WNEW-FM
WNEW-FM is a hot adult contemporary-formatted commercial FM radio station, licensed to New York, New York and owned by Audacy, Inc. The station's studios are located at the Audacy facility in the Hudson Square neighborhood of Manhattan, and its transmitter is located at the Empire State Building.
WNEW-FM is best remembered for one of its previous incarnations, a progressive rock radio format that began in 1967 and lasted into the 1990s. That station became influential in the development of rock music during the 1970s and 1980s.
Between 1958 and 1986, the station shared the WNEW call sign with former sister AM station WNEW and television station WNEW-TV, with all being owned by Metromedia. After WNEW-TV was sold to News Corporation in 1986 and the AM station was sold to Bloomberg L.P. in 1992, 102.7 FM retained the WNEW-FM call sign until it was changed in 2007; the call letters returned to 102.7 on March 15, 2016.
WNEW-FM broadcasts in the HD Radio format.
History
Abortive efforts
The 102.7 FM frequency was first assigned in the mid-1940s as WNJR-FM from Newark, New Jersey. Intended to be a simulcasting sister to WNJR, the FM station never made it to the air despite being granted several extensions of its construction permit. WNJR gave up and turned in the FM license to the Federal Communications Commission in 1953.In 1955 the FCC awarded a new permit for 102.7 FM to a group called Fidelity Radio Corporation, based in West Paterson, New Jersey. The station was later granted the call sign WHFI, and a year later the community of license was moved back to Newark from West Paterson. Once again, the owners failed to put the station on the air.
WNEW-FM
In November 1957, the WHFI construction permit was purchased by the DuMont Broadcasting Corporation, which already owned television station WABD and earlier in the year purchased WNEW radio. In January 1958, WHFI was renamed WNEW-FM, and DuMont completed its build-out, moving the license to New York City. The station finally came on the air on August 25, 1958, mostly simulcasting WNEW with a popular music format. DuMont Broadcasting, meanwhile, would change its corporate name twice within the next three years before settling on Metromedia in 1961.All-female DJ staff
WNEW-FM's early programming also included an automated middle-of-the-road format, followed quickly by a period playing pop music with an unusual twist in its day...an all-female air staff. The lineup of disc jockeys during this stunt included actress and TV personality Peggy Cass, Alison Steele, Rita Sands, Margaret Draper, Ann Clements, Arlene Kieta, Pam McKissick, and Nell Bassett. The music was similar to that of WNEW 's MOR format. But only Bassett, Cass, Draper, Sands and Steele had broadcast experience, and not as disc jockeys. Meanwhile, the male DJs on WNEW were still very popular, so it was hard for WNEW-FM to find an audience. The all-female disc jockey lineup endured for a little more than a year, switching in September 1967 to a mixed-gender staff, before a major change the following month."Where Rock Lives"
Origins and disc jockeys
On October 30, 1967, WNEW-FM adopted a progressive rock radio format. It was not the first in New York to do so – WOR-FM preceded it – but it was the one that prospered and became famous for the format and that in turn influenced the rock listenership as well as the rock industry. The original disc jockeys were Bill "Rosko" Mercer, who started on October 30, 1967; Jonathan Schwartz, who made his debut on November 16, 1967; and "the Professor" Scott Muni, who first appeared on November 18, 1967. Alison Steele would stay on from the female staff and eventually take over the overnight shift on January 1, 1968.The station's disc jockeys would broadcast in ways that bore out their personalities:
- morning host Dave Herman was not afraid to mix Erik Satie or Donna Summer into the playlist;
- noontime host Pete Fornatale promoted the Beach Boys when it was not fashionable and later started his eclectic weekend Mixed Bag program;
- afternoon host Muni would use his gravelly voice to introduce largely unknown British artists on his "Things from England" segments;
- nighttime host Schwartz was a raconteur who would sneak in the Sinatra pop standards that he not-so-secretly liked better than rock;
- overnight host Steele would play new-age music and space rock groups in between readings of her equally spacey poetry;
- weekend host Vin Scelsa started his idiosyncratic Idiots' Delight program, which soon gained a devoted following.
Height of influence
WNEW-FM was among the first stations to give Bruce Springsteen significant airplay, and conducted live broadcasts of key Springsteen concerts in 1975 and 1978; Springsteen would sometimes call up the DJs during records. Later, Dave Herman featured a "Bruce Juice" segment each morning. John Lennon once stopped by to guest-DJ along with Dennis Elsas and appeared on-air several other times during his friend Scott Muni's afternoon slot. Members of the Grateful Dead and other groups would hang out in the studio; Emerson, Lake & Palmer's visit to Muni's show is often credited for popularizing the group in America. In addition to music, youth-oriented comedy recordings such as from Monty Python would also be aired.The station sponsored a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden each holiday season that drew reasonably big-name acts.
The station thrived during the late 1970s when it helped boost the transition of the punk rock/new wave movement into the mainstream. During this era, the station hosted many live broadcasts from the legendary Greenwich Village night club, The Bottom Line. Among the bands featured live from the club were The Police, Joe Jackson, Squeeze, The Records, Rachel Sweet, David Johansen, Rockpile, Mink DeVille and the Tom Robinson Band. Many of these bands were being spotlighted during their debut New York City performance.
At the same time, the station began to feel the threat of disco. They hired Gianettino and Meredith Advertising to come up with a way to communicate with the New York area. The pitch by creative director George Meredith to station manager Mel Karmazin: "You can't tell them what you want to say, which is 'Disco Sucks,' but you can tell them that 'Rock Lives.'" That became their battle cry, and it could fairly be said that WNEW-FM earned the slogan "Where Rock Lives". The station's television commercials during these years featured the song "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos and was considered one of the station's anthems.
Beginning in the mid-1970s and extending into the 1980s, WNEW fielded a successful softball team, the WNEW All-Stars, playing in and around the New York metropolitan area and competing in the New York Sports and Entertainment League. Among the All-Stars were DJs Thom Morrera, Jim Monaghan, Richard Neer, Dan Neer and Pat Dawson, along with Crawdaddy editor Peter Knobler at shortstop, music business regulars Bobby Diebold, Jack Hopke, Ed Vitale, Matt Birkbeck, Ralph Cuccurullo and John "Boots" Boulos in the outfield, and Michael "Chopper" Boulos at second base. The team consistently won deep into the playoffs, playing against teams led by Meat Loaf, among others.
On the evening of December 8, 1980, Vin Scelsa broke the news of the murder of John Lennon to the WNEW-FM audience. The station became a kind of therapy center for the rock community, playing Lennon's music for 24 hours straight and opening up its lines for calls from grieving listeners.
In the 1980s, the station gradually adopted a more conventional album-oriented rock format, and sometimes seemed stodgy compared to college radio stations playing alternative rock. When long-time competitor WPLJ switched away from rock in 1983, WNEW-FM picked up some of its most popular DJs, such as Carol Miller, and years later, Pat St. John, who would take over the morning show and programming duties.
In 1986, following the sale of WNEW-TV and Metromedia's other television outlets to News Corporation, the company's radio station group was spun off from Metromedia into a new company, Metropolitan Broadcasting. Two years later, WNEW-FM was sold to Westinghouse Broadcasting, bringing it into common ownership with all-news outlet WINS. WNEW-FM and WINS became CBS-owned stations in 1996, when Westinghouse Broadcasting's corporate parent purchased the network.
Declining relevance and changes
By the 1990s, the station was further losing relevance in the face of the popularity of grunge rock and so became more of a classic rock station. It spent its remaining music days flip flopping between a variety of classic, adult album and alternative rock.On September 1, 1990, WWHB on Long Island began simulcasting WNEW-FM. The simulcast would be dropped on December 7, 1996, when WWHB flipped to country and joined a simulcast with a network of suburban stations as Y-107.
On July 7, 1995, WNEW-FM adopted an adult album alternative format. The station, which now had the slogan of "New York's Rock Alternative", evolved to an eclectic mix of adult rock by the end of 1995. Longtime listeners were alienated when Jerry Garcia's death on August 9, 1995, was virtually ignored by the station.
In January 1996, the station declined to switch to classic rock when WXRK, also known as K-Rock, which had a classic rock format for several years, decided to adopt an alternative rock format. In July 1996, WAXQ adopted a classic rock format. In January 1997, the station reverted to a classic rock format, becoming the second choice for the format when earlier they could have been first. At this point, many long-time fans felt WNEW-FM had completely lost its focus.
Throughout the 1990s, many of WNEW-FM's DJs defected to classic rock competitors WXRK and later WAXQ, or to smaller but more freeform WFUV. Ratings remained dismal. In 1996, Westinghouse merged with CBS. Infinity Broadcasting would then merge with CBS in 1997, and CBS retained the Infinity name for its radio division; thus, ownership of this station would go from one network owner to another.
In December 1997, sister station WFAN announced that WNEW-FM would be their FM flagship station after Infinity Broadcasting reached a six-year extension deal with the MSG Network and the MetroStars to simulcast their games until the 2004 season. However, in the fall of 2004, the MetroStars and the MSG Network reached a deal with Disney-owned radio station WEPN and then-sister FM station WPLJ to broadcast their games, ending their relationship with Infinity/CBS Radio.
In 1998, WNEW-FM moved to a harder-edged active rock format and continued to slump in the ratings. The remaining older DJs left on the station departed one by one during 1998. In June of that year, ex-Boston shock jocks Opie and Anthony arrived from WAAF to do afternoons on WNEW. They played several songs an hour, but for the most part, the show was a typical shock-jock talk show. Opie and Anthony immediately got attention from the station by interrupting their annual "Evolution of Rock and Roll" event by refusing to play the music, or destroying the CDs. They were confronted by WNEW peer Carol Miller a few times on the air, until they were forbidden by management to make eye contact.
With Opie and Anthony's ratings soaring, Infinity announced in June 1999 that the station would drop its 32-year rock format for a "hot talk" format in September. On September 12, 1999, sole remaining long-time jock Richard Neer signed off his Sunday morning show by playing Bruce Springsteen's dirge-like "Racing in the Street", and identifying the station one last time, changing the slogan to "Where Rock Lived". The day after, on September 13, in the run-up to 3 pm, the rock format ended with an all-request midday show by Ralph Tortora, which concluded with "Thank You" by Led Zeppelin, "Better Things" by The Kinks and "The End" by The Beatles, followed by the famous final chord of their song "A Day in the Life".