Listening to an old aircheck of Sunny 104.5, I miss this station! I loved the gold-based soft AC playing nothing newer than the 80s. The station was run on the cheap and making money. And of course I loved their Christmas music. I wish there were more stations like this than the so-called AC stations that play a lot of the same music the CHR stations play.
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Sunny 104.5
- Thread starter nd2023
- Start date
It's the same old problem. The average person listening to Sunny 10 years ago was about 42 years old. That person today is 52 and out of the desirable demographic. I miss Sunny too, but I'm over 50 too now!
I'm 37 and I listen to Sunny when it was on so not everyone is 50
Yeah Im mid fifties and listen to AT 40 sometimes too, but we are the exceptions.
I loved the Christmas format of Sunny - nobody has done it better with the old-newer music blend, movie tv audio clips, the little 'kid' comments about Christmas & the 'easy listening' jockless style...luckily I taped enough to have a whole ipod playlist of Sunny Christmas with the jingles & features with the music! I realize demo-wize they are older, but no older than WOGL which is doing very well. Sunny 104.5 HD2 would be a nice side channel & might even get a few people to buy HD or to listen on a mobile or streaming device, especially in November-December! (The non Christmas format was good but too light on the soft AC/oldies & too hard on the disco for my taste.)
A lot of people here must remember the days when WEAZ, WKSZ, WMGK and WSNI were all doing the light-AC thing? And one not from the city (WJBR) was maybe the best-sounding of the lot?
I worked for two of them in Philadelphia, late 80's to maybe 1991. Wow, was there an overload when WSNI joined the pack.
Lol -- anyone remember their days when they were Beautiful Country ?
We live on the rim of a hill that drops away favorably to the south, and would get channels 3, 6 and 10 pretty okay off the TV aerial, maybe 70-75 air miles away. But the 104.5 signal is the best up this way of the Philly FM stations, irrespective of format.
I worked for two of them in Philadelphia, late 80's to maybe 1991. Wow, was there an overload when WSNI joined the pack.
Lol -- anyone remember their days when they were Beautiful Country ?
We live on the rim of a hill that drops away favorably to the south, and would get channels 3, 6 and 10 pretty okay off the TV aerial, maybe 70-75 air miles away. But the 104.5 signal is the best up this way of the Philly FM stations, irrespective of format.
Each station had it's own niche in the format. Sunny quickly transitioned from beautiful country (October 1977, with former WWSH PD Nelson Hobdell as PD) to a beautiful MOR/country mix to soft AC/oldies. For most of its life in the 1980's it was much more of an uptempo oldies/AC mix that the others with more upbeat personalities such as Don cannon, Hy Lit & Mike St. John. WMGK was the original soft rock with mellow personalities like Mike Bowe & soft jingles with wind chimes. At some point they added more uptempo & disco songs which took it away from the soft beginnings. WEAZ was still more or less modern easy listening until they started adding a lot of vocals then finally went all soft vocals about 1988. Kiss 100 was soft AC with some MOR thrown in & mellow jocks also, sort of like the US1 format of WUSL until they went country in 1981 picking up the 'lost' FM country audience from the loss of WRCP/WSNI. When WJBR went to soft AC they switched their identity to focus on Delaware - in the Just Beautiful Radio days they promoted the fact they covered the whole Delaware Valley.
I remember reading that the beautiful country format was based on research that WRCP listeners 2nd choice was WDVR. But the blend was strange. Lots of custom instrumentals (the 'Sunny Custom Orchestra') & vocals of old country standards & cover vocals of country songs by MOR & crossover artists. If WRCP-FM had hung on for the Urban Cowboy fad a few years later they might have had the success that WXTU later found.
I remember reading that the beautiful country format was based on research that WRCP listeners 2nd choice was WDVR. But the blend was strange. Lots of custom instrumentals (the 'Sunny Custom Orchestra') & vocals of old country standards & cover vocals of country songs by MOR & crossover artists. If WRCP-FM had hung on for the Urban Cowboy fad a few years later they might have had the success that WXTU later found.
Thanks for the info about WSNI-FM's Beautiful Country phase. Isn't it odd that a few decades ago, adult listeners well within the 25-54 demo, wanted soft music. There were three Easy/Beautiful stations in Philadephia, WEAZ, WDVR and WPBS, along with nearby WJBR-FM and even three Easy stations in Allentown.
And then there was WMGK, playing only soft cuts from Rock albums. It wasn't AC. They didn't play artists who were only popular on Top 40 like the Carpenters. They had to be heard on Rock stations. I believe they used the syndicated music service from TM called "Beautiful Rock" even though they never said that on the air. It also aired on co-owned 98.3 WMGQ New Brunswick NJ. If you were in a place that got both stations, they often were playing the same song at nearly the same time.
And then there was the twist on the Beautiful Music format known as Beautiful Country, which 104.5 WSNI aired. I imagine the syndicators never thought the format would be heard on a full power FM station in Philadephia. I guess they pictured it working in Dallas and Phoenix and places where, as described above, some listeners switched between Country and Beautiful stations.
So why does today's generation of 25-54 adults have no need for any soft music in their lives? I understand that tastes move on. Today's generation doesn't want to listen to their parents' music. But why is there no "today" version of Beautiful Music, Soft Rock, Beautiful Country, Smooth Jazz, etc.? Even stations like B101 that only a few years ago positioned themselves as "relaxing" or "easy rock" or "magic" or "lite" no longer even try to make those distinctions?
And then there was WMGK, playing only soft cuts from Rock albums. It wasn't AC. They didn't play artists who were only popular on Top 40 like the Carpenters. They had to be heard on Rock stations. I believe they used the syndicated music service from TM called "Beautiful Rock" even though they never said that on the air. It also aired on co-owned 98.3 WMGQ New Brunswick NJ. If you were in a place that got both stations, they often were playing the same song at nearly the same time.
And then there was the twist on the Beautiful Music format known as Beautiful Country, which 104.5 WSNI aired. I imagine the syndicators never thought the format would be heard on a full power FM station in Philadephia. I guess they pictured it working in Dallas and Phoenix and places where, as described above, some listeners switched between Country and Beautiful stations.
So why does today's generation of 25-54 adults have no need for any soft music in their lives? I understand that tastes move on. Today's generation doesn't want to listen to their parents' music. But why is there no "today" version of Beautiful Music, Soft Rock, Beautiful Country, Smooth Jazz, etc.? Even stations like B101 that only a few years ago positioned themselves as "relaxing" or "easy rock" or "magic" or "lite" no longer even try to make those distinctions?
I don't know why todays 25-54 has no love for anything soft. The most amazing thing is men born say in the 20's and early 30's loved easy music, but most of their sons born in the 50's and early 60's love the Led Zeppelins and AC/DC! Everything changed in one generation.
Beautiful Country could be unintentionally hilarious. Without taking a breath it would go from Take It Back And Change It For A Boy by Rex Allen to something by Lawrence Welk or the infamous Sunny Custom Orchestra (Frank Chaksfield). It got even stranger (funnier?) later on when Billy Joel was added.
The big danger was standing in front of the tall tape decks and hoping the reel didn't knock you out if it came off during rewind. The other danger was, of course, trying to stay awake. It's still not known what kind of wildlife existed in the SUNNY basement. Something was eating the fish in the tank......And don't forget to turn off the air conditioner before opening the mic.
They did have some nice female voices including Leigh Richards and Chris Guetta.
The big danger was standing in front of the tall tape decks and hoping the reel didn't knock you out if it came off during rewind. The other danger was, of course, trying to stay awake. It's still not known what kind of wildlife existed in the SUNNY basement. Something was eating the fish in the tank......And don't forget to turn off the air conditioner before opening the mic.
They did have some nice female voices including Leigh Richards and Chris Guetta.
Gregg said:
WMGK in Philly was the originator of the "Magic" format. It was designed by the late, great Julian Breen and executed by the late, great Dave Klahr. Basically, it was a format that contained any song from any genre that fit the overall soft sound. Nothing too jarring or harsh, so when the hard-rock KISS put out s soft song like "Beth", it fit right into MGK's format. Generally, it featured a lot of folk music tracks, along with more pop stuff by America, Judy Collins, Neil Diamond.
The format in those early days was done on 5x7 cards. Three songs out of four were typed onto a card which had a "set number". The fourth song would be the DJ's choice from among the current songs that were in play, as long as the sex and tempo fit the blank space on the format card, and keeping in mind the last time that current was played.
Commercials had padded-down levels, so they were all but unheard in a public setting. I recall sitting in a noisy downtown H.A.Winston restaurant with WMGK on their music system. The music disappeared after the last song in a set, and you heard nothing over the restaurant din until the jingle kicked in to start the next set. The jingles were always the loudest thing on the station, cutting through everything, then the music levels were slightly lower, and the commercials were almost non-existent. Harsh commercials were never accepted and business was frequently turned away. Imagine THAT today!
The set numbers were predetermined each day and each hour had four sets. Those set numbers were then sent to the other "Magic" stations, generally to play exactly a week later. The "Magic" format at the time aired in New Jersey, Detroit, Portland, ME, and I believe Long Island. That format ran from the earliest days in 1975 through to around 1980 when Bob Craig arrived to take the station in a more pop direction.
Ah - radio when it was still fun, challenging, and adventurous - nearly forty years ago.
I didn't remember Sunny 104 using any female voices. I do remember Leigh Richards doing middays on sister daytimer AM country station WRCP about that time as Sarah Louise; she was there until the last day of the format in September 1981, then went to WTTM in Trenton as the 'only' country station at that time. I remember Chris Guetta being on the easy-leaning WUSL 'Continuous Country FM 99" in 1981-1982. The daytime WSNI shifts were beautiful music veterans like Nelson Hobdell.cyber said:
Maybe you would be interested in the new STAR 104.5? Do you remember this ad?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYU_BZ1f9kw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYU_BZ1f9kw
I never knew that Beautiful Rock aired on an AM station in the Providence market. Interesting.
The Magic stations were...
WMGK 102.9 Philadephia
WMGC 94.7 Detroit (now resurrected as an AC station on 105.1)
WMGQ 98.3 New Brunswick NJ
WM?? 94.3 Smithtown LI
WMJX 106.7 Boston
WM?? 92.5 Rochester NY
WIOF 104.1 Waterbury-Hartford
WMGX 93.1 Portland ME
All the stations except for the last two were owned by Greater Media. All took those Magic call letters except WIOF Hartford, because their frequency was 104. They still called themselves Magic 104.
I appreciate HGN's recollections and credit to the original founders. Interesting to read how the format worked, and I'd like to hear more. But by the time I was listening, they had removed the option for the DJ to choose songs. WMGK and WMGQ played exactly the same songs in the same order, maybe only a minute or so apart. So obviously it was on tape, not cards, by then.
The Magic stations were...
WMGK 102.9 Philadephia
WMGC 94.7 Detroit (now resurrected as an AC station on 105.1)
WMGQ 98.3 New Brunswick NJ
WM?? 94.3 Smithtown LI
WMJX 106.7 Boston
WM?? 92.5 Rochester NY
WIOF 104.1 Waterbury-Hartford
WMGX 93.1 Portland ME
All the stations except for the last two were owned by Greater Media. All took those Magic call letters except WIOF Hartford, because their frequency was 104. They still called themselves Magic 104.
I appreciate HGN's recollections and credit to the original founders. Interesting to read how the format worked, and I'd like to hear more. But by the time I was listening, they had removed the option for the DJ to choose songs. WMGK and WMGQ played exactly the same songs in the same order, maybe only a minute or so apart. So obviously it was on tape, not cards, by then.
Gregg said:
I don't believe the Rochester station was ever owned by Greater Media.
I can assure you that the old '70s "Magic" format was not on tape in Philadelphia. They used records for most tracks and carts for the currents and rarer tracks. Records that were damaged or scratched were replaced as needed.
Each week, the Philly music director would fill out long sheets with set numbers of what had played in Philadelphia the prior week and send them to the other stations, so the closest they could be to each other in terms of air time was a week or so difference. Now that doesn't preclude the possibility of currents being played at the same times, but the surrounding "set" would be different, assuming the music director was doing his/her job properly.
The other stations in the syndicated format did indeed play large reels of tape - tapes that were recorded in the production facilities of WMGK Philadelphia and sent through the mail. These would be done en masse for a new station and updated individually as new sets were created.
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