| City of license | New York, New York |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | New York City area |
| Branding | FM News 101.9 |
| Frequency |
101.9 MHz FM 101.9-2 FM Smooth 101.9 HD2 (CD 101.9 1988–2011) |
| First air date | 1945 |
| Format | News |
| ERP | 6,200 watts |
| HAAT | 413 meters |
| Class | B |
| Facility ID | 67846 |
| Callsign meaning | W EMPire State |
| Former callsigns | WGHF (1945–1955) WBFM (1955–1964) WPIX-FM (1964–1988) WQCD (1988–2008) WRXP (2008–2011) |
| Affiliations | ABC News |
| Owner | Merlin Media, LLC |
| Webcast | Listen Live |
| Website | www.fmnewsnewyork.com |
WEMP (101.9 MHz.), known on-air as FM News 101.9, is an all-news radio station located in New York City. WEMP is owned by Merlin Media LLC, and has studios located in New York's West Village neighborhood. WEMP's transmitter is located at the Empire State Building. The station also broadcasts a smooth jazz format on its HD Radio subchannel (101.9-2), named Smooth 101.9 HD2.
WEMP was acquired by Merlin Media from former owner Emmis Communications on June 21, 2011; the transaction was approved by the Federal Communications Commission and closed on September 1, 2011. Most recently known as alternative rock-formatted WRXP, the station changed to its present call sign on July 21, and adopted its present news format on August 12.
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The station first went on the air in 1945 as WGHF, named after its original owner, William G.H. Finch, and moved to the 101.9 frequency in 1947. In late 1948, it became the New York City affiliate of the farm-oriented Rural Radio Network based in Ithaca, New York, which owned a group of upstate stations that would later associate with WQXR. In 1955, its then-owner, Muzak, changed the call letters to WBFM.
After the station was purchased by the New York Daily News in late 1963, WBFM adopted the WPIX-FM call letters on October 11, 1964, as the station was now co-owned with television station WPIX. Originally an easy listening station, WPIX-FM was famous for not being able to settle on a format for any real length of time, and was derisively nicknamed "the format of the month station" by many in the New York City radio industry, as it went through 11 different formats during this period:
Notable air personalities during the WPIX-FM period included Mark Simone, Dennis Quinn, Jim Kerr, Alan Colmes, Meg Griffin, Les Marshak, Gus Gossert, Alfredo, Jane Hamburger, and Dan Neer. Another of its disc jockeys, Jerry Carroll (a.k.a. "Dr. Jerry"), would gain fame as commercial spokesperson for the Crazy Eddie retail chain. Ted David would later go on to be a news anchor at ABC Radio, and then a business news anchor at CNBC.
The station gave up quickly on both the Disco and Punk/New Wave formats to see both genres of music become popular several years later.
WPIX-FM then stayed as an adult contemporary station for a few years, as its ratings during this period were pretty good. By 1985, the station began mixing a number of eclectic songs into its adult contemporary format, and was known as "the ballads and the beat of New York."
Also in 1985, the station was running a nighttime show called "The PIX Penthouse", which played R&B and soul songs. It was also used through the 1960s as the station's tagline for an easy-listening format. ("The PIX Penthouse Party" had been originally used as a program title during WPIX-FM's Punk/New Wave era and was notable for playing 1960s music that influenced Punk and New Wave Rock.)
From 1966 to 1988, WPIX-FM simulcast the background holiday music played during WPIX Television's annual Yule Log program on Christmas Eve.
By 1987, the station started to play contemporary jazz at night, as its ratings were on the decline. Then, on August 10, 1988 the station adopted a jazz-based adult contemporary format during the day and retained all jazz at night. Later that month, on August 22, the station modified into a full-time contemporary jazz (now known as smooth jazz) format, with the new call letters WQCD and the new branding, "CD 101.9".[4] The smooth jazz format proved successful and long-lasting for a station that had not been used to stability in its programming. New York City had not had a full-time commercial jazz station since 1980, when WRVR (106.7 FM, now WLTW) became country music station WKHK following an ownership change two years earlier.
WQCD's early music blend featured contemporary jazz mixed with soft rock and urban adult contemporary, and some new age music, with an equal balance between vocal and instrumental music. At night the station played strictly contemporary jazz music, with a majority of it instrumental. As time went on, WQCD phased-out soft-rock cuts and became a full-time contemporary jazz station. The playlist continued to feature large amounts of instrumental jazz and new age, and several urban adult contemporary songs. This formula would largely be unchanged for over 15 years.
Even after the Daily News changed ownership in 1991, WQCD was retained by the News's former corporate parent, the Tribune Company. In 1997 Tribune sold WQCD to Emmis Communications, and the combination of WQCD with Emmis's two existing New York stations, WQHT (97.1 FM) and WRKS (98.7 FM), gave the Indianapolis-based company an FM triopoly in the New York market.
During its time under Tribune ownership, WQCD had been headquartered with WPIX at the (now-landmarked) Daily News Building in Midtown Manhattan. In 1998, Emmis moved WQCD, WQHT and WRKS into a newly-constructed common facility at 395 Hudson Street, at the meeting point of Manhattan's West Village and SoHo neighborhoods. The multi-station complex was the first of its kind in American radio, which was now becoming increasingly consolidated.
WQCD also ran an experiment from November 22, 2004 until August 2005, when the station's playlist included chill music, a form of relaxing music based on the music found in the beaches of Ibiza. Their ratings were not satisfactory, and the experiment ended. The station retained the tagline, "CD101.9, Your Chill-Out Station" during its successful transition back to the standard smooth jazz format.
WQCD's on-air staff remained unusually stable in the generally volatile radio climate, led by morning host Dennis Quinn. Midday host Deborah Rath had been with parent company Emmis since 1988, as a veteran of both WRKS and WQHT's original incarnation "Hot 103.5". Afternoon drive host Paul Cavalconte was a veteran of New York jazz, classical and rock stations, including WQCD's generational predecessor WNEW. Evening host Sharon Davis called WQCD home for nearly a decade as well, but on February 5, 2008, CD101.9 and Smooth Jazz all came to an end.
On February 5, 2008 at 4:00 p.m., Emmis Communications announced a change to a rock format under the WRXP call letters and the tagline 101.9 RXP: The New York Rock Experience. The last songs played were "Shining Star" and an instrumental rendition of "Street Life" by jazz artist U-Nam. The entire WQCD airstaff was released including Dennis Quinn, who had survived every other format change at 101.9 since joining the station as WPIX-FM in 1971. Only program director Blake Lawrence was retained from the previous format for WRXP. Emmis cited a declining audience for smooth jazz, the format which moved to the station's HD2 subcarrier.
WRXP was the first alternative rock station in New York City since WXRK's format flip to mainstream rock in April 2005. Even though classified as alternative rock (with a slight adult album alternative lean), Nielsen BDS and Mediabase reported WRXP as an AAA, with suburban station WXPK recognized as the main AAA station in the New York City market. By 2011, WRXP was classified as an alternative rock station by both Nielsen BDS and Mediabase.
WRXP's first on-air personality was Brian Schock, who, until leaving the station for personal reasons in January 2009, was also the station's assistant program director and music director. Station management promised to hire a New York rock-savvy airstaff for the rest of the station's dayparts,[5] and started with the hiring of former MTV personality Matt Pinfield as the morning drive host. Other additions to WRXP's on-air team included Steve Craig as midday host along with Brian Phillips as evening host. The weekend air staff includes Dave Greek, Greg Russ, Jennifer Kajzer and Paul Calvaconte, who was the only personality rehired from the WQCD smooth jazz format. In March 2009, WRXP announced through their morning program that Nik Carter, formerly of WXRK, was to join as the anchor from 3 to 7 PM on weekdays.
On June 16, 2008, Leslie Fram, formerly of WNNX in Atlanta, was appointed Program Director. In addition to her duties as program director, Fram was also co-host of the WRXP morning drive (and later midday) show with Pinfield.[6]
Majority ownership of WRXP was acquired by Merlin Media LLC, a new entity headed by veteran radio executive Randy Michaels, in a sale announced on June 21, 2011.[7] The Chicago-based company became majority owners of two Emmis stations there, WLUP and WKQX (now WWWN), through the same deal.
At 5:00 PM on July 15, 2011, after playing "Long Live Rock" by The Who, WRXP switched to a stunt of Adult Contemporary music with the brand "101.9 FM New." At 6:00 AM on July 18, WRXP began a live morning show hosted by veteran New York City radio personality Paul Cavalconte (who has been with 101.9 since 1998), with Jeff McKay (formerly of Shadow Traffic and WINS) providing weather and traffic updates.[8] The station's call letters were changed to WEMP on July 21. On July 25, 2011, the first ever newscast premiered at 3PM with Dave Packer and Mike Barker. On August 12, the station ended its Adult Contemporary stunt for "FM News 101.9," an all-news format.
After the terrestrial radio change, WRXP maintains their website at http://www.1019rxp.com/ and continues to offer their music format in streaming audio.
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