M
Marckd
Guest
Well, New York City has a Country Music station after 16 years, 11 months, 2 weeks, and 3 hours, and 51 minutes to be exact. Today New York City and Northeastern NJ Country Music fans are in a honeymoon period, happy they do not have to pay for XM/Sirius, rely on internet radio, IPods, and their own personal collections. Yes many fans do have their own collections, but without a local station, its hard to determine what to buy, what to play. Radio introduces songs in all formats that a person might not know about otherwise. So the influence of a Country Music station locally is in my opinion important.
Anyhow, I indicated how long NYC was without a true Country Music station, and I DO NOT count that Y 107 Quadcast. So 2 weeks later, it marks 17 years today that Country Music fans lost the last major player to play Country music. It was a very sad day. Back then both I and many other radio people predicted that NYC would have another major signal doing the format. I predicted the next station with very low ratings would take the plunge. And we went through a dozen such situations and Country was probably not even considered in any of them. A huge reason was from what I have been told from MANY sources was not just average to below average ratings but also the perceived inability to sell the format well. Country had a history in the 90’s to selling maybe ¾ of the avails not counting overnights. This might or might not be enough to pay the bills. For Country to sell well it was thought that the format would need to pull nearly double the ratings and it seemed that this was an unreachable goal. Plus NYC has had a far less than stellar history of doing successful with Country Music.
By the early 60’s, nearly every major and large markets had at least one country music station on AM. Back then Country, along with other pop based formats were found on AM stations. But New York City lacked such a station. Finally on September 15, 1965, the former WJRZ (970 AM) changed its format to Country music, making it the Big Apple’s first fulltime country station. The station was licensed to Hackensack, NJ, but it aimed its new format at the New York market. Ratings-wise, the station did all right, nothing spectacular, but consistently in the top 20 at least. In 1967, the New York Mets moved from WHN to WJRZ and left in 1971.
In 1969, though WMCA 570 was losing the Top 40 battle to WABC so they evolved into talk completing the transition in the fall of 1970. WJRZ was sold around that time and they determined that New York could support a second top 40 station. By then MOR station WNBC was evolving to an adult top 40 format and WNEW 1130 was evolving to more of an AC format and WOR was evolving to mostly talk. On May 17, 1971, WJRZ became WWDJ, and country was gone in favor of the Top 40 format. The country format lasted just over five-and-a-half years. That station did not do any better and adopted a religious format April 1, 1974.
Country fans would suffer without their music for almost two years. By 1973, WNEW had evolved to an AC format while WNBC was more of an adult Top 40 format. WHN was floundering with their MOR format with still very few AC cuts mixed in. Their owners, Storer Broadcasting determined they did not want to to Top 40 so they opted for Country Music. So on February 26, 1973, at 6:05 AM, Jack Spector of WMCA Good Guy fame, played “The Race Is On” by George Jones and country music was back in the Apple on WHN 1050 AM.
Initially, the station did below average but by 1975, they began to mix artists like America, Anne Murray, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton John, Neil Diamond, Elvis Presley, Neil Young, Everly Brothers in with artists like John Denver, Lynn Anderson, Charlie Pride, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Tanya Tucker, Sonny James, among others. The station was about 1/3 country, 1/3 crossovers, and 1/3 pop hits that were not overly hard or rhythmic but one would not expect to find on a Country Music station. The station had average to above average ratings going in and out of the Top 10.
By 1980, FM stations were doing other formats besides Classical, Jazz (by then those were mostly gone), Album Rock, and Beautiful Music. Top 40, R & B, Soft Rock/AC, and Country music was being heard on FM stations. By then Country on FM was overtaking AM stations. Jazz station WRVR was sold to Viacom in the Summer of 1980. They determined that Jazz was not profitable anymore so they flipped 106.7 to Country Music at Noon, September 8, 1980 with the call letters WKHK.
Musically, WKHK did play a decent amount of crossover material but somewhat less than WHN. They also played very limited amounts of songs you might not expect to find on a Country Music station but far fewer than WHN. Initially, WKHK did dismal but gradually the station would crack the top 20 with upper one to lower 2 shares. Problem was the listeners all came from WHN bringing their ratings down to barely average with KHK still below average. In the Fall 1983 Book WHN dived to under a 2 share while WKHK barely cracked a 2. WKHK was not selling well and they were the ones to give up the fight. On January 23, 1984, WKHK dumped Country for a MOR based format known by then as Soft AC and became known as Lite FM 106.7 WLTW. That station still has that format in some way, shape, and form today, though it evolved to more of a mainstream AC in the mid 90’s. WHN rebounded slightly to a mid 2 but never fully would recover to previous levels. Part of this was Music was becoming less a part of AM radio. WHN did make adjustments by adding Mets Baseball, and other play by play sports teams over the next few years. They also backed off the soft rock type cuts (though they played a handful still), became more of a straight ahead country music station. Part of this was Country was just not crossing over as much anymore. WHN was sold to Mutual Radio in the late 70’s. It was sold to Doubleday Broadcasting in 1984, which had their hands full with the failing Top 40 WAPP 103.5. During this time WHN stayed in the upper 2’s occasionally cracking a 3 share. In 1986, Doubleday sold the entire company to Emmis. Emmis had their hands full with failed Top 40 Rock 103.5 WAPP. The Summer of 1986 was when they dealt with the FM station flipping them to Rhythmic CHR as Hot 103.5 WQHT. They left WHN alone initially.
On April of 1987, Emmis announced their plans to flip 1050 from WHN Country to Sports Radio WFAN. Their last spring book was about a 2.8. Meanwhile, New York City had 5 AC stations, 4 of which were struggling. WNNNBC had evolved to a blend of Oldies, talk, sports, and was only playing AC during Imus show. WPIX FM and WYNY were failing miserably with their Hot AC formats. WNSR had switched a year before from beautiful music and was beginning to grow a bit with their uptempo Gold Based AC. WLTW was doing well with Soft AC. NBC decided then to dump AC on WYNY and flip them to country the night before July 1. They announced it in the papers but on the air they stayed silent for all intents and purposes.
On July 1, 1987, at 3:00 PM, Dan Taylor played Ray Price’s “For the Good Times” and for the last time said “This is WHN, New York.” WHN then became “Sports Radio WFAN.” The night before, at 12:01 AM on July 1, 1987, WYNY made their announced flip to country playing “Think About Love” by Dolly Parton. WYNY zoomed from lower 1 shares to the upper 2’s by the end of the year and low 3’s by early in 1988. NBC was committed to Country on WYNY but not committed to radio. They sold their radio stations one by one and 97.1 and 660 were sold to Emmis. Emmis was moving their intellectual WFAN unit to 660, ending the WNNNBC unit. They moved their Hot 103 intellectual unit to 97.1 making that station Hot 97 which would evolve to Hip Hop and R & B a few years later. 1050 was sold to Jewish forward and brokered WEVD moved from 97.9 to 1050 after a stint with SBS owning AM 1050 briefly and parking a Spanish format there in the fall of 88. That Spanish format moved to 97.9 which became WSKQ soon after. 103.5 was sold to Westwood One and they also bought Adult Standards station WNEW 1130. Westwood One moved WYNY’s intellectual unit to 103.5 FM September 22, 1988.
Initially, ratings stayed level. Still rumors abounded about WYNY eventually changing formats. Westwood One flipped an FM station in LA to Top 40/Rock and rumors were they were considering this for 103.5 if it did well there. We will NEVER know for sure if this was being talked about or they were idle rumors. Rumors heated up when it was announced that Jim Kerr would move to the station for mornings. On January of 1990, Kerr moved in and the format stayed intact. Ratings stayed pretty good in the upper 2’s much of this time. Rumors of a format change cooled a bit as Westwood One’s LA station did not do well with their rock based formats.
WYNY went through several program directors from 1992 to 1994. In 1992, Westwood One sold their
three stations. The LA station went to Viacom. WNEW 1130 went to Bloomberg and became WBBR and Business News January of 1993 (yes they had quite a transition discussed many times where they changed in phases beginning December 12 of 1992). WYNY was sold to Broadcast Partners early in 1993.WYNY went through a parade of PD’s Michael O’Malley, who signed on the station in 1987 leaves early 1992, then Charlie Cook for a couple months, then Johnny Michaels in the spring of 1992 till the station was sold and Fred Horton joined in the late winter of 1993. Then Rusty Horton took over consulting WYNY in the late winter 1994 and that Fall Chris Kampmeirer took over and stayed till the end. By 1993, the station ran a syndicated overnight show called After Midnight. WYNY stays in the upper 2’s and in mid 1991 peaked at a mid 3 share. After that, the station kept pretty average ratings but by mid to late 1994, they dived to under a 2 share. Still by the Winter of 1995 WYNY was back to average ratings. During this time rumors of a format change had continued and never really died down completely over the years. Late in 1994, rumors heated up again when WYNY was put up for sale.
In early 1995, Evergreen Media emerged as the likely taker and they stated they had no commitment to keep the country format though they did not confirm a format change either. By then airstaffers as well as active listeners knew the format’s days were numbered as far back as the summer of 95. I would be hearing these rumors throughout that year. I didn’t take them all that seriously. I figured there were not many good holes to fill in NYC at the time. I wondered what would they possibly flip to. Still week after week even trade publications were stating WYNY could very well dump country once they are sold. That December at the station I was working at, both my PD and GM told me it was nearly definite that WYNY was flipping early in 1996. I even called the station and spoke to the PD and he stated that he was being laid off in January and was not given an exact date but said dropping Country was now a probability. I am unsure of the exact date that Evergreen closed on WYNY.
1996 began with a few format changes that January. 970 WWDJ dumped a music intensive Contemporary Christian format for a Praise and Worship Music format a few hours a day with preaching and teaching the rest of the day. Days later on Friday, January 5, 1996, K Rock dumps Classic Rock for a Hard Rock/Modern Rock mix after Howard Stern’s show. We have a big blizzard that weekend. Then 93.1 WPAT FM announced late in November of 1995 they would be sold and folded and SBS would own the station and be flipping them to Spanish. They announced on the 15th of January that They would be shutting down their AC format Midnight January 19th going into the 20’s and that a new Spanish AC station would be on in its place. That aristaff was given the chance to say goodbyes all week long in a music intensive manner (playing music mostly and just talking moderately between songs and taking a call here and there). So three changes in three weeks happened that January.
On January 21, 1996, Evergreen Media confirmed that the Country Music format would end early February 5, 1996 at 6 AM. They played the regular format as usual till February 2, 1996 in the 6 PM hour when Dan Daniel announced the change and discussed what was happening at the station. Bit by bit, airstaffers, current and past filed in and a farewell party weekend began for the sendoff of WYNY. Dan Daniel thanked Evergreen Media and Broadcast Partners for agreeing to allow the staff to come in and say goodbye and share this with listeners. They continued on past Midnight and joined After Midnight Syndicated show in progress. The farewell party continued on February 3, Saturday morning with the entire staff back again playing a few songs, talking about the changes, the good times at WYNY, the music, and taking live calls from listeners. This again continued into the night joining After Midnight in progress again in the 12 AM hour on February 4. Then after the Country Countdown show Sunday morning by 10 AM everyone was back and the farewell party continued for its final day. Finally, at 6:15 PM the goodbye party ended with the playing of Garth Brooks’ “The Dance.” The station then ran the syndicated Country Countdown followed by country music programming with no announcers till Midnight. Then at Midnight February 5, 1996, they ran After Midnight as usual.
At about 5:45 AM after playing Neil McCoy’s You Gotta Love That, it was announced that some things we
cannot love. Blair Garner and his host then said “New Yorkers are very sad right now, America’s number one Country Music station, which is a great station, just moments from now will no longer be playing Country Music, we just want to express our sorrows for the loss of WYNY there and the listeners and the nice staff there. We will miss them and they will miss us but things in radio always change and we have faith we will be back in New York City soon so its up to you New York”. The show continued and right before 6 AM, the Dance by Garth Brooks was played again. It faded out and then we hear “WYNY New York” with the intro to Eye Of The Tiger played in the background. Then they join Wonderwall by Oasis in progress followed by rag Doll by Aerosmith and then Mancow Muller simulcasting Rock 103.5 WRCX Chicago (would become Jammin Oldies in 1998 and then Kiss CHR in 2001) the 5th, Tuesday the 6 92.3 The Beat LA playing Hip Hop and R & B (which went through a dial change and several format changes since), Wednesday Talk/Rock WLUP (which went through several rock formats and owners since) Chicago, Thursday Hot AC KIOI San Francisco, and Friday Kiss 108 Boston followed by a Heartbeat and on February 10, 1996 103.5 the New KTU.
On December 7, 1996, a corporation called Big City Radio would take three suburban radio stations WRGX in Briar Cliff Manor, NY, WWHB in Hampton Bays, NY and WZVU in Long Branch, NJ, all on 107.1 FM and turn them into New York’s newest country station, known collectively as Y-107. Two years later, the trimulcast would become a quadrocast as Big City add a fourth signal to the simulcast WRNJ FM in Belvidere, NJ. Of course, the calls would all be changed to reflect the new country outlet’s moniker “Y-107“. WRGX would become WWXY, WWHB would become WWVY, WZVU switched to WWZY and WRNJ FM became WWYY. On December 17, 1998, the Briar Cliff Manor station, which was pretty much the home base of the quadrocast, changed its call letters from WWXY to WYNY. So New York SORT OF had its once-favorite country station back.
Y-107 also carried on the tradition of the original WYNY’s St. Jude’s Radiothon. Every year in February, the station would broadcast live from the Woodbridge Center Mall and raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. And just like its predecessor, Y-107 always had a fine response from the country audience. In fact, the Radiothon of 2001 raised well in excess of $1 million. Ratings-wise, Y107 just never lived up to its predecessors. The problem here being that you had four suburban transmitters that just could not cover the entire New York radio market like WYNY, WHN, WKHK could. Add that to the fact that Arbitron never actually added the four station’s numbers together to come up with one consolidated number for the station, and you had a problem.
Big City Radio eventually merged with a corporation that was into Hispanic radio. While the suits denied a format change was coming, one Big City quadrocast after another changed to a Hispanic format. The Phoenix properties were sold to raise cash for a corporation that was drowning in a sea of red ink. Finally, at 5 PM on May 7, 2002, Y-107 played Garth Brooks’ “The Dance” (haven’t we been here before) and the country music format, once again, lay in ashes on the ground.
So yes we had Y 107 but their lack of a signal in New York City would make me say they did not count as a major player. Anyhow we have one now.
Anyhow, I indicated how long NYC was without a true Country Music station, and I DO NOT count that Y 107 Quadcast. So 2 weeks later, it marks 17 years today that Country Music fans lost the last major player to play Country music. It was a very sad day. Back then both I and many other radio people predicted that NYC would have another major signal doing the format. I predicted the next station with very low ratings would take the plunge. And we went through a dozen such situations and Country was probably not even considered in any of them. A huge reason was from what I have been told from MANY sources was not just average to below average ratings but also the perceived inability to sell the format well. Country had a history in the 90’s to selling maybe ¾ of the avails not counting overnights. This might or might not be enough to pay the bills. For Country to sell well it was thought that the format would need to pull nearly double the ratings and it seemed that this was an unreachable goal. Plus NYC has had a far less than stellar history of doing successful with Country Music.
By the early 60’s, nearly every major and large markets had at least one country music station on AM. Back then Country, along with other pop based formats were found on AM stations. But New York City lacked such a station. Finally on September 15, 1965, the former WJRZ (970 AM) changed its format to Country music, making it the Big Apple’s first fulltime country station. The station was licensed to Hackensack, NJ, but it aimed its new format at the New York market. Ratings-wise, the station did all right, nothing spectacular, but consistently in the top 20 at least. In 1967, the New York Mets moved from WHN to WJRZ and left in 1971.
In 1969, though WMCA 570 was losing the Top 40 battle to WABC so they evolved into talk completing the transition in the fall of 1970. WJRZ was sold around that time and they determined that New York could support a second top 40 station. By then MOR station WNBC was evolving to an adult top 40 format and WNEW 1130 was evolving to more of an AC format and WOR was evolving to mostly talk. On May 17, 1971, WJRZ became WWDJ, and country was gone in favor of the Top 40 format. The country format lasted just over five-and-a-half years. That station did not do any better and adopted a religious format April 1, 1974.
Country fans would suffer without their music for almost two years. By 1973, WNEW had evolved to an AC format while WNBC was more of an adult Top 40 format. WHN was floundering with their MOR format with still very few AC cuts mixed in. Their owners, Storer Broadcasting determined they did not want to to Top 40 so they opted for Country Music. So on February 26, 1973, at 6:05 AM, Jack Spector of WMCA Good Guy fame, played “The Race Is On” by George Jones and country music was back in the Apple on WHN 1050 AM.
Initially, the station did below average but by 1975, they began to mix artists like America, Anne Murray, The Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Olivia Newton John, Neil Diamond, Elvis Presley, Neil Young, Everly Brothers in with artists like John Denver, Lynn Anderson, Charlie Pride, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Tanya Tucker, Sonny James, among others. The station was about 1/3 country, 1/3 crossovers, and 1/3 pop hits that were not overly hard or rhythmic but one would not expect to find on a Country Music station. The station had average to above average ratings going in and out of the Top 10.
By 1980, FM stations were doing other formats besides Classical, Jazz (by then those were mostly gone), Album Rock, and Beautiful Music. Top 40, R & B, Soft Rock/AC, and Country music was being heard on FM stations. By then Country on FM was overtaking AM stations. Jazz station WRVR was sold to Viacom in the Summer of 1980. They determined that Jazz was not profitable anymore so they flipped 106.7 to Country Music at Noon, September 8, 1980 with the call letters WKHK.
Musically, WKHK did play a decent amount of crossover material but somewhat less than WHN. They also played very limited amounts of songs you might not expect to find on a Country Music station but far fewer than WHN. Initially, WKHK did dismal but gradually the station would crack the top 20 with upper one to lower 2 shares. Problem was the listeners all came from WHN bringing their ratings down to barely average with KHK still below average. In the Fall 1983 Book WHN dived to under a 2 share while WKHK barely cracked a 2. WKHK was not selling well and they were the ones to give up the fight. On January 23, 1984, WKHK dumped Country for a MOR based format known by then as Soft AC and became known as Lite FM 106.7 WLTW. That station still has that format in some way, shape, and form today, though it evolved to more of a mainstream AC in the mid 90’s. WHN rebounded slightly to a mid 2 but never fully would recover to previous levels. Part of this was Music was becoming less a part of AM radio. WHN did make adjustments by adding Mets Baseball, and other play by play sports teams over the next few years. They also backed off the soft rock type cuts (though they played a handful still), became more of a straight ahead country music station. Part of this was Country was just not crossing over as much anymore. WHN was sold to Mutual Radio in the late 70’s. It was sold to Doubleday Broadcasting in 1984, which had their hands full with the failing Top 40 WAPP 103.5. During this time WHN stayed in the upper 2’s occasionally cracking a 3 share. In 1986, Doubleday sold the entire company to Emmis. Emmis had their hands full with failed Top 40 Rock 103.5 WAPP. The Summer of 1986 was when they dealt with the FM station flipping them to Rhythmic CHR as Hot 103.5 WQHT. They left WHN alone initially.
On April of 1987, Emmis announced their plans to flip 1050 from WHN Country to Sports Radio WFAN. Their last spring book was about a 2.8. Meanwhile, New York City had 5 AC stations, 4 of which were struggling. WNNNBC had evolved to a blend of Oldies, talk, sports, and was only playing AC during Imus show. WPIX FM and WYNY were failing miserably with their Hot AC formats. WNSR had switched a year before from beautiful music and was beginning to grow a bit with their uptempo Gold Based AC. WLTW was doing well with Soft AC. NBC decided then to dump AC on WYNY and flip them to country the night before July 1. They announced it in the papers but on the air they stayed silent for all intents and purposes.
On July 1, 1987, at 3:00 PM, Dan Taylor played Ray Price’s “For the Good Times” and for the last time said “This is WHN, New York.” WHN then became “Sports Radio WFAN.” The night before, at 12:01 AM on July 1, 1987, WYNY made their announced flip to country playing “Think About Love” by Dolly Parton. WYNY zoomed from lower 1 shares to the upper 2’s by the end of the year and low 3’s by early in 1988. NBC was committed to Country on WYNY but not committed to radio. They sold their radio stations one by one and 97.1 and 660 were sold to Emmis. Emmis was moving their intellectual WFAN unit to 660, ending the WNNNBC unit. They moved their Hot 103 intellectual unit to 97.1 making that station Hot 97 which would evolve to Hip Hop and R & B a few years later. 1050 was sold to Jewish forward and brokered WEVD moved from 97.9 to 1050 after a stint with SBS owning AM 1050 briefly and parking a Spanish format there in the fall of 88. That Spanish format moved to 97.9 which became WSKQ soon after. 103.5 was sold to Westwood One and they also bought Adult Standards station WNEW 1130. Westwood One moved WYNY’s intellectual unit to 103.5 FM September 22, 1988.
Initially, ratings stayed level. Still rumors abounded about WYNY eventually changing formats. Westwood One flipped an FM station in LA to Top 40/Rock and rumors were they were considering this for 103.5 if it did well there. We will NEVER know for sure if this was being talked about or they were idle rumors. Rumors heated up when it was announced that Jim Kerr would move to the station for mornings. On January of 1990, Kerr moved in and the format stayed intact. Ratings stayed pretty good in the upper 2’s much of this time. Rumors of a format change cooled a bit as Westwood One’s LA station did not do well with their rock based formats.
WYNY went through several program directors from 1992 to 1994. In 1992, Westwood One sold their
three stations. The LA station went to Viacom. WNEW 1130 went to Bloomberg and became WBBR and Business News January of 1993 (yes they had quite a transition discussed many times where they changed in phases beginning December 12 of 1992). WYNY was sold to Broadcast Partners early in 1993.WYNY went through a parade of PD’s Michael O’Malley, who signed on the station in 1987 leaves early 1992, then Charlie Cook for a couple months, then Johnny Michaels in the spring of 1992 till the station was sold and Fred Horton joined in the late winter of 1993. Then Rusty Horton took over consulting WYNY in the late winter 1994 and that Fall Chris Kampmeirer took over and stayed till the end. By 1993, the station ran a syndicated overnight show called After Midnight. WYNY stays in the upper 2’s and in mid 1991 peaked at a mid 3 share. After that, the station kept pretty average ratings but by mid to late 1994, they dived to under a 2 share. Still by the Winter of 1995 WYNY was back to average ratings. During this time rumors of a format change had continued and never really died down completely over the years. Late in 1994, rumors heated up again when WYNY was put up for sale.
In early 1995, Evergreen Media emerged as the likely taker and they stated they had no commitment to keep the country format though they did not confirm a format change either. By then airstaffers as well as active listeners knew the format’s days were numbered as far back as the summer of 95. I would be hearing these rumors throughout that year. I didn’t take them all that seriously. I figured there were not many good holes to fill in NYC at the time. I wondered what would they possibly flip to. Still week after week even trade publications were stating WYNY could very well dump country once they are sold. That December at the station I was working at, both my PD and GM told me it was nearly definite that WYNY was flipping early in 1996. I even called the station and spoke to the PD and he stated that he was being laid off in January and was not given an exact date but said dropping Country was now a probability. I am unsure of the exact date that Evergreen closed on WYNY.
1996 began with a few format changes that January. 970 WWDJ dumped a music intensive Contemporary Christian format for a Praise and Worship Music format a few hours a day with preaching and teaching the rest of the day. Days later on Friday, January 5, 1996, K Rock dumps Classic Rock for a Hard Rock/Modern Rock mix after Howard Stern’s show. We have a big blizzard that weekend. Then 93.1 WPAT FM announced late in November of 1995 they would be sold and folded and SBS would own the station and be flipping them to Spanish. They announced on the 15th of January that They would be shutting down their AC format Midnight January 19th going into the 20’s and that a new Spanish AC station would be on in its place. That aristaff was given the chance to say goodbyes all week long in a music intensive manner (playing music mostly and just talking moderately between songs and taking a call here and there). So three changes in three weeks happened that January.
On January 21, 1996, Evergreen Media confirmed that the Country Music format would end early February 5, 1996 at 6 AM. They played the regular format as usual till February 2, 1996 in the 6 PM hour when Dan Daniel announced the change and discussed what was happening at the station. Bit by bit, airstaffers, current and past filed in and a farewell party weekend began for the sendoff of WYNY. Dan Daniel thanked Evergreen Media and Broadcast Partners for agreeing to allow the staff to come in and say goodbye and share this with listeners. They continued on past Midnight and joined After Midnight Syndicated show in progress. The farewell party continued on February 3, Saturday morning with the entire staff back again playing a few songs, talking about the changes, the good times at WYNY, the music, and taking live calls from listeners. This again continued into the night joining After Midnight in progress again in the 12 AM hour on February 4. Then after the Country Countdown show Sunday morning by 10 AM everyone was back and the farewell party continued for its final day. Finally, at 6:15 PM the goodbye party ended with the playing of Garth Brooks’ “The Dance.” The station then ran the syndicated Country Countdown followed by country music programming with no announcers till Midnight. Then at Midnight February 5, 1996, they ran After Midnight as usual.
At about 5:45 AM after playing Neil McCoy’s You Gotta Love That, it was announced that some things we
cannot love. Blair Garner and his host then said “New Yorkers are very sad right now, America’s number one Country Music station, which is a great station, just moments from now will no longer be playing Country Music, we just want to express our sorrows for the loss of WYNY there and the listeners and the nice staff there. We will miss them and they will miss us but things in radio always change and we have faith we will be back in New York City soon so its up to you New York”. The show continued and right before 6 AM, the Dance by Garth Brooks was played again. It faded out and then we hear “WYNY New York” with the intro to Eye Of The Tiger played in the background. Then they join Wonderwall by Oasis in progress followed by rag Doll by Aerosmith and then Mancow Muller simulcasting Rock 103.5 WRCX Chicago (would become Jammin Oldies in 1998 and then Kiss CHR in 2001) the 5th, Tuesday the 6 92.3 The Beat LA playing Hip Hop and R & B (which went through a dial change and several format changes since), Wednesday Talk/Rock WLUP (which went through several rock formats and owners since) Chicago, Thursday Hot AC KIOI San Francisco, and Friday Kiss 108 Boston followed by a Heartbeat and on February 10, 1996 103.5 the New KTU.
On December 7, 1996, a corporation called Big City Radio would take three suburban radio stations WRGX in Briar Cliff Manor, NY, WWHB in Hampton Bays, NY and WZVU in Long Branch, NJ, all on 107.1 FM and turn them into New York’s newest country station, known collectively as Y-107. Two years later, the trimulcast would become a quadrocast as Big City add a fourth signal to the simulcast WRNJ FM in Belvidere, NJ. Of course, the calls would all be changed to reflect the new country outlet’s moniker “Y-107“. WRGX would become WWXY, WWHB would become WWVY, WZVU switched to WWZY and WRNJ FM became WWYY. On December 17, 1998, the Briar Cliff Manor station, which was pretty much the home base of the quadrocast, changed its call letters from WWXY to WYNY. So New York SORT OF had its once-favorite country station back.
Y-107 also carried on the tradition of the original WYNY’s St. Jude’s Radiothon. Every year in February, the station would broadcast live from the Woodbridge Center Mall and raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. And just like its predecessor, Y-107 always had a fine response from the country audience. In fact, the Radiothon of 2001 raised well in excess of $1 million. Ratings-wise, Y107 just never lived up to its predecessors. The problem here being that you had four suburban transmitters that just could not cover the entire New York radio market like WYNY, WHN, WKHK could. Add that to the fact that Arbitron never actually added the four station’s numbers together to come up with one consolidated number for the station, and you had a problem.
Big City Radio eventually merged with a corporation that was into Hispanic radio. While the suits denied a format change was coming, one Big City quadrocast after another changed to a Hispanic format. The Phoenix properties were sold to raise cash for a corporation that was drowning in a sea of red ink. Finally, at 5 PM on May 7, 2002, Y-107 played Garth Brooks’ “The Dance” (haven’t we been here before) and the country music format, once again, lay in ashes on the ground.
So yes we had Y 107 but their lack of a signal in New York City would make me say they did not count as a major player. Anyhow we have one now.