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104.7 WYDD

J

JimmyJames

Guest
I heard an ID from this that said something to the effect of "the home of future hits.."

I gather they were a CHR of sorts that played new music faster than others, can anyone fill me in on the history and music mix?
 
Others can get into even deeper detail but for years it was sort of a rimshot FM with its transmitter near New Kensington, and studios above a furniture store in downtown New Ken. The owner was Nelson Goldberg. He traded licenses with Milt Hammond, the owner of 100.7 WNUF, which is why WZPT is still licensed to New Ken.

It started off as a Jazz station, then for years in the 70s was free-form AOR. This was the legendary early FM stuff where guys played whatever they wanted for whatever reason came into their heads. Alumni of the free-form days include Sean McDowell, Steve Downes, Jack Robertson, Ron Chavis, Jim DeCesare, Larry Gerson and Bob Stevens (this station was pretty much the inspiration for his new KVE).

They always struggled with ratings, so in the 80s they became more pop, with a format called "Metro Music". Mike McQueen was the biggest of the names on the air from that era. That would also be where the the "Future hits" line most likely came from. Lots of Duran Duran, Pat Benatar, Cars, Devo, all that 80's new-wave pop/MTV stuff.

My recollection gets a little fuzzy after that, as they were sold eventually to Salem (I'm not sure if there was another owner in this era). They became a "Young Country" format called the Rebel, which blended country with southern rock (not that successful then, but almost visionary in hindsight when you see how country music has evolved). They competed not only with Y108 (which was just WDSY then), but also K-Bear on 100.7. Yes, we had 3 country stations here.

Then (and this was definitely under Salem's ownership) they became CHR Energy 105. The afternoon jock was Mike Frazer, and the night jock was the indescribable "Stereo Quad Suzie Wadd". This did not go well, and they became an easy listening format. Ken Hawk worked there then, he can fill us in on more details from that era.

Then they were sold to Clear Channel and under the WJJJ calls did Jammin' Oldies under Clarke Ingram and smooth jazz with Carl Anderson as the PD. I might have the order reversed on those two formats. Then they became Urban AC "The Beat". Clear Channel also got the tower moved to the North Side and the studios into the flashcube on Greentree Hill.

Finally they hired Quinn away from 97 Rock and went conservative talk as their current format, News Talk 104.7.

But as you can see, 104.7 has one of the most colorful histories of any station in the market, and I'm sure several others can add more.
 
And I ran out of time to edit the previous post, but there was also an alternative format called "The Revolution" somewhere around the days of the Rebel and Energy 105...
 
I thought they went from Energy 105 to smooooth jazz, as I have a very distinct memory of my friend and I being in my car and having a WTF moment as the changeover occurred.
 
corporateradiosucks said:
I thought they went from Energy 105 to smooooth jazz, as I have a very distinct memory of my friend and I being in my car and having a WTF moment as the changeover occurred.
Click to expand...

I seem to recall that smooth jazz station as well. I really liked it, then bam, they switched.
 
COPANUT said:
corporateradiosucks said:
I thought they went from Energy 105 to smooooth jazz, as I have a very distinct memory of my friend and I being in my car and having a WTF moment as the changeover occurred.
Click to expand...

I seem to recall that smooth jazz station as well. I really liked it, then bam, they switched.
Click to expand...

I always did enjoy Energy 105. I believe Rich Anton did middays and I forget who did mornings. Speaking of Stereo Quad Suzi Wadd, does anyone know if she is still on the radio?
 
Lindsay Robbins worked mid days during "The Metro" years. Went to visit the station and got a tour aroud 1984 and met many of the jocks. We were from Penn State McKeesport (WPSM) and our little campus radio station became their project and we even had Lindsay Robbins Day.
 
Todd said:
COPANUT said:
corporateradiosucks said:
I thought they went from Energy 105 to smooooth jazz, as I have a very distinct memory of my friend and I being in my car and having a WTF moment as the changeover occurred.
Click to expand...

I seem to recall that smooth jazz station as well. I really liked it, then bam, they switched.
Click to expand...

I always did enjoy Energy 105. I believe Rich Anton did middays and I forget who did mornings. Speaking of Stereo Quad Suzi Wadd, does anyone know if she is still on the radio?
Click to expand...

Dave Labrozzi was PD and did mornings with Bill McDonald....
 
Salem did not own Energy 105 WNRJ. That was the last format and station identity under Nelson Goldberg.

In the 80s, after the MetroMix era, the station called itself Y104 for a while, then Power 105, all with the WYDD calls. When it flipped to WNRJ, Bob Hank was the GM, and he hired Rich Anton from MIX 100.7 (might have been MIXJamz by then. Bob was a sales guy after having run some stations in Florida). Tony Florentino was PD.

Salem bought the station and immediately flipped it WEZE, Easy 105, playing the automated Bonneville elevator music format, after WSHH went soft AC. After losing money with the format for a couple of years, Salem flipped it to WORD, and did Christian ministry programming.

Salem then squeezed WPIT into submission by pressuring the ministries into leaving that station for WORD, before eventually buying 101.5 and 730 from Pyramid, and moving WORD to 101.5.

104.7 was then sold to Entercom, who gave us WXRB The Rebel to compliment the classic country on WDSY at the time with "today's hot country" on The Rebel.

When the station sold to SFX, they begat The Revolution, which was an alternative rock format, in the early/mid-90s. The smooth jazz station, and later Jammin' Oldies on The Beat, were mid/late-90s and early 2000s incarnations, using the WJJJ calls.

Clear Channel made the switch from jammin' oldies to hot talk around 2004 when they hired Quinn.

To answer the original question, I believe the "home of future hits" slug line was used in the early 80s, just before the MetroMusic identity, but without a format change.
 
OK, I was close... not bad for 20-30 years ago....

I was also told that Labrozzi split mid-days with Rich Anton on NRJ, and Bill McDonald did mornings with Ford Schenkel....
 
apostate said:
I believe the "home of future hits" slug line was used in the early 80s, just before the MetroMusic identity, but without a format change.
Click to expand...

I think that liner was used just after the change over from AOR was comlete. Prior to that they used the Y104 Prime Cuts tag line with the AOR format for a few years. After the change to the future hits format they still called it Y104 for a little while dropping the prime cuts part. Shortly thereafter they either became Metro Music or Pittsburgh's Heartbeat I don't really remember what came first but I do remember seing a Pittsburgh's Heartbeat billboard when I was on a Gateway Clipper cruise in Summer 1984. The Heartbeat logo was a heart wearing a pair of headphones pluged into a radio tuned to 104.7.
They also had bumper stickers and t-shirts with this logo.

I remember that night because I was listening to DVE on my new Sony Walkman (back then I was about 15 yo and having a real Sony Walkman was kinda a big deal.) Hershel was on and insted of playing Dio's Rainbow In The Dark he messed up and played the track before it off the album insted. It stuck with me because I love that track till this day. (And back then it might have really been an album Hershel was playing. :)

BTW, the Prime Cuts AOR format did have a bilboard and TV ad campain for awhile uncase anyone else remembers. I also remember the old WYDD Steel City Rock billboards from the Block Party Weekend days in the 70's.

God, I miss the radio that I loved before 1996.
 
Approximate (if not exact) order of 104.7 Stations since WYDD.

WNRJ "Energy 105" - 1989
WEZE "Easy 104.7" - 1990
WORD "Word-FM" - 1991
WXRB - "The Rebel" - (Whatever year Salem ditched 104.7 for 101.5)
WNRQ - "The Revolution" 1994/5
WJJJ - "Smooooooooooth Jazz" 1996
WJJJ - "Jammin' Oldies" 1999
WPGB - "News Talk" 2004

I could have some of the station names confused, but that's how I remember it.
 
The Salem acquisition of 101.5/730 was in late 1992, if I recall correctly. That's when Entercom bought 104.7 and ran it complementary to Y108, NOT in competition with it. Their competition was K-Bear, the LMA that EZ ran on 100.7 after it wiped out MIXJamz to shore up its younger demos.
 
Right before they switched to country with the Rebel there was a teaser classic rock format which lasted a few days. It ended with an on air phone call with the PD at DVE offering them a case of JD and some other stuff to switch to country so they switched. I think they used the name US104 for the classic rock format.

BTW no matter what format they ran they were not going to be a ratings killer till the antenna was moved closer to Pittsburgh.
Mabye someone here has more details as to when and how that took place. Same thing applies to 100.7 but that is another topic.
 
Salem moved the transmitter to Channel 53's site in 1991, as I recall. It might have been 1992, but I think it was '91. Had to cut the power to 13kW, but drastically improved the signal, of course, by adding height and moving to Pittsburgh.

100.7 moved to the same stick in 1989 or '90. Nelson Goldberg sold that station to Milt Hammond. They did not swap licenses. At the time 100.7 moved, however, Dick Oppenheimer was the owner and the station was WMXP MIX 100.7.
 
pbrtv and apostate got it right...the classic rock gimmick was US 105, then hit into the Rebel. Entercom eliminated K-Bear by having traditional country Y-108, Rebel 104.7, and don't forget AM 1080 WEEP that had a very small audience for classic country. Once K-Bear left the scene, the Revolution was on...

The JD bit was probably thanks to the then morning crew at the Rebel, Tommy Nyce and Joe Nasti. I remember Tommy telling me he found my aircheck in the garbage, and wanted to give me a shot...They're in Salt Lake City as Johnson and Johnson at K-Bull

BTW, wasn't now WJAC weatherman Big Jim Burton part of the WYDD crew back in the day?
 
rhoutlaw said:
BTW, wasn't now WJAC weatherman Big Jim Burton part of the WYDD crew back in the day?
Click to expand...

I don't think so, he was at WKYE (Key 95 Johnstown) for well in excess of 20 years.... I think he may actually have been part of the original lineup there.
 
Wasn't it Power 105 right before it was Energy 105? I seem to remember Power 105 on the 104.7 frequency before Energy 105.

Where is Rich Anton these days? It's like he fell off the face of the earth.

Who was the midday gal on Power 105? As I recall, she was very good. Always upbeat, hit posts really well, and great with phones.
 
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