y-100

[Axman278]

does anyone remember y100 prior to 1997, if I remember it was more hot ac or adult top 40. I hardly remember them playing any rap or dance hits. Sounded more like the coast sounds today. Can anyone confirm my memory?

 

[Roger That]

http://www.y100tribute.com/

 

[top4odj]

does anyone remember y100 prior to 1997, if I remember it was more hot ac or adult top 40. I hardly remember them playing any rap or dance hits. Sounded more like the coast sounds today. Can anyone confirm my memory?

I started on air there in Aug. 1996, it was pretty across the board on the playlist, then about the time you were tuning in, the PD DeJour decided to whack the format. We were running Top Of The Hour ID's saying something to the tune <no pun intended> like "Y-100, WHYI Fort Lauderdale, Miami & The Palm Beaches....blah blah blah....Without the Hard Rock and Rap"

Can you say MEEESTAKE boys and girls? :-\

 

[Muzikboyfl]

Yes, Y100 flipped to an adult -- "South Florida's only station for the best hits without the hard rock and rap" format from like 92 to 94. It was horrible, all you heard was Gloria, Elton and Billy all day, while you had Lite FM, Coast, WRMF for all the same music.

Finally, if I recall, a guy named Casey Keating came in and flipped to the "New sound of Y100" slowly bringing in the top 40 hits around 1995/96 -- then boom -- ClearChannel came on board and now, like every other ClearChannel Top 40/CHR station (i.e) Y100, Z100, XL 1067, FLZ, all the same hits, all day long.

I think Y sounded the best from 97 - 2000 -- when they actually played a variety of Top 40 hits within a 5-7 year span of hit music.

Ahh well...That's what ipods and Sirius is for now. LOL

 

[CHRles]

All in all the Adult lean of Y-100 only lasted a few years of its long life. The station started out in the mid 70s, and was well known in the industry for playing "the Soundtrack of Miami", ie a lot of Disco music, and great jocks.
Y-100 didnt shy away from Rap in the 80s, and even played some regional Freestyle Dance hits, though that was more Power 96's territory. Y-100 was also more Euro-Dance friendly with songs like "Take On Me" by A-Ha in the 80s, or "Another Night" by Real MCcoy in the 90s.
Dance was never something Y-100 shied away from, except maybe around 1990. By 91 they were back to playing songs like "Strike It Up" by Black Box, and they (along with Power 96) were among the first stations to realize just how big the Todd Terry remix of "Missing" by Everything By The Girl was on the radio in the mid 90s.
Rap was pretty much absent from Y-100's playlist between the years of 1990-96. Even Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" wasnt aired.
In 1997 Y-100 found success by playing "Men In Black" by Will Smith and "I'll Be Missing You" by Puff Daddy. Rap slowly but surely was back, making Y-100 a full blown CHR/Pop station. They were also the station that broke "Miami" by Will Smith the following year.

 

[top4odj]

Finally, if I recall, a guy named Casey Keating came in and flipped to the "New sound of Y100" slowly bringing in the top 40 hits around 1995/96 -- then boom -- ClearChannel came on board and now, like every other ClearChannel Top 40/CHR station (i.e) Y100, Z100, XL 1067, FLZ, all the same hits, all day long.

Casey was a great person to work with. He was old school and allowed us to have fun, letting us to do our thing without constantly whining about what you did wrong like alot of program directors do. He would talk to you and not at you...a great gift that I wish a majority of PD's had. Personally, i'd work for him anytime. He had a true open door policy and actually listened to your imput. He and I had a great working relationship, and because of that, I really looked forward to going to the station. Actually, he was like that with all of us on the air staff.

The day he came in and said he was leaving to go back to San Francisco for family reasons was like an arrow in the heart. In 22 years on the air, he was one of few PD's that I truly enjoyed working with.

 

[Muzikboyfl]

That's awesome to know Stuart. There are some of these guys still around. LOL. I remember hearing you on air "South Florida's only Station for the best hits without the hard rock and rap, fun every morning with Bobby and Footy this is 100.7 FM" LOL -- Gosh, it was awful.

What ever happened to Stevie Knox, Paul Webber, Tia Maria? I know Doug Dunbar went to TV in Texas. Jade Alexander is on CBS 4.

 

[top4odj]

That's awesome to know Stuart. There are some of these guys still around. LOL. I remember hearing you on air "South Florida's only Station for the best hits without the hard rock and rap, fun every morning with Bobby and Footy this is 100.7 FM" LOL -- Gosh, it was awful.

What ever happened to Stevie Knox, Paul Webber, Tia Maria? I know Doug Dunbar went to TV in Texas. Jade Alexander is on CBS 4.

I haven't seen nor talked to Stevie since my early Y-100 Days, Tia I believe is on Power 96, I spoke with Doug about a year and a half ago when I was in Dallas on business...turned on the TV at my Hotel room and there he was on the CBS affilliate. He's loving it there along with his family. Paul Webber I have no idea and Jade is forever my bud. After all, we were radio partners in crime. ;D We keep contact, see each other now and then. She is one of very few that I make an effort to keep touch with.

 

[ScottBurns]

That's awesome to know Stuart. There are some of these guys still around. LOL. I remember hearing you on air "South Florida's only Station for the best hits without the hard rock and rap, fun every morning with Bobby and Footy this is 100.7 FM" LOL -- Gosh, it was awful.

What ever happened to Stevie Knox, Paul Webber, Tia Maria? I know Doug Dunbar went to TV in Texas. Jade Alexander is on CBS 4.

Doesn't Tia Maria do some swing/weekend work at Power 96?

 

[burksy]

Yes, Y100 flipped to an adult -- "South Florida's only station for the best hits without the hard rock and rap" format from like 92 to 94. It was horrible, all you heard was Gloria, Elton and Billy all day, while you had Lite FM, Coast, WRMF for all the same music.

Finally, if I recall, a guy named Casey Keating came in and flipped to the "New sound of Y100" slowly bringing in the top 40 hits around 1995/96 -- then boom -- ClearChannel came on board and now, like every other ClearChannel Top 40/CHR station (i.e) Y100, Z100, XL 1067, FLZ, all the same hits, all day long.

I think Y sounded the best from 97 - 2000 -- when they actually played a variety of Top 40 hits within a 5-7 year span of hit music.

Ahh well...That's what ipods and Sirius is for now. LOL

I lived there in SoFla during that time (97-00), and I agree, I loved Y during those years. Rob Roberts was the PD and he had full control of music and adds and rotations, something that has become rare in today's corporate radio stage. He was great to work with too, very easy going. Y100 sounded wrong to me when he left

 

[radiosanchez]

Ah yes...The Gary Berkowitz-as-consultant era.....That was late 1991, around the time that Metroplex got rid of their format competitor (not that they were much of a threat), Mix 105.9 via and LMA and 'brought back WAXY'. That's when the "Best Hits, Without the Hard Rock And Rap" came about. VERY AC jingles....I remember one of them said "Y-100!! Makes You Feel Good All Weekend Long!!".

The move towards Adult CHR actually started sometime earlier, IIRC around 1990 around the time HYI's format counterparts in Orlando, BJ-105 and Y-106 also went a more adult route; except the Orlando stations changed their on-air positioners (to Mix 105.1 and XL 106.7, respectively), and South Florida's Y decided to build on its' heritage by saying "As You've Grown, Y-100 has grown". Berkowitz's coming in 91 only made things softer than they already were.

Right around after the time Andrew hit, they did another 'tweak', IIRC.....Probably best described as an early version of "Jack"...Hot AC with a generous dose of "oh wow" classics from the 70s-80s that had made Y-100 what it was...Not uncommon to hear "Living For the City" by Stevie Wonder, or "Everlasting Love" by Andy Gibb, or an occasional Disco or New Wave 80s classic......Former station jock Jo Maeder was the imaging voice and they billed it as the "Second Coming of the 'New Sound Of Y-100'".

Sometime after that they began their progression back into Mainstream CHR but then again sometime after that Mainstream CHR as a format lost its' 'taboo'-ness.

 

[markoni]

I was there starting in 1974 and except for a year up at sister station 13-Q/Pittsburgh, was at the Y til 1982. During that time it was solid Top 40 with a few tweeks. During those mid-70s years we almost always played the album version, not the single. We played many long versions at night.

We surveyed about 20 record stores in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, every week. Always talking to the singles and album buyer at the record stores. Also talked to the big record distributors, which were a great source of information then. Our request information was huge. We had phone people on from 9am til midnight.

The clubs were also a fantastic source for some of our new music choices. Our call-out research began around 1978 which was staffed by about 3-4 people, which turned up the hit factor even more.

The big change I remember is when 96X appeared with a more Hispanic lean, late 70s I'm guessing. At that point we at Y built in more Hispanic appeal which went along with the explosion in Dance/Club music and the very Hispanic audience of Dade County.

Mark In The Dark Shands

 

[John FL]

Mark, thanks for the details and as someone who was an avid Y100 listener during the time you described, I can see why the station clicked with so many. Around this same time, I loved heading out to the dance clubs. More often than not, it seemed a lot of the "new" music that got people on the dance floor would wind up on the Y. I always thought someone from the station went to the clubs too and took note of what got the best reaction. It appears from your account that this was the case after all.

I was wondering if Y100 Top 100 year-end surveys or even weekly surveys are available somewhere for the late 70s and early 80s?
The music was unique and in my travels to other cities, including NYC, I found Y100 was really the best IMHO so it would be cool to have that info.

As more and more oldies stations move to a greatest hits format, I believe many of the upbeat songs typically heard on Y100 during the late 70s/early 80s would be a good fit. I'd like to see WMXJ, for example, add more songs from the Y hayday. I think it can spark a lot of interest and bring in new listeners.

 

[markoni]

I think another thing that made the Y pop so well back then was that the music was programmed by the DJs. It took about an hour to lay out, on paper, all the songs before your show, I also planned where my bits would happen and when my contests played.

We really thought about what our first song would be when we began our show. Today that would all be luck of the draw, since now a computer plays the songs according to the way it is set-up by the programming dept. Today the computer generated play list is often tweaked a bit by a Program Director or Music Director, but that's nothing like selecting each song, knowing you are about to go on the air with it.

Until around 1985 all the jocks programmed their own music except the Tanner In The Morning Show, which was programmed by 10PM-2AM DJ Earl The Pearl Lewis in the early morning hours before Tanner arrived. Of course Pearl got plenty of direction from Tanner on how he wanted the music set-up.

 

[skippertthomas]

Memory.... Dad had a convention in the 'then' run down end of Miami Beach.. Now a 'boom' area... My friend and I went down with him to have fun cruisin' in the car up and down A1A and see the "Strikers" in a NASL Match with "San Jose" in Ft.Lauderdale... All I remember was "High School Dance" was in the hot rotation and the way Tanner's boys jocked it was classic.. That bell and and boogie! To me, Y-100 in Miami, WRBQ in Tampa Bay were as dag-gone as good as WLS, WCFL, WABC, KFRC or KHJ in their heyday! God, Top-40 was great in those days! No sleeping allowed.. Energy without screaming, but 'boss' and 10 to 60 second bits that made personality fit a hit music rotation! What an influence to a former teen jock in the midwest and the first in Christian Radio.... Wouldn't you know the Christian Top-40 'fulltime' format came first in Florida on the sun coast at WAYJ-FM in 1987! Time has flown... "Just lil-ol-meeee, Skipper T. on Southwest Florida's Christian Hit Radio, Way-Fm!" It's still there!

 

[top4odj]

I think another thing that made the Y pop so well back then was that the music was programmed by the DJs. It took about an hour to lay out, on paper, all the songs before your show, I also planned where my bits would happen and when my contests played.

We really thought about what our first song would be when we began our show. Today that would all be luck of the draw, since now a computer plays the songs according to the way it is set-up by the programming dept. Today the computer generated play list is often tweaked a bit by a Program Director or Music Director, but that's nothing like selecting each song, knowing you are about to go on the air with it.

Until around 1985 all the jocks programmed their own music except the Tanner In The Morning Show, which was programmed by 10PM-2AM DJ Earl The Pearl Lewis in the early morning hours before Tanner arrived. Of course Pearl got plenty of direction from Tanner on how he wanted the music set-up.

Ahhh the days of "Show Prep". I remember at 96X in the 70's when we came in as much as 2 hours before our air shifts to sit with a card box containing all the music and prep sheets with the layout of what you played and when. All catagorized by the rotation...Powers, Gold, Currents, Re-Currents, Oldies....etc. The downfall of that great idea, was certain jocks who skipped through the box to find their favorites to play, passing over songs that needed to be played, but they didn't like. Even when I was APD/MD at the second coming of 96X in 1985, I still tried to give the jocks that leeway to program their own shifts, and wouldn't ya know it.....the same thing happened!

Since then, when you come in, you're handed your playlist for the whole shift. As for show prep....very few do it.....some even show up to work 5 minutes (and that may be gracious in a time frame) before their airshift. In this day and age of Radio, it's more like "Make way for the button pushing robot".

 

[markoni]

Back in the 70s at Y we once took a close look at the DJ music scheduling, to see exactly how the songs were being rotated. We pulled the old music sheets, got the index card file we used back then. Turned out there was nothing logical about the way the songs were played at all... however, we were #1 in the ratings!

So much for computers!

 

[radiosanchez]

I think the early beauty of Y-100 was the fact the station was originally conceived in many ways as an "Anti Top 40" Top 40. No jingles, No reverb, and free of alot of the formatics that graced the Pop music stations of the 70s. This concept was later used on WINZ-FM in the early 80s.

Seems like this allowed for the personalities and the music to "stand out" more and it certainly did not take away from the "fun" factor at all.