WABC-FM joined the airwaves on May 4, 1948 and started broadcasting in stereo on August 1, 1963. It frequently alternated between simulcasting WABC-AM and playing classical music.

As early as May of 1966, two months before WOR-FM started playing rock, Bob Lewis and Dan Ingram had Saturday night shows. By April of 1967, Bob Lewis had a weekday show from 7-11 pm and the station was playing "Now Music" from 10am-7pm.

By Fall 1967, it experimented with additional shows on Saturday nights with music producer Tom Wilson and Chuck Leonard's "Swingin' People" in addition to "The Other Dan Ingram Show and Bob Lewis' "Some Trust In Chariots". The rest of the time, it played Broadway show music and simulcast the AM in the off hours.

By March of 1968, WABC-FM had a syndicated progressive rock format during the day (Most Music, which evolved into "Love" with Brother John Rydgren) and either Chuck Leonard or "Radio Free New York" with Bob Lewis evenings. The Saturday night specialty shows were gone.

By May of 1970, live jocks filled the schedule with such names as Dave Herman, Jimmy Rabbitt, Tony Pigg and Jimmy Fink. In February of 1971, the station became WPLJ-FM. By 1971, the schedule included Murray Roman, Michael Cuscuna (who later became a Jazz producer), J.J. Jackson, Tony Pigg, Vin Scelsa, Dave Herman and Mike Turner. But by August of 1971, the free-form format was history as the station became "Rock In Stereo" with a minimum of talk and music that comprised only the biggest album hits. Just before the change, the station hired Zacherley from WNEW-FM for nights. Weekdays included Sean Casey, Dave Cassidy, Paul Krimsler and Tom Hogan with Alex Bennet doing overnights.

Later in the 1970s, such great personalities as Jim Kerr, Pat St. John, Carol Miller and Vivian Roundtree were heard. The station became WWPR in December of 1987, but in late December of 1988 switched back to the WPLJ call letters. Kerr would continue in morning drive until the Spring of '89, but most of the other DJ's who had been around since the AOR days would be gone by 1985.

In the 90's the station rotated between various Adult Contemporary formats. In mid-2007, Disney, which acquired the station when it bought Capital Cities in 1996 (Capital Cities had purchased ABC Broadcasting in 1985), sold the station to Citadel Broadcasting. In the Fall of 2011, Citadel merged with Cumulus Broadcasting.

Click any thumbnail for a larger image.

WABC-FM 95.5

PRESS: WABC-FM Clicks with Classical Plan

Billboard - October 2, 1965

WABC-FM

WABC-FM decides to try "top 40 classical" radio. We all know how that worked out. I'm surprised they didn't try jingles to go along with it.

PRESS: The Other Dan Ingram Show

Billboard - May 14, 1966

WABC-FM

We had always thought that "The Other Dan Ingram Show" happened as a result of WOR-FM's success on FM. But this article demonstrates that it had actually started months before.

AIRCHECK: The Other Dan Ingram Show [scoped]

July 2, 1966 (21:36)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

At Bob Lewis' urging, Dan Ingram tried an FM show on Saturday evenings, but Dan overdid trying to not fall back into his AM personality...it was really, really low-key and featured a lot of jazz tracks. Dan eventually gave it up supposedly because there was no money in FM and doing the show took away time from his highly paid voiceover work.

PROMOTION: The Other Dan Ingram Show

FM Guide - August, 1966

WABC-FM

Promotion for "The Other Dan Ingram Show" from FM Guide.

AIRCHECK: Bob Lewis' "Some Trust In Chariots" (scoped)

June 6, 1967 (31:37)

Contributed by Ken Tullipano

This is a very rare aircheck of Bob Lewis doing his Saturday night "Some Trust In Chariots" show on WABC-FM during the period in which the station was still doing it's "Stage & Screen" format of primarily Broadway show music.

The show was broadcast on Saturday nights from 7-8pm. It was preceded by music producer Tom Wilson's "Music Factory" show at 6pm and was followed by Chuck Leonard's "Swingin' People" show at 8pm and for a short time by Dan Ingram's "The Other Dan Ingram Show" at 9pm. At 10pm, Alan Grant played Big Band music and from midnight, they still simulcast WABC-AM.

We now take progressive formats for granted and it seems intuititve that the DJs would speak conversationally and not scream like their AM counterparts. But it wasn't so obvious back then as to how to format such a show. Lewis takes a very low key approach as you'll hear and tries to provide some insight into the thinking behind the music. It's very obvious that he's searching for interesting things to play and is listening to a lot of music even when he's not behind the mic.

There's even a low-key WABC-FM jingle. The Saturday night specialty shows would be gone by March of 1968.

Bob Lewis

PRESS: WABC-FM: Tom Wilson's "The Music Factory"

Broadcasting: July 31, 1967

WABC-FM

Tom Wilson was a noted record producer, working with the seminal albums of Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkle, The Animals, the Blues Project and the Mothers of Invention. When WABC-FM experimented with special shows devoted to rock and jazz on Saturday evenings, Tom was part of it. It was great and intelligent radio.

Having said that, there was a bit of a conflict of interest: Wilson worked for MGM Records and MGM Records sponsored the show.

PRESS: WABC-FM: Do some marketing

Billboard: September 23, 1967

WABC-FM

"The dream is WABC-FM...Logically, a stage and screen format has everything working for it."

In this editorial, Billboard calls upon WABC-FM to better promote its "Stage and Screen" format. But Claude Hall, editor of Billboard, didn't yet see what was coming.

AD: "The Stereo Sound of Stage & Screen"

FM Guide - November, 1967

WABC-FM

Although WABC-FM was dipping into the progressive rock scene on Saturdays with shows from Dan Ingram and Bob Lewis, they were still playing Show Music during most broadcast hours.

AIRCHECK: Chuck Leonard [restored-stereo]

circa March, 1968 (40:58)

Contributed via Rob Frankel's postings on MixCloud

Beginning in October of 1967, WABC-FM started playing largely progressive rock music on Saturday nights with Tom Wilson's "Music Factory" at 6pm, Bob Lewis' "Some Trust in Chariots" at 7pm, Chuck Leonard's "Swingin' People" at 8pm and "The Other Dan Ingram Show" at 9pm before Alan Grant's Big Bands show at 10pm.

This largely ended by March of 1968, but during the week, continuous music without DJ's was mostly played. But for a short time, Chuck Leonard had a show from 8-11pm weeknights. By May, that was replaced by a 7-11pm Bob Lewis show called "Radio Free NY" and a syndicated "Love" automated format in most other time slots until May of 1970 when a full-time DJ crew arrived.

This show is most likely from when Leonard had the weekday night show around March of 1968. The music was restored by Rob Frankel (RadioMaven77) on Mixcloud.

AIRCHECK: "In the Beginning" [restored-stereo]

circa March, 1968 (76:55)

Restored and contributed by Rob Frankel via his Radio77 postings on Mixcloud

At the beginning of the progressive rock on FM era, WABC-FM tried a variety of rock formats. Back in '67, they started with some specialty shows on Saturday nights from music producer Tom Wilson, Bob Lewis, Chuck Leonard and Dan Ingram.

In early March of 1968, they essentially played continuous music most of the day from 9am to midnight (except for Chuck Leonard from 8-11pm for a short time) and simulcast WABC-AM in other dayparts in a format they promoted as "Most Music". This aircheck is from that era.

As you'll hear in the aircheck, the announcements were probably recorded with a small radio and a microphone, but Rob Frankel has perfectly restored the music in stereo. So this isn't exactly like listening to WABC-FM on that day, but it's probably as close as we're ever going to get.

A few months later, Bob Lewis would do a show called "Radio Free NY" from 7-11pm and in February of '69, the continuous music format would become "Love with Brother John". A full DJ lineup would not happen until May of 1970.

AIRCHECK: Bob Lewis-Beatles Press Conference

May 19, 1968

Contributed by Frank Quaranti via Rob Frankel

This is a great aircheck contributed by Frank Quaranti of Bob Lewis playing excerpts from a press conference with Beatles Lennon & McCartney, including his own interview with them. The Beatles were in the U.S. to announce the formation of Apple Corps.

This was also the press conference where Lennon admits that their admiration for the Maharishi had been a mistake. Lennon was his usual insightful but strident self and McCartney was trying to be nice.

Lennon

DEMO: the Love Format-Brother John (scoped)

June, 1968

Contributed by Rob Frankel

This is a demo of WABC-FM's "Love" format, probably created aroundd June 15 or 16, 1968, and as restored by Rob Frankel. My recollection of the syndicated ABC-FM "Love Format" was that it was automated, somewaht boring radio (although good music), but this demo is an example of what might have been.

Note the interludes, interviews, other formatics, news and a great selection of music. I especially liked the reference to the band called, "The Traffic" as well as the intro, "Marshall McLuhan tells what's happening to us, baby!"

It's a little hard to perceive on computer audio, but this demo sounds really great - wide stereo separation with EQ that really has impact. Listening to them on a good audio system, it's easy to see why people got excited about listening to rock on FM. I wonder if today's technology has killed that impact, either because of the artifacts of solid state electronics and digital technology or because of radio stations over-processing the audio, which increases distortion and IMO, causes tedium.

Pt. 1

Pt. 2

AIRCHECK: Radio Free New York with Bob Lewis

June, 1968 (54:50)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

We first hear a staff announcer and continous music and then an advertising spot with Rosko's voice along with some jingles that sound like slow versions of WABC-AM's jingles. We hear some music that we definitely wouldn't hear on Classic Rock stations of today, which either demonstrates genius and creativity or incompetency - hard to tell which, followed by Blood, Sweat & Tears and Richie Havens before we hear from Bob-A-Loo.

AIRCHECK: WABC-FM Jingle

Contributed by Neil Leibowitz

A "stereo ninety-five and a half" jingle from the "Love" syndication era. But listening to it now, it could have been a jingle for almost any format.(Updated with an expanded version in context).

Jingle

AIRCHECK: WABC-FM Bob Lewis "Radio Free NY" [stereo]

Thursday, October 17, 1968 (98:15)

Contributed and restored by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 posings on Mixcloud

The great Bob Lewis and his "Radio Free NY" show on WABC-FM. This is an example of early progressive rock radio that is distinctly and obviously different from the Top-40 radio of the day and what now constitutes "Classic Rock", even though it contains some of the same artists. It had a totally different feel.

WABC-FM couldn't seem to make up its mind about how it wanted to program the station and its use of DJ's. Lewis first had a show weekdays starting around April of 1967. By October of '67, that show moved to Saturday nights. This Radio Free NY show started around May of '68 and aired through around Decemmber of '69 when it was replaced by the "Love with Brother John" automated format, which was itself largely replaced by a new team of DJ''s in May of 1970.

AIRCHECK: WABC-FM: Continuous Music [stereo]

Sunday, October 20, 1968 (63:19)

Contributed and restored by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 posings on Mixcloud

This aircheck was labeled October 19th, but October 19th was a Saturday, so we think it's actually from October 20th. In off hours, WABC-FM would play jockless continous music with few or no commercials. We loved it.

AIRCHECK: WABC-FM: Bob Lewis [mono]

Friday, November 8, 1968 (51:13)

Bob Lewis, on his Radio Free New York radio show, previewing The Beatles' White Album, on a pirated mono low-fi tape, two weeks before official release.

Bob Lewis

AD: Don't be a snob!

1969

WABC-FM

This ad was probably intended for advertising agencies, not for the listening audience. Most adults (and especially agencies) were still scared of hippies in 1969.

AIRCHECK: Paul Is Dead [scoped-stereo]

Fall 1969, rebroadcast July 4, 1978 (46:54)

Contributed by Joseph S. Pilliteri

In 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.

Pt1(30:25)

Pt2(16:19)

AD: 24-Hour Rock Festival

1970

WABC-FM

This ad was a bit more generic.

AIRCHECK: Bob Lewis (Scoped)

January 10, 1970

from Rob Frankel

This is a mono aircheck provided by "restorian" Rob Frankel. We hear a very mellow and loose Bob Lewis taking us through a free-form journey. As with several other airchecks on this site, note that much of the music is not the music we hear today on classic rock stations.

From the sound of this aircheck, it might only represent one channel of the stereo signal. But you know what the music is supposed to sound like anyway.

Dig those snazzy jingles!!!

Pt. 1

Pt. 2

May, 1970: Live DJ's start to fill the program schedule with Dave Herman and Jimmy Rabbitt

AD: Dave Herman

FM Guide - May, 1970

WABC-FM

An ad for Dave Herman. Doesn't seem like much today, but at the time, FM rock stations were trying to demonstrate that they weren't corporate (even though they were) and that they cared about individual air personalities. WABC-FM became WPLJ right around the time this ad was published.

AIRCHECK: Tony Pigg [stereo]

circa Summer, 1970 (26:01)

contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Tony Pigg during the days of WABC-FM's syndiciated love format. There's a lot of interesting mood setting here, very appropriate to the sound of FM rock in those days.

July, 1970: Tony Pigg, Jimmy Fink and Murray Roman are added to the lineup

PRESS: Changes at WABC-FM

Billboard: August 8, 1970

Billboard's take on the changes at WABC-FM.

ABC FM Station Strategy

PRESS: Broadcasting - August 10, 1970

WABC-FM

An article about the evolving strategy for the ABC FM Network O&Os

AIRCHECK: Jingles [stereo]

circa Late 1970 (

sourced by Rob Frankel

We don't remember this jingle, but the vocalist is Elton John and it was recorded some time before the famous 11-17-70 show.

Jingles

Spotlight: WABC-FM

PRESS: FM Guide - November, 1970

WABC-FM

An article about the free-form days of WABC-FM.

“The term "subculture" implies a series of shared characteristics: anti-Vietnam war, at least a tolerance of pot smoking, a college background, an interest in "causes" ranging from the Black Panthers and the Young Lords to Women's Liberation and rent strikes, a contempt for most television fare, and, of course, an avid interest in rock music, films, and the personalities involved.”

circa January, 1971: Michael Cuscuna, J. J. Jackson, Vin Scelsa and Mike Turner join the lineup.

AD: Michael Cuscuna

circa 1971

WABC-FM

Michael was one of the early WABC-FM jocks who was hired when WABC-FM was apparently trying to appeal to the musical intellectuals in the audience. He later became an acclaimed jazz producer.

WPLJ 95.5

February 14, 1971: WABC-FM becomes WPLJ

AD: WABC-FM to WPLJ

circa March, 1971

This is an ad that was placed in the program for the Fillmore East. There's several interesting things of note here: WABC-FM is crossed out to let listeners know that the station has changed to WPLJ. The format of the station is never mentioned nor implied. Nowhere does it say "rock". In fact, the illustration would lead one to believe that this could be a classical music station. This could be interpreted as either a major marketing blunder or as having respect for the intended audience. Since this ad was contained within the program for the Fillmore East, it is unlikely that the station could be anything but a rock (or possibly a jazz) station. And there is still an emphasis on the jocks, who were still considered even more important than the music itself.

AIRCHECK: Michael Cuscuna interviews Dan Ingram [stereo]

circa 1971 (83:29)

Cuscuna was an esoteric DJ in the freeform days of WABC-FM in 1971 and 1972. Ingram had a Saturday night one-hour show on the station, "The Other Dan Ingram Show" from October 1967 to around March of 1968. This recording is labeled November 1969, but since Cuscuna wasn't on the station yet (according to our data), we think it really has to be from 1971 or 1972.

Cuscuna-Ingram

PROMO: A 1971 Psychedelic Promo for the station

1971

WPLJ

Stations really tried to be creative back then. While the results didn't always look professional, at least they didn't look like a rubber stamp from a third-rate advertising agency.

circa June, 1971: Zacherley joins the air staff two months before the format change.

PROMO: Zacherley

circa 1971

A promo for Zach contributed by Kimball Brandner. Not the greatest pic of Zach, but there wasn't much money in those days. I suspect this was given out at concerts that were hosted by Zach. Zach used to get a tremendous reaction when he hosted shows - he just seemed so incredibly cool - much cooler than your average DJ. And he didn't even wear his horror makeup at concerts in those days.

August 28, 1971: Free-form ends. Formatted "Rock In Stereo" playing only the biggest LP hits with a minimum of talk.

PRESS: Is WPLJ Reverting to WABC-FM?

Village Voice - October 14-21, 1971

WPLJ

In late 1971, WPLJ placed increased restrictions on air personalities and instituted a playlist. WBAI air personality Steve Post condemned this in a somewhat inaccurate article in the Village Voice. WPLJ air personality Dave Herman responded back a week later, but left WPLJ before the end of the year and joined WNEW-FM in morning drive a year later.

And Dave Herman's reply:

PRESS: Zacherley!

Metropolitan Review Magazine - Nov 2, 1971

WPLJ

John Zacherle hosted horror movie TV shows in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He developed a character named Roland in Philadelphia and when he moved to WABC-TV, New York in 1958 for Shock Theatre, started using his own name (eventually with a "Y" added at the end to make it easier to pronounce). While many cities had such hosts, most TV historians consider Zacherle to be the first. Zach was probably best known for breaking into the films and satirizing the contents - he was one of TVs first anarchists. In 1959, the show moved to WOR-TV and in 1963, renamed Chiller Theatre, moved to WPIX. In 1965, Zach started hosting Disco Teen on Channel 47 out of Newark, NJ.

Zach with TV host Chuck McCann, another anarchic genius.

In 1960, there was a "Zacherley for President" promotional campaign. Zach with Stan Z. Burns and Murray the K from WINS.

Zach was friends with Dick Clark and filled-in for Clark on tours from time-to-time.

Zach was an early progressive-rock DJ on WNEW-FM, starting in 1968, doing the morning show, of all things. In the Summer of 1969, he moved to a more appropriate shift, 10pm-2am between Rosko and Alison Steele. But in 1971, he moved to WPLJ where he stayed until 1980.

Zach at the premiere of "Dracula A.D. 1972" at the Trans-Lux West theater on Broadway and 49th Street

Zach, who still sounded great and still appeared at Thriller Theatre conventions into his 90's, where he was considered to be the main draw.

Male DJs typically wouldn't be mistaken for models and Zach was mostly seen publicly in horror makeup, but as you can see from the photos in the article, Zach was one good-looking guy. He could probably have had a career as a leading man.

Click above for larger images

Here's a pic of Zach from 2006:

Zach left us at the age of 98 on October 27, 2016, just a few days short of Halloween and the 49th Anniversary of WNEW-FM.

PHOTO: Zach with Brewer and Shipley

Billboard: January 29, 1972

A photo of the great John Zacherley with Brewer and Shipley.

AIRCHECK: Howard Smith interviews John Lennon & Yoko Ono

Sunday, January 23, 1972 (79:09)

A freewheeling interview with John & Yoko.

AIRCHECK: Tom Hogan [stereo]

circa February, 1972 (79:09)

contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud and originally recorded by Joe Fazio

WPLJ back in the "Rock in Stereo" days. The station was formatted, but still managed to play some deep tracks even though the strategy was to only play the biggest LP hits.

PRESS: Switch Hitting on ABC-FMs

Broadcasting - March 13, 1972

An article about the ever-changing evolving formats of the ABC network owned and operated FM stations.

AIRCHECK: WPLJ's Roots of Rock w/ Zacherley [scoped - stereo]

Sunday, April 16, 1972

Contributed by Mike

In 1972, WPLJ was a year or so into the "New York's Best Music" format, but they were willing to break format a bit to host a "Roots of Rock" weekend. Many of the songs played are what we would now call "oldies", although some weren't all that old in 1972. But it was still impressive that WPLJ would deviate from format to play these tracks.

There were some bad choices: I don't see how "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" or even Johnny Horton's "Battle of New Orleans" were roots of rock, although they were hits in their day. Seems to me those songs could have been replaced with some real roots music: blues from Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and others or some very early R&B. Hard to tell if Zach was picking the tracks, but there are a fair number of tracks out of Philadelphia, like Chubby Checker and Dee Dee Sharp and Zach spent a lot of time there. We even get to hear Zach's own "Dinner with Drac". We also hear some Beatles, the Who and the Drifters among others.

The show starts with an unnamed announcer. About 20 minutes into the aircheck, Zach takes over for the rest of the show. This aircheck constitutes about 3 hours and 15 minutes of airtime.

Part 1 (60:07)

Part 2 (62:06)

PRESS: Rolling Stone on WPLJ by Ben Fong-Torres

Rolling Stone - July 6, 1972

A highly critical article about the changes at WPLJ by Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres. The article is a bit confusing because the switch to a highly regimented format happened in late August, 1971, but the article doesn't seem to have published until July of 1972,

The author seems to have liked the automated Brother John format, yet the station was most progressive when it had DJ's. The article is also critical of firing DJ's for cursing on the air and missing legal ID's, but a station has no choice when DJ's violated the FCC regulations of the time. The article also unfairly criticizes VP Allan Shaw. If the thrust of the article is that Shaw shouldn't have kept his job because WABC-FM/WPLJ had lost millions of dollars, the answer wasn't to make the station more freeform and progressive, but less and that's exactly what happened. The article also spelled Vin Scelsa's name incorrectly. Fong-Torres was based in San Francisco and probably never even listened to the station. But a very interesting article nonetheless.

circa January, 1974: Pat St. John joins the air staff.

AD: DJ List

March, 1974

An ad with the current lineup. Note that the focus of such an ad was the air personalities themselves, rather than the format, the station or the music. This effectively emphasized the differentiation of the station, since other stations played at least some of the same music.

circa July 1, 1974: Jim Kerr joins the air staff.

AIRCHECK: Jim Kerr and Tom Morgan [scoped - stereo]

Friday, August 29, 1975

Contributed by Rich Barbato

This is a short segment of Jim Kerr followed by Tom Morgan playing "New York's Best Music" on WPLJ. We also hear newscaster Bill Owen from the ABC FM Network News.

Unfortunately, the air personalities don't get to do much more than back announce the records. There are a few things of interest: A record sale for "Born to Run" is announced at $3.99 per LP, which sounds inexpensive, but is actually $17.70 in 2015 dollars, not such a great deal. It was only 68 degrees and it's probably going to be at least 85 degrees on this day in 2015. And we hear a Toyota spot with the unfortunate tagline, "it will never let you go." And we also get to hear Dan Ingram voicing several spots. The segment also opens with a promo for Bruce Springsteen which sounds to me like it's voiced by Dave Herman.

Kerr(30:50)

AIRCHECK: Zacherley [scoped - stereo]

Thursday, September 18, 1975

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Here's a bit of John Zacherley doing his thing on WPLJ. Unfortunately and like the air check above from the same time period, he doesn't get to do too much more than back announce the records.

We do get to hear a spot from the Connecticut School of Broadcasting. And we also get to hear about an upcoming Summer-end concert in Mount Vernon featuring KISS, Orleans, John Sebastian, Don McLean, Chris Hillman and Brian Auger & the Oblivion Express for just $6.50 a ticket ($37 in 2024 dollars).

Zach(21:45)

circa September 29, 1975: Carol Miller joins the air staff.

PROMOTION: Zacherley Poster

circa October 1975

When Carol Miller joined the station around September 29, 1975, Zach moved to the 10am-2pm shift, so the station decided to promote that fact with this ad. It's a nicely accomplished illustration, but the face really didn't look all that much like the real Zach.

SURVEY: Top LPs of 1979

The WPLJ Top 95 albums of 1979. WPLJ was playlisted by this time, but still had a great DJ staff of Jimmy Fink, Zacherley, Pat St. John, Tony Pigg, Carol Miller, Dave Charity and Bob Marrone

March 19, 1985: Capital Cities announces its intent to purchase ABC for $3.5 billion

PRESS: Jim Kerr

Billboard: October 3, 1981

Jim Kerr signs a five-year contract with WPLJ

June 30 1983: WPLJ switches from AOR to CHR, targeting women 25-44

WPLJ Survey

June 12, 1984

Contributed by Myles Putman

SURVEY: December 25, 1984

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Like a virgin, I want to know what love is.
And now it's a "Superhit" survey. Does screaming "superhit" get more people to listen?

March 19, 1985: Capital Cities announces its intent to purchase ABC for $3.5 billion

AIRCHECK: Jim Kerr [stereo/restored]

Friday, November 29, 1985

WPLJ - contributed by Rob Frankel

Thanks to Rob Frankel's postings on Mixcloud, this is a restored aircheck of Jim Kerr on WPLJ during the CHR days. This was during the reign of PD Larry Berger who moved the station away from AOR to a current hits format at the end of June of 1983. During this era, WPLJ promoted itself first as Hitradio 95 and later as Power95. In 1987, the station would change its call letters to WWPR. Kerr would stay with the station until June of 1989.

YEAR-END SURVEY: 1985

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Aside from the fact that WHAM! was #1, this was part of a nice booklet that included a directory of upcoming events and seating charts for stadiums and concert halls, a worthy piece of promotion for the station that put them in the center of the music and event culture as all music radio staions should be

January 3, 1986: Capital Cities Takes Over ABC Radio

WPLJ Survey

April 29, 1986

And now it's a "Powerhit" survey instead of a "Superhit" survey. Does screaming "powerhit" get more people to listen?

SURVEY: May 13, 1986

Contributed by Rich Barbato

I'm addicted to love on a manic Monday.

SURVEY: Decembrer 30, 1986

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Walk like an Egyptian and stop to love true blue.

SURVEY: February 18, 1987

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Respect yourself: keep your hands to your self

SURVEY: May 12, 1987

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Smokey Robinson back on the charts!

August 28, 1987: Pat St. John leaves

December 17, 1987: WPLJ becomes WWPR Power Radio

SURVEY & SCHEDULE: January 11, 1988

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Madonna, Michael Bolton, George Michael, the Bangles, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson...who was this for?

SURVEY: WWPR April 12, 1988

December 21, 1988: WWPR Power Radio returns back to WPLJ

SURVEY: January 24, 1989

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Phil Collins, Tiffany, Anita Baker, Paula Abdul, Bon Jovi, Bobby Brown and Samantha Fox all on the same radio station. And that must be right beause this was "New York's OFFICIAL Music Survey".

SURVEY: April 11, 1989

Contributed by Rich Barbato

New Kids on the Block, Milli Vanilli, Debbie Gibson, Donny Osmond. Please kill me now.

June 1989: Jim Kerr leaves

April 11, 1991: Scott Shannon joins

February 1, 1992: Format adjusted to "Hot Adult Contemporary"

1995: Disney acquires Capital Cities and with it, ABC Radio including WPLJ

AIRCHECK: "The 24 Hours of Christmas" [stereo] (242:01)

contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud and originally recorded by Charlie Menut

Thursday, Dec 24, 1992

A four-hour segment of the 24-hour broadcast of Christmas pop music from 1992, commercial-free. Wouldn't happen today except on stations that play Christmas music throughout the month because stations today refuse to break format, even on Christmas.

WPLJ's Top 500 Songs of the 1980's

May 24, 1996

Contributed by Rich Barbato

WPLJ's Top 500 songs of the 1980's as determined in 1996. I don't think of the 80's as a particularly strong time for music, but there's a lot of good music here, although it's a bit hard to believe that the #1 song of the decade is "Jump" by Van Halen. Same for most of the rest of the top 10.

September 19, 1996: Disney creates subsidiary to manage ABC Inc., including ABC Radio and WPLJ

February 5, 1999: Format adjusted to "Modern Adult Contemporary"

June 12, 2007: Disney sale to Citadel finalized.

June 28, 2009: Returns to playing music from the 80's on.

September 16, 2011: Citadel merges with Cumulus

February 7, 2014: Scott Shannon retires

February 13, 2019: Cumulus sells station to the Educational Media Foundation

May 31, 2019: EMF starts the K-Love Christian music format.

WABC-FM Photo Section 1968-1970

WABC-FM Photos

circa 1968-1970

Contributed by Allen B. Shaw

Here are some great archival photos of WABC-FM.

The WABC-FM Programming Team" including Richard Silverberg, Howard Smith, Peter Bohme, George Yahraes, Jim Smith, Brother John Rydgren, Pat Rasbach and T.J. Johnson, among others.

Know who the rest are? Let us know.

The WABC-FM Love Format Team: Brother John Rydgren, Bob Lewis and Howard Smith.

Air personality Jimmy Rabbitt

Air personality Tony Pigg. Note the Sennheiser HD414 headphones. Those were a revelation in those days. Most AM jocks were stuck with communications headphones with very limited frequency response.

Ike & Tina Turner with ABC-FM executive Allen B. Shaw. That looks like the "Live at Carnegie Hall" LP, which was released in 1971, so this might be during the WPLJ era.

WPLJ Photo Section 1971-1979

WPLJ Photos

circa 1971-1979

Contributed by Allen B. Shaw

Here are some great archival photos of WPLJ.

Elton John with air personality Jimmy Fink

The great John Zacherley.

A 1972 Beatles promotion. In case you don't know what they are, all those white things on the table are letters and postcards. This is back when the great radio stations engendered amazing loyalty from their audience and that loyalty was more important to advertisers than high numbers.

A promotion featuring Pat St. John circa 1973

A promotion for the station in the form of a Rolling Stones buttonfrom June of 1975

A promotion for the station in the form of a button featuring The Who, from March of 1976.

A promotion for the station in the form of a Led Zeppelin button from June of 1977.

A promotion for the station in the form of a Fleetwood Mac button from June of 1977.

Pat St. John circa 1977

Tony Pigg circa 1979

Storm Field, Jimmy Fink and Shelly Sonstein circa 1979

A promotion for the station featuring Queen, from September of 1980.

At a WPLJ reunion at the Museum of TV & Radio in 2001: Jim Kerr, Pat St. John and Allen Shaw.

At a WPLJ reunion at the Museum of TV & Radio in 2001:
(Back row L-R): Ken Meuller (MTVR Host), Dave Herman, Scott Shannon, John Zacherley, Jim Kerr
(Front row L-R): Allen B. Shaw, Pat St. John, Carol Miller.

WABC-FM/WPLJ Schedules

WABC-FM/WPLJ Schedules

1967-2019

These air schedules are sourced from newspapers, FM Guide (which was usually a few months behind changes), Radio Guide, Richard Neer's book on FM radio, personal recollections of myself and DJs and various postings on the web, especially those of Vince Santarelli. Corrections welcomed. In some cases, the same dates are posted twice due to conflicting information from different sources.

April '67-September '75

May '78-April '88

June '77-2019