WRDW-FM

WRDW-FM

City of license	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Broadcast area	Delaware Valley
Branding	Wired 96.5
Slogan	"Philly's Hits and Hip-Hop" "Where Hit Music Lives!"
Frequency	96.5 MHz (also on HD Radio) 96.5 HD-2 for Club Dance
First air date	1944 (as WHAT-FM)
Format	Rhythmic Top 40
ERP	17,000 watts
HAAT	264 meters
Class	B
Facility ID	51434
Callsign meaning	WiReD W
Former callsigns	WHAT-FM (1940s-1960s) WWDB (1960s-2000) WPTP (2000-2003) WLDW (2003-2004)
Owner	Beasley Broadcast Group
Sister stations	WTMR, WWDB, WXTU
Webcast	Listen Live
Website	wired965.com

WRDW-FM, also known as Wired 96.5, is a Philadelphia radio station owned by Beasley Broadcast Group that plays a Rhythmic Top 40 musical format. Although they lean towards R&B/Hip-Hop, Wired also adds Rhythmic Pop tracks to their playlist. Its transmitter is located in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.

The station was briefly known as "Wild 96.5" with the callsign WLDW (WILD W), but was changed early on due to Clear Channel Communications, who are owners of the copyrighted 'Wild' moniker. When Clear Channel Communications threatened Beasley with a lawsuit for copyright infringement, 'Wild' then segued into 'Wired' in order to avoid any potential legal action.

96.5 Philadelphia history

For several years in the 1940s and 1950s, the frequency was known as WHAT-FM and was simulcast with its sister station on the AM dial. In 1956, a young disc jockey known as Sid Mark took the airwaves for the first time in Philadelphia, beginning a nearly 50 year career in the market as a disc jockey. WHAT-FM became a full-time jazz station in 1958, the first of its kind on the FM spectrum.

In the late 1960s, the call letters were changed to WWDB, after the owners of the station, William and Dolly Banks. In the early 1970s, WWDB experimented with playing adult contemporary music, but eventually went back to jazz. In 1975, the station's format was changed to talk^{[citation needed]}, and WWDB became the first FM talk station in the United States. On-air talk personalities included Irv Homer, Bernie McCade, Frank Ford and Bernie Herman.

From Dolly Banks' retirement in 1985 until 1997, WWDB changed hands several times, ending up with Beasley Broadcasting. Beasley tried tweaking the talk format by adding Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura and an all-news morning show, but Limbaugh's show defected to competitor WPHT and other moves (including the launch of a companion AM station) proved ineffective. Finally, the day before the U.S. Presidential Election on November 6, 2000, WWDB's format was changed by its current owner to '80s Hits, known as "The Point". The callsign was soon switched to WPTP. WPTP shifted to hot AC in early 2003. After the hot AC format on WPTP failed, on November 17, 2003, WPTP flipped to its current format as "Wild 96.5" (with callsign changing to WLDW). After the Clear Channel injunction, WLDW became Wired 96.5 and the callsign changed to WRDW-FM (the -FM tag is necessary because of the existence of AM station WRDW in Augusta, Georgia, which is also owned by Beasley).

Personalities

From the beginning in the format, Wired 96.5 had some personnel changes in their airstaff. From the start, the original lineup included "Rocco the Janitor", Janita Applebaum, Dakota, Angel Garcia, and Kannon. By January 2006, Rocco was forced out of the morning slot to make room for the short-lived "Big Mama and the Wild Bunch" morning show. Dakota, who did 10PM - 2AM, transferred to a Beasley sister station in Fort Myers, Florida to do mornings. Immediately following, Hawaiian Morning Show Duo "Sam & Ryan" handled on-air duties until a contract conflict & poor ratings gave way to another morning show exchange in early 2006. On March 20, 2006, Wired 96.5 acquired CHR Pop radio station Q102's former morning host, Chio (who had briefly relocated to San Diego, CA to do a morning show there), to replace Big Mama. On October 12, 2006, it was announced that morning show member Casey was leaving that show to fill the Mid-Day slot (10am-3pm) after Applebaum left the station. In 2007, Wired began airing television commercials featuring Chio promoting the radio station and "Chio In The Morning".

During the 2007 season of "American Idol", Justice, the executive producer of "Chio In the Morning", staged a protest of the continued presence of Sanjaya Malakar. He lived in a tent on the roof of a local car dealership for three weeks until Malakar was voted off. He continued to be a part of the show, however, via internet link and a special remote set-up.

Music direction

When WRDW debuted, it used the slogan "18 in a row" to promote its direction and distinguish itself from the competition. Around the beginning of the third quarter 2005, Wired 96.5 introduced podcast programming, where listeners could send in their top 18 songs to be aired together at once. This led to rumors of a shift in Wired 96.5's direction. In January 2006, Wired 96.5's began a gradual switch from being categorized as CHR Rhythmic to CHR Pop, when the station changed its slogan to "Where Hit Music Lives" (which they revived in 2011) indicating a more Top 40/Pop playlist, but after a brief flirtation it did not evolve and stayed Rhythmic. As of today, they are still listed in Mediabase & BDS as a Rhythmic reporter because its playlist still favors Rhythmic hits even with the pop content thrown in. It is also billing themselves as "Hits & Hip-Hop" to reflect their current direction. In 2008, they began to start following the same direction as sister station WPOW/Miami by adding some Dance product to the playlist, like "Mr. Saxobeat" by Alexandra Stan. By 2011, following Mediabase's move of rival WPHI-FM to the urban contemporary panel, WRDW-FM became Philadelphia's only rhythmic station.

Hot Wired (WRDW-HD2)

In 2007, WRDW added an HD2 subcarrier to its lineup to carry non-stop Dance music 24/7 under the title "Hot Wired." The music and imaging is similar to sister station WPOW's HD2 subcarrier channel.

Ties with Open House Party

WRDW afternoon DJ Kannon is also the host of the Sunday night edition of Open House Party, effective the weekend of December 1 and 2nd, 2007.

Competition

On the Rhythmic side, which was influenced by the Urban Top 40 format, WRDW competes with WUSL, while on the Top 40 Pop side it competes with WIOQ, WAEB-FM and WPST.

Frequency

WRDW's signal can be heard as far north as Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Walnutport, Pennsylvania, Frackville, Pennsylvania and Maplewood, New Jersey, despite there being a pirate radio station called Streetz 96 in Newark, New Jersey (Streetz 96 moved from 96.5 to 106.5 on the FM dial). This is rather unusual as WRDW operates on a class B frequency with an Effective radiated power of 17,000 watts.

On air

Weekdays

• Chio in the Morning: 5:30am - 10am
  • Host: Chio
  • Co-Host: Shila
• Casey: 10am - 3pm
• Kannon: 3pm - 7pm
• Kobi: 7pm - 12mid

Saturday

• Kannon's Open House Party: 6pm - 11pm

External links

• WRDW Website
• 96.5 Philadelphia Information
• Wired 96.5 YouTube Videos
• Query the FCC's FM station database for WRDW
• Radio-Locator information on WRDW
• Query Arbitron's FM station database for WRDW