Does anyone remember WVNJ and what format they had in the late 60's early 70's?
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- Thread starter JohnnyOhJohnny
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There was also a short period of time when they did jazz at night with Les Davis. They called it WVN-Jazz.
IIRC, WRVR flipped to country in 1980, and the folks at WVNJ looked to fill the void. Les Davis did jazz at WVNJ until the flip to Z-100, which I think was in 1983.
The funny part about New York radio is the number of beautiful music stations it had all at the same time: WRFM, WVNJ, WPAT, and WTFM all did basically the same format, and all got great ratings. The market leader was Bonneville's WRFM. But as FM became more popular in the mid-70s, these stations became vulnerable, one by one, they flipped formats. I think the first to flip was WTFM to WAPP in 1982. Of course that station is now known as WKTU. Then WVNJ flipped in 1983. WRFM went soft rock (WNSR) in 1986. And WPAT was the last to go in 1994.
IIRC, WRVR flipped to country in 1980, and the folks at WVNJ looked to fill the void. Les Davis did jazz at WVNJ until the flip to Z-100, which I think was in 1983.
The funny part about New York radio is the number of beautiful music stations it had all at the same time: WRFM, WVNJ, WPAT, and WTFM all did basically the same format, and all got great ratings. The market leader was Bonneville's WRFM. But as FM became more popular in the mid-70s, these stations became vulnerable, one by one, they flipped formats. I think the first to flip was WTFM to WAPP in 1982. Of course that station is now known as WKTU. Then WVNJ flipped in 1983. WRFM went soft rock (WNSR) in 1986. And WPAT was the last to go in 1994.
"'VN-Joy' by day, 'VN-Jazz', by night".
Following WRVR dropping Jazz on 106.7 in September 1981 in favor of Country as WKHK "Kick-106" in the heat of the moment of the "Urban Cowboy" movie, WBGO went full time as "Jazz-88". WVNJ took up the Jazz void on the Commercial side and decided to split the station into two formats.
I believe it was Jazz at 6pm to 6am, BM from 6am to 6pm.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
Following WRVR dropping Jazz on 106.7 in September 1981 in favor of Country as WKHK "Kick-106" in the heat of the moment of the "Urban Cowboy" movie, WBGO went full time as "Jazz-88". WVNJ took up the Jazz void on the Commercial side and decided to split the station into two formats.
I believe it was Jazz at 6pm to 6am, BM from 6am to 6pm.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
WBGO went full time Jazz on April 9, 1979, about a year and a half before WRVR became WKHK.
For a time in the late 1960s or 1970s, WVNJ-AM 620 ran a syndicated music format that featured relatively current popular vocals like The Carpenters, or Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66. A lot of it was music you would hear on the top-40 stations too, but the songs and artists were carefully selected to not chase adult listeners away. The music was on large tapes that ran on a manually run automation system that allowed the announcers to insert live commercial reads, comments, time, weather etc. in the format.
Essentially, the announcer would hit a button for the automation system to stop when the song ended, and he would start it again when he was finished speaking.
Later, in the late 70s and 80s, that semi-automation system was used to play big band era, standards, and instrumental tapes that were produced in-house and worked the same way.
In the 60s and 70s WVNJ-FM, used a separate national music syndication service that was fully automated "beautiful music." But the station also injected some of its own programming at night when it played "Great Albums of Music" and featured full albums from Broadway shows, Operettas etc.
The VN-Joy, VN-Jazz split came in the 80s. Depending on the year, Les Davis broadcast live from Michaels Pub on the Upper East Side, or The Greenstreet Cafe in SoHo. The show was live from 8-pm until around 1-AM when there was a 15-minute newscast (I remember that newscast well, because I did it often, when also running NBC's TalkNet on the AM, and doing news there) Then the tape of that evening's Jazz show was replayed on FM until 6-AM, if we all timed it right.
As far as WBGO going jazz, that was unrelated to the RVR-KHK format flip. WBGO had been owned by the Newark Board of Education when a graduate student at Montclair State College wrote a paper, and grant proposal, suggesting that 88.3 would serve the public more by being a classic jazz station instead of providing limited school day instructional broadcasts to Newark classrooms. I only know the story because I happened to sit next to that former grad student at a news awards dinner years ago, and because I had started in radio at WBGO while in high school. After running WBGO during its initial years, he moved on to run New Jersey Public (TV) Broadcasting, and that is what he was doing when I met him.
Quite a story about the classmate, TimeIsTight. Thankx for sharing.
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Where we lived, in eastern Queens (near JFK Airport) the biggest of the Beautiful Music signals on the Folks' radio was WVNJ 620. They had not heard of FM yet and would not until moving to Philadelphia in 1970 and discovering WDVR 101.1 and WWSH 106.1. But when in New York City, my parents preferred WNEW because of, I gather, the vocals. I sort of liked WVNJ 620. They often would go off overnight, and in would come Milwaukee, St. Pete, Vermont, etc. They have changed format a few times since those days.
* * * * * *
I got a kick out of the way Les Davis answered the phone. One night when he was on WEVD 97.9, he played a song. I called him up to ask what it was. He didn;t ansswer the phone 'Good morning! WEVD!', or with 'WEVD. Hello?'
Instead, he answered the phone -- with a pause for emphasis --
'................... Lesssss .............. Davisssss.....................'
(The song was 'Jumpin At The Woodside', by Lionel Hampton and Stan Getz)
* * * * * * *
Where we lived, in eastern Queens (near JFK Airport) the biggest of the Beautiful Music signals on the Folks' radio was WVNJ 620. They had not heard of FM yet and would not until moving to Philadelphia in 1970 and discovering WDVR 101.1 and WWSH 106.1. But when in New York City, my parents preferred WNEW because of, I gather, the vocals. I sort of liked WVNJ 620. They often would go off overnight, and in would come Milwaukee, St. Pete, Vermont, etc. They have changed format a few times since those days.
* * * * * *
I got a kick out of the way Les Davis answered the phone. One night when he was on WEVD 97.9, he played a song. I called him up to ask what it was. He didn;t ansswer the phone 'Good morning! WEVD!', or with 'WEVD. Hello?'
Instead, he answered the phone -- with a pause for emphasis --
'................... Lesssss .............. Davisssss.....................'
(The song was 'Jumpin At The Woodside', by Lionel Hampton and Stan Getz)
It was 1980, not 1981. ( I can't believe I made that error)badjef said:
Since I was not a regular listener of WBGO, as I recall, a staffer at WBJB showing me an article in a newspaper on the WRVR switch, at the time, mentioning WBGO as filling the void. I would not presume to doubt you as the staffer may not have been up on his 'BGO, either. And newspaper people writing on radio stations, rarely get it right, as I came to realize, later.
However, WBJB added more Jazz blocking over the next few years (and Art Vincent - a refugee from WRVR/WBGO, or both - came in to "assist"), to a point that at 6am on January 1st, 1985, the conversion to all-Jazz was complete. I know that, because I was there for the switch. This was between 27-32 years ago so I may be a little rusty.
As a sidenote, the final straw with WBJB was always blamed on WHTG going to a Rock format. Although I felt it was part of the natural progression.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
I was told that the FM music tapes were produced in Chicago, but I can't remember the name of the company. The Chicago location suggests FM 100 syndication, but TM rings a bell too. It's a long time ago and for some reason that name didn't stick with me.
WRFM was Bonneville. WPAT was doing its own thing in-house. And WWSH in Philly was Schulke. Greater Media had switched WCTC-FM's call letters to WQMR, for Quality Music Radio, and had plans to do beautiful music in Central Jersey using its own GM BM syndication service out of DC. Instead, WQMR became WMGQ, and switched to Julian Breen's "Magic" format.
TimeIsTight said:
Correct...I once visited their tape duplication plant in Tenafly NJ and met Marlin Taylor.
TimeIsTight said:
Julian's office was in East Brunswick, and they did tape duplication there. At one point, GM was going to move the radio stations there, but ultimately moved to their present location in North Brunswick.
TheBigA said:
WTFM actually did a soft rock format from about 1979 until the sale to Doubleday in 1982 and the flip to WAPP. The station was branded "The Mellow T". It filled in the soft rock/AC gap left when WKTU flipped to disco and WYNY was experimenting with music and talk. When WYNY found its traction as a Hot AC station in 1980, the handwriting was on the wall for WTFM.
"That's 'T'-fm" - sloganradioguy39nj said:TheBigA said:
WTFM actually did a soft rock format from about 1979 until the sale to Doubleday in 1982 and the flip to WAPP. The station was branded "The Mellow T". It filled in the soft rock/AC gap left when WKTU flipped to disco and WYNY was experimenting with music and talk. When WYNY found its traction as a Hot AC station in 1980, the handwriting was on the wall for WTFM.
Jeff in Sa-ra-so-ta!
radioguy39nj said:
The soft rock format was a "holding pattern" format. The owner, Friendly Frost, was in bankruptcy and a sale was being negotiated. The first sale, in mid-1979, to Pueblo International, fell apart when Pueblo's recently sold Hill's Supermarket division folded, leaving Pueblo liable for the leases and unable to close on the $8.5 million purchase. So Friendly Frost tried to operate as cheaply as possible until a new owner came forward and the FCC got around to approving.
Great ratings for FM stations but no threat to the prevailing AM's.TheBigA said:
Almost every FM station in North America either simulcasted their AM or ran "Beautiful Music" because it was cheap.
I remember when Miami and Fort Lauderdale, which were separate markets, had about eight or nine of'em.
I always wondered about why 98.3 in New Brunswick was using the calls WQMR, when at the time all they were doing was simulcasting WCTC on 98.3. This lasted quite awhile too. They were in mono!
ai4i said:
An interesting article about FM in 1967, from the year when the FCC started prohibiting simulcasting...
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1967/1967-07-31-FM-BC.pdf
IIRC, the WQMR New Brunswick transmitter was on the AM tower next to, and sometimes in, the Raritan River near Route-1 in Highland Park. That tower is in a low spot and I suspect the coverage area wasn't that great, but the local night and winter morning reception was better than the 250-watt AM signal. WCTC, was highly rated and was still raking in the big bucks that helped finance the major market expansion of Greater Media, and CTC was then the only commercial station that specifically served radio market #39, or whatever it was ranked then.
So, corporate probably didn't want to cannibalize its own local audience and compete with itself at that time. As has been noted there was also a lot of Beautiful Music competition on the dial. WVNJ-FM had a particularly strong signal, and good ratings in that area.
Around the same time, there were plans to build the new studio and office building outside the downtown area, and to increase the FM signal area with a much higher 500-foot tower at the new studio site, and that is when they switched to the Magic format. That format appealed to a younger demo that wasn't, necessarily, listening to WCTC, where the Beautiful Music would have had similar demo appeal to the top ranked AM. So, for local advertisers Magic grew the combined audience rather than split it.
I am just guessing, but that was my sense. My full-time gig, at the time, was at a bigger signal station but I did do a weekly folk or, later, oldies show at WCTC/WQMR, and occasional fill-in, and was the image voice for the station for a number of years after. So, I knew the management, but wasn't fully informed on what they were doing and why. These are just my best guesses.
DavidEduardo said:
Very interesting, David! I still vividly recall when WTFM's studios and transmitter were on the LIE in Queens. I think the transmitter moved to the WTC about 1973. I remember a nightclub in that building called "Broadcasters Inn". Not sure what's there now. The transmitter's long gone.
IIRC, WTFM was NYC's first FM station to broadcast in stereo.
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