WNEW-FM

WNEW is a New York City FM radio station operating at 102.7 MHz and owned and operated by Infinity Broadcasting. It was previously WNEW-FM for many years, after sister AM WNEW (1130); when that station was sold to Bloomberg and became WBBR in 1992, WNEW-FM adopted the four-letter callsign. It was also co-owned with WNEW-TV until 1986, when the station was sold to Fox Entertainment Group and became WNYW.

This frequency was first occupied by WNJR in 1949, broadcasting from Newark. WNEW-FM came on the air in 1958, playing a popular music format (notable only for a period in which as a gimmick they had an all-female broadcasting staff).

In 1967 WNEW-FM adopted a "progressive" freeform rock music format, one that it became famous for and that influenced the rock listenership as well as the rock industry. Disc jockeys would broadcast in ways that bore out their personalities:

• morning fixture Dave Herman was not afraid to mix Erik Satie or Donna Summer into the playlist;
• noontime stalwart Pete Fornatale promoted The Beach Boys when it was not fashionable and later started his eclectic weekend Mixed Bag program;
• afternoon legend Scott Muni would use his gravelly voice to introduce largely unknown British artists on his "Things From England" segments;
• nighttime host Jonathan Schwartz was a raconteur would sneak in the Sinatra pop standards that he not-so-secretly liked better than rock;
• overnight presence Alison "The Nightbird" Steele would play space rock groups in between readings of her equally spacey poems;
• weekend personality Vin Scelsa started his idiosyncratic Idiots' Delight program which soon gained a devoted following.

Other well-known disc jockeys who worked at the station included Bill (Rosko) Mercer, Dennis Elsas, Richard Neer, Dan Neer, and John Zacherle.

WNEW-FM was among the first stations to give Bruce Springsteen significant airplay, and Springsteen would sometimes call up the DJs during records. John Lennon would stop by and guest-DJ for on occasion. The station sponsored a benefit concert at Madison Square Garden each holiday season that drew big-name acts. It could fairly be said that WNEW-FM earned its slogan "Where Rock Lives".

In the 1980s, the station gradually adopted a more conventional album oriented rock format, and sometimes seemed stodgy compared to college radio stations playing alternative rock. When long-time competitor WPLJ switched away from rock in 1983, WNEW-FM picked up some of its most known DJs, such as Carol Miller and Pat St. John. By the 1990s, the station was further losing relevance in the face of the popularity of grunge rock and so became more of a classic rock station. In 1995 it adopted an adult album alternative format called "New York's Rock Alternative" with considerable fanfare, but reverted to classic rock within a year. At this point, many long-time fans felt WNEW-FM had lost its focus. During this decade many of WNEW-FM's jocks defected to classic rock competitors WXRK and later WAXQ or to smaller but more freeform WFUV.

In 1999 the station abandoned music altogether and tried an extreme "hot talk" format. This consisted of "shock jocks", such as Opie and Anthony, Don and Mike and Ron and Fez, as well as a morning "guy talk" show that revolved around sports, called The Sports Guys. Opie and Anthony were fired in 2002 for a stunt involving two people having sex within St. Patrick's Cathedral, bringing considerable bad publicity to the station. In any case, the talk format failed to win listeners, and the station began playing some music again.

In 2003 the station became "102.7 Blink" (keeping the WNEW call letters) and adopted an unusual "Entertainment" format, which would mix old and contemporary pop hits with talks shows and entertainment news from sources such as E!. The station's ratings sunk further and after a few months the station changed their slogan to "102.7 Blink FM: Music Woman Love" with an (again, unusual) explicit appeal to a female audience. This format also failed to draw audiences and towards the end of the year the station adopted the increasingly popular "all Christmas music, all the time" format.

The day after Christmas in 2003, the station became "Mix 102.7", playing a hot adult contemporary range of hits from the 1970s to the 2000s. In the succeeding months, the "mix" tended to skew towards dance hits, the program director was fired for drunken on-air behavior, with this all culminating in a change to an official "classic dance" or Rhythmic AC format in early 2005 under the slogan "New York's Classic Dance Mix". However, the "Mix 102.7" moniker and the WNEW call letters also remain.

References

• Neer, Richard. FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio. Villard, 2001. ISBN 0679462953.

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