These days, I can take a “First Listen” to almost any station right away. But in the time before streaming, it took me four months to hear WHTZ (Z100) New York.
I was in Los Angeles, working for the trade publication Radio & Records. Shortly before I got hired, Z100 signed on and I managed to hear a few breaks by calling the request line. But that was it until the holiday.
I’m not sure why I didn’t manage to hear airchecks of Z100 sooner. R&R CHR editor Joel Denver usually shared most of the airchecks that rolled across his desk. In general, Joel was happy when I wanted to plow through the mountains of tape that came in from prospective chart reporters. If there was any Z100 tape, Joel might have kept it for himself.
In honor of Z100 celebrating its 40th anniversary on Aug. 2, here’s the first aircheck I made of Z100 when I came back East for the holidays in December, 1983, giving me a chance to hear not just New York, but also Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., all of which had new Top 40 competitors during that explosive period for the format.
As was my wont at the time, I wanted to hear Z100 somewhere other than the Morning Zoo, thus the then-Shadow Stevens in afternoons and Joe Davis in overnights. You can hear both airchecks, but if I had written a “First Listen” then, the music monitor for 3:30-4:15 p.m. would have been:
- Prince, “1999”
- Christopher Cross, “Think of Laura”
- Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton, “Islands in the Stream”
- Culture Club, “Karma Chameleon”
- Spinners, “Working My Way Back to You/Forgive Me Girl”
- Peabo Bryson & Roberta Flack, “Tonight I Celebrate My Love”
- Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson, “Say Say Say”
- Midnight Star, “Wet My Whistle”
- Kool & the Gang, “Joanna”
Having come from Los Angeles, with KIIS at its peak, newly launched rival KKHR, and the beginnings of Hip-Hop radio on R&B KDAY, I remember thinking that Z100 sounded kind of AC’ish outside mornings. (There were cold segues. There were four-in-a-row sweeps.) Listening now, after a week of 2023’s much lower-energy radio, it’s hard to imagine ever having thought that way. And the “worst-to-first” campaign is already in progress.
I had already heard rival WPLJ in May 1983, just as its transition from AOR to CHR began. In the spring, WPLJ had sounded truly unusual—still more rock than Top 40 in pacing. Here, they’re still in the process of transition. (Notice the very AOR segue with “Thriller.”)
A few other things from that trip worth sharing:
WWSH (Top FM 106) Philadelphia doing a just launched Adult CHR format under Bobby Rich, who just retired as PD/morning host of ROR reader favorite KDRI Tucson, Ariz. This was the station in its very first days. (There’s also one deep geekery musical treat. You don’t usually hear a lot of truly left-field songs on tapes of a station launch, but the Elbow Bones & the Racketeers song was an updated version of Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band.)
WCAU-FM Philadelphia, now two years beyond the “Hot Hits” format that helped revitalize Top 40. Again, compared to Mike Joseph-era WCAU, the station felt tamer to me at the time, but that’s just as hard to imagine now. (It’s also worth noting that on my first 1981 listen, WCAU sounded overwhelming. Kid Sean was a lot more critical.)
WRQX (Q107) Washington, D.C., finally making its way back to CHR after a year or so as “Rock 40,” followed by a very adult approach to Top 40. Alan Burns’ Q107 barely had time to get settled before being propelled into a three-way race with Bill Tanner’s WASH, briefly evolving from AC to an adult-leaning but Rhythmic CHR, as well as Randy Kabrich’s just-launched…
WAVA Washington, D.C., following Doubleday sister KPKE Denver from AOR to Top 40. Probably the hottest of the CHRs I heard on that trip. As I dubbed the aircheck from cassette, the levels filled my entire screen and didn’t move.
Fall 1983 is a favorite time in the format for many; some even prefer it to the format’s dominance of 1984. There’s still holdover music here. General Hospital briefly gave Christopher Cross one more moment in the format. There wasn’t much that CHR could do to help “Think of Laura” except decide whether to play the wimpiest jingle in the package or slam into it with the hottest. As recently noted, fall ’83 would also be the last time Top 40 really played it all before jettisoning Cross-type AC music and almost all Country for nearly 15 years.
The excitement here is hearing CHR continue to come out of its slump. Here’s to hoping that an aircheck of Top 40 in 2024 can reflect the same sort of excitement.
Listening to those airchecks brought back some great memories. We were doing our own Hot Hits version in Dallas at KAFM at the time. That was a ton of fun, for sure. Thanks for these, Sean.
Listened a lot to Z-100 during those first few weeks; was struck at the time by the “Urban” hits (ones that had not crossed over to Top 40) they mixed in at the time (“You Dropped a Bomb on Me” and the like). I also remember punching up WPLJ in the car in May of ’83 and hearing Sergio Mendes’ “Never Gonna Let You Go” and being utterly gobsmacked. Also, that Elbow Bones song got tons of play on Frankie Crocker’s WBLS at the time.
Z100 and (eventually) WPLJ were great about crossing R&B hits early. It was how you knew Scott (and MD Michael Ellis) understood the WABC legacy–the station that added Evelyn King’s “Shame” and a Taste of Honey’s “Boogie Oogie Oogie” in the same week and made them both national pop hits. For WPLJ’s Larry Berger and MD Lisa Tonacci, being the R&B-leaning pop station was definitely part of the plan, too.
I spent a couple of days in New York during August ’83, when Z-100 was new and WPLJ in transition. The subways and stations were filled with WPLJ advertisements that looked identical, but had one of two versions of the copy. Some still proclaimed it “Home of Rock ‘n’ Roll” while others called it “Home of the Hits” and promised “all your favorite music on one station.” On the air, of course, PLJ’s presentation was still pretty low-key (no jingles yet) while Z-100 was flexing its gladiatorial muscles.
In the very early days of WPLJ, before the jingles were ready, they actually had a :00 ID based on the “White Port Lemon Juice” song that gave them their name. Guessing it must have been repurposed from the very early progressive days of the station because it was one of the few jingles they had.
For a station transitioning from rock, the sped up WPLJ is quite jarring, even moreso than the other speedier stations. Still quite the rock lean from WAVA with Ferryman, Heartlight, ZZ and Foolin’. And the song at 3:40 on Q107 sounded unfamiliar.
I’m a little late in answering this, but the song at 3:40 on the Q107 aircheck is Scandal’s “Love’s Got a Line On You.”