102.7 goes all soft on format

BY STEVEN SNYDER
Newsday Staff Writer

Now calling itself "Fresh 102.7," WNEW-FM surprised listeners yesterday with an early-morning format change from rhythmic/dance music to "today's soft music."

The switch happened around 5 a.m., as the funky beats of Kool & the Gang's "Fresh" gave way to the quiet solo piano of "How to Save a Life," the current chart-topping pop ballad by The Fray.

The format marks the newest incarnation for WNEW, which from 1967 to 1999 was one of the country's iconic rock stations. Since then, the station has unsuccessfully tried formats including "hot talk," pop hits and its most recent dance format (aka "Mix 102.7"). In the latest Arbitron survey, WNEW was near the bottom with an 1.8 overall audience share, down from 2.3 a year ago.

Station vice president Maire Mason said the move has been in the works for months and was made to accommodate the shifting tastes of its core audience.

"It's a generational move," Mason said, "We've gotten 10 years older, or 10 years younger depending on how you see it. We asked women between 30 and 40, 'What do you want in a radio station?' and it came back that they didn't want the kid stuff, they didn't want the contests, so we built a music-intensive format out of the next generation of today's soft music."

No doubt fans of the old "Mix 102.7" yesterday were surprised by what they heard throughout the day, timelier hits such as Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" and Rob Thomas' "Lonely No More."

Tom Taylor, editor of Inside Radio, described the new Fresh 102.7 as a hybrid of sorts, positioned to draw in younger fans of conventional light music and a mix of listeners who prefer the more modern titles heard on such variety stations as WPLJ/95.5 FM.

"But the winner of the day is WKTU," Taylor said, referring to FM 103.5. "Without 102.7, there's a lot more room on the dance floor for them."

Mason said that 102.7, which was without disc jockeys yesterday, is now searching for on-air talent to match its new sound.

Rest in Peace WNEW FM.

:(

:barf:

My friend in Brooklyn told me about this. I think this is like the 4th time in the past 5 years it has been changed. I remember in the spring of 2003, they played rap/hip hop. I heard about a few more changes. What is the point for all this?

When I worked there, it was an ALL TALK format.

AUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! No more of these namby-pamby powder-puff girlie formats! Bring back rock and roll, and bring it back NOW!! :mad:

AUUGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! No more of these namby-pamby powder-puff girlie formats! Bring back rock and roll, and bring it back NOW!! :mad:

No! Rock is not coming back to 102.7, try Jack-FM on 101.1 and you'll hear some more rock.

Guess what, Steve! Last week, WNEW hads changed its call letters to WWFS.:eek: The WNEW calls is no longer in New York City, but it belongs to West Palm Beach, Florida.

It's the end of an era for all three stations associated with its heritage call letters. WNEW-AM (1130), WNEW-FM (102.7) and WNEW-TV (Channel 5). :crying: FM was the last one to dropped out of New York City. I found this history about WNEW is in Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNEW

Guess what, Steve! Last week, WNEW hads changed its call letters to WWFS.:eek: The WNEW calls is no longer in New York City, but it belongs to West Palm Beach, Florida.


Good! The formats that followed the rock format in 1999 cheapened the legacy of the WNEW call letters. Pat St. John, Richard Neer, and other 'NEW rock deejays wanted the call letters changed with the format to show reepact for the past - something WPLJ (which dropped its rock format in 1983) has yet to do.

New York is a disco town now, and a rock station in the Big Apple is like a bebop station in Boise. I listen to WFUV-FM 90.7 (www.wfuv.org) and BBC Radio 2 (www.bbc.co.uk/radio2) anyway these days.

West Palm Beach? Really? :confused:

West Palm Beach? Really? :confused:

Yes indeed, West Palm Beach is now using the WNEW call letters.

Yes indeed, West Palm Beach is now using the WNEW call letters.


For a rock station, I hope. :)

And here is another article from the Daily News about the demise of WNEW:

WNEW's illustrious run is over

By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Fresh-FM (102.7 FM) officially became WWFS last Tuesday, meaning that for the first time since Feb. 13, 1934, New York doesn't have a WNEW.

But while this closes the book on a major chapter in city radio history, it's been years since WNEW really meant much.

At one time, though, it stood for marvelous and timeless music - the Great American Songbook on 1130 AM and rock, broad and ragged, on FM.

So important was WNEW that it helped shape some of the music it played, simply by giving it such a welcoming and open platform.

Just as Frank Sinatra felt at home with William B. Williams on WNEW-AM, John Lennon and Jerry Garcia would drop in on Scott Muni and his merry band at WNEW-FM.

"Those call letters represented specific times in the history of New York City," says Jonathan Schwartz of WNYC and XM Satellite Radio, who was a host on both stations. "WNEW-AM was as much a part of the city as Jimmy Cannon or Brooks Atkinson. The FM represents the '60s and early '70s for a lot of people. "

Those days, however, are as gone as subway tokens and Ebbets Field.

WNEW-AM gradually lost its prominence after it got belted by rock music and by FM. It was a shadow, though still often charming, when it was sold to Bloomberg and became WBBR on Dec. 15, 1992.

In the 1980s, meanwhile, WNEW-FM became more tightly formatted, and by the 1990s it had launched a dizzying series of format changes that moved through alternate rock, classic rock, album rock, hot talk, pop, adult contemporary and dance.

Finally, with the arrival of adult contemporary "Fresh," CBS Radio sent the call letters to West Palm Beach - a fittingly symbolic retirement for a New Yorker.

Pete Fornatale, a former WNEW-FM jock now on WFUV (90.7 FM), said recently the letters should have been retired years ago, and many of his colleagues agree their real legacy is what WNEW used to mean.

"They were synonymous with fun, spontaneous radio that had real integrity," says Meg Griffin of Sirius Satellite Radio, a WNEW-FM alumna. "It was an independent-thinking station built by a brave programmer, Scott Muni, who was acutely tuned to the fact something was happening."

"This is another part of New York's history slipping away," says Carol Miller of WAXQ, another WNEW-FM vet.

She notes that Fresh and other recent 102.7 FM formats "weren't even using the call letters. ... Listeners of Mix may not have even been aware of what was on the frequency before. So what was the point?"

In one sense, the departure of WNEW simply completes a pop music circle.

When WNEW-AM launched in February 1934, as a merger of WAAM and WODA, the "WNEW" call letters were chosen to tell listeners this was a "new" sound.

Within a year WNEW began revolutionizing radio by building shows on 78 rpm records rather than relying on live bands with only the occasional recorded disk.

For decades, WNEW and its music flourished. But by the time it signed off in 1992, pop standards and its audience were widely regarded in radio as too old. Today, on New York radio, you can't find them.

More striking is how the same thing has happened with the music of WNEW-FM, which started playing rock in 1967. New York today has no full-time current rock station.

So in some ways, the end of WNEW is a thanks-for-the-memories moment.

"Those of us who were in the tribe as listeners or lucky DJs will always have what it was," says Griffin.

"WNEW was part of this city," says Schwartz. "It was in the skin of this city."

It's a shame both WNEW stations are gone. As a young kid my Mom and Dad always had WNEW-AM on in the morning, and I listened to WNEW FM through my adult life, until the format changes screwed everything up.

New York has no full-time current commercial rock station? No kidding! Thank Russell Simmons and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter for that.

And the Village People. :eek2:

New York has no full-time current commercial rock station? No kidding! Thank Russell Simmons and Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter for that.

And the Village People. :eek2:


I guess the majority of New Yorkers aren't rock fans.

Studio 54 consigned all those great Greenwich Village folk and rock clubs to the dustbin of history years ago. And CBGB in the Bowery just bit the dust as well. :(