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History of 99.1 WNUW

T

thebeach33445

Hey Guys and Gals.

Would anybody remember 99.1 WNUW from 1969 to 1981? Looking for format history including dates (exact dates) if possible. Ones in parentheses are exact dates.

Here is what I have so fare (SEPT 1 1969) Drake's Hit Parade

Then Drake's Solid Gold 72 or 73?

Then AOR Late 73?

Then Top 40 as X-ROCK 99 (AUGUST 4 1975)

then Beautiful Music (SEPTEMBER 1, 1976)

then Disco (DECEMBER 31 1978)

then Disco leaning Top 40

then AC as WNUW TILL 1981

Thanks for your help.
 
I'm not sure of the dates, but it was sometime after the Solid Gold format was dropped they were known as "Rock 'N Stereo 99". Veteran broadcaster Lee Rothman was the main voice heard on all promos and music intros & outros. I was attending school in Illinois at the time, so I had limited listening time in the summer & during school breaks. I also think Rothman's partner Tom Kohl from The Bowling Game was the morning show host, with the remainder of the day being automated. There was also a female announcer named Sunny Valentine that may have been afternoon host at some point. I did a lot of 8-track recording of the music and I recall that it was mostly pop, with some longer versions of popular AOR tunes sprinkled in. I seem to recall a feature where they played entire album sides late at night, but I may be confusing this with another station.
 
I seem to recall that early 1976 was a down period for both WEMP and WNUW. The company hired very unprofessional management who fired all the personalities at WEMP and flipped the station to CHR, which went against all industry trends. At the same time WNUW was flipped to Beautiful Music, similar to the debacle happening at WCFL Chicago. WEMP flipped to Country with Jack Lee as GM late in 1976, but I think WNUW hung on to the Beautiful Music until Disco 99 debuted.
 
At the time, Beautiful Music made sense since the only other station left in the market doing that was WEZW who was doing very well. This way they weren't competing against several other "rock" variants all across the FM dial. And yes it was Beautiful Music until the debut of Disco 99, which morphed into an AC as Music FM 99, before the switch to WMYX in 1981.
 


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