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Z-100 Documentary is Coming on February11

https://news.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n41728


Note description noted that Z100 started to rise in 1983. This was the era when New York CHR fans were moving on from WABC-AM as their place for top 40 radio to Z100 and competitors at the time filling the void that WABC-AM left in NYC Radio.


Industry Icons Scott Shannon and Elvis Duran have created "Worst to First: The True Story of Z100 New York," a feature-length documentary that premieres tomorrow, February 11, on VOD platforms including Apple/iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, Vudu and Microsoft. Additionally, it will be available on such cable platforms as InDemand (Comcast, Spectrum, Charter, Cox, Frontier, etc.) and DirectTV.

With the vision of an outlier, Shannon created one of the most successful radio stations and music formats in the history of the business. In just 74 days, he took WHTZ (Z100)/New York from Worst to First in 1983 and it's dominated the market for 39 years. Elvis Duran has hosted the morning show for the past 26 years and is the most listened-to morning show host in America. The two of them are fierce competitors today with Duran on Z100 and Shannon on WCBS-FM, but they have formed a lasting friendship built on mutual respect and admiration.
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Not the most flattering review. Radio insiders and geeks will probably find it an enjoyable retelling of a story they already knew...and that's about it.
 
I watched the trailer and it looked like a rehash or the WLIR documentary right down to the Joan Jett interview clips and the storytelling style. As a radio person I'd still watch it if it were free but I have no interest in paying to see it.

Also I saw on the the other board that Scott Shannon went straight to Hannity's show to talk about it yesterday. I always thought about Shannon as a pure entertainer and never even thought about his politics but now I know, and it makes me like him a little less.
 
I have Amazon Prime, so it was only $4.95 for me. It was okay, nothing special and certainly did not reveal anything that most people with a radio connection/interest didn't already know. Growing up in New York with Z100, it certainly brought back some good memories, but that's about it.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Also I saw on the the other board that Scott Shannon went straight to Hannity's show to talk about it yesterday. I always thought about Shannon as a pure entertainer and never even thought about his politics but now I know, and it makes me like him a little less.
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That's one of the reasons why it's not always wise for entertainers, sports figures and others who are often in the spotlight to talk politics, appear exclusively on certain 'news' networks or show their stance on certain hot button political topics. - They're bound to turn off at least some portion of their audience.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
Also I saw on the the other board that Scott Shannon went straight to Hannity's show to talk about it yesterday. I always thought about Shannon as a pure entertainer and never even thought about his politics but now I know, and it makes me like him a little less.
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Scott is/was the voice over for the Sean Hannity Show for years, which is stated right on his Wikipedia page.
 
RadioGuy1864 said:
I have Amazon Prime, so it was only $4.95 for me. It was okay, nothing special and certainly did not reveal anything that most people with a radio connection/interest didn't already know. Growing up in New York with Z100, it certainly brought back some good memories, but that's about it.
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$4.95 to rent? Dammit I spent $8.00 on it via Google play to buy it.
 
I rented it for $4. Glad I didn't buy it.

It's worth watching once. It's not a Z100 documentary, more than it is a fanboy love letter to Scott Shannon. Constant gushing about Scott and not nearly that much about Z100 itself.

The storytelling was presented as chronological, but the clips are really out of order. Bytes often are far too short (TV news packages hold longer). Obviously there's almost no music in it, for royalty reasons. This severely limits the use of airchecks in it. Almost no jingles. And the documentary ends when Shannon exits Z100.

I'm glad to see this get made. It's an interesting topic. And, as a radio nerd, I'd give it a solid 3.5 out of 5. But for a non-nerd, this is a 1.5 at best. I just feel let down that the Z100 documentary really wasn't about Z100.
 
Head's up before you pay: The film is reall more a Scott Shannon documentary. Not a Z100 documentary.

Wasn't bad. But I am a bit let down.
 
I just watched it and thoroughly enjoyed it, but I was living in New York when Z100 signed on and went from worst to first, and the early days were a radio junkie's dream. Not sure a non-radio person would get that much enjoyment out of the movie.

Some of it was a little exaggerated. For example, the station might have been #51 in the Summer, 1983 book, but it was on air only for about the last week of the survey. And yes, the praise of Scott Shannon was a bit heavy. But his creativity and radio intuition really shone through in Z100's early years.

Today, Z100 (along with 102.7 Kiss FM) is about as good as it gets for iHeart CHR stations. But it's nowhere near the unique station that Scott Shannon created.
 
p_herring said:
Be kind of curious to watch this if they spend a significant portion on the Alternative leaning era from 93-96. Anyone on the inside know if Z100 ever considered becoming a full fledge modern rock outfit in the 90s?
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No. The roughly hour-long documentary focused on Z's beginnings and "worst-to-first" accomplishment.

From my own memory, Z100 never really wanted to be a modern rock station, but the lack of mainstream pop being produced at the time forced it to "pick a lane." HOT 97, which had been a rhythmic CHR was full into heavier hip-hop during this same time. Z100's focus on the modern/alternative rock sound is what forced its imaging shift (no more sung jingles, no more re-use of the late-great Ernie Anderson VO). Some of their imagining at the time was actually kind of memorable. It hit the right mid 90's vibe. I still remember one sweeper with "Tune in your head!") But even still, the station wasn't 100% alt-rock. You heard the random rhythmic tune. It was like 99% alt-rock and Ini Kamoze's "Here Comes The Hotstepper" or White Town's "Your Woman."
I watched it on Amazon Prime for a rental fee of five bucks, I think. Not a bad trip down memory lane but not exactly the world's best documentary. It did have some strengths: Jim Kerr talking about working at the competition, etc. The interview clips with Tom Poleman and Elvis Duran were less insightful as they had (IIRC) nothing to do with Z100's initial successes. If they spent more time on reclaiming their heritage post 1996, maybe?

They did seem to have Scott Shannon walking through what appeared to be the old Z100 studios in Secaucus. The rooms were very white but still seemed to have studio equipment in them? Are those facilities used by other entities now? Or was it a mock up? Anyone know?
 
Once i helped danielle monaro carry her christmas bags to her car at garden state plaza after she was in some gig at a store there.
 
The documentary is literally all about Scott Shannon. They mention a blurb about Z100's fall in the mid 90s and it's rise up and now. I feel like it should of been about the history of Z100 the good, bad, and ugly. It was like an American history textbook leaves out the failures.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
I watched the trailer and it looked like a rehash or the WLIR documentary right down to the Joan Jett interview clips and the storytelling style. As a radio person I'd still watch it if it were free but I have no interest in paying to see it.

Also I saw on the the other board that Scott Shannon went straight to Hannity's show to talk about it yesterday. I always thought about Shannon as a pure entertainer and never even thought about his politics but now I know, and it makes me like him a little less.
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Shannon has done the intro for Hannity since the show went national, but I don't know anything of his politics. I don't know what Johnny Donavan's politics are (did the intros and liners for Rush.
 
bizzle13 said:
The documentary is literally all about Scott Shannon.
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Once again, I direct you to the credits. Note the name of the first producer:

"Worst to First" was produced by Trish Hunter Shannon, Elvis Duran, David Katz and John McConnell.

That is Scott's wife. She's not there to be an objective historian.
 
I liked it, but really this was not a complete history with all the ups and downs of Z100. Maybe there is room for a follow up any time soon.
 
erwin33 said:
I liked it, but really this was not a complete history with all the ups and downs of Z100. Maybe there is room for a follow up any time soon.
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Sure. Who would pay for it? See my post #37.

Scott himself referred to this as a "labor of love." That's what this was.
 
The CKLW history was an independent production which originally ran on History Channel Canada. (Most of it is on YouTube). The premise was intermixing the station, the music, what was happening in Detroit (especially the late 60s).
 
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