New York
660 WNBC Bids Farewell
In 1988 General Electric purchased RCA and with it NBC. Due to FCC ownership fules at the time, GE could only keep either the NBC Television stations or its Radio stations. Obviously the radio stations were the ones to go. Emmis Broadcasting, which owned 1050 WFAN and 103.5 WQHT saw this as a perfect opportunity to upgrade the signals of its New York outlets and triggered one of the most complex frequency swaps in radio history. WFAN moved from 1050 to 660, WUKQ debuted on 1050 with a non-commercial Spanish format, but only until Spanish Broadcasting could complete the swap for 97.9 WEVD, while 97.1 WYNY and 103.5 WQHT swapped as well. In the end, this deal was most important for the demise of WNBC and NBC Radio in general. What was once the flagship station of the biggest network in Ameri...
1050 WFAN Moves To 660
In 1988 General Electric purchased RCA and with it NBC. Due to FCC ownership fules at the time, GE could only keep either the NBC Television stations or its Radio stations. Obviously the radio stations were the ones to go. Emmis Broadcasting, which owned 1050 WFAN and 103.5 WQHT saw this as a perfect opportunity to upgrade the signals of its New York outlets and triggered one of the most complex frequency swaps in radio history. WFAN moved from 1050 to 660, WUKQ debuted on 1050 with a non-commercial Spanish format, but only until Spanish Broadcasting could complete the swap for 97.9 WEVD, while 97.1 WYNY and 103.5 WQHT swapped as well. In the end, this deal was most important for the demise of WNBC and NBC Radio in general. What was once the flagship station of the biggest network in Ameri...
97.1 WYNY Becomes Hot 97 WQHT
Previous Format: Country “Country 97” WYNY New Format: Dance CHR “Hot 97” WQHT Date & Time Of Change: September 22, 1988 at 5:30pm More Info: Wikipedia In 1988, as part of the purchase of RCA by General Electric, NBC was required to sell off their radio holdings. Emmis Broadcasting acquired NBC’s two frequencies in New York City to upgrade their holdings in the market, but were required to then sell the other stations. While 1050 WFAN moved to 660, Emmis moved its Rhythmic CHR WQHT “Hot 103” to the more powerful 97.1 signal in order to better compete against Z100 and Power 95. The 103.5 frequency was spun-off to Westwood One, along with the WYNY call letters and country programming. Related Changes: Hot 103 WQHT Becomes Country 103.5 WYNY
Hot 103 WQHT Becomes Country 103.5 WYNY
Previous Format: Dance CHR “Hot 103” WQHT New Format: Country “Country 103.5” WYNY Date & Time Of Change: September 22, 1988 at 5:30pm More Info: Wikipedia In 1988, as part of the purchase of RCA by General Electric, NBC was required to sell off their radio holdings. Emmis Broadcasting acquired NBC’s two frequencies in New York City to upgrade their holdings in the market, but were required to then sell the other stations. While 1050 WFAN moved to 660, Emmis moved its Rhythmic CHR WQHT “Hot 103” to the more powerful 97.1 signal in order to better compete against Z100 and Power 95. The 103.5 frequency was spun-off to Westwood One, along with the WYNY call letters and country programming. Related Changes: 97.1 WYNY Becomes Hot 97 WQHT
WLIR Loses Its License
Previous Format: Modern Rock WLIR New Format: Modern Rock WDRE Date & Time Of Change: December 18, 1987 More Info: Wikipedia, WLIR.FM, New York Times
1050 WHN flips from Country to All-Sports WFAN
Previous Format: Country WHN New Format: Sports WFAN Date & Time Of Change: July 1, 1987 at 3:00pm More Info: Wikipedia Jeff Smulyan had an idea. What if you could recreate barroom discussion of sports on a 24 hour radio station. Lucky for Jeff, he happened to be the President of Emmis Broadcasting, which happened to have an AM outlet in New York that would be a perfect testing ground for the format. WHN had become a legend in the previous 15 years it had with the Country format, with many New York DJ’s that will go into any New York Radio Hall of Fame: Del Demontreaux, Lee Arnold, Dan Daniel, and Dan Taylor to name a few. Equipped with rights to the defending World Champion New York Mets, WFAN signed-on and without making much of a dent in the ratings it did make a name for its...
97.1 WYNY flips from AC to Country
With the publicly known flip of WHN from Country to All-Sports as WFAN taking place on July 1, 1987, it was known that there would be a void for country music in the New York Metropolitan Area. WYNY, was one of four AC stations targeting the same audience. Taking both into consideration, WYNY became “Country 97” 15 hours before the sign-off of WHN. Although Dan Daniel did make the move over to do mornings and later afternoons, WYNY’s future was not meant to be at 97.1 as the station moved to 103.5 in 1988.
105.1 WRFM flips from Beautiful Music to AC WNSR
As we proceeded through the 1980’s the older targeting music formats weren’t cutting it anymore. The baby boomers were approaching their thirties and wouldn’t tolerate “Elevator Music” at work. WRFM’s ratings had taken a tumble from Adult Contemporary stations WYNY and WLTW along with fellow Easy Listening WPAT. In order to compensate, on April 15, 1986, WRFM gave way to “New York’s Soft Rock” WNSR. Achieving a solid niche in the AC marketplace, WNSR was partly responsible for driving WPIX and WYNY out of the format. As the 80’s turned into the 90’s, WNSR continued to evolve into a more contemporary station eventually changing its name to “Mix 105”.
Z100 Launches
Previous Format: Standards/Jazz WVNJ New Format: CHR “Z100” WHTZ Date & Time Of Change: August 2, 1983 at 6:08am More Info: Wikipedia
