WRXP Totally Explained

Everything about Wrxp totally explained

WRXP is a New York City radio station located at 101.9 FM. The station has an Adult Album Alternative format. The station had a smooth jazz format as WQCD (CD101.9) from August 22, 1988 to February 5, 2008.

Early years (1945-1963)

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 (currently used by a Sheboygan, Wisconsin country music station).

WPIX-FM (1963-1988)

After the station was purchased by the New York Daily News in late 1963, it adopted the WPIX-FM call letters, as the station was co-owned with Channel 11 WPIX-TV. In the years that the station used the WPIX-FM call letters, it 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. During that time, the station went through the following formats:

1971-1975; 1976-1977: Adult Top 40 - A Top 40 format at the time that played new songs less often than say WABC, but still focused on current music but mixed in rock and roll oldies from about 1964 to what was then recent.
Mark Simone launches "The Simone Phone", a pioneering FM comedy talk show featuring producer/writer Tom Leykis, for 20 years a top-rated Los Angeles radio personality, that contained many popular features like "Dial-A-Date", that were later borrowed by other radio shows.
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. By the Summer of 1976 the station was back to a gold leaning Top 40 format which was popular on FM stations back then.
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, Cheap Trick, Talking Heads, David Johansen, Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, to name just a few. Its regular DJs included Dennis Quinn, Meg Griffin, Mark Simone, Dan Neer and Jane Hamburger.
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 was a transitional format to Adult Contemporary
March 1982: adult contemporary began positioning 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. Contemporary Jazz in the evenings.
August 10-22, 1988 NAC (New Age Adult Contemporary) Actually a Jazz based Adult Contemporary format during the day blending soft rock, soft urban cuts, some new age music and a lot o contemporary jazz. About half vocal and half instrumental. At night the station was strictly contemporary jazz music and about 90% instrumental.
August 22 1988 - Took the Contemporary Jazz format full time becoming CD 101.9 WQCD. Retained strictly jazz at night while being about 20% vocal during the day mixing in a few urban AC cuts in. Evolved into its current format in a couple years.

Notable air personalities of this period included Mark Simone, Dennis Quinn, Jim Kerr, Alan Colmes, Meg Griffin, 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.
   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 Christmas music played during WPIX-TV's annual "Yule Log" program on Christmas Eve.

WQCD "CD101.9" (1988-2008)

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, the station modified into a full-time contemporary jazz (now known as smooth jazz) format, as it rebranded to "CD 101.9" with the call letters WQCD.
Even after the Daily News changed ownership in 1991, WQCD was retained by the News's former parent, the Tribune Company, until the late 1990s, when it was sold to Emmis Communications. WQCD was the lone radio tenant of The Daily News architecturally important building headquarters on 42nd Street. In 1997, Emmis moved CD101.9, along with sister stations HOT97 (WQHT) and Kiss FM (WRKS) to a common facility at 395 Hudson Street, at the meeting point of Lower Manhattan's Greenwich Village and SoHo neighborhoods. The complex was the first of its kind in the increasingly consolidated radio world.

New York Chill (2004-2005)

CD101.9 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, with morning host Dennis Quinn who had worked at all incarnations of 101.9 from 1971 to 2008. Midday host Deborah Rath had been with parent company Emmis since 1988, as a veteran of both Kiss 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-AM. Evening host Sharon Davis called WQCD home for nearly a decade as well, but in early February 2008 CD101.9 and Smooth Jazz all came to an end.

WRXP "101.9 RXP" (2008 to present)

On February 5, 2008 at 4:00pm, 101.9 management announced a change to a rock format under the WRXP call letters and the tagline "101.9 RXP: The Rock Experience"(The New York Rock Experience within the New York State portion of the NYC market). The entire airstaff including Dennis Quinn, who had survived every other format change at 101.9 since joining the station as WPIX-FM in 1971, were let go. Only program director Blake Lawrence was retained from CD101.9 for RXP. The station cited a declining audience for smooth jazz. At that time, the smooth jazz format moved to the station's HD2 subcarrier. WRXP's first on air personality was new APD/music director Brian Schock. Schock assumed afternoon drive the day of RXP's launch. Station management has promised to hire a New York rock-savvy airstaff for the rest of the station's dayparts..

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