WPLJ
Encyclopedia
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
(770 AM) inside 2 Penn Plaza (above Pennsylvania Station
) in midtown Manhattan
, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building
. The station currently plays a Hot Adult Contemporary music format
. It is the home of the Scott and Todd in the Morning show.
WJZ-FM, and in 1953, the station's call letters were changed to WABC-FM following the merger of the American Broadcasting Company
with United Paramount Theatres
. As most FM stations did during the medium's formative years, 95.5 FM simulcast
ed the programming of its AM sister station.
During the mid and late 1960s, WABC-FM programmed Broadway Show Tunes on an automated basis and carried New York Mets
baseball games. They also continued to simulcast its AM sister station during various dayparts, like morning drive time.
In June 1968, 24 year old Allen Shaw was hired from WCFL
radio in Chicago, by ABC Radio Stations President, Hal Neal, to program all 7 of the ABC Owned FM Radio Stations in a new album rock format. There was very little budget for ABC's FM stations at that time, so Shaw was told that the new rock format would have to be totally automated. Shaw designed the "LOVE"
format, with John "Brother John" Rydgren as the only DJ on the air 24 hours a day. 25 hours
of long-form tapes were recorded at WABC-FM for playback on the ABC FM stations. WABC-FM played rock bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, and Chicago. Village Voice
columnist, Howard Smith, was hired to do recorded interviews with the counter-culture icons
of that period: John Lennon, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Andy Warhol, Abbie Hoffman, Bill
Graham, Peter Fonda, and many others. In 1970 Shaw hired Bob Lewis, known as "Bob-A-Lu" on
WABC/770, to do a live evening show on WABC-FM. In the late fall of 1968, he played some cuts from a pre-release tape of the Beatles White Album. Later, Shaw hired Dave Herman from WMMR
in Philadelphia, Tony Pigg from KSAN-FM in San Francisco and Jimmy Fink
, a native New Yorker to do additional live show on the station. In September 1970, Allen Shaw was named Vice President of the 7 ABC Owned FM Radio Stations as ABC decided to separate the AM and FM stations in terms of management. WABC-FM broadcast a live radio concert by Elton John
on November 17, 1970, which was issued as the 11-17-70 album the following year by Uni Records
, and it also broadcast live the closing concerts of the Fillmore East
theatre on June 27, 1971.
and WXPN
in Philadelphia) to do live shows on the station. On February 14, 1971, the station changed its call sign to WPLJ after Allen Shaw noticed the call letters as the name of a song on the Mothers of Invention record, "Burnt Weeny Sandwich
" (1970). The song, "WPLJ", was originally performed by the Four Deuces
in 1955 and stood for "White Port and Lemon Juice".
The station became a politically radical and musically eclectic voice of the counter-culture.
It received positive critical reviews from the "underground" press, but did not generate a large enough audience to become financially viable.
In September 1971, Allen Shaw and ABC Programming Executive Bob Henaberry designed and pioneered the very first AOR (album oriented rock) format, playing only the best cuts from the best selling rock albums with a minimum of disc jockey talk. The slogan of the station was
"Rock 'N Stereo". The station would play the music of artists such as Led Zeppelin
, The Beatles
, Aerosmith
, Jimi Hendrix
, Cream
, The Doobie Brothers
, Steely Dan
, Elton John
, Deep Purple
, Rod Stewart
, and The Allman Brothers. The station would also play pop songs from artists such as James Taylor
, Stevie Wonder
and Carly Simon
. The station was different from Top 40 stations (such as co-owned WABC) in that they played more album tracks. The audience ratings shot up dramatically, and
WPLJ became New York's most listened-to FM rock station for most of the 1970s.
In 1973, Allen Shaw brought Willard Lochridge, the General Manager of sister station WRIF in Detroit, to New York to manage WPLJ. Lochridge then brought Larry Berger, Program Director of WRIF, to WPLJ.
Larry Berger took over as Program Director of WPLJ in 1974, and the station adopted the slogan "New York's Best Rock". Some of the personalities on the station during this period included Jim Kerr, Pat St. John
, Jimmy Fink
, Carol Miller, Tony Pigg, John Zacherle
, and Dave Charity. Berger himself hosted a Sunday night call-in show, during which he would discuss the station with listeners, but would decline to discuss the specifics of the music playlist, something many listeners were concerned with. During these call-in segments, callers suggested that the station sped up or "pitched up" the music so that they could fit in more commercials while still being able to claim that they played a large number of songs per hour. Berger repeatedly denied that this practice was in use at WPLJ. In the 20 September 1999 episode of Crap from the Past, host Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber suggested that music was sped up on WPLJ to make the same music sound less dynamic on other stations.
Another Sunday night show begun in 1975 was then-Father Bill Ayres
' long-running On This Rock, which mixed spirituality and social consciousness together with the music of Harry Chapin
, Bob Seger
, and others. Bill Ayres was a Roman Catholic Priest with the Archdiocese of New York City. The show also aired on its sister station WABC
on Sunday mornings within the last years of its Top 40
music format. Bill Ayres eventually left the priesthood in the 1980s but continues to host a call in Sunday night show today on the station.
By 1977, WPLJ tended to emphasize hard rock
artists such as Led Zeppelin
(there was a nightly "Get the Led Out" segment), Black Sabbath
, Rush
, Kansas
, Boston
, and Queen
, who happened to get less airplay than on competing station WNEW-FM. At this point, the station stopped playing pop songs, and their audience ratings remained good.
During its album-oriented phase, the station was noted for its promotional montages, snippets of classic-rock songs spliced together emphasizing a particular subject, such as gasoline (during the gas shortages of the 1970s).
In 1982, WPLJ got a direct competitor in WAPP
, which adopted a near-identical AOR format to WPLJ (WAPP launnched its rock format commercial-free and remained so for the summer of 1982). WAPP beat WPLJ in the ratings in the Fall of 1982, and WPLJ reacted by adding more New Wave
such as A Flock of Seagulls
, Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Go-Go's
, Elvis Costello
, Men at Work
and Soft Cell
, mixed in with the usual AOR fare. WPLJ's ratings ended up being better than those of WAPP after WAPP started playing commercials in the Fall of 1982. In early 1983, the station added "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, playing it several times a day (note that many AOR stations including WNEW-FM added that song and it did chart on the rock tracks chart). In March, WPLJ added "Beat it" by Michael Jackson, which received very positive reaction. While Jackson was not a typical AOR artist, that cut was played by many AOR stations due to Eddie Van Halen
's role in the song. The station also dropped most 1960s songs by May and was cutting back on AOR artists while playing more modern rockers.
During this time WPLJ's logo was very similar to its sister station KLOS
in Los Angeles
.
). With word that a Top 40 hits format was coming to 100.3 FM, WPLJ moved further into a CHR direction. Though the station began playing artists like Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, Larry Berger stated that he did not make the decision to move to a CHR format until the last week of June, and WPLJ adopted a Rock leaning CHR format on June 30, 1983. At this point the station played predominantly AOR and New Wave rock cuts but would mix in two or three rhythmic pop cuts like "Flashdance"/Irene Cara
, "Time"/Culture Club
, "She Works Hard for the Money"/Donna Summer
, and a few others. The station maintained its "New York's Best Rock" slogan, even though the station moved away from playing predominantly rock songs. Larry Berger discussed the changes on his call-in show in July of 1983, to the disapproving reaction from the rock audience. (Competitors WNBC
had been a defacto Top 40 AM station while WYNY had been the de-facto FM hits station throughout the early 1980s, playing many current songs as part of their hot adult-contemporary format). WPLJ's airstaff, which stayed on during the early transition months, would gradually change, as WNEW-FM picked up some of the station's best-known rock DJs, such as Carol Miller and Pat St. John. (Morning man Jim Kerr and sidekick Shelli Sonstein would remain with the station through the end of the decade.) Jimmy Fink
, Tony Pigg and Marc Coppola
eventually moved to Infinity Broadcasting's rock K-Rock (WXRK) when it debuted a couple of years later.
In August 1983, at the same time WHTZ (Z100) was launched across town, WPLJ was known as "The Home of the Hits" and in October added top-forty-type jingles. So in a way it was "New York's Hit Music Station" just before Z-100
went on the air. The following spring, WPLJ identified itself very briefly as 'The new Musicradio PLJ' before switching to 'Hitradio 95' WPLJ just a few days later. In 1985, the station became known on-air as "Power 95". Ratings went up after switching to CHR, though they were still just behind Z100 most of the time. The double-whammy of Top 40 on one end and light-music WLTW
proved the kiss of death for the AC format on WYNY, which eventually went country.
In December 1987, the station changed its call letters to WWPR (to complement its "Power 95.5" slogan), but flipped the call sign back to WPLJ the following year when research indicated that listeners still identified 95.5 as WPLJ. (It has been said that competitor Z100 joked before WPLJ's call letter change that the "PR" in the calls stood for "Puerto Rican
" and that the station planned to flip to Spanish
.) 105.1 in New York City later adopted the WWPR-FM
call sign for its urban pop format.
WPLJ continued to be successful until 1990, when ratings started to decline. With significant pop competition - Hot 97 playing dance and urban pop songs, and Z100 playing mainstream pop music - WPLJ began to lean towards pop-rock hits. Larry Berger departed the station in 1988, replaced in early 1989 by Gary Bryan from KUBE in Seattle. Bryan served as program director and ultimately morning show host, ousting 20-year WPLJ morning host veteran Jim Kerr. Bryan lasted barely a year at WPLJ, then crossing the street to competitor Z100 for Morning Zoo host duty. Bryan was replaced by Tom Cuddy as VP of Programming, who installed Rocky Allen from WKSE in Buffalo for morning drive. WPLJ began to regain some momentum but in a stunning move in the Spring of '91, Cuddy and general manager Mitch Dolan hired Scott Shannon
, who had just left his rock hits LA radio project, Pirate Radio
. Shannon, the architect responsible for Z100's early success and their first legendary Morning Zoo host, took over as WPLJ's program director and morning show host (replacing Rocky Allen) in April 1991. The station began referring to itself as "Mojo Radio" in the spring of 1991.
slot at WPLJ has been hosted by Scott Shannon
and Todd Pettengill
, and is known as the Scott and Todd Big Show. It has about one million listeners per week, and its trademark segments include "Knuckleheads in the News", "Phone Scams", and song parodies. By the fall of 1991, the station played mainstream pop music, and ratings went up slightly. This period also saw the formation of the standard bearer hot adult contemporary format - at about the same time a slightly different version was being pioneered in Houston at KHMX. In an attempt to differentiate itself from its competitors, WPLJ adopted the slogan "No Rap, No Hard Stuff, No Sleepy Elevator Music, Just the Best Songs On the Radio."
The station playlist featured many songs familiar only to New Yorkers and "oh wow" type oldies that would not have been normal for the format in other markets. (In a bit of irony, WPLJ may have helped pioneer many of the concepts made popular by the diverse playlist, music-intense Jack FM
format of 2005.) WPLJ now mixed in liberal doses of disco and did regular theme weekends featuring "One Hit Wonders" and "#1 Songs" among others. Eventually, it also dedicated Monday-Saturday nights to playing nothing but 1970s music, with former WKTU legend Al Bandiero, a practice that continued for the next few years. In the mid-1990s, Rocky Allen
returned to WPLJ, this time to do afternoon drive for several years until moving to WABC for the morning drive slot. Allen returned again to WPLJ in late 2005.
In 2005, with ratings in decline, WPLJ once again started to play more music from the 1970s and 1980s. Given its heritage as both a rock station in the 1970s and for championing a novel hot AC mix in the early and mid-1990s, many people in the radio business saw this move as a precursor to the station switching to a "Jack FM
"-type format. However, they were beaten by WCBS-FM
, which abruptly switched from oldies to the 'Jack' format on June 3, 2005. WPLJ returned to playing music of the late 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and the present.
While not an overall ratings success, WPLJ has for years been among the more financially successful stations in the New York City market, billing in excess of 40 million dollars per year. WPLJ does extremely well with adult women in the lucrative nine northern New Jersey counties adjacent to New York City.
During its Top 40 hit years, WPLJ used jingles from JAM Creative Productions
, some of which were packages previously used on sister station WABC during its Top 40 days, but since becoming a Hot AC station, WPLJ has used jingles from TM Studios.
WPLJ, along with WABC
, was included in the sale of ABC Radio and the ABC Radio Networks by the Walt Disney Company to Citadel, announced in February 2006 and finalized on June 12, 2007.
and Blain Ensley was dropped as part of a company-wide series of staff cutbacks at Citadel. WPLJ's digital HD2 channel broadcasts programming from Scott Shannon
's The True Oldies Channel
from ABC Radio, while their HD3 channel is a simulcast of WABC
. On February 16, 2009 WPLJ started airing the syndicated program The Billy Bush Show.
In April 2009 WPLJ adopted a new slogan, "Scott and Todd in the Morning and Today's Best Music."
WPLJ introduced a new logo in July 2009.
In October 2009, Scott and Todd introduced a new feature on their morning show called "Coop's Sandwich Shop." The feature aired on Thursday mornings through early 2011 when station assistant Jonathan Cooper moved to a technical position "across the hall" at WABC.
Citadel merged with Cumulus Media
on September 16, 2011. By October 2011
, Nielsen BDS moved rival WWFS (owned by CBS Radio
) from the AC panel to the hot AC panel, giving New York City
two hot adult contemporary stations, although Mediabase
moved the station to the hot AC panel later that month. This gave New York City two hot adult contemporary stations for the first time since the 1998
, when WBIX (now urban contemporary
radio station WWPR-FM
) dropped it for a rhythmic oldies
format. Prior to the hot AC transition at WWFS. WWFS had been leaning hot adult contemporary even though it reported as AC per Mediabase
& Nielsen BDS from 2007
-2011
.
Saturday Night '80s (1998–2010; 2011-present)
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...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media, Inc. is the second largest Owner and Operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States, behind Clear Channel Communications, operating 570 stations in 150 markets as of September 16, 2011. The company also owns Cumulus Media Networks...
. WPLJ shares studio facilities with sister station WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
(770 AM) inside 2 Penn Plaza (above Pennsylvania Station
Pennsylvania Station (New York City)
Pennsylvania Station—commonly known as Penn Station—is the major intercity train station and a major commuter rail hub in New York City. It is one of the busiest rail stations in the world, and a hub for inbound and outbound railroad traffic in New York City. The New York City Subway system also...
) in midtown 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...
, and its transmitter is atop the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
. The station currently plays a Hot Adult Contemporary music format
Music radio
Music radio is a radio format in which music is the main broadcast content. After television replaced old time radio's dramatic content, music formats became dominant in many countries...
. It is the home of the Scott and Todd in the Morning show.
Early years
The station went on the air in 1948 under the call signCall 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...
WJZ-FM, and in 1953, the station's call letters were changed to WABC-FM following the merger of the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
with United Paramount Theatres
United Paramount Theatres
Plitt Theatres was one of the largest chain of cinemas in the United States.The theater chain was divested from Paramount Pictures as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. ....
. As most FM stations did during the medium's formative years, 95.5 FM 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...
ed the programming of its AM sister station.
During the mid and late 1960s, WABC-FM programmed Broadway Show Tunes on an automated basis and carried New York Mets
New York Mets
The New York Mets are a professional baseball team based in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York. They belong to Major League Baseball's National League East Division. One of baseball's first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New York's departed National League...
baseball games. They also continued to simulcast its AM sister station during various dayparts, like morning drive time.
In June 1968, 24 year old Allen Shaw was hired from WCFL
WCFL
WCFL may refer to:* WCFL , a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, United States, which held the call sign WCFL from June 1926 to May 1987* WCFL-FM , a radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois from 1948 to January 1950....
radio in Chicago, by ABC Radio Stations President, Hal Neal, to program all 7 of the ABC Owned FM Radio Stations in a new album rock format. There was very little budget for ABC's FM stations at that time, so Shaw was told that the new rock format would have to be totally automated. Shaw designed the "LOVE"
format, with John "Brother John" Rydgren as the only DJ on the air 24 hours a day. 25 hours
of long-form tapes were recorded at WABC-FM for playback on the ABC FM stations. WABC-FM played rock bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, and Chicago. Village Voice
columnist, Howard Smith, was hired to do recorded interviews with the counter-culture icons
of that period: John Lennon, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Andy Warhol, Abbie Hoffman, Bill
Graham, Peter Fonda, and many others. In 1970 Shaw hired Bob Lewis, known as "Bob-A-Lu" on
WABC/770, to do a live evening show on WABC-FM. In the late fall of 1968, he played some cuts from a pre-release tape of the Beatles White Album. Later, Shaw hired Dave Herman from 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....
in Philadelphia, Tony Pigg from KSAN-FM in San Francisco and Jimmy Fink
Jimmy Fink
Jimmy Fink is a New York radio personality, born and raised in Eastchester, New York. He is also part of the Fink family which owned the Fink Bakery, a city fixture from 1888 to 2000 and located in Manhattan and Long Island City. - Career :...
, a native New Yorker to do additional live show on the station. In September 1970, Allen Shaw was named Vice President of the 7 ABC Owned FM Radio Stations as ABC decided to separate the AM and FM stations in terms of management. WABC-FM broadcast a live radio concert by Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
on November 17, 1970, which was issued as the 11-17-70 album the following year by Uni Records
Uni Records
Uni Records was a record label owned by MCA Inc. The brand, which long featured a distinct UNi logo, was established in 1966 by MCA executive Ned Tanen and developed by music industry veteran Russ Regan...
, and it also broadcast live the closing concerts of the Fillmore East
Fillmore East
The Fillmore East was rock promoter Bill Graham's rock venue on Second Avenue near East 6th Street in the East Village neighborhood of the Manhattan borough of New York City. It was open from 1968 to 1971, and featured some of the biggest acts in rock music at the time...
theatre on June 27, 1971.
AOR years
In late 1970, Allen Shaw decided to install a 100% live "free form" rock format and hired John Zacherle, Vin Scelsa, and Michael Cuscuna (from WMMRWMMR
WMMR is an active rock radio station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, broadcasting at 93.3 MHz FM. The station is owned by Greater Media....
and WXPN
WXPN
WXPN is a non-commercial, public radio station operated by the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia that broadcasts a music radio format called adult album alternative , along with many other format shows supported all with an indie slant...
in Philadelphia) to do live shows on the station. On February 14, 1971, the station changed its call sign to WPLJ after Allen Shaw noticed the call letters as the name of a song on the Mothers of Invention record, "Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Burnt Weeny Sandwich is a live and studio compilation album by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, released in 1970 ....
" (1970). The song, "WPLJ", was originally performed by the Four Deuces
Four Deuces
The Four Deuces were an American rhythm and blues vocal quartet, formed in the mid-1950s in Salinas, California. The band was started by lead singer Luther McDaniel, and recorded several songs before they broke up in 1959...
in 1955 and stood for "White Port and Lemon Juice".
The station became a politically radical and musically eclectic voice of the counter-culture.
It received positive critical reviews from the "underground" press, but did not generate a large enough audience to become financially viable.
In September 1971, Allen Shaw and ABC Programming Executive Bob Henaberry designed and pioneered the very first AOR (album oriented rock) format, playing only the best cuts from the best selling rock albums with a minimum of disc jockey talk. The slogan of the station was
"Rock 'N Stereo". The station would play the music of artists such as Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
, 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...
, Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "The Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many...
, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
, Cream
Cream (band)
Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...
, The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers
The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. The group has sold over 40 million units worldwide throughout their career. The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.-Original incarnation:...
, Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
, Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, Deep Purple
Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...
, Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
, and The Allman Brothers. The station would also play pop songs from artists such as 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....
, Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
and Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
. The station was different from Top 40 stations (such as co-owned WABC) in that they played more album tracks. The audience ratings shot up dramatically, and
WPLJ became New York's most listened-to FM rock station for most of the 1970s.
In 1973, Allen Shaw brought Willard Lochridge, the General Manager of sister station WRIF in Detroit, to New York to manage WPLJ. Lochridge then brought Larry Berger, Program Director of WRIF, to WPLJ.
Larry Berger took over as Program Director of WPLJ in 1974, and the station adopted the slogan "New York's Best Rock". Some of the personalities on the station during this period included Jim Kerr, 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...
, Jimmy Fink
Jimmy Fink
Jimmy Fink is a New York radio personality, born and raised in Eastchester, New York. He is also part of the Fink family which owned the Fink Bakery, a city fixture from 1888 to 2000 and located in Manhattan and Long Island City. - Career :...
, Carol Miller, Tony Pigg, 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...
, and Dave Charity. Berger himself hosted a Sunday night call-in show, during which he would discuss the station with listeners, but would decline to discuss the specifics of the music playlist, something many listeners were concerned with. During these call-in segments, callers suggested that the station sped up or "pitched up" the music so that they could fit in more commercials while still being able to claim that they played a large number of songs per hour. Berger repeatedly denied that this practice was in use at WPLJ. In the 20 September 1999 episode of Crap from the Past, host Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber suggested that music was sped up on WPLJ to make the same music sound less dynamic on other stations.
Another Sunday night show begun in 1975 was then-Father Bill Ayres
Bill Ayres
Bill Ayres is a talk radio host and Executive Director and co-founder of World Hunger Year.Ayres became a Catholic priest for the Archdiocese in New York in 1966, but always had a fondness for radio broadcasting, starting as WGSM on Long Island. He began hosting and producing a weekly radio talk...
' long-running On This Rock, which mixed spirituality and social consciousness together with the music of Harry Chapin
Harry Chapin
Harry Forster Chapin was an American singer-songwriter best known in particular for his folk rock songs including "Taxi", "W*O*L*D", and the number-one hit "Cat's in the Cradle". Chapin was also a dedicated humanitarian who fought to end world hunger; he was a key player in the creation of the...
, Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...
, and others. Bill Ayres was a Roman Catholic Priest with the Archdiocese of New York City. The show also aired on its sister station WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
on Sunday mornings within the last years of its Top 40
Top Forty
The Top Forty or Top 40 is a music industry shorthand for the currently most-popular songs in a particular genre. When used without qualification, it typically refers to the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music songs of the previous week...
music format. Bill Ayres eventually left the priesthood in the 1980s but continues to host a call in Sunday night show today on the station.
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
artists such as Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
(there was a nightly "Get the Led Out" segment), Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath are an English heavy metal band, formed in Aston, Birmingham in 1969 by Ozzy Osbourne , Tony Iommi , Geezer Butler , and Bill Ward . The band has since experienced multiple line-up changes, with Tony Iommi the only constant presence in the band through the years. A total of 22...
, Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
, Kansas
Kansas (band)
Kansas is an American rock band that became popular in the 1970s initially on Album-Oriented Rock charts, and later with hit singles such as "Carry On Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind"...
, Boston
Boston (band)
Boston is an American rock band from Boston, Massachusetts that achieved its most notable successes during the 1970s and 1980s. Centered on guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, and producer Tom Scholz, the band is a staple of classic rock radio playlists...
, and Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
, who happened to get less airplay than on competing station WNEW-FM. At this point, the station stopped playing pop songs, and their audience ratings remained good.
During its album-oriented phase, the station was noted for its promotional montages, snippets of classic-rock songs spliced together emphasizing a particular subject, such as gasoline (during the gas shortages of the 1970s).
In 1982, WPLJ got a direct competitor in WAPP
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...
, which adopted a near-identical AOR format to WPLJ (WAPP launnched its rock format commercial-free and remained so for the summer of 1982). WAPP beat WPLJ in the ratings in the Fall of 1982, and WPLJ reacted by adding more New Wave
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...
such as A Flock of Seagulls
A Flock of Seagulls
A Flock of Seagulls are an English New Wave band originally formed by brothers Michael "Mike" Score and Alister "Ali" James Score , with Frank Maudsley , Michael Kuby , H.J...
, Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Go-Go's
The Go-Go's
The Go-Go’s are an all-female American rock band formed in 1978. They made history as the first all-female band that both wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top the Billboard album charts....
, Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
, Men at Work
Men at Work
Men at Work are an Australian rock band who achieved international success in the 1980s. They are the only Australian artists to have a simultaneous #1 album and #1 single in the United States . They achieved the same distinction of a simultaneous #1 album and #1 single in the United Kingdom...
and Soft Cell
Soft Cell
Soft Cell are an English synthpop duo who came to prominence in the early 1980s. They consist of vocalist Marc Almond and instrumentalist David Ball. The duo is most widely known for their 1981 worldwide hit version of "Tainted Love" and platinum debut Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret...
, mixed in with the usual AOR fare. WPLJ's ratings ended up being better than those of WAPP after WAPP started playing commercials in the Fall of 1982. In early 1983, the station added "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, playing it several times a day (note that many AOR stations including WNEW-FM added that song and it did chart on the rock tracks chart). In March, WPLJ added "Beat it" by Michael Jackson, which received very positive reaction. While Jackson was not a typical AOR artist, that cut was played by many AOR stations due to Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...
's role in the song. The station also dropped most 1960s songs by May and was cutting back on AOR artists while playing more modern rockers.
During this time WPLJ's logo was very similar to its sister station KLOS
KLOS
KLOS is an FM rock music radio station based in Los Angeles, California, that debuted in 1969. The station is owned by Cumulus Media. It is home to the nationally broadcast Mark & Brian radio show, and Off The Record host Uncle Joe Benson.-History:...
in 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...
.
CHR and Hot AC years
In the Spring of 1983 the station began a transition from AOR to CHR (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...
). With word that a Top 40 hits format was coming to 100.3 FM, WPLJ moved further into a CHR direction. Though the station began playing artists like Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, Larry Berger stated that he did not make the decision to move to a CHR format until the last week of June, and WPLJ adopted a Rock leaning CHR format on June 30, 1983. At this point the station played predominantly AOR and New Wave rock cuts but would mix in two or three rhythmic pop cuts like "Flashdance"/Irene Cara
Irene Cara
Irene Cara is an American singer and actress. Cara won an Academy Award in 1984 in the category of Best Original Song for co-writing "Flashdance... What a Feeling." She is also known for her recording of the song "Fame", and she also starred in the 1980 film Fame.She married Hollywood stuntman...
, "Time"/Culture Club
Culture Club
Culture Club are a British rock band who were part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band consisted of Boy George , Mikey Craig , Roy Hay and Jon Moss...
, "She Works Hard for the Money"/Donna Summer
Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines , known by her stage name, Donna Summer, is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach...
, and a few others. The station maintained its "New York's Best Rock" slogan, even though the station moved away from playing predominantly rock songs. Larry Berger discussed the changes on his call-in show in July of 1983, to the disapproving reaction from the rock audience. (Competitors WNBC
WFAN
WFAN , also known as "Sports Radio 66" or "The FAN", is a radio station in New York City. The station broadcasts on a clear channel and is owned by CBS Radio...
had been a defacto Top 40 AM station while WYNY had been the de-facto FM hits station throughout the early 1980s, playing many current songs as part of their hot adult-contemporary format). WPLJ's airstaff, which stayed on during the early transition months, would gradually change, as WNEW-FM picked up some of the station's best-known rock DJs, such as Carol Miller and Pat St. John. (Morning man Jim Kerr and sidekick Shelli Sonstein would remain with the station through the end of the decade.) Jimmy Fink
Jimmy Fink
Jimmy Fink is a New York radio personality, born and raised in Eastchester, New York. He is also part of the Fink family which owned the Fink Bakery, a city fixture from 1888 to 2000 and located in Manhattan and Long Island City. - Career :...
, Tony Pigg and Marc Coppola
Marc Coppola (actor)
Marc "The Cope" Coppola is an American actor and DJ currently working for KGB-FM in San Diego, California & WAXQ/WLTW in New York City.-Personal life:...
eventually moved to Infinity Broadcasting's rock K-Rock (WXRK) when it debuted a couple of years later.
In August 1983, at the same time WHTZ (Z100) was launched across town, WPLJ was known as "The Home of the Hits" and in October added top-forty-type jingles. So in a way it was "New York's Hit Music Station" just before Z-100
WHTZ
WHTZ — branded Z100 — is a commercial pop/contemporary hit radio radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey serving the New York metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by Clear Channel Communications...
went on the air. The following spring, WPLJ identified itself very briefly as 'The new Musicradio PLJ' before switching to 'Hitradio 95' WPLJ just a few days later. In 1985, the station became known on-air as "Power 95". Ratings went up after switching to CHR, though they were still just behind Z100 most of the time. The double-whammy of Top 40 on one end and light-music 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...
proved the kiss of death for the AC format on WYNY, which eventually went country.
In December 1987, the station changed its call letters to WWPR (to complement its "Power 95.5" slogan), but flipped the call sign back to WPLJ the following year when research indicated that listeners still identified 95.5 as WPLJ. (It has been said that competitor Z100 joked before WPLJ's call letter change that the "PR" in the calls stood for "Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
" and that the station planned to flip to Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
.) 105.1 in New York City later adopted the WWPR-FM
WWPR-FM
WWPR-FM, also known as "Power 105.1", is an urban contemporary radio station that features hip hop and R&B licensed to New York City that serves the Greater New York area....
call sign for its urban pop format.
WPLJ continued to be successful until 1990, when ratings started to decline. With significant pop competition - Hot 97 playing dance and urban pop songs, and Z100 playing mainstream pop music - WPLJ began to lean towards pop-rock hits. Larry Berger departed the station in 1988, replaced in early 1989 by Gary Bryan from KUBE in Seattle. Bryan served as program director and ultimately morning show host, ousting 20-year WPLJ morning host veteran Jim Kerr. Bryan lasted barely a year at WPLJ, then crossing the street to competitor Z100 for Morning Zoo host duty. Bryan was replaced by Tom Cuddy as VP of Programming, who installed Rocky Allen from WKSE in Buffalo for morning drive. WPLJ began to regain some momentum but in a stunning move in the Spring of '91, Cuddy and general manager Mitch Dolan hired Scott Shannon
Scott Shannon
Michael Scott Shannon is a radio disc jockey, current co-host of the "Scott and Todd in the Morning" show on WPLJ, host of The True Oldies Channel, and the official voice of The Sean Hannity Show.-Early Radio Career:...
, who had just left his rock hits LA radio project, Pirate Radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
. Shannon, the architect responsible for Z100's early success and their first legendary Morning Zoo host, took over as WPLJ's program director and morning show host (replacing Rocky Allen) in April 1991. The station began referring to itself as "Mojo Radio" in the spring of 1991.
The 1990s
Since 1991, the morning driveDrive time
Drive time is the daypart analog to prime time for radio broadcasting. It consists of the morning hours when listeners wake up, get ready, and/or head to work or school, and the afternoon hours when they are heading home and before their evening meal. These are the periods where the number of...
slot at WPLJ has been hosted by Scott Shannon
Scott Shannon
Michael Scott Shannon is a radio disc jockey, current co-host of the "Scott and Todd in the Morning" show on WPLJ, host of The True Oldies Channel, and the official voice of The Sean Hannity Show.-Early Radio Career:...
and Todd Pettengill
Todd Pettengill
Todd Clark Pettengill is a radio disc jockey for WPLJ 95.5 in the New York area. He is perhaps best known for his tenure in the World Wrestling Federation as an on-screen interviewer in the mid-to-late 1990s.-Radio career:...
, and is known as the Scott and Todd Big Show. It has about one million listeners per week, and its trademark segments include "Knuckleheads in the News", "Phone Scams", and song parodies. By the fall of 1991, the station played mainstream pop music, and ratings went up slightly. This period also saw the formation of the standard bearer hot adult contemporary format - at about the same time a slightly different version was being pioneered in Houston at KHMX. In an attempt to differentiate itself from its competitors, WPLJ adopted the slogan "No Rap, No Hard Stuff, No Sleepy Elevator Music, Just the Best Songs On the Radio."
The station playlist featured many songs familiar only to New Yorkers and "oh wow" type oldies that would not have been normal for the format in other markets. (In a bit of irony, WPLJ may have helped pioneer many of the concepts made popular by the diverse playlist, music-intense Jack FM
Jack FM
JACK FM is the alternative name and on-air brand of 60 radio stations in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Jack stations play a mix of 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s hits with some current hot adult contemporary singles. Jack's slogan "playing what we want" can also be...
format of 2005.) WPLJ now mixed in liberal doses of disco and did regular theme weekends featuring "One Hit Wonders" and "#1 Songs" among others. Eventually, it also dedicated Monday-Saturday nights to playing nothing but 1970s music, with former WKTU legend Al Bandiero, a practice that continued for the next few years. In the mid-1990s, Rocky Allen
Rocky Allen
Rocky Allen is an American talk radio personality and host of the eponymous Rocky Allen Showgram. It aired, most recently, from 3 to 7 pm ET on FM station WPLJ, New York...
returned to WPLJ, this time to do afternoon drive for several years until moving to WABC for the morning drive slot. Allen returned again to WPLJ in late 2005.
Modern AC years
In January 1999, WPLJ abruptly moved to a modern adult contemporary (Modern AC) format, a variation of the Hot AC format. The station eliminated all 1970s music from the playlist and used the slogan "New York's Hit Music Station Without the Rap" in an attempt to distance themselves from competitors that played rap music. But, the "modern AC" had peaked in 1997-98 and the station transitioned back to a hot adult contemporary format, with its playlist consisting of songs from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.In 2005, with ratings in decline, WPLJ once again started to play more music from the 1970s and 1980s. Given its heritage as both a rock station in the 1970s and for championing a novel hot AC mix in the early and mid-1990s, many people in the radio business saw this move as a precursor to the station switching to a "Jack FM
Jack FM
JACK FM is the alternative name and on-air brand of 60 radio stations in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Jack stations play a mix of 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s hits with some current hot adult contemporary singles. Jack's slogan "playing what we want" can also be...
"-type format. However, they were beaten by 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....
, which abruptly switched from oldies to the 'Jack' format on June 3, 2005. WPLJ returned to playing music of the late 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and the present.
While not an overall ratings success, WPLJ has for years been among the more financially successful stations in the New York City market, billing in excess of 40 million dollars per year. WPLJ does extremely well with adult women in the lucrative nine northern New Jersey counties adjacent to New York City.
During its Top 40 hit years, WPLJ used jingles from JAM Creative Productions
JAM Creative Productions
JAM Creative Productions, Inc., is an American company that produces radio jingles, promo music for television, and commercial jingles for advertisers. It has made more radio jingles than any other jingle company and has become part of American pop culture....
, some of which were packages previously used on sister station WABC during its Top 40 days, but since becoming a Hot AC station, WPLJ has used jingles from TM Studios.
WPLJ, along with WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
, was included in the sale of ABC Radio and the ABC Radio Networks by the Walt Disney Company to Citadel, announced in February 2006 and finalized on June 12, 2007.
WPLJ today
In late February 2008 the Rocky Allen Showgram featuring Rocky AllenRocky Allen
Rocky Allen is an American talk radio personality and host of the eponymous Rocky Allen Showgram. It aired, most recently, from 3 to 7 pm ET on FM station WPLJ, New York...
and Blain Ensley was dropped as part of a company-wide series of staff cutbacks at Citadel. WPLJ's digital HD2 channel broadcasts programming from Scott Shannon
Scott Shannon
Michael Scott Shannon is a radio disc jockey, current co-host of the "Scott and Todd in the Morning" show on WPLJ, host of The True Oldies Channel, and the official voice of The Sean Hannity Show.-Early Radio Career:...
's The True Oldies Channel
The True Oldies Channel
The True Oldies Channel is a syndicated radio programming stream begun in the spring of 2004, hosted by American radio personality Scott Shannon...
from ABC Radio, while their HD3 channel is a simulcast of WABC
WABC (AM)
WABC , known as "NewsTalkRadio 77 WABC" is a radio station in New York City. Owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media, the station broadcasts on a clear channel and is the flagship station of Cumulus Media Networks...
. On February 16, 2009 WPLJ started airing the syndicated program The Billy Bush Show.
In April 2009 WPLJ adopted a new slogan, "Scott and Todd in the Morning and Today's Best Music."
WPLJ introduced a new logo in July 2009.
Citadel merged with Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media
Cumulus Media, Inc. is the second largest Owner and Operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States, behind Clear Channel Communications, operating 570 stations in 150 markets as of September 16, 2011. The company also owns Cumulus Media Networks...
on September 16, 2011. By October 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,...
, Nielsen BDS moved rival WWFS (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...
) from the AC panel to the hot AC panel, giving New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
two hot adult contemporary stations, although 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...
moved the station to the hot AC panel later that month. This gave New York City two hot adult contemporary stations for the first time since the 1998
1998 in radio
The year 1998 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:*January 2 — A gunman shoots Antario Teodoro Filho, Brazilian politician and radio presenter, during a broadcast.*January 21 - Big 105 debuts playing its AC format...
, when WBIX (now urban contemporary
Urban contemporary
Urban contemporary is a music radio format. The term was coined by the late New York DJ Frankie Crocker in the mid 1970s. Urban contemporary radio stations feature a playlist made up entirely of hip hop/rap, contemporary R&B, pop, electronica such as dubstep and drum and bass and Caribbean music...
radio station WWPR-FM
WWPR-FM
WWPR-FM, also known as "Power 105.1", is an urban contemporary radio station that features hip hop and R&B licensed to New York City that serves the Greater New York area....
) dropped it for a rhythmic oldies
Rhythmic oldies
Rhythmic Oldies is a radio format that concentrates on the rhythmic, disco or dance genres of music. Playlists may span from the 1970s through the early 1990s...
format. Prior to the hot AC transition at WWFS. WWFS had been leaning hot adult contemporary even though it reported as AC per 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...
& Nielsen BDS from 2007
2007 in radio
The year 2007 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:*January 8: Nanci "The Fabulous Sports Babe" Donnellan returns to radio after a six-year absence, filling in for local hosts in Florida....
-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,...
.
Current On-air personalities
|
Current Programming
Scott & Todd In The Morning (1991-present)Saturday Night '80s (1998–2010; 2011-present)