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WWFS
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WWFS | |
 |
|
| City of license | New York City |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | New York City area |
| Branding | Fresh 102.7 |
| Slogan | Today's Fresh Music |
| Frequency | 102.7 FM (MHz) (Also on HD Radio) 102.7-2 FM WINS simulcast (HD Radio) |
| First air date | 1949 |
| Format | Commercial; Adult contemporary |
| ERP | 6,000 watts |
| HAAT | 415 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 25442 |
| Callsign meaning | W We're FreSh |
| Former callsigns | WNEW-FM (1958-2007) WNJR (1949-1958) |
| Owner | CBS Radio |
| Sister stations | WCBS, WCBS-FM, WFAN, WINS, WXRK |
| Webcast | Listen Live! |
| Website | www.fresh1027.com |
WWFS is a New York City FM radio station operating at 102.7 MHz and owned and operated by CBS Radio. Today they offer an Adult Contemporary format that leans toward a Hot AC but is not quite that. The station is under the guidance of consultant Gary Berkowitz and programmed by Rick Martini.
It was previously WNEW-FM for many years, after sister AM station WNEW (1130 kHz.) and television station WNEW-TV, with all being owned by Metromedia. After WNEW-TV was sold to the News Corporation in 1986 (and became WNYW), and the AM station was sold to Bloomberg L.P. in 1992 (and became WBBR), 102.7 FM retained the WNEW callsign until it was changed in 2007.
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This frequency was first occupied by WNJR in 1949, broadcasting from Newark, New Jersey. WNEW-FM came on the air in 1958, playing a popular music format, notable only for a period in which as a gimmick they had an all-female broadcasting staff. Nothing like this had ever been done on the radio in New York City before and, to say the least, it was definitely new and unique. The original female staff of disc jockeys included Margaret Draper, Alison Steele (who stayed on to become the "Night Bird" on the AOR format), Ann Clements, Arlene Kreta, Pam McKissick and Nell Bassett. The format was sort of a carbon copy of the AM's adult standards format.
On October 31, 1967, WNEW-FM adopted a progressive rock radio format, one that it became famous for and that influenced the rock listenership as well as the rock industry. The original disc jockeys were Rosko, who started on October 31, 1967, Jonathan Schwartz who made his debut on November 16, 1967 and "the Professor" Scott Muni, who first appears on November 18, 1967. Alison Steele would stay on from the female staff and eventually take over the overnight shift on January 1, 1968. Disc jockeys would broadcast in ways that bore out their personalities:
- morning fixture Dave Herman was not afraid to mix Erik Satie or Donna Summer into the playlist;
- noontime stalwart Pete Fornatale promoted The Beach Boys when it was not fashionable and later started his eclectic weekend Mixed Bag program;
- afternoon legend Scott Muni would use his gravelly voice to introduce largely unknown British artists on his "Things From England" segments;
- nighttime host Jonathan Schwartz was a raconteur who would sneak in the Sinatra pop standards that he not-so-secretly liked better than rock;
- overnight presence Alison "The Nightbird" Steele would play space rock groups in between readings of her equally spacey poems;
- weekend personality Vin Scelsa started his idiosyncratic Idiots' Delight program which soon gained a devoted following.
Other well-known disc jockeys who worked at the station included Rosko, Dennis Elsas, Pete Larkin, Richard Neer, Dan Neer, Jim Monaghan, Pam Merly, Meg Griffin, and John Zacherle.
WNEW-FM was among the first stations to give Bruce Springsteen significant airplay, and conducted live broadcasts of key Springsteen concerts in 1975 and 1978; Springsteen would sometimes call up the DJs during records. Later, Dave Herman featured a "Bruce Juice" segment each morning. John Lennon once stopped by to guest-DJ along with Dennis Elsas. Members of The Grateful Dead and other groups would hang out in the studio; Emerson, Lake and Palmer's visit to Scott Muni's show is often credited for popularizing the group in America. In addition to music, youth-oriented comedy recordings such as from Monty Python would also be aired.
The station sponsored a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden each holiday season that drew reasonably big-name acts. It could fairly be said that WNEW-FM earned its slogan "Where Rock Lives". The station's television commercials during its rock years featured the song "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos and was considered the station's anthem.
The station thrived during the late 1970s when it helped boost the transition of the Punk/New Wave movement into the mainstream. During this era, the station hosted many live broadcasts from the legendary Greenwich Village night club, The Bottom Line. Among the bands featured live from the club were The Police, Joe Jackson, Squeeze, The Records, Rachel Sweet, David Johansen, Rockpile, Mink deVille and the Tom Robinson Band. Many of these bands were being spotlighted during their debut New York City performance.
In the 1980s, the station gradually adopted a more conventional album oriented rock format, and sometimes seemed stodgy compared to college radio stations playing alternative rock. When long-time competitor WPLJ switched away from rock in 1983, WNEW-FM picked up some of its most popular DJs, such as Carol Miller and years later Pat St. John who would take over the morning show and programming duties.
From 1988 to 1992, a series of transactions involving WNEW-FM and its sister radio and television stations, resulted in ownership of WNEW-FM passing from Metromedia to Westinghouse and adopting the shorter WNEW call sign (former sister stations WNEW-TV became WNYW-TV under Fox, and WNEW-AM became WBBR under Bloomberg).
By the 1990s, the station was further losing relevance in the face of the popularity of grunge rock and so became more of a classic rock station. It spent its remaining music days flip flopping between a variety of classic, adult album and alternative rock.
The real problems began for WNEW in 1995, when it adopted an adult album alternative format. The timing proved to be unfortunate: after the death of The Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia in 1995, bereft Dead fans turned to the station for solace, only to be greeted with current hits from The Smashing Pumpkins and Hootie and the Blowfish and very little about their fallen idol. The station, which now had the slogan of "New York's Rock Alternative", evolved to an eclectic mix of adult rock by the end of 1995.
In January of 1996, the station declined to switch to classic rock when WXRK, which had a classic rock format for several years, decided to adapt an alternative rock format. In July of 1996, WAXQ adopted a classic rock format. By the beginning of 1997, the station reverted to a classic rock station, becoming the second choice for the format when earlier they could have been first. At this point, many long-time fans felt WNEW-FM had completely lost its focus.
Throughout the 1990s, many of WNEW-FM's jocks defected to classic rock competitors WXRK and later WAXQ or to smaller but more freeform WFUV. Ratings remained dismal. In 1996, Westinghouse merged with CBS. Infinity Broadcasting would then merge with CBS in 1997, and CBS retained the Infinity name for its radio division.
In 1998, WNEW moved to a harder-edged rock format and continued to slump in the ratings. The remaining classic jocks left on the station departed one by one during 1998. Later that year, ex-Boston shock jocks Opie and Anthony arrived from WAAF to do afternoons on WNEW. They played several songs an hour, but for the most part, the show was a typical shock-jock talk show. Opie and Anthony immediately got attention from the station by interrupting their annual "Evolution of Rock and Roll" event by refusing to play the music, or destroying the CDs. They were confronted by WNEW peer Carol Miller a few times on the air, until they were forbidden by management to make eye contact.
With Opie and Anthony's ratings soaring, the station dropped its 32-year rock format for a "hot talk" format. The final moments of the old WNEW-FM came on September 12, 1999; sole remaining long-time jock Richard Neer signed off his Sunday morning show by playing Bruce Springsteen's beautiful dirge "Racing in the Street", and identifying the station one last time, changing the slogan to "Where Rock Lived".
On September 13, 1999, the station abandoned music during the week and tried an extreme "hot talk" format. For the first few months of this new format, the station was known on-air as "FM Talk @ 102.7". This new format consisted of shock jocks, such as Opie and Anthony, Don and Mike, The Radio Chick, and Ron and Fez, as well as a morning "guy talk" show that revolved around sports, called The Sports Guys. On weekends, the station retained a hard rock format, as Opie and Anthony gradually stopped playing music by 2000. Also in 2000, Viacom acquired CBS/Infinity Broadcasting, but kept the radio division under the "Infinity" banner.
By 2001, WNEW added infomercials on weekends and stopped playing music altogether, with the exception of Eddie Trunk's Friday and Saturday night hard rock-oriented shows. As was the case during this period, ratings were horrible at the station outside of Opie and Anthony. Then, the Opie and Anthony show was cancelled in August 2002 for encouraging a stunt involving two people allegedly engaging in sexual intercourse in a vestibule within St. Patrick's Cathedral.
The FCC eventually fined Infinity $357,000--the maximum fine allowed by law, and the largest indecency fine in American radio history. FCC Commmissioner Michael Copps dissented, claiming the FCC should have taken steps to revoke WNEW's license. A few months earlier, the FCC had fined Infinity $21,000 for three "patently offensive" Opie and Anthony broadcasts, including one referring to incest. The station's ratings plummeted even further--at one point, it only netted a 0.7 rating, an unprecedented level for a major-market FM station. With the cancellation of the only show that generated any ratings for the station, management decided that the station needed to take a new direction.
In January 2003 the station dropped this blend of talk and infomercials and stunted for the next couple of months with CHR music, using a limited playlist of about 50 or so songs from artists like Pink, Eminem, Bowling for Soup, and Avril Lavigne, as well as nightly simulcasts of CBS's Late Show with David Letterman and pre-season New York Giants and various college football games.
Sounders during that period teased listeners about how "a new station" would soon be coming to the 102.7 frequency, and it arrived in April, when WNEW became "102.7 Blink" (keeping the WNEW call letters) and adopted an unusual "Entertainment" format. The station mixed old and contemporary pop hits with talk shows and entertainment news from sources such as E!; on-air personalities during this period included the morning team of Chris Booker and Lynda Lopez (who were also dating during this time) and game show host Todd Newton doing afternoon drive live from Los Angeles. Other personalities included now-MSNBC Anchor Alison Stewart, Tim Virgin, Rick Stacy, Maze, and reporters Matt Wolfe and Lisa Chase, who provided hourly entertainment updates. The station also used AOL Instant Messenger to take requests, and 24 star Kiefer Sutherland did the station IDs ("It is physically impossible not to Blink", etc.).
However, the station's ratings sank further. The station's pink logo led to the derisive nickname "Barbie Radio", and Booker & Lopez did little more on the air than talk about Jennifer Lopez, Lynda's older sister. After less than six months, the station fired most of the staff and changed its branding to "102.7 Blink FM: Music Women Love" with an (again, unusual) explicit appeal to a female audience. This format also failed to draw audiences. By October, it adopted a more mainstream adult contemporary format and ratings began to go up slightly. That November, the station (like many AC stations) adopted the increasingly popular "all Christmas music, all the time" format.
The day after Christmas in 2003, the station became "Mix 102.7", making the switch to Adult Contemporary at 10:27AM. The station played a range of hits from the 1970s to the 2000s. The slogan was "Mix 102.7 FM The Station that Picks You Up and Makes You Feel Good". WNEW initially was mainstream AC but began to focus on dance hits, mainly from the 1970s and 1980s by the end of January. In the succeeding months, the "mix" tended to skew towards dance hits (during this time, program director Frankie Blue was fired for drunken on-air behavior, not only saying "fuck" on-air, but also misidentifying the station as rival "103.5 KTU"), with this all culminating in a change to an official "classic dance" or Rhythmic AC format in early 2005 under the slogan "Move to the Mix" and in the later months adopted "New York's Classic Dance Mix". However, the "Mix 102.7" moniker and the WNEW call letters remained. Ratings continued to be among the lowest of any major station in New York City.[1]
On December 31, 2005, the station underwent another ownership change after Viacom and CBS Corporation organized a split that saw the Infinity Broadcasting division go under CBS ownership, which resulted in a corporate name change to CBS Radio.
In December 2006 the station began increasing the amount of Christmas music but at the same time saw Michelle Visage being let go and Joe Causi being reduced to weekend duties, relegating him to his Sunday night Studio 54 classic Disco program. As of December 22nd, 2006, Paco Lopez, Efren Sifuentes, Carol Ford and Yvonne Velasquez had also been released in anticipation of an expected format change.
In 2006, WNEW launched WNEW2, an HD Radio subchannel, broadcasting 1010 WINS.
At 5AM on January 2, 2007 WNEW "flipped" from Classic Dance hits to an Adult Contemporary format known as "Fresh 102.7," with "How to Save a Life" by The Fray being the first song played. The new format is targeted to a younger (age 25-44) female audience, with claims of a playlist "without the kid stuff or tired, old music like the lite music station". The logo resembles that of the Food Network. The station features music from the 1980's, 1990's, Current hits, and recent hits.
The WWFS calls were approved on January 9, 2007 by the Federal Communications Commission, resulting in the retirement of the WNEW call letters in the New York Radio/Television spectrum for the first time since 1934. The legendary WNEW call letters were transferred to a CBS-owned station in South Florida in the second week of January 2007, reportedly to keep another New York station from claiming the historic calls. This station is known on the air as B106.3 and it has a Urban AC format.[2] [3]
Until the birth of Fresh 102.7, Clear Channel's WLTW had gone unchallenged as the only adult contemporary station in New York City, and was the most listened to station in the city for years. WWFS's ratings improved after switching to the adult contemporary format, seeing increases in both the Winter 2007 and Spring 2007 ratings periods. After a peak 3.1 rating in the Spring 2007 period, WWFS settled back down to a 2.5 rating in the Summer 2007 period. Some speculate that WWFS has drawn listeners from WLTW, causing that station's ratings to decline.
- Heather Walters
- Mike Perry
- Dave Packer
- Brandi Ferraro
- Dylan
- Ray
- Kristin
- Joe Causi
- Legendary Paco
- Brenda K. Starr
- Kim Ashley
- Randy Davis
- Sue O'Neal
- Brandi
- Eddie Robinson
- Hollywood
- Donna Fiducia
- Rick Somers
- Todd Newton
- Michelle Visage
- Ru Paul
- Efren Sifuentes
- Carol Ford
- Paco Lopez
- Yvonne Velasquez
- Freddie Colon
- Scott Muni
- Dave Herman
- Pete Fornatale
- Jonathan Schwartz
- Alison "The Nightbird" Steele
- Vin Scelsa
- Bill (Rosko) Mercer
- Dennis Elsas
- Pat "Paraquat" Kelley
- Carol Miller
- Pat St, John
- Marty Martinez
- Ray White
- Charlie Kendall
- Mark McEwen
- Richard Neer
- Dan Neer
- Jim Monaghan
- Pam Merly
- Meg Griffin
- John Zacherle
- Pete Larkin
- Tom Morrera
- Ken Dashow
- Harris Allen
- Opie and Anthony
- Don and Mike
- The Radio Chick
- Ron and Fez
- Chris Booker
- Lynda Lopez
- Earl Douglas
- Psycho Mark
- "Stinky"
- Chris LoPresto
- Peter Iorlano
- Rudy VonderHeide
- Ginny Sanchez
- Billy Staples
- Jim Norton
Gerry Turro
- Neer, Richard. FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio. Villard, 2001. ISBN 0-679-46295-3.
- WNEW News Department Historical Profile (1978)
- How to Kill a Radio Station: A Cautionary Tale (CNN, 2003)
- WWFS website
- Query the FCC's FM station database for WWFS
- Radio Locator information on WWFS
- Query Arbitron's FM station database for WWFS
