WEEX

WEEX (1230 AM) is a sports radio station in Easton, Pennsylvania branded as "ESPN Radio 1230 and 1320" and is owned by Nassau Broadcasting. Their programming is simulcast on co-owned WTKZ (1320 AM), licensed to nearby Allentown, Pennsylvania.

History

1230 WEEX History

AM 1230 WEEX signed on in May 1956 with a popular music format and simulcast their FM station. They were owned locally by Easton Publishing Company, who also owned the Easton Express newspaper. WEEX and WEEX-FM evolved into a Top 40 music format in the early 1960s. WEEX 1230 did not have a lot of power so they used their FM to simulcast much of their programming to areas where the AM could not be heard.

In the early 1970s, WEEX-FM's simulcast with the AM was broken off under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) changes which forbid full-time AM/FM simulcasts. The station switched to Beautiful Music under the WQQQ call-letters. The calls were chosen because the lower-case Q closely resembled the number 9, hence the station's frequency 99.9. The station offered an instrumental-based easy listening format, playing instrumental cover versions of pop songs. A few times per hour a soft vocalist was mixed in. WEEX evolved into more of an adult top 40 format and then more of an oldies format focusing on music from the late 1960s mixed in with a few pre-64 oldies an hour along with some 70's hits and current product.

By 1980, WEEX moved into more of an adult contemporary format. In late 1982, longtime station owner Easton Publishing acquired The Globe Times, a newspaper in nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. To satisfy media ownership rules, both WEEX and WQQQ were sold off to Wilks-Schwartz Broadcasting.

On April 4, 1983, WEEX swapped formats with its FM sister station, WQQQ. WEEX's airstaff and music library was moved to 99.9 FM. The former WEEX format was modified on FM into Mainstream CHR/Top 40. The station kept the WQQQ call letters but became known as "Q 100". Initially, the station focused on current pop music, but also played a moderate amount of 60s and 70s oldies until about 1985. WQQQ's Easy Listening format was moved to WEEX but would be more vocally-oriented than on FM. By 1987, WEEX evolved into more of an Adult Standards easy listening format.

In 1989, Roth Broadcasting acquired WQQQ and WEEX from Wilks-Schwartz. That September, WEEX switched formats to Satellite Oldies. WQQQ became a Rhythmic CHR as WHXT. On August 23, 1991, WHXT dropped its CHR format for Oldies. The format played the Hits of the 1950s, 1960s, and a few from the very early 1970s. The call letters became WODE and the station became known as "Oldies 99" under programing consultant Pete Salant. WEEX then returned to an Adult Standards format.

The stations were sold to Patterson Broadcasting in the mid 1990s. In 1997, Capstar would buy WODE and WEEX but would spin the stations off to Clear Channel Communications. They had to do this because the Lehigh Valley has only five FM stations and no one company can own more than half. As a result, a company can only have 2 FM stations in the market. Capstar was already buying WZZO and WAEB-FM. Under Clear Channel ownership, WODE continued its oldies format. WEEX switched to a Sports format affiliated with ESPN Radio. Nassau Broadcasting would eventually buy WEEX and WODE in 1991. WEEX remained an ESPN Radio affiliate and WODE switched from Oldies to Classic Hits with a rock base.

1320 history

AM 1320 began operation as WKAP in 1948. The station employed a popular music format for many years. They were owned by Rahall Communications. In the 1950s, they opted to play mostly non rock music and some softer songs by rock and roll artists. This format was known as MOR. Throughout the 1960s, they had a top-40 format, combined with relatively apolitical call-in shows. By 1970, the station evolved to more of an adult contemporary format. In 1972, WKAP decided to compete with the two Top 40 stations in the Lehigh Valley, WAEB 790, which was very current music based, and WEEX 1230, which played more oldies music, based as an Adult Top 40 station. WKAP's Top 40 format emulated West Coast giant KCBQ in San Diego. Some of the original WKAP DJs were Kevin Fennessy, Walt Brown, Shotgun Steve Kelly, Mark Stewart , Kris Bailey, Billy Sheridan and J. Robert Taylor. The station was known as WKAP Radio 13 (rounded off to the nearest hundredth). The station was sold to Gulf Broadcasting in the late 1970s.

In Sept of 1978, a local club DJ by the name of Mike Jacobs came up with an idea to broadcast live an entire evening of music commercial-free-at a local niteclub. At the time the station was an independent local AM station. The PD, Chris Bailey, Station Mgr Jerry Duckett and the staff were very interested in the project that could help them in competition with their cross-town nemesis WAEB 790AM and add a possible ratings boost to the TOP40 outlet.

The facility to be used was "The Castle Garden Ballroom" located in Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown. The parks owners, Robert Plarr and Robert Ott were also on board for this project. After extensive renovations, Castle Garden was opened for business in the late fall of 78. Crowds averaged about 300-450 per night and the owners and mgmt were looking for a spark to drive this to bigger and better crowds. The ballroom had a capacity of approx 2000 people and 300-450 looked pretty thin at the time.

FCC warning

The idea was refined and in Jan 1979, Studio 13 debuted. It was broadcast Saturday's from 9:00 PM – 2:00 AM with DJ Mike Jacobs as the DJ/Host/MC. Bill Sheridan (now employed by Nassau Broadcasting) and Shotgun Steve Kelly were the board techs. Sponsorship for the show was secured and Pepsi-Cola came on board as the primary sponsor. Commercials were inserted by Bill & Steve by having Mike Jacobs backtime the breaks in the music and then the station inserting voice-only commercials over the breaks in the music while the music played the instrumental break without interruption. The show opened with the Parliament's "Shit, Goddamn, Get Off Your Ass & Jam," followed by Bell & James' "Livin It Up". This resulted in an FCC Warning to the station and made the local news. The first night the crowd was 600 people. After the news coverage and word of mouth, Studio 13 averaged 2,000 people per night and could have done more had there not been a Fire Marshall's limit on the amount of people.

WKAP realized a ratings jump from 3.8 to 23.4, Saturday evenings from 9:00PM to 12 Midnight in a 1 month period and maintained this throughout the summer till the shows conclusion on Labor Day of 1979 at the park's request.

The management of Castle Garden also invested in and shot a 1-hour video pilot entitled "Castle Garden" that it attempted unsuccessfully to syndicate.

The one bright spot was in the fall of 1979 in New York City at the Annual Billboard Disco Forum & Convention. Mike Jacobs received an honorable mention as "DJ of the Year" for the Philadelphia region and was invited to spin at the Roseland Ballroom during the convention. WKAP also fared well at this convention being nominated for "Most Innovative Breakout Radio Show" for the year 1979, but lost out to WCAU in Philadelphia.

Mike Jacobs continued in radio and clubs in the area working at Sunny 1100 WGPA and 96 WLEV-FM until 1997 and then retired. Some of the other WKAP Air-Personalities moved on to other outlets, such as Bill Sheridan to WKRZ in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania and 99 "The Hawk" in Easton, Pennsylvania and Kris Bailey to AM 790 WAEB.

By 1980, WKAP evolved into more of an adult contemporary music format. At the end of the Summer 1982, WKAP dropped the adult contemporary format for an adult standards format, which was known as "Music Of Your Life". The station featured easy listening vocalists from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, as well as big band music from the 1930s and 1940s. The station also played a limited amount of non-rock songs from the 1970s.

The station stayed with this format through the 1980s. In 1984, Gulf Broadcasting sold WKAP to Holt Broadcasting, which at the time also owned WZZO. WKAP stayed with its standards music format, but added a bit more baby boomer pop (songs by artists like Elvis Presley and The Beatles). In 1990, though, WKAP switched to a satellite-delivered oldies music format, playing mostly songs from 1964-1969 with some 1955-64 songs, with some 1970-73 songs mixed in. They continued with this format until 1992, at which time they returned to adult standards' Westwood One's AM-only format. This featured non-rock music as well as some soft rock music of the 1950s and 1960s, along with a small amount of 1940s hits and some soft hits form the 1970ss. It was more of an easy listening based format than "Music Of Your Life". Their decision to abandon oldies music in 1992 was due to 99.9 FM WODE's adopting the format in late 1991.

In 1992, Holt Broadcasting also bought 1470 WXKW, which remained a country music station for another year. In 1993, the station switched to a satellite oldies format when 1320 flipped back to standards. Then, in 1996, Holt Broadcasting sold all of their stations except for AM 1320. They kept 1320 and made it a sports station with the WTKZ Calls. In 2001, WTKZ, along with WEEX was sold to Nassau Broadcasting Partners and today they simulcast ESPN Radio programming.

See also

• Media in the Lehigh Valley

External links

• Query the FCC's AM station database for WEEX
• Radio-Locator Information on WEEX
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WEEX
• Query the FCC's AM station database for WTKZ
• Radio-Locator Information on WTKZ
• Query Arbitron's AM station database for WTKZ