During the summer of 1979 Hy was working at 1540/KPOL Los Angeles & I was at KBAI/1150 San Louis Obispo, when we received a call from Ed Hurst. He indicated he represented a Group of sophisticated investors including David Hafler & Gerome Bresson, that had just purchased WBJH/101.5 Trenton & WBUD/1260 Fairless hills, for 1.3 million dollars. Would we be interested in returning to the area to structure the investment properties.
When we arrived weeks later, The FM calls had been changed to WTRT at settlement, and Ed said he wanted to go oldies as WTRT Trenton oldies. After some research I determined that a new, custom advanced sound was a little more plausible for the 80's. I was asked what I wanted to call it. And the only answer I could naturally come up with was the simple reason I was doing this, and that was, I was doing it just for KICKS, and of coarse its subsequent benefits. So Kicks ‘101 FM', was born. (WTRT/WBUD Trenton/Fairless Hills calls remained as we applied for WKXW AM/FM with a modification change of the AM Fairless Hills city of license to Trenton.
We came on with a big splash and immediately we were sued by 101.1/WCBS & 101.1/WEAZ for similar frequency identification, and WXKW/Allentown petitioned the FCC to reject the WKXW call letter assignment due to call letter similarity, and the close proximity of the geographic location.
Since 101.5 was rather undesirable and indistinctive at the time, Hy indicated it’s the devastating Half that makes the difference, particularly where we were concerned, so it was clear that Kicks One O One and a HALF (Kicks 101 ½) was our new moniker. We subsequently had to go back and re-record all the station I.D.’s. As for WXKW, their petition was rejected, and three months later WKXW AM/FM Trenton, was granted.
But by then we were already movin’ along as Kicks 101 1/2. Fortunately, on the release of our first book, which ironically had started on the first day of the format change, we were Number 1, with the highest ratings ever achieved on both frequencies.
Trenton is one of the most congested radio markets in the country. No less than 77 signals could be received without an external antenna, at the time, even more now.
