The NY Radio Archive

WXRK 92.3


92.3 FM was originally the home of WMCA-FM. But since FM radio was a money-loser in the early days, WMCA sold the station and by 1951 it had become WHOM-FM, owned by Progress Broadcasting Corporation. By the summer of 1975, it experimented with a mellow-rock format and featured Murray the K, Stan Martin, Scott McClennan, Larry Miller and Steve White during the week and with Randy Place, Joe Guarisco, Johnny Michaels and Bruce Fox on weekends. Burkhart-Abrams were later hired as consultants and they developed a tightly formatted AOR that was very short-lived.

But 92.3 hit the big time on July 24, 1978 when it became a Disco station and was probably one of the major reasons for the demise of "music radio" WABC. The format originally featured such jocks as Paul Robinson, David Mallow, Kenn Hayes, Joe Guarisco and Paco Navarro and eventually included Rosko in the night slot, Maria Milito evenings and Dan Ingram even did an afternoon shift there during 1985, just before another format change.

According to an industry insider, since disco was all the rage in the city's clubs at that time, management decided to switch to an all-disco format, the first in the country. Someone was sent to pick up the top 100 selling records, the staff was brought together and directed to "Be yourselves and have fun" and disco music rapidly took the station to number one in the market and the rate cards tripled. There was no grand plan or formula, it just fell together on the air and it worked. Later, consultant Ken Burkhart successfully sold his formula around the country, but those involved knew the truth: it couldn't have been more haphazard. No one had ever done it before, but it was the right music at the right time and the chemistry worked.

In July of 1985, WKTU changed the call letters to WXRK and became an AOR station with Jay Thomas in mornings, but Howard Stern took over in February of 1986 and Meg Griffin joined around that time as well. By the Fall of 1989, Pete Fornatale followed Stern and the station also featured Flo & Eddie (of Turtles fame) and Alison Steele in overnights. Vin Scelsa also had a weekend show. By late 1991, Dave Herman replaced Flo & Eddie and John Zacherley joined in late '92. But in January of 1996, the station switched to a Modern Rock format and hired all new jocks.

In 2006, after Stern left, it became "Free FM-WFNY" with morning host David Lee Roth. It brought back the WXRK call letters in 2007 with a CHR format. In late 2012, it became NOW-FM with a CHR format focused on EDM-driven and rhythmic pop. By 2015 it had become WBMP-FM "Amp Radio" (whlle there was a new WKTU playing Rhythmic Dance music on 103.5 FM). And in 2017, it returned to an Alt format.

As of late October, 2022, Entercom dropped the music and is now simulcasting the 1010 WINS new format, promoted as "1010 WINS on 92.3".

Click any thumbnail for a larger image.


WKTU 92.3

AIRCHECK: WKTU Format Flip [stereo]

Monday, July 24, 1978 (44:46)

contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud

WKTU flips from a mellow sound to Disco, which has huge ramifications and garners incredible ratings. This was one of the main triggers that would eventually lead to the demise of Top-40 WABC-AM four years later.

Among the DJ's towards and at the end of the "Mellow" era were Larry Miller, Paul Robinson, David Mallow, Matthew Clenott, Kenn Hayes, Paco Navarro, Joe Guarisco and Peter Burkhard and several would continue in the Disco era. By January of 1985, the DJ's would include Dan Ingram, Rosko and Maria Milito.

In April/May of 1978, WABC-AM was #1 in the ratings with an 8.1 share and WKTU wasn't even in the top 20. A few months after the flip to Disco, WKTU was #1 with an amazing 11.3 share and WABC was #2 with a 7.1 (something stations would kill for today).

WABC-AM flipped to talk on May 10, 1982, but if they held out, they might have been able to survive with the music format a bit longer because Disco petered out and WKTU flipped to an AOR format in July of '85 and became WXRK.


AIRCHECK: Rosko on Disco WKTU [stereo]

Thursday, October 8, 1981 (45:16)

contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud from the Rich Marino collection with thanks to Arushi Singh.

Rosko doing Disco on KTU exactly 15 years to the day when DJ's started on WOR-FM. But he really doesn't get to do much more than name the records.


AIRCHECK: Rosko [scoped-stereo]

Monday, July 4, 1983 (16:08)

contributed by Rich Barbato

By this time, WKTU was straying away from marketing itself as "Disco KTU", but they were still playing mostly disco tunes. Rosko is more upbeat and aggressive than he was on WNEW-FM.


mp3
Rosko (16:08)

AIRCHECK: WKTU: Dan Ingram [scoped-stereo]

Monday, January 14, 1985 (46:09)

Contributed by Rich Barbato

This is Dan Ingram's first day on WKTU doing the 3-7pm shift. In our opinion, this was not a good fit for one of the greatest top-40 DJs of all time. He doesn't sound comfortable. This wouldn't last long -- the station would become WXRK and become an album oriented rock station just six months later.

mp3Pt1(23:10) mp3Pt2(22:59)

AIRCHECK: WKTU: Jay Thomoas & the Madame (Jo Maeder) [stereo]

Monday, January 14, 1985 (20:30)

contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud and originally recorded by Frank Quaranti.

Jay Thomas and Joo Maeder doing the morning show on the same day as Dan Ingram's first appearance on the station. We even hear news.


WXRK 92.3


AIRCHECK: WXRK: Howard Stern's First Show on K-Rock [stereo]

Monday, November 18, 1985 (58:22)

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

The beginning of FM Shock Jock radio. Stern's first show on WXRK after leaving WNBC-AM. The show billiantly opens with news reports about his firing.


AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa’s “Idiot’s Delight” [scoped-stereo]

Sunday, December 29, 1985 (1:47:51)

contributed by Ken Tullipano

This is a great example of what the free-form format really meant: great music personally chosen by the DJ combined with what was essentially a deeply personal talk show.

Scelsa spends at least as much time talking as playing music and the topics are even more varied than the music he plays. In addition to talking about the music itself, he talks about such issues as unemployment and terrorism (how little things change).

This is a complete (but scoped) show.


mp3Pt1 (32:16) mp3Pt2 (22:48) mp3Pt3 (38:57) mp3Pt4 (13:50)

AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa’s “Idiot’s Delight” [scoped-stereo]

circa January 1986

contributed by Ken Tullipano

Throughout all of radio history, great air personalities created characters, sometimes doing them and sometimes talking about them. Scelsa created "T-Shirt" and "Razoo Kelley", which once again goes to prove that free-form progressive radio was far more than playing what we now call classic rock tracks. This aircheck contains several segments of letters Vin "received" from these characters.


mp3
Razoo (08:25)


AIRCHECK: Howard Stern with Jay Thomas [scoped-stereo]

Tuesday, January 7, 1986 [91:37]

contributed by Charlie Menut

In January of 1986, morning man Jay Thomas was fired from K-Rock. Howard Stern, who was on afternoons in those days, goofs on Thomas by stealing and playing all his gimmick carts and then in Part 2, gets Thomas on the phone. After that, Stern plays with his carts some more. There's then an interesting newscast by Robin and then the usual Stern shtick.

About six weeks later, on February 18, 1986, Stern would move into the morning slot.


mp3Pt.1 (40:31) mp3Pt.2 (50:56)


AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa [stereo]

Monday, September 21, 1986 [25:48]

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Vin tells a drinking story and then plays Eric Anderson and others.


mp3
Vin

AIRCHECK: Meg Griffin [scoped-stereo]

Thursday, October 30, 1986

contributed by Rich Barbato

Here's a bit of Meg Griffin doing a 'commercial free' hour on WXRK. Meg doesn't get to do all that much, but when she is given a chance her personality comes shining through. Typical K-Rock playlist.


mp3
Meg (28:26)

AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa [stereo]

Saturday, November 22, 1986 (61:41)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Vin Scelsa takes a tour of New York City.



AIRCHECK: Tony Pigg [stereo]

Thursday, January 1, 1987 (249:32)

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

A complete New Year's Day show: 4 hours of Tony Pigg from 1987.


AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa [stereo]

Sunday, January 11, 1987 (61:41)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

An hour of Vince, but what's interesting is that there's more talk than music - something which would never be permitted to happen today.

mp3
Vince (61:40)


AIRCHECK: K-Rock Celebrates the New York Giants Super Bowl Win
[scoped-stereo]

Tuesday, January 27, 1987 10am-2pm (157:36)

contributed by Charlie Menut

In 1987, the New York Giants beat the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXI by a score of 39-20. It was their first Super Bowl win and also their first NFL title since 1956.

Two days later, on Tuesday, January 27th, the Giants held a celebration at Giants Stadium for the fans and K-Rock was there. We hear the end of the Howard Stern show and a bit of guest Richie Havens and then the "Rock and Roll Madame" (Jo Maeder) and Tony Pigg. The aircheck concludes with the beginning of the Meg Griffin show, although we don't actually hear Meg's voice. We hear a lot a stadium rock, appropriate for the day.

Jo Maeder isn't as well remembered today as Alison Steele, Meg Griffin or Carol Miller, but she was among the early female DJ's, beginning her radio career in 1977 at WINZ in Miami. In 1984, she co-hosted with Jay Thomas on WKTU and stayed with the staton when it became K-Rock, where she stayed until 1991. In 1993, she co-hosted a show on WABC and in 1995, she joined Z100. Jo has also written for More Magazine, Vanity Fair and the NY Times and wrote a memoir, When I Married My Mother as well as two novels, including Naked DJ, based on her radio career.


mp3Part 1 (60:00) mp3Part 2 (59:47) mp3Part 3 (37:49)

AIRCHECK: Jonathan Schwartz: Back to 1967, Summer of Love [scoped-stereo]

circa August 13, 1987 (30:01)

contributed by Ken Tullipano

In August of 1987, K-Rock held a "Summer of Love" celebration and invited Jonathan Schwartz to particpate and replicate a 1967 radio show. This was held just 2 1/2 months before WNEW-FM would celebrate their 20th anniversary and also invite back Schwartz to participate. This is probably the final air hour of that show.

At about the seven-minute mark of this 1987 show about 1967, Schwartz discusses the benefits of the LP over "future media" and "predicts" that the LP will disappear and its two-sided acts and large format artwork with it. In 1987, when this show was recorded, the CD was only three years old and no one was predicting the end of the album format. But Schwartz successfully predicted what would happen 20 years after the show was recorded and 40 years after the Summer of Love when by 2007, the album format had essentially disintegrated in favor of digital downloads of singles.


mp3
Jonathan Schwartz

AIRCHECK: Zacherley: Back to 1967, Summer of Love [scoped-stereo]

circa August, 1987 (32:16)

contributed by Ken Tullipano

K-Rock also invited former WNEW-FM, WABC-FM and WPLJ DJ Zacherley to participate in the 20th anniversary of 1967. Zach didn't take it all as seriously as Jonathan Schwartz and admitted to pretending that this was 1967, although it sounded pretty real when he says that he's deciding whether to go down to the Cheetah or the Bitter End after the show. The Cheetah had actually closed in the 1970s. Also note all the drug references. Zach would be turning 69 just a few weeks after this show was recorded and he sounds simply great.


mp3
Zacherley

AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa's "Idiot's Delight" with Southside Johnny [stereo]

Sunday, October 16, 1988 (62:00

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Vin with Southside Johnny, live in the studio


mp3
Scelsa

AIRCHECK: Jimmy Fink's Christmas Show [scoped-stereo]

Sunday, December 25, 1988 (41:08)

contributed by Charlie Menut

This is a really terrific Chirstmas show from Jimmy Fink during the years when K-Rock was really a special station. Whether the DJs were picking their own tracks or not, they made the programming their own and Jimmy's personality comes shining through.


The aircheck includes lots of bits from the Beatles' Chirstmas records which were made for their fan club.


mp3
JimmyFink

AIRCHECK: Alison Steele Recreates Woodstock [scoped-stereo]

August, 1989 (71:52)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

The Nightbird recreates aspects of the Woodstock festival. The second half of the aircheck features lots of Woodstock actuality audio, including audio not on the original recording or the movie.


mp3
Alison

AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa [scoped-stereo]

Sunday, August 6, 1989 (82:06)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Vin Scelsa doing what only Vin Scelsa could do: tying together old and new, classical and blue and relating one on one with his listeners.


mp3
Vin

AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa & Pete Fornatale [stereo]

circa September, 1989 (13:53)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete Fornatale joined WXRK in September of 1989. This seems to be a show where Vin Scelsa is introducing Pete Fornatale to his audience on a Sunday morning show dedicated to live performers in the studio.

Unfortunately, we only have a small segment of the show. But the performers in the studio that day included Tom Paxton, Greg Trooper, Larry Campbell, Shawn Colvin, Lucy Kaplansky, Steve Berg, Rod McDonald, Frank Christian, Cliff Eberhardt, Buskin & Batteau and The Roches.


mp3
Scelsa

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale's First Show on WXRK [scoped-stereo]

Saturday, September 23, 1989 (51:28)

contributed by Ken Tullipano

Pete Fornatale had joined WNEW-FM in late summer of 1969 and spent most of his career in the 6-10am or 10am-2pm shift before moving to weekends in the Winter of 1982 to maintain his freedom on the air. He broadcast his last weekend WNEW-FM show on September 16, 1989, a week before moving to K-Rock's Classic Rock format.

This show started at 8am on a Saturday, but he also held down a regular 10am-2pm weekday shift, following Howard Stern and leading into Flo & Eddie at first and Dave Herman later. He would stay until January of 1996, when the station switched to an Alternative format and hired all new air personalities. He would return to WNEW-FM around a year after that for their Classic Rock and Classic Jocks format.

But here's his very first WXRK show, he seems happy to be there and judging from the songs played, he mostly picked his own music, although the station seemed to be pushing Bruce Springsteen really hard, due to a promotion (not that there was anything wrong with that).


mp3Pt.1 mp3Pt.2

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale celebrating the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame [scoped-stereo]

Sunday, January 14, 1990

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete Fornatale does his version of a show celebrating the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and also interviews Daniel Lanois, who performs live on the show.


mp3Pt.I (61:14) mp3Pt.II (76:53)

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale featuring Aztec Two Step [stereo]

Sunday, February 4, 1990

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete Fornatale features Tom Rush as well as Aztec Two Step live in the studio.


Part 1 (61:10):



Part 2 (60:49)



Part 3 (49:23):




AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale does Valentine's Day [stereo]

Sunday, February 11, 1990

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete Fornatale plays a variety of unexpected love songs for Valentine's Day


mp3Pt 1 (90:45) mp3Pt.2 (80:49)

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale's Sunday Show featuring Roger McGuinn [stereo]

Sunday, August 19, 1990 (176:46)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete Fornatale features the Lovin' Spoonful as well as Roger McGuinn live in the studio.


mp3
Pete

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale's Sunday Show [stereo] (91:31)

Sunday, November 11, 1990

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete Fornatale playing quality music in late 1990 and also celebrating Jesse Colin Young's birthday.



AIRCHECK: Flo & Eddie on Christmas [scoped-stereo]

Tuesday, December 25, 1990

contributed by Charlie Menut

Flo & Eddie (Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan) were members of The Turtles and later, Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention before going solo. In the late 80s, they joined K-Rock mornings during the Classic Rock era. Thanks to Charlie Menut, we have their Christmas show from 1990.


mp3
Flo & Eddie(43:12)

TV Commercial: 92.3 K-Rock

Wednesday, December 5, 1990

thanks to Rb1330 and Joseph S. Pilliteri

A TV promotion for WXRK back in the days when radio stations could afford to advertise on the radio.



AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale w/ Schooner Faire [scoped-stereo]

Sunday, March 17, 1991

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Here's just a bit of Pete with Schooner Faire live in the studio


mp3
Pete (27:50)

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale's Christmas Show [stereo]

Sunday, December 22, 1991 (272:43)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete celebrates the holidays with Steve Katz (The Blues Project and Blood, Sweat & Tears), Schooner Faire; Peter, Paul & Mary, the Caroling Carolers and Paul Winter.



AIRCHECK: Tony Pigg on New Year's Day [scoped-stereo]

Wednesday, January 1, 1992

contributed by Charlie Menut

Here's a commercial-free two hours of airtime from the first day of 1992, beginning at 6am when Alison Steele is finishing up her shift followed by Tony Pigg.


mp3
Tony Pigg (73:18)

AIRCHECK: "The Sunday Show" with Pete Fornatale [scoped-mono]

Sunday, February 9, 1992 (175:00)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete celebrates the 28th anniversary of the Beatles invasion and Carole King's birthday, with an interview with Carole in the final hour.


mp3Part 1 mp3Part 2

AIRCHECK: "The Sunday Show" with Pete Fornatale [scoped-mono]

Sunday, February 16, 1992 (123:13)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete celebrates the 10th anniversary of Fast Folk magazine with guests Eileen Weiss, Hugh Blumenfeld and Fast Folk editor Richard Meyer. The interviews (and live in-studio performances) start at the very end of part one.


mp3Part 1 mp3Part 2

AIRCHECK: "The Sunday Show" with Pete Fornatale [scoped-mono]

Sunday, July 19, 1992 (180:23)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete celebrates the 500th edition of his Sunday Show, plays the music of the Summer of Love (1967) and interviews Ray Manzarek of The Doors.



AIRCHECK: "The Sunday Show" with Pete Fornatale [stereo]

Sunday, August 23, 1992 (175:42)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete plays songs about "Life".


Part One:



Part Two:


AIRCHECK: Howard Stern with guest Zacherley [scoped-stereo]

Wednesday, August 12, 1992

contributed by Charlie Menut

Zach stops by Howard's show to promote a day of programming dedicated to the 1967 "Summer of Love". They had also done this in 1987 (see Zach's aircheck above). Howard does a killer Zacherley impression. I didn't know he was that talented. Howard talks about how he spent his childhood watching "The Three Stoogers" and other kiddie shows on Channel 11 in New York. That I believe. Zacherley, who was 74 at the time is in his usual good humor and doesn't let Howard get away with making up stories about him. Howard looks at a photo of all the other classic rock jocks and comments about how Zach looks better than all of them. That was only a slight exaggeration.


mp3
Howard w/Zach (16:02)

AIRCHECK: “The Summer of Love: 1967” [scoped-stereo]

Thursday, August 13, 1992 [421:56]

contributed by Charlie Menut

Wow! 10 air hours of WXRK celebrating the Summer of Love from 25 years before starting at about 5pm with Dave Herman, Jonathan Schwartz, Zacherley, Tony Pigg and Alison Steele. After Alison, Maria Milito picks up with the regular Classic Rock format and "returns" to 1992. Although some songs are repeated frequently, the DJ's seem to have a great deal of freedom to do what they were doing in 1967. Herman has an interview with Dave Brigatti, who worked with the Rascals. Jonathan Schwartz does a long bit about baseball and reads poetry. Zacherley finds "making believe it's 1967" silly, Tony Pigg starts his show with a nice set of blues and also features lots of Dylan and Alison does her usual late-night mood creation along with some bad pretending that it's 1967.

Pt. 1: Dave Herman
Pt. 2: Dave Herman, Jonathan Schwartz
Pt. 3: Jonathan Schwartz, Zacherley
Pt. 4: Zacherley, Tony Pigg
Pt. 5-6: Tony Pigg
Pt. 7-10: Alison Steele
Pt. 11: Maria Milito

mp3Pt.1(35:44) mp3Pt.2(35:29) mp3Pt.3(42:04) mp3Pt.4(43:54) mp3Pt.5(43:07) mp3Pt.6(21:24)

mp3Pt.7(37:37)
mp3Pt.8(44:15) mp3Pt.9(40:00) mp3Pt.10(31:19) mp3Pt.11(47:03)

AIRCHECK: Rockline with Jim Ladd
and guest Paul McCartney [scoped-stereo]

Wednesday, February 10, 1993

contributed by Charlie Menut

This is a syndicated show that played on K-Rock (probably late at night) with host Jim Ladd. Ladd is better known on the west coast where he started at KLOS, moving to KMET-FM in 1974 where he resided through most of the time until 1987. He also has a show on Sirius XM's Deep Tracks channel and he has also appeared on Roger Waters' album "Radio K.A.O.S."

McCartney is on this show pushing his "Off The Ground" album which peaked at #17 on the Billboard charts and was certified Gold in the United States. It's not an album that immediately comes to mind when people think of McCartney, but it is an album that rocks a bit, largely because it was recorded live in the studio. The critics were not impressed (except in Germany where the album did extraordinarily well). McCartney also takes calls from listeners and is his usual affable self.


mp3Pt.1(29:13) mp3Pt.2(29:52)

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale [stereo]

Sunday, February 21, 1993

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete celebrates George Harrison's birthday followed by a music marathon.



AIRCHECK: WXRK K-Rock Promos [scoped-stereo]

circa April, 1993

contributed by Charlie Menut

Here's a set of great K-Rock promos from their Classic Rock era, circa 1993. While highly formatted, it was a great sounding radio station with an amazing talent lineup that picked up WNEW-FM's mantle when they went Alt-Rock.

Promos included:
K-Rock
Alison Steele: "What Makes A Classic?"
Alison Steele: Top of hour ID
Pete Forntale
Maria Melito
McDonald's All Request Weekend
Dave Herman
No Repeat Weekend
Paul Simon: Children's Health Fund Radiothon
The Kinks
No Repeat Weekend #2
Zacherley: Spirit of the Sixties Saturday show
Pete Fornatale: Sunday show
K-Rock Best Music
Top of Hour "It's Up To You" promo


mp3
Promos (7:45)

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale's Sunday Show w/guest Levon Helm [stereo]

Sunday, November 28, 1993 (120:41)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete Fornatale's Sunday show, with guest Levon Helm, who had just published, "Wheels on Fire".


AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale's Sunday Show [stereo]

Sunday, December 5, 1993 (118:54)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

Pete Fornatale's Sunday show, focusing on Harry Chapin.

mp3
Pete/Harry

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale [scoped-stereo]

Thursday, April 7, 1994

contributed by Charlie Menut

Pete Fornatale, going through the motions during K-Rock's Classic Rock era. Pete didn't have much freedom in those days and while Pete was always a consummate pro, you can tell that the creativity couldn't be there due to the format, and the enthusiasm wasn't there either. But as Pete told me years later, he had to put his kids through college.


mp3
Pete Fornatale(25:57)

AIRCHECK: Howard Stern, followed by Pete Fornatale [stereo]

Friday, September 15, 1994 (117:07)

contributed by Rob Frankel via his RadioMaven77 postings on Mixcloud as originally recorded by Charles Menut

A "Best of Stern", starting with Howard doing an "I Got You Babe" satire, followed by Pete.



AIRCHECK: Marc Coppola [scoped-stereo]

Monday, January 2, 1995 (24:03)

contributed by Charlie Menut

Marc Coppola doing a great set of the classic rock canon, although the songs were a lot newer then they are now and they still sounded fresh.


mp3
Coppola (24:03)

AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa [scoped-stereo]

circa Sunday, March 19, 1995 (61:53)

contributed by Charlie Menut

Vin Scelsa, doing his usual creative thing of thoughtfully chosen music, poetry and mood making. In Part 2, in a discussion with Alison Steele, he makes the mistake of complimenting her, but then makes a negative comment about her engineering, which Alison takes as sexist. Vin has to apologize. Quite interesting and revealing radio and surprising to hear on a usually highly formatted station like K-Rock was.


mp3Part1(33:39) mp3Part2(28:14)

AIRCHECK: Alison Steele [scoped-stereo]

circa Sunday, March 19, 1995 (15:49)

contributed by Charlie Menut

This is Alison starting her show right after Vin's show (above) ended. Her ability to create a world on the air has never been surpassed in our opinion.


mp3
Alison

AIRCHECK: Alison Steele [scoped-stereo]

Monday, March 20, 1995 (59:10)

contributed by Charlie Menut

The Nightbird, from the first day of Spring in 1995, just six months before she left us.


mp3Part1(29:22) mp3Part2(29:48)

AIRCHECK: Zacherley [scoped-stereo]

Saturday, April 8, 1995

contributed by Charlie Menut

Here's the first air hour of John Zacherley doing "Spirit of the Sixties" on Saturday from 7 to 10am. Lots of requests, even early in the morning. Amazing.


mp3
Pt 1(33:44)

AIRCHECK: Zacherley's "Spirit of the Sixties" [stereo]

Saturday, June 3, 1995 (184:48)

contributed by Charlie Menut

A complete(!) aircheck of all three hours of Zach's show in great fidelity thanks to the preservation techniques of Charlie Menut.


mp3Pt1(93:46) mp3Pt2(91:02)

AIRCHECK: Jimmy Fink [stereo]

Saturday, June 3, 1995 (63:08)

contributed by Charlie Menut

The first hour of Jimmy Fink's show on this Saturday morning.


mp3
Jimmy

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale Celebrates the 75th Anniversary of Radio [scoped-stereo]

Sunday, November 5, 1995 (51:38)

contributed by Don Balogh

November 2, 1995 represented the 75th anniversary of the first regular broadcast of Pittsburg's KDKA. Pete Fornatale celebrated that special day on his Sunday show a few days after the anniversary.

The show contains actualities and songs about radio as well as the complete version of "Ballad of the Sandman" by Mike Agranoff, a favorite of Pete's given to him by singer-songwriter Christine Lavin.

mp3Pt 1(26:28) mp3Pt 2(35:10)

AIRCHECK: Pete Fornatale Commemorates John Lennon's Birthday and the 30th Anniversary of Rubber Soul [scoped-stereo]

Sunday, December 10, 1995 (181:52)

contributed by Brian Wolfsohn

A show dedicated to the memory of John Lennon and the 30th anniversary of Rubber Soul. It includes interview segments with Paul Simon, Aztec Two-Step, Christine Lavin, Cynthia Lennon and others.

mp3Pete

AIRCHECK: Vin Scelsa’s “Idiot's Delight” [scoped-stereo]

Sunday, December 31, 1995 (4:02:05)

contributed by Charlie Menut

This is Vin's New Year's Eve show from 1995, all five air hours of it, which he called the “New Year's Eve for Loners” show. It's a great example of a highly creative and unique program in which Vin goes one-on-one with his listeners in his incredibly low-key and "couldn't be more informal" style. Producer Manning also joins in on the festivities.

There's a great Lenny Bruce bit about religion (don't listen if you're easily offended) at the end of Part 6.


mp3Pt.1(31:03) mp3Pt.2(30:40) mp3Pt.3(38:03) mp3Pt.4(12:11)

mp3Pt.5(45:07) mp3Pt.6(45:50) mp3Pt.7(39:11)

PRESS: Switch to Modern Rock

February 12, 1996

New York Magazine

In early 1996, K-Rock decided to switch to a Modern Rock format and made all the DJ's re-audition. This article tells the story.

Alison Steele



WXRK (K-Rock) 92.3 Schedules


Click for larger image


1975-1996

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 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.

Schedule