WCBS-FM
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| WCBS-FM | |
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| Broadcast area | New York, New York |
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| Branding | 101.1 Jack FM |
| Slogan | Playing what we want |
| First air date | 1941 |
| Frequency | 101.1 (MHz)  |
| Format | WCBS-FM: Adult Hits WCBS-HD2: Oldies |
| ERP | 6,800 watts |
| Class | B |
| Callsign meaning | Columbia Broadcasting System |
| Owner | CBS Radio |
| Website | www.ilikejack.com |
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.
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[edit] 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; the American Broadcasting Company, for which WABC-AM would be its flagship station, did not exist until 1953) and subsequently the frequency changed to 96.9 MHz. Finally by 1947 the callsign was WCBS-FM and the frequency was 101.1 mhz.
For many years WCBS FM simulcast WCBS 880. The format in the 1940s until the late 1950s was a general entertainment format with comedies, dramas, news, information, sports, talk shows and some music. As radio shows mostly either moved to television or were canceled totally WCBS and WCBS FM evolved slowly into a personality format featuring news, popular music, sports, and information. As rock and roll became popular the stations limited the music to only softer rock and roll cuts.
In 1966 WCBS 880 retained a MOR/Personality format (and would go to an all news format in 1967) and WCBS-FM broke away with their own programming. They employed a younger based easy listening format known as "The Young Sound" by 1966, playing instrumental easy listening versions of newer songs. All of CBS's sister stations on FM adopted this format as well. In 1969, WCBS-FM began a progressive rock format, playing a blend of album rock cuts and rock hits. All the other CBS owned FM stations moved into this format as well. This would be the first time WCBS FM would have an airstaff. 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. Unfortunately WCBS FM had very low ratings as a rock station. WPLJ (had been WABC FM until 1971) and WNEW-FM had most of the rock audience. As a result WCBS FM would change formats in 1972.
[edit] Oldies years
WCBS-FM became an oldies station suddenly on July 7, 1972 and is one of the first full-time stations to use that format. This happened due to low ratings as a rock station and the fact that WOR FM had dropped pre 64 oldies from its Adult Top 40 format a few months before and would soon adopt call letters WXLO. The first record on the oldies format was Dion’s recording of “Runaround Sue”. The entire staff from the rock format would remain. Back then it was not uncommon for stations to keep airstaffs at format changes. The staff would gradually leave through attrition but over the years turnover was very small.
Initially, CBS FM 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 1980s, 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.
By the mid 1970s CBS FM backed off most non rock vocalists and began to focus on more 60's rock artists as well as play more Motown. a couple other FM stations owned by CBS also switched to oldies while one became an Adult contemporary station. A couple remained rock stations. By 1979 3 FM stations owned by CBS had gone disco, one remained rock, one remained soft rock, and CBS FM remained oldies. In 1981 all of CBS's FM stations except for WCBS FM went to a Top 40 format known as Hot Hits. In 1982 the Los Angeles FM station returned to rock and then mellow rock.
WCBS FM though continued to be successful with the oldies format. As CHR/Top 40 became a younger format, CBS began dropping it in other markets. In 1986 the Boston station switched to Mellow rock and failed. In 1987 that station opted to adopt a 1955-1971 based oldies format and became WODS Oldies 103. A month later WCAU FM Philadelphia adopted a similar format becoming WOGL Oldies 98. In 1988 the St Louis station became Clue 103 KLOU playing oldies from 1955 to 1974. In 1989 the LA station became KODJ Oldies 93. All of CBS's owned FM stations except for WBBM-FM Chicago were oldies stations. These stations all switched based on CBS FM's success and the general growth of the format.
Late in 1988 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 1980s music (most '80s music on the station was consistent with the format although there were a handful of exceptions, especially at night. Most but not all the artists were "oldies" staples, 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 while at the same time playing far more 70's music 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 and as many as 4 or 5 post 1972 songs an hour.
By 2000 CBS began to lose interest in the oldies format. The company philosophy had changed gradually over the years. CBS had merged with several companies and owned over 100 FM stations in many different formats. The St Louis FM station KLOU had been sold at one point (they still play oldies today but are owned by Clear Channel).
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. [1]
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.
[edit] 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 (who had been with the station since its Rock days in 1969, three years prior to the 1972 oldies launch) 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 signed off at 3:57 p.m., he played Fontella Bass' "Rescue Me" and 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, bye all!" before heading into an unscheduled company meeting [2] where he and the other staff would learn about the format flip.
After the legal ID jingle at 4PM, the station played half an hour of oldies. The broadcast had no host, using jingles in between the songs. In retrospect, several of the song choices were more than coincidental: "Movin' Out", "Hit the Road Jack" and "Get a Job" were played in a row, and "Glory Days" followed seven minutes later.
The final song at 4:30 PM was the Frank Sinatra single "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 short 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" was played, becoming the first song played under the new 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 format 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.
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 at 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 f**king 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.
In March of 2006, Chad Brown hired Brian Thomas as program director replacing Steve Smith. Chad was replaced by Les Hollander later that year after a big layoff of personnel at CBS Radio. In 2007, Jennifer Donohue (from WWFS) was named as Jack's new General Manager.
Jack signed on with the promise of "No DJ's" but later hired Amy Scott, a former VH1 VJ, to host information elements in its morning programming, "F.Y.I." includes headlines, weather and traffic. It has also added Delphine Blue as the host of it's weekly "Acoustic Sunrise" show on Sunday mornings 7am to noon and her role was expanded in January 2007 to include hosting weekday afternoon "F.Y.I" updates, from 4:00 - 7:00pm. [3]
[edit] HD2
With the launch of High Definition Radio in New York in early 2006, WCBS-FM was able to revive the oldies format on 101.1 HD2 and www.wcbsfm.com [4] The HD2 station features "The Greatest Hits of All Time" with a much larger playlist from the mid 1950s to the 1980s, programmed by longtime New York City radio veteran Jeff Mazzei, but currently does not feature live on-air personalities which the station was known for.
[edit] See also
WCBS (AM), aka "WCBS Newsradio" (880 kHz.)
WCBS-TV (channel 2)
[edit] External links
- 101.1 Jack FM website
- 101.1 WCBS-FM HD2 website for the oldies format
- Online petition to bring back WCBS-FM
- New York Daily News: Oldies suddenly a thing of past in WCBS shift (June 4, 2005)
- About.com opinion piece on the CBS-FM to Jack FM switch
- Interview with Cousin Brucie in The Villager magazine in which he describes his phone call with WCBS-FM VP Chad Brown 2 hours before the Jack-FM switch and his warning to Chad of the negative press/public reaction.
- WCBS-FM tribute site
- April 3, 2006 piece in the Washington Post about the end of the oldies format in the DC area that erroneously says that WCBS-FM jettisoned the Jack format in the fall of 2005
- WCBS FM FAN SITE
- WCBS-FM Station Information
- Cousin Brucie Fans
- Max Kinkel Fans
