WCBS-FM

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WCBS-FM (101.1 MHz.) is a radio station in New York City. Owned by CBS Radio, WCBS-FM was famous for broadcasting an oldies music format, which ran for 33 years before the station switched to the "Jack FM" format abruptly in early June 2005.

Contents

1 Early years
2 Oldies years
3 Jack attack
4 Reasons why WCBS-FM changed formats
5 HD2
6 See also
7 External links

Early years

The station's history began in 1941 when it became CBS's first FM station, under the callsign W67NY and broadcasting on the frequency 46.7 MHz. In 1943, its callsign was changed to WABC-FM (for Atlantic Broadcasting Company, the former owner of CBS's AM station) and subsequently the frequency changed to 96.9 MHz. Finally by 1947 the callsign was WCBS-FM and the frequency was 101.1 mhz.

WCBS-FM employed a younger based easy listening format known as "The Young Sound" by 1966, playing instrumental easy listening versions of newer songs. In 1969, WCBS-FM began a progressive rock format, playing a blend of album rock cuts and rock hits. Bill Brown joined the radio station then and stayed well past this rock format and remained through the entire period WCBS-FM played oldies. Don K. Reed was hired shortly before WCBS-FM flipped to oldies, and he stayed throughout the 33-year oldies period. Program director Joe McCoy was responsible for CBS-FM's becoming America's #1 Oldies Station, and ran it from 1982 until a year before JACK took over.

Oldies years

-->WCBS-FM became an oldies station in 1972 and is one of the first full-time stations to use that format. Initially, it played mostly rock & roll songs from the 1950s and early 1960s, with a specialty in doo-wop, but it also mixed in a lot of non-rock songs from the rock era as well. They also played softer songs from the late 60s and early 70s. By 1973 they were playing 2 "currents" an hour as well, in a feature known as "Future Gold". By the mid-70s, WCBS-FM began playing more rock and roll hits from the late 60's and 70's while backing away from the non-rock artists with a few exceptions. They continued to play a large amount of pre-1964 songs as well as the "Future Gold" selections. This approach lasted well into the 1980s. As the oldies format caught fire in the late 1980's, WCBS-FM was still one of the only ones to play anything past 1973.

As an oldies station, WCBS-FM employed many disc jockeys who were widely known on other New York City stations (and sometimes nationally), such as Ron Lundy (from WABC), Dan Ingram (from WABC), Bruce "Cousin Brucie" Morrow (from WABC and WNBC), Harry Harrison (from WMCA and WABC), Dan Daniel (from WMCA, WYNY, and WHN) and Jack Spector (from WMCA and WHN). These DJ's were staples of the early days of Top 40 radio in the 1960s and 1970s. Bob Shannon, while not previously employed by another New York City radio station before WCBS-FM, became well-known himself through his 19-year run as the station's afternoon disk jockey.

Sometime in the late 1980s, in an attempt to further define themselves, WCBS-FM starting phasing out "Future Gold" selections, dropping them during the day and only playing them late nights and overnights ("Future Gold" would be dropped completely by 2001). They continued playing about a song per hour of 1980's music (if the music was consistent with the format or the artist was an "oldies" staple, like Rod Stewart, Elton John or Peter Cetera from Chicago) as well as several songs from the mid-to-late 70s per hour including popular classic rock, soft hits, and disco songs. Unlike WCBS-FM, most oldies stations in other markets did not follow suit and continued to only play songs which came out before 1974, even excluding hits by traditional "oldies" artists (for example, Neil Sedaka's and Frankie Valli's brief comebacks in the mid-1970s). Still the ironic thing was WCBS-FM also continued to play more pre-1964 songs an hour than the norm. Most oldies stations were focused on 1964-69 with two or three pre-1964 oldies per hour and one 1970-1973 song per hour. WCBS-FM was playing as many as 5 or 6 pre-1964 songs an hour.

WCBS-FM held to their unique oldies format until early 2001 when they axed many specialty shows. At this time they dropped overnight 90's songs, began playing as many as two 80s hits an hour, and one more 70s hit per hour while starting to cut pre-1964 songs slightly. In 2002 they began to shorten the regular playlist and cut away from pre-1964 product even more. The symbolic peak came in the summer of 2002 when Don K. Reed's long-running Sunday night Doo-Wop Shop program was closed down. They also cut pre-1964 product down to once or twice per hour and began playing '70s music even more often, becoming focused on the years from 1964-79. At this point they wera playing at least two 80's songs per hour. In a July 2005 keynote address to the Radio & Records Convention, musician/actor/DJ Steven Van Zandt labelled this switching out of 1950s music for 1970s music as the key death blow to WCBS-FM (and other oldies stations), not the later Jack takeover. [link]

The station canceled more specialty shows in 2003 such as the "Top 20 Oldies Countdown". In the summer of 2003, to appease some fans, they did bring a specialty 1955-64 oldies show called "Heart & Soul of Rock & roll" with Norm N. Nite (another longtime air person who has been there off and on since 1973). Still in that year Harry Harrison left mornings and Dan Ingram also left. In the spring of 2004 the station tightened its playlist even more playing almost entirely songs from 1964 to 1979. They played one pre 64 song every other hour. They were down to about 30 pre 64 songs altogether. They played several 80's songs per day down to a couple dozen of those as well. The rest of the playlist was about 500 songs totally. Harrison still came back for Saturdays in that fall of 2004.

WCBS-FM's ratings did increase during the 1990s (and were sustained into the 2000s) and market research studies showed a small and growing audience in the 35-49 year old demographic as a new generation's "songs they grew up with" moved into the oldies format. The station's last morning show host as an oldies station was ex-Monkee Micky Dolenz, who had appeal to this audience segment by virtue of 1970s The Monkees reruns and the mid-1980s Monkees revival. His broadcast on June 3rd, 2005, was a remote at a Manhattan restaurant to celebrate his 100th day at the station. However, by the end of that day, the station would be changed dramatically.

Jack attack

In a shocking and controversial move, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Friday, June 3, 2005, WCBS-FM 101.1 flipped formats from Oldies to the new "Jack FM," and is self-identifying under that term. Bill Brown (with the station since prior to the 1972 oldies launch..in fact there since 1969 during their Rock days) was the last airperson on the station who signed off at 4 PM as usual. Brown appeared to be the only DJ who suspected something bad was about to happen: As he played Fontella Bass' "Rescue Me", he said "'CBS-FM, 101.1, Fontella Bass. You ever feel the urge to just kinda scream, 'Rescue Me!'?... I'm beginning to get that feeling. Here's Fontella Bass," before heading into an unscheduled meeting [link] where he and the other staff would learn about the format flip. After the legal ID jingle at 4PM, the station switched to its HD stream and played several 70's oldies, several pre 64 oldies in a row, and a couple 60's songs with jingles played in-between. The final song at 4:30 PM was a Frank Sinatra song "Summer Wind." Then WCBS-FM listeners heard 30 minutes of stunting with movie liners, clips of various songs, sound effects, Frank Sinatra's version of "Theme from New York, New York" (which had previously been used in the station's jingles), and more sound effects including songs with the name "Jack" (such as "Hit The Road Jack", which ironically, had just been played "unedited" at 4:12 PM) and having the "Jack" faded out. Then at 5 PM (after a spoken legal ID, which would be the new format for legals under the new format) a voice came on saying: "Oh, hi there. Mind if I have a word? Thanks. Who am I? Well, I'm not Howard Stern, but you probably guessed that. Anyway, I've got a question... Why don't we just play what we want? I mean, there's a whole world of music out there." Then a little introduction was played which was followed by the announcing of the new station name. "Welcome to the NEW 101.1 Jack FM, playing what we want." After that, the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right To Party" was played, becoming the first song played under the new "Jack" format. A list of all the songs played that day (both in the oldies format and Jack format) can be seen [here].

With this move, WCBS-FM left the oldies scene after broadcasting oldies continuously for 33 years. In an attempt to cater to fans of the old format, the station created an internet-only oldies station on its website. Initially, the internet-only station is DJ-less like the new Jack FM (whose "DJ" is a pre-recorded, male voice done by Howard Cogan), but in a letter on the WCBS-FM website posted on June 5, 2005, station VP Chad Brown announced the web stream will try to have most of the original shows and DJ's back and that eventually the station will also be able to be heard on HD radio. Ironically, the letter tries to attract the CBS-FM fans to the new "Jack" station by noting that many of the songs from the old format will be played on the new one. On June 8, the letter was altered to note that the "$25,000 Tax Refund" contest that was going on while the station was on the air could still be entered online. On June 14, the new Jack FM revamped their own web site and announced (most likely in a partial nod to the ongoing controversy) that unlike other "Jack" stations in other parts of North America, they will include some 50's and 60's songs in their rotation, including a link that lets you see what songs were played over the last three hours to get an idea of the extent of the format. However, a further website revamp on July 1 backed off from this statement and it appears that songs from before the late 1960's are no longer played.

Many in the radio industry, while appreciating the mantra in broadcasting to skew younger to better appeal to advertisers (a tactic that also produced controversy in the TV industry in 2005 for its cancellations of family shows like American Dreams and Joan of Arcadia as well as still-successful long-running hit Judging Amy), condemned the move on two grounds: First, that it was done suddenly with no warning; and second, that DJ's of long-standing, indeed historical renown like Cousin Brucie Morrow were replaced by a recording in a moment's notice. The station was also criticized during its first week on the air for its "double-entendre" of sometimes making fun of the old CBS-FM and its listeners but then a few songs later telling people where to go on the Internet to hear the old format. According to the New York Post, mayor Michael Bloomberg responded to the change by declaring he would "never listen to that fucking CBS radio ever again", which the new Jack station picked up on, making jokes about his quip ("Hey, Mayor Bloomberg. I heard you took a shot at us in The Post. What's with all the swearin' like a sailor? Fleet week is over. It's just music.") in between berating and insulting former WCBS-FM listeners. In an interview with the New York Daily News, Cousin Brucie likened the format switch to "replacing Yankee Stadium with a fruit stand". Cousin Brucie has since signed on with Sirius Satellite Radio to continue spinning oldies tunes.

Reasons why WCBS-FM changed formats

There has been a lot of speculation as to why WCBS-FM, which wasn't in any ratings trouble with an oldies format, made the switch. Some believe that this was a way to cater to younger demographics, since the average age of an oldies station listener these days is considered "undesirable" to advertisers (though WCBS was skewing slightly younger than oldies stations in other markets due to having more 70s and 80s songs in its rotation). Others believe that this was a way to beat any other station to this "format of the moment," since in other markets, one station flipped to a Jack FM-type format before another could do so. Also taken into consideration was the fact that sister stations WXRK and WNEW-FM both have had recent format changes, and with this came the belief that their parent company, Infinity Broadcasting, did not want to interfere with the new formats of these other stations. A third theory was espoused by Newsday. It theorizes that the Jack format, with its heavy emphasis on 70s and '80s music, is close enough to a portion of WCBS-FM's format that putting it on one of Infinity's other New York stations would have caused a partial competition between two of its own entities.

Many fans, particularly the older ones, are seeing this move as their generation's version of what the demise of "Big Band"-format WNEW-AM in New York a decade before meant to their parents. When that long-running station left the airwaves, it essentially signaled the end of that format on radio in New York and eventually in other markets as well.

The station will be centrally programmed out of Dallas/Fort Worth, as all the other CBS Radio "Jack" stations.

According to Arbitrends stats released after the change that covered the first three months of the summer ratings period, which was half Jack and half Oldies, WCBS-FM was in 17th place among New York stations with a 2.5 rating 12+. Their ratings would fall even further in the June-July-August ratings period (the station's first full period with a Jack format), as they ended up in 22nd place among New York stations with a 1.7 rating 12+. In the overall summer 2005 ratings period, the station had a 1.5 rating 12+, which was the lowest of any commercial FM station in New York. This decline is even more staggering considering that the station had a 3.6 rating 12+ in the summer 2004 ratings period. The station also had been ranked in ninth place as recently as winter 2004-2005.

After these bad books, this Jack station was programmed to lean more towards straight classic rock than other Jack FM stations in an effort to try and compete with Clear Channel's 104.3 WAXQ (Q104.3), since Infinity's 92.3 WXRK (K-ROCK) had changed formats from rock to talk in early January 2006. Interestingly enough, an article in the Washington Post about the end of that city's only oldies station made a comparison to the WCBS-FM switch to Jack and commented on this by erroneously saying that Jack was jettisonned in New York in the fall of 2005. Nonetheless, with the ratings disaster continuing at Jack most feel it is only a matter of time before those responsible for it are fired. There have been many Internet rumors of the original oldies station being revived in its place, but it's considered highly unlikely given that many of the station's personalities have moved on to other venues, and also due to the fact that the oldies format has been revived on the 101.1 HD-2 signal which requires an HD receiver to be heard. Sadly, this new technology will be hurt even further as the listeners that may have been likely to become early adopters of the new technology still feel the sting of the insult from CBS Radio's way of handling the format change and may not support the network's endeavors.

On December 14, 2005, in anticipation of media giant Viacom spinning off the CBS TV and radio broadcast properties, the parent company reverted the division's brand back from Infinity Broadcasting to CBS Radio.

In the fall 2005 ratings period, the station's 12+ ratings inched upward back to a 1.7 rating overall, but in the 25-54 demographic, the station went from a 1.9 to a 2.3, while in the 35-44 demographic (which CBS Radio senior vice president/regional manager Joel Hollander considers as the station's target audience), the station went from a 2.2 to a 3.1 [link].

HD2

With the launch of High Definition Radio in New York in early 2006, WCBS was able to bring back from the dead the old oldies format, albeit on their HD2 station. The HD2 station features The Greatest Hits of All Time from the mid 1950's to the 1980's, but does not feature live on-air personalities which the station was known for throughout its prestigious run as the nation's best and most respected oldies radio powerhouse.

External links

FM radio stations in the New York City market

By frequency: 88.1 | 88.3 | 88.7 | 88.9 | 89.1 | 89.1 | 89.5 | 89.9 | 90.3 | 90.3 | 90.3 | 90.7 | 91.1 | 91.5 | 92.3 | 92.7 | 93.1 | 93.5 | 93.9 | 94.3 | 94.7 | 95.5 | 96.3 | 96.7 | 97.1 | 97.5 | 97.9 | 98.3 | 98.7 | 99.1 | 99.5 | 100.3 | 100.7 | 101.1 | 101.9 | 102.7 | 103.1 | 103.5 | 103.9 | 104.3 | 105.1 | 105.5 | 105.9 | 106.7 | 107.1 | 107.1 | 107.5

Past Stations: WNBC | WPIX

Based on a list from [the New York Radio Guide].

CBS Corporation

1Will Become The CW Television Network>The CW Owned and Operated Television Stations on September 18, 2006

2Will become affiliates of Fox Broadcasting Company>Fox's My Network TV in September 2006

3Will become Independent station>independent stations on September 18, 2006 Annual Revenue:

.54 billion USD (2005) | Employees: Unknown at this time. | Stock Symbol: NYSE: [CBS] | Website: [www.cbscorporation.com]

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