singer and performer. Known as "Mr. Excitement", Wilson was important in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. He was known as a master showman, and as one of the most dynamic singers and performers in R&B and rock history...
, Bobby Vee
Bobby Vee
Robert Thomas Velline , known as Bobby Vee, is an American pop music singer. According to Billboard magazine, Vee has had 38 Hot 100 chart hits, 10 of which hit the Top 20.-Career:...
, and others.
Unfortunately, ratings declined even more. The station also continued its paid programming during the day on Saturdays and Sundays. There were plans to end these infomercials and specialty talk shows once advertising grew but this never happened. By November 2004 WPEN began to add more late 1960s music by the Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Four Tops
Four Tops
The Four Tops are an American vocal quartet, whose repertoire has included doo-wop, jazz, soul music, R&B, disco, adult contemporary, hard rock, and showtunes...
, The 5th Dimension, Young Rascals, The Hollies
The Hollies
The Hollies are an English pop and rock group, formed in Manchester in the early 1960s, though most of the band members are from throughout East Lancashire. Known for their distinctive vocal harmony style, they became one of the leading British groups of the 1960s and 1970s...
, along with many one hit wonders. The station also added a lot of '60s Philadelphia-based soul. The station's long-awaited signal upgrade partially became reality in 2005, as its nighttime power was increased from 5,000 to 21,000 watts and the Montgomery County towers of daytimer WWDB
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....
became WPEN's new nighttime transmitter site. The station began to gain some ratings, but the growth was not fast enough.
Sports Talk Comes To 950 AM
In August 2005 WPEN announced that they would be ending the oldies format in favor of sports talk. Station manager Bob DeBlois said, "...Although we made great progress with Oldies, we feel a true Sports Talk station like Sports Talk 950 would be the perfect fit to satisfy the Philly sports fan's incredible appetite for great sports." The change became effective on October 3, 2005.In early 2007 WPEN was able to increase its daytime power from 5,000 to 25,000 watts. Previously nondirectional during daylight hours, it switched to directional operation, using the three towers it had previously used for nighttime broadcasting at its longtime transmitter site in the Overbrook Park section of Philadelphia. In June, 2008, WPEN was granted a construction permit for a second daytime power increase, this time to 43,000 watts.
On March 2, 2007 a blogger, Internet Gnome Diamond Joe, reported the possibility that the station could change their slogan to "Sports Radio 950", after discovering the registrations of the domains mysportsradio950.com and sportsradio950online.com. On March 12th 2007, WPEN started calling itself "Sports Radio 950" or "Philly's Sports Radio 950". On April 1, 2008, WPEN became the new home of ESPN Radio in Philadelphia, replacing the former WPHY (now WCHR 920 AM in Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton, New Jersey
Trenton is the capital of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Trenton had a population of 84,913...
which dropped the ESPN Radio format January 7th of that year), with the new tagline being "950 ESPN Philadelphia" and carries ESPN Radio programming including Major League Baseball with the State Farm Home Run Derby
Home Run Derby
The Home Run Derby is an event played prior to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. It is a contest among the top home run hitters in Major League Baseball to determine who can hit the most home runs. The event is currently sponsored by State Farm Insurance...
, the All-Star Game
Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by a combination of fans, players, coaches, and managers...
and World Series
World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
(the latter two coming over from 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...
), the NBA, the Bowl Championship Series
Bowl Championship Series
The Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...
and Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning
Mike and Mike in the Morning is an American sports-talk radio show hosted by Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg on ESPN Radio and simulcast on television, normally on ESPN2. If ESPN is broadcasting a live sporting event during the show's timeslot, Sportscenter will air on ESPN2, and the show's...
(simulcast with ESPN2). Their current on- air lineup also includes Dan Schwartzman, Harry Mayes and Mike Missanelli. DeBlois pointed out on the official announcement of ESPN Radio adding WPEN to the lineup three months after the demise of WPHY that "when you have the opportunity to partner with the biggest name in sports, ESPN, you don't pass it up."
WPEN is also the home of Westwood One's NFL Sunday Night and Monday night football broadcasts, the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl and the NCAA Final Four as well as Villanova Wildcats football and men's basketball, select University of Pennsylvania men's basketball games, and served as the flagship station for the Arena Football League Philadelphia Soul
Philadelphia Soul
The Philadelphia Soul are an Arena Football League team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They began play in as an expansion team. The team plays in the Eastern Division of the American Conference. They won their first ArenaBowl in 2008, defeating the San Jose SaberCats 59–56 in ArenaBowl XXII...
until the league's dissolving in 2009.