WPLJ
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| WPLJ | |
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| Broadcast area | New York, New York |
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| Branding | 95.5 PLJ |
| Slogan | Did you 'PLJ today? |
| First air date | 1948 |
| Frequency | 95.5 MHz  95.5 HD-2 for 1970s Music 95.5 HD-3 To Be Announced |
| Format | Hot Adult Contemporary |
| Callsign meaning | White Port & Lemon Juice |
| Owner | Disney/ABC Radio |
| Website | www.plj.com |
WPLJ is a New York City radio station, broadcast on 95.5 MHz FM. WPLJ is the flagship FM station of the ABC Radio Network, which, in turn, is owned by the Walt Disney Company. The station has always been the FM sister station of WABC. Like its AM sister station, this station will be involved in the merger deal between Citadel Broadcasting and Disney's ABC Radio stations.
The station currently plays the hot adult contemporary music format also called "hot AC".
The station is located on the 17th floor of 2 Penn Plaza. It is located above Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.
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[edit] Early years
The station went on the air in 1948 under the call sign WJZ-FM. In 1953, the station's call letters were changed to WABC-FM.
Beginning in 1969 it gained attention for its freeform-based progressive rock format. It referred to itself as "Love Radio" or "ABC Love". Bob Lewis as "Bob-A-Lu" was its most prominent disc jockey, although Dave Herman and Vin Scelsa were becoming known as well. The station broadcast a live radio concert by Elton John on November 17, 1970, which was issued as the 11-17-70 album the following year by Uni Records, and it also broadcast live the closing concerts of the Fillmore East theatre on June 27, 1971.
[edit] AOR years
On February 14, 1971, the station changed its call sign to WPLJ (from the song and jingle "White Port and Lemon Juice" performed by The Four Deuces in 1955 and The Mothers of Invention in 1970) and switched to a more conventional AOR (album oriented rock) format. Early on, the station would play the music of artists such as Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Doobie Brothers, Steely Dan, Elton John, Deep Purple, Rod Stewart, and The Allman Brothers. The station would also play pop songs from artists such as James Taylor, Stevie Wonder and Carly Simon. The station was different from Top 40 stations (such as co-owned WABC) in that they played more album tracks.
Larry Berger took over as Program Director of WPLJ in 1974, and the station adopted the slogan "New York's Best Rock". Some of the personalities on the station during this period included Jim Kerr, Pat St. John, Carol Miller, Tony Pigg, John Zacherle, Dave Charity, and Jimmy Fink. Berger himself hosted a Sunday night call-in show to discuss the station with listeners, but would refuse to discuss the playlist, which was the primary thing most listeners cared about. During these call-in segments, Berger was also accused by many callers of "pitching up" the music so that they could fit in more commercials while still being able to claim that they played a large number of songs per hour. Berger of course repeatedly denied these accusations.
Another Sunday night show begun in 1975 was then-Father Bill Ayres' long-running On This Rock, which mixed spirituality and social consciousness together with the music of Harry Chapin, Bob Seger, and others. Bill Ayres was a Roman Catholic Priest with the Archdiocese of New York City. The show also aired on its sister station WABC on Sunday mornings within the last years of its Top 40 music format. Bill Ayres eventually left the priesthood in the 1980s but continues to host a call in Sunday night show today on the station.
By 1977, WPLJ tended to emphasize hard rock artists such as Led Zeppelin (there was a nightly "Get the Led Out" segment), Black Sabbath, Rush, Kansas, Boston, and Queen, who happened to get less airplay than on competing station WNEW-FM. At that point, the station stopped playing pop songs, and their ratings were good.
During its album-oriented phase, it was most noted for its "montages"; snippets of classic-rock songs were spliced together around a particular subject, such as gasoline (during the gas shortages of the 1970s).
In 1982, WPLJ got competition with WAPP, which happened to have identical AOR format (WAPP was commercial-free in the summer of 1982). WAPP beat WPLJ in the ratings that fall, and WPLJ reacted by adding more New Wave such as Flock of Seagulls, Dexy's Midnight Runners, The Go-Go's, Elvis Costello, Men at Work and Soft Cell, mixed in with the usual AOR fare. Their ratings would end up being better than those of WAPP, after WAPP started adding commercials. In early 1983, the station added "Beat It" by Michael Jackson. While he was not a typical AOR artist that cut was played by many AOR stations due to Eddie Van Halen's role in the song. The station also was cutting back on AOR artists while playing more modern rockers.
[edit] CHR and Hot AC years
In the Spring of 1983 the station began a transition from AOR to CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio). As 1983 progressed, and with word that a CHR format was coming to 100.3 FM up the dial, WPLJ moved further into a CHR direction. However, the station still called itself "New York's Best Rock", even though the station was moving away from playing rock songs. Larry Berger discussed the changes on his call-in show, to a disapproving reaction from the traditionalist rock audience.
It finally made the change official in late June 1983 -- the first FM station in years to go to a straight Top 40 format. (Competitor WYNY had been the de-facto FM hits station throughout the early 1980s, playing many current songs as part of its adult-contemporary format). The station's airstaff, which stayed on during the early transition months, would gradually change, as WNEW-FM picked up some of the station's best-known DJs, such as Carol Miller and Pat St. John. (Morning man Jim Kerr and sidekick Shelli Sonstein would remain with the station into the end of the decade.)
By that August, WPLJ was known as "The Home of the Hits" and added top-forty-type jingles shortly afterwards. So in a way it was "New York's Hit Music Station" before Z-100 went on the air around the same time. (The following spring, WPLJ identified itself very briefly as 'The new Musicradio PLJ' before switching to 'Hitradio 95' WPLJ just a few days later. In 1985, the station became known on-air as "Power 95". Ratings went up after switching to CHR, though they were still just behind Z-100 most of the time. The double-whammy of Top 40 on one end and light-music WLTW proved the kiss of death for the AC format on WYNY, which eventually went country.
In December 1987, the station changed its call letters to WWPR (World Wide Power Radio), but the call sign reverted back to WPLJ the following year, because the change had caused confusion among listeners. (It has been said that competitor Z-100 joked before WPLJ's call letter change that the "PR" in the calls stood for "Puerto Rican" and that the station planned to go Spanish.) (The WWPR Calls Would Resurface In 2002 In The 105.1 Frequency With A Hip-Hop/Rap And R&B Format)
The station continued to be successful until 1990, when ratings slowly went down. While Hot 97 at this time tended to play more dance and urban songs, and Z-100 played mainstream pop music, WPLJ leaned slightly towards rock. Larry Berger had left the station in 1988, replaced in early 1989 by Gary Bryan from KUBE in Seattle, who was program director and ultimately, morning show host, having ousted 20 year morning host Jim Kerr. Bryan lasted barely a year, before giving up and crossing the street to Z100 for Morning Zoo host chores. Bryan was replaced by Tom Cuddy as VP of Programming, who installed Rocky Allen, from WKSE in Buffalo for morning drive. WPLJ began to regain some momentum but in a stunning move in the Spring of '91, Cuddy and general manager Mitch Dolan hired Scott Shannon, who had just left his novel attempt at LA radio, Pirate Radio. Shannon was the architect responsible for Z-100's success and legendary Morning Zoo host, and took over as WPLJ's program director and morning show host (replacing Rocky Allen) in April 1991, as the station's ratings were on the decline. They subsequently referred to itself as "Mojo Radio" in the spring and summer of 1991.
Since 1991, the morning drive slot at WPLJ has been hosted by Scott Shannon and Todd Pettengill, and is known as the Scott and Todd Big Show. It has about one million listeners per week, and its trademark segments include "Knuckleheads in the News", "Phone Scams", and song parodies. By the fall of 1991, the station was playing mainstream pop music, and ratings were up slightly. In the fall of 1991, began to develop one of the standard bearer hot adult contemporary formats, at about the same time a slightly different version was being pioneered in Houston at KHMX. In an attempt to differentiate itself, WPLJ adopted the slogan "No Rap, No Hard Stuff, No Sleepy Elevator Music, Just the Best Songs On the Radio."
The station was on the leading edge, including many songs familiar only to New Yorkers and "oh wow" type oldies that would not have been normal for the format. (In a bit of irony, WPLJ may have pioneered many of the concepts made popular by the Jack FM format of 2005.) It mixed in liberal doses of disco and did regular theme weekends featuring "One Hit Wonders" and "#1 Songs" among others. Eventually, it would also dedicate Monday-Saturday nights to playing nothing but 1970s music, with former WKTU legend Al Bandiero, a practice that continued for the next few years. In the mid 90's Rocky Allen returned to WPLJ, this to do afternoon drive, for several years until moving to WABC for the morning drive slot. Allen returned again to PLJ in late 2005.
In January 1999, WPLJ abruptly morphed to a modern adult contemporary format (or modern AC), (a variation of the Hot AC format) eliminating all 1970s music from their rotation in the process. The station at this time had the slogan "New York's Hit Music Station Without the Rap", in an attempt to distance themselves from competitors that played rap music. But, the bloom was off "modern AC" which had peaked in '97-'98 and over time, the station returned to a hot adult contemporary format, with its playlist consisting of songs from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
With ratings in decline, WPLJ started to play more music from the 1970s and 1980s in 2005. Given its heritage as both a rock station in the 70's and for championing a novel hot AC mix in the early and mid '90s, many people in the radio business saw this move as a precursor for the station to switch to a "Jack FM"-type format. However, they were beaten by WCBS-FM, which switched from oldies to Jack FM on June 3, 2005.
While not the obvious ratings success, WPLJ has for years been among the more financially successful stations in New York, billing in excess of 40 million dollars per year. While shunning the audience in New York City proper, (which is highly ethnic) WPLJ does extremely well with adult women in the lucrative 9 northern New Jersey counties, thus soldifying their financial status as one of New York's stronger stations.
During its CHR years WPLJ used jingles from JAM Creative Productions, some of which were notably jingle packages that had previously been used on WABC-AM, but since becoming a hot ac station has used jingles from TM Century.
[edit] The current DJ's
- Scott Shannon
- Todd Pettengill
- Patty Steele
- Bill Evans
- Joe Nolan
- Monkey Boy
- Brad Blanks
- Hollywood Harry
- Jersey Girl Diana
- Race Taylor
- Rocky Allen
- Blain Ensley
- Onions
- Heather O'Rourke
- Christine Richie
- Dave Stewart
- Joey Kramer
- Bill Ayres
- Lani Ford
- Jason Drew
- David Simpson
- Jamie Lee
