WOR-FM ON REWOUND RADIO ALL WEEKEND

[radioguy39nj]

"The Big Town Sound....WOR-FM....New York" is back! NYC's first pop station on FM lives again on Rewound Radio all Labor Day weekend! This is the classic Drake-Chenault sound. OR-FM differed from KHJ in LA and KFRC SF in that it was more of an "adult top 40". OR-FM targeted listeners 18-34, who in 1968, were the first generation to grow up with rock 'n' roll.

WOR-FM's local AM competitors were the long-established WMCA and WABC. FM was in appoximately 50% of the homes in the NY area in 1968 and even fewer in cars. Few popular priced Fords and Chevys were sold with FM in the late 60s. FM was more commonly found on luxury Cadillacs and Lincolns at that time. Pundits thought the Drake-Chenault format was fine for California but didn't stand a chance in New York.

WOR-FM had two things going for it against WMCA and WABC. Music did sound better on FM. Also WOR-FM played a deeper playlist than the established competition. You'd hear "Dock of the Bay", a hit on every station followed by an oldie from 1957, followed by an R & B record WABC and WMCA wouldn't touch. All that variety, a fast-paced tight delivery and no static!

I was only 16 in 1968, but this was the station that pulled me off WMCA and WABC. WOR-FM was the station that helped sell FM converters to baby boomers for installation in their first car. When I got my first car in 1969, a classic '67 Mustang, I added an FM converter to the car's factory AM radio.

WOR-FM never beat WABC, but impacted WMCA enough to force them to flip to talk in 1970. The migration of pop music to FM was on!

Enough history! Listen and enjoy!
http://www.rewoundradio.com/

 

[BruceS8852]

I have enjoyed the WOR-FM Rewound weekend. I hope there are enough tapes from WMCA to make a WMCA Rewound weekend possible.

Bruce

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

"The Big Town Sound....WOR-FM....New York" is back! NYC's first pop station on FM lives again on Rewound Radio all Labor Day weekend! This is the classic Drake-Chenault sound. OR-FM differed from KHJ in LA and KFRC SF in that it was more of an "adult top 40". OR-FM targeted listeners 18-34, who in 1968, were the first generation to grow up with rock 'n' roll.

WOR-FM's local AM competitors were the long-established WMCA and WABC. FM was in appoximately 50% of the homes in the NY area in 1968 and even fewer in cars. Few popular priced Fords and Chevys were sold with FM in the late 60s. FM was more commonly found on luxury Cadillacs and Lincolns at that time. Pundits thought the Drake-Chenault format was fine for California but didn't stand a chance in New York.

WOR-FM had two things going for it against WMCA and WABC. Music did sound better on FM. Also WOR-FM played a deeper playlist than the established competition. You'd hear "Dock of the Bay", a hit on every station followed by an oldie from 1957, followed by an R & B record WABC and WMCA wouldn't touch. All that variety, a fast-paced tight delivery and no static!

I was only 16 in 1968, but this was the station that pulled me off WMCA and WABC. WOR-FM was the station that helped sell FM converters to baby boomers for installation in their first car. When I got my first car in 1969, a classic '67 Mustang, I added an FM converter to the car's factory AM radio.

WOR-FM never beat WABC, but impacted WMCA enough to force them to flip to talk in 1970. The migration of pop music to FM was on!

Enough history! Listen and enjoy!
http://www.rewoundradio.com/

Listening as I write-- I've got goosebumps the size of mangos! 'OR-FM was a fixture in the culture of us NY Metro area baby-boomers. Jones Beach, Yankee Stadium, even the Bronx Zoo--the fun never stopped. It seemed like it would go on forever, and WOR FM was always there, as if playing backup to all the excitement of our youth. Thank you so much for posting this website!

 

[radioguy39nj]

Listening as I write-- I've got goosebumps the size of mangos! 'OR-FM was a fixture in the culture of us NY Metro area baby-boomers. Jones Beach, Yankee Stadium, even the Bronx Zoo--the fun never stopped. It seemed like it would go on forever, and WOR FM was always there, as if playing backup to all the excitement of our youth. Thank you so much for posting this website!

My pleasure! Listening as I write to "The Top 100 of the 60s". Still remember listening to it while getting ready for New Year's Eve, Dec. 31, 1969. By that time, 'OR-FM was definitely MY radio station.

By this particular time (December 1969), there were four NY FMs playing rock or pop music. WNEW-FM was a 24/7 progressive rocker, WABC-FM had it's version of the format but wasn't yet 24/7. It still simulcast WABC-AM overnight. In October, CBS-FM signed on with its mixed format of pop, progressive rock and oldies.

WABC and WMCA were still top 40 stations, but WMCA was becoming less of a factor. WMCA would flip to talk in September of 1970.

Memories of a simpler time!

 

[Mike Sheridan]

As I listen all I can say is WOW! I never heard WOR-FM, wish we had something like this now.

I worked at RKO's WAXY-FM 106 in Fort Lauderdale THE oldies station in South Florida. RKO General was an awesome company, there was always lots of excitement there. I was there when they bought the station, they took it from a nothing station barely on the air to a giant. We had the best equipment anywhere x2!

 

[TimeIsTight]

When OR-FM first hit the NY airwaves, it was awesome. It had the clear FM signal, some songs in stereo, oldies you hadn't heard in years, far fewer commercials, and a format that kept moving with professional sounding DJs.

You have to wonder how many younger people bought their first FM radio after they first heard OR-FM? I was in college at the time, and I remember one guy showing off his brand new Thunderbird convertible during a class break. He had an FM radio in it blasting OR-FM, and drew a big crowd. Nobody was paying attention to the flashy car, and everybody wanted to know what the great radio station was.

I had a portable FM radio I would listen to in the backyard, and I remember neighbors asking me what that great station was that I was listening to. It wasn't long before I heard OR-FM coming from their backyards and houses too.

To really appreciate how different it was you have to remember that WABC made a big deal out of playing two two-minute records in a row with its "double-play" and that there were commercials between most songs. You also have to remember that once a song dropped off the charts you weren't likely to hear it again for months or years. WABC and WMCA did play some former hits, but they were rare, while OR-FM played great songs you hadn't heard in years. It also played great stereo album cuts that weren't top-40 hits, but sounded great. It also had a slightly higher sophistication level in the music it played, and in the DJ sound. It was aimed at 18-34 not younger teenagers. It was new and different, and the kind of radio heard in other American markets, but not yet heard in NYC.

OR-FM was a game changer, and a tipping point for hit radio in NYC.

Listening over the last couple of days I was actually surprised at how it lives up to my memories of how great it sounded. Even with 40-plus years of hindsight, the jocks sound just as professionally smooth as they did to me then, and its so great to hear some really great music that I specifically remember hearing on OR-FM that I haven't heard much of since.

 

[radioguy39nj]

OR-FM was a game changer, and a tipping point for hit radio in NYC.

You just hit a grand slam out of the park! As I've mentioned, OR-FM didn't beat WABC, but it essentially did in WMCA. I was in high school when the Drake-Chenault OR-FM hit the New York airwaves, but I was hooked the first time I heard it! Yes, I was just a bit younger than the intended demographic, but who cares!

OR-FM played just about everything WMCA and WABC played, with one clear exception. OR-FM, since it was aimed at the 18-34 crowd, did not play the bubblegum hits that were chart toppers in 1968 and '69. OR-FM played great oldies you hadn't heard since before WINS went all-news and lots of great records WABC and WMCA didn't play. Even after more than 40 years, OR-FM still sounds great, polished, slick and professional. OR-FM can proudly hold its place alongside WMCA and WABC.

Most of we baby boomers were getting our first cars around this time. Almost no way did a second hand Ford or Chevy have FM built-in. As soon as I could scrape up $40, I added an FM converter to the AM radio in my '67 Mustang. Sometimes, I still wish I still had that car!

As I type this post, I'm listening to Sebastian Stone on May 18, 1970. It's been two weeks since the Kent State shootings and my high school graduation is one month away. Stone played the R & B hit of that time, "Turn Back The Hands of Time" by Tyrone Davis. That's exactly what listnening to these OR-FM airchecks is doing for me!

 

[recto101]

Wasn't it considered too early for CHR/Top 40 to go FM back in the late 1960's? I know back then AM was popular because of the fact that the signal covers a wider area than FM back then. I understand that WABC77 ran WOR-FM over back in the 1960's. But In places like San Francisco and LA 93KHJ and The Big 610 KFRC they tended to be top in their markets. I know when 93 KHJ that station killed off KFWB and 980am LA went all news once they realized that KHJ had the high ratings. ALso the other RKO station KFRC slowed down KYA-AM and killed off KEWB in the top 40 ratings back then.

 

[radioguy39nj]

Wasn't it considered too early for CHR/Top 40 to go FM back in the late 1960's? I know back then AM was popular because of the fact that the signal covers a wider area than FM back then. I understand that WABC77 ran WOR-FM over back in the 1960's. But In places like San Francisco and LA 93KHJ and The Big 610 KFRC they tended to be top in their markets. I know when 93 KHJ that station killed off KFWB and 980am LA went all news once they realized that KHJ had the high ratings. ALso the other RKO station KFRC slowed down KYA-AM and killed off KEWB in the top 40 ratings back then.

Most radio experts felt Top 40 on FM was a loser in the late 60s. There had to be a trail blazer and RKO General chose WOR-FM to be that station. Free-form rock on WOR-FM was doing OK, but the Drake-Chenault format had the potential for much wider appeal.

Once the Drake-Chenault format became successful in Fresno, San Diego, LA and SF, Bill Drake set his sights east. No doubt, Bill Drake wanted a station in New York, the #1 market.

Bill Drake came to New York and spent much of his time listening to the two established top 40 titans, WMCA and WABC. Both stations offered a sound heavy on personality, but very cluttered with commercials. WMCA had 5 kW and was #1 in the five boroughs of NYC. WABC had a 50 kW non-D blaster and reached distant suburbs WMCA could not.

There was no way RKO was going to flip their flagship WOR-AM (710), which in 1967 was a top-rated station. RKO did have an FM at 98.7 that they thought could be doing better. In the fall of 1967, the decision was made. Bye, bye free form, hello Drake-Chenault on 98.7!

The same experts who said top 40 was a loser on FM also thought the Drake-Chenault format would fail in NY. After all, it was a California sound. New Yorkers would only respond to personality, or so they thought.

IMHO, Drake knew it was a tall order to beat WABC with its 50 kW non-D blaster. WMCA with only 5 kW was another matter. WOR-FM never came close to beating WABC. However, WOR-FM eroded WMCA's NYC audience enough to force it to flip to talk in 1970.

When NYers first heard the Drake-Chenault format on 98.7, they heard a polished, slick sound and a playlist much deeper than WMCA and WABC. WOR-FM offered current hits, lots of pre-1964 oldies that hadn't been heard in years and lots of records WMCA and WABC wouldn't play on a dare. It's important to note that WOR-FM was targeted more towards an 18-34 audience who had grown up with rock 'n' roll. As I noted in another post, WOR-FM did not play the bubblegum hits that were chart toppers in 1968 and '69.

Pop radio in NYC would never be the same. WOR-FM can be looked at as the trail blazer to the 70s, 80s and beyond.

 

[recto101]

Wasn't it considered too early for CHR/Top 40 to go FM back in the late 1960's? I know back then AM was popular because of the fact that the signal covers a wider area than FM back then. I understand that WABC77 ran WOR-FM over back in the 1960's. But In places like San Francisco and LA 93KHJ and The Big 610 KFRC they tended to be top in their markets. I know when 93 KHJ that station killed off KFWB and 980am LA went all news once they realized that KHJ had the high ratings. ALso the other RKO station KFRC slowed down KYA-AM and killed off KEWB in the top 40 ratings back then.

Most radio experts felt Top 40 on FM was a loser in the late 60s. There had to be a trail blazer and RKO General chose WOR-FM to be that station. Free-form rock on WOR-FM was doing OK, but the Drake-Chenault format had the potential for much wider appeal.

Once the Drake-Chenault format became successful in Fresno, San Diego, LA and SF, Bill Drake set his sights east. No doubt, Bill Drake wanted a station in New York, the #1 market.

Bill Drake came to New York and spent much of his time listening to the two established top 40 titans, WMCA and WABC. Both stations offered a sound heavy on personality, but very cluttered with commercials. WMCA had 5 kW and was #1 in the five boroughs of NYC. WABC had a 50 kW non-D blaster and reached distant suburbs WMCA could not.

There was no way RKO was going to flip their flagship WOR-AM (710), which in 1967 was a top-rated station. RKO did have an FM at 98.7 that they thought could be doing better. In the fall of 1967, the decision was made. Bye, bye free form, hello Drake-Chenault on 98.7!

The same experts who said top 40 was a loser on FM also thought the Drake-Chenault format would fail in NY. After all, it was a California sound. New Yorkers would only respond to personality, or so they thought.

IMHO, Drake knew it was a tall order to beat WABC with its 50 kW non-D blaster. WMCA with only 5 kW was another matter. WOR-FM never came close to beating WABC. However, WOR-FM eroded WMCA's NYC audience enough to force it to flip to talk in 1970.

When NYers first heard the Drake-Chenault format on 98.7, they heard a polished, slick sound and a playlist much deeper than WMCA and WABC. WOR-FM offered current hits, lots of pre-1964 oldies that hadn't been heard in years and lots of records WMCA and WABC wouldn't play on a dare. It's important to note that WOR-FM was targeted more towards an 18-34 audience who had grown up with rock 'n' roll. As I noted in another post, WOR-FM did not play the bubblegum hits that were chart toppers in 1968 and '69.

Pop radio in NYC would never be the same. WOR-FM can be looked at as the trail blazer to the 70s, 80s and beyond.

Wait didn't the PD's of KIIS-FM Los Angeles make CHR/Top 40 Radio popular on the FM side once Stereo FM radios was proven to sell well.

 

[radioguy39nj]

Wait didn't the PD's of KIIS-FM Los Angeles make CHR/Top 40 Radio popular on the FM side once Stereo FM radios was proven to sell well.

While visiting LA in 1974, there was a top 40 station on KIIS' present 102.7 frequency, KKDJ. IIRC, there also was KIOO (K-100). KHJ was still doing top 40 at that time, though I think the Drake consultancy had ended. My rental car only had AM, so I listened to KHJ.

Not as familiar with LA radio, but I'd say FM was making big inroads in LA by 1974.

 

[TimeIsTight]

Not as familiar with LA radio, but I'd say FM was making big inroads in LA by 1974. Smiley

I suspect that FM was suddenly making big inroads in a lot of major markets by 1974. I lived in Miami during the mid-1960s when WQAM and WFUN dominated in top-40, with one automated FM Top-40 out in Hialeah that had the music, but no jocks and few commercials, and probably only a handful of listeners.

When I returned for a vacation in 1972 I remember being surprised that the Top-40 radio action seemed to have moved to WMYQ FM-96 with a Drake-like format. I also remember being in San Franciso, San Diego and LA a year or two later and FM seemed to be where the action and the new energy in radio was.

 

[WNTIRadio]

I know this is outside of his area of "expertise", but I'd love to hear WNEW-FM and WPLJ rewound weekends. A nod to the "not Top 40" stations that probably did more to draw people, especially younger people to FM than WOR-FM ever did.

A Z-100 rewound covering the first 5 years would be awesome too... Z-100 has been around as a Top 40/CHR longer than WABC was. 29 years! I still remember my grandmother saying "what the hell is this crap?!" when she turned on WVNJ that day to rock out to Montovani and heard Scott Shannon booming out of her radio in the kitchen.

 

[luperm]

I know this is outside of his area of "expertise", but I'd love to hear WNEW-FM and WPLJ rewound weekends. A nod to the "not Top 40" stations that probably did more to draw people, especially younger people to FM than WOR-FM ever did.

A Z-100 rewound covering the first 5 years would be awesome too... Z-100 has been around as a Top 40/CHR longer than WABC was. 29 years! I still remember my grandmother saying "what the hell is this crap?!" when she turned on WVNJ that day to rock out to Montovani and heard Scott Shannon booming out of her radio in the kitchen.

Sniffen has said that he's open to the idea of other "rewound" type shows. He states that the problem lies with the lack of good quality source material.

 

[recto101]

I know this is outside of his area of "expertise", but I'd love to hear WNEW-FM and WPLJ rewound weekends. A nod to the "not Top 40" stations that probably did more to draw people, especially younger people to FM than WOR-FM ever did.

A Z-100 rewound covering the first 5 years would be awesome too... Z-100 has been around as a Top 40/CHR longer than WABC was. 29 years! I still remember my grandmother saying "what the hell is this crap?!" when she turned on WVNJ that day to rock out to Montovani and heard Scott Shannon booming out of her radio in the kitchen.

Sniffen has said that he's open to the idea of other "rewound" type shows. He states that the problem lies with the lack of good quality source material.

KIIS-FM outlasted the number of years that KHJ-AM was CHR/Top40 in LA.

 

[stevations]

Did anyone record the weekend? Can you post some on youtube?

 

[Mike Schwartz]

I know this is outside of his area of "expertise", but I'd love to hear WNEW-FM and WPLJ rewound weekends. A nod to the "not Top 40" stations that probably did more to draw people, especially younger people to FM than WOR-FM ever did.

A Z-100 rewound covering the first 5 years would be awesome too... Z-100 has been around as a Top 40/CHR longer than WABC was. 29 years! I still remember my grandmother saying "what the hell is this crap?!" when she turned on WVNJ that day to rock out to Montovani and heard Scott Shannon booming out of her radio in the kitchen.

Back in 2003 on the 20th anniversary of Z100, Radio and Records published a special section celebrating the history of the station. Former operations chief Steve Ellis related how he spent the first few days doing nothing but handling complaint calls from former beautiful music fans who were dismayed at the loss of their beloved station (at that time, with no publicity, only diehard radio geeks knew about the format change). At the end of a particularly long day, the phone rang and he listened while an elderly woman told him how as a shut in, she kept the staion on the whole day and night and couldn't live without it. He quickly responded "Ma'am, that is why we are doing this".

 

[RadioStarOne]

KKDJ 102.7 FM Rick Carroll, Jon Peters, T Michael Jordon, Jay Stevens, Charlie Tuna, Russ O'hungry O'hara, Billy Pearl, The Voice of Change TOH ID, Over 8000 minutes of music a week, Los Angeles environment, On Columbus Day 1973: The Golden Year's with Robert W. Morgan, KKDJ instant request, The KKDJ 24 Supercharger Hit's LP, and a great playlist of music! What a great radio station it was for the southland back then! The funny thing was Rick Carroll was doing the same thing in Sacramento on 1470 KXOA before he moved it to KKDJ. Rick Carroll was an awesome radio program director! The Big Town Sound on WOR was a really cool format for the times too, I loved it.

 

[Fenway1912]

I wonder if RKO General pondered flipping WOR-AM to the Drake-Chenault format. D-C had developed a FM format that ran on WRKO-FM Boston (later WROR).

In Boston they blew up MOR-Talk WNAC (680) in 1967 and went Top-40 in March of 1967. In weeks they had blown both signal challenged WMEX (1510) which was a clone of WMCA and blowtorch WBZ (1030) and Westinghouse within a year went into a MOR format.

WNAC just could not compete against WBZ, WHDH and WEEI even with the second best AM signal in the market. RKO General certainly tried, at one point Jean Shepherd was transferred from WOR to WNAC which delighted Jean as the studios were across the street from Fenway Park. Jonathan Schwartz was also at WNAC just before the flip to Top 40. Roy Leonard was let go when WNAC became WRKO and he took a summer fill-in gig at WGN Chicago that lasted 40 years.

Drake knew the format would work in the east as CKLW Windsor/Detroit was not only #1 in Detroit but also Cleveland.

 

[TimeIsTight]

I wonder if RKO General pondered flipping WOR-AM to the Drake-Chenault format.

That is more than "highly unlikely." In the 60s, and 70s WOR-AM was among the top rated and top billing adult radio stations in the country.

John Gambling was a truly dominant force in morning drive, and the rest of the day was filled with talk programs that had legacy followings, that produced lots of revenue. The last of that kind of programming can still be heard mid-days where Joan Hamburg still does that upscale New York woman kind of show, that doesn't fit in with the rest of the talk format, but still brings in the big advertiser bucks. (Hamburg has been on WOR for, at least, 40-years)

OR-FM was one of my all time favorite stations. It sounded terrific on FM, but there was no way that on AM that format would have made as much money as WOR-AM was making at the time. It had a reputation and legacy in a large chunk of the adult community, some of whom rarely listened to any other station. You don't throw that away.

By the way, as a big Jean Shepherd fan, I was shocked when former WOR General Manager Rick Devlin was quoted as saying that Shepherd only had a "small cult audience" which was why he dropped Shep's show. Shep may have had the only show on WOR that had any kind of a younger audience, but that didn't matter then.