The NY Radio Archive

WOR-FM: The Free-Form Year


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WOR-FM: The Free-Form Year


Logo

PRESS: Stereo Music coming to WOR-FM

New York Times: Saturday, April 23, 1966

WOR-FM announces they'll be emphasizing stereo music on FM later in the year. Just about 10 weeks from launch, they either didn't know or didn't want to announce what type of music that was going to be.

Stereo Music coming to WOR-FM

PRESS: WOR-FM Rock Announced

New York Times: Friday, June 17, 1966

“...but if there can be a quality rock station, that is what we will be.”

WOR-FM announces a rock format for the station.

WOR-FM Announcement

PRESS: WOR-FM Ready to Rock

New York Times: Saturday, July 9, 1966

WOR-FM announces the jocks, but they'd have to wait a bit longer. And note that Rosko (Bill Mercer) wasn't part of the announcement as yet.

WOR-FM announces jocks

AD: WOR-FM Starts Tomorrow

Friday, July 29, 1966

New York Times

An ad with the Milton Glaser design promotes the start of WOR-FM the next day.

WOR-FM Ad

PRESS: Rock WOR-FM Announces Start Date

Saturday, July 30, 1966

New York Times

WOR-FM announces that they're going to start broadcasting rock music, but without DJ's because of a union dispute.

WOR-FM starts

FORMATICS: WOR-FM's Jingles

July, 1966

Contributed by Charles Blanding via Peter Kanze

Thanks to the great radio historian Charles Blanding, here is the original CRC jingle package for WOR-FM. Most of these were never used on-air as Scott Muni chose just a few for use and as such are incredibly rare. Note the incredible separation on these to emphasize that WOR-FM broadcast in stereo (for those who could listen in stereo, of course). According to Charles, these were digitized to CD-R from the original CRC master tape and then obviously copied to digital files. Charles tightened them up because there were long leaders between each one.

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WOR-FM Jingles (8:33)

AIRCHECKS: WOR-FM's First Weeks [scoped]

Between July 30th and early October, 1966

Here's a (scoped) sampling of the music WOR-FM played from its starting week through early October when the jocks started.

It's recorded off-air, but in mono. It's not necessarily a true representation of what was played because if I already had a track or didn't like a track, I skipped over it, but it still provides some insight into what the pre-jock station sounded like. All spots, jingles, ID's and other formatics were not recorded.

mp3Pt1(19:40) mp3Pt2(40:22)

AIRCHECKS: WOR-FM's Second Day [scoped-stereo]

Sunday, July 31, 1966 [96:29]

Contributed by Charles Blanding. Originally recorded by Paul Josewitch.

Here's the real deal. This is an extremely rare recording of WOR-FM's second day, in stereo, probably from the afternoon (part 2 definitely begins about 3:40pm). There are no DJ's except in promos because of the dispute with AFTRA. Although better than the first day, production is still pretty rough - you'll hear several cases where the spots come in way too early over the ending of songs, there's one case where the same song is played just a song or two apart (and it's a really awful song) and there's a fair amount of dead air.

My recollection was that the only sponsor in the opening days was Hohner Harmonica, but there are other spots from Pepsi, Revlon, a swimming pool company, Rockaway's Playland and other sponsors. The promos are also interesting because the DJs talk about when they're going to be on, but when they finally did start in the Fall, the schedule was a bit different. Some of the jingles used in these early days would soon disappear. The music is all over the place. There are some tracks that weren't hits, but they're mostly terrible songs. There's no news and no announcer in Part 1.

Part 2 already sounds a bit different than Part 1 although there's a few repeated tracks. It starts off at about 3:40pm with news headlines, "20-20 News", followed by an announcement about the labor dispute. Following that, the announcer describes a contest giving away 10 pairs of tickets to the Beatles concert at Shea Stadium to be held on August 23, 1966, but the deadline for the contest was midnight that night, only the second day on the air. The audience couldn't have been very large and one would have to find a post office that was open on Sunday (unless they got it to the post office on Saturday, the first day on the air) but if one could, the chances of winning would have been incredibly high. I wasn't able to listen much those first two days as I was working. What a missed opportunity! I wonder how many postcards they received. There's another newscast later in the segment. At the very end, on the fadeout, we hear the beginning of a Dylan track. That was a sign of what would come a few months later once the DJ's joined and a new concept began to emerge.

mp3Pt1(47:28) mp3Pt2(49:01)

PRESS: WOR-FM Announces Market Look

New York Times: Wednesday, August 3, 1966

WOR-FM

WOR-FM announces a new logo designed by noted designer Milton Glaser. In actuality, the logo was designed well before this announcement as I remember seeing the poster on subways long before the July 30th, 1966 premiere date.

Logo

AD: Broadcasting Magazine Cover

August 7, 1966

WOR-FM trying to promote itself to the industry with dynamic and colorful imaging.


When I first saw this ad on a subway poster, I found it hard to tell from this imaging whether this meant that WOR-FM was going to become a rock station or whether it meant that they would play elevator music versions of rock songs, perhaps because I wasn't able to imagine rock on a commercial FM station (although there was already some rock on Steve Post's and Bob Fass' WBAI shows and Pete Fornatale's show on WFUV as well as other smatterings here and there.)

But I was very excited by the prospect of full-time rock on FM as I had purchased an FM receiver (with no AM section because I couldn't afford it) the previous January and rock was pretty hard to come by most of the time. Rock sounded so good on FM, especially when they found tracks in stereo to play.

WOR-FM Glaser

PRESS: FM Guide: WKCR College Student Radio Survey

circa August, 1966

“...93% of the student body--listen to WOR-FM every day.”

An interesting survey, which if accurate, gave credence to feelings that the traditional ratings services were not very good at counting college students. The only problem is that they also claimed that 93% of the students listened to FM every day which meant that every student who listened to FM had to listen to WOR-FM--not one Columbia student could have been a classical music listener (for example) who never listened to WOR-FM. That's a bit hard to believe.

WOR-FM Survey

PRESS: Rock WOR-FM Announces DJ Start Date

Friday, October 7, 1966

New York Times

“We don't want to be just a jukebox....But we will not be a screaming station. We will not emulate our friends at WABC and WMCA...”

WOR-FM announces that the DJs are going to start on October 8th with a union minimum of $175 per week ($1230 in 2015 dollars), not very much for experienced air personalities like Scott Muni and Murray the K. In practice, I believe the actual minimum was $400 per week ($2898 per week in 2015 dollars). It's hard to believe that the DJs were delayed over two months over $175 per week.

Johnny Michaels, Scott Muni, Murray the K and Rosko will be joining the station. I originally heard this news from a mention in either the Daily News or New York Post back in August and I remember being extremely disappointed because I loved the jockless WOR-FM. Little did I know what would be coming.

Jocks

AIRCHECKS: WOR-FM's First Day with DJs [scoped]

Saturday, October 8, 1966

“In Stereo, WOR-FM Rocks!”

Contributed by Rob Frankel and originally recorded by Gary E. Liebisch

As you'll hear from these airchecks, WOR-FM's first day as a rock station with jocks wasn't particularly auspicious. They sounded like a low-key, very loose top-40 station. None of the jocks, with the possible exception of Rosko, had captured their rhythm as yet. And while there were a few hints of what was to come (someone actually does use the term "progressive rock"), it doesn't sound very impressive, especially in retrospect.

Recordings of WOR-FM's first day are extremely rare because few people were listening to FM in those days and the advent of going live with jocks was only announced the day before. Producer extraordinairre Rob Frankel dug into his archive and found these recordings, which he fully restored with music, but as usual, we had to re-scope it to avoid the copyright police.

We have short segments from each of the shows that day, starting with Scott Muni (9-noon), Johnny Michaels (noon-3pm), Scott Muni again (3-6pm, just a bit heard at the beginning of the next aircheck), Murray the K (6-midnight), and Rosko, broadcasting live from the Cheetah nightclub on Broadway and 53rd.

Since originally posting this, we've found a bit more of the Rosko aircheck, so we've combined it with Rob Frankel's version.

mp3Scott Muni mp3Johnny Michaels mp3Murray the K mp3Rosko

AIRCHECKS: WOR-FM: Murray the K [scoped]

Saturday, October 8, 1966

“Hi, everybody, this is Murray the K, remember me?”

Contributed by El Misterioso

This is a more complete aircheck of Murray the K's first show. While not completely continuous and a bit choppy, it does give a better idea of what his first show was like, which wasn't all that different from his WINS shows. He would soon give up playing that incessant background theme and he would back off most of the "Murrayspeak" and other silliness as he got more into the new music scene.

mp3Pt1 mp3Pt2

AIRCHECKS: WOR-FM: Murray the K [scoped]

Saturday, October 8, 1966

“Hi, everybody, this is Murray the K, remember me?”

Contributed by Rob Frankel's posts as RadioMaven77 on Mixcloud as originally recorded by Mike Ferriola and restored by Rob.

This is an even more complete aircheck of Murray the K's first show. Mike recorded the show and scoped it on the fly. Rob restored the music and addedd back as many of the spots as he could find.


PRESS: "69 With A Bullet: Pt II" by Richard Goldstein

Village Voice: December 1, 1966

“WOR-FM is rock without the AM schlock”

Richard Goldstein uses "Society's Child" as an example as to why WOR-FM matters, compares the station to top-40 stations and describes how Murray the K has reinvented himself.

This article helped to promote WOR-FM to the hipper community in New York. In fact, when WOR-FM first started playing rock, it seemed like its only advertisers were Hohner Harmonica, the Cheetah dance club and the incredible number of haircutting salons on East 8th street in the East Village. (Who says hippies didn't get haircuts?)

Society's Child
PDF link

PRESS: AM & FM Radio Splits

New York Times: Saturday, Dec. 31, 1966

This article describes the impact of the FCC ruling splitting AM and FM programming on radio stations in New York City.

AM/FM Split

PRESS: Portrait of a Station

FM Guide: February, 1967

“WOR-FM will definitely not be a screaming station...”

An interesting article about the early evolution of WOR-FM from the pages of FM Guide. Admittedly, FM Guide's writing style seemed both a bit naive and over-supportive of the station. If the article was written today under the same circumstances, it would probably be much more probing and written with a more critical and cynical eye.

What's frequently missed today is that even though there was some rock music already on FM in 1966 via Pete Fornatale's Saturday morning show on WFUV, the Princeton University radio station, WBAI's Steve Post and Bob Fass after midnight and the "Karen and Dave" show, the advent of a full-time, commercial rock station on FM was a shock to the system.

While FM Guide itself welcomed rock to FM (probably because they expected increased circulation and advertising revenues), many of their readers, who were primarily classical, jazz, show music and elevator music aficionados, thought that the advent of rock on FM would lead to the end of Western civilization.

While this article sounds like it was written for the station's premiere (and perhaps it was), it didn't appear until five months after the jocks started.

And note the photo of a 36-year-old Scott Muni, who already seemed like a radio veteran at the time and kind of "old" to this 16-year-old listener.

WOR-FM Profile WOR-FM Profile
WOR-FM Profile WOR-FM Profile

AIRCHECK: Rosko [partially scoped-stereo]

circa February, 1967 (19:28)

We're not exactly sure when this short aircheck of Rosko is from, but it has to be from February 1967 or later based upon the tracks played.


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Murray the K

AIRCHECK: Rosko [restored-stereo] (78:26)

Wednesday, February 15, 1967

Contributed by Charlie Menut as posted by Rob Frankel on Mixcloud

Here's a great aircheck of Rosko just four months after WOR-FM started with DJ's. What's great about this is that we hear a lot of music, including a fair amount of R&B, that didn't make the top-40 charts, but most weren't quite yet progressive album tracks either. Just a bunch of quality upbeat music that wasn't just all the obvious stuff and wasn't overplayed. He even played Nancy Wilson and Ramsey Lewis, but we also hear the Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel and the Blues Project.

At this point, they were pushing the station as "the great 98". Listen to Rosko do a spot for a "Hip Bagel" bagel store in the Village making it sound like it was the most special store in the city.


AIRCHECK: Murray the K & Rosko [stereo-restored] (29:24)

Sunday, March 5, 1967

Recorded by Charlie Menut, restored and posted by Rob Frankel (RadioMaven77) on Mixcloud

A restored aircheck of progressive WOR-FM five months into the format with a restrained Murray the K doing a Sunday evening show. The show was probably pre-taped and when they were, there was less experimentation, so there's a lot of top-40 pop in this edition.

Rosko goes through the survey, beginning with "Penny Lane", "I've Been Lonely Too Long" and "Ruby Tuesday" all songs that could have also been heard on AM in that era,



AIRCHECK: Rosko [stereo]

March,1967 (34:04)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 posts on Mixcloud

A bit of Rosko counting down some of the survey. Yes, even WOR-FM had a survey although the DJ's pretty much ignored it when they weren't counting it down and most of the tracks were not actually the big hits. Interestingly, he does a spot for Blue Note Records, which issued jazz records. In those days, there was a lot of intersection between people who listened to free-form progressive rock on FM and those who listened to Jazz.

Note how the lack of heavy processing and compression makes the music sound really clean. I believe that time spent listening was far higher in those days because the processing didn't induce tedium as it does today.



PRESS: Oldies on WOR-FM

Billboard: March 11, 1967

This article claims that WOR-FM, in its free-form days was going to spend the weekend playing oldies and Grammy Award nominated songs. I really have to wonder if this was a mistake and they got the call lettters wrong. In those days, the Grammys were very conservative and mainly awarded middle-of-the-road pop music. As a constant listener, I certainly don't remember this happening.

WOR-FM Oldies

PRESS: 'The K' Leans; Audience Feels

Billboard: March 11, 1967

“...we have a reputation at WOR-FM of playing records other stations don't play . . . it's a whole different feeling.”

An article about how WOR-FM, which had only been on the air for eight months (five months with DJs) had already had influence on creating some hit records.

But the article was riddled with errors: "Society's Child" was by Janis Ian, not Nancy Sinatra and Bill Mercer's air name was Rosko, not "Roscoe".

Murray the K

RAW INTERVIEW: Murray the K with Beatles manager Brian Epstein

circa March, 1967 (63:48)

Contributed by Matooli with thanks to Rob Frankel

In March of 1967, Murray the K interviewed Brian Epstein for his WOR-FM nightly show. This is the raw, complete, unedited source interview. It was likely later heavily edited for broadcast.

The interview was extensive and covered such topics as the upcoming Beatles LP (which would turn out to be Sgt. Pepper), Jimi Hendrix (who had just released "Hey Joe" in the U.S.), whether the Beatles would tour again, John Lennon's "the Beatles are bigger than Jesus" remark, whether "Strawberry Fields" or "Penny Lane" was the more interesting side of the single, how the Beatles made Murray the K aware of Bob Dylan in 1964; the Monkees, Cream, The Who, The Four Tops and Janis Ian; the Beatles recording of "Tomorrow Never Knows" and many other topics.

While Murray seems to have good ideas for what to discuss, he's a bit rough actually asking the questions and Epstein had apparently consumed some pills before the interview, although he becomes far more focused as the interview continues. It's still a quite interesting and comprehensive examination of both the Beatles and music in general in the seminal year of 1967, just after "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane" were released, after Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Cream made their first recorded musical statements and just before the release of the groundbreaking "Sgt. Pepper". Epstein alludes to the fact that the next album was special, but it was impossible at that time for either Kaufman or the listener to understand just how different it would be.

Epstein would die of what was described as an "accidental" drug overdose five months later.

Here's a link to a web blog about this recording: Hey Dullblog
Thanks to Rob Frankel for referring us to this recording.


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Murray the K

AD: WOR-FM's Murray the K at the RKO 58th St. Theatre

Village Voice: March 23, 1967

Murray the K

Murray the K tried to reinvent his live rock shows by moving them to the RKO 58th Street Theatre with a combination of traditional acts as well as the new progressive rock acts. This was an impressive lineup that included Simon & Garfunkel, the Blues Project, the Young Rascals, Cream, The Who, Mitch Ryder and Wilson Pickett among others.

I believe this was the show in which Mike Bloomfield convinced Buddy Miles to leave Wilson Pickett and join the Electric Flag.

In spite of the presence of the R&B groups, the audience was completely different than those who attended the Brooklyn Fox shows. The RKO 58th St theatre was a far more intimate venue, with probably around 1000 seats as compared to the 4000 seats at the cathedral-like Brooklyn Fox.

Murray the K

AIRCHECK: Jim Lounsbury, Johnny Michaels, Scott Muni [stereo] (50:33)

Sunday, March 26, 1967

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 posts on Mixcloud

Jim Lounsbury sits in for Johnny Michaels and Johnny Michaels is going to sit in for Murray the K but also shows up on Jim's show. Lounsbury sounds so serious, he sounds like a newscaster. But back in the day we liked it becauses that seriousness seemed so "mature" compared to Top-40 AM radio. And then we hear Muni playing oldies on his Sunday show.


AIRCHECK: Scott Muni (Restored & Scoped)

circa April, 1967

Contributed by Rob Frankel

A short restored aircheck of Scott Muni.


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Scott Muni

AIRCHECK: Murray the K (Restored & Scoped)

circa March-April, 1967

Contributed by Rob Frankel

A show put together from various segments recorded in Spring '67. Rob Frankel used his usual magic to restore the aircheck, but as usual, we had to scope it. But you don't need an aircheck to listen to the songs anyway.

Since these are segments (the opening says it's Friday, but then Murray says it's Easter Sunday), it's not quite typical of Murray's usual shows on WOR-FM, but it's still great to hear and we thank Rob for both preserving it and putting it together. It's worth listening to just for the audio collage that was the intro to Murray's show. While Murray's shows on WOR-FM were far different than his shows on WINS (although this particular one doesn't sound all that different), he still stuck by his "Swinging Soiree" branding for his show.


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Murray the K

AIRCHECK: Scott Muni [stereo] (25:47)

Saturday, April 8, 1967

Sourced from Charles Blanding and contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

Scottso in Scotland Yard on a Saturday counting down the survey. When WOR-FM did this, it sounded more like a Top-40 station for adults because the more commercial tracks showed up on the survey. So we hear the Monkees, Harper's Bizarre, Frank & Nancy Sinatra, etc. At other times, WOR-FM was quite different playing the likes of Tom Rush, the Mothers of Invention, the Butterfield Blues Band, the Blues Project and lots of album tracks. But even when playing Top-40, the clarity and stereo sound made WOR-FM different. Scott mentions his engineer, Arnie Altro, whose wife had a baby that very day, but Arnie was in the studio.

Many times weekend shows were pre-recorded, but this show was obviously live.


AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale on WFUV Interviewing Rosko (scoped mono)

Saturday, April 29, 1967 [13:43]

Here's a segment from Pete Fornatale's college radio show, "Campus Caravan", where he interviewed WOR-FM's Rosko. Rosko talks about his day at WFUV on his own show in the following airchecks below. Pete would join Rosko at WNEW-FM 2 1/2 years later, but in this aircheck, you can hear that Pete was still refining his style.


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Rosko w/Pete

AIRCHECK: A Complete Rosko show! (Scoped)

Saturday, April 29, 1967

A very low key show with Rosko spending LOTS of time talking to the audience one-to-one.


mp3Pt1 mp3Pt2 mp3Pt3 mp3Pt4

AIRCHECK: Barry Farber

Sunday, April 30, 1967

Barry Farber was simulcast from the AM side. As soon as Rosko's show ended, Farber's show was picked up in progress. There was apparently no attempt to coordinate timings to have Barry start a conversation at the top of the hour. This is just a little piece left on the end of the Rosko aircheck. The interesting thing about this is that we tend to think that radical conservative talk formats are a relatively recent phenomenon. But if you listen to this piece of Farber, he makes Rush sound like a bleeding-heart liberal. Even on a conservative talk station, I don't think he could get away with this today.

mp3
Link to aircheck

SURVEY: WOR-FM

May 23, 1967

Like most pop music stations, WOR-FM issued a survey for distribution in record stores. While many look at this survey as evidence that WOR-FM was nothing more than a "quieter" top-40 station that played some album tracks, the fact is that for the most part, the jocks didn't follow the survey closely anyway. But they would mention the chart position if they happened to play a track that was on it.

Note the promotion for their birthday party concert featuring Janis Ian, the Blues Project and the Doors on one bill. Wow! And note the ticket prices: $2.50, $3.50 and $4.50.

The Village Theatre eventually became Bill Graham's Fillmore East. There's a review of this concert below.

WOR-FM Survey WOR-FM Survey

AIRCHECK: Murray the K with guest Jac Holzman [scoped - mono]

Wednesday, May 24, 1967

Contributed by Mike Devich (134 min)

This is an almost complete Murray the K show from May of '67, less than three months before Murray left the station, due to the arrival of the Bill Drake consultants. This is a very low-key show with the music arranged in blocks. For a station that became very progressive and album-oriented, this particular edition of the show is surprisingly very top-40 oriented. We hear a singles block, an album block, an R&B block, etc.

I remember WOR-FM playing only the long LP version of "Light My Fire", but on this edition of the show, the single version is payed twice. We also hear a lot of music that never became hits, not even turntable hits.

Murray's guest on the show is Jac Holzman, the founder of Elektra Records. However, instead of talking about The Doors, the Butterfield Blues Band, Carly Simon, The Stooges, MC5, Harry Chapin or the many folk acts on the label, Holzman spends his time talking about a series of albums about the signs of the Zodiac. This was and apparently is a big interest of his because in 2018, Holzman launched a new venture named "Cosmic Ringtones & Sonic Realms...Your Universe is Calling".

mp3Pt1 61:26 mp3Pt2 73:01

AIRCHECK: Scott Muni [restored - scoped - stereo]

Friday, May 26, 1967 [30:24]

Contributed by Rob Frankel

This restored aircheck opens with Johnny Michaels before Scott starts his show. WOR-FM was known for being the first station to push progressive music, to have a large playlist and a wide variety of music, but you wouldn't know it from this aircheck. Aside from the full-length LP version of The Doors' "Light My Fire" (sorry, but we had to scope it as usual), the songs played here could have eventually played on Lite-FM. We hear the Mamas & the Papas, the Four Seasons, Petula Clark, Spanky & Our Gang, the Coasters, some Motown and a few other light tracks.

We also get a newscast and Murray the K promoting the station's one-year anniversary concert featuring Janis Ian, The Doors and the Blues Project. I guess the heavy tracks would have to be played by Murray and Rosko later that night.


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Muni

PROMOTION: WOR-FM's Birthday Party Concert

Sunday, June 11, 1967

A concert celebrating WOR-FM's one year anniversary (about six weeks early) featuring an amazing lineup of progressive artists at the Village Theater, which would become the Fillmore East nine monnths later. Also appearing were The Chambers Brothers and Jeremy and the Satyrs.

WOR-FM Anniversary Concert

SURVEY: WOR-FM

June 17, 1967

While the WOR-FM jocks played many tracks that weren't on the survey, an analysis of the survey is still enlightening. WOR-FM had a very diverse playlist including everyone from Buffy St. Marie, Janis Ian and Country Joe and the Fish on one end of the musical spectrum to Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix on the other combined with a healthy dose of R&B acts like Otis Redding, Percy Sledge, Arthur Conley, Joe Tex, Ray Charles, etc. Even when they played top-40 acts, they didn't necessarily choose the big hit for the playlist. Whether this represented creativity or incompetence is anyone's guess.

WOR-FM Survey WOR-FM Survey

PRESS: The Village Voice's Richard Goldstein reviews the WOR-FM Anniversary Party Concert

Village Voice: June 22, 1967

“And WOR...a crucial liason between the New York underground and a hip suburban audience...”

Goldstein talks about the groups that appeared, including The Doors, the Blues Project & Jeremy Steig and the Satyrs as well as making other interesting observations on happenings in rock and the status of radio playing Janis Ian's "Society's Child".

WOR-FM Concert

AIRCHECK: Murray the K [restored-stereo] (63:51)

Friday, July 7, 1967

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

Murray the K, who begins the show talking about an upcoming interview with Jimi Hendrix (which we unfortunately don't get to hear in this aircheck) and another one with William F. Buckley, which demonstrates just how diverse and how much freedom existed on the radio in those days. And we hear a diverse array of music: progressive, Top-40, R&B, Motown and Oldies. But this was just about a month before Murray quit, either because of disputes with management or because of the impact of the arrival of the Bill Drake consultants.


PRESS: WOR-FM's Murray the K to leave station

Village Voice: July 27, 1967

“...Murray cites frequent hassles over controversial material, and management counters with charges of erratic behavior.”

Goldstein announces that Murray the K will leave WOR-FM in early August. When Kaufman left WOR-FM, it seemed devastating. I kept wanting to believe that the station wasn't going to change, but when Jim O'Brien was hired to replace Murray and it was obvious from day one that this was a return to top-40 style radio, I was extremely disappointed and couldn't listen to the show. I wouldn't turn on the radio until Rosko's shift, but he'd be gone in two more months as well.

Murray the K

PRESS: WOR-FM Trade Description

Broadcasting: July 31, 1967

A description from Broadcasting Magazine of WOR-FM, but the format would soon change substantially. As per the post above, Murray the K had already announced he would be leaving the station and his show generated most of the advertising revenue.

WOR-FM Description

AIRCHECK: Rosko [scoped-stereo]

First week of August, 1967 [58:05]

Contributed by Charles Blanding.

A terrific, high audio quality aircheck of Rosko during the first week of August, 1967 and playing a lot of R&B and soul music mixed with a little folk and pop. This is two months before Rosko would resign on the air. Also note how much Rosko talks up the spots. They each sound like they go on for several minutes. There's also an ad for a concert at the Village Theater with Janis Ian and The Association. The Village Theater would become the Fillmore East in early 1968.

mp3Pt1(32:30) mp3Pt2(25:35)

AD: WOR-FM Ratings

FM Guide: circa Fall, 1967

An ad claiming that free-form WOR-FM was the number one FM station in the United States. The ad also quotes an article from the Saturday Evening Post.

The quote from the Post was quite effective as it equated listening to rock music on FM with listening to classical music. Up until that time and in spite of the fact that groups like the Beatles were getting increasingly sophisticated, not too many people would have considered listening to rock radio an intellectual activity. In spite of the fact that even top-40 WABC had an audience across the demographic spectrum, rock radio was largely considered the province of 14-year-old girls.

WOR-FM Ad

AIRCHECK: Rosko Resigns from WOR-FM

Monday, October 2, 1967

“I cannot go along with the new policy here.”

The dream of any DJ is to resign on the air and on October 2, 1967, about four weeks less than one year from the day he began, Rosko (Bill Mercer) resigned on the air at WOR-FM. He cited interference from the Bill Drake consultants as the reason for his resignation.

In retrospect, it seems pretty obvious that Rosko would have soon been gone even if he didn't resign. Drake had a very particular sound in mind for his DJs and he probably wouldn't have wanted Rosko even if he were willing to work the format.


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Rosko Resigns

PRESS: “WOR-FM & the Future” by Richard Robinson

Village Voice: October 5, 1967

“...New York's only quality pop outlet is changing for the worse.”

Today, when a radio station changes format (not that anyone cares all that much), there are websites such as Allan Sniffen's site to ruminate about the reasons, politics, personalities, rumors, etc. That (obviously) wasn't true in 1967. So when Bill Drake was given responsiblity for the programming at WOR-FM, it was not clear to most people what impact that would have on the programming.

In 1967, the Village Voice was not the free rag with ads for escorts that it is today. It had been co-founded by Norman Mailer and while it certainly promoted left-wing politics and ideals, it was a highly respected publication. When Richard Goldstein published this column in the October 5th issue, it was a confirmation of the worst fears of fans of the station.

Village Voice Richard Goldstein Column

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale with Rosko

Saturday, October 7, 1967

WFUV 90.7

“I was told by him [the consultant] we're not changing...and this was an insult.”

Several days after Rosko quit on the air at WOR-FM, he appeared on Pete Fornatale's 'Campus Caravan' Saturday show on WFUV to explain why. This is truly a great radio moment and Pete's careful handling of the interview is probably one of the things that led to his career at WNEW-FM. It's since been confirmed that WNEW-FM executives were listening to this show.


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Pete Fornatale & Rosko

AIRCHECKS: Scott Muni & Jim Lounsbury (Scoped)

Thursday, October 19, 1967

Contributed by Rob Frankel

“Now you won't find I may warn you, screaming teenyboppers at the Action House, but what you will find are swingers like yourself.”

These airchecks, which were contributed by Rob Frankel, were recorded about a week before Johnny Michaels was fired and Scott Muni had his contract bought out. Rosko and Murray the K were already gone.

It's hard to tell how much control the Drake consultants were exerting at this point, but the station sounded terrible. There was a strange mix of songs including some real clunkers, like "Red and Blue" from the Dave Clark Five, although there are some worthy of a Nuggets compilation, like a track from The Paupers (with Skip Prokop). They were still playing some Simon & Garfunkel, but the progressive rock acts pretty much seem to be gone, except perhaps for The Doors.

Scott Muni seemed to be in Murray's old spot from 6-10pm and Jim Lounsbury, who was originally only doing fill-ins, was in Rosko's old spot from 10pm-2am. What's strange here is that I remember Jim O'Brien taking Murray's spot, so it's hard to say exactly what was going on. I don't know who was doing Scott Muni's original 2-6pm spot at this point. I had probably pretty much given up listening to the station, since Rosko had already moved to WNEW-FM. Lounsbury, at least at this stage in his career, certainly did not have the presence of Muni, Murray the K or Rosko. And as you'll hear, he announces the wrong Doors track and then you can hear the level changing on the track as he's probably deciding whether to fade it out or keep playing it. He kept playing it, then he played the correct track.

It was a sad ending to a landmark station. But at this point, it was wise to put it out of its misery and change the format.

When Lounsbury reads the news at the end of the aircheck, he talks about an anti-war demonstration at Brooklyn College in which war protesters and police officers fought each other. It's important to understand the Zeitgeist of the times, which is one of the reasons freeform WOR-FM and stations like it that came later were so important to so many people.


mp3Scott Muni mp3Jim Lounsbury

PRESS: “WOR-FM Has Gone All The Way...” by Richard Robinson

Village Voice: November 9, 1967

“...the station had fired Scott Muni and Johnny Michaels..”

While Rosko had already joined WNEW-FM by the time this column was published, Goldstein's piece served as an obituary for the free-form WOR-FM. Note that while Goldstein did refer to 'Boss Radio', it still wasn't exactly clear what Bill Drake was going to program on WOR-FM.

As noted elsewhere on this site, the night that Rosko premiered on WNEW-FM, he was supposd to be hosting a Vanilla Fudge & Yardbirds show at the Village Theatre. When it was announced that Rosko wouldn't be appearing because he was on the air, the crowd went crazy with joy. These stations were immensely important to the culture back then and people really cared about them.

Note his mentions of other rock music shows on FM -- many have been long forgotten.

Village Voice Richard Goldstein Column

PRESS: FM Guide Editorial

November, 1967

“Certainly the audience's interest is not being served.”

Author Wollheim seems to have gotten his info from the Richard Goldstein columns and it wasn't the strongest editorial that could have been written, but his heart was in the right place.

FM Guide Editorial

AUDIO: Rosko reading Gibran

1967

One of the many unique things that Rosko did that was previously unimaginable on a rock station was to read the poetry of Kahlil Gibran on the air, usually accompanied by sitar music. This recording is not from an aircheck, but from one of several albums that Rosko recorded.


PRESS: “The Late Lamented WOR-FM” by Murray the K

FM Guide: April, 1968

“People either like me a lot or get uptight just at the mention of my name...”

Murray the K discussing WOR-FM from his perspective along with a soft-touch interview of Murray. While I was a big supporter of free-form WOR-FM, one argument he made that I don't agree with is that there was a binding "promise" made by WOR-FM to commit to the free-form programming akin to a public service commitment or a contest. He even claimed that he was going to take up the matter with the FCC. We don't know if he ever did or not, but he would have gotten nowhere: other articles on this site demonstrate that the FCC was generally opposed to any kind of free-form radio.

It's too bad that Murray never got anywhere with his proposed television show, which promised to have debates between opposing parties such as rock stars and politicians. While this seems common today, it would have been very unique back then and is very close to what Bill Maher created years later.

Murray didn't have too much of a career in radio after WOR-FM. He appeared on WMCA, WNBC, WWDC in Washington, D.C. as well as WLIR and WKTU, but he didn't last long at any of them. But in my young naiveté, I thought his other work was a sellout: what was the point of getting oneself fired from WOR-FM over content and control issues if you're simply going to show up somewhere else where you have absolutely no freedom whatsoever? But what idealists (such as myself) didn't understand is that people have to work.

There are additional articles about Murray's career on the General Radio History page.

Murray died of cancer in 1982 at the age of 60. I saw him on a telethon shortly before he died and he was almost unrecognizable. In fact, before I realized it was him, I said to myself, "why is that person impersonating Murray the K?"

The Late WOR-FM The Late WOR-FM The Late WOR-FM The Late WOR-FM

WOR-FM: The Bill Drake years


SURVEYS: November 18, 1967

The surveys for the week of November 18, 1967.

It's not that the old WOR-FM wouldn't have been playing many of these tracks - it's that they would have been playing a whole lot more.


Survey Survey

SURVEYS: December 18, 1967

The surveys for the week of December 18, 1967.

We can see the Drake format taking shape. What they're playing isn't bad - it's what they're not playing that puts them completely out of touch with the emerging folk rock, blues and progressive rock scene.


Survey

AD: Memories Are Made of This

FM Guide - January, 1968

Memories are made of this: Drake's attempt at Oldies

Drake WOR-FM Ad

AIRCHECK: Bill Brown [mono] (54:06)

Contributed by RadioMaven77 (Rob Frankel) on MixCloud

January 8, 1968

Bill Brown, sitting in for Bob Eliot, running down the top 300 oldies (although in that era, an oldie could be only a few months old) during the "Memories Are Made of This" / "The Big Town Sound" era of Bill Drake programmed WOR-FM. Brown had a very long career in NYC radio. By October, 1969 Brown would be heard on WCBS-FM during the progressive era and he would stay through the Oldies era. He left CBS-FM sometime before July of 2007.


SURVEYS: February 5th, 19th, 1968

Contributed by Kimball Brandner

The surveys for the weeks of February 5 and 19, 1968.

The good: The Temptations, the Marvelettes, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, the Soul Survivors, the Four Tops, the Delfonics and Elvis. The bad: The Lemon Pipers, the Cowsills, the Letterman, Nancy & Lee, Herman's Hermits, Bobby Vinton. Drake was always a sucker for white bread.


Survey Survey Survey Survey

SURVEYS: April 1, 15, 22 and 29th, 1968

Contributed by Kimball Brandner

The surveys for the weeks of April, 1968.

I didn't listen much to WOR-FM in those days because I listened mainly to WNEW-FM, WABC-FM and WBAI, but looking at these surveys, it wasn't a bad set of music, even if it almost always avoided anything even remotely progressive. On the other hand, they did include a lot of great R&B. They also occassionally jumped on music pretty early: Otis Redding's "The Happy Song" appears Hitbound on the April 15th survey and it didn't make the Billboard charts until April 27th. Neil Diamond's "Brooklyn Roads" is Hitbound on the April 22nd chart and it didn't make the Billboard charts until May 11th. And "MacArthur Park", which did get a lot of progressive rock play, appeared Hitbound on April 29th and didn't hit the Billboard charts until May 11th.


Survey Survey Survey Survey

Survey Survey Survey Survey

AIRCHECK: Tony Taylor - Jim O'Brien [stereo] (154:15)

Thursday, May 2, 1968

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

WOR-FM as consulted by Bill Drake in New York's toned down version of Boss Radio, reconfigured as an oldies station.

If you wanted Top-40 style radio without the clutter, you loved it. If you wanted free-form AOR rock with hip DJ's, you hated it. Great voices, but no identifiable personality. Very short simple jingles, no buzzers or bells. No jokes. No routines. Little DJ talk except mostly over song intros. Lots of time and temperature. But it worked - it got excellent ratings.

The weird thing about this Drake format is that in an age of non-conformity, hippies, political activisits, drugs, the sexual revolution, far more explicit movies, etc., it was strangely formal: "Ladies and gentlemen"?? "Memories are made of this" in a big, deep non-conversational voice? I suspect it worked for those people who were appalled at the changes going on around them and a station like this provided comfort.


AIRCHECK: J.J. Jordan - Steve Clark [stereo] (77:46)

Thursday, August 8, 1968

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

Bill Drake's "Big Town Sound" of WOR-FM with DJ's J.J. Jordan (Scotty Brink) and Steve Clark. It's hard to keep these guys straight because they generally didn't use their real names and they changed their names when they moved from station to station. There was a lot of turnover at Drake's WOR-FM because the DJ's weren't paid well enough to live in NYC.


SURVEYS: August 25th, 1968

Contributed by Kimball Brandner

The survey for the week of August 25th, 1968.

Quite a different sound from just four months earlier. You'd think the music for the summer would be more driving and more upbeat with more dance music. But it got a lot quieter: light cover versions of "Light My Fire", "Fool On The Hill" and "The Weight" accompanied by hits from Tom Jones, Dionne Warwick and Herb Alpert. Was this still a rock station or the precursor to Light FM? The only intensity was from "Street Fighting Man" and "Love Makes A Woman". The deep-voiced Drake DJs had more intensity than the songs they were playing.

I want to listen to the April 1968 station, but I wouldn't want to listen to this August version. What happened to Otis and Aretha?


Survey Survey

AIRCHECK: Johnny Donovan [scoped-mono]

Fall, 1968

A short (sloppily scoped) mono aircheck from the Fall of 1968 (probably September 22). You either believed that this was exciting, consistent, brilliantly produced, personality radio or that it was the beginning of the end for FM and what Frank Zappa called "ugly radio". But if you hated it, it didn't really matter because WNEW-FM was in full swing by this time and other progressive rock stations were coming.

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Donovan

AD: #1 in the Ratings

FM Guide - December, 1968

Although the move by October of 1967 from a free-form to highly-formatted Bill Drake-consulted sound was highly controversial, the Drake format was successful for a time. This ad claims that WOR-FM was the #1 FM station in the U.S. (although so was the free-form version).

Drake WOR-FM

SURVEYS: December 1st, 1968

Contributed by Kimball Brandner

The survey for the week of December 1st, 1968.

Typical top-40 for the time including some great soul (Stevie Wonder, Johnny Taylor, Temptations, Aretha, Marvin Gaye, Young-Holt Unlimited), some bad pop (Bobby Vinton, The Vogues, Bobby Goldsboro, The Lettermen), some class (Sinatra) and suprisingly, a Judy Collins track. Drake always had a thing for bad pop music.


Survey Survey

AIRCHECK: Tony Taylor [stereo] (61:48)

Tuesday, Feb 4, 1969

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

Big voice, time and temperature.


AIRCHECK: Sebastian Stone [scoped - stereo]

April 25, 1969

Contributed by Charles Blanding

Sebastian Stone doing Bill Drake's version of a mix of top-40 and oldies radio. During this era, WOR-FM had two marketing statements: "The big town sound" and "Memories are made of this". Bill Drake's format was known as one that was extremely tight, but one of the interesting things about this aircheck is that Stone misses the post time after time. IMO, this doesn't really sound like New York radio and while some great hits were played, the overall format is bland. Drake was a sucker for white bread groups like Gary Puckett and the Union Gap.

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Sebastian Stone(31:26)

MARKETING: Posters

Contributed by Jacob Zissu from the collection of Patricia J. Murphy

circa 1969

The late Patricia J. Murphy had worked at the FCC and then held legal positions at RKO General and at ABC. She collected these posters while working as an executive for RKO General at 1440 Broadway and saved them all these years.

They're unusual in that I don't recall them ever being used in a marketing campaign. The "New York" poster is dated 1969 and is by artist David Schiller. The "Gettin' It All Together" poster is signed by an artist named Larson.


WOR-FM WOR-FM

SURVEY: The Top 100 of the 1960s

Contributed by Kimball Brandner

WOR-FM's top 100 list, probably generated in late 1969

top100 top100 top100 top100

AIRCHECK: The Top 100 of the 1960's [stereo]

December 31, 1969 (6:42:00)

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud and originally recorded by Charles Blanding.

The countdown of arguably the best decade in rock music, filtered through the tastes of Bill Drake's programmers. Hosts include Tommy Edwards, Sean Casey, Al Brady and Steve Clark. Almost 7 hours of broadcasting!

Part 1 (77:58)



Part 2 (77:45)



Part 3 (77:52)



Part 4 (51:44)



Part 5 (60:19)



Part 6 (55:26)


SURVEY: WOR-FM Top 300

Contributed by Mark Katz

WOR-FM generated a circular poster, 20 inches in circumference with a list of their top 300. The list was generated in 1969 or 1970 as the latest song is from 1969 and is a mix of current music and oldies.

top300
top300 top300

AIRCHECK: Al Brady [stereo] (29:31)

Thursday, Feb 5, 1970

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

More big voice, time and temperature, tightly formatted Bill Drake radio with the Big Town sound from Bill Drake.


AIRCHECK: Sebastian Stone [stereo] (29:12)

Thursday, April 16, 1970

Contributed by Rob Frankel and Kenneth Hawkins via Rob's RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

Sebastian Stone, who was also the Program Director, during the Bill Drake-programmed days of WOR-FM.


AIRCHECK: Joe McCoy [scoped - stereo]

September 12, 1970

Contributed by Charles Blanding

Joe McCoy (later program director of WCBS-FM) sitting in for Johnny Donovan doing Bill Drake's version of top-40 radio.

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Joe McCoy(23:34)

AD: Bill Drake's WOR-FM: The History of Rock & Roll

Village Voice - 1971

History of Rock & Roll Ad

The History of Rock & Roll was a "rockumentary" originally produced at Drake's KHJ with Robert W. Morgan as host and broadcast February 21-23, 1969. A modified version voiced by Drake jock Harvey Miller was produced for syndication.

KHJ History of Rock & Roll Ad

The original syndicated version was 48 hours (airtime) long and broadcast over Labor Day weekend 1969. An expanded 50-hour version was broadcast over the weekend of April 30 - May 2, 1971. Ron Jacobs produced these versions. Also credited were writer Pete Johnson, director Ellen Pellisaro, production coordinator Sandy Gibson, music coordinator Vicki Larson, sound supervisor (and "production techniques" by) Bill Mouzis and voiced by Miller.

The show was reworked in 1978 by writer Gary Theroux into a 52-hour version and re-voiced by Bill Drake, but I always preferred the earlier version -- I thought Harvey Miller did an outstanding job, the montages were better produced (although the 1978 montages were longer) and the program had a better flow and rhythm. Miller's approach was consistent with the formal presentation of Drake jocks, but one in which he really made the history of rock seem important. Drake's approach to the voice-over was surprisingly passive. There was yet another revised version produced in 1981, but that version cut out most of the 1950s and pre-Beatle 60s material.

As great as the 1969 version was, I did have some criticisms. If you listened for any length of time, the single "History of Rock & Roll" acapella jingle began to wear on you. With some exceptions, the program wasn't really the history of rock & roll, rather it was the history of the songs played on top-40 radio (and their influences). The second 12 hours of the show was a chronological "pop chart sweep" and the third 12 hours was a chronological "rock chart sweep". I thought the pop chart sweep was unnecessary and had little to do with rock & roll, featuring such artists as Dick Haynes, Teresa Brewer, Sarah Vaughn, the McGuire Sisters, Mitch Miller, George Hamilton, Connie Francis, Steve Lawrence, etc., but they probably included it thinking they could get MOR stations to take the show if they did. But that didn't seem to happen and they would have been better off excluding it and expanding the rock chart sweep to 24 hours of airtime.

The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper album did not get extensive play on top-40 stations at the time, so it was a big surprise at the end of the program when "A Day In The Life" was credited as the greatest rock song of all time. (The 1978 version ended with a time sweep montage and the final song heard was Debby Boone's, "You Light Up My Live", since that was the current #1 song. Ugh.)

The 1969 version was completely unique for its time, it was relatively comprehensive, it included a fair amount of folk, country, blues and other roots music that wasn't normally heard on top-40 radio and Drake deserves a lot of credit for taking a serious approach to the material, something that might have been more expected from an FM progressive rock station. I remember thinking at the time that Metromedia should have produced such a program. And in addition, it let the radio stations who played it give their regular jocks off during some long holiday weekends.


AIRCHECK: The History of Rock & Roll [scoped-mono]

Summer 1969 & Spring 1971

Here's the complete (scoped) version of the original syndicated (Labor Day Weekend, 1969) version and the 1971 version of the History of Rock & Roll as broadcast on WOR-FM, constituting 50 hours of air time. This was recorded in quarter-track mono at 3 3/4 on half-mill tape, so the quality isn't fabulous, but you'll get the idea. The montage editing and Harvey Miller's voicework were outstanding.

The program comprises of a 12 hour genre section, a 12-hour pop chart sweep, a 12 hour rock chart sweep and 14 additional air hours of singer-songwriters, modern blues, the Beatles, Stones and other groups.

The final sections combine the 1969 and the 1971 versions, the latter of which added an extra two hours of air time, but also removed a few songs. We'll included them all by combining both versions. And thanks to Norm Garr, we now have a complete version of the opening montage, the Dylan section (hour 11), the last hour of the Words & Music section (hour 42) and a far more complete combined hour 48.



Opening Montage and R&B section - Air Hours 1-5:


mp3Hr1 mp3Hr2 mp3Hr3 mp3Hr4 mp3Hr5

Country Music, Elvis, Country, Folk, Dylan & Folk sections - Air Hours 6-12:


mp3Hr6 mp3Hr7 mp3Hr8 mp3Hr9 mp3Hr10 mp3Hr11 mp3Hr12

Pop Chart Sweep - Air Hours 13-24:


mp3Hr13 mp3Hr14 mp3Hr15 mp3Hr16 mp3Hr17 mp3Hr18

mp3Hr19 mp3Hr20 mp3Hr21 mp3Hr22 mp3Hr23 mp3Hr24

Rock Chart Sweep - Air Hours 25-36:


mp3Hr25 mp3Hr26 mp3Hr27 mp3Hr28 mp3Hr29 mp3Hr30

mp3Hr31 mp3Hr32 mp3Hr33 mp3Hr34 mp3Hr35 mp3Hr36

Singers - Air Hours 37-38:


mp3Hr37 mp3Hr38

Modern Blues - Air Hours 39-40:


mp3Hr39 mp3Hr40

Words & Music of Rock & Roll - Air Hours 41-42:


mp3Hr41 mp3Hr42

Groups - Air Hours 43-44:


mp3Hr43 mp3Hr44

Groups: Beatles & Stones - Air Hours 45-46:


mp3Hr45 mp3Hr46

Groups - Air Hours 47-49:


mp3Hr47 mp3Hr48 mp3Hr49

Singer Songwriters & Conclusion - Air Hour 50:


mp3Hr50

AIRCHECK: Mark Driscoll [stereo] (74:42)

Thursday, April 6, 1972

Contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on MixCloud

Mark Driscoll doing "Big Town Sound" tightly formatted radio, between 9 and 11pm. Interestingly, along with the expected Top-40 hits, we hear the Allman Brothers and Neil Young. Bill Drake's consulting company was still programming the station, but we're already hearing changes, such as far less use of jingles, which were formerly played between almost every track.

In a little over six more months, WOR-FM would become WXLO.



The Post-Drake Years


WOR-FM became WXLO on October 23, 1972. In 1973, the consulting relationship with Drake-Chenault ended. Beginning in 1974, it promoted itself as "99X" and adjusted the format to be more up-tempo and aggressive. The DJ's changed often in that era, but they included Mike Dineen, Mike Phillips. Terry Nelson, Joe McCoy, Tom Morgan, Walt Baby Love, Lee Dougas, Dame Thompson, Ron O'Brien, Steven Weed, Rick Shaw, Brian White, Joe Conway, Paulie Simon, Dick Sloane and others. In 1979, along with a marketing change back to "FM 99 WXLO", it changed to an adult contemporary format. In August of 1981, it became WRKS KISS-FM with an Urban Contemporary format and initally featured Jeff Troy, Charlie Hamburger, Mary Thomas, Jose Guzman and Yvonne Mobley. In 1984, Chuck Leonard joined for a short time doing 8pm to midnight.


INTERNAL MEMO: Change from WOR-FM to WXLO

An internal memo to the WXLO DJ's about how to promote the format change and new identification.

October

SURVEY: 98.7 WXLO August 5, 1973 Survey

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Here's a sample summer survey from WXLO in 1973. Kind of ugly looking from a design standpoint. "Monster Mash" was back on the charts and it was almost three months until Halloween. How did that happen? Something for everyone: Sly, Pink Floyd, Aretha, Doobie Brothers, Deep Purple, Marvin Gaye and also Paul McCartney, Maureen McGovern, Chicago, Three Dog Night and Helen Reddy.


August 5, 1972 Survey

AIRCHECK: 99X WXLO - Jay Thomas [stereo] (43:58)

Thursday, April 14, 1977

Contributed by Rob Frankel and posted via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Jay Thomas had quite a dynamic career as a DJ, athlete and actor. As an actor he appeared in "Mork and Mindy", "Cheers", "Murphy Brown", "Married People", "Love and War" and "Ray Donovan". He had featured roles in the films "Mr. Holland's Opus", "A Smile Like Yours" and "The Santa Clause 2" and "...3". In addition to WXLO in the 1970's, he was a DJ on WXRK in the mid-80's, on KPWR in Los Angeles and beginning in 2005, he hosted a comedy show on Sirius.

Here we hear him doing a CHR format. And we hear an ad for the now long-gone Rockaway's Playland.


AIRCHECK: 99X WXLO - Beaver Cleaver [stereo] (51:12)

Saturday, April 7, 1979

Contributed by Rob Frankel and posted via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Beaver Cleaver (Ken Levine) on 99X WXLO. Strangely, his voice sounds very thin and not processed properly against the music unlike the "heavy" sound of most DJ's on the station. We hear a mix of R&B, Disco, the Stones, some oldies and a bit of rock.


AIRCHECK: 99X WXLO - First Day of KISS-FM [stereo] (95:44)

Friday, July 31, 1981

Contributed by Rob Frankel and posted via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

Air personalities Charlie Burger and Mary Thomas introduce the Kiss-FM Urban format to New York on WXLO, which would change its call letters to WRKS the day after. Its regular weekday DJ's at launch included Jeff Troy, Charlie Hamburger (who would eventually become Charlie Burger) Mary Thomas, Jose Guzman and Yvonne Mobley. Chuck Leonard would join in the summer of 1984.


AIRCHECK: Jose Guzman - WKRS KISS 98.7 [stereo]

Wednesday, October 7, 1981 (45:48)

Contributed by Rob Frankel and posted via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

A few months after launch, KISS continues with Disco and some R&B. I liked the ad for the Eclipse nightclub where they made the point that "all acts perform live - no lip synching". Guzman sounds surprisingly formal in his presentation.


SURVEY: 98.7 KISS-FM Top 98 of 1986 Survey

Contributed by Rich Barbato

Here's the end of year survey from 1986 from KISS-FM.


Best of 1986 Best of 1986

SURVEYS: 98.7 KISS-FM Top-500 Classic Soul Countdown

Contributed by Rich Barbato

WRKS (KISS-FM) played this entire list of fantastic soul music on Memorial Day weekend (May 26-29) 1995. It's too bad that no station would take the risk of playing this "Old School Soul" today.

Note who some of the DJ's were: Issac Hayes weekday mornings and Ashford & Simpson evenings with Roberta Flack doing a short Sunday show. Fantastic!


Top-500 Classic Soul Countdown Top-500 Classic Soul Countdown


WOR-FM WXLO 99X WRKS (KISS-FM) 98.7 Schedules


WOR-FM Schedules

The data behind these 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 as well various postings on the web from people such as Bob Recchia and especially those of Vince Santarelli. Corrections welcomed. In some cases, the same dates are posted twice due to conflicting information from different sources.



1966-1967: The Freeform Era

WORFM Schedule

1967-1972: The Drake Era

WORFM Schedule

1973-1978: The WXLO Era

WORFM Schedule

1981-1995: The WRKS Era

WORFM Schedule



More of WOR-FM can be found on Allan Sniffen's WOR-FM pages: