WHN

WHN

Broadcast area	New York, New York
Frequency	1050 (kHz)
First air date	1922 (went off the air on July 1, 1987)
Format	country music
ERP	50,000 watts
Class	A
Callsign meaning	WHN
Former callsigns	WMGM (1948-1962)
Owner	Emmis Communications

WHN was a radio station in New York City located at 1050 kHz. Its best known format was country music, which the station played from 1972 to 1987. The station had a diversified format since the early days of radio, as did most radio stations at the time, until its change in callsign to WMGM in the 1950s, when television became the predominant medium for drama, comedy, and kids shows. The station played rock and roll as WMGM (AM) from the mid-1950s to 1962 and then adult standards from 1962 to 1973.

History

1050 has a long history, beginning as WHN radio. It had a diversified format like most radio stations did back then. In the early 1950s, as TV became the medium for drama, comedy and kids shows, WHN began playing pop records.

WHN began as a small station in Ridgewood, Queens, New York City in February 1922. The ownership and location changed over time and by 1940 it was owned by movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It carried some programming from the Mutual Broadcasting System in the late 1930s and early 1940s. These were programs originated by Mutual stations but not carried by WOR, 710 KC New York, the flagship station in the Mutual network.

The most famous of these was a program originated by WOL in Washington, D.C. called the Top of the News featuring newspaper columnist Fulton Lewis Jr. which began in 1936. After six months on the air its ratings were so high that WOR took over broadcasting it for the next 27 years before it reverted to WHN again after WOR was no longer a Mutual station. Another famous and long-running program was Major Edward Bowes and his Original Amateur Hour which premiered on WHN in 1934, and ran until 1952, long after Bowes' death.

In the 1930s and 1940s WHN carried a variety of music, drama, talks, and other features. As an MGM affiliate, it carried, transcribed, MGM radio dramas and comedies featuring MGM stars and produced transcribed in their Hollywood studio. This format lasted until around 1951. An example of WHN programming at the time was The Adventures of Maisie starring Ann Sothern.

The call letters were changed on September 15, 1948 to WMGM and station identification was done from transcribed discs recorded by MGM stars. An example: "This is Robert Taylor. You are tuned to the call letters of the Stars, WMGM, 1050 on your dial, New York." The station had a diversified format that included pop standard hits, drama, talk, and sports, and briefly featured New York talk legend Barry Gray.

After Loews Corporation, parent company of MGM, divested itself of the station in the early 1960s, the station reverted to the old call letters of WHN.

1950s

Later in the 1950s, WMGM adopted a Top 40 format. It played rock and roll records and were more up-tempo than the competition. The '50s brand of Top 40 played by WMGM and its competitors included what might today be considered Rhythm and blues and Country music, in addition to popular instrumentals (Percy Faith's 1960 "Theme from A Summer Place" and Acker Bilk's 1962 "Stranger on the Shore" hit the top of the charts during this era). They played Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Frankie Lymon, the Crystals, the Tokens, Ray Charles, Ricky Nelson, and Bill Haley. Playlists were narrower and more predictable than mainstream MOR stations'. WMGM's deejay lineup included morning man Ted Brown and the Redhead (Ted's then-wife), Jerry Marshall, Peter Tripp, Norm Stevens, Dick Shepherd, Bob Lewis, Ed Stokes and Bob Callen. Among its newsreaders were Bill Edmunds, Dick DeFrietas and Aime Govin.

WMGM had a theme song incorporating the names of many of its DJs in the 1960s. The words were:
He was a US Marshal and Jerry was his name.
So they called him Jerry Marshall and widespread was his fame.
He went to catch the outlaws, Bob Callen and Ted Brown
Who were roping old Dick Shephard's sheep and herding them to town.
Sing a song about Western hero men will never ride the range again.
They're on 1050 WMGM.

1960s

By 1962, 1010 WINS, 770 WABC, and 570 WMCA were also playing predominantly rock and roll music. At that point 1050 WMGM was sold to Storer Broadcasting, which owned mostly TV stations. Storer immediately dropped Top 40 for Pop Standards. The station was renamed WHN again.

Through the 1960s, WHN, unlike WNEW and WOR, played no rock music whatsoever, while playing some quasi-rock and roll artists that were equally known for standards. These included Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, Pat Boone, and others. Its core artists were Nat King Cole, Al Hirt, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Henry Mancini, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Patti Page, Johnny Mathis, Percy Faith, and Ray Conniff. Ratings were decent. The station was about 75% vocal and 25% instrumental.

1970s

In the 1970s it added some soft rock to the mix. By then it had announcers like Lee Arnold, Jack Spector, Del Demontreaux, Dan Daniel, and others. By that time, the ratings were low so in 1973 WHN became a country music station. New York City had never been a big country music town and only had a country music station in the late 1960s on 970 WJRZ (which became Top 40 WWDJ in 1971 and Religious in 1974). Early on, WHN played strictly country music but by 1975, some non-country artists singing country-friendly songs were added.

As a country music station, it played artists like Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Tanya Tucker, Lynn Anderson, Kenny Rogers, Mel Tillis, Charley Pride, Mickey Gilly, Ronnie Milsap, and many more. Also they mixed in non-country artists that had country friendly songs such as The Eagles, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Anne Murray, the Commodores, Olivia Newton John, Elton John, Kenny Rogers, Linda Ronstadt, and others.

Usually it rated in the top 10 as New York's only country station. On-air announcers like Mike Fitzgerald, Dan Taylor, and many others moved in. In the late 1970s Mutual Radio bought WHN from Storer. In 1980 they got some competition when 106.7 WRVR was sold to Viacom and dropped jazz for country and became WKHK. As a result, ratings went down for WHN, but they stuck it out. They added Mets Baseball and other pro sports teams to their lineup in evenings.

1980s

In 1984, WKHK 106.7 became Lite FM 106.7 WLTW playing a soft AC format which has evolved to a mainstream AC format today. WHN 1050 remained country with decent ratings. In 1985 Doubleday Broadcasting bought 1050 WHN. In 1986 Emmis Communications bought WHN in a corporate deal. Emmis added sports talk in the evenings, but kept the country format the rest of the day until 1987.

The end

In late April 1987, Emmis announced that on July 1, 1987 WHN would drop country for sports talk and professional sports play-by-play. It dropped the WHN calls and become WFAN. In May, NBC announced that AC WYNY 97.1 would go country on July 1, the same day as WHN ended the format.

The airstaff said their goodbyes at the end of June. Dan Taylor signed off at 3 p.m. with "For The Good Times" by Ray Price on July 1, 1987. At 3 p.m. WFAN made its debut on 1050.

Post WHN

Ratings were low initially but slowly climbing. In 1988 NBC was leaving radio, so it sold their stations to Emmis; Emmis then had control of 97.1 and 103.5 FM and 660 and 1050 AM. Emmis opted to sell 103.5 to Westwood One and the WYNY intellectual country unit as well so Country 97 WYNY became Country 103.5 WYNY. Emmis kept 97.1 and moved their Dance/R & B format WQHT there.

Emmis moved WFAN from 1050 to 660 on October 7, 1988, replacing 66 WNBC. Infinity would later buy 660 WFAN in 1992. WFAN is still occupying 660 today with good ratings.

Spanish Broadcasting System bought 1050. However, Spanish Broadcasting already owned AM 620 in Newark, New Jersey. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted Spanish Broadcasting a waiver to run 1050 without commercials until it could be sold. In October 1988 when WFAN moved from 1050 to 660, 620 WSKQ flipped from Spanish Adult Contemporary to Spanish Oldies while 1050 became KQ 1050 WUKQ playing Spanish Adult Contemporary music commercial-free to satisfy the FCC requirement.

Shortly thereafter, Jewish Forward swapped 97.9 WEVD for 1050 WUKQ. Under the deal, the Spanish AC format on 620 moved to FM, and the station became FM-98 WSKQ-FM. This happened early in 1989. Eventually FM-98 evolved into tropical-leaning KQ-97.9, then Mega 97.9 with a complete concentration on tropical Spanish music.

WEVD's format though moved to 1050 in early 1989. 1050 WEVD had a brokered format with Jewish programming, ethnic programs, talk shows, and a big band show with Danny Stiles. Ratings were very very low but the station made a profit selling blocks of airtime.

1990s

By the mid-1990s WEVD had a talk format on weekdays but ethnic programming nights and weekends.

2000s

In 2001, WEVD entered into a local marketing agreement with ABC/Disney and began running ESPN Radio 24/7. The station was renamed WEPN and eventually sold to ABC/Disney outright, which continues to run the station as 1050 ESPN Radio.

See also

• WEPN - current station on AM 1050

External links

• AIRWAVES RADIO Journal V9 #89 - "Re: 1050 NYC (was: Relate These Phrases For Me)" explains the complex callsign changes related to WHN.