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WEMP (101.9 FM), known on-air as New Rock 101.9, is an alternative rock 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. Smooth 101.9 HD2 is currently off the air since June 2012 because WEMP's HD transmitter had a catastrophic failure. It is unknown as to whether it will return to the air.

Early years

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.

The WPIX-FM era

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:

• 1971-1975; 1976-1977: Adult Top 40 - a Top 40 format at the time that played new songs less often than WABC; while still focused on current music, it mixed in rock and roll oldies from about 1964 to what was then recent.
• 1975: Disco. The New York Times reported, "Characterized by a strong bass, a simple melody, and terse repetitive lyrics...'Disco,' as this music is called...is becoming increasingly popular on AM and FM radio stations. WPIX-FM recently switched several hours of its nightly programming over to 'disco'" and leaned disco the rest of the day. The nightly show "Disco 102" was first hosted by Dr. Jerry Carroll, then by Howard Hoffman when Carroll moved to afternoons. By the summer of 1976 the station was back to a gold leaning Top 40 format which was popular on FM stations back then.
• Mark Simone launches "The Simone Phone", a pioneering FM comedy talk show featuring then producer/writer Tom Leykis that contained many popular features like "Dial-A-Date", which were later borrowed by other radio shows.
• 1977-1978: Top 40/rock.
• 1978-1980: Punk/New Wave Rock—At a time when other rock stations in New York were sticking with traditional AOR formats (WPLJ, WNEW-FM), Adult Top 40 (WXLO) or oldies (WCBS-FM), WPIX staked out a groundbreaking format focused on new wave and punk but included older rock and roll as well, hence its advertising slogan: "From Elvis to Elvis." It helped break in New York and nationally early records by Elvis Costello, the Police, Nick Lowe, the Clash, the Cars, Squeeze, Devo, the Kings, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, the Buzzcocks, Cheap Trick, Talking Heads, David Johansen, Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, to name just a few. The station was even featured in lyrics from the Squeeze song, 'I Think I'm Go Go' (P I X and rock and roll).
• March 1980-1981: Rock-based top 40--According to The New York Times, a station spokesperson said the station was "modifying the format to improve the product to make it more mass acceptable."
• 1981-1982: Album-oriented rock.
• January–March 1982: CHR (Top 40)--basically a transitional format to Adult Contemporary.
• March 1982: adult contemporary--began positioning itself as "Nothing But Love Songs" in 1983. Had good ratings from 1983 to 1985.
• 1985: hot adult contemporary "The Ballads and Beat of New York."
• August 16, 1986: adult contemporary/standards/eclectic rock "The Bright and Lively Sound of New York."
• 1987: Hot Adult Contemporary during the day and urban adult contemporary evenings.
• 1987-1988: Hot Adult Contemporary during the day and overnights using "Easy Rock" as a slogan. Smooth jazz in the evenings.

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, Joe "from Chicago" Piasek, Ray Otis as "Johnny Alligator," Robert Desidario as "Desi da kid from da Bronx," Dan Neer, Alfred Santos, Rick Allison, Bill Vitka, and John Ogle. Forecaster Phil Rodent moonlinghted in costume as Capt. PIX. 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 the Rocknroll/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.

As WQCD, "CD101.9"

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". 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, now WEPN-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 goes "New York Chill"

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.

Final years of CD101.9

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.

As WRXP "101.9 RXP"

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, 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 former WNNX personality 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.

On November 9, 2008, the free form show Anything Anything with Rich Russo began airing on sunday nights. Upon the sale and format change of WRXP-FM, the Anything Anything show began airing on both WXPK-FM and WDHA-FM

Transition to Merlin Media and FM News 101.9

On June 21, 2011, it was announced that majority ownership of WRXP was acquired by Merlin Media LLC, a new entity headed by veteran radio executive Randy Michaels. The sale, which the FCC approved in September 2011, included two other Emmis-owned stations in Chicago, WLUP-FM and WKQX. At 5PM on July 15, 2011, WRXP's rock format ended with the playing of "Long Live Rock" by The Who. WRXP's website (MyRXP.com) continued operation after the station left the airwaves, continuing to offer its music format via streaming online audio; that stream has since been replaced by a Spotify playlist that has had songs occasionally added.

After 5PM on July 15, WRXP (whose call sign was changed to WEMP on July 21) switched to a stunt of Adult Contemporary music branded as "101.9 FM New," a stunt that served as a transition to the station's new format. "FM New" featured a live morning show that began at 6AM on July 18, 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. News reports and news blocks were gradually introduced beginning with a 3PM newscast on July 25, 2011, anchored by Dave Packer and Mike Barker.

On August 12, 2011, the station ended its Adult Contemporary stunt and went full-time all-news as "FM News 101.9," following in the footsteps of its Chicago sister station WWWN (the former WKQX and the current WIQI), which flipped to all-news on July 29. As conceived by Merlin's then-COO, Walter Sabo, "FM News" was what Sabo considered a "redefining" of the all-news format; the on-air presentation was generally looser and conversational in tone, while an emphasis was placed on lifestyle, health, and entertainment features. The initial news staff at WEMP included those with experience in New York radio, including WINS alums Catherine Smith, Alice Stockton-Rossini, and Brett Larson, as well as former WCBS anchor Therese Crowley and WRXP holdover Paul Cavalconte.

Over time, the "FM News" approach on WEMP would be adjusted, with a decrease on lifestyle and entertainment features; a turn towards a tighter, polished on-air presentation; and the inclusions of "ten minutes of non-stop news," the "top 5 trending stories" leading off every hour, and hourly sports and business updates. Coinciding with the on-air changes was a major promotional push, including television ads and promotions that tweaked WINS' longtime "22 minutes" slogan, with WEMP proclaiming "Give us 10 minutes, we'll give you the world." (After CBS Radio sent a cease-and-desist letter to Merlin Media, WEMP dropped its its "world" slogan.)

WEMP and its all-news format struggled to make gains in Arbitron ratings; for example, in the period ending January 4, 2012, Arbitron rated WEMP at a 0.5, far behind both of the CBS Radio-owned all-news stations in New York, category leader WINS (rated at 3.2 in that January book) or WCBS. (WEMP's share was lower than one of the last ratings books for WRXP, a 2.6 share in July 2011.)

Transition from news back to rock

By Summer 2012, speculation persisted that Merlin Media would convert WEMP to a news/talk hybrid, similar to its sister stations in Philadelphia (WWIQ) and Chicago (WIQI, which was also struggling in ratings with all-news and had added its own talk programming). Instead, Merlin had other plans for the station. On July 17, 2012, at 10AM (ET), a joint meeting was held with Merlin management and the news staffs of both WEMP and WIQI; while the meeting took place, a newscast on "FM News 101.9" was abruptly cut off and replaced by the reporting of one final story — an announcement that "FM News" was ending immediately. After a brief period of dead air, WEMP then returned to an alternative rock format under the "New Rock 101.9" branding, with "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" by The Beastie Boys the first song played. (At the very same time, WIQI transitioned from all-news to adult hits.) In a press release, Merlin CEO Randy Michaels called dropping all-news from both WEMP and WIQI "a difficult decision to make" but one that had to be made in light of "minimal audience engagement." A handful of the "FM News 101.9" staff was retained by Merlin, likely to serve as reporters for Merlin's WWIQ in Philadelphia.

"New Rock 101.9" ("New Rock for New York") features a playlist that includes current and recent alternative rock songs and artists; the presentation includes an irreverent attitude and the "backselling" (identification of artist and song title) at the end of many current songs. To coincide with the format change, Merlin staff filed paperwork with the FCC on July 18 to revert the station's call sign from WEMP back to WRXP.

References

• (Change of call letters from WGHF to WBFM) — The New York Times, November 17, 1955.
• "WPIX Buys Radio Station" – The New York Times, December 10, 1963.

1. Dena Kleiman (July 12, 1975). "The 'Hustle' Restores New Touch To Old Dancing". New York Times. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
2. John Rockwell (March 21, 1980). "The Pop Life". New York Times. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
3. Kevin Goldman (August 15, 1986). "Radio Format Changes Signal a Hot Contest". Newsday. Melville, NY. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
4. Paul D. Colford (August 9, 1988). "WPIX: New Format, New Letters". Newsday. Melville, NY. {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
5. Hinckley, David (February 6, 2008). "WQCD plays taps for jazz & is reborn as rock WRXP". Daily News. New York, NY. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
6. Hinckley, David (May 19, 2008). "New WRXP jock got an early start". Daily News. New York, NY.
7. Hinckley, David (June 21, 2011). "Rock could sink at WRXP with sale of station to new media group". Daily News. New York, NY.
8. Audio clip of WRXP ending
9. Hinckley, David (20 July 2011). "WRXP still in standstill over future of station; Merlin Media aims to change rock hits to news talk". New York Daily News. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
10. "Merlin Formally Launches FM News 101.9 In New York," from FMQB, 8/15/2011
11. "Rock Radio Station in New York Shifts to FM News Format," from The New York Times, 8/14/2011
12. "Merlin Media COO Walter Sabo defends WEMP 101.9 FM's news coverage, claims good balance," from New York Daily News, 8/17/2011
13. "First Listen: WEMP (101.9 News) New York," from Radio-Info, 8/15/2011
14. "WEMP/101.9 Debuts News Format, Struggles to Find Sound," from FishbowlNY, posted 8/16/2011
15. "News entrant WEMP radio, struggling to get an audience, continues to tweak format," from New York Daily News, 10/31/2011
16. "Fresh Listen: WEMP (FM News 101.9) New York," from Radio-Info, 1/23/2012
17. "Merlin Media is running TV ads in New York," from Radio-Info, 1/12/2012
18. "Radio legal battle brews '22 minutes' tagline," from New York Daily News, 1/19/2012
19. "WEMP will drop lines associated with WINS, but wants WINS to kill one of its own slogans," from New York Daily News, 1/23/2012
20. Barmash, Jerry (25 January 2012). "Christmas Music Means Another Ratings Win for WLTW". FishbowlNY. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
21. Barmash, Jerry (13 July 2011). "WLTW Keeps Number One, WCBS-FM Returns to Number Two". FishbowlNY. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
22. "Breaking: End of Line for Merlin's WEMP as FM News," from FishbowlNY, posted 7/16/2012
23. ^ "FM News 101.1 Ends, Flips To Adult Hits I101," from Chicagoland Radio & Media, 7/17/2012
24. ^ "New Rock 101.9 Debuts," from FormatChange.com, posted 7/17/2012
25. ^ "Merlin Flips FM News In Chicago & New York," from Radio Insight, 7/17/2012
26. "Merlin Brings Alternative Back To New York, Adult Hits To Chicago".
27. "Merlin Media Looks to Regain its Prior Identity at 101.9," from FishbowlNY, 7/19/2012
28. "WRXP" call letters to return to New York City, on Merlin-run 101.9 from Radio-Info.com, 7/18/2012

External links

• New Rock 101.9 website
• Smooth Jazz New York — info on smooth jazz happenings in the New York area
• Smooth Jazz Favorites — Internet-only radio station for baby boomers and other WQCD fans
• Facility details for Facility ID WEMP ({{{2}}}) in the FCC Licensing and Management System
• {{{2}}} in Nielsen Audio's FM station database

40°44′53″N 73°59′10″W / 40.748°N 73.986°W / 40.748; -73.986

• HD Radio stations
• Modern rock radio stations in the United States
• Radio stations in New York City
• Radio stations established in 1945