Looking for some Atlantic-Cape May market history

[radio-free ventnor]

Hello all I'm new to this board. I've always been a buff about NJ history and I had also been interested in Philly radio, so once I moved to the shore a few years back, put two-and-two together and here I am. PS: I've noticed "Pirate Jim" posts here and I have to say I really enjoy his site but I'm looking for some more detailed info if anyone has it.

I've pretty much been able to trace back the origins of the Longport Media and Townsquare stations, but I'm trying to figure out who owned all the Equity stations before Equity existed. I know Merv Griffin (or his company) owned MID and 99.3 at one point. But does anyone know who owned what and when and for how long?

From what I can tell, it seems like WAYV was independently owned until Equity came in, WZXL and WCMC was one cluster, WMID and the current WZBZ, WSNQ and WAIV were a second, WTTH and WEZW was a third. Is that accurate? Or were they broken up even more? What was the ownership progression?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Pirate_Jim]

I don't know about the longetivity of Equity, but WTTH and WEZW are fairly "new", meaning the stations have only existed since the late 80's/early 90s ..
93.1 was independently owned until Equity bought it in the mid 90's, initially to simulcast WTTH on it ..

P.S. Thanks for the plug ..

 

[fennessy]

I'll take a crack at it:

WFPG FM/AM were a combo, with a succession of owners including H&D Broadcasting in the 1980s
WOND/WMGM were originally a combo owned by The Green group.
WMID/WGRF( now WZBZ) was owned by Merv Griffin, then by a subsidiery of Apple Vacations
WAYV ( formerly WRNJ) was owned by band leader Eddie Newman, then a privately held stand-alone
WCMC/WZXL was a combo, which launched WCMC-TV (now WMGM-TV)
WLDB was a stand-alone owned by an elderly couple, Leroy & Dorothy Bremmer; WLDB became NJ's first black owned and operated station in a distress sale, following the death of Leroy Bremmer, as WUSS-AM.
WSLT AM/FM was an independent stand-alone. WSLT-AM moved to 1020 becoming WIBG-AM, WSLT became WKOE-FM.
WWOC-FM was an independant stand-alone, changing calls frwquently, now WIBG-FM.
WNJH was indepently owned by Jim Rodio, who launched 104.9 to become WRDI and WRDR-FM
WRIO, Cape May became WSJL, changed freq to 102.3 ( from 101.7) and was independantly owned until acquired by WAYV.

From these roots, through the consolidation of the business, these stations changed hands calls and market positions to where they are today.

 

[radio-free ventnor]

Thanks for the info. This is all pretty interesting to me. Other questions that spring to mind: When did Griffin sell 1340/99.3? was there any ownership change between when Apple owned it and when Equity purchased it? Who owned 105.5 and when? It was my understanding that 99.3 and 105.5 were simulcasting before Equity bought them.

So 93.1 was independent, not owned with TTH?

It looks like a quite a few stations in the market came on after the 90s began -- 93.1, 102.7, 107.3 ... I'm surprised, since most of Philly's FM dial was full by the current frquencies by the 70s. Why did this market have sign-ons so late, and are there still "available" frequecies left here, or at this point would there be too much interference from adjacent markets?

 

[deepstblu]

It looks like a quite a few stations in the market came on after the 90s began -- 93.1, 102.7, 107.3 ... I'm surprised, since most of Philly's FM dial was full by the current frquencies by the 70s. Why did this market have sign-ons so late, and are there still "available" frequecies left here, or at this point would there be too much interference from adjacent markets?

The FCC added a bunch of new FM allocations to this area beginning in, I think, the early '80s. 94.3 at Avalon was the last unused frequency in the area on the FCC tables in the '70s. I don't know if they changed rules or what, but some time after 1980 new FMs started springing up in Cape May County...98.3 at Ocean City (originally WDVR), 105.5 Cape May Court House (WBNJ), 98.7 Villas (WCZT, I think). Also WCMC-FM, which had been operating at only slightly above Class A power, increased its coverage during this period and became WNBR with satellite-fed AC.

 

[Pirate_Jim]

Thanks for the info. This is all pretty interesting to me. Other questions that spring to mind: When did Griffin sell 1340/99.3? was there any ownership change between when Apple owned it and when Equity purchased it? Who owned 105.5 and when? It was my understanding that 99.3 and 105.5 were simulcasting before Equity bought them.

So 93.1 was independent, not owned with TTH?

It looks like a quite a few stations in the market came on after the 90s began -- 93.1, 102.7, 107.3 ... I'm surprised, since most of Philly's FM dial was full by the current frquencies by the 70s. Why did this market have sign-ons so late, and are there still "available" frequecies left here, or at this point would there be too much interference from adjacent markets?

93.1 was originally WDOX, and at sign-on had an easy listening format as "The Docks" ..
They later switched to an alternative format, which lasted for a few years ..
Tom McNally (who posts here from time to time) programmed the alternative format ..
As for 105.5, I remember them being a stand-alone station in the 1980's, with an adult contemporary format ..
Don't know who owned 105.5 at the time, though ..

 

[tom]

Believe it or not, 104.9, which is now WSJO and started life as WRDR, was originally
allocated to Pleasantville, NJ ... WMID and WLDB apparently battled it out, and
Jim Rodio who had 1580 - WNJH Hammonton found that 99.3 would work in
Pleasantville and 104.9 would work in Egg Harbor ... so the FCC went for it and
he got it on the air real fast. WMID finally got 99.3 WGRF on the air a year or
so later.

Don Brooks came to Atlantic City from Baltimore, an experienced programmer and
manager, and put 96.1 WTTH on the air. Within a few years he bought WBNJ 101.5
Cape May Court House, which was also being bid on by Amcom WMID AM/FM. WBNJ
was owned by a small group, and the main partner was killed in a private plane crash,
and they fell on hard times and sold it. WMID bought 102.3, WSJL Cape May soon
after that, to get a Cape May County signal. We also looked at 102.7, which was
then owned by Don Powers, who later put 93.1 WDOX on the air. That was also for sale
for the princely sum of $ 40,000 before he put it on the air. We also looked at 106.7
which was up for grabs for $ 55,000 and was owned by a woman we called Mrs. Donut,
because she owned a donut shop in Cape May Court House.

Now ... I was programming 93.1 WDOX with Frank Lario doing music. Don Powers, the
owner got a good offer for it from Don Brooks, and made about $ 700,000 profit.
So Don Brooks (Margate Communications) owned WTTH and WBNJ which were simulcasting,
and WDOX, which I continued to program for about a year, with a new transmitter, antenna,
automation and studio. Don Brooks (RIP) decided to try satellite alternative, which really
sucked, and it went downhill fast. I continued to do engineering for him during this time.
Margate Communications then made a deal to buy WMID 1340 and WSAX 99.3 and WJSX 102.3,
both horrible satellite smooth jazz formats. Soon we swapped the simulcast to 93.1,
and put WZBZ, The Buzz, a festive dance format on 105.5 ... Next move was to simulcast
105.5 to 99.3, and then call letters changed 99.3 - WZBZ and 105.5 WGBZ ...
Smooth Jazz was dropped on 102.3 and call letters changed to WMID-FM and it simulcasted
the AM format except in stereo.

WMID AM/FM, WZBZ, WGBZ, WBNJ (93.1) were sold to Equity around 1999 and
call letters and formats changed over the years.