New York and Two CHR Stations

[radiofan2023]

That’s all I’ll ever think of whenever I see Metheny’s name.

I liked Stern's impression of him

 

[RoddyFreeman]

I stopped listening to WYNY when Dan Daniel was replaced as the morning DJ by the team of Harris and Harris. I also thought Lite-FM took listeners away from WYNY.

Daniel was replaced in mornings on WYNY by Bruce Bradley in August, 1981. Dan Daniel then took over afternoons.

 

[CentralFL]

Does anyone know when and how WNNNBC transitioned from hot AC into the unusual mix of oldies and talk in it's final years? (I stopped listening to them when WPLJ became CHR.)

 

[Gregg.]

Getting back to the original post, I thought the competition between WPLJ and Z100 was a great era in NYC Radio. 1983 to 1990.

In early 1993, WPLJ began a gradual transition from AOR to Top 40. For most of its history, WPLJ had been a pop-leaning AOR, playing Marvin Gaye and Earth Wind & Fire in its mix. When George Benson's "Breezin'" album was in the top 10, WPLJ played songs from it frequently, between the Rolling Stones and Who songs.

Knowing somebody was going to switch to Top 40, ABC figured WPLJ should do it first. But it was gradual because WPLJ didn't want to lose its young female listeners, who management believed would stay with the station through its transition, even if the male listeners would leave. Then Z100 burst on the scene in August 1993 and the battle had begun.

It was a race that both stations would win. WPLJ aimed more at 18+ women. It kept its popular morning show with Jim Kerr & Shelli Sonstein, and its afternoon show with Pat St. John. In the 12+ ratings, WPLJ was usually #2 or 3, and even hit #1 once. Meanwhile Z100 was almost always #1 but with a slightly younger and more male audience. I was a longtime WPLJ listener during its AOR days. I liked the transition and stayed with it as a Top 40 outlet. Z100 was a bit more brash than I liked and I wasn't a fan of the Z Morning Zoo with Scott Shannon.

This was a rare time when two Top 40 stations were so dominant in the ratings. I'm not sure there were any markets, then or now, where two Top 40 stations were so highly rated, one at #1, one at #2, 3 or 4.

 

[Huff]

Getting back to the original post, I thought the competition between WPLJ and Z100 was a great era in NYC Radio. 1983 to 1990.

In early 1993, WPLJ began a gradual transition from AOR to Top 40. For most of its history, WPLJ had been a pop-leaning AOR, playing Marvin Gaye and Earth Wind & Fire in its mix. When George Benson's "Breezin'" album was in the top 10, WPLJ played songs from it frequently, between the Rolling Stones and Who songs.

Knowing somebody was going to switch to Top 40, ABC figured WPLJ should do it first. But it was gradual because WPLJ didn't want to lose its young female listeners, who management believed would stay with the station through its transition, even if the male listeners would leave. Then Z100 burst on the scene in August 1993 and the battle had begun.

It was a race that both stations would win. WPLJ aimed more at 18+ women. It kept its popular morning show with Jim Kerr & Shelli Sonstein, and its afternoon show with Pat St. John. In the 12+ ratings, WPLJ was usually #2 or 3, and even hit #1 once. Meanwhile Z100 was almost always #1 but with a slightly younger and more male audience. I was a longtime WPLJ listener during its AOR days. I liked the transition and stayed with it as a Top 40 outlet. Z100 was a bit more brash than I liked and I wasn't a fan of the Z Morning Zoo with Scott Shannon.

This was a rare time when two Top 40 stations were so dominant in the ratings. I'm not sure there were any markets, then or now, where two Top 40 stations were so highly rated, one at #1, one at #2, 3 or 4.

Just to clarify, it was 1983. And it wasn't as gradual as most transitions. It wasn't a hard "flip" - AOR one day, CHR the next, but it was not a slow evolution either... and a lot of it was 'PLJ trying not to tip its play to the industry or the competition. Lots of AOR stations played jazz back in the late 70s, so EW&F or "Breezin'" wasn't necessarily out of place or a prelude to their move to CHR (R&R even had a "Jazz on AOR" subset chart at one point.)

(I can't load images at the moment, but here is the link to the July 1983 interview with WPLJ PD Larry Berger, where he coyly avoids confirming the station's switch, but also confirms it.)

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Business/Music/Archive-RandR-IDX/IDX/80s/83/RR-1983-07-22-OCR-Page-0003.pdf

 

[CentralFL]

Getting back to the original post, I thought the competition between WPLJ and Z100 was a great era in NYC Radio. 1983 to 1990.

In early 1993, WPLJ began a gradual transition from AOR to Top 40. For most of its history, WPLJ had been a pop-leaning AOR, playing Marvin Gaye and Earth Wind & Fire in its mix. When George Benson's "Breezin'" album was in the top 10, WPLJ played songs from it frequently, between the Rolling Stones and Who songs.

Knowing somebody was going to switch to Top 40, ABC figured WPLJ should do it first. But it was gradual because WPLJ didn't want to lose its young female listeners, who management believed would stay with the station through its transition, even if the male listeners would leave. Then Z100 burst on the scene in August 1993 and the battle had begun.

It was a race that both stations would win. WPLJ aimed more at 18+ women. It kept its popular morning show with Jim Kerr & Shelli Sonstein, and its afternoon show with Pat St. John. In the 12+ ratings, WPLJ was usually #2 or 3, and even hit #1 once. Meanwhile Z100 was almost always #1 but with a slightly younger and more male audience. I was a longtime WPLJ listener during its AOR days. I liked the transition and stayed with it as a Top 40 outlet. Z100 was a bit more brash than I liked and I wasn't a fan of the Z Morning Zoo with Scott Shannon.

This was a rare time when two Top 40 stations were so dominant in the ratings. I'm not sure there were any markets, then or now, where two Top 40 stations were so highly rated, one at #1, one at #2, 3 or 4.

Getting back to the original post, I thought the competition between WPLJ and Z100 was a great era in NYC Radio. 1983 to 1990.

In early 1993, WPLJ began a gradual transition from AOR to Top 40. For most of its history, WPLJ had been a pop-leaning AOR, playing Marvin Gaye and Earth Wind & Fire in its mix. When George Benson's "Breezin'" album was in the top 10, WPLJ played songs from it frequently, between the Rolling Stones and Who songs.

Knowing somebody was going to switch to Top 40, ABC figured WPLJ should do it first. But it was gradual because WPLJ didn't want to lose its young female listeners, who management believed would stay with the station through its transition, even if the male listeners would leave. Then Z100 burst on the scene in August 1993 and the battle had begun.

It was a race that both stations would win. WPLJ aimed more at 18+ women. It kept its popular morning show with Jim Kerr & Shelli Sonstein, and its afternoon show with Pat St. John. In the 12+ ratings, WPLJ was usually #2 or 3, and even hit #1 once. Meanwhile Z100 was almost always #1 but with a slightly younger and more male audience. I was a longtime WPLJ listener during its AOR days. I liked the transition and stayed with it as a Top 40 outlet. Z100 was a bit more brash than I liked and I wasn't a fan of the Z Morning Zoo with Scott Shannon.

This was a rare time when two Top 40 stations were so dominant in the ratings. I'm not sure there were any markets, then or now, where two Top 40 stations were so highly rated, one at #1, one at #2, 3 or 4.

Agree WPLJ always had a "friendlier" presentation.

 

[Gregg.]

Just to clarify, it was 1983. And it wasn't as gradual as most transitions. It wasn't a hard "flip" - AOR one day, CHR the next, but it was not a slow evolution either.

Well, I guess it all depends on how we define "gradual." As Huff says, Program Director Larry Berger didn't want to tip other stations off to what WPLJ was doing. At first, the station added "Beat It" by Michael Jackson. But the reason given was that Eddie Van Halen performed the guitar solo. This began about five months before Z100's debut. So WPLJ had time. It didn't know when another NYC station was going to flip to Top 40 but it knew SOMEONE eventually would.

The station started adding Top 40 songs by AOR artists it hadn't played before. In her book "Up All Night" Carol Miller, then WPLJ's evening DJ, said she was on vacation when the transition began. She came home to hear Pat St. John talking up a song, something he usually didn't do as a rock DJ. And he played a Rod Stewart song that wasn't on the playlist. She doesn't say what it was, but probably "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." The station played plenty of Rod Stewart songs... but not that one.

So that's what was happening for several months. All the rock DJs stayed in place at first. But the first to go was Carol Miller, who was hired a few months later to be the evening DJ on WNEW-FM.

 

[RMarino]

The station started adding Top 40 songs by AOR artists it hadn't played before. In her book "Up All Night" Carol Miller, then WPLJ's evening DJ, said she was on vacation when the transition began. She came home to hear Pat St. John talking up a song, something he usually didn't do as a rock DJ. And he played a Rod Stewart song that wasn't on the playlist. She doesn't say what it was, but probably "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." The station played plenty of Rod Stewart songs... but not that one.

I’ve heard that story too. I believe the Rod Stewart song in question was “Baby Jane”. It was his current single at the time and it was more pop than rock.

 

[Always interested]

Well, I guess it all depends on how we define "gradual." As Huff says, Program Director Larry Berger didn't want to tip other stations off to what WPLJ was doing. At first, the station added "Beat It" by Michael Jackson. But the reason given was that Eddie Van Halen performed the guitar solo. This began about five months before Z100's debut. So WPLJ had time. It didn't know when another NYC station was going to flip to Top 40 but it knew SOMEONE eventually would.

The station started adding Top 40 songs by AOR artists it hadn't played before. In her book "Up All Night" Carol Miller, then WPLJ's evening DJ, said she was on vacation when the transition began. She came home to hear Pat St. John talking up a song, something he usually didn't do as a rock DJ. And he played a Rod Stewart song that wasn't on the playlist. She doesn't say what it was, but probably "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." The station played plenty of Rod Stewart songs... but not that one.

So that's what was happening for several months. All the rock DJs stayed in place at first. But the first to go was Carol Miller, who was hired a few months later to be the evening DJ on WNEW-FM.

Carol Miller’s first show on WNEW I believe was December 2 1983 which was a Saturday. She took over the night shift in January of 1984 when Meg Griffin left the station. I often wonder if that was the plan all a long or did Meg leave on her own ?

 

[Oldbones]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but wasn't WPIX some form of top 40 around '81/82? Seem to recall it from a few business trips to the area around then.

 

[CentralFL]

Maybe I'm misremembering, but wasn't WPIX some form of top 40 around '81/82? Seem to recall it from a few business trips to the area around then.

They may have been. I do remember they were "Love songs, nothing but love songs" from 83 for a few years.

I was a kid at that l the time and remember that's when my mother discovered something called FM.