WNEW-FM

WNEW-FM
	Mix 102.7 logo
Broadcast area	New York City
Frequency	102.7 MHz
History
First air date	1949

WNEW is a New York City FM radio station operating at 102.7 MHz and owned and operated by Infinity Broadcasting. Today they offer a dance oldies format.

It was previously WNEW-FM for many years, after sister AM station WNEW (1130) and television station WNEW-TV, with all being owned by Metromedia; when the AM station was sold and became WBBR in 1992, WNEW-FM adopted the four-letter WNEW callsign.

Early history

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.

"Where Rock Lives"

In 1967 WNEW-FM adopted a "progressive" freeform rock music format, one that it became famous for and that influenced the rock listenership as well as the rock industry. 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 Bill (Rosko) Mercer, Dennis Elsas, Richard Neer, Dan Neer, and John Zacherle.

File:Wnewlogo.jpg

The old WNEW-FM logo

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. John Lennon would stop by and guest-DJ for on occasion. Members of The Grateful Dead and other groups would hang out in the studio. 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.

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 known DJs, such as Carol Miller and Pat St. John.

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.

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. Nevertheless, ratings were acceptable if nothing great.

Decline and fall

The real problems began for WNEW in 1995, when it adopted an adult album alternative format. The station, which now had the slogan of "New York's Rock Alternative", evolved to a weird 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 1990's, 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 CBS and Westinghouse would merge making WNEW a CBS station. Infinity Broadcasting would then merge with CBS in 1997, making WNEW a CBS/Infinity station.

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, shock jocks Opie and Anthony arrived to do afternoons on WNEW. They played several songs an hour, but for the most part, the show was typical of a talk show featuring shock jocks. With Opie and Anthony's ratings soaring, the station made the decision in 1999 to abandon 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 now for something completely different

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 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, the station's current owners, Viacom, buy the station's previous owners, CBS/Infinity Broadcasting.

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 a stunt involving two people having sex within St. Patrick's Cathedral, bringing considerable bad publicity to the station. With the station's ratings falling below even those of many non-commercial stations, and the cancellation of the only show that generated significant ratings for the station, management decided that the station needed to take a new direction.

102.7 Blink

In January 2003 the station dropped this blend of talk and infomercials and stunted for the next couple of months with CHR music. That April, WNEW became "102.7 Blink" (keeping the WNEW call letters) and adopted an unusual "Entertainment" format, which would mix old and contemporary pop hits with talk shows and entertainment news from sources such as E!. The station's ratings sunk further and after a few months the station changed their slogan to "102.7 Blink FM: Music Woman Love" with an (again, unusual) explicit appeal to a female audience. This format also failed to draw audiences. By October, the was more of a 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.

Mix 102.7

The day after Christmas in 2003, the station became "Mix 102.7", playing a hot adult contemporary range of hits from the 1970s to the 2000s. In the succeeding months, the "mix" tended to skew towards dance hits, the program director was fired for drunken on-air behavior, with this all culminating in a change to an official "classic dance" or Rhythmic AC format in early 2005 under the slogan "New York's Classic Dance Mix". However, the "Mix 102.7" moniker and the WNEW call letters also remain. Ratings are up to the lower end of mediocrity at this point.

References

Neer, Richard. FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio. Villard, 2001. ISBN 0679462953.
WNEW News Department Historical Profile (1978)