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CT FM Dial in 70s... Easy Listening and Progressive Rock

G

Gregg

It's amazing how there were only two major formats for most FM stations in the 70s. You were either a Beautiful Music/Easy Listening station, with several deep-voiced announcers, maybe automated nights and weekends. Or you were one of those hippie Progressive Rock stations, with your staff just out of college, with long hair, probably smoking weed or having sex with their girlfriends at night when the office staff was out of the station.

There were a couple of stations that simulcast their AM counterparts, such as WINE-FM (today WRKI) and WMAS-FM. But most FM stations by this time were subject to the FCC requirement that you could only simulcast your AM station 25%. (WINE-AM-FM was licensed to Brookfield, a community too small to be subject to those FCC rules.) So to keep costs down, they either went with automated Beautiful/Easy formats or hired a bunch of low-paid youthful DJs to play that crazy underground Rock music.

Here's what the Connecticut FM dial sounded like...

--92.5 WWYZ Waterbury...Mellow Rock (They called themselves "The Natural 92" playing the softer cuts that were heard on Progressive Rock stations. Elton John, Carole King, James Taylor, etc. Before that, they were Beautiful Music.)
--93.1 WHYN-FM Springfield...Beautiful Music
--93.7 WLVH Hartford...Spanish Tropical (When few people had FM radios, WLVH could use its full-power FM signal for a Spanish format that could hit Latin communities in Hartford, New Haven, New Britain, Waterbury, Springfield and Bridgeport. Today it's reversed, with Spanish formats now on lesser AM stations in those cities, freeing up the FM dial for more mass-appeal formats.)
--94.3 WYBC New Haven...Jazz from Yale University.
--94.7 WMAS-FM Springfield...MOR/Adult Contemporary (WMAS simulcast its AM station. I'm not sure how they could do this without breaking FCC rules against fulltime simulcasting.)
--95.1 WINE-FM Brookfield...Top 40 (simulcast with day-only AM)
--95.7 WKSS Hartford-Meridan...Beautiful Music
--96.1 WSRS Worcester...Beautiful Music
--96.5 WTIC-FM Hartford...Beautiful Music by day, Classical by night.
--98.3 WLAD-FM Danbury...Beautiful Music
--99.1 WPLR New Haven...Progressive Rock
--99.9 WEZN Bridgeport...Beautiful Music (call letters stand for "Easy.")
--100.5 WRCH New Britain...Beautiful Music (call letters stand for "Rich.")
--101.3 WKCI Hamden...Beautiful Music
--102.1 WAQY Springfield...Started the 70s as a rare FM Top 40 station, "Wacky 102," that wasn't a simulcast of any AM station. But it switched to Album Rock by the end of the decade, dropping the "wacky" handle.
--102.9 WDRC-FM Hartford...While its AM was the market's big Top 40 station, it simulcast as much as the FCC would allow and used its own Top 40 DJs the rest of the time, something WPRO-AM-FM Providence also did. Then WDRC-FM went to an Album Rock format in the early 80s. I'm not sure when it followed WCBS-FM into the Oldies format.
--104.1 WIOF Waterbury...Mellow Rock (They used a syndicated format called "Beautiful Rock" sounding similar to the locally programmed Mellow Rock on 92.5 WWYZ. Before that, they were automated Country.)
--104.9 WIHS Middleton...Religion
--105.9 WHCN Hartford...Progressive Rock
--106.9 WCCC-FM Hartford...Progressive Rock (simulcast with day-only AM). (I heard a story that they had been Classical till a fire destroyed their Classical library. So the owner bought some Rock albums and they went Progressive Rock when they got back on the air. Not sure how the Classical announcers became Rock DJs. They still had a sign outside their studios in Hartford with a picture of Beethoven, many years after switching to Rock.)
--107.3 WAAF Worcester...Progressive Rock
 
Hi. The first station to play stereo rock in Hartford was WWUH-FM 91.3. It signed on with 3kw stereo with an antenna on top of the UH Campus Center. We played Rock, Jazz, Classical, Folk, "Something for Everyone." WWUH-FM turns 45 years old on July 15. A special thanks to all who built it and have participated on WWUH over the years. Some great alums and some special folks who past on. It's the best fraternity at UH, giving folks a life skill and a special appreciation for music and broadcast service to the entire area. Thanks to the University, the late great Dr. Arch Woodruff and everyone who made it possible.

Clark '70
 
@Gregg: I noticed you didn't have 107.9, which would have either been WMMM-FM or WDJF depending on when in the 70s you're referring to.

In the early 1970's WMMM-FM/WDJF was running an easy listening format similar to WEZN. In 1976 the station went to a semi free form soft rock, contemporary, traditional jazz, contemporary country, blues and folk format that was semi-automated. In '78 the format changed to AOR album rock but it lasted only a year with the station moving to an syndicated automated rock format.

John Ramsey's excellent Hartford Radio History site has quite a bit about many of the stations in our state. My own tribute site focuses on The History of Westport Connecticut Radio, that being WMMM-AM and sister station WMMM-FM/WDJF and, when I get some time, will be expanded to cover some of the WEBE108 history, too.
 
Yes, I should have included 107.9. I remember it as WDJF, running an automated Top 40 format. Norwalk's Q96.7 did the same, although this may have been the early 80s. I'm not sure what Stamford's 95.9 was doing. My 1977 Broadcasting Yearbook says 96.7 and 95.9 were still simulcasting their AM stations.
 
Gregg said:
Yes, I should have included 107.9. I remember it as WDJF, running an automated Top 40 format. Norwalk's Q96.7 did the same, although this may have been the early 80s. I'm not sure what Stamford's 95.9 was doing. My 1977 Broadcasting Yearbook says 96.7 and 95.9 were still simulcasting their AM stations.
Click to expand...

Actually, 96.7 was licensed to Stamford's WSTC as their sister FM. I don't remember if they were ever WSTC-FM but during the jazz format years they were WJAZ and possibly WYRS. Norwalk's 95.9 was actually on the air as Q96 in the early 80s with calls WLYQ as in "We Like You". They ran TM's Stereo Rock as I had a boatload of their discarded automation reels that I ended up tossing out many years ago. They changed calls over the years to WGMX (Great Mix) and WEFX (The Fox) eventually ending up with WFOX.

I think stations were allowed limited simulcasting past 1975 but weren't allowed to do so 100%
 
Gregg said:
--94.7 WMAS-FM Springfield...MOR/Adult Contemporary (WMAS simulcast its AM station. I'm not sure how they could do this without breaking FCC rules against fulltime simulcasting.)
--102.9 WDRC-FM Hartford...While its AM was the market's big Top 40 station, it simulcast as much as the FCC would allow and used its own Top 40 DJs the rest of the time, something WPRO-AM-FM Providence also did. Then WDRC-FM went to an Album Rock format in the early 80s. I'm not sure when it followed WCBS-FM into the Oldies format.
--106.9 WCCC-FM Hartford...Progressive Rock (simulcast with day-only AM). (I heard a story that they had been Classical till a fire destroyed their Classical library. So the owner bought some Rock albums and they went Progressive Rock when they got back on the air. Not sure how the Classical announcers became Rock DJs. They still had a sign outside their studios in Hartford with a picture of Beethoven, many years after switching to Rock.)
Click to expand...
You're quite accurate about the glut of beautiful music on FM then, with a couple of additions:
--WMAS AM & FM had enough format changes in the seventies to make your head spin, including a run on the FM as progressive album rocker "Heavy" WHVY, a country simulcast, mellow FM and wrapping up the decade as "Disco 95" on FM and "Music of Your Life" standards on AM.
--WDRC-FM tried full-fledged album rock around 1978, although Barry Grant overnights and Ken Griffin's "Scene of the Unheard" delved into it earlier than that. By the eighties album rock was history, replaced by CHR in a challenge to TIC-FM, then a more upbeat AC than WIOF or WWYZ. Then the Saturday night oldies show engulfed the whole station by 1986.
--WCCC AM & FM were "Triple C All Request" in the first half of the seventies. They did start an album rock show at night when AM was off. There was a fire around the time album rock expanded to the rest of the day in 1975. They didn't go classical on AM until much later.
 
>>>--WMAS AM & FM had enough format changes in the seventies to make your head spin, including a run on the FM as progressive album rocker "Heavy" WHVY, a country simulcast, mellow FM and wrapping up the decade as "Disco 95" on FM and "Music of Your Life" standards on AM. <<<

Wow, if you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten about "Disco 95." I'm not sure the format lasted more than a year but yes, after Mellow 92 in NYC had instant #1 success by switching overnight to Disco, it triggered Disco formats in unlikely places, including Springfield-Hartford on WMAS-FM. Kiss 108 in Boston also went Disco (they had been one of those many Beautiful Music FM stations) but after Disco's decline, they evolved into the successful Top 40 format they enjoy today. And I do remember WMAS-AM was one of the early, if not first, Music of Your Life stations.

I don't remember WMAS-FM's Heavy Rock phase, or the Country simulcast. I think I remember they went Mellow Rock briefly, similar to 92.5 WWYZ and 104.1 WIOF. But for a while there definately was a simulcast format of MOR music, that was primarily the AM format simply put on the FM, too. I remember one of the DJs remarking that their FM station could be heard in six states. I guess he was so used to the AM's 1000 watts by day/250 watts by night that he was surprised to be getting calls from several other states via the FM signal.

And yes, WCCC-AM sometime in the 2000s went back to Classical. But in the 70s, or maybe even before, WCCC-AM-FM had been Classical. I believe their studios were on the second floor on Asylum Street in Hartford, which had an outdoor sign on the building's corner saying "WCCC AM 1290, FM 106.9" and it had a line drawing of Beethoven's face, left over from the Classical days. They never spent the money to replace it, even for years into the Progressive Rock format.

So at one time, if you lived in the Hartford area, you could choose from six stations (WHCN, WCCC-FM, WDRC-FM, WPLR, WAQY, WRKI, WAAF) playing Progressive Rock, or six and a half stations (WRCH, WKSS, WKCI, WHYN-FM, WEZN, WSRS, WTIC-FM in the daytime) playing Beautiful Music.
 
Gregg said:
Kiss 108 in Boston also went Disco (they had been one of those many Beautiful Music FM stations) but after Disco's decline, they evolved into the successful Top 40 format they enjoy today.
Click to expand...

Actually WBOS 92.9 was first to go disco in Boston. They were a brief sensation but quickly fell behind after Kiss 108 launched. That short window of disco exclusivity still stands as the high water mark for 92.9, a consistent underperformer despite a good signal and call letters that ought to be just as iconic as WBZ or WRKO.
 
WCCC-AM went from classical to MOR in 1968 and WCCC-FM went to top 40 rock in '68, and later the previously mentioned all-request format in the very early 70's. Elektra Records bought the stations in '68 which precipitated the change. Sy bought the stations in early '70. Neither station played classical in the 70's, and the change to prog rock was gradual for FM in the 70's.

The studios were actually on the 5th floor of 11 Asylum until '80 when they moved to South Whitney. The revolving head was that of Mozart.
 
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