WCBS-FM
FCC | |
Facility ID | 9611 |
---|---|
Class | B |
ERP |
|
HAAT | 408 meters (1,339 ft) |
Transmitter coordinates | 40°44′53″N 73°59′10″W / 40.748°N 73.986°W |
Links | |
Public license information | |
Webcast | Listen live (via Audacy) |
Website | www |
WCBS-FM (101.1
WCBS-FM was one of the first notable oldies stations in the country, with the format dating back to July 7, 1972. Between June 3, 2005, and July 12, 2007, the station aired the automated adult hits format "Jack FM". The new programming was unsuccessful, and WCBS-FM switched back to a personality-driven classic hits format. The station is continually ranked one of the highest-rated stations in the New York market, as well as one of the highest-rated classic hits stations in the United States.[2]
History
Early years
In 1940, during the early days of FM broadcasting, what is now WCBS-FM was allocated an FM frequency and call sign, W67NY, becoming CBS's first FM station. The original transmitter site was located at 500 Fifth Avenue.[3] The allocated frequency changed several times before the station finally went on the air at 46.7 MHz on December 1, 1941.[4] On November 1, 1943, the callsign was changed to WABC-FM[5] for Atlantic Broadcasting Company, the former owner of CBS's AM station (no relation to the present-day WABC). With the reallocation of the FM band, WABC-FM's new frequency became 96.9 MHz; finally, in September 1947 the station became WCBS-FM, and the frequency moved to the current 101.1.[6] This allowed the station to reflect its corporate ownership by the Columbia Broadcasting System or CBS. The transmitter was moved to the Empire State Building in the early 1950s.
For many years, WCBS-FM simulcast its programming with its AM sister station. From the 1940s until the late 1950s, both stations aired a typical network-dominated general entertainment format with comedies, dramas, news and information, sports, talk shows and some music. As these types of radio shows either moved to television or were canceled outright, WCBS and WCBS-FM evolved toward a personality-oriented format featuring news and information, popular music, and sports. As rock and roll became popular, the stations played only softer songs of the genre.
Each of the stations began broadcasting its own programming in 1966. The AM station retained its personality-oriented middle of the road format until August 27, 1967. WCBS-FM initially programmed a younger-leaning easy listening format known as "The Young Sound", playing soft instrumental versions of current pop music songs. This automated format was syndicated to CBS stations across the country and to AFN (American Forces Network).[7] On August 27, 1967, the AM station had to launch its news format (which was not full-time until 1972) on WCBS-FM because a small airplane had crashed into the AM radio tower a few hours earlier.[8]
In 1969, WCBS-FM launched a
Original oldies years and greatest hits
WCBS-FM was never successful with their rock format, where it competed with stations such as
At first, the station focused on rock-and-roll hits from 1955 to 1964 and mixed in some softer hits of the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as a few then-current songs. WCBS-FM also played a moderate number of adult standards from the rock era. The station played two current hits per hour known as "future gold". By the late 1970s however, the station dropped most of the adult standards, with a few exceptions, and added rock hits from the late 1960s. WCBS-FM's oldies format weathered many trends and corporate moves. By 1979, three FM stations owned by CBS had begun playing
One ongoing feature was a countdown of the top 500 songs of all time, as voted by the station's listeners. The countdown always took place on Thanksgiving weekend (with a new survey taken every other year). On even years, up to 1990, the survey from the previous year was played. In the first Top 500,
Joe McCoy took over as program director in 1981, and at that point WCBS-FM began to gradually shift its focus to the 1964–1969 era, but would also feature more pre-1964 oldies than most other such stations of that decade. The station continued to also feature hits of the 1970s and some hits of the 1980s while cutting future gold selections to one per hour. Also in the 1980s, after
In 1989, WCBS-FM limited current music to late nights and overnights. While most oldies stations were playing songs from exclusively 1955 to 1973, WCBS-FM continued to play a moderate number of songs from the late 1970s as well as about one 1980s hit per hour. Most of the 1980s music came from core oldies artists.
The station's ratings increased during the 1990s (and were sustained into the 2000s) and market research studies showed a small and growing audience in the 35-to-49-year-old demographic as a new generation's "songs they grew up with" moved into the oldies format. The station even hit number one overall in the ratings on at least several occasions during the 1990s. During this period, the station's on-air jingles were made by JAM Creative Productions in Dallas. Such was the appeal of the packages of jingles that stations around the world wanted that WCBS-FM sound for their stations, including for example the UK's Radio Victory.[citation needed]
By 2000, as demographics for 1950s and early 1960s oldies started to eclipse the target age groups that many advertisers covet,[13] WCBS-FM began cutting pre-1964 songs while adding more music from the 1970s and 1980s. In January 2001, they stopped playing currents and 90's hits on the overnight, dropping them altogether. The station also had cut specialty shows such as Bobby Jay's Soul of the City on Wednesdays, Thursday Night 60's, Friday night's Heart & Soul of Rock & Roll, Monday Night 70's, and Bobby Jay's late night Saturday show Jukebox Saturday Night. Eventually, they began to shorten the regular playlist and moved away from pre-1964 and toward 1970–1989 songs even more. In the summer of 2002, Don K. Reed's long-running Sunday night Doo-Wop Shop program was cancelled. The station even began to de-emphasize the phrase 'oldies' in promotion of the station.[14]
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 add a specialty 1955–1964 oldies show called Heart & Soul of Rock & Roll with
101.1 Jack FM: Playing What We Want
In the spring of 2005, Infinity Broadcasting, which was CBS' radio division during that time, contracted with Sparknet Communications, which owns the licensing of an Adult Hits format branded as "Jack FM", a format that has seen on-air success in Canadian areas since the early 2000s. In return, Sparknet Communications gave Infinity Broadcasting permission to bring the "Jack FM" format to some of Infinity's radio markets in the United States. That April, Infinity flipped radio stations KCBS-FM in Los Angeles and WQSR in Baltimore to the "Jack FM" format. On Friday, June 3, 2005, Micky Dolenz, Mike Fitzgerald, and Randy Davis all signed off their shows expecting to be back the following Monday. However, Bill Brown signed off at about 3:53 p.m. saying, "CBS-FM 101.1, Fontella Bass... Do you ever feel the urge to just kinda scream, "RESCUE ME!?"... I'm beginning to get that feeling, here's Fontella Bass." The station segued to "Use Me" by Bill Withers. Then, at 4:00 pm, the station played the usual station identification, and then a mix of Oldies and Greatest Hits referring to change, including "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)", "Get a Job", "Glory Days" and "Hit the Road Jack" (the last song of which had the word "Jack" edited out, giving an advance hint to the new format),[15] among others. Frank Sinatra's "Summer Wind" was the last song played before the format change. At 4:30 pm, the station stunted with a 30-minute montage of lines from various movies and other sources.
At 5:00 pm, a pre-recorded station identification was played followed by a short introduction of the new
Many criticized the change of formats, among them Mayor
In March 2006, Chad Brown hired Brian Thomas as program director, replacing Steve Smith. Brown was replaced by Les Hollander later that year after a big layoff of personnel at CBS Radio. In 2007, Jennifer Donohue (from
Classic hits format
The "Jack" format experiment at WCBS-FM is widely regarded, inside and outside the industry, as one of the greatest failures in modern New York radio history, as the station fell to the very bottom of the ratings of full-market-coverage FM stations in the New York market. In early July 2007, various websites quoted sources as saying the station was ready to shift from its current "Jack FM" format and return to its previous format.
On July 12, at approximately 12:40 pm, "Jack FM" ended with "
Upon hearing of WCBS-FM's confirmation that oldies would return,
As of August 2009, WCBS-FM started carrying
In the fall of 2014, the station dropped the pre-1964 oldies altogether and also dropped many of the songs from the 1960s, cutting the number down to one to two per hour. In addition, the station broadened their format to include select hits from the 1990s, up to about 1999. On November 19, 2016, the "Saturday Night Block Party" was discontinued after four years in favor of regular programming. On July 9, 2017, Backtrax USA, hosted by former WHTZ jock Kid Kelly, debuted on WCBS-FM on Sunday nights. Prior to 2016, WCBS-FM used JAM Creative Productions, Inc. for their jingles. However, to focus on a new and changing demographic, they now use Reel World for their jingles. As of 2018, WCBS-FM no longer uses any JAM Jingles, and the station also no longer plays any music from the 1960s, while also starting to cut back on the amount of early 1970s music played. Gradually and subtly, WCBS-FM is increasing the frequency of 1980s and 1990s hits per day and is also adding music from the 2000s.
On February 2, 2017, CBS agreed to merge CBS Radio with
Signal strength
WCBS-FM broadcasts at 6,700 watts. Co-owned
WCBS-FM's subcarrier also airs Spanish language
HD radio operations
A few hours after the change back from Jack FM, WCBS-FM's '60s and '70s music was brought back online on the stations website. CBS-FM's longtime music director Jeff Mazzei was retained as program director of the wcbsfm.com oldies stream. Over the next couple of weeks, the station started playing pre-1964 oldies again. Additionally, the '60s and '70s oldies became broader and '80s and early '90s oldies were also mixed in, and the format got much deeper. However, it was commercial-free and had no airstaff. WCBS-FM HD2 also began broadcasting in HD Radio on December 12, 2005 (before most of the other New York stations, which launched in early 2006).
Air personalities did on-air auditions on the WCBS-FM HD2 oldies station on July 11, 2007, as a preview of the next day's changeover. The format then moved to the analog and HD1 channels. The HD2 station also simulcast the oldies format until 2:00 p.m. that day, at which time Jack FM moved to HD2. At 3:00 p.m. that day, Jack FM resumed streaming on their website.[
On October 2, 2008, WCBS-FM HD3 was launched as a simulcast of WCBS.
See also
References
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WCBS-FM". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "Highest-revenue radio stations in the U.S. 2019". Statista. Archived from the original on September 24, 2021. Retrieved September 24, 2021.
- ^ "Original transmitter site" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 16, 2014. Retrieved March 5, 2013.
- ^ "New York Radio Guide - Station Information for WCBS-FM". nyradioguide.com. Archived from the original on May 12, 2021. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
- ^ Miller, Jeff. "FM Broadcasting Chronology". History of American Broadcasting. Archived from the original on April 7, 2022. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
- ^ Kennedy, T.R. Jr. (September 19, 1943). "New FM Calls Coming". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 28, 2018. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
- ^ "NYC FM Radio History". Archived from the original on December 11, 2005.
- ^ "2 Killed as Plane Hits Radio Tower in Rainstorm Here". The New York Times. August 28, 1967. Archived from the original on February 9, 2019. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
- ^ "History of WCBS-FM". WCBS-FM. Archived from the original on November 13, 2006.
- ^ Toby Eddings, "ACC football on one less station," The Sun News, April 18, 1999.
- Daily News. New York. Archived from the originalon September 30, 2007.
- ^ "WCBS-FM 101.1 Top 1001 Songs of The Century". wcbsfm.com. Archived from the original on February 10, 2001. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
- ^ Hinckley, David (July 17, 2007). "Lost in the '50s". Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on April 12, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
- ^ Ross, Sean (June 8, 2005). "WCBS-FM: A Final Appreciation". Edison Media Research. Archived from the original on October 21, 2006.
- ^ "WCBS-FM New York - Format Change to Jack FM - 6/3/05". Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Are oldies the new Jack on NYC radio?". Associated Press. July 7, 2007. Retrieved March 4, 2010.
- ^ WWKB#The Legend Returns
- ^ Hinckley, David (July 13, 2007). "101.1 reasons to rejoice". Daily News. Archived from the original on July 15, 2007. Retrieved July 13, 2007.
- ^ Sisario, Ben (July 8, 2007). "WCBS-FM Switch Seen as a Victory for Older Listeners". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 19, 2017. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
- ^ "Proclamation from Mayor Michael Bloomberg on "WCBS-FM Returns to New York City Day"" (PDF). fimc.net. July 12, 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 19, 2007.
- ^ "The Power 100: #22, Dan Mason". Billboard. January 7–21, 2012. p. 16.
- ^ "Audio". Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
- ^ Plambeck, Joseph (June 16, 2010). "WCBS-FM Regains Top Spot in New York". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 22, 2010. Retrieved December 27, 2010.
- ^ "Research Director, Inc. Presents Exclusive July PPM Analysis For N.Y., L.A., Chicago, San Francisco And Dallas". Archived from the original on December 31, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
- ^ "CBS Sets Radio Division Merger With Entercom". Variety. February 2, 2017. Archived from the original on February 3, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
- ^ "CBS and Entercom Are Merging Their Radio Stations". Fortune. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
- ^ "Entercom Receives FCC Approval for Merger with CBS Radio". Entercom. November 9, 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
- ^ Venta, Lance (November 17, 2017). "Entercom Completes CBS Radio Merger". Radio Insight. Archived from the original on November 18, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
- ^ "WCBS and KCBS Calls Will Stay Put at Entercom". insideradio.com. February 7, 2017. Archived from the original on February 4, 2023. Retrieved February 4, 2023.
- ^ "WCBS-AM Now Available on FM Band". WCBS Newsradio 880. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
- ^ "HD Radio station guide". Archived from the original on December 23, 2015. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
External links
- Official website
- WCBS in the FCC FM station database
- WCBS in Nielsen Audio's FM station database
- FCC History Cards for WCBS-FM