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Does anybody remember the old 92 ROCK?

R

Radiobuddy

Guest
Hot hit CHR in 1983-1984 in Starview? Great jocks like Bannana Joe Montione and the late Mike Sarzinsky,Mr T,Keith Allen.Great jingles,awesome processing with tons of reverb.Wide variety of hits from Maniac to Willie Nelson,Van Halen to Rappers Delight.The best that signal has ever sounded!
 
> Hot hit CHR in 1983-1984 in Starview? Great jocks like
> Bannana Joe Montione and the late Mike Sarzinsky,Mr T,Keith
> Allen.Great jingles,awesome processing with tons of
> reverb.Wide variety of hits from Maniac to Willie Nelson,Van
> Halen to Rappers Delight.The best that signal has ever
> sounded!
>
I loved that station! The signal on that frequency was just as bad then as is today's Smooth Jazz format on there now. But musically they were fairly diverse and it brings back good memories. That was a good period musically anyway. I don't really know if they ever got any ratings with Q106 or "Fire 14" WFEC as competition. Talk about reverb, WFEC during their Hot Hits days used more reverb than any station I ever heard. Bottom line, 92 Rock was a great station. It would be awesome if someone had airchecks from that period.
 
> Hot hit CHR in 1983-1984 in Starview?

Sure. Here's an excerpt from another post...

"92 Rock (WHTF, "The Hit FM" - "Hit The FM") was Starview's CHR/AOR-hybrid
relaunch after a few years of Beautiful Music on 92.7."
 
> Hot hit CHR in 1983-1984 in Starview? Great jocks like
> Bannana Joe Montione and the late Mike Sarzinsky,Mr T,Keith
> Allen.Great jingles,awesome processing with tons of
> reverb.Wide variety of hits from Maniac to Willie Nelson,Van
> Halen to Rappers Delight.The best that signal has ever
> sounded!
>
Do you remember when they broadcasted the Phillies?
 
> > Hot hit CHR in 1983-1984 in Starview? Great jocks like
> > Bannana Joe Montione and the late Mike Sarzinsky,Mr
> T,Keith
> > Allen.Great jingles,awesome processing with tons of
> > reverb.Wide variety of hits from Maniac to Willie
> Nelson,Van
> > Halen to Rappers Delight.The best that signal has ever
> > sounded!
> >
> I loved that station! The signal on that frequency was just
> as bad then as is today's Smooth Jazz format on there now.
> But musically they were fairly diverse and it brings back
> good memories. That was a good period musically anyway. I
> don't really know if they ever got any ratings with Q106 or
> "Fire 14" WFEC as competition. Talk about reverb, WFEC
> during their Hot Hits days used more reverb than any station
> I ever heard. Bottom line, 92 Rock was a great station. It
> would be awesome if someone had airchecks from that period.
>

Well the signal should be better now. Back in the early days the antenna
barely cleared the trees on Mt. Washington. Now, there is a fairly nice
sized strobe lighted tower. I remember having a couple of breaks of Fire14
and even longer recordings of Starview. You may recall that the station was
off the air before the relaunch. I know I have tapes somewhere of the
overnight "testing" where they put callers on the air.
 
> Well the signal should be better now.

There was a power increase in the '80s. We operated at 6k during the '90s;
I think the increase was from 3k to 6k.


> Back in the early days the antenna barely cleared the trees on Mt. Washington.

Somebody once told me that what's-his-name and Joyce McSherry (his wife) hauled
the Starview tower [up from somewhere] on the back of a pick-up truck.
 
> Hot hit CHR in 1983-1984 in Starview? Great jocks like
> Bannana Joe Montione and the late Mike Sarzinsky,Mr T,Keith
> Allen.Great jingles,awesome processing with tons of
> reverb.Wide variety of hits from Maniac to Willie Nelson,Van
> Halen to Rappers Delight.The best that signal has ever
> sounded!
>
I'm glad people remember 92 Rock. We were a great station, no false modesty here. Banana Joe & I knew we'd do well, considering the sleepy local CHR competition at the time, and all the great uptempo music of 1983 we had to work with. One of the secrets to our mass-appeal were all the non-current stuff we played, which no one else in Top 40 Radio was playing at the time. We didn't care when the song came out, if it was something you could sing-a-long to, we played it. Of all the places I have worked in radio, the debut of 92 Rock got the biggest response. It happened literally overnight. I'll never forget sitting in a restaurant with Keith Allen after midnight, and the incredible buzz that started when someone recognized us. I also remember doing a dance at a high school in York and 1000 kids screaming when we arrived. Very heady stuff. Unfortunately, the station didn't last as long as it should have, due to internal reasons. I should dig out my cassette airchecks. I've got one of my Saturday night countdowns on tape from October, and the entire Top 92 Of 1983 New Years Eve show.
 
I'm reviving an old thread from nearly 11 months ago, but I'm a newbie to the board. However, I have incredible memories of 92 Rock. Many of the LPs I have were won from them. I still have the 92 Rock black sticker on each one, too!

The LATE Mike Sarzinsky? Wow, I didn't know. He used to play something I think he called a "Crabboat Song" for people he just felt were miserable. Mom loved that one. I remember him and Dave doing weird news stories (like a tiny woman who drowned herself in the washer). One time he asked why the moon looked larger at the horizon than in the sky and was going to award an album to whomever gave him the best answer. One guy called and said it was closer due to the elliptical orbit. I countered with it being an optical illusion because there is more to compare it to near the horizon (not disputing the truth of the elliptical orbit but pointing out that at THAT distance, it isn't THAT much closer). He awarded the LP to the other guy. With nothing better to do that morning, I pulled out this ancient World Book Encyclopedia and found I was right. So I called in and read the info to him. Dave was laughing so hard because he knew Mike was in a pickle. He'd already awarded the record, but here I was with the actual answer. I got Phantoms by The Fixx for my efforts! (I liked Cy Curnin so I was cool with that!)

I have a few cassettes I recorded of his insanity in a box around here somewhere.......he was one of a kind. One of the tapes was a classic, he had a guy with sound effects on......one was someone caught in the bathroom (perhaps after an evening of Mexican food?) I'd have listened to him even if he never played a single song!


&rea
 
I loved the old 92 Rock. I was a HUGE Starview 92 fan in the 1970s and couldn't believe it when that format changed. I remember thinking some day they'll take the "Starview" back into the jingle and transform it to Starview 92...and sure enough it happened. Unfortunately not long enough. From where I lived it was tough picking up 98 Rock or WYSP or WMMR in Philly.

Sure wish I'd have recorded some of those memories you did. Mike Sarzinsky really was hilarious. Sad to read he's no longer with us.
 
I remember 92 ROCK as being the "breath of fresh air" in the market when it came on. I listened to it and thought "Wow, that's pretty damn cool". Keith Allen, the night guy there worked breifly with me at 98YCR before moving on to 92 ROCK. If memory serves me, the story that I remember is that about the time 92ROCK came on, that was when 98YCR switched to "Y 98 FM", a soft rock clone of WARM. Legend has it that Keith was the guy who did the last night on the air of 98YCR and when he left, he took the entire 45 RPM library with him. Not sure if that's true, but I remember going back to 98YCR to work in later years and the 45 RPM library was significantly smaller ;)
 
I remember when WYCR went soft and thought WTH??? If you used "Karlyle" as your last name, was your first name Randy? Just trying to remember. Didn't the Y 98 last about a year? I'm old enough to remember when WYCR had American Top 40 and Kasey Kasum and every week a lucky listener would win that week's AT40 in vinyl. Didn't WYCR also have "Total Weather Forecast" with Paul Douglass? (Why do I remember that but not remember what I had for supper last night?)
 
Nope, not Randy...its Danny. And yes, we had the Casey Kasem stuff...all on vinyl....I used to run it on Sunday mornings early in my tenure there after 4 hours of "the God Squad" (loved those taped religious shows, gave me time to sleep off the hangover)....and yes, "Total Weather with Paul Douglas" was back in my time too...I remember him being a weatherman on a Wilkes-Barre TV station...

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.....
 
SteelRocker said:
If you used "Karlyle" as your last name, was your first name Randy?
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, Randy Carlyle is the head coach of the NHL's Anaheim Ducks and played for the former Winnepeg Jets and a few years with the Pittsburgh Pengweenies. :D


&rea
 
karlyle said:
Nope, not Randy...its Danny. And yes, we had the Casey Kasem stuff...all on vinyl....I used to run it on Sunday mornings early in my tenure there after 4 hours of "the God Squad" (loved those taped religious shows, gave me time to sleep off the hangover)....and yes, "Total Weather with Paul Douglas" was back in my time too...I remember him being a weatherman on a Wilkes-Barre TV station...

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.....
Click to expand...

Danny, Ok, I was close, Randy/Danny. That had to be mid 1970s when you worked there. Now I'm a lot older and can't even remember what I had for lunch today. ;D Nice bumping into you on here.
 
karlyle said:
If memory serves me, the story that I remember is that about the time 92ROCK came on, that was when 98YCR switched to "Y 98 FM", a soft rock clone of WARM
Click to expand...

I believe WYCR's "Y-98" (Hot AC) experiment was during 1986 and 1987.
92 Rock was 1983 and 1984.
 
fullerbrushchick said:
However, I have incredible memories of 92 Rock. Many of the LPs I have were won from them. I still have the 92 Rock black sticker on each one, too!
Click to expand...

Could you scan the best-looking sticker and mail a copy to me?
 
In the favorite personalities section someone mentioned Dave Powers and he's now a pastor of a church somewhere in central PA. I was wondering if someone can refresh my memory a bit. Wasn't Dave part of the morning show on 92 Rock with a female? And, if I'm not dreaming this up, weren't they actually husband and wife? And, even further, wasn't she also a transplant from the Pittsburgh market? I want to say her name was Colleen or something like that.

Another thing that I remembered about 92 Rock, on April Fools Day one year all the DJ's called in sick and whoever the prank was played on had to work all air shifts starting from morning until midnight. Anyone else recall this and who the lucky radio personality was?
 
Dave is a pastor at a Presb. church in Columbia. Now married to Gena Rocky. Dave was with Colleen Powers, his former wife. She recently was doing traffic I think in the Clear Channel Harrisburg stations.
 
Does anyone remember Deb Turner? I worked with he when she worked as the promotions director and on air jock at FM 97 in Lancaster in the early 80's. (At the time I worked on WLAN 1390 AM.) Her knickname was Turner the burner. She was a sweet, delightful and a very genuine person. Later she worked part time at 92 Rock. I envied her because the station made a huge impact in a short time. I believe it was rated number 1 in a Birch survey, which was a better word of mouth indicator than Arbiton. Birch based its ratings on phone surveys instead of diaries like Arbitron.
 
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