In the early 1960s, however, WABC-FM began to program itself separately from WABC (AM). During the 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike, the station carried a news format for 17 hours daily. Two-and-a-half years before WINS launched its own around-the-clock, all-news format in April 1965, it was the first attempt at an all-news format in the New York market.
This was followed by stints with Broadway show tunes and general freeform programming, including broadcasts of New York Mets baseball games.[8] WABC's AM personalities, notably Dan Ingram, Chuck Leonard and Bob Lewis, hosted programs on the FM side which were the total opposites of the Top 40-powered sound for which they were better known on AM. WABC-FM did continue to simulcast its AM sister station during Herb Oscar Anderson's morning drive program.
"PAUL IS DEAD" JULY 4, 1978In the Fall of 1969, rumors began to spread that Paul McCartney had actually died in an auto accident in 1966 and that an imposter, William Campbell, had taken his place. The remaining Beatles supposedly left clues in their songs and album jackets. Many radio stations began dissecting these clues and created special programming around the rumors, which was akin to today's "click bait". Bob Lewis created a show debunking the clues.Lewis' show, originally broadcast when the station was still known as WABC-FM was rebroadcast on July 4, 1978 after the call letters had changed to WPLJ. This is that recording. Part 1 contains the original broadcast. Part 2 contains a segment added for the 1978 broadcast with Pat St. John who once again looks at both old and new clues. [ Part 1 ] (30:25) [ Part 2 ] (16:19)
At the start of 1968, ABC split its radio network into four distinct components, one of which was dedicated to FM radio.[9] The following year, WABC-FM and its sister stations–KABC-FM in Los Angeles; WLS-FM in Chicago; KGO-FM in San Francisco; WXYZ-FM in Detroit; KQV-FM in Pittsburgh; and newly acquired KXYZ-FM in Houston–began carrying an automated, youth-oriented, progressive rock format known as Love.In late 1970, Allen Shaw, the then-president of ABC's FM station group, announced two big changes for the stations, which took place in early 1971: ABC dropped Love and installed completely live-and-local, freeform rock formats. The network also applied for call letter changes for the seven stations. The New York outlet was slated to be renamed WRIF, but a clerical error on the part of the Federal Communications Commission resulted in those calls being awarded to the former WXYZ-FM (the present-day WRIF) in Detroit–whose own request for WDAI was itself given mistakenly to WLS-FM in Chicago–leaving WABC-FM to start from scratch for its own rebranding. On February 14, 1971, the station's call letters were changed to WPLJ, chosen after Allen Shaw noticed the letter combination as the name of a song on the 1970 Mothers of Invention record, Burnt Weeny Sandwich. The song, "W-P-L-J", was originally performed by the Four Deuces in 1955 and stood for "White Port and Lemon Juice". On the air, the station hired John Zacherle, Alex Bennett, Vin Scelsa, Jimmy Fink, and Michael Cuscuna (from WMMR and WXPN in Philadelphia) as personalities.
John Zacherley
Sunday, April 16, 1972
The station would play the music of artists such as Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Elton John, Deep Purple, Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, David Bowie and The Allman Brothers. The station would also play pop songs from artists such as James Taylor, Stevie Wonder and Carly Simon. The station was different from Top 40 stations (such as co-owned WABC) in that they played more album tracks. The audience ratings shot up dramatically, and WPLJ became New York's most listened-to FM rock station for most of the 1970s.
In 1973, Allen Shaw brought Willard Lochridge, the General Manager of sister station WRIF in Detroit, to New York to manage WPLJ. Lochridge then brought Larry Berger, Program Director of WRIF, to WPLJ.
Larry Berger took over as Program Director of WPLJ in 1974, and the station adopted the slogan "New York's Best Rock". Some of the personalities on the station during this period included Jim Kerr, Pat St. John, Jimmy Fink, Carol Miller, Tony Pigg, John Zacherle, Alex Bennett, Bob Marrone and Dave Charity. Berger himself hosted a Sunday night call-in show, during which he would discuss the station with listeners, but would decline to discuss the specifics of the music playlist, something many listeners were concerned with. During these call-in segments, callers suggested that the station sped up or "pitched up" the music so that they could fit in more commercials while still being able to claim that they played a large number of songs per hour. Berger repeatedly denied that this practice was in use at WPLJ. In the September 20, 1999 episode of Crap from the Past, host Ron "Boogiemonster" Gerber suggested that music was sped up on WPLJ to make the same music sound less dynamic on other stations.
It's September 18, 1975 and Johnt Zacherle isn't doing much more than back announcing the records. But, there is a cool promo for a Summer-end concert featuring KISS, Orleans, John Sebastian, Don McLean, Chris Hillman and Brian Auger & the Oblivion Express. [ LISTEN ]
Another Sunday night show begun in 1975 was then-Father Bill Ayres' long-running On This Rock, which mixed spirituality and social consciousness together with the music of Harry Chapin, Bob Seger, and others. Ayres was a Roman Catholic Priest with the Archdiocese of New York City. The show also aired on its sister station WABC on Sunday mornings within the last years of its Top 40 music format. Bill Ayres eventually left the priesthood in the 1980s but continues to host a call in Sunday night show today on the station.By the late '70s, WPLJ tended to emphasize harder rock artists such as Led Zeppelin (there was a nightly "Get the Led Out" segment), Kansas, Boston, and Queen, who happened to get less airplay than on competing station WNEW-FM. At this point, the station reduced its play of softer pop songs, and their ratings remained good. Larry hired Marc Coppola in 1981, a rock oriented jock coming from suburban rival WBAB on Long Island, to do the 10pm-2am shift Monday through Saturday.
During its album-oriented phase, the station was noted for its promotional montages, snippets of classic-rock songs spliced together emphasizing a particular subject, such as gasoline (during the gas shortages of the 1970s).
From the time of Berger's arrival, WPLJ beat main rock rival WNEW-FM in virtually every Arbitron ratings period.
In 1982, WPLJ received a direct competitor in WAPP, which adopted a near-identical AOR format to WPLJ (WAPP launched its rock format commercial-free and remained so for the summer of 1982). WAPP beat WPLJ in the ratings in the Fall of 1982, and WPLJ reacted by adding more new wave such as A Flock of Seagulls, Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Go-Go's, Elvis Costello, Men at Work and Soft Cell, mixed in with the usual AOR fare. WPLJ's ratings ended up being better than those of WAPP after WAPP started playing commercials in the Fall of 1982. In early 1983, the station added "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, playing it several times a day (note that many AOR stations, including WNEW-FM, added that song and it did chart on the rock tracks chart). In March, WPLJ added Jackson's other hit "Beat It", which received very positive reaction. While Jackson was not a typical AOR artist, that cut was played by many AOR stations due to Eddie Van Halen's role in the song. The station also dropped most 1960s songs by May, and was cutting back on AOR artists while playing more modern rockers.
During this time, WPLJ's logo was very similar to its sister station KLOS (the former KABC-FM) in Los Angeles.
In the Spring of 1983, the station began a transition from AOR to CHR. With word that a Top 40 format was coming to 100.3 FM, WPLJ moved further in a CHR direction. Though the station began playing artists like Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson, Larry Berger stated that he did not make the decision to move to a CHR format until the last week of June, and WPLJ adopted a Rock-leaning CHR format on June 30, 1983. At this point, the station played predominantly AOR and New Wave rock cuts, but would mix in two or three rhythmic pop cuts like "Flashdance" by Irene Cara, "Time" by Culture Club, "She Works Hard for the Money" by Donna Summer, and a few others. The station maintained its "New York's Best Rock" slogan, even though the station moved away from playing predominantly rock songs. Larry Berger discussed the changes on his call-in show in July 1983, to the disapproving reaction from the rock audience. (Competitors WNBC had been a de facto Top 40 AM station while WYNY had been the de facto FM hits station throughout the early 1980s, playing many current songs as part of its hot adult contemporary format). WPLJ's airstaff, which stayed on during the early transition months, would gradually change, as WNEW-FM picked up some of the station's best-known rock DJs, such as Carol Miller and Pat St. John. (Morning man Jim Kerr and sidekick Shelli Sonstein would remain with the station through the end of the decade.) Jimmy Fink, Tony Pigg and Marc Coppola eventually moved to Infinity Broadcasting's WXRK when it debuted a couple of years later.
In August 1983, at the same time WHTZ (100.3 FM) was launched across town, WPLJ was known as "The Home of the Hits" and in October, added Top 40-style jingles. In a way, it was "New York's Hit Music Station" just before WHTZ went on the air. The following spring, WPLJ identified itself very briefly as "The New Musicradio PLJ" before quickly segueing to "Hitradio 95" just a short time later. In the Spring of 1985, the station became known on-air as "Power 95". Ratings went up after switching to CHR, though they were still just behind Z100 most of the time. The double-whammy of Top 40 on one end and light-music WLTW on the other proved the kiss of death for the AC format on WYNY, which eventually went country.
On December 17, 1987, the station changed its call letters to WWPR (to complement its "Power 95" slogan), but flipped the call sign back to WPLJ the following year, on December 21, 1988, when research indicated that listeners still identified the station as WPLJ.
WPLJ continued to be successful until 1990....Station history from the 90s to the present can be researched on the WPSL wikipedia listing.
