THE EVOLUTION OF FM IN CENTRAL PA

[bossjock 56]

Growing up in the 60's I thought that it was illegal for FM stations to program popular music formats. Everything on the FM band was either Easy Listening or Classical. Here's how it all evolved.
Early 60's...WNOW-FM 105.7....simulcast of Top 40 WNOW 1250. Went Country in late '63.
Mid 60's...WLBR-FM 100.1...a full simulcast of WLBR-AM 1270 in Lebanon, which played Top 40 at night. Remember "Bruce's Beat"
1969-70...WEPN-FM 106.7 (now WMHX) Top 40 in the summer of '69...went Country as BIG E COUNTRY in the fall of that year...then back to an AC/Top 40 mix with Progressive Rock at night in the spring of 1970. Went dark in early summer.
1969....WIOV 105.1 Ephrata...began long running Country format in October of that year.
Early 70's...WLAN-FM 96.9....Progressive Rock at night.
1972....WRHY 92.7(now WSJW)...Progressive Rock...first at night...then full time.
January 1974....WLBR-FM ends simulcast with AM and goes with Drake's "Solid Gold" automated format.
February 1974...WQXA(Q-106) ends simulcast with WNOW...goes Top 40 with board ops, who are later allowed to speak....but limited to cue cards.....or should that be "Q" cards?
February 1974...a few days later....WYCR 98.5 flips to live Top 40.

This paved the way for many more format flips in the coming years. Feel free to add to this....or make corrections. Let's have some fun!

 

[karlyle]

November 1984: WGET-FM, automated "Beautiful Music" with newscasts simulcasted with WGET-AM and signing off at midnight switches to WGTY-FM, live Country. Still signed off at midnight for a little while before going 24 hours.

 

[FreddyB]

I don't have the exact history handy, but WSFM (originally West Shore's Favorite Music) flipped to top-40 as ROCK 99 in the '70s - first station I worked for. It was automated, with AM jocks (WCMB) recording the weather, spots and PSA's.

 

[vetguy]

WROZ: on-air 1945 under an STA on 92.7. (Funny since Hall now owns 92.7 Starview.)
FCC moved station to 101.3 permanently in 1947. Station simulcast what was on WLPA-1490. (Was WGAL-AM then.)
Format changed to beautiful music in 1963. Rose format begain end of 1993/beginning of 1994. Don't remember excactly.

 

[loeper]

WSBA_FM (103.3) did they sign on in the early 50s...then go dark and come back with "the sound of your life" in the early 60s? also, what is now "SOX" was at one time WGCB_FM in Red Lion...( G-God;C-Christ;B-bible) . there also was an FM in Baltimore that was all news back in the 70s....talk about being way ahead of there time.

 

[Interstate 78]

In regards to beautiful music in the 80s and 90s, 101.3 FM was WNCE "Nice 101.3," playing beautiful music until the switch to "The Rose" somewhere around 1993. This was also around the same time that WHP-FM quit playing beautiful music and switched to "The River." Then there was good 'ol 92.1 FM which was WCTX, playing beautiful music for a time, switching their call letters to WNCE when 101.3 dropped them. "Nice 92.1 WNCE" lasted all the way until September 1999, being I believe the last and longest surviving beautiful music station in Pennsylvania.

 

[vetguy]

Mid 70's I think WSBA-FM also was beautiful music. They dropped it when they went to WARM, prior to WNCE switching to WROZ.

106.7 was pretty much a sleeper FM until it was sold to the people that turned it into country Z107, as was 96.1 a sleeper playing religous music until it was sold and turned into WSOX.

 

[johnnyu]

WSBA_FM (103.3) did they sign on in the early 50s...then go dark and come back with "the sound of your life" in the early 60s? also, what is now "SOX" was at one time WGCB_FM in Red Lion...( G-God;C-Christ;B-bible) . there also was an FM in Baltimore that was all news back in the 70s....talk about being way ahead of there time.

WBAL-FM, now WIYY tried the all news format for a little. It didn't go in Baltimore.

 

[John-Summers]

One of the most unique FMs was WMSP 94.9, which Market Square Presbyterian Church put on the air in 1962. It was 1900 watts in mono, had studios in the church, and broadcast from an antenna mounted on the steeple. Far from being a religious station, WMSP had a classical music format, staffed almost entirely by volunteers. It was a true community radio station and did some unusual things. When I was host of "Friday Night Music Hall" in 1970, I came in one night to find a note telling me to play "Jesus Christ Superstar." Did we ever get a reaction! Lots of people got their start volunteering at WMSP, like me, Rick Shockley and Denny Wagner of WARM 103.

WMSP's downfall was a large power increase and the need to go commercial to support it. They finally sold it to Barnstable in 1990, and that was the end of WMSP. I've often thought it was unfortunate the church didn't look for a non-commercial frequency and bring WMSP back in its volunteer state. It was a really well-regarded little station in its time and I think back on my time there fondly.

 

[FreddyB]

WMSP's downfall was a large power increase and the need to go commercial to support it. They finally sold it to Barnstable in 1990, and that was the end of WMSP. I've often thought it was unfortunate the church didn't look for a non-commercial frequency and bring WMSP back in its volunteer state. It was a really well-regarded little station in its time and I think back on my time there fondly.

John, I have a station shirt somewhere that has the exact date we signed on KISS 95-FM WHKS. I know it wasn't in '90, because by then we were well into its second format as KOOL 94.9. I'm fairly certain we signed on KISS on October 17, 1988.

 

[John-Summers]

If you've got the shirt, you've got the date! I was making a rough guess. Didn't you do morning drive on KISS before the switch to KOOL? I heard from someone at one time that the intention was to go Oldies from the start, and that KISS was just an interim format. True or legend? It didn't make any sense to put a third soft rock station on the air at that time (the others being 99.3 and 97.3). But there were also people who thought going Oldies on FM was crazy too. KOOL certainly proved them wrong!

 

[RockofHBG]

Interestingly, it wasn't until the late 80s - early 90s that oldies became a serious format. That was largely due to the fact that research dictated that an oldie wasn't just anything that was old. I remember in the mid 80s both WKBO and WCMB were both airing oldies satellite formats. I remember hearing this segue on the WCMB Transtar format: "Party Doll" by Buddy Knox into "Owner Of A Lonely heart" by Yes, which was just a couple of years old at that point. Gosh, remember when oldies stations played currents, referring to them as "future golds"? Once it was realized that oldies were a "sound", with a core between 1964-72 and that the songs needed to well-known, mass appeal hits, not just any song, the format would begin to grab a large cume. Oldies had performed so poorly ratings-wise in most markets (with a few exceptions), no wonder owners were scared to dedicate a full-market FM signal to oldies!

 

[FreddyB]

Didn't you do morning drive on KISS before the switch to KOOL? I heard from someone at one time that the intention was to go Oldies from the start, and that KISS was just an interim format. True or legend? It didn't make any sense to put a third soft rock station on the air at that time (the others being 99.3 and 97.3). But there were also people who thought going Oldies on FM was crazy too. KOOL certainly proved them wrong!

Yes, John, I was one of the 5 or 6 people on that morning show. I've often wondered if their intention was to ease their way in to the oldies format. That's a question for one or two of the guys who wore the suits in that organization, and I still talk to them from time to time. I'll have to put that question to them. I'd love to know the answer once and for all.

 

[crdispatch]

Is WIOV the only FM in the area that didn't change its music format? I know during the 80's WIOV experimented with the country format by including songs by Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen. There ratings started to go down and went back to solid country.

 

[ALDAVE]

Hey Freddy B, or whatever your real name is, I'd like to set the record straight on WMSP, WHKS and WWKL 94.9...and I should know as Dana Harmon and I signed KISS 95 on the air in October 1988. Barnstable had conducted a very extensive market research project and format analysis to determine what the "hole" was. The conclusion was an Oldies based AC station, which we called KISS 95 FM. As some of you know, prior to KISS 95, I was PD at WHIT (99.3) in an attempt to carve out a niche as a mainstream CHR station. When that blew up, I was a casualty. My family and I really liked the Central PA area, and hoped to be able to stay there. Naturally, when I heard about WMSP being sold, I thought sure that the new owners would flip it to a Mainstream CHR and go head to head with WINK on a station with a full market signal and an arsenal of resources. Anyway, obviously, they offered me the job and early on, there was no discussion about a flip to full blown Oldies. That discussion happened, as I recall, about a year into the format.
The morning show on KISS was "Alexander and Scott", Leigh Alexander from WLEV in Allentown, and Scooter Fortney. Tim McCauley did news and I can't remember what we did for traffic, but it was not Traffax.
The morning show and gthe entire station was marginally successful, but our Solid Gold weekends had done very well, and we were starting to see Oldies stations exploding across the country. I got in the car and drove to Pittsburgh and intently listened to 3WS, and then to Baltimore to listen to WQSR to hear what they were doing. When I came back, our company President, consultants (McVay) our GM and me set out to form what would be the "legendary" KOOL 94.9. So the actual answer was, NO, we did not plan to flip to Oldies at the start of KISS 95.
With the change, we blew up the morning show, and hired Tod and Nancy from WRKZ, who believe it or not, were working without a contract. We actually hired them one day, and they were on the air the next, or at least the day after that. KOOL 94.9 was a HUGE success, so much so, we were nominated for a Marconi award for excellence. Programming that station and working with that "dream team" staff was one of the proudest moments of my career.

By the way, John Summers, you may not be aware of this..but YOU replaced me in the mid 70’s at WQPD in Lakeland Fla..or did you? When I was hired, the PD, (Les Howard Jacoby) gave me the name JON Summers, because they already had jingles done with jocks names in them. Imagine his awkwardness when he had to come and tell me he had hired “THE REAL” John Summers and I would have to change my name. That was when I started using the name Al Brock, again, because there was already a jingle with Al’s name already sung!! Small world isn’t it!!

Al Brock a/k/a The artist formerly known as John Summers!! lol

 

[FreddyB]

Hey Freddy B, or whatever your real name is, I'd like to set the record straight

ALDAVE, check your inbox on this site.

 

[John-Summers]

Al...Thanks for your insight into the genesis of KOOL 94.9. Although it may not have been planned from the start, the switch to Oldies seems to have been an opportunity that couldn't be denied. KOOL really turned Harrisburg on, not only with the music and personalities, but with outside promotion that raised the bar for everyone.

And I do remember that you were me and I was you, so to speak, at WQPD. Les Howard had Gary Brooks from WIBG voice hour openers with a variety of names, a lot of them people Les had worked with at WKBO and WAMS. "Al Brock" was not one of those people. I think Gary just made it up! Look to your message box and I'll explain further.

 

[sprtschick]

101.3 changed from beautiful music to the Rose the day after the November election.....and it was a total surprise to the majority of the staff. Only about 5 people knew what was going on as they were meeting at the station's new building on Auction Road while the rest of the staff was still working in downtown Lancaster. Story has it that the people working on the switch were sitting on the floor in the Auction Road building because there was no furniture yet.