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FM Stations in NYC in 1965
- Thread starter davideduardo
- Start date
FM Program Guide magazine. Published in New York and full of ads from local stations as well as full program schedules. Will soon be on WorldRadioHistory. I have a number of issues, as well as several other FM magazines from the 60's.
I remember WBGO growing up in the area, they had a tower on The Newark Board of Education Building, I am pretty sure it was their building at the time, in Newark, NJ, on High St. now Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. (south of Central Av.)
Today the NBOE is in a different location. and WBGO tower is in NYC and no longer owned by NBOE.
The building/street was located on a slight hill looking east at downtown Newark (close by) & NYC in the distance. Tower, guessing, was at least 100-175 feet high on roof top.
Also, regarding FM in the NYC area, it was around 1966 it "bloomed" . . . WOR-FM 98.7 made its debut playing RnR. Young teens started to buy AM/FM receivers/tuners/amps, turntables and speakers . . . in the NYC area it was the real beginning of FM for young people. I got an FM converter for my 61 Chevy Impala!!!
WABC did play its AM RnR format on FM but very few listened to it prior to 1965 . . . also WNEW-FM 102.7 made its debut with Underground RnR that went over big.
The building was Central High School. They were only on the air during school hours, which is something that was very unusual at the time. A number of community groups said that it was underutilizing the frequency. It's possible it wasn't included in the FM guide because it was primarily an instructional radio station. But WNYE was basically the same thing. I don't know if they were on the air for more hours.
Arbitron made its first survey of New York City in May 1965, here's how the FMs fared in that survey... yes, 10.4 shares for FM (the top 3 stations that survey, WABC, WOR and WMCA, each had a larger share than the FMs combined.)
12. WPAT-FM 1.8
13. WTFM 1.7
14t. WQXR-FM 1.5
14t. WPIX-FM 1.5
17. WNEW-FM 0.8
18t. WVNJ-FM 0.7
18t. WRFM 0.7
20t. WNYC-FM 0.4
20t. WOR-FM 0.4
20t. WCBS-FM 0.4
23. WABC-FM 0.3
24t. WNBC-FM 0.2
12. WPAT-FM 1.8
13. WTFM 1.7
14t. WQXR-FM 1.5
14t. WPIX-FM 1.5
17. WNEW-FM 0.8
18t. WVNJ-FM 0.7
18t. WRFM 0.7
20t. WNYC-FM 0.4
20t. WOR-FM 0.4
20t. WCBS-FM 0.4
23. WABC-FM 0.3
24t. WNBC-FM 0.2
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Interesting (to me) that 104.7 Poughkeepsie wasn't included (probably WKIP-FM then; now WSPK). A friend who grew up in Englewood, New Jersey told me he picked that up all the time; when I worked at WSPK/WBNR, one of the owners of the station claimed it could be received in Manhattan...which might have been a stretch.
Because FM radio at that time was primarily for fans of classical and beautiful music. Those were the two main FM formats at the time. It was, as the cover says, "fine home entertainment." People bought FM Guide to see what classical works would be played on the radio. Radio stations did their programming weeks in advance so it could be published in FM Guide or the New York Times. Some people would use these program guides to do home recording of the radio. FM radio was a hobby. Then the kids who listened to pop music on AM discovered FM and ruined everything.
Why did WPLJ 95.5 go off the air?
Huh? The station was sold to EMF and still uses the same call letters for K-Love.
Not sure what your question is. If it's why you aren't seeing WPLJ in those listings, it's because, back then, it was still WABC-FM/95.5. They didn't switch to their own calls until 1971.
I know they were their sister station. My question was why they went off the air?
They're still on the air now, and still use the WPLJ call letters. The station was sold to EMF and they run the K-Love format.
They still show up in the NYC ratings as WPLJ.
| 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.8 | WPLJ-FM | 95.5 K-Love | Christian AC | K-Love Inc. | 694,700 |
WPAT, WQXR, WNEW, WVNJ, WNYC, WOR, WCBS, WABC and WNBC were all simulcasts of their more popular AM sister stations, so the fair comparison is to add the AM's and the FM's together to get each station's combined listenership.
Among the standalone FMs, WTFM surprises me. Back then it was either still transmitting from Queens (their tower could be seen from the Long Island Expressway near Utopia Pkwy, where the studios also were), or had recently moved to the Chrysler Building with a directional antenna to the east, so their signal was inferior west of the Hudson. And yet, 'TFM garnered a 1.7 as a semi-competitive standalone. (I know it was the FM station that played in my house, hour after hour, anytime my mom fired up the big, "But it's beautiful furniture! 🤣 " console radio in our living room.) That tells me they must have had a disproportionately high share of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Nassau County.
WRFM was also a standalone, also playing beautiful music. Maybe they were still owned by Sonderling and were still transmitting from Woodside, Queens in those days. If they had already made the move to Empire, I'd have expected them to be doing much better.
WOR in those days was all-talk (except on weekends and a few records an hour during the Rambling with Gambling AM Drive show), so there was little benefit to listening to their FM simulcast, since their 710 AM signal was so strong, clean and dominant back then. WNBC was also largely talk, so ditto. But the other simulcasts were BM or classical, or in WCBS's case, a "Dead in the Middle of the Road" format which might have benefited a little bit -- like 0.4 share points -- from being on FM. But after the FCC issued its non-duplication edict in '65, and WOR-FM launched in the summer of '66, FM in NYC was literally off to the races.
Ok, thanks.
Of course it was around that time that the FCC issued its rule about simulcasting AM on FM. That changed everything. FM stations were prohibited from duplicating more than 50% of the company's AM programming. The rule took effect in 1967.
There were exceptions to the simulcast rule. Some classical stations were exempt.
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Yes, there were exceptions for daytime AMs, markets less than 100 thousand and some case by case ones for special programming.
The most interesting case was WPAT AM&FM in the New York metro where they taped one station and played it back later on the other.
I was wondering about that. I think they used the Schulke BM format. I read that WHOM and WEVD applied for and received exemptions.
WPAT did their own programming. When we bought WPAT AM in the later 90’s, we inherited the whole music library and the old home brew tapes.