WFAN-FM

This article is about the current New York City radio station. For the Illinois station briefly called WRXP, see WWCT.

WRXP

New York City
Broadcast area	New York City area
Frequency	101.9 MHz FM (HD Radio) 101.9-2 FM Smooth Jazz "CD 101.9" (HD Radio)
Branding	1019 RXP
Programming
Format	Adult Album Alternative
Ownership
Owner	Emmis Communications (Emmis Radio License, LLC)
Sister stations	WQHT, WRKS
History
First air date	1945
Former call signs	WGHF (1945–1955) WBFM (1955–1963) WPIX-FM (1963–1988) WQCD (1988–2008)
Call sign meaning	W Rock Experience
Technical information
Facility ID	67846
Class	B
ERP	6,200 watts
HAAT	413 meters
Links
Webcast	RXP New Webstream
Website	http://www.1019rxp.com/ HD2 http://www.cd1019.com/

WRXP (101.9 MHz.) is an Adult Album Alternative radio station located in New York City. WRXP is owned by Emmis Communications, and shares its studios with sister stations WQHT and WRKS in New York's West Village neighborhood.

The station also broadcasts a smooth jazz format on its HD Radio subchannel (101.9-2). Smooth jazz was WRXP's previous program format, under former call letters WQCD (CD101.9) from August 22, 1988 to February 5, 2008.

Early years

The station first went on the air in 1945 as WGHF, named after its original owner, William G.H. Finch, and moved to the 101.9 frequency in 1947. In late 1948, it became the New York City affiliate of the farm-oriented Rural Radio Network based in Ithaca, New York, which owned a group of upstate stations that would later associate with WQXR. In 1955, its then-owner, Muzak, changed the call letters to WBFM.

The WPIX-FM era

WPIX-FM's logo during the mid-1980's

After the station was purchased by the New York Daily News in late 1963, WBFM adopted the WPIX-FM call letters, as the station was now co-owned with television station WPIX. WPIX-FM was famous for not being able to settle on a format for any real length of time, and was derisively nicknamed "the format of the month station" by many in the New York City radio industry, as it went through 11 different formats during this period:

• 1971-1975; 1976-1977: Adult Top 40 - a Top 40 format at the time that played new songs less often than WABC; while still focused on current music, it mixed in rock and roll oldies from about 1964 to what was then recent.
• Mark Simone launches "The Simone Phone", a pioneering FM comedy talk show featuring then producer/writer Tom Leykis that contained many popular features like "Dial-A-Date", which were later borrowed by other radio shows.
• 1975: Disco. The New York Times reported, "Characterized by a strong bass, a simple melody, and terse repetitive lyrics..."Disco," as this music is called...is becoming increasingly popular on AM and FM radio stations. WPIX-FM recently switched several hours of its nightly programming over to "disco." and leaned disco the rest of the day. By the Summer of 1976 the station was back to a gold leaning Top 40 format which was popular on FM stations back then.
• 1977-1978: Top 40/rock.
• 1978-1980: Punk/New Wave Rock -- At a time when other rock stations in New York were sticking with traditional AOR formats (WPLJ, WNEW-FM), Adult Top 40 (WXLO) or oldies (WCBS-FM), WPIX staked out a groundbreaking format focused on new wave and punk but included older rock and roll as well, hence its advertising slogan: "From Elvis to Elvis." It helped break in New York and nationally early records by Elvis Costello, the Police, Nick Lowe, the Clash, the Cars, Squeeze, Devo, the Kings, Iggy Pop,Lou Reed,the Buzzcocks, Cheap Trick, Talking Heads, David Johansen, Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, to name just a few. The station was even featured in lyrics from the Squeeze song, 'I Think I'm Go Go' (P I X and rock and roll).
• March 1980-1981: Rock-based top 40--According to The New York Times, a station spokesperson said the station was "modifying the format to improve the product to make it more mass acceptable."
• 1981-1982: Album-oriented rock.
• January-March 1982: CHR (Top 40)--basically a transitional format to Adult Contemporary.
• March 1982: adult contemporary--began positioning itself as "Nothing But Love Songs" in 1983. Had good ratings from 1983 to 1985.
• 1985: hot adult contemporary "The Ballads and Beat of New York."
• August 16, 1986: adult contemporary/standards/eclectic rock "The Bright and Lively Sound of New York."
• 1987: Hot Adult Contemporary during the day and urban adult contemporary evenings.
• 1987-1988: Hot Adult Contemporary during the day and overnights using "Easy Rock" as a slogan. Contemporary Jazz in the evenings.

Notable air personalities during the WPIX-FM period included Mark Simone, Dennis Quinn, Jim Kerr, Alan Colmes, Meg Griffin, Les Marshak, Gus Gossert, Alfredo, Jane Hamburger, and Dan Neer. Another of its disc jockeys, Jerry Carroll (a.k.a. "Dr. Jerry"), would gain fame as commercial spokesperson for the Crazy Eddie retail chain.

The station gave up quickly on both the Disco and Punk/New Wave formats to see both genres of music become popular several years later.

WPIX-FM then stayed as an adult contemporary station for a few years, as its ratings during this period were pretty good. By 1985, the station began mixing a number of eclectic songs into its adult contemporary format, and was known as "the ballads and the beat of New York."

Also in 1985, the station was running a nighttime show called "The PIX Penthouse", which played R&B and soul songs. It was also used through the 1960s as the station's tagline for an easy-listening format. ("The PIX Penthouse Party" had been originally used as a program title during WPIX-FM's Punk/New Wave era and was notable for playing 1960s music that influenced Punk and New Wave Rock.)

From 1966 to 1988, WPIX-FM simulcast the background holiday music played during WPIX Television's annual Yule Log program on Christmas Eve.

As WQCD, "CD101.9"

By 1987, the station started to play contemporary jazz at night, as its ratings were on the decline. Then, on August 10, 1988 the station adopted a Jazz based adult contemporary format during the day and retained all jazz at night. Later that month, on August 22, 1988, the station modified into a full-time contemporary jazz (now known as smooth jazz) format, with the new call letters WQCD and the new branding, "CD 101.9". The smooth jazz format proved successful and long-lasting for a station that had not been used to stability in its programming. New York City had not had a full-time commercial jazz station since 1980, when WRVR (106.7 FM, now WLTW) became country music station WKHK following an ownership change.

WQCD's early music blend featured contemporary jazz mixed with soft rock and urban adult contemporary, and some new age music, with an equal balance between vocal and instrumental music. At night the station played strictly contemporary jazz music, with a majority of it instrumental. As time went on, WQCD phased-out soft-rock cuts and became a full-time contemporary jazz station. The playlist continued to feature large amounts of instrumental jazz and new age, and several urban adult contemporary songs. This formula would largely be unchanged for over 15 years.

Even after the Daily News changed ownership in 1991, WQCD was retained by the News's former corporate parent, the Tribune Company. In 1997 Tribune sold WQCD to Emmis Communications, and the combination of WQCD with Emmis's two existing New York stations, WQHT (97.1 FM) and WRKS (98.7 FM), gave the Indianapolis-based company an FM triopoly in the New York market.

During its time under Tribune ownership, WQCD had been headquartered with WPIX at the (now-landmarked) Daily News Building in Midtown Manhattan. In 1998, Emmis moved WQCD, WQHT and WRKS into a newly-constructed common facility at 395 Hudson Street, at the meeting point of Manhattan's West Village and SoHo neighborhoods. The multi-station complex was the first of its kind in American radio, which was now becoming increasingly consolidated.

WQCD goes "New York Chill"

New York's CD101.9 Logo when the station ran its "Chill" format.

WQCD also ran an experiment from November 22, 2004 until August 2005, when the station's playlist included chill music, a form of relaxing music based on the music found in the beaches of Ibiza. Their ratings were not satisfactory, and the experiment ended. The station retained the tagline, "CD101.9, Your Chill-Out Station" during its successful transition back to the standard smooth jazz format.

Final years of CD101.9

File:CD 101.9 Smooth Jazz logo.png

Final logo as CD101.9

WQCD's on-air staff remained unusually stable in the generally volatile radio climate, led by morning host Dennis Quinn. Midday host Deborah Rath had been with parent company Emmis since 1988, as a veteran of both WRKS and WQHT's original incarnation "Hot 103.5". Afternoon drive host Paul Cavalconte was a veteran of New York jazz, classical and rock stations, including WQCD's generational predecessor WNEW. Evening host Sharon Davis called WQCD home for nearly a decade as well, but on February 5, 2008, CD101.9 and Smooth Jazz all came to an end.

However, the Smooth Jazz format has returned to the New York airwaves as a part-time offering on Urban Contemporary station WBLS. It is "Sunday Night Smooth Jazz" on Sundays at 7:00 PM.

As WRXP "101.9 RXP"

On February 5, 2008 at 4:00 p.m., Emmis Communications announced a change to a rock format under the WRXP call letters and the tagline 101.9 RXP: The New York Rock Experience. The last songs played were "Shining Star" and an instrumental. The entire WQCD airstaff was released including Dennis Quinn, who had survived every other format change at 101.9 since joining the station as WPIX-FM in 1971. Only program director Blake Lawrence was retained from the previous format for WRXP. Emmis cited a declining audience for smooth jazz, the format which moved to the station's HD2 subcarrier.

WRXP's first on-air personality was Brian Schock, who, until leaving the station for personal reasons in January 2009, was also the station's assistant program director and music director. Station management promised to hire a New York rock-savvy airstaff for the rest of the station's dayparts , and started with the hiring of former MTV personality Matt Pinfield as the morning drive host. Other additions to WRXP's on-air team included Steve Craig as midday host along with Brian Phillips as evening host. The weekend air staff includes Dave Greek, Greg Russ, Jennifer Kajzer and Paul Calvaconte, who was the only personality rehired from the WQCD smooth jazz format. In March 2009, WRXP announced through their morning program that Nik Carter, formerly of 92.3 K-ROCK, was to join as the anchor from 3 to 7 PM on weekdays.

On June 16, 2008, Leslie Fram, formerly of WNNX in Atlanta, was appointed Program Director. In addition to her duties as program director, Fram is also cohost of the WRXP morning drive show with Matt Pinfield. Mr. Pinfield is the exclusive interviewer for the musical artists.

References

• (Change of call letters from WGHF to WBFM) — The New York Times, November 17, 1955.
• "WPIX Buys Radio Station" – The New York Times, December 10, 1963.

External links

• 101.9 WRXP — official website
• CD101.9 — official CD101.9 smooth jazz HD2 website
• Template:FMQ
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• WRXP in Nielsen Audio's FM station database